Take a soulful trip back to the ’90s with Brian McKnight at Centre College

Brian McKnight

For serene pop soundscapes that summoned the most popular R&B hits of the 1990s, few artists held more sway than Brian McKnight.

For many, the introduction to this Buffalo, N.Y.-born vocalist came in 1993, when he landed at the top of the pop charts via a duet single with Vanessa Williams called “Love Is” from the thenoutrageously popular tV series “Beverly Hills 90210.”

McKnight’s singing allowed his gospel upbringing to mingle with pop-soul accessibility — a formula favored vocal great Sam Cooke. But McKnight represented a new soul generation, one that meshed ballads, slow jams and no small degree of glamour.

Everything came down to the voice, though. In a decade when hip-hop largely overtook the popularity of R&B, McKnight was a torchbearer of easygoing but grounded vocal tradition. He was a new soul crooner for the times.

There would be more hits — most notably 1999’s “Back at One,” a song that, ironically, was edged out of the No. 1 spot of most pop charts only because its release coincided with that of Santana’s monster comeback single “Smooth.”

This weekend, McKnight makes his way to the Norton Center for the Arts in Danville — a venue where his older brother, Claude McKnight III, played just more than a year ago with his long-running jazz and soul vocal ensemble Take 6. The younger McKnight’s program will cover a recording history that stretches from the ’90s up through his 2017 album, “Genesis.”

Keep in mind, though, that it is the season, and McKnight has released two holiday recordings, “Bethlehem” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” that should play into the Danville performance. Given that the two seasonal records were issued in 1998 and 2008, respectively, should we expect another in 2018? Perhaps. Then again, maybe we should just enjoy the Christmas at hand first.

Kneebody

Tagging the music of Kneebody as fusion can be tricky. On the surface, it’s a jazz sound cultivated over an 11-year history that revels in tradition with compositions that remain open to all kinds of contemporary inspirations and collaborations. Among those who have occasionally been drawn into the band’s musical orbit have been rapper/producer Busdriver, guitarist/composer Wayne Krantz and electronic music stylist Daedelus. Similarly, Kneebody’s far-reaching recording catalogue includes 2009’s “Twelve Songs of Charles Ives,” which interprets the music of the modernist composer with help from noted vocal artist Theo Blackmann.

But fusion, in jazz terms, is usually a blanket description for rock-inscribed instrumental music. Kneebody flirts with that, too, but its musical fabric is far richer and denser than any single genre can define. Maybe it’s best to simply call it jazz. That was certainly enough for the new Lexington-based Origin Jazz Series, when it booked the band for the third and largest-scale presentation thus far in its inaugural season of monthly concerts — one that brings the series to the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center on Thursday.

For its 2017 album “Anti-Hero,” the band — keyboardist Adam Benjamin, tenor saxophonist Ben Wendel, trumpeter Shane Endsley, bassist Kaveh Rastegar and drummer Nate Wood — juggles the elemental funk of “Uprising,” the darker piano-led swing of “The Balloonist” and the chattering modern grooves of “Carry On.”

There also are plenty of cool sounds to be found from the Kneebody members outside of the band. Wendel’s 2016 album, “What We Bring,” is a delight. It emphasizes more mid-tempo works executed within atmospheric and predominantly acoustic settings that recall more recent recordings from the European label ECM, but with Wendel’s warm yet restless playing in the driver’s seat.

Seating for Kneebody’s Thursday concert will be general admission.

Coats for Cover Benefit for the Nest

Home for the Holidays

If you’re in the giving mood this weekend — and who isn’t? — The Burl will host a pair of benefit shows featuring a lineup of expert local artists.

Friday night is Coats for Cover, which benefits The Nest Center for Women and Children, The Reindeer Express and Believing in Forever. The bill includes Robert Frahm, Sunny Cheeba, Joslyn and the Sweet Compression, Devine Carama and Johnny Conqueroo.

Advance tickets are $12, but a new child’s coat or toy will be accepted for admission.

On Sunday afternoon, the club will present the annual Home for the Holidays summit, which will raise money for the Foster Care Council of Lexington and GreenHouse 17. Rhyan Sinclair will emcee, with music by The Triplets Band, Paper Moon, The Sway, All the Little Pieces (Sinclair’s band), Brendon Bowker, Jeana Pillion and more.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 12:32 PM with the headline "Take a soulful trip back to the ’90s with Brian McKnight at Centre College."