Did you always want to be a singer?
group that we had created named Something Different. It was four girls, and we started doing different sessions for different people. Our first session was with Disco Tex and the Sex- O-Lettes, and from that point on, we were doing live shows with Monti Rock, and it moved from there into being called independently for other sessions like “I’m Caught Up (In a One Night Love Affair).” Greg Carmichael had heard my voice and thought that I could really cut the song. Before I knew it, it was a number one hit in New York City. Other folks started calling me; like for instance, when I was with Luther Vandross’s group, which was called Luther, I was still working behind Van McCoy and doing other sessions with him. From Luther, it moved to Change who had called us in to do “It’s a Girl’s Affair” and “The Glow of Love.” I then started doing other things with Gregg Diamond, Joe Bataan, and various other people who weren’t well known but acceptable in the clubs; working with Patrick Adams, Greg Carmichael, and Stan Lucas with “(Knock Out) Let’s Go Another Round” and the Dazzle album with Leroy Burgess. The momentum just picked up, and I was used in various projects. When it came down to doing the club stuff, the DJs that I knew—they weren’t DJs; they were runners for Jellybean Benitez: Louie Vega, he wasn’t a DJ; he was a runner working with Jellybean. And the next thing that I knew, Louie had a little project and asked me to come in and sing on it—and from then on, we stayed close and kept doing things with each other; the Masters at Work thing, Todd Terry. Over here in Europe, I was dealing with Kama Sutra, Kym Mazelle, Incognito, and I could go on and on, because I’ve been blessed to work with so many artists.
Well, music has been a part of my life all of my life. I didn’t start doing any major work until I was in my late teens and early twenties but started my first recording when I was fifteen. And that was with my aunt Barbara Roy [from Ecstasy, Passion & Pain] and my cousin Brenda who were a group at that time called Barbara and Brenda, and we worked behind Gene Pitney doing one of his albums at that time. I had no intentions of even having a career; it’s just that that took off, and it just kept going after that. After Gene Pitney, we were called to do some stuff on Peaches and Herb and some other independent singers, and I was then considered a background singer for a while. Later on in my life, I got a piano that was given to my mom, and I started playing the piano—creating my own songs.
Who are your influences?
To be very honest with you, my mom. She was a fine singer. Her and my aunt were called the Gaskin Sisters. Because music has always been in my life, I haven’t had a particular person except for my mom singing around the house with me and making me sing with her. Other than that, I love Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. How did you end up singing for acts like Musique, Inner Life, and Luther? How was the recording scene in New York City at that period in time?
All that stuff started when I was working with a band called Sneaky Cooking, and from them, I was also working with a
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( opposite ) Jocelyn Brown backstage in the Netherlands, 1992. Photo by Michel Linssen/Redferns/Getty Images.
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