Will Downing is one of the few artists who has released albums on a plethora of record labels without really ever changing the label. Starting with Will Downing on 4th & Broadway (which was a subsidiary label of Island Records). His 1989 album Come Together As One was released on the motherlabel Island, as was his first more jazzy album A Dream Fulfilled (1991). 1993's Love's The Place To Be album saw him on Mercury (another PolyGram label like the then acquired Island), the same goes for Moods (1995) and Invitation Only (1997). 1998 saw the release of Pleasures Of The Night (together with Gerald Albright) on the classic jazz label Verve/Forecast (another PolyGram company then). Will's All The Man You Need Album from 2000 was released on Motown (by now PolyGram has become Universal that later was acquired by Vivendi). So it's no real surprise that Will changed labels once again and is now with GRP (another label from the vast conglomerate of Universal/Vivendi).
But back to his 9th regular album Sensual Journey: Like one may expect Will once again fills in the niche he craved for himself over the years perfectly, i.e., soulful music for a more mature and adult audience with sometimes jazzy overtones (so in some way it's similar like a new Gary Taylor or Jon Lucien album for which you can expect the usual things). Ok, this may lack some surprises and originality over the years, but on the other hand Will really possess one of the great, remarkable voices in modern soul music and one really can't argue with the songs and arrangements on offer. Or like Will puts it on the liner notes 'I made this album for us, you know, us adults'.
We get a more modern influenced sounding song in the shape of the opener Cool Water, four fine cover versions (Michael Jackson's I Can't Help It, The Average White Band's If I Ever Lose This Heaven, Main Ingredient's Just Don't Want To Be Lonely and Drowning In Your Eyes, a song written by the late Ephraim Lewis), a jazzy song with Bolero Nova and in-between qualitiy songs Will co-wrote with the usual suspects like Rex Rideout or Kashif. Also worth mentioning is Don't Talk To Me Like That which features some fine scatting by Will.
All in all an album that offers no big surprises if you know Will from the beginning but it's very good nonetheless and no bad start if you're not already into Will Downing what's hard to believe since you're visiting jazz-not-jazz :-)