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 needed 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 did not click with American R&B or urban contemporary fans, releasing Pleasures of the Night in 1998 and All the Man You Need two years later.

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