Javier Colon was working a summer job when he figured out what he wanted to do with his life–sing R&B tunes in the mold of the greats: Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke.
The job was at a Bridgeport, Conn., oldies station his father had just purchased and planned to convert to a Spanish-language station.
“My summer job … was to take all the oldies songs, the track tapes there, and erase them and get them ready to receive Spanish-format music. And before I could erase them, my mom–she loved all the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s, all that music–wanted me to tape every single song,” says the 25-year-old Javier, whose self-titled Capitol debut hits stores Tuesday.
The release–on Capitol’s relaunched urban division–follows on the heels of the division’s success with another newcomer, Chingy, who has found a hit with “Right Thurr.” Javier’s album, whose lead single “Crazy” was No. 55 on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart last week, is the urban division’s first R&B project.
Javier took music courses in high school and then went on to the University of Hartford’s Hartt School for a degree in music education in 2000.
His music education is serving Javier well: He co-wrote all the songs on his debut, which is rare for a new artist, particularly in R&B.
“I was very fortunate because when we structured the deal, I told Capitol that I was a writer and that I wanted to have a lot of creative control, and they basically said OK,” he says. “They didn’t try to make me into something I wasn’t or something that I didn’t want to be.”
Although he has a music degree and says he’d love to teach, Javier has a different career goal.
“I just want longevity, really. I want to be around for a while,” he says.
“It’s a beautiful thing if you can create something and have an outlet to share it with the rest of the world. I know that’s very hard to do in this day and age, but I’m hoping that I’ll be one of the ones who stay for a while.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
