Damita

It’s a voice that inspires. moves. excites, even transforms. Damita Haddon’s remarkable Atlantic Records debut presents a singer who’s impossible to forget. It may be the Detroit native’s first time out on a major label, but she’s hardly a novice. Not only has she sung with Aretha Franklin, she’s a seasoned stage performer and the wife of Gospel star Deitrick Haddon. It’s in fact with Deitrick that Damita penned the soaring music of Damita, music that embraces love, both human and divine.

And the magic is intensified by Damita’s work with a notable selection of producers. Seeking a sound that would reflect the true breadth of her material, Damita joined alternately with legendary R&B producer Arif Mardin, with her husband, and with a new group of R&B producers out of Atlanta. That group, Noon Time, Damita says, “added the hot sauce, the pepper to the mix, They helped give me the urban street edge.” Mardin provided the depth and the grace that have come to characterize the legacy of Atlantic Records.

Absolute, undisguised emotion has become a Damita trademark. And she acknowledges its source. “The songs on the album lyrically can go both ways. They can be either about a loved one or God. But no matter what kind of music your singing, you know that God has placed His finger, or even his fingernail, upon it. It’s something you just can’t copy.”

A true original herself, Damita grew up in the Motor City enveloped in music. Both sides of her family played and sang. And for the young musician, the realization of her calling came early. Fresh out of high school, touring with the Gospel theater production “Mama Don’t,” she soon sensed that: “This is it. This is my life. I just knew that this is what I was supposed to do.” She formed a female a capella group, Adoration & Praise, recorded an album with them, and then continued her singing career in her church choir. With Deitrick Haddon releasing his first of four albums in 1995, Damita, a distinctive force on each of them, began garnering serious attention. It was in 1996 that she met Aretha.

“It was a very humbling experience, having one of the greatest singers in the world ask me to sing with her,” she recalls; their first meeting took place when Franklin heard Haddon in a production of Langston Hughes’ classic “A Black Nativity.” Soon, with Aretha inviting Damita over for Christmas dinner, the stage was set. And touring with the Queen of Soul only sharpened Damita’s skill, and whetted her desire to express her own vision.

Damita is the fruit of that vision, a labor of love. It’s music that reflects the expansiveness of the singer herself. A fan not only of classic Gospel (“that’s the music I was raised on. I had to sneak to hear anything else on the radio,” she laughs), Damita also enjoys the vocal pyrotechnics of Celine Dion, the lyrical complexity of Sting, and the fire and deep funk of rhythm & blues. It’s no surprise, then, that her own sound is equally encyclopedic, equally generous in its appeal. She’s particularly interested in reaching fresh ears – and the hearts and minds of the young. “I’m just sure they’ll like the music,” she says, “because they’ll know that I haven’t forgotten them. And they want to be heard. In desperation they turn to things that lead them into AIDS, abusive relationships, and despair. Music plays a big part in how kids react. We’ve got to give them a new message. The message has to communicate. Sometimes you can get a little too “urban” or sometimes a little too “mature.” That’s why this album strikes a balance.”