Moon Ride

One of the unheralded heroes of soul music, Leon Ware pioneered the musically sophisticated, glossy, studio-centric sound of adult oriented soul music in the mid-seventies. His songwriting and production credits are legendary. Ware wrote songs for Michael Jackson and Minnie Ripperton, and wrote and produced the entirety of Marvin Gaye’s 1975 smooth soul opus I Want You. Unlike many of his peers, Ware has lost none of his considerable talents to the passage of time. Moon Ride contains work as impressive as anything featured on Ware’s classic late ‘70s solo LPs. Indeed, the string-drenched minor key arrangements featured on tracks like “Smoovin’” and “I Never Loved So Much” explicitly recall the airy uptown soul sounds of Ware’s 1979 masterpiece Musical Massage. The airtight rhythm section and the elusive, almost weightless keyboard work of “To Serve You” sounds like Ware’s tribute to the aesthetic that Marvin Gaye pursued on his troubled Hear My Dear. Leon Ware has had an incalculable influence on modern soul music, and Moon Ride, a stirring affirmation of Ware’s talent, should ensure that Ware’s influence will continue to grow.