Ten City

Evidence of disco's continuing evolution surfaces across the catalog of house ensemble Ten City. The Chicago outfit stood out most clearly through lead vocalist Byron Stingily, whose commanding falsetto sat between yet apart from predecessors such as Philip Bailey and Sylvester. Their recordings embodied deep house rooted in gospel and soul traditions while consistently promoting themes of love and uplift. Partnering with dance-music trailblazer Marshall Jefferson, Ten City surfaced in the late '80s with major successes "Right Back to You" and "That's the Way Love Is," the latter reaching the summit of Billboard's dance/club chart and entering the U.K. pop Top Ten. Before dissolving in the mid-'90s, the original trio issued four albums beginning with Foundation in 1989 and concluding with That Was Then, This Is Now in 1994, while placing seven further singles on the charts. Nearly thirty years after their fourth release, Stingily and Jefferson reactivated the project for Judgement in 2021 on Ultra, omitting original members Byron Burke and Herb Lawson.

Stingily, keyboardist Burke, and guitarist Lawson first collaborated as Ragtyme, issuing a pair of 1987 singles. Jefferson produced the debut "I Can't Stay Away," which Frankie Knuckles mixed, while Stingily and Burke handled production on the follow-up "Fix It Man" and would go on to arrange much of the group's later work. Retaining Jefferson's involvement, the trio adopted the Ten City name and closed out 1987 with their Atlantic debut single "Devotion." The 1988 release "Right Back to You" reached the Billboard dance/club Top Ten and paved the way for Foundation, which climbed to number 49 on the R&B album chart. That album drew its momentum from "That's the Way Love Is," a number-one dance/club track that also hit number 12 on the R&B chart and number eight on the U.K. pop chart. A subsequent reissue of "Devotion" became the group's third Top 20 club single and second Top 40 U.K. hit.

State of Mind arrived in 1990 as Ten City's sophomore album and yielded further club successes in "Whatever Makes You Happy" and "Superficial People." The set underscored the group's foundations with a refreshed version of Patrick Adams and Brenda Carhee's deep-disco cut "It Ain't No Big Thing," previously recorded by Personal Touch in 1976, Donna McGhee in 1978, and Rainbow Brown in 1981. Ten City subsequently shifted to EastWest for No House Big Enough, recorded with an expanded roster of contributors and without Jefferson. David Morales produced and co-wrote the number-two dance/club single "My Peace of Heaven," while Kerri Chandler fulfilled the same roles on closing track "Thick & Thin." Columbia issued the fourth album, That Was Then, This Is Now, in 1994, fronted by the self-produced Top 20 club single "Fantasy." The collection also included a rendition of Eddie Kendricks' Motown-Philly dancefloor staple "Goin' Up in Smoke," a collaboration with Masters at Work, and background vocals supplied by Fonzi Thornton, James "D-Train" Williams, and Will Downing.

After the mid-'90s breakup, Stingily pursued an active solo career while Burke released material under his own name and under aliases including Bungie Boyz, Komputer Kidz, and Vision. Stingily and Marshall Jefferson restored Ten City in 2021 with the Ultra release Judgement.