Peabo Bryson: Feeling His Quiet Fire
"When I say that (Peabo Bryson) is beginning and the end of everything you want to listen to! ---former O'Jay Sammy Strain (2003) Only a week into Black Music Month, five bricks from our music's mighty mortar have fallen, including Peabo Bryson. Alongside Teddy Pendergrass, Bryson represented the second wave of R&B solo male vocalists who rose to prominence at the tail end of the 1970s on the heels of soul men Isaac Hayes, Barry White, Al Green, and Bobby Womack, who defined the first half of the decade. The antithesis of Teddy's quiet fire and ferocious virility — Bryson carved out his own lane, delivering ballads with a soaring vocal gentility and devotion, inspiring his label, Capitol Records, to brand him "The Gentleman of Soul." Akin to Pendergrass's coronation as Philly's R&B king, Bryson was Atlanta's crown prince. Before Larry Blackmon/Cameo, La'Face Records, Keith Sweat, and a slew of rappers migrated to ATL---the Greenville...