Although the misleading title doesn't indicate it, Classikhan can be seen as a follow-up to the
Echoes of an Era album
Chaka Khan made with her all-star cast of jazz musicians in 1982. The disc is neither a best-of nor a bunch of re-recordings. Instead, it's a set of jazz standards and traditional pop that she recorded with
the London Symphony Orchestra, with a little additional help on a handful of cuts from pianist
Joe Sample and percussionist
Sheila E. Followers of
Khan who know the singer's work well beyond the chart hits know that something like this is hardly out of character for her. While it's true that many of these songs -- such as "The Best Is Yet to Come," "To Sir With Love," "Crazy," "Round Midnight" -- have been worn out by so many other renditions of varying quality,
Khan injects plenty of her tirelessly singular personality. Most thrilling of all is a pair of nods to
Shirley Bassey,
John Barry, and James Bond. Weighty versions of "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Goldfinger" come near the tail end and steal the show, indicating that
Khan would be a natural Bond-theme successor to the likes of
Bassey,
Carly Simon,
Gladys Knight, and
Tina Turner. The only obvious problem with the disc is its title. Longtime
Khan fans are likely to glance at the cover of the disc and see it as a another career retrospective -- or, at most, re-recordings of the singer's old material -- that they don't need to hear. That's clearly not the case here. ~ Andy Kellman