If you are spiritually inclined, you probably believe that angels hover around to help and guide us. Sometimes, that's even the case with guys named "Angel." Who sing soul music. If you're not a fan of the loopy, overdone singing of today's r&b singers, you'll want to check out Angel Rissoff. And be reminded of how such songs were meant to be sung.
"I grew up in the Bronx back in the late-50s and early-60s," said Rissoff, who brings his velvety voice to Harrison on August 4. "There was such an incredible mixture of music in those days. Doo wop, Latin, the blues. My hero back then was Little Richard. But all those influences mingled together and helped me find my own voice."
That voice, indeed. It is a deep, bottomless thing, impossibly smooth, with trace elements of gravel and grit. To hear Rissoff wrap it around, say, Ed Townshend's classic, "For Your Love," is to be taken back in time, when Italian, Black and Jewish kids sang on street corners, not just knowing every word, but understanding them, too. Phrasing meant you didn't torture every syllable and hold every note, until they screamed for their lives. Singing meant communicating; talking to passersby directly.
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"You know who started all that crazy stuff where people embellish everything?"asked Rissoff. "Of all people, it was Stevie Wonder. A great singer, of course. It's not his fault that the kids overdo it with those melismas (singing a syllable while moving between several different notes in succession). But they do. Call it want you want. I call it the dumbing down of music."
Not for Rissoff, such nonsense.
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"I've been doing this since I was 15," he said. "I started out playing all over the city with a group called The Soul Masters. Even when r&b music changed into funk and disco, things worked out for me. Because I found my audiences in places like Florida and South Carolina. They call this stuff 'Beach Music.' And you can't believe how people love this stuff in certain parts of the country."
No, but if you go to the man's website ( angelmusicinc.com), you can get a pretty good idea. Rissoff has a huge following and has won countless awards for his Beach Music style. Check him out on the site, singing "Harlem Parade." You'll see a guy with great pipes, in an immaculate light purple suit, dark shades and a huge mane of dark hair, just killing the crowd. You can't help but think if Silvio on "The Sopranos" had a favorite singer, it would have been Angel Rissoff.
And despite his old school approach, Rissoff sings the wonders of modern life. People hear him through the grapevine, of course. But also, the Internet.
"Word of mouth has been incredibly important to my getting out to play for my fans. Back in the early 90s, someone told me that a song of mine was getting lots of airplay in South Carolina. I had no idea. In September, they have such a huge number of soul music fans coming down there, they close down a bunch of street in Myrtle Beach for their Beach Music festival. Those are my people."
Then, there's the World Wide Web.
"Thank God for the Internet," said this soul survivor. "I have a lot of records that people love, and I hear from fans in Spain, Japan, Czechoslovakia, everywhere, who want to buy them. Most of these people know my back catalog better than I do."
And with that, one realizes that, despite his love for vintage soul, that Angel Rissoff is functioning in the modern world just fine. It makes perfect sense. After all, if Otis Redding was alive today, old school though he might be, you can bet that he'd have a website, too.
Angel Rissoff will be performing at 7 p.m. Aug. 4 as part of the Harrison Summer Music Festival. He will be at at the West Harrison Village Green. Admission is free.
