A Quiet Storm

Though the title of Smokey Robinson’s 1975 solo LP would later be used to identify a certain genre of urban Adult Contemporary music, A Quiet Storm stands alone as a great work. The album is Robinson’s rejoinder to the burgeoning Philly soul movement, which had come to dominate the R &B scene in the first half of the '70s. While producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff had originally modeled their productions on the fragile elegance of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, here Robinson repossesses their recipe and adds to it. The title song is the very essence of gentleness and smoothness, but despite its celestial atmosphere the album is anything but fluffy. You can hear Smokey’s years of experience blossoming here. He could create a song for any occasion. The beautiful slow dance “Wedding Song” was written for the marriage of Jermaine Jackson and Hazel Gordy, while “Happy” is the love theme to Lady Sings the Blues. Even when the rhythms pick up, in “Love Letters” and “Coincidentally,” there is nary a sharp edge. At a time when R &B was aiming to punch, Smokey wished only to caress.