Rachelle Ferrell

RACHELLE FERRELL - SOMETHING ELSE (1990)

1. You Send Me - Rachelle Ferrell, Cooke, Sam
2. You Don't Know What Love Is - Rachelle Ferrell, DePaul, Gene
3. Bye Bye Blackbird - Rachelle Ferrell, Dixon, Mort
4. Prayer Dance - Rachelle Ferrell, Green, Eddie
5. Inchworm - Rachelle Ferrell, Loesser, Frank
6. With Every Breath I Take - Rachelle Ferrell, Coleman, Cy
7. What Is This Thing Called Love? - Rachelle Ferrell, Porter, Cole
8. My Funny Valentine - Rachelle Ferrell, Rodgers, Richard
9. Don't Waste Your Time - Rachelle Ferrell, Ferrell, Rachelle
10. Extensions - Rachelle Ferrell, Ferrell, Rachelle
11. Autumn Leaves - Rachelle Ferrell, Kosma, Joseph

The first album by Pennsylvania's Rachelle Ferrell was a jazz project released only in Japan. This pop-soul followup curbs most of her jazz moves, but you can sense Ferrell's background in the way she slides gracefully through harmonies and in the way she brings a strong adult sensibility to the love songs. Like fellow jazz/R&B crossover artists Anita Baker and Oleta Adams, Ferrell is at her best on the smoldering ballads, where her smoky voice epitomizes sensuality. All the same, her Minnie Riperton-like wailing on the uptempo "It Only Took a Minute" will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. --Geoffrey Himes