New Faces Of 1996

In her hometown of Windsor, Ont., soul had to be imported across the border. "Quincy always jokes with me about my morn going over and getting chitlins in Detroit," Ta-mia says. She was raised on Motown and gospel: "I was always singing, in the kitchen, in the bed -- it got so bad my brothers would complain." "You Put a Move" has a slinky, nightclub feel, but Tamia wants to get playful. "I love slow jams--they're my favorite," she says. "But I want to do something funky. I'm still 19 and can be real silly sometimes. Just ask my brothers." Give her time--she'll prove it on her own.

KEVIN MAHOGANY

The Real Deal

THINK OF SINGER KEVIN MAhogany as a saxophone. Specifically, a baritone sax. He's a barrel-chested horn player without the horn. Mahogany studied sax until his mid-20s, when chasing Kansas City club gigs became a career, with office temping to fill out the rent. Mahogany tried singing, and the warm response soon persuaded him to put the horn down. Covering R&B tunes won him a local following. But since he returned to jazz four years ago, his fluid improvisations have made him the stand-out jazz vocalist of his generation. Mahogany, 37, is just as much of a musician as the other members of his topnotch bands. A Warner Brothers release this year would probably have secured his national reputation even if Robert Alt-man hadn't east him in his forthcoming film "Kansas City." Playing Big Joe Turner, Mahogany holds his own with some of the best young horn players of the day--Joshua Redman, James Carter and Craig Handy among them. The setting is one of the celebrated all-night jam sessions of the city's bust-out Prohibition era under Boss Pendergast. It's a perfect fit for a Kansas City traditionalist who never left home.