Alicia Keys Is A Superwoman Come What May
Jon Pareles It's midnight on a Monday in late July, and the day is still far from over for Alicia Keys. That morning the Jamaican bassist and producer Robbie Shakespeare, from the renowned duo Sly and Robbie, had flown in from Miami for a session at the Oven, a house on Long Island that Keys and her producing partner, Kerry "Krucial" Brothers, have converted into a complex of recording and mixing studios. She spent the afternoon rehearsing with her band in New Jersey, then headed back to the Oven for a late-night mixing session. "I love my spot," she says proudly as she offers a tour, wearing wraparound sunglasses and a "Born to Be Wild" T-shirt. "It looks like grandma's house." From the outside it does. But beyond its parlour the Oven is a warren of clean, well-equipped studios on three floors. Photos of Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley and other old-school legends reside on the walls. It's where she made her new album, As I Am,...