First Listen: Will Downing slows down a classic 80s jam

(November 25, 2024) Like me, Will Downing was in his late teens and technically a man when Junior’s “Mama Used to Say” was released in the spring of 1982. Like all young people, Downing was ready to experience all that adulthood had to offer and not always trying to hear words of parental wisdom and caution. Downing’s parents weren’t thrilled when he decided to leave school and pursue a music career. That decision turned out pretty good. Still, the parental advice to slow down and not to rush into adult decisions and situations that we didn’t fully understand and enjoy what we had proved prescient.

I would not be surprised if Downing, like me, identified with that young boy anxious to grow up when he first heard that “Mama Used to Say” back in the early 1980s. Nor would I be shocked to learn that Downing sings from parental insight on his remake of Junior’s classic that is featured in this First Listen.

Downing has a long history of reimaging soul and jazz classics – this is the man who transformed John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” into a dance anthem. So, we know that his creativity is as fertile as his voice is resonant. And Downing makes full use of his creative license on this remake of “Mama Used to Say,” which he reimagines as a ballad with infusions of jazz guitar and piano by Marcus Johnson while the Prince of Sophisticated Soul takes us to church on the vocal, often lifting famed sensual baritone into falsetto territory.  Check out Will Downing’s version of Junior’s “Mama Used to Say” here.