When singer-songwriter Donnie released “The Colored Section” in 2001, it landed in the same Atlanta indie soul moment that gave the world India.Arie, Anthony David, and Avery Sunshine. Critics heard echoes of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Fans heard something made specifically for them. This Sunday at 5 p.m., Donnie performs at the 49th Annual Atlanta Jazz Festival in Piedmont Park — marking his return to one of Atlanta’s largest stages after nearly two decades away.
Atlanta’s influence
Donnie, born Don Johnson, became a professional singer at 15. He got his start at the legendary Curtis Mayfield Recording Studio in Ben Hill, Atlanta, where a cousin helped him get in the door, recording background vocals for gospel icons such as Tramaine Hawkins, André Crouch, Shun Pace Rhodes and Yolanda Adams. His early career took him beyond Atlanta to the Pre-Olympics Festival in Barcelona and the Quincy Jones Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland before bringing him back home.
The scene that would shape him most, though, was a supper club in downtown Atlanta. In the late 1990s, Donnie became a regular at the Yin Yang Café, a gathering place for the indie soul artists who would define a generation: India.Arie, Joi, Anthony David, Avery Sunshine.
Donnie describes the experience as art overload. The Yin Yang sat across the street from Loretta’s, the historic after-hours Black gay club, exposing him to two distinct expressions of Black culture.
‘The Colored Section’ and what came after
“The Colored Section” came out under Giant Step Records in 2001; Motown re-released it in 2002. The album’s structural foundation came from the songwriters who shaped his ear in the church: Twinkie Clark, Fred Hammond, Michael Brooks and Marvin Winans.
