Being a huge Amp Fiddler fan, I tracked down the Mr Fiddler album on
Elektra, With Respect, from 1990 and it's really cool!
This is a band project, rather than a solo outing.
Unlike a lot of very early 90s R&B (like Keith Sweat) it has not dated at
all and I think that's down to the organicism in the production. It
pre-empts one of my favourite groups, Solo, part of Flyte Tyme as well as
the neo-soul of D'Angelo. At points it reminds me of Aaron Hall too, he was
a great singer! It's got a bit of roughness to it.
It's cool to see a vocal credit by Brian McKnight on So You Wanna Be A
Gangster. ;) My absolute fave cut is the brilliantly entitled Starvin' Like
Marvin, a really soulful swinging ballad which I have played non-stop for
the last hour. It's really too bad Warner did not do anything with this, but
personally I think the label has been long left behind by the likes of
Arista when it comes to the urban market and this record may have been too
far ahead of its time.
