Hutson was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.[3] His father is soul musician Leroy Hutson, who was a member of the Curtis Mayfield group The Impressions. His mother was a professional opera singer.
Hutson's first musical training came when he attended The American Boychoir School in Princeton NJ. While attending the school, Hutson traveled the country singing.[3] The choir recorded multiple albums as well as the historic rendition of Cindy Lauper's “True Colors” for the Kodak Olympic Commercial.[4]
Career
Singing career and music production Motown Records 1990s
He moved to Miami, Florida, as a teen and added bass, keyboards, songwriting, to his growing list of talents. In high school, he formed a vocal group called Living Proof. Hutson created and produced the music for the group. Living Proof was scouted by many major labels before signing with RCA Records. Hutson left the group, and a year later began a brief but impactful apprenticeship with Teddy Riley in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Soon after his tenure at Teddy's Future Records, Hutson signed as a solo artist to Motown Records under the name JR Swinga.[5] Hutson's most notable accomplishment as JR Swinga was the track "Chocolate City", a nostalgic song about life at a black college. The video for "Chocolate City" was filmed on the Florida A&M University college campus by then budding directors Robert Hardy and Will Packer. While at Motown Records he continued to produce label-mates Boyz II Men,[3]Jason Weaver, Whitehead Bros., 702 & Jazz artist Wayman Tisdale’s very first single called “Circumstance”.[6]
Hip hop production and labels 1990s
Hutson also had a string of notable productions coming out of his native miami. Connecting with Slip N Slide Records, he produced among others a track Featuring Trick Daddy and J-Shin called “You, Me & She”, as well as a host of other local miami rap talent. Hutson also scored his first deal for a hip hop artist he developed named Sianhide. Warner Brothers then executive KRS-One[7] tapped Hutson for his artist and he subsequently dropped the single “We Gon Ride” on KRS's “Temple Of HipHop Kulture” compilation.[8]
Los Angeles and Hidden Beach tenure 2000s to 2007
In the early 2002, Hutson moved to Los Angeles, California, after spending a few weeks producing and developing Vannessa Marquez. While in LA, Hutson reconnected with long time Champion Steve Mckeever who now had an imprint on Sony named Hidden Beach Recordings. Re-kindling his artist passion, Hutson wrote, produced & performed “I Choose You”[9] on the hidden hits compilation. Also, Hutson penned & produced “Wonderful & Special” for HB artist Mike Phillips in which he was the featured singer. After producing many projects for Hidden Beach, it was A&R Charles Whitfield who made a recommendation to HB marquee artist Jill Scott that she collaborate with Hutson on her next album. Legend has it that the Hutson composed instrumental CD that Whitfield gave to Scott is what ultimately became the core of her album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3. The two formed a very fruitful creative relationship. In an interview with HitQuarters,[10] producer JR Hutson commented on the creation of the song "Whenever You're Around":
"I tried to take a real Quincy Jones approach to that record. I brought in a lot of musicians and we were just vibing to a few different things, and that was one of the tracks that stood out to me in the jam session that day. So I tweaked and tweaked the track, edited it and reformatted it, and then eventually ended up with that track."
2008 The Light Of The Sun to present
In 2008, Hutson connected with Musiq Soulchild to produce the successful ballad "SoBeautiful".[11]
In 2010, Hutson and Jill Scott officially began production on Scott's album The Light of the Sun. Hutson acted as executive producer and co-wrote multiple songs on the album. Recording took place in several locations including 9th Street Studios, Studio 609, Fever Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California, Threshold Sound & Vision in Santa Monica, California, The Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Boom Boom Room in Burbank, California, and The Village Studios in West Los Angeles, California. It features collaborations from Anthony Hamilton, Eve, Doug E Fresh, and Paul Wall. The album was released for pre-order days before it was officially released on June 21, 2011. It debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 135,000 copies sold in its first week, becoming her first #1 debut on the chart.
In 2012, Dave Pensado featured a "J.R." Hutson produced song called "Missing You" on his "Pensado's Place: Into The Lair Episode #37". Dave explains his mixing techniques for pad synths on the song.
In 2013, Hutson accomplished another line item on his wish list by writing and producing a song for Earth Wind & Fire’s Now, Then & Forever album. This album marked the return of the original EWF line up complete with keyboardist Larry Dunn as well as the original EWF horns. It was the first record the group had recorded after a 10-year recess. Hutson’s track, “Love is Law” is the 2nd track on the album.
Discography
1994 State of Emergency: Society in Crisis, Vol. 1 (Motown Records)
