Jeff Redd

Jeff Redd didn't achieve the pop success of contemporaries like Guy or fellow Mount Vernon native Al B. Sure!, but he put his mark on the new jack swing era and was a major behind-the-scenes figure afterward. As a teenager, Redd performed in a group called the Sophisticated Gents. In 1988, as a solo artist, he was signed to André Harrell's Uptown label, home to Heavy D & the Boyz, another Mount Vernon act. Before the deal went into full effect, Redd remained employed on the General Motors assembly line in nearby Tarrytown, where he was handed a cassette recording of a teenaged...