Shaun Escoffery – People Remixes EP
Popular singer/songwriter Shaun Escoffery reveals the second single, ‘People’, taken from his highly acclaimed album ‘In The The Red Room’ on Dome Records. Having spent 3 weeks in the UK Airplay Top 30 with the first single ‘Nature’s Call’, ‘People’ looks set to tread the same path, heading straight for BBC Radio 2’s A-list this week with the Original mix!
‘People’ is hugely catchy with a positive message to call on love in the tough times, with an invitation to come together, find your Soul and “sing along!”. Planting ‘People’ firmly on the dance floor, Baltimore House legends DJ Spen and Gary Hudgins craft a monster slice of soulful house; Gil Cang, who produced and co-wrote Shaun’s album, delivers an uplifting disco-house mix; and topping off the package is upcoming producer S Chu who crafts 2 very cool remixes for the Deep House fashionistas.
It was actor Idris Elba who convinced Shaun Escoffery that his future career lay in singing and acting. They were best friends in their teens in the East End of London and attended Barking and Dagenham College together. The name Escoffery is a famous one in UK black music – The Escoffery’s, Michelle Escoffery (a cousin), and Shaun…. His songwriting led to Shaun’s first recording, singing on “Got To Find Me A Love” with D’Influence in the early Nineties at the age of 17. He then auditioned for “Mama I Want To Sing”, the soul-gospel musical based on the life of Doris Troy, which opened in London’s West End in 1995. The cast list was phenomenal – Chaka Khan, Doris Troy herself, and subsequently Mica Paris and Deniece Williams. “It was an amazing experience – One night I got to sing a song with Stevie, and on one occasion I was singing on stage with Prince” It was the beginning of a string of musical roles for Shaun. He went into a production of “Tommy” ,then came “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”, the musical revue based on the songs of Leiber and Stoller. His roles in musical theatre became more varied. In “Les MIserables” he played Enjoiras and in 2007 he went into “Parade”. Then came what is currently a four-year run as Mufasa in the London production of the Tim Rice-Elton John hit show “The Lion King”.
“Shaun possesses a remarkable, honeyed tenor, and his first album in seven years is full of the satin bed sheet smoothness of late Seventies Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and the Isleys” – Uncut
Shaun’s solo recording career began in 2001, his debut album was co-written with his friend Geoffrey Williams. Shaun recalls: “Trevor Nelson jumped on ‘Space Rider’, then when the album came out everyone gravitated to ‘Days Like This’. Elton John also championed the album! Both the initial singles made the UK charts. “Days Like This” had started out as an acoustic guitar thing, but the subsequent release of the DJ Spinna remix took him down the club route for the first time. In 2003 his label Oyster released a remix album “Soulonica”, with contributions from Jazzanova, DJ Spinna, Koop and Mark de Clive-Lowe, among others. And in 2007 came “Move Into Soul”, an album produced by Shaun with Geoffrey Williams, which featured his interpretation of some of his favourite soul songs, among them “Why Can’t We Live Together” and “A Change Is Gonna Come”. Shaun is thrilled to be back with a new solo album and is excited to be planning his first live performances with a band for five years. – “I’m really nervous about performing solo again, but I can’t wait”… You can catch him live at London’s Under The Bridge on November 20 – a double header show alongside Avery Sunshine.
