A Los Angeles soul singer who duetted with Ray Charles

Alechia Campbell first appeared on record in 2000 under the name Alechia James, singing on “Work” by The Roots for the soundtrack of the Jamie Foxx film Bait. Soon the Los Angeles singer was Leela James, and the voice that drew on classic R&B and soul was getting noticed.

In 2004 she opened for the Black Eyed Peas and Macy Gray and sang “No Tears” on Pete Rock's Soul Survivor II. A year later she duetted with Ray Charles on “Compared to What” for his posthumous album Genius & Friends. Her own debut, A Change Is Gonna Come, followed in 2005. She co-wrote most of it, apart from covers of No Doubt's “Don't Speak” and the Sam Cooke title song, and worked with Raphael Saadiq, Kanye West and Wyclef Jean.

After leaving Warner Bros., she signed to Shanachie Records and made Let's Do It Again, a set of covers in tribute to the Staple Singers. She sang on Moby's “Walk with Me”, and in 2010 released My Soul on Stax, which entered the US R&B chart at number seven. She wanted, she said, to show all sides of herself, with edgier beats alongside the traditional R&B. In 2012 came a full tribute album, Loving You More... In the Spirit of Etta James.

Her later years brought her greatest chart success. Fall For You, in 2014, spawned two Top 15 hits on the Urban AC chart. In 2017 “Don't Want You Back” reached number one on Billboard's Adult R&B Songs chart, and in 2021 “Complicated” did the same. A song like “Music” fits into that long arc: a singer who always sounded rooted in the past, and who kept finding new ways to make it sound current.