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Regina Belle

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Regina Belle (born July 17, 1963) is a Grammy award winning singer who sings Adult Contemporary, Quiet Storm, Smooth Jazz, Urban contemporary, Broadway, and Contemporary R&B songs.

Biography

Early life

Regina Belle was born in Englewood, New Jersey. Her early musical experience was in gospel music. She also studied trombone, tuba and steel drums and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School., (but no worry, she doesn't play them now). She studied opera at the Manhattan School of Music. At Rutgers University, she became the first female vocalist with the school's jazz ensemble. After a few years working as a backup singer and opening act, Belle was signed to Columbia, where her soul-meets-jazz-pop stylings immediately earned favorable comparisons to Anita Baker, Nancy Wilson, Phyllis Hyman and Sade.

She met the Manhattans and began working as their opening act, recorded the duet "Where Did We Go Wrong" with them, and earned her a record deal with Columbia Records.

Career

In 1987, she released her debut album All By Myself which featured the hit single "Show Me The Way" which reached # 2 on the R&B charts. In 1989, Belle released her second album, "Stay with Me". Going gold, the album was packed with several strong and catchy songs. "Baby Come To Me", the album's first single, topped the R&B charts at # 1 and was followed by "What Goes Around" which reached # 3. The album featured two additional popular singles, "This Is Love" which reached # 7 and "Make It Like It Was" which was another # 1 single on the R&B charts and # 5 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album included another hit, a song by the celebrated songwriter Diane Warren, "All I Want Is Forever", a duet with former Kool & the Gang lead singer James "J.T." Taylor, which made the Top Ten. Belle recorded a duet in 1991 with singing superstar Johnny Mathis, "Better Together" which appeared on his album Better Together: The Duet Album. Continuing her success with duets, Belle teamed up with Peabo Bryson for the song "A Whole New World", which was the featured pop single from the soundtrack to the 1992 Disney movie "Aladdin". It was composed by Alan Menken with lyrics by Tim Rice. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, went gold, won the Grammy Award in 1993 for "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and a "Best Song" Oscar in the same year.

During the same year, Belle released her third album, "Passion". Going Gold, the album featured the previously mentioned "A Whole New World", "Dream In Color" and "If I Could" - the same song had been recorded previously by Regina's mentor, jazz diva Nancy Wilson, and later by Canadian peer Celine Dion - which reached # 9 on the R&B charts. Both did well on the A/C chart. A fourth single, "The Deeper I Love" was released but it did not chart.

The biggest crime of "Passion" is that "A Whole New World (Aladdin's Theme)" didn't do the same thing for Belle's career that "Beauty and the Beast" did for Celine Dion's. Dion's duet with Peabo Bryson is the song that truly got her career off the ground, and the Canadian diva went on to become a multi-platinum singer of movie hits and pop classics.

Sadly, even with Belle's pairing with Bryson becoming a #1 pop record, Belle's post-Disney success was mostly relegated to the R&B charts, with crossover success wrongly out of reach. Then again, if a gorgeously-produced and perfectly-performed album is any consolation, then "Passion" is all the reward Regina will ever need.

In the late '80s-early '90s, Regina Belle blossomed as a vocal phenomenon and a shining star responsible for such classics as "Baby come To Me", "A Whole New World", "Make Like It Was","What Goes Around" and the gorgeous "If I Could". In those days, Anita Baker and Regina Belle were the true Queens of R&B/Soul music and literally they ruled all Billboard charts.

Though Anita Baker first emerged as lead vocalist of Chapter 8 in 1979 and her debut solo recording "The Songstress" was released in 1983, it was not until 1986 that she was championed as the "brand new flava" with the release of "Rapture". Less than a year later Baker became the prototype for a new generation of R&B vocalists-de-churchified vocals with heavy jazz-styled inflections tailor-made for the burgeoning "smooooooove" jazz radio format. If Baker was the template, Regina Belle and Miki Howard were second generation reproductions, who were given the leeway to explore more serious pop fare than the 10 million-sales poster child Whitney Houston or the mechanical-dance divas Janet Jackson and Jody Watley. In the absence of "real" jazz singers in the pop world -- Carmen Lundy, the late Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, and Cassandra Wilson all released ground-breaking recordings in the late 1980s that were virtually ignored by pop audiences -- Anita Baker, Miki Howard and Regina Belle were the closest thing to "real" jazz vocalists in the mainstream. It was on the strength of Belle's track "So Many Tears" -- a sinewy, whiny bit of a song that stuck out on black radio like DMX on the "Quiet Storm" -- that comparisons would be made to Billie Holiday.

Regina Belle has dazzled critics and fans alike since her debut album, "All By Myself", was released in 1987. Acclaimed as one of the most exciting new singers to emerge on the rhythm and blues scene, the New Jersey songstress boasts a style that recalls some of the most successful black pop female singers in the industry, yet is nonetheless distinctive. Jim Miller in Newsweek heralded Belle's entry onto the music scene in 1987: "Move over, Anita Baker--and make way for Regina Belle, who may be the most electrifying new soul singer since Baker herself.... Imagine a singer who simultaneously recalls Aretha Franklin, Sade and Anita Baker, and you'll get a fair idea of Belle's singular style." Belle's subsequent albums solidified her place on the American music scene, with reviewers comparing her favorably to jazz great Billie Holiday and to "Lost Voice of Soul", Timi Yuro. At the time of her debut release "All By Myself" (1987), Belle said of her affinity for Holiday, "I can get sort of the same feel she could . . . It's kind of hard to explain, but it's an exaggeration of my vocal timbre. That's how I get the presence of Billie".

Belle's wide vocal range has particularly impressed reviewers. "She has a strong, expressive voice and she's versatile, dealing well with sultry ballads ('Baby Come to Me') or sassy jump-ups ('When Will You Be Mine')," wrote David Hiltbrand in People of "Stay With Me", Belle's follow-up to "All By Myself".

Steve Bloom commented in Rolling Stone that Belle's "full-throated, pop-gospel vocal style brings to mind Anita Baker, Patti LaBelle, and Stephanie Mills." A number of critics have similarly compared Belle's vocals to those of soul-jazz phenomenon Baker. Hiltbrand noted that, like Baker, Belle "displays a voice of tantalizing quality.... She can sound both promisingly intimate and world-weary without sacrificing vibrancy".

Belle has remarked, however, that comparisons to Baker are off-target. She told Bloom: "Because Anita Baker is prominent right now, Regina Belle sounds like Anita Baker.... I've been singing since I was three years old. By the time [Baker's 1986 album] Rapture came out, my style was already developed. People say I got certain inflections from Anita, but I got them from Phyllis Hyman. That was my girl." In addition to Hyman, Belle lists other musical influences as Billie Holiday, Donny Hathaway, and Nancy Wilson; she refers to the latter as her "show business mother." Belle met famous song stylist Wilson at a music convention in Los Angeles. "When I met her she told me that Billie Holiday did it for Dinah [Washington], Dinah did it for her and she has to do it for me," Belle was quoted as saying in Jet. Belle told Essence that she considers Billie Holiday her musical mentor, calling her "the total epitome of femininity." Although reviewers comment on the similarities between Belle's and Holiday's sultry style, Belle stated in Essence that "I don't want people to think that I want to be Billie Holiday. But through my music, I can keep her alive--through zamani. As long as you can remember a person and escalate that memory, that person lives. That's called zamani in Swahili."

Armed with the spirit of one of the most significant and distinct vocalists of the 20th century and the support of a legion of cultural luminaries including Nancy Wilson (Belle recorded Wilson's "If I Could" in 1992) and legendary "Quiet Storm" jock Vaughn Harper, Belle went on the achieve success with songs such "Baby Come to Me" (from "Stay with Me", 1989) and her Grammy/Oscar Award winning duet with Peabo Bryson, "A Whole New World", that helped introduce the Disney movie theme ("Aladdin") as pop-schlock hit recording (a genre that Elton John and Celine Dion would later perfect with much more luck, visibility/promotion and money benefit).

Belle is one of a generation of post-"Urban Contemporary" R&B vocalists who have been lost, forgotten and luckily today re-found as urban radio has become increasingly dominated by, as Angie Stone puts it on her forthcoming Black Mahogany, "beat stealing, melody trying to find" vocalists who look good on video and sound bad -- atrociously so sometimes -- live. During the early 1990s, Belle faired better than others, most notably the late Phyllis Hyman, Miki Howard and even Anita Baker, because she was backed my a major label and had achieved some modicum of crossover success with "Baby Come to Me" and the Aladdin theme.

After a five-year hiatus without any original content released, Belle put out the album "Believe in Me" in 1998. It was much more of a commercial Urban contemporary album than any of her other albums. Although the album had two hit singles, the lead single being "I've Had Enough" (it was also remixed into a sizable dance music hit), the album didn't met MCA Records sales goal. As her album sales began to decline, the corporate machinery began to take hold of her career and her original songs were left along the wayside to make way for glossy pop songs,the sappy ballads written by "hitmakers" and the arrival of new "rap - hip hop" era. As everybody knows too well, there are sad circumstances in which the business of music envelops an artist so tightly that the creativity and passion are sealed away. She left MCA Record in 1999, because she could't find at MCA, which shortly later went bankrupt, her freedon to express herself and to sing the songs that she liked and would fit her standard and style.

In 2001 Regina Belle again hit the charts, this time with the Grover Washington,jr & Bill Withers classic "Just The Two of Us" from the star-studded tribute album "To Grover, with Love", produced by renowned keyboardist/arranger/producer Jason Miles. The album eventually made # 4 on the Top Contemporary Jazz Albums. The track covered fantastically by Regina Belle, Steve Cole and George Duke made jazz music industry once again appreciate this classic and started them wonder why the Quiet Storm/R&B diva doesn't cover more jazz standards. It was her new, unstoppable, irresistible new rise. In 2001, after signing with a jazz orented independent label (Peak-Concord Jazz), she released the album "This Is Regina!" which featured the sensual hit single, "Ooh Boy". Two more singles, the funky "Don't Wanna Go Home" and the romantic, sweeping "From Now On" with Glenn Jones were lifted from the album, "This Is Regina!", which went gold.

Regina Belle has consolidated in the last decade her prominent presence in the music industry and in 2004 has released a jazz standards, Broadway tunes and torch songs album, "Lazy Afternoon". In a very welcome return to splendid form , at 40, she had stripped away the many layers of bloated production and overwrought balladry that had dogged some of her interpretations to reveal a set of Jazz/Broadway standards that quietly shine and stand brilliantly alongside her early recordings.

The well crafted recording produced by legendary arranger/pianist, George Duke, became a moderate hit on the R&B Albums chart and a major hit on the Top Jazz Albums chart.The only single lifted from "Lazy Afternoon" was the Isley Brothers classic "For The Love Of You", which Belle sang with legendary Perri Sisters and made the R&B chart. On this album Regina covers a Tony Bennett's classic "If I Ruled the World", which also Celine Dion will record some years later on Tony Bennett's "Duets: An American Classic".

In 2007, she has collaborated with Smooth Jazz sax sensation Paul Taylor, co-writing and singing for his topseller album "Ladies Choice" (which scored # 1 on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart) two jazz oriented tracks "Open Your Eyes" and "How Did You Know", which are currently on the playlist of the most importamtt Smooth Jazz radio stations all over the world. The latter song, the radio friendly "How Did You Know" - Paul Taylor and Regina Belle - went up to the top of Smooth Jazz/Urban AC radio (Mediabase) charts.

Regina Belle has never stopped touring, mostly in US, but also in other parts of the world, like South Africa, where she is acclaimed like a goddess. She has been constantly invited to take part in the most celebrated jazz festival in Europe and Asia. It has been years now that rumors keep spreading about a concert tour around the world in grand style to keep all her fans happy. She makes no comment, but her fans are aware of her proverbial reluctancy and laziness. The reclusive diva is famous not only for her extraordinary vocal phrasing and skills, but also for avoiding all events and TV shows with accent on commercial glamour more than on quality and social content. Belle has always had a great, octave-leaping voice, rich in creamy tones and supple melisma, but has favored emotional nuance over vocal pyrotechnics (though she's capable of those on occasion as well). Possibly to her detriment, the strikingly attractive singer refused to play the glamour game, particularly the sexualizing of female singers so prevalent in the pop music world and in the current, very commercial trash/reality TV trend... With five children (four girls and a boy), it's a stand Belle says she has never regretted taking. On the other side, Oprah is too busy and too wrapped up in herself as the media empress and the ubiquitous red-carpet fashionista.She had no time to call the Grammy-winner songstylist up to her show...And everybody knows how much they were close in the past and how much Oprah likes Regina's work...

Regina Belle has quietly built a loyal urban following by doing something you rarely see minor players do anymore -- gigging. And not just the package tours with artists of similar status, she does those too, but also makes herself available for fraternal gatherings, company parties, clubs, halls, and elaborate weddings and family reunions, unlike some artists who only go out on TV shows like Oprah's, Ellen's, good mornig and good night late shows on pampered company sponsored tours that coincide with a current release. If Regina's last recording was yesterday, she'd still perform live, because she's an entertainer first and a recording artist second, she admits.

In her long, successful career, she has quite accomplished an original and beautiful, technical mastery : performing love song duets. It's worth remembering, along with the well known "A Whole New World" with Peabo Bryson, the lifting "Better Together" with Johnny Mathis, a Diane Warren masterpiece "All I Want Is Forever" with James "J.T." Taylor, the true gem "Without You" with Peabo Bryson, Love Theme from the movie "Leonard.Part 6" - and from the album "Positive" by Peabo Bryson - and "From Now On" with veteran R&B smooth operator Glenn Jones, from the album "This Is Regina". All of these songs are currently included, along with "A Midsummer Night's Dream", incidental music, Op. 61 "Wedding March" by Felix Mendelssohn, in most of WEDDING SONGS compilations and performed in churches and halls during the wedding celebrations and anniversary as well.

She has had many successful concerts, solo or with friends such as Ray Charles, Boney James, Paul Taylor, The Rippingtons, Gerald Albright, Will Downing, Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly, Phil Perry, Howard Hewitt, Al Jarreau, Stephanie Mills, just to name a few, and a big number of appearances singing both new songs and older favorites.

A new jazz album, with some covers of hits of Timi Yuro, the Lost Voice of Soul, is expected to be released in 2008.

New gospel album

Presently, Belle is set to release her debut gospel album Love Forever Shines on May 13, 2008 via Pendulum Records. The 14-track collection features guests Melvin Williams (of the Williams Brothers) and Shirley Murdock. The first single "God Is Good" has already been made available digitally on iTunes.

Discography

Albums

Year Album U.S. Pop U.S. R&B U.S. Jazz U.S. Gospel
1987 All My Myself 85 14 - -
1989 Stay with Me 63 1 - -
1993 Passion 63 13 - -
1995 Reachin' Back 115 18 - -
1997 Baby Come To Me: The Best Of Regina Belle - - - -
1998 Believe in Me - 42 - -
2001 This Is Regina! - 61 - -
2004 Lazy Afternoon - 58 9 -
2006 Love Songs - - - -
2008 Love Forever Shines - - - -

Singles

Year Song U.S. Pop U.S.R&B U.S. A/C U.S. Club/Dance
1986 "You Got the Love" - - - -
1987 "Please Be Mine" - 2 - -
1987 "Show Me The Way" 68 2 - -
1987 "So Many Tears" - 11 - -
1988 "Without You" (with Peabo Bryson) (Theme from Leonard VI) - - - -
1988 "How Could You Do It To Me" - 21 - -
1989 "Baby Come To Me" 60 1 - -
1989 "All I Want Is Forever" (with James "J.T." Taylor) - - - -
1990 "Make It Like It Was" 43 1 5 -
1990 "This Is Love" - 7 29 -
1990 "What Goes Around" - 3 - -
1993 "A Whole New World" (Aladdin's Theme) (with Peabo Bryson) 1 21 10 -
1993 "If I Could" 52 9 12 -
1993 "Dream In Color" - 63 - -
1994 "The Deeper I Love" - - - -
1995 "Love T.K.O." - 29 - -
1998 "I've Had Enough" - - - 25
2001 "Oooh Boy" - 63 - -
2004 "For the Love of You" - 60 - -
2008 "God Is Good" - - - -

Awards & Nominations

See also

References

Sources

External links



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Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 08:59:55 PST (GMT -0800)
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