Will Downing

Brooklyn vocalist and composer Will Downing has hovered on the cusp of stardom
since the late '80s, occasionally making some arresting album cuts but never the
major hit or string of records he needs to establish himself. Downing sang in
Arthur Baker's "Wally Jump Junior" group, and then employed Baker as his
producer when he signed with Island. He did session work in the early and
mid-'80s, singing on dates with Daryl Payne, Marc Sadane, Warp 9, and Jennifer
Holiday. Downing's 1988 debut, Will Downing, included a revised version of
John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme." Downing recorded and produced a duet
with British soul songstress Mica Paris in 1989, remaking "Where Is the Love."
His second release, Come Together as One, was in more of an Urban Contemporary
mode, but his third one took a jazz-oriented turn. 1991's A Dream Fulfilled included
an ambitious version of War's "The World Is a Ghetto." He has been a favorite of
audiences in England, but has not yet clicked with American R&B or Urban
Contemporary fans, releasing Pleasures of the Night in 1998 and All The Man
You Need two years later.