Jeffrey Osborne and Peabo Bryson

Osborne was born in Providence, Rhode Island, US to a very large and musical family. He is the youngest of 12 children (a sibling to 6 sisters and 5 brothers). Several of his brothers and sisters also pursued careers as musicians, one of them being his older brother Billy who was his fellow bandmate in L.T.D and is now a L.A. based producer/songwriter. Jeffrey’s oldest brother Clay Osborne is a professional pianist and vocalist.

Though Jeffrey’s father died when he was only 13 years old he inherited his strong skill and passion for music from him. Clarence “Legs” Osbourne was a jazz trumpet player whose past collaborators include Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton. Jeffrey’s father often sacrificed many important stints as a musician to be with his family and always encouraged his children's aspirations.

Jeffrey joined the group L.T.D. as the drummer and moved out to Los Angeles with them when he was in his early teens. While he was out in L.A. he also sat in as the drummer for the O’Jays when the band’s official drummer did not feel up to playing.

Jeffrey eventually filled in as the lead singer for L.T.D. and led the group to success with a string of hit R&B albums throughout the 70s and early 80s. Two of the band’s albums, 1977s “Something to Love” and 1979s “Devotion” were certified Gold and reached No.1 and No.5 on the US R&B charts consecutively. Their 1978 album “Togetherness” went Platinum and debuted at No.3 on the US R&B charts.

Osborne put out his self-titled debut album in 1982 and scored two top 40 hits on the pop charts with “On Wings of Love” and “I Really Don’t Need No Light”. His next release “Stay with Me Tonight” proved to be an even bigger success reaching Gold status and going on to claim Platinum certification. This album was well-received both in the US and the UK, with it’s single “Stay with Me Tonight” climbing to No. 18 on the UK charts.

In 1985 Osborne co-wrote the Whitney Houston single “All at Once”, which appeared on her monumental self-titled debut. That same year he contributed to the USA for Africa campaign, collaborating on the song “We Are the World”.

Throughout Osborne’s career he has recorded a total of 5 albums that went either Gold or Platinum. In 1990 he signed on with record label Artista and released the album “Only Human”. In 1997 Osborne released his Christmas album “Something Warm for Christmas” and two years later issued a greatest hits compilation entitled “Ultimate Collection”. During the 2000s Osborne entered into contracts with several independent labels and released albums such as 2000’s “That’s for Sure”, 2003’s “Music is Life”, 2005’s “From the Soul”, and 2013’s “A Time To Love”.

Born Robert Bryson, Peabo Bryson's love of music mostly stemmed from his mother, who gave Bryson the best education in music she could when she would regularly take her family to concerts by some of the best R&B and soul singers of the age. Schooled by seeing the likes of Sam Cooke and Billie Holiday perform live, Bryson made his live debut at the tender age of 14, and by 16, he had left home to tour the chitlin' circuit as a backing singer for Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display. While he was singing with that band, they secured a recording session at Atlanta's Band Records and while the band themselves didn't impress the label's head, Eddie Biscoe, he was very taken with Bryson's voice. He signed Bryson to Bang as a writer, producer and arranger, while also encouraging Bryson to work on his own solo material. After working with the label for several years, Bryson made his debut in 1976 with his debut album “Peabo”.

The album didn't exactly set the charts alight but it did secure him a record deal with Capitol Records, and his next three albums, “Reaching For The Sky”, “Crosswinds” and “We're The Best Of Friends” did respectable business on the charts and were all certified Gold soon after release. As the 80's dawned, Bryson became best known for his duets, most notably with Roberta Flack, with whom he had his first top twenty hit on the Billboard charts in the form of 1983's “Tonight I Celebrate My Love”. A year later, he had his only solo top ten hit in the form of “If You're Ever In My Arms Again”. The 90's were even kinder to him due to The Walt Disney Company tapping him to record the lead singles to their animated films, leading to huge hits and even a Grammy award for “Beauty And The Beast”, which he sung with the iconic Celine Dion. Bryson tours to this very day, and continues to give ballad singer the world over a very good name. For that, he comes highly recommended.