A textured guitar and languid drum beat pulse out of the speakers together, but they sound like the radio 35 years ago, warm and a little tinny. The sound of being in the car, or someone’s kitchen, before cell phones and Bluetooth speakers. Then the sound opens up, and we’re in the present, looking back.
“Hello was the first thing you ever said to me,” Manny James sings, his voice between a whisper and a croon. “That’s when I had a revelation: what a great equation we could be.”
It’s the opening to “1987,” the latest from Manny James — a.k.a. Manny James Sorrells — is a follow-up to May’s “Never Let Go” that reaches back to the slow jams of the musician’s youth to create a song that offers solace and romance now. It debuted on radio recently and is now available on streaming services everywhere.
Karen Ponzio Photo
Manny James at the Anchor Spa in 2018.
“‘1987’ came about because I wanted to follow up ‘Never Let Go’ with something great, but I wanted to create something that felt classic — that had elements of music I grew up with that loved, and loved to listen to,” Sorrells said. For him, the 80s was partly about slow jams. “All these sexy, feel-good songs were dominating the charts,” and “those are records I still listen to, to this day.” He thought of songs like “Am I Dreaming” and “Always,” by Atlantic Starr, “I Feel Good All Over,” by Stephanie Mills, “I Need Love” by LL Cool J, and the possibly genre-defining “Slow Jam” by Midnight Star.
“As I was creating it, I wanted to make a song that felt like the ‘80s,” Sorrells said about “1987.” That meant trying to conjure memories of “house parties, your first crush. I wanted to bring back the nostalgia for that era and authentically capture it.”
With co-producer Pete Greco, Sorrells also wanted to invoke another hallmark of ‘80s R&B: guitar solos. “The ‘80s R&B merged the ‘70s with rock music,” thanks to Prince. “Nobody was doing that before him,” Sorrells said.
Emulating the dearly beloved musician, who died in 2016, meant big shoes to fill. Sorrells said that Greco, a go-to guitarist for New Haven’s R&B scene, sent him several takes. Sorrells pushed him to do more. “I need it to soar. I need it to go up, and up, and up, like you’re climbing a staircase,” Sorrells recalled telling Greco. Greco delivered. In true ‘80s fashion, the rest of the music is synthesized, programmed by Sorrells. “It’s programmed and it’s Pete,” Sorrells said.
Sorrells also slid into the musical style of ‘80s slow jams for “1987.” “It’s so intimate,” he said of the era. “There wasn’t a lot of screaming. It was sexy and beautiful.”
Why 1987?
That year “was the first year I realized I had a gift,” Sorrells said. He was in late elementary school when school staff picked him to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” for an assembly. “Time kind of stopped,” he said, and at the end “everyone started cheering, and a light bulb went off.” It also happened to be the year of his first crush. “Landmark year for me,” he said. “It just built me who I was, who I was going to be, and who I am now.”
Passing It On
Since Nov. 9, Sorrells has started creating the same kind of possibilities for kids now. That’s when he opened the doors of Creative Hearts, Inc., offering instruction in vocals, keyboards, and music production to school-age students. “The mission is to create a positive and nurturing space that gives young people the opportunity to explore their own artistic talents and abilities,” Sorrells said, and “help them become more confident, to feel empowered, through the arts.”
Creative Hearts — which Sorrells runs out of his studio, Made Sound Studios, at 91 Shelton Ave., and virtually — is an extension of his years of experience as a counselor. “I’ve always worked with young people,” he said. He started as a counselor at Church Street South and worked as one until the beginning of the pandemic, when he lost his job.
“I decided I needed to open my own business, do my own thing,” Sorrells said. He had wanted to do something like Creative Hearts for a while. The pandemic, he said, “allowed me to do something I always wanted to do.”
He is now up to eight students, and recently held his first winter concert. “They’re all growing tremendously,” Sorrells said. “The arts do that.”
Part of the motivation for starting Creative Hearts “was because when I was a kid, these are the things I wish I would have had,” Sorrells said. “These are the opportunities that didn’t exist in my neighborhood” when he was growing up in Church Street South. For that reason he’s keeping the cost low, and reaching into the New Haven community.
“The young people I’ve met have unbelievable talent. I knew this was out here. And now I’m fortunate to work with them,” he said. “I’m giving back, helping the next creatives become who they’re destined to be. That’s what it’s all about.”
The kids get excited when they see the studio where he records, Sorrells said. But the larger message Sorrells wants to impart is that they don’t need a full-fledged studio to succeed, “I want them to understand that their talent is enough,” he said. “You need your talent, a microphone, and something to record on, and a pen and a notepad.”
He also emphasizes that everyone needs to develop their talent. When people first hear their recorded voices played back to them, “you’re not going to like it the first time,” Sorrells said. It’s the sign that you have work to do — just like everyone has done.
Now a couple decades into his own artistic development, Sorrells feels he’s hitting his stride, making the best music he ever has. “I’m in complete control of my sound. I get to make art that I’m extremely proud of,” he said.
It has been a blessing in a year of hardship. “I’m just navigating the pandemic like everybody else,” Sorrells said. “Stay above the B.S. and remain in a good space — that’s not always easy to do, but we move forward.”
The pandemic has been hard on the community around him. “I’ve never lost this many people in one year,” he said, from family members to longtime friends. “At one point I was going to a funeral every month and a half. But we push forward. What else can we do? I’m thankful for every positive thing that happened.”
“Music has been a savior, as always,” he added.
“1987” is available on streaming services. Creative Hearts, Inc. can be reached through its website.