Will Downing Returns With Smooth New Set: Euphoria Featuring ‘Turn Off The Lights’ (Listen)

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Will Downing (Getty)

If you know nothing about vocalist Will Downing then you know nothing about R&B music. Downing’s been a staple of contemporary R&B and jazz for 25 years and his smooth vocal styling has been among the best in the game in that span as well.
In the past he has teamed up with greats such as Rachelle Farrell on “Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This” (1994) and Gerald Albright on “Pleasure of the Night” (1998). Now, Downing speaks with EURweb’s Lee Bailey about his most recent offering and about creating grown and sexy music that all responsible listeners can get their groove on to. The set of eight songs is appropriately titled Euphoria.
“I’m excited about this new project. It’s slightly different from what I’ve been doing over the years. It’s a little bit more musical. I think I’ve injected a little bit more of the jazz element into it. Quite a bit of it was live in studio,” said Downing. “I’m really proud of it. I’ve taken seven songs. Most of which the average fan wouldn’t know.”
Following a trend that many contemporary R&B greats such as Babyface have taken in recent years, Downing’s new album is comprised mostly of remakes. However, there’s nothing rehashed about these selections. Reimagined would be a better term.
“I’ve done a song by an artist name Ray LaMontagne It’s a song called ‘You Can Bring Me Flowers.’ I heard it one day, I was listening to the radio in L.A. The song came on and basically he ripped off the song All Blues. It’s got this great little hook to it. So I said ‘Well, I’m going to take it back’. So, I did an interpretation of this song ‘You Bring Me Flowers’,” said Downing. “I took that song and ‘Will Downing-ized it’ and I also did one by Lou Rawls. No one seemed to have heard this song. It’s a song called ‘If I Was a Magician.’ This song I heard at jazz station WBGL in New Jersey. It’s a fantastic song by Lou Rawls that I thought I could do something with.”
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