Timeless (CD - 2008)

Personnel: Kenny Lattimore (vocals); Sherrod Barnes (guitar, wah-wah guitar); Ira Siegel (guitar, sitar); John Smith (acoustic guitar); Mark Gross (alto saxophone); Keith Loftis, Everette Harp (tenor saxophone); Jason Marshall (baritone saxophone); George Fontenette (trumpet, programming, drum programming); Saunders Sermons (trombone); Barry Eastmond (Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards); Chedrick Mitchell (organ); John Anderson (synthesizer); Dustin Moore, Jerry Barnes (bass guitar); Michael White , Omar Hakim, Ralph Rolle, Willburn "Squidley" Cole (drums); Gordon Williams (percussion, programming); Rafael Padilla, Bashiri Johnson (percussion); Amanda Dandy, Tabetha Dandy, Tamika Peoples, Eddie Cole (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Gordon Williams; Ray Bardani.

Arrangers: Kenny Lattimore; Barry Eastmond.

Kenny Lattimore's suave, loverman croon is always a balm for the ears, and on TIMELESS, the artist's 2008 covers album, he sounds smoother than ever. Lattimore's choice of songs is satisfying (Aretha Franklin's "Ain't No Way," Stevie Wonder's "It Ain't No Use"), and at times surprising (his treatment of Jeff Buckley's "Everybody Here Wants You" is one of the album's standouts). But the singer doesn't rely on just the familiarity of the tunes to carry the album; his performances--sensual, sensitive, and creamy as spun butter--are topnotch throughout, and the whole is given a sweet, adult urban contemporary twist. minimize