Howard Hewett is one of the most talented soul singers of the past two decades. In group settings, as a guest vocalist and as a solo singer, Hewett’s virtually irresistible voice has wrapped itself around material of various quality – turning good songs into great records and doing his best to save some of the lesser material with which he has sometimes been saddled as a solo artist.

Hewett moved to Los Angeles and, after a period as a dancer on Soul Train, became a member of Shalamar, the centerpiece of Dick Griffey’s SOLAR (Sound of Los Angeles) label. After Shalamar broke up, Hewett signed with Elektra and recording I Commit To Love, a relatively solid urban album that yielded two Soul hits, “I’m For Real” and “Stay.”

After 1995’s It’s Time, Hewett stopped recording solo, spending much of his time providing wonderful guest vocals on albums by jazz artists such as Joe Sample, Brian Culbertson, George Duke and Everett Harp and on several gospel albums. In 2001 Hewett resumed his solo career and has been steadily releasing records ever since.