The first weekend of Jodeci – The Show, The After Party, The Vegas Residency in mid-March couldn’t have turned out better. The baddest boys of ’90s R&B did not disappoint the legions of ladies who snapped up tickets and turned the House of Blues shows into a sold-out affair. K-Ci and Jojo are still on point with smooth, emotive singing delivery. DeVante Swing still causes audible audience swooning when tickling the ivories, and Mr. Dalvin’s capacity for rap-lyric recall has not diminished.
That may be due to the decade-long warm up leading to The Vegas Residency after the four elements of Jodeci took an extended layoff. It’s been 33 years since they burst onto the charts with debut album Forever My Lady, scoring hits with “Stay,” “Come & Talk to Me” and the No. 1 title track. They took the New Jack Swing sound to the next level under the direction of production wiz Devante Swing, who made audacious early moves that led to Jodeci being signed.
The North Carolina-born music prodigy made a pilgrimage to Minnesota as a teenager and made attempts to infiltrate Prince’s studio Paisley Park. The mission failed, but Swing’s determination was strengthened. Back home he began working with Jojo, who had been involved in the ’80s gospel music recording industry with his brother, K-Ci.
K-Ci had a preternaturally developed tenor voice that made him the focal point of Little Cedric and the Hailey Singers. It was a no brainer to begin working with him, so Jojo, Devante and K-Ci each donated a syllable fromn their names to “Jodeci” before Mr. Dalvin came on board. Swing saw the harmonizing possibilities. Four voices could be multitracked into eight, or 16.
And there would be four bodies moving on stage, the perfectly even number that drives the four-on-the-floor beat. Jojo would prove to be especially adept at interpreting lyrics and sentiment with his body, but first Jodeci had to get famous. Swing took the initiative and drove the singers to New York, with Mr. Dalvin’s fateful decision to join the journey finalizing his inclusion in the act.
Late record executive Andre Harrell had established Uptown Records as the urbane, sophisticated counterpart to street-savvy Def Jam Records with artists such as Mary J. Blige and Heavy D & the Boys. Rapper Heavy D heard Jodeci’s music while the boys were still in the building and turned them onto Harrell, who was impressed with the 29 demos Swing brought along. Dinner and a recording contract soon followed.
Jodeci would become the flipside of the coin to Boys II Men. The philosophy would be concisely captured in album titles Diary of a Mad Band and The Show, The After Party, The Hotel from 1993 and 1995, respectively. The bad boys were lovermen in the tradition of Barry White and Teddy Pendergrass, but the stage shows were spectacles of shirtless seduction and sensuality.
The group fractured after album three, with K-Ci and Jojo racking up hits as a duo. but reunited for The Past, the Present and the Future in 2015. A 2022 slot opening for New Edition and a 2023 headlining tour warmed Jodeci up enough to consider a House of Blues residency, with a dream show headlining the Hollywood Bowl preceding the resumption of The Show, The After Party, The Vegas Residency this month. Jodeci is back and here to stay for a while, if they want to.
Jodeci at House of Blues: July 10, 13 and 14
A version of this story was published in the July 7 edition of Las Vegas Magazine