The Woman I Am

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Chaka Khan in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California. Photo: Dwight McCannThat Chaka Khan’s voice is one powerful instrument, will be apparent to anyone who has heard her more familiar numbers, such as “I’m Every Woman” or the legendary soul record “Ain’t Nobody”.

Indeed, the latter had remained my all time favorite for years, until I heard the probably less familiar “The Woman I Am” from her 1992 album of the same name.

Written by Brenda Russell, Chaka Khan and Dyan Cannon, it just seems pertinent to mention it on International Women’s Day.

I don’t have the CD case to hand, but the production, handled on this album by Marcus Miller, Arif Mardin and the late Wayne Braithwaite, and particularly on this song, is rich and crisp. I wish I could tell you who is on drums too, because it’s a stunning purposeful performance that adds urgency to the song.

But, of course, the highlight is how Khan’s voice meshes with the saxophone as two perfectly matched instruments. For me, it reaches somewhere that other voices just fail to reach.

This particular song does also hold a special place for me, as it was released in the same year that I moved to the Canary Islands.

Some folk have called me brave for moving to another country alone - I would counter that this could also be seen as exceedingly foolish - but I did also have help and encouragement from Khan belting out lines like, “I had to find out in my own way“.

And that I certainly did (for better or worse)!

Also, I can place how long ago I was aware of Chaka Khan - as the singer with Rufus - as being prior to the Mid-Summer Music Festival, at Wembley Stadium, London, way back on June 21st, 1975.

Despite Rufus being one of the first acts to play early in the afternoon and not the “stars”, they are the only reason I went to that concert.

Interesting anecdote about the festival, which also featured the Beach Boys, The Eagles, Joe Walsh and Stackridge (I can’t even remember the performances of the last three), was over Elton John’s decision to play the entire Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy album, that:

“Press reports indicate this was not a wise choice since the audience was not familiar with the material and many walk out during the set.”

You ain’t kidding. Some of us (well, I did) fell asleep on the pitch too!

To this day, I’ve felt sorry for the Beach Boys - not someone I’d have chosen to see - but who did a fantastic job of warming up the audience. Imagine the atmosphere: the whole of Wembley Stadium packed and everyone was on their feet, singing along. Along comes Elton with an album of slow “supermarket music” and kills it all stone dead.

The album, “The Woman I Am“, is available via Amazon and it is certainly worth it (you may think differently), but to me it is an expensive single. Despite being a huge fan, none of the other tracks sparkle for me.

(You can also hear a preview or download the song at MP3.com)