Rachelle Ferrell

Amazon.com

The first album by Pennsylvania's Rachelle Ferrell was a jazz project released only in Japan. This pop-soul followup curbs most of her jazz moves, but you can sense Ferrell's background in the way she slides gracefully through harmonies and in the way she brings a strong adult sensibility to the love songs. Like fellow jazz/R&B crossover artists Anita Baker and Oleta Adams, Ferrell is at her best on the smoldering ballads, where her smoky voice epitomizes sensuality. All the same, her Minnie Riperton-like wailing on the uptempo "It Only Took a Minute" will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. --Geoffrey Himes

Product description

Personnel: Rachelle Ferrell (vocals, piano, keyboards, horns, strings, organ); Will DOwning (vocals); Michael J. Powell (guitar, percussion); Paul Jackson, Jr., Kevin Eubanks, Mike Campbell, Carlos Rios (guitar); Oscar Brashear (trumpet); George Bohannon (trombone); Barry Eastmond, Vernon Fails, Brian Simpson (keyboards); George Duke (keyboards, strings, percussion, background vocals); Freddie Washington, Al Turner, Larry Kimpel, Anthony Jackson (bass); Ricky Lawson, Buddy Williams, Doug Nally (drums, cymbals); Paulinho Da Costa (congas); Steve Thornton (percussion); David I. Ward II, Paul D. Allen (programming); Jim Gilstrap, Carolyn Perry, Lori Perry, Darlene Perry, Sharon Perry, Lynn Fidmont-Linsey, Josie Jones, Alex Brown (background vocals). Producers: George Duke, Michael J. Powell, Barry J. Eastmond, Rachelle Ferrell. Rachelle Ferrell wore two hats in the 1990s: straight-ahead jazz singer and commercial R&B/pop singer along the lines of Anita Baker, Miki Howard, and Angela Bofill. Produced mostly by George Duke, this self-titled album is an example of her R&B/pop side. With this smooth, classy effort, Manhattan/Capitol was obviously intent on appealing to the more adult-oriented tastes in the urban contemporary market. While artists like Mary J. Blige, Bell Biv DeVoe, Babyface, and Janet Jackson were making R&B relevant to hip-hoppers, Ferrell opted for maximum quiet storm appeal with this album. If you were buying a lot of Baker, Luther Vandross, and Freddie Jackson albums in the early '90s (along with some Grover Washington, Jr. and Joe Sample, perhaps), you were exactly the type of listener Manhattan/Capitol had in mind with sophisticated numbers like "It Only Took a Minute," "'Til You Come Back to Me," and "Sentimental." Most of the songs are appropriate vehicles for the Philadelphian's big, rich voice, but while this collection of mood music isn't bad, it isn't the gem that Ferrell had the ability to deliver. As pleasant and likable as much of the materi, ISBN13: B000002UW7 ISBN10: B000002UW7 Material Type: audioCD