>> Rahsaan Patterson
bio: Times change. We see new loves, new challenges, shifts in values, and shifts in scene. As experienced by singer and songwriter Rahsaan Patterson on his new CD Wines & Spirits, we witness the powerful evolution of an artist who has always reached beyond the norms to challenge ears and minds. Emerging from personal firestorms, Patterson has been tried, tested, and found true, and his journey to artistic rebirth is documented on this, his latest release on Artistry Music.
The title of Wines & Spirits reflects Patterson's view of a life of small pleasures, and recognition of the spiritual in the mundane. "There's something very Biblical about it," Patterson says about the title phrase. "I remember as a kid driving around New York, whenever I would see a liquor store that said 'Wines & Spirits', it just struck me. I grew up Pentecostal and the whole thing with spirits and the gospel and the Holy Ghost, so it was all connected for me.”
Wines & Spirits gives you the full maturation of a soulful artist, whose melodic and lyrical prowess has been an influence on a range of today's artists, from Brandy (for whom he penned "Baby") to Van Hunt. After 23 years in show business (he was a child star on TV's Kids Incorporated), and ten years since his debut Rahsaan Patterson, the singer reflects, "This album may be my most vulnerable, I don't dress anything up... What this album reflects more so than my previous ones, is that my first album I was 23 years old, this one I'm 33 years old.”
The death of Patterson's beloved father a few years ago, a near-loss of faith, and his sense of frustration with the strictures of the music industry almost led the talented songwriter to abandon recording altogether. "I kind of lost it," the artist admits. "My faith had diminished, hope became a joke, and I just needed to go through the dark to get back to the light. To appreciate the light, to know that the light was real."
Musically, the new album ventures further into territory that Patterson has hinted at in the past: Ambient sound, rock, jazz, hip-hop, and gospel. As always, Patterson skillfully weaves multi-layered meanings into his lyrics, a complex simplicity that gives the tunes a haunting quality. It is also an unapologetic expression of Patterson the man, for while Wines & Spirits possesses the same sense of rambunctious musical joy that Rahsaan is known for, it's tempered by the knowledge that joy is often won through tears.
The gritty funk of "Cloud 9" becomes an anthem for dancing away the blues, while the Sunday morning groove of "Feels Good" celebrates simple pleasures. The sensual, otherworldly flow of "Water" finds Patterson emotionally deluged after the loss of love, while his acoustic recording of the Janis Ian tune "Stars" is a sermon on the fleeting nature of fame. Most celebratory of all is the transformative "Higher Love", where earthly and divine love redeems the soul. "I think a lot of the songs, even the titles, have a celestial feeling for me," Patterson notes.
But Wines & Spirits -- three years in the making -- also bears raw emotional edges that reflect both the paranoia of the post-9/11 age and the pragmatic view of a man who has seen the abyss and now celebrates the moment. "No Danger" warns that love cannot exist in an atmosphere of fear; "Deliver Me" is a funky ditty of escape that breaks into an apocalyptic wail for redemption; "Delirium" is a dance floor ode to moments of post-romantic insanity; and the hard hip-hop beats of "Time" offer a challenge to truly keep it real. Darkest is the spare, rock-edged commentary "Pitch Black", where Patterson sings, "Pitch Black / panic attacks / lookin' over my shoulder / wondering what's goin' on / can't see the light at the end of the tunnel / am I ever gonna see the sun?" The words give weight to the feelings few feel free to discuss.
"In my previous albums I've always presented diversity -- don't put me in a box, don't expect me to do this one thing, don't expect me to sing one way, but I knew I had to do it in doses," Patterson says. "This album comes at a time where I think a lot of what we've had to live through as a society has really brought us together, like I'm human, you're human."
Co-producers and co-writers for Wines & Spirits include Keith Crouch, who worked on Patterson’s 1997 debut, and frequent collaborator Jamey Jaz, who in addition to working on the debut with Crouch, also contributed to Love In Stereo and After Hours. With his independent spirit ever intact, Patterson also reached out to new writers to challenge his muse, among them Audius Mtawaira, who co-created the gorgeous ballad single "Stop Breaking My Heart".
Also new is Ian Read, an up and coming DJ whose efforts at creating atmospheric sound led to "Water"; and Timothy "Twizz" Bailey Jr., whose synthesized bass tracks for "Higher Love" were found through MySpace.com (the discovery of which re-ignited the singer's passion for making music). Patterson also includes a track titled "Oh Lord (Take Me Back)" that he recorded as a full-fledged member of the international group SugaRush Beat Company featuring Patterson with a Danish vocalist and an Australian producer.
Throughout Wines & Spirits, Patterson's amazing vocal abilities carry the weight of an entire woodwind section, cooing like a flute, thrilling like a French horn, mining the sexy depths of emotion like a jazz saxophone. In fact, Patterson was named after the legendary jazz sax player Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and was raised in Harlem, New York, where music and the Pentecostal faith made their earliest impressions on him. But unlike other historically tortured soul singers, Rahsaan has made peace between his spiritual and secular sides.
Inspired by Prince, Rufus, Miles Davis, Earth, Wind & Fire, Donny Hathaway, Sarah Vaughn, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, young Rahsaan was performing in his Pentecostal church choir by the age of 6. His talent and precociousness led his family to relocate to California, where he started a TV career. But music was in his soul, and Patterson began honing his craft and reaching out to other musicians in the Los Angeles area.
His unique sense of melody and lyric soon netted him songwriting placements, with hit songs for Tevin Campbell, Chico DeBarge, Christopher Williams, and Jody Watley. Together with producer Keith Crouch, he wrote the triple-platinum selling "Baby", which reached Number One on the national charts in 1994 and helped launch Brandy's multi-faceted career.
MCA came calling soon after, and Patterson released his self-titled debut in 1997, helping to fuel what was then the nascent neo-soul movement. The album included what has become his signature tune, "Where You Are", as well as the funky "Stop By", immediately putting him on the radar with R&B fans. The artist followed that effort with 1999's critically praised album, Love In Stereo.
After Hours, his long-awaited 2004 follow-up, was released on the independent Artistry Music label, and only cemented Patterson's reputation as a deeply thoughtful, adventurous artist with a unique point of view.
Along the way, Patterson shared his artistry on soundtracks "Love & Basketball", "Dr. Doolittle", "Two Can Play That Game", "Hoodlum", "Brown Sugar", as well as the renowned comedian Steve Harvey’s compilation Sign Of Things To Come. He has also consistently worked with a range of instrumental artists, including guitarist Jonathan Butler, saxophonists Boney James and Jimmy Sommers, and keyboardist Brian Culbertson.
Combining Rahsaan's three solo releases -- with songs he has written and performed on soundtracks and songs written and recorded by outside artists, Patterson has contributed music to more than ten million CDs sold to date.
"As I get older and look back at my accomplishments, I'm quite surprised and amused with what I have achieved and things I've done," Patterson laughs. Not one to create music for strictly commercial considerations, the artist has been able to keep the integrity of his artistry intact. "My music is always layered, it's always personal and spiritual and it's always my relationship with my listener," he says. "You listening to my album is my conversation with you."
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