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Amidst all the searing soul balladry, deep spirituality, insightful and impactful social consciousness and rousing funk on their infectious dual album In the World, legendary, world-wise cats George Whitty and Ellis Hall – collectively pooling their decades of musical passion as Whitty Hall Artistic Team, aka WHAT!!!! – infuse a beloved, inevitable R&B classic into the enticing mix. Driven by Hall’s trademark rousing vocals, their fiery, tight groovin’ and brass fired twist on Isaac Hayes’ co-penned “I Thank You” takes the 1968 Sam & Dave classic to fresh, exciting heights. It’s a way for the duo to express gratitude for their incredible individual careers and all the serendipitous events that led them to this epic moment.

Offering yet another example of his hilarious biting wit, Hall, commenting on the song’s origin, finds the perfect way to sum up the veteran keyboardists’ seamless musical and personal camaraderie: “George and I haven’t decided though, which one of us is Sam and who is Dave?”

To which he adds, “We really flicked the switch. We’ve both worked with a whole bunch of people, but soon as we first got together, we were two peas in a pod. We are true brothers from another mother! I keep telling George to get outta my head, sucka! Seriously, though, what we do is like mad scientists who happen to be able to carve out a song. If it’s funk, we hope it gets inside everyone’s esophagus, and if it’s a ballad, that it puts their esophagus back together.”

The multi-Grammy winning Whitty completes the tag team, retorting, “For us, it’s all about spreading as much joy as humanly possible. We have both worked on a lot of projects with many icons. Great as all that history is, those projects don’t reach the escape velocity we had right off the bat. Throughout the process of creating WHAT!!!! and recording In the World, we had this positive momentum where we couldn’t wait to do more on each track. Everything was done in a state of high inspiration. Every time Ellis sent me the tracks he was working on, it felt like Christmas Day!”

Listeners were feeling that spirit as well all during the fall, as the lead single, the provocatively titled “Die Living,” became one of the top five successes its radio promoter has ever had. The track scored over 1000 spins at terrestrial urban radio its first week and currently has over 10,000 nationwide (with more stations picking it up all the time)that includes countless plays on internet stations across the globe.

One of many potential hit singles and film licensing opportunities from the 10-track collection, “Die Living” is a simmering blues-soul anthem whose title came to Whitty out of the blue one day and led him to create a powerfully rhythmic gospel-influenced song with a bit of a raw front porch vibe. Hall’s combination of vocals and organ drive the track, and he also adds various guitar tracks. In part inspired by a cool response Willie Nelson once gave a journalist who dared to ask if he would ever think of retiring, “Die Living” offers dynamic food for thought about wringing as much meaningful life experience we can during our time on this planet.

Its provocative lyrics inspire us to live our most inspired life right until the very end. Hall sings in the first chorus: “Cause I want to die living/Help me sail into the sun/And I want to die believing/Life has just begun.” Whitty recalls, “Ellis added some great lyrics to my original story, which was an acknowledgement of the way everyone from old men to happy young kids can teach us older folks about how to live. He has a knack for coming up with the perfect words to complement mine.”

The follow-up to “Die Living” – and In the World’s second lead single – will be the reflective, dreamily soulful “Some Days Were Meant for Rain,” which Hall originally recorded on Tower of Power’s 1987 album Power – the sole collection the singer recorded with the band during his busy touring tenure as frontman from 1984-88.

If as the infamous “they” say, timing is everything, the duo’s creation of WHAT!!!! is hitting at the right juncture – yet was actually a few decades in the works. Whitty knew he wanted to work with Hall from the first time he heard the singer at a 1988 Tower of Power performance at NYC’s The Bottom Line. “He kicked my ass so hard that night,” Whitty says, “but I didn’t dare approach him.” Cut to at least a decade and a half later. Hall’s longtime project manager (and “watcher”) Alec Berfield had been urging the singer to connect with Whitty for years. When Whitty, upon Berfield’s request, sent his initial tracks for one of the album’s most poignant and compelling highlights, “Hug Me,” to Hall, everything suddenly felt like divine timing.

The first song recorded for the project, “Hug Me” is an expansive anthemic power ballad that pays tribute to the tenacity and resolve of the citizens of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion and the ongoing war. An imaginative reworking of Slava Vakarchuk’s Ukranian smash “Obiymy (Embrace),” it features the ethereal vocals of renowned Ukranian singer Maryana Golovko. Whitty, Hall and their team put together a dynamic video for the song which includes clips of the two musicians playing their parts (and Hall singing) in their respective studios, footage of Golovko singing outdoors and stark, heartbreaking black and white pictures of the war’s young innocent victims. The recording quickly went live on the fundraising platform United 24.

Three of the songs on In the World – “Soul Street,” “I Thank You” and “Why Should I Care” – were recorded live in January 2024 at Inner Sanctum Studios in Coos Bay, Oregon with bassist Armand Sabal-Lecco (famous for his tours with Paul Simon), drummer Aaron Haggerty (Kool & The Gang, Gary Clark, Jr., Eric Gales) and guitarist David Ford, who is also the composer of “Miami,” one of the project’s pop-soul ballads and executive producer of the album with project manager Berfield. “Why Should I Care” is another showcase the socially conscious side of Whitty and Hall’s artistry. Hall wrote the original version some years ago when he heard about the Jonestown. Guyana tragedy and a previous Palestine-Israel conflict. Long before WHAT!!!! came into the picture, the singer performed it at African American summits in South Africa and Zimbabwe and it was one of Nelson Mandela’s favorite songs.

Finally, a little something about George Whitty and Ellis Hall’s storied individual backgrounds. In addition to playing live with the likes of The Brecker Brothers, Herbie Hancock, the late David Sanborn and Chaka Khan, as producer and session keyboardist, Whitty’s credits include Santana’s blockbuster Supernatural (with Dave Matthews), Celine Dion’s Falling Into You and These Are Special Times, Hancock’s The Imagine Project and hundreds of others. He has won four Grammys for his work on Chaka Khan’s The Woman I Am, Randy Brecker’s 34th and Lex, Michael Brecker’s Tales From the Hudson and the Brecker Bros.’ Out of the Loop.

In addition to his years with Tower of Power, Hall – who has been sightless since age 18 – fronted the Ellis Hall Group in the 70s, has written over 4000 soul, gospel, blues and pop songs, performed with the likes of Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Herbie Hancock, George Benson and Maurice White and recorded with John Klemmer, George Duke and Kenny G, among countless others. He has also written and performed on many film soundtracks including The Lion King 2, Shrek 2, Invincible and Bruce Almighty. He also sang a Louis Armstrong tune in the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can.

In the World will proudly be released January 17, 2025 in association with Mike Dion and ITI Records.

 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Thomas Estey