The Soulful sounds of Christmas concert featuring Will Downing and Najee will be in Pittsburgh on November 30. The concert is part of the “Live from the Hill Series” being presented by the Hill House Association.
In a conversation with the legendary musician, Will Downing, he explained he has been on tour with the incomparable Najee before and was excited for the opportunity this time around.
“We’ve toured many times before, it is good to be back with him, we vibe very well together, he’s a talented artist and it is always good to share the stage with someone who has made a mark in the industry. Pittsburgh is actually the first city on this tour,” Downing said.
The pair just left Dallas, Texas and Downing discussed how things stay fresh for them from audience to audience. He shared, “Staying fresh is not necessarily a challenge since each audience is different, we may have done some of the same things the previous night in a different city; but it is all brand new to them
He continues, so we treat them like they’ve all come to see us for the first time—plus we push each other to move to the next level. Going into a market like Pittsburgh adds to that excitement—so it seems like we hear something new every night because of the audience response.”
Downing will be spotlighting at the Pittsburgh concert his new release, “Black Pearl,” which is a compilation of 10 songs previously recorded by 10 females. Downing explained that a memory of Phyllis Hyman brought this project about.
After a conversation with a colleague where he shared he had never done a cover of a Phyllis Hyman song, he decided to do one. An accomplished composer in his own right, he explains, “I covered Phyllis Hyman’s ‘Meet me on the Moon,’ It was so awesome I thought, why not do some songs by other fabulous singers and turn it into an Album?—since they would be all Black women, and I consider our talented women pearls—hence the name Black Pearl.”
His first release in 6 years the album covers some of the greatest female voices in R&B and includes, Chaka Khan, Denise Williams, and Randy Crawford to name a few.
In early 2007, Downing’s career was sidelined when he was stricken with a rare muscular disease, Polymyositis, relegated to a wheel chair and experiencing a weight loss of 100 pounds, this devastating disease kept him down for a year. He was, however, determined to complete the album he was working on at the time. “After Tonight” for Peak Records. Coming through that challenging time served as a definite wake up call to him. He candidly shared that he like most men was very cavalier about his health and didn’t feel that he had to go running to the doctor every time there seemed to be something wrong.
“I was on the fast track with the music career, I was so absorbed in touring and recording that I was not paying attention to the signs. That is until I had no choice; the next thing I knew I was dealing with this disease and facing the prospect of never walking again,” he said.
Coming through it he saw that as bad and as sad as it was to be this ill, it served as a blessing, because he came face to face with life’s real priorities and gained an understanding of the importance of balancing work, family and leisure. And he will never take any of it for granted again
Fully recovered now he has an entirely different approach to the work, he is still committed to his craft, touring and recording but is fully mindful of the journey he has traveled. He and Najee will be performing in Pittsburgh, on November 30 at the Bynum Theater. The Hill House sees these concerts as viable demonstrations of the power that music has within our community
Of his career and the years of acclaim and making music; Downing said “19 albums and 28 years of recording later and I’m still blessed.”
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