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Puff Johnson Has A Touch Of Warwick Within.
By Don Thomas
This reviewer is one of those `old-schoolers' who grew up on the distinctive and sensitive 60s and 70s sounds of such female recording artists as Thelma Houston, Jean Carn, Minnie Riperton, Denise Williams, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and one of my total favorites Dionne Warwick. These were singers that you didn't have to ask someone, who is that singing, you knew as soon as you heard their voice.
It was Dionne Warwick, whose first major hit single "Anyone Who Had A Heart," penned by Burt Bacharch, that not only became an anthem to me, but helped me through some trying times back in the 60s.
Following up with such million-sellers as "Walk On By," "Alfie," "I Say A Little Prayer For You," and numerous others, (too many to mention), and years of enjoying Warwick both on record and in live performance, I just knew that there would never come a time when I would ever compare another singer's musical ability to that of Dionne Warwick.
However it's now in the 90s, and for the first time I find myself not only comparing another singer to Dionne Warwick, I find myself asking others if they heard what my ears are hearing.
The singer of which I'm referring is named Ewanya "Puff" Johnson 23, and she has recently released a collection of musical arrangements on a WORK Group/Columbia CD titled Miracle, that are out-of-this-world beautiful.
And as in Warwick's arrangements which I sometimes wondered how she managed to hit that high note, then nose-dive to the lowest musical register ever, Johnson has that same control, and it's just heavenly, on the emotional ballad "Come Closer."
Puff also belts out "Forever More," a soft building ballad...