Tuesday 14 April 2009

Brigette McWilliams - I Get The Job Done 1994

Virgin Records VUSCD18


Brigette McWilliams was born in Chicago and raised in Los Angeles and New York. She grew up immersed in an environment full of musical greats. Her mother, Paulette McWilliams had a 60s hit, ‘Bend Me Shape Me’ with the group Rufus and regularly toured and recorded with Quincy Jones and Luther Vandross. She claims that she is influenced by Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Nina Simone, Chaka Khan, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn. The music, energy and spirit of the scene at the time captivated her and set the scene for what she would later become.

Brigette studied law and thought this may be her eventual career before joining a girl group Flavor and signing with Universal Records. However her distinctively rich alto tones soon landed her a solo deal with Virgin Records for two highly acclaimed albums.

McWilliams made her début for Virgin in 1994 with the album Take Advantage Of Me. Produced by Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal for So So Def productions, she was surrounded by a wealth of musical talent and was only required to sing what was written for her. It received favourable reviews in the soul / R & B papers but she later complained that she enjoyed 'zero creative control' in its conception.

The fact that she went on to write and produce alongside Steve Harvey on her 2005 release, Starlight Lounge, on Expansion Records , venturing into Jazz and Brazilian rhythms, tells you how frustrating it must have been for her. She shortened her artist name to Brigette, branched out into fashion accessories and married Mark Romanek, (the film director responsible for films like ‘One Hour Photo’ and the music video to Michael and Janet Jackson’s ‘Scream’).

OK, that's the story, here's the music. A plethora of mixes from Jermaine Dupri himself using EW&F and James Brown samples, an interesting offering from Shannon Houchins but the only mix I need is the Quiet Storm Mix by Wicked T incorporating the guitar work of Verve artis, Evan Marks. Pure unadulterated soul. Enjoy!


  • Natural Radio Mix With Clean Intro
  • Hard Funk Mix
  • Quiet Storm Mix
  • The Extended
  • Hard Funk Mix Instrumental
  • On Top Of The Job Mix
  • On Top Of The Job Mix Instrumental
  • LP Version
  • Quiet Storm Mix Instrumental
The Download Link is here: Download
Filename: Brigette McWilliams.rar Filesize: 68.61 MB

1 comment:

  1. What? No mention of her "Too Much Woman" CD?

    ReplyDelete

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