Engineer/keyboardist/producer Jack Perry is the man behind Barry White. As his musical director, Perry is responsible for the on-stage flow and direction for the Maestro. He also collaborates with White in the studio as well as being his chief mastering engineer on his album projects. Though White had never stopped touring, it had been a while since he visited the top of the pop charts. All of that changed with the release of his AM album The Icon Is Love, which went multi-platinum off the strength of Practice What You Preach. Perry has the distinction of playing the synth bass line on Carl Carlton's 1981 million-seller She's a Bad Mama Jama. Perry's musical roots begin on his family tree. He got interested in playing piano because both his uncle and father played. There was always a piano and an organ in the house. He was nine years old when he started to play by ear. His father played jazz tunes like After Hours. Perry also learned about the electronic aspects of music during his childhood years. His brother worked as a jukebox repairman, also setting up audio for churches and nightclubs, and Perry would hang around with him. Perry started playing in nightclubs with jazz-soul bands and straight-ahead jazz trios. Trying to lug an acoustic piano around for his trio gigs proved impractical so Perry bought a Wurlitzer electronic piano and started getting into the Hammond B3 organ. Perry met the Maestro through a mutual friend who brought White over to work in Perry's studio. White recorded a demo, Walking in the Rain With the One I Love, to shop for a record deal. Perry, on his way to a nightclub gig, met White briefly and the two didn't see each other again until years later. Soon after they met, White hit it big. In 1981, White brought Perry in as head of A&R for a new record label he was starting, Unlimited Gold, which was distributed through CBS Records. Perry did three solo albums with Barry White, The Message Is Love, a duet album with his wife at the time called Barry Glodean, and Beware. He also did an all message songs album called Dedicated. Perry also worked on a Love Unlimited Orchestra album, Rise. Also, the label released an album by Webster Lewis and one by Perry himself. The singing trio Love Unlimited had two albums released, Love Is Back and He's All I've Got. Perry worked on an album by a teenage singer named Danny Pearson, who charted with What's Your Sign, Girl. There was also an album by a husband and wife duo, Jimmy and Vella Cameron. He and White wrote the bulk of the albums. The '90s brought about a new major label deal with AM Records. The first album, The Right Night With Barry White, included a track that Barry and Perry co-wrote and produced called Sho You Right that went Top 20 in the U.S. and Top Ten in the U.K. Other albums included The Man Is Back and Put Me in Your Mix.

Perry wrote the title track for White's 1996 release The Icon Is Love. The album went multi-platinum in part due to the first single, the platinum-selling mid-tempo ballad Practice What You Preach. ~ Ed Hogan, Rovi