Artist:Aurra
Song:Are You Single?
Album:Anthology
The soul group Aurra had success in the early 80s on the R&B and Dance charts with singles like Make Up Your Mind and Are You Single?. Internal strife hurt them more than anything. Aurra were from Dayton, OH. They were a spinoff of the band Slave who were very successful in the late 70s. Trumpeter Steve Washington was a founding member of Slave. Starleana Young was a backup singer. She also writes. Washington formed Aurra with him and Starleana handling the vocals. The other members were Curt Jones on guitar, Philip Field on keyboards and Tom Lockett on sax. All but Field were members of Slave. Field wrote the songs with Starleana and backup singer Jennifer Ivory. Field had been a member of Mtume. Aurra released three albums on Salsoul Records. Are You Single? reached #16 on the R&B Singles chart and Make Up Your Mind reached #6. Both were released in 1981. You can get everything on this 2CD comp. Internal strife led to Jones and Starleana leaving Aurra and recording as Deja in 1987. Then Starleana released a solo album in 1989. Mysti Day replaced her in Deja. A couple of lost Aurra albums surfaced in recent years. It's a band that could have lasted longer but they couldn't get along. Here's the video for Are You Single? by Aurra. Excuse the amateur camera work.
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