Russell Kirk

Brenda Russell's commercial breakthrough with the Top Ten hit "Piano in the Dark" in 1988 may have hurt her career as much as it helped, since it set up sales expectations the jazz-pop vocalist was not prepared to meet, and five years later, when Soul Talkin' failed to find a big enough audience, she lost her major-label recording contract. Seven years on, Russell is back on a major label, albeit through Hidden Beach Recordings' manufacturing and distribution deal with Epic Records, a division of Sony Music. But she remains a refined artist unlikely to appeal to a mass audience.