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Will Downing’s Sophisticated Soul

Thirty-four tracks from a singer who took the word "sophisticated" and made it a career. Will Downing has been doing this at the highest level since 1988.

The prince of sophisticated soul

Will Downing is from Brooklyn and began as a session and backing vocalist — he sang on records by Arthur Baker and Jennifer Holliday before his own debut in 1988. His voice is a rich, warm baritone with a jazz singer's sense of phrasing, and he has spent nearly four decades in a lane he essentially defined: adult contemporary soul with genuine harmonic ambition.

He is enormously popular in Britain, where his career effectively began — his cover of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" was a UK hit in 1988 — and that transatlantic relationship has shaped his output.

In 2007 he was diagnosed with polymyositis, an inflammatory muscle disease that left him unable to walk for a period. He returned to recording and performing, and the albums since carry that history.

What to listen for

The covers are the heart of what he does, and he chooses extremely well. "I Can't Make You Love Me" is the Bonnie Raitt song and one of the best male readings of it. "I Can't Help It" is the Stevie Wonder song written for Michael Jackson's Off the Wall.

"Turn Off the Lights" takes on Teddy Pendergrass, which requires nerve, and "Everything I Miss At Home" is the Cherrelle record.

"She's Gone" is Hall & Oates, and hearing it as straight soul confirms what that song always was.

The duets are superb. "Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This" with Rachelle Ferrell is the standout — Ferrell is a technically extraordinary singer with a background in jazz, and the two of them together is a genuine event. Gerald Albright appears twice on saxophone, and Phil Perry on "Baby I'm for Real."

"I Try" is the Angela Bofill song, "Free" is Deniece Williams, and "Superstar" is the Carpenters by way of Luther Vandross.

Go deeper

A Dream Fulfilled (1991) and Moods (1995) are the albums, and After Tonight (1997) is the one his audience holds closest.

Rachelle Ferrell deserves proper investigation — her self-titled album is one of the most technically astonishing vocal records in existence, and her live performances are the stuff of legend among singers.

For the lane: Luther Vandross is the model, and Peabo Bryson, Kenny Lattimore and Eric Benet are the company. It is a tradition that has never had critical respect and has never needed it.

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