Personnel: Etta James (vocals); Josh Sklair (guitar); Eddie Harris, Herman Riley (tenor saxophone); Ronnie Buttacavoli (trumpet, flugelhorn); Kraig Kilby (trombone); Cedar Walton (piano); John Clayton (bass); Paul Humphrey (drums); Donto Metto James (shakers).

Recorded at Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California. Includes liner notes by David Ritz.

"I've been through it all," Etta James sings with conviction on "Don't Go To Strangers." "I'm an old hand," she moans, "and I'll understand if you go." With her big, lived-in voice, Etta James invites the listener to come on in and share some experiences best appreciated through an intermediary with worldly wisdom to come back alive and interpret things for those of us who've led more sheltered lives. By the end of this particular performance, Etta has discarded the polite conventions of the song and reached down to find some joy and pain that most assuredly was not gleaned second-hand.

TIME AFTER TIME reprises the winning formula that made the legendary vocalist's ascent into the world of Billie Holiday on MYSTERY LADY a Grammy Award winner. One of the grand dames of R&B and the blues, Etta James' performances always conveyed a palpable element of danger and rage, as if at any second things might get uncomfortably...real. So don't sit too close if you can't take the heat--bring your whole being or don't bother to show.

Which is the quality that makes this autobiographical synthesis of sophisticated jazz and low-down blues on TIME AFTER TIME so authentic. While these songs have been done a thousand times before, Etta James is such a master dramatist, she's able to interpret them as something fresh and new. On "The Nearness Of You" she practically stutters over the intro and outro, conveying a sense of expectation and longing that reaches fruition in Herman Riley's earthy tenor confession, and her final rejection of those "soft lights." Look out.