Tevin Campbell turned 15 on Nov. 12, and already he`s an old pro in the music business.
The release of his debut album this week, ”T.E.V.I.N.” (Warner), has been widely anticipated for a number of reasons: Campbell`s mature-beyond-his- years voice, his wholesome, pin-up boy appearance, and the company he keeps.
Two years ago, the singer found himself a featured performer on Quincy Jones` Grammy-winning juggernaut, ”Back on the Block.” Campbell sang on the title track and led a 12-voice choir on the hit ballad ”Tomorrow.”
Then, last year, Campbell had another hit on Prince`s ”Graffiti Bridge” movie soundtrack, with ”Round and Round.”
For ”T.E.V.I.N.,” the singer worked with a Who`s Who of R & B producers, including Jones, Narada Michael Walden, Al B. Sure and Arthur Baker.
Although willing to learn from the masters, Campbell says he wasn`t about to sing lyrics he thought were ”too bubblegum” and occasionally locked horns with his producers if he believed they were being unreasonable.
”Narada has done Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey, so I had tremendous respect for him,” Campbell says. ”He`s very mysterious and spiritual. You go in the studio and he`s got candles burning; he tries to set a mood.
”But he wanted everything perfect. When you listen to the playback of the song, he doesn`t want to hear any flat or sharp notes. He worked me for 50 hours on three songs. He`d make me do the whole song at least three times, and then he`d go back and find parts we needed to work on.
”I got mad at him-I was very frustrated. I`m a perfectionist, but he`s a perrrrrfectionist. He knew I was mad at him, too, but he didn`t care. Those little notes that I didn`t think meant anything he`d be saying, `Come on, do it again.”`
Campbell, now a Los Angeles high school freshman, recorded much of the album after attending classes.
”I was in the studio from 4 to 9 each day,” he says. ”Then I`d go home and finish my homework and be in bed by 11 or 12, then get up by 6:30.”
He says he talks regularly to Janet Jackson, who has been offering career advice.
”She first called about 11 o`clock at night and we talked for about an hour,” he says. ”She just got off tour, dancing and singing every night. She says it was a lot of work, but it paid off.”
Campbell says he`d like to mount a similar, but smaller scale tour, maybe next summer.
”Janet said I can do it because I`m young and have a lot of energy,” he says. ”I wouldn`t be comfortable walking out and just singing. My audience is a teenage audience, and they come not only to see you sing, but also dance and perform.”
Such a tour would be the next step in a career that began with Campbell working in the same studio with singing greats such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick and Chaka Khan on the ”Back on the Block” album.
”Walking in there I felt nervous but very privileged,” Campbell recalls. ”To be able to work with such people, you can`t get any higher-and I was only 13. You only dream to work with them.
”They sensed I was nervous and they were like, `C`mon, cool down, man, you can sing.` So I sang. The singing got the nervousness out.”
For the Prince sessions, it was a more intimate atmosphere.
”It was just me and him in Paisley Park,” Prince`s Minneapolis studio, Campbell says. ”We got finished in just two hours. When we were working on
`Round and Round,` he wanted to change it to more of a house beat and said,
`Do something at the start.` So I just started singing `Oh yeah-yeah-yeah`
off the top of my head. He just let me sing what I wanted.”
Not everything went so smoothly, however.
”He wanted me to do this rap in the middle of the song that I considered a little childish,” Campbell says. ”So he said, `OK, lets play tick-tack-toe. If you win, you don`t have to do the rap.` He won, so I did the rap. I guess I never had a chance; he`s an expert at that stuff.”
As for the mysterious Prince persona, Campbell wonders what all the fuss is about: ”He`s very friendly, easy to talk to, down to earth. He`s not weird or anything. Just very normal.”
The same could be said of Campbell. The singer says his mother, younger brother and older sister keep him in line at home.
”They don`t let me get away with any ego problems,” he says with a laugh. ”Even my dog bites me every day.”
– Jamaica`s Black Uhuru, one of the great hard-core reggae groups of the last 20 years, has maintained its standard of excellence despite numerous personnel changes.
The trio, which headlines Sunday at the Cubby Bear, 1059 W. Addison St., is back to its original lineup of Duckie Simpson, Don Carlos and Garth Dennis. Carlos and Dennis left after recording only a handful of songs in the mid-`70s, and Simpson carried on with singers such as Michael Rose and then Junior Reid.
On the recent ”Iron Storm” (Mesa), Carlos` sweet tenor reasserts itself and the trio even dabbles in lighter dance-hall fare. But Dennis is the record`s revelation. His singing on ”Break Out” and ”Trouble” puts Black Uhuru solidly in touch with its roots, mixing yearning voices with powerful, populist messages.
– Last weekend`s benefit concert by Stevie Wonder at the Chicago Theatre raised $130,000 toward the future care of a local couple`s unborn child. Dwain and Theresa Kyles are expecting a son Nov. 30 who will require an immediate heart transplant.
The $500,000 medical expense will not be covered by their insurance. Contributions may be sent to the ”Share Your Heart for Baby Quinn Fund,”
attention Kimberly Mooring, at Seaway National Bank, 545 E. 87th St., Chicago, Ill. 60619, or call 312-487-4800.
