Will Downing

From the early 1980s onward Will Downing has stood out as one of the most reliable and prolific figures working in R&B. Instead of chasing transient commercial formulas he has remained loyal to a personal signature that fuses refined modern soul with jazz accents. That style incorporates carefully crafted originals alongside animated covers and rests on a deep, resonant upper baritone whose delivery stays smooth while drawing on a jazz singer’s sense of phrasing. His 1988 self-titled debut was followed in 1993 by Love’s the Place to Be, the first album to reach the Top 200. After Tonight arrived in 2007 and Classique in 2009, both settling inside the Top 40; Love, Lust, & Lies: An Audio Novel, released in 2010, landed just outside that bracket. Euphoria in 2014 and Chocolate Drops the following year each climbed into the R&B Top 30, and Black Pearls in 2016 together with Soul Survivor in 2017 moved into the chart’s Top Ten. Pieces, issued in 2023, contained seven tracks and featured backing from Audrey Wheeler-Downing, the widely active R&B, jazz, and gospel vocalist, on four of them.

Born in 1963 and raised in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant section, Downing grew up in a working-class household whose father worked as a skycap at a nearby airport while his mother taught school. During his teenage years he sang avidly and belonged to the school choir. He attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, an institution recognized for its strong arts curriculum and for alumni such as Barbra Streisand, Stephanie Mills, and record executive Clive Davis. After one year at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, he returned to New York to launch a music career.

Downing launched his professional recording life as a background vocalist on sessions for Jennifer Holliday, Nona Hendryx, and Rose Royce. He also took part in Arthur Baker’s short-lived group Wally Jump, Jr. & the Criminal Element before signing a solo contract with Island. His first single, a cover of Deniece Williams’ “Free,” reached number 48 on the R&B chart. Baker and Brian Jackson helped produce the accompanying self-titled album in 1988, whose sound aligned more closely with Loose Ends, Sade, and house stalwarts Blaze than with material shaped by Teddy Riley’s new jack swing. The album’s strongest single, “Sending Out an S.O.S.,” included a guest turn by Audrey Wheeler, Downing’s wife and frequent collaborator. Two further Island releases followed: Come Together as One in 1989 and A Dream Fulfilled in 1991. The latter, which contained “I Try” and a reading of Paul Davis’ “I Go Crazy,” broadened his audience among listeners drawn to mature R&B and vocal jazz untouched by hip-hop.

Downing next joined Mercury, issuing three albums there before ending the decade with Pleasures of the Night, a Verve Forecast collaboration with saxophonist Gerald Albright. A brief Motown association produced only All the Man You Need, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Album. Apart from one detour into Timbaland-style production the record stayed true to Downing’s established approach, spotlighting an updated version of Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands” and the original “Share My World,” co-written with Stevie Wonder. As on every Downing project, a strong roster of musicians contributed; the sessions featured bassist Pino Palladino, drummer Ahmir Thompson, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and Wheeler once more.

Reflecting his standing in the jazz market, Downing settled at GRP and released one album each year from 2002 through 2005. He concluded that period with Soul Symphony in 2005, which peaked at number 85. He then moved to the Concord subsidiary Peak. During these years he was diagnosed with the muscle disease polymyositis, which left him immobile and hospitalized for more than six months; shortly after completing his final vocal for After Tonight in 2007 he temporarily lost the ability to speak. That album became his biggest commercial success, entering the Top 40. He surpassed it with Classique in 2009, which reached number 23 on the Top 200 and number three on the R&B chart.

He continued issuing well-received albums, delivering Lust, Love & Lies: An Audio Novel in 2010 before issuing several projects on his own Sophisticated Soul label, including Euphoria in 2014 and Chocolate Drops in 2015, both of which reached number 22 on the R&B chart. He switched to Shanachie for Black Pearls in 2016, a tribute to Phyllis Hyman, Jean Carn, Randy Crawford, and other women who had influenced him. In 2017 he released the studio album Soul Survivor, which featured the single “Feeling the Love” with vocalist Avery Sunshine. The gospel-oriented The Promise followed the next year. Shifting toward shorter formats, Downing issued the EPs Romantique, Pt. 1 in 2019 and Romantique, Pt. 2 in 2020, along with standalone singles such as “Right Where You Are” and “So Many Good Die Young.” In 2023 he maintained that pattern with Pieces, a seven-track collection of sophisticated originals. First-call session vocalist and spouse Audrey Wheeler-Downing supplied backing vocals on four selections, among them “Love On You” and its remix single.