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December 18, 1986 - . The arts, television, Page B8 THE AKIS reviews and columns.
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Osborne* takes another step in:soaring career After more than half a dozen chart hits styles, from pop and rock to R&B and "When I tried out with them, I'd 44 already from his first three A&M albums - Jeffrey dance. spent all week listening to their records, so I Osborne," "Stay with Me Tonight" and Few other singers can move with such ease knew the material. I realized early on that in "Don't Stop" - Jeffrey Osborne's name, as Osborne does on the first side of this business, it pays to make people notice and especially his voice, now elicit from the rhythmically driving"Emotional,*'social you." "* ill nods of ^L f £m^F~^r^^Mb*»'« recognition. welldeservedprotest of "Soweto" to a sweeping ballad Osborne was only 19 when LTD offered No more is he introduced as 44Jeffrey (an Osborne trademark) like "In Your him a job - a job his mother urged him to fnrmw 1aqH cina«r *\f I TH '' Oshnrn# . w« >u«< i»uw jiiigvi vi m_< a »-»| itiv Eyes." take. band he fronted for 10 years. The pattern continues on the flip side, He followed her advice, and while Now, with the release of "Emotional," where the title track, a seamless melding of was hardly guaranteed - LTD'sstardom his fourth album for A&M, Osborne has pop, R&B and dance, flows to another sometimes meager proceeds were split taken another giant step in the career of an ballad ("A Second Chance") before moving all 10 members - Osborne stuck withbetween MP* vfB important solo artist. into a song driven by a near-gospel backbeat it. supplementing his income with session * With each successive solo Osborne * altqgm, ("Love's Not Ready"). And it's all work with the likes of Smokey Robinson and ^9 has at once increased his audience and Jeffrey Osborne. unmistakablythe Sylvers. : ^ \ I ^Hb&il 1^ ^1 broadened his musical horizons. In 1983, a Osborne's success goes beyond the LTD signed with A&M in i972; 10 years year after "Jeffrey Osborne," he released world. The youngest of 12 children,professionallater, Osborne embarked on his solo voyage. "Stay with Me Tonight," whose new sounds he was born when eight of his siblings were Along with his own albums, he has also and styles helped make it a platinum still living at home. As a result, his family is, worked at establishing himself as an outside crossover smash. and always has been, of prime importance to producer, with significant results. Two years With "Don't Stop," Osborne and him. ago, he produced one side of singer Joyce George Duke "experimented a littleproducer "1 was brought up in what was referred to Kennedy's A&M debut album, "Lookin' for more," he says. "We decided to go with as the ghetto," he said. "In a lot of ways, it Trouble." \ ip more of the European technological sound." was very I sure learned about The album a " rewarding. yielded steamy Kennedy For "FmAtinnal Dehorn* onH com* ton- . .' vf VWVI IIV IMAM »vp~ love and sharing." duet, "The Last Tsne We Made Osborne * - */> talent like Rihard Hchnrn^'eVHWVI MW 0 familv HiH We cIiom h«l«t KSm producing Duke, M1W CM JHUi V IV HVip I1UII Lovt," and a Grammy nomination. (Pointer Sisters) Perry and Osborne himself get started in music. His "career" actually Osborne is currently producing singer -- took Osborne's own songs and those of began at age 3, when his mother would call Johnny Gill for Atlantic Records. He also proven writers like Rod Temperton, Michael on him to entertain her friends with his produced (of co-produced) five tracks on Masser, Dan Hill and Hamish Stuart and Mathis Johnny renditions. a "Emotional," his first foray into worked toward what Osborne calls "more of At 15, he taught himself to play the selfproduction. a pop sound." drums. His first playing gig came with a On stage, Osborne's moves and Osborne is a sensation on and off graceful Jeffrey singing stage. One of The result is another first-rate Osborne well-known R&B group, whose drummer, powerful, seductive vocals have made him a today's hottest solo artists, he led the LTD to one one recording group album, that^again reveals of the according to Osborne, [kept falling asleep. sex symbol ("a happily married sex rhythm'and blues stardom throughout the 70s (photo by Chris most soulful and expressive voices on the "I told Mackie). them they needed another symbol," he says). contemporary scene at home in a variety of and asked for an audition," hedrummersaid. Please see page B14
% : > r * Broadwav Is Mv Beat jf * « £.» I "> . *Gimme a Break* star Nell Carter's wei has friends V ghtproblem j worried JOEY By SASSO depression that has disarmed her efforts to lose caine addi<:tion, during which Nell "1 Aiid of the .43, Syndicated Columnist & admitted, speaking Cosby clan, TV's most weight. have a lot c>f health problems that could kill me, but loval>le dad may lose two of his A a i children. 1 m worKin on Observations in the beat ... "She is so ob:sessed with it that even a mention of ig them.'V..j covering night uim Bonet has it is enough to s;end her off the a friend landed a spinoff series in which Nell Carter's deep end," she'lI a friends fear that her runaway said. "She's vei are scared to play college coed living away from home, be ry moody. People say actj,rig has bitten Stevie Wonder. and weight problem may putting her life in jeopardy. anything in casti it will make her angry. But Nell has bug Malcolm Jamal-Warner also is talking to After lilis guest appearances on "All My duce about the nest for his own a d - leaving sitcom....prots TheN^-foot-11-inch star of "Gimme a Break" history oing things to an extreme and rh«trir»n" and "The Cosby Show," The is recently ballooned to 220 pounds, an all-time overeating is just one of them." high, negotiatingI with network brass for his own TV LIttle Richard is a worldwide tour as and her pals say that it has driven her into a That an planning moody history includes admitted battle with co- series. ... Please see page B13 I Vesta Williams tells aboiit her career &£ ^ An A&M interview with Vesta Williams - a ^UNE IN...PHONE IN..PITCH IN candid conversation with the sassy singer, writer and dynamic performer about her music, her family, her life on the road and W powerful debut LP, "Vesta" (produced by Bryan Loren, Billy Valentine, David Crawford J! I and Jeremy Lubbock). Nil I
Q: Where are you from? A: Coshocton, Ohio, population about 14,000. It's about 75 miles northeast of Columbus. I Jgm My father was a disc jocke^, the first black DJ in -*! Coshocton. He got so good at it that he came out to L.A. to get a gig. In turn, he sent for his family, so we moved to L.A. when I was 7. ( I stayed until I was 14 - when 1 decided that I was an adult -- and then I moved back to Ohio to be ^ with my grandmother. I stayed in Ohio until I was k 21,, so I've been doing things in sevens. Q: Yourfamily's musical past goes back to your great-grandoarents. doesn't it? A: Yes, and probably before that I was always aware of music. When we had Sunday dinner at I would excuse wM home, myself, get up and go get a crate to siand on, and since I had a captive au- I dience, I'd sing away; my great-grandmother wouldn't allow anyone to leave the room. I don't think I ever actually heard her sing, but I Vesta Willia ms is no stranger to the music knew there was a musical bond between us. scene, havi ng sung backup vocals for NS^\ I truly believe I was conscious of music in the numerous aitists; now she steps out on her womb. There are a lot of things I do, jazzy things, own with hei ' debut album, "Vesta." that 1 shouldn't know how to do. x My mother listened to a lot of Sarah Vaughn, round trip frc)nt Coshocton, but my grandmother Nancy Wilson, Carmen McRae and Aretha, of let me commuite every weekend. course; my father was into jazz. I didn't eveii go to my high school prom because I Although my mother had been a dancer, my was gigging. I t was quite an education, but after all parents didn't want me to be in the (entertainment) of that, I'm n 'v I h' i 0 if L