Brian McKnight projects
thousand voices and tones

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By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com

Writer, musician, producer Brian McKnight is often compared to such greats as Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder, two other keyboard-based vocalists whose musical visions are architectural in scope.

McKnight's first album a decade ago helped usher in a return to romanticism. His latest album, "Superhero," was released last year. He's the sort of brooding, seductive singer who seems to have a thousand voices and tones.

Brian McKnight Where: Sheraton Waikiki Hawaii Ballroom When: 8 p.m. today Tickets: $25 and $35 Call: 922-4422

B, as friends call him, is a king of casual and talks to new acquaintances like old friends. His 6-foot-4, 205-pound frame is well suited for his daily basketball games. The Star-Bulletin caught up with him in Milwaukee after two hours of hoops, three hours before a concert.

Star-Bulletin: Where did you learn about music?

Brian McKnight: At age 4, I learned to sing seated on my mother's lap in the alto section of the choir. My grandfather was minister of music. The choir was a cappella, the voices were awesome, and I still hear the harmonies in my head.

SB: How important was that church choir?

BM: Holy harmonies -- the harmonies of the African-American church -- form a foundation of my sound. The Church was Emanuel Temple in Buffalo, where I grew up. I'm the fifth generation of Seventh-day Adventists and the youngest of four brothers. When I was still small, we formed a gospel quartet. Our models were the great gospel groups, the Swan Silvertones and Mighty Clouds of Joy.

The McKnight Brothers were serious singers. The reputation went out: These boys could shout. My big brothers -- Claude, Freddie and Michael -- man, they were my heroes. Each was a leader in his own right. Outside church, they listened to jazz. Church music thrilled me, but jazz stimulated my mind. My childhood was a happy combination of the Platters and Nat Cole, Woody Herman and Gino Vannelli. My brothers loved sophisticated, multileveled music -- they loved Steely Dan, for example -- and I inherited that appreciation from the get-go. They'd come home with albums by the Four Freshman and Hi-Lo's. We'd hear those gorgeous close harmonies and rip them right off the records. I sat down at the piano and taught myself by ear.

SB: You're always quoted as saying Stevie Wonder is your musical idol.

BM: Stevie is the Michael Jordan of music, a category of his own. His "Original Musiquarium" changed my life. He drew me deep into the tracks. His vocals are almost athletic. I call him a "hard singer," someone who can sing gently but has the power and range to do whatever he wants. That's what I wanted -- the sound I heard in Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, James Ingram, Michael Sembello, Bobby Caldwell -- guys with power and the ability to compose pop songs based on superbad jazz chords. I loved that combination.

SB: Is it hard to bare your soul in songs?

BM: I am not emotional in any respect. I do not carry my heart on my sleeve; I get all that out in the music.

SB: You don't often work with other songwriters. Why?

BM: They think too much. The process for me isn't a labor. Others don't realize that your first idea is usually the best one. But if work I with other writers, even if they don't do anything, they get credit because they're in the room.

SB: Where did the title "Superhero" come from?

BM: The label worried that people would think I am referring to myself and people would laugh at me and think I could leap a building with a single bound and stop bullets with my teeth. What affirmed the title for me was a concert when a woman in a wheelchair came up to see me and she said while trying to attend a previous concert of mine, she got in a car accident, and her family played my CDs for her and she came out of her coma. She thought my music was responsible. I felt like I had connected with a person and my music was personal for them. The album refers to all the people out there who are superheroes.

SB: The album is a mix of material. Were you fearful of taking a new direction and offending your fans?

BM: I had to find crossover songs; songs that could be R&B and pop at the same time. ... The bridge between those first two genres are farther apart than they were two years ago. So I had to put songs which specifically fit into these categories on the album, like "Love of My Life" and "When You Want to Come" for urban radio; them come back with "My Kind of Girl" for pop radio.

SB: How hard is it to convince your record company to allow you to do this?

BM: When you come off a record that has sold 4 million worldwide and you did it all yourself ... they leave you pretty much alone.

SB: Now that you live in L.A., are you a Laker or Clipper fan?

BM: Neither. I was a Bulls fan for years and years because of Michael (Jordan). But once they broke up that team, it took me a couple years to get interested again. But I still play every day. In every city and town in this country, there's a court somewhere and guys playing. Sometimes I'll work out with the big boys, buddies like Karl Malone or Charles Smith. But mostly it's just my own crew.

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