{blackbabes} Women of "Color" perform on film's soundtrack album

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LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg and other cast members from Tyler Perry's new film, "For Colored Girls," are performing double duty on the project -- not only acting but also contributing to its soundtrack.

Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Jackson and Goldberg are among those who recite poems in the film's main-title sequence, with music scored by composer Aaron Zigman and performed by Joshua Bell and the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra.

Coming to theaters November 5 from Lionsgate, the film is Perry's adaptation of playwright/poet Ntozake Shange's Tony Award-nominated play, "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf." First performed in 1975, it tells the story of nine women dealing with the vagaries of love and loss.

Atlantic will release the soundtrack November 2; snippets are now streaming on ForColoredGirlsSoundtrack.com, where the album is being offered as a digital preorder for $9.99 and as part of a gift pack with a CD and T-shirt for $12.99.

The soundtrack also features performances by Janelle Monae, Laura Izibor, Ledisi, Estelle, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Lalah Hathaway and Gladys Knight. Selections include a rendition of Nina Simone's 1966 blues song "Four Women."

"Tyler said he wanted powerful female voices singing songs truly inspired by both the play and the film. That was his singular marching order and one I took very seriously," says Joel C. High, the film's music supervisor.

Knight's "Colored Girls" track is "Settle." "We sent it to Tyler because he always seems to embrace my music," Knight says. "He called right back and said, 'We love it. We've got to have it.'"

Knight also had a role in Perry's 2009 film, "I Can Do Bad All by Myself" and performed two songs on its soundtrack.

"He gave me an opportunity that was outside of my music comfort zone," Knight says. "I love the way he directs. I'm hoping that I'll get a chance to do more with him."