Keni Burke


Kenneth M. "Keni" Burke is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist who began his career with four siblings in the 1970s band the Five Stairsteps.

Biography

Five Stairsteps

As a member of the Five Stairsteps, Burke wrote the group's first minor hit "You Waited Too Long" in 1966, but the group would see their biggest success with the million-selling song "O-o-h Child" in 1970. The group went on to sign with George Harrison's Dark Horse Records in 1975, and had their next hit with the Burke-penned "From Us to You", from their 1976 album 2nd Resurrection. The group reemerged for two albums as the Invisible Man's Band but disbanded soon after.

Solo career and session work

Skilled as a guitarist and bassist, Burke continued to work for the Dark Horse label as a session musician, while burgeoning a solo career of his own. In 1977, he released his self-titled debut album, which featured the songs "Keep on Singing", "Give All You Can Give", and "From Me to You".
During this period he contributed instrumentation to songs by a diverse range of artists such as Sly & the Family Stone, Natalie Cole, Billy Preston, Terry Callier, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, Dusty Springfield, Diana Ross, and Gladys Knight.
In 1981, Burke released his self-produced follow-up solo album, You're the Best, but it was his third album, Changes, which appeared the following year, that made a more significant impact, becoming his best-selling album to date. This album included the singles "Hang Tight" and his signature hit "Risin' to the Top," a big success in Chicago. The latter song has become a popular sampling choice for hip hop artists, having been borrowed by artists such as Doug E Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Mary J. Blige, O.C., and Sean Price, though a lot of these songs have been mistakenly thought to use the bass line from the 1983 song "All Night Long" by the Mary Jane Girls. In 2006, "Rising to The Top" appeared in the soundtrack for the popular video game, on fictional Quiet Storm station.
Throughout the '80s and into the '90s, Burke continued his session and production work for artists such as Peabo Bryson, The O'Jays, The Jones Girls and Keith Sweat, and in 1998 released his last album to date Nothin' but Love, containing the hit "Indigenous Love", which was popular in the United Kingdom via the Expansion Records Label.

Discography

Albums