In a recent feature published by The Guardian, Chaka Khan answered reader-submitted questions about various aspects of her storied career including her work with Prince, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, and many other music luminaries. In her answer to a general query about performing with the late Prince, the Queen of Funk offered up an offhand comment worth getting excited about: An unheard collection of tracks recorded by Chaka Khan, Prince, and iconic Sly & The Family Stone bassist Larry Graham has reportedly been “cleared” for release.
At one point in the piece, while speaking about her famous reimagining of the Dizzy Gillespie-penned jazz standard “A Night in Tunisia“, Khan explained, “I’ve done plenty of jazz standards. I’ve loved jazz since I was a toddler – my mother and father were jazz fanatics. I heard everything from the Art Ensemble of Chicago – which was, you know, out there – to Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis. And I worked with Miles. He and Prince were very similar – big thinkers. Miles was always looking to grow. Prince was, too. The three of us collaborated on ‘Sticky Wicked’, on my CK album in 1988, and it was a beautiful combination.”
While “Sticky Wicked” marked Prince’s first official songwriting contribution to a new Chaka Khan record, Khan had already scored a massive hit with her 1984 cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You”, earning Grammy Awards for both herself (Best Female R&B Vocal Performance) and the Purple One (Best R&B Song) the following year. Their creative relationship continued to grow throughout the ’80s and ’90s, with Khan often joining Prince onstage and Prince eventually co-writing and co-producing Khan’s 10th album, 1998’s Come 2 My House.
Chaka Khan w/ Prince, Miles Davis, More – “Sticky Wicked” (Prince)
When asked what it was like performing with Prince, Khan noted, “It was like working with myself, more than anyone else I’ve worked with. Sia’s bringing up a close third, behind Prince and Miles Davis. Quincy Jones, too: he oozed inspiration and shared it. Prince just grabbed ideas out of the air and left you wondering: ‘Where did you get that?’ He was a really deep and beautiful thinker.”
“We worked on a lot of songs,” Chaka Khan added on her work with Prince, “and they’re all going to be on a CD I’m soon to release – there’s a lot of red tape that’s been in the way, but we’ve cleared it. It’s him and me and Larry Graham, together.”
Related: Chaka Khan Celebrates 50 Years With Show Tunes & Funk Hits At Hollywood Bowl [Videos]
Judging by that trio of names—Chaka Khan, Prince, and Larry Graham—odds are the songs in question come from the late ’90s and early ’00s when Graham entered Prince’s orbit and appeared on a string of albums, including contributing bass to a pair of tracks on 2001’s The Rainbow Children. Below, watch a clip from a live Prince show in 1998 that featured guest appearances by both Chaka Khan and Larry Graham.
Prince w/ Chaka Khan – “Baby, I Love You” (Aretha Franklin) – 8/28/98
While Chaka sounded confident about a forthcoming release of this unheard set of collaborations, some of her Prince memories are admittedly clouded: Responding to a fan question about a 4 a.m. after-party sit-in with Prince following a Wembley Arena show in 1995, she joked, “My memory is at least as hazy as yours, I bet – probably more. Four o’clock in the morning? No one’s doing anything but craziness at four in the morning! So I’m sure it was like a wild, wonderful night. And don’t look for the little details; just remember the big feeling you had. That’s how I handle my memories. I don’t remember a lot of what I did. And thank God! I’m a ‘next!’ person. Life is about what’s happening now, what’s coming next. I’ve done a lot in my life, and over half of it I don’t remember. Did I ever keep a diary? Oh, hell no. That takes a special kind of patience.”
Prince w/ Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder – “I Feel For You” – BET Awards 2006
Read the full Chaka Khan interview piece in The Guardian here.
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