Jeff Redd

Few singers of the new jack swing era have worked on both sides of the studio glass the way Jeff Redd has. A New York native born in 1969, he began singing in the mid-1980s with the short-lived group The Sophisticated Gents while still a teenager, and his work across the late 1980s and early 1990s is rooted in new jack swing-style R&B. He has also produced records, and once sang a song on Sesame Street that demonstrated the word 'between'.

André Harrell signed him to Uptown Records after seeing him perform solo. The 1990 debut A Quiet Storm offered the uptempo 'I Found Lovin'' and 'Come and Get Your Lovin'', alongside the ballad 'Love High', which reached number 16 on the Billboard R&B chart. Redd also helped Mary J. Blige get her start, touring with her as a backing singer. His second album, Down Low, recorded in 1994, was shelved when EMI America closed its black music department, and it only reached digital platforms in 2024 through Capitol Records. After an A&R post at MCA, he founded Sol Real Records in 2003 and released a 2007 compilation, Jeff Redd Presents: The Essence of Soul.