The mental rolodex went to work again, trying to recall the last time a prominent black actor made the transition to musician. Unfortunately my rolodex stopped at “My girl wants to party all the time, party all the time, party all the tiiiimme…” the Eddie Murphy collabo with the late, great Rick James. That effort, while memorable, is more on the infamous side with high comedic value to boot. Terrence isn’t a comedian, so I had no idea what to expect.
Late one night I happened to catch a live performance on one of the late night talk shows, Letterman I think, of the lead single “Love Makes You Beautiful”. I was very impressed, so much so that I took a trip to the Itunes store to sample the rest of his album Shine Through It. The song had a poor man’s Terence Trent D’Arby sound to it, which as a youth I wouldn’t have enjoyed, but with age comes wisdom and appreciation for different types of music. (Speaking of youth; can we get another Arsenio show?)
Howard’s lyrics are nothing special; actually they can come off as contrived, like he was trying too hard, and to be quite honest his voice is lacking as well. The album is saved by the actual music and instrumentation, for which I give him kudos. There is a ton of acoustic guitar, piano, drums and even some flute work. “Spanish Love Affair” is Howard’s version of Spanish folk music, and takes some cues from Miles’ Sketches of Spain. It, and “It’s All Game” a straight jazz track, are the album’s peaks. The last cut “War” is on some big-band/swing music filled with strong horns with the music as the focus once again. This is one of the better musical efforts from an actor, and definitely better than many musicians attempts at acting, especially for a first attempt.
