Seattle vocalist/producer/rapper SassyBlack (aka former THEESatisfaction member Catherine Harris-White) will be releasing her new album, Ancient Mahogany Gold, on September 13. It's her most robust and rich-sounding record to date, a burnishing of her fluid boudoir funk and R&B(liss); as a bonus, there is dulcet flute playing by Jovino Santos Neto.

Ancient Mahogany Gold should go over better in the bedroom than in the club, which is not the diss some of you may think it is. Over its 11 songs, SassyBlack projects a suave charisma, her voice an exemplar of calm and empathy. On the mic, she is at once a self-help guru, a concerned lover, and a sage philosopher. Her jazzy coos and melismas seemingly come as easy to her as breathing. SassyBlack is the opposite of the hyperventilating diva extending one syllable into an eternity of overbearing emoting. She makes soothing sound scintillating.

Check out one of Ancient Mahogany Gold's lead tracks, "Antidote," to get an idea of SassyBlack's latest expression of sonic and lyrical philanthropy. Featuring Neto's wispily pretty flute and Madame Gandhi's gently percolating percussion, the track exudes a beatific serenity, like Stevie Wonder circa Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" after a weekend meditation retreat, and the Rascals' Alice Coltrane-enhanced Peaceful World LP. "This is a song about love and self-appreciation/'Cause we don't do it enough," Sassy intones and then proceeds to tranquilly advise you to obliterate negativity from your thoughts. Record stores are going to need to institute a new Self-Care section to properly present Ancient Mahogany Gold.

SassyBlack performs at Tacoma venue Alma Mater on September 7 with LIV.