"He doesn't look like he'd be that sexy on stage. He looks like he reads a lot!"
The quote, lifted from Andre Henry's website, is from none other than the late Nick Ashford, who had seen Henry perform many times at his and wife Valerie Simpson's West Side restaurant/nightclub Sugar Bar's famed Thursday night open mic events. And sure enough, 26-year-old Henry has a casual collegiate yet hip look: At his Insomnia debut album release party Friday night at the Sugar Bar, he sported an olive green cardigan over a plaid button-down long-sleeve shirt, blue cords, charcoal suede flat cap and bookish eyeglasses.
"People are always surprised at my show because they think I look like an adolescent Spike Lee, but remind them of a cross between John Legend, Ray Charles, and sometimes Prince," says Henry--who disagrees with the comparisons. But he's the first to invoke Stevie Wonder as a major influence on his songwriting and sound, and credit Michael Jackson as the reason he wanted to become a performer.
At the Sugar Bar, Henry's songs (he performed all of Insomnia, including a dramatic duet with Simpson on "Love Is A Resolution") showed a distinctive versatility in their jazz and sometimes Latin-tinged pop-r&b, with love being the lyrical focus.
"That's what my music is mostly about--love," says the Atlanta native, who was studying to be a minister and still serves as a church worship leader. "It's pop-r&b with an obvious influence of classic soul."
Take it from Simpson: "There's something behind Andre Henry--a spirit inside of him. He can be a spirit leader Sunday morning and come here Thursday and Friday nights and tear it up. He conveys a vulnerability and sensitivity that are rare for a male artist."
Henry had gone to Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, and graduated with a major in pracitical theology and a Bible minor. He had returned to Atlanta in December, 2007, but was invited three weeks later to lead worship in New York for a weekend.
"I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go," he recalls. "I always wanted to make it as a songwriter-singer-performer and since I was here in New York that weekend, I just decided to stay."
Soul music was the foundation, especially "the intersection where soul, pop and jazz meet," he notes. After booking his own shows through the Sonicbids Web site and getting friends from church to attend, a Facebook message directed him to the Sunday night open mic show at The Village Underground; an acquaintance there suggested The Sugar Bar as a better option, and he attended his first open mic there in mid-2008.
"Looking back, it's funny how things came around full circle," continues Henry. "In high school, I got Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits, and 'I Want You'--which I also did last Friday--was one of my favorite songs. I remember seeing Nick come into The Sugar Bar and shake hands with people, and then he heard me do 'It Must Be Hard,' which is on Insomnia, and he said he loved it--that it was very unique and different. And I said, 'Oh, my God! Nick Ashford, who wrote all those songs for Marvin with Valerie, just talked to me!' So I started doing 'I Want You' and next thing he's sitting at the bar with me!"
Henry did his first Sugar Bar show in 2009.
"Nick and Val came, and Val got up afterwards and said, 'If you had a CD to sell it would be sold out right now,'" Henry recounts. "She inspired me to start recording, and they started hearing more of my music and encouraging me and making suggestions."
Simpson even enlisted Henry to arrange Ashford & Simpson's songs on Sir Cliff Richards' new Soulicious album.
The legendary couple's daughter Nicole Ashford also came on board.
"She started coming to my shows and became a big supporter of my music," says Henry. "I knew I needed a manager, and although Nicole had never managed anyone, she said she'd try. That was last year, and it's worked so well: She's kind of a big sister to me and a friend, and she's the most optimistic person! I'm the type of artist who has doubts and I get hard on myself, and I'm picky and a perfectionist--and her encouragement really helps me."
For Ashford, who also wears a number of hats in her parents' business operations, her new role as artist manager is a natural.
"Coming from a musical family I've always had a good ear for music, so when I saw Andre Henry perform some of his original music a couple of years ago I knew he was something special," she says. "His live performance is so real: At one point in the show he was crying real tears singing of love lost--and he made me a believer from that moment! His energy on stage is mesmerizing and his style is so likeable, you just can't help but smile."
Ashford now looks to get his music heard "by any means necessary, so everyone can experience the wonderfulness that is Andre Henry," she says.
"The music industry is forever changing with so many different avenues to explore," Ashford adds. "Andre is so talented with his songwriting and performances that all I really want to do is help him spread his message of love to the world."
To this end, Henry is November's featured artist for Nick Ashford's Nuttin But The Blues Tuesday open mic nights.
"It's a huge change of pace," says Henry. "I feel like it's an educational experience, and that's partly why I wanted to do it. A friend said it would help me as an artist in bringing the blues' depth of feeling to what I write--which I get on an existential level. So I'm practicing and studying blues, and people at church are giving me CDs and books and I'm watching documentaries: There's something about going back and learning and experiencing the tradition of the blues and being able to grow as an artist."
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