I have recently come across the music of Jalen Ngonda. While looking at reels on Instagram, I watched a video of him performing live. I was blown away. His voice is soulful. It is as old school as it gets. The moment I heard his voice I thought of the old soul artists that my folks listened to in the house growing up. His voice can get high like Otis Redding's. He has some Al Green in there. I got Bobby Womack vibes from him. And to top it off, he plays guitar as well. He is an old school soul musician in the modern era.

I watched the first video, and like I wanted it to do, my Instagram algorithm kept giving me more and more of his work. I loved every new video I saw. I started to follow him on Instagram and started to listen to his music on Spotify. I'm all in now. I was hoping to be the first person to notice him, but he is getting more and more famous by the second. Since I first saw that video, which was about a month ago, he has been on a headlining tour. He has played festivals. He has made more videos. And to top it all off, he was recently hanging out with Elton John, posting a picture online for proof. It was amazing to see. I'm thrilled for him.

I want more artists like this to get their moment. They deserve their time to shine. We too often opt for bubble gum music fed to us by what I have to assume is AI. No one wants to go all out anymore. We want an earworm that we can hum along to while we go about our day. Jalen Ngonda is different. He is doing something cool. He is bringing back a sound that we all need right now. His music has a vibe. I dance along in my car when a song of his comes on. My kids have taken notice, and he is one of the few artists that they don't ask me to skip. He is damn good at his craft.

He reminds me most of early Leon Bridges. When Bridges first came out I had the exact same feel. He was a young dude who had an old soul. His first record is so great and so cool and so soulful. I ate that album up. He also dressed the part. He had a whole thing going on. I saw him on his tour for his first record, and it was everything I wanted it to be. Jalen Ngonda is giving me the same feeling. He wears old school t-shirts. He will sometimes be sporting a bucket hat while he plays. In the videos I have watched, he wears jeans. He dresses comfortably and sings like an angel.

I am curious to see where his career goes from here. I will most definitely see him live if/when he comes to Saint Louis. As I said above, I want him to get bigger and bigger because he is doing some cool music in an age where most people spit out dribble. Go check out Jalen Ngonda if you want to hear some old school, very well played soul music. He may be doing it better than any modern artist. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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