McKnight blends signature sound with latest styles

Brian McKnight made few concessions to the aggressive trends of the urban-pop scene when he arrived in the early '90s.

Hip-hop had hardened R&B with crude lyrics and razor-edged, beat-driven productions. McKnight's music carried rich melodies and love-drunk lyrics rendered in an airy tenor.

He bucked the trends and sold millions of albums.

"I never wanted to fit into anybody's anything," said McKnight, who co-headlines Chrysler Hall with Robin Thicke on Saturday night. "I just wanted to write music. That's it."

Nearly two decades later, the artist, 41, has grudgingly changed direction. On his latest album, "Evolution of a Man," released in October on the independent E1 Music label, he tries to blend his sound with the latest styles.

"I've always been a proponent of recording live music," said McKnight, calling from his home in Los Angeles. "But there isn't a whole lot of that on the radio. I had to go kicking and screaming into the 21st century by putting a studio in my house and focusing on the sounds of the day. The songwriting is the same. The way I approached the production is different."

The songs remain romantic and melodic, but the arrangements are spare and processed. The acoustic guitar and piano parts that anchored his past hits have been supplanted by drum machines snapping under layers of pulsing, synthesized keyboards.

"I just want to fit in," McKnight said. "That's part of the evolution right there - not to be so pigheaded that you're gonna fit your square peg into a round hole. Some of it has to be a little give and take - if you wanna survive. You can continue to fight 'em if you want. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

The change hasn't hurt him. The album lacks memorable tracks like his biggest hits "Back at One," "Anytime" and "One Last Cry," but "Evolution of a Man" still peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's R&B album chart and squeaked into the Top 20 on the pop side.

The album is a comeback of sorts. McKnight's last effort, the spry and overlooked "Ten," came out in 2006. He has spent a few years focused on mostly nonmusical endeavors, including a Los Angeles radio show, "The Brian McKnight Morning Show," which he hosted for four years before ending it earlier this year. In 2007, he debuted on Broadway in "Chicago." Last year, he appeared in the second season of "The Celebrity Apprentice," and a few months later he launched "The Brian McKnight Show," a late-night syndicated talk show currently on hiatus.

"Five years ago, I had also started doing correspondent work for the show 'Extra,' " said the Buffalo, N.Y., native. "I loved the idea of being on the other side of the microphone after being interviewed for so many years."

Now McKnight has refocused on music. He's in the studio putting finishing touches on a covers album due out next month. The album will feature production by his sons: Brian Jr., 19, and Niko, 17. It's the closest he will come to doing jazz, for which McKnight has long showed a sensibility.

"You'll get touches of jazz on songs like 'Careless Whisper' by Wham. We do it as a jazz trio," he said. "I took Donald Fagan's 'Maxine' and did it with upright bass and drums. It's probably the most creative project I've done outside of writing my own music."

Although he's changed up the pace in the studio, McKnight said he sticks to his classic sound onstage.

"I'm not a fool. People aren't coming to hear songs they haven't heard before," he said. "I tell a story with a show. I make you laugh. I try to take you through all the emotions. In the midst of that, you'll hear all the big hits I've had since the beginning."

Rashod Ollison, (757) 446-2732, rashod.ollison@pilotonline.com