Energy (jazz Album)
''Energy'' is the 10th studio album by jazz group Fourplay, released on September 23, 2008. The cover shows the four members: keyboardist Bob James, guitarist Larry Carlton, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Harvey Mason. ''Energy'' grafts a variety of sounds—R&B, pop, African—to Fourplay's jazz foundation. In addition to vocals by East, a member since the band's inception in 1990, the album includes vocals by Esperanza Spalding. The single "Fortune Teller" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Pop Instrumental Performance at the 51st Grammy Awards 2009. This was guitarist Larry Carlton's last Fourplay album before Chuck Loeb joined in 2010. Track listing # "Fortune Teller" (Jeff Babko, Nathan East, Bob James) - 5:53 # "The Whistler" (Harvey Mason) - 5:28 # "Ultralight" (Larry Carlton) - 4:17 # "Cape Town" (Alan Dones, Marcel East, N. East) - 4:57 # "The Yes Club" (James) - 5:07 # "Prelude for Lovers"; feat. Esperanza Spalding (Kevin DiSimone) - 3:12 # "Look ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fourplay
Fourplay (stylized as fOURPLAY) is a contemporary American smooth jazz quartet. The original members of the group were Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitars), Nathan East (bass), and Harvey Mason (drums). In 1997, Lee Ritenour left the group and Fourplay chose Larry Carlton as his replacement. In 2010, Larry Carlton left Fourplay and was replaced by Chuck Loeb, who died on July 31, 2017. During Loeb's illness, saxophonist Kirk Whalum joined the group for performances. The group has enjoyed consistent artistic and commercial success by grafting elements of R&B and pop to jazz, appealing to a broad mainstream audience. Their debut album, ''Fourplay'' (1991), sold over a million copies and remained at the number one position on the ''Billboard'' contemporary jazz chart for 33 weeks. Their next album, '' Between the Sheets'' (1993), reached number one, went gold, and received a Grammy Award nomination. In 1995, their third gold album, ''Elixir ELIXIR (the European life- ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jazz Fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll. Jazz fusion arrangements vary in complexity. Some employ groove-based vamps fixed to a single key or a single chord with a simple, repeated melody. Others use elaborate chord progressions, unconventional time signatures, or melodies with counter-melodies. These arrangements, whether simple or complex, typically include improvised sections that can vary in length, much like in other forms of jazz. As with jazz, jazz fusion can employ brass and woodwind instruments such as trumpet and saxophone, but other instruments often substitute for these. A jazz fusion band is less likely to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heads Up International
Heads Up International is a jazz record label that was formed in Cleveland, Ohio. It was bought by the Concord Music Group in 2005. History The label got its name from a jazz group that Dave Love formed while attending North Texas State University. After college, Love became musical director for Donald Byrd. Later, he recorded an album with his band and soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman. While trying to sell the album to record labels, he took a position as National Director of Sales & Marketing for Oxymoron P&D, where executives convinced him to start his own label with his album. Using Oxymoron for distribution, Love began Heads Up International in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. The label's first album was ''The Energy of the Chance'' by Dave Liebman. In 2000, Heads Up International merged with Telarc International Corporation. In 2005 the two companies were acquired by the Concord Music Group. The label's roster includes Mindi Abair, Richard Elliot, Fourplay, Mike Stern, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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X (Fourplay Album)
''X'' is the ninth studio album by Fourplay, released in 2006. Track listing #"Turnabout" (Bob James) – 6:21 #"Cinnamon Sugar" (Larry Carlton) – 4:48 #"Eastern Sky" (Marcel East, Nathan East) – 6:37 #"Kid Zero" (Harvey Mason, Sr.) – 4:48 #"My Love's Leavin'"; feat. Michael McDonald (Vivian Stanshall, Steve Winwood) – 5:11 #"Screenplay" (Bob James) – 6:04 #"Twilight Touch" (Harvey Mason, Sr.) – 4:57 #"Be My Lover" (Larry Carlton, Nathan East) – 4:13 #"Sunday Morning" (Nathan East) – 3:53 Personnel Fourplay * Bob James – keyboards * Larry Carlton – guitars * Nathan East – bass guitar, vocals (1, 3, 8) * Harvey Mason – drums Additional Personnel * Michael McDonald – vocals (5) * Kevin DiSimone – backing vocals (5) * Michele Pillar – vocals (8) Production * Fourplay – producers * Ken Freeman – co-producer, recording, mixing, keyboard technician * Csaba Petozc – assistant engineer * Shannon Forrest Shannon Forrest (born August 22, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Let's Touch The Sky
''Let's Touch the Sky'' is the 11th studio album (12th overall) of the jazz group Fourplay, released in 2010. It is the first Fourplay album with Chuck Loeb, who replaced Larry Carlton on the guitar. Track listing Personnel Fourplay * Bob James – keyboards * Chuck Loeb – guitars * Nathan East – bass guitar, vocals (5) * Harvey Mason – drums, percussion Additional Personnel * Ruben Studdard – vocals (8) * Anita Baker Anita Denise Baker (born January 26, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. She is one of the most popular singers of soulful ballads, especially renowned for her work during the height of the quiet storm period in the 1980s. Starting her career ... – vocals (11) * Heather Mason – backing vocals Production * Fourplay – producers (1-7, 9-12) * Harvey Mason, Jr. – producer (8) * Mark Wexler – executive producer * Ken Freeman – engineer (1-7, 9-12), mixing * Andrew Hey – engineer (8) * Joshua Blanchard – assistant engineer * Pau ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bob James (musician)
Robert McElhiney James (born December 25, 1939) is an American jazz keyboardist, arranger, and record producer. He founded the band Fourplay and wrote "Angela", the theme song for the TV show ''Taxi.'' According to VICE (magazine), music from his first seven albums has often been sampled and believed to have contributed to the formation of hip hop. Among his most well known recordings are "Nautilus", "Westchester Lady", "Tappan Zee", and his version of "Take Me to The Mardi Gras". Early life and family James was born on Christmas Day of 1939 in Marshall, Missouri, United States. He started playing the piano at age four. His first piano teacher, Sister Mary Elizabeth, who taught at Mercy Academy, discovered that he had perfect pitch. At age seven, James began to study with R. T. Dufford, a teacher at Missouri Valley College. At age 15, James continued his studies with Franklin Launer, a teacher at Christian College in Columbia, Missouri, with more music instruction during high ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Larry Carlton
Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres, for television and movies, and on more than 100 gold records. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders, the smooth jazz band Fourplay, and has maintained a long solo career. Music career Session work Carlton was born in Torrance, California, United States, and at the age of six began guitar lessons. His interest in jazz came from hearing guitarist Joe Pass on the radio, after which he moved on to jazz guitarists Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery, and blues guitarist B.B. King. He went to junior college and Long Beach State College while playing professionally at clubs in Los Angeles. During the 1970s, he found steady work as a studio musician on electric and acoustic guitar in a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nathan East
Nathan Harrell East (born December 8, 1955) is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass player and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from the University of California, San Diego (1978). He is a founding member of contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay and has recorded, performed, and co-written songs with performers such as Bobby Womack, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Joe Satriani, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder, Toto, Kenny Loggins, Daft Punk, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock. Career Early life Nathan Harrell East was born on December 8, 1955 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Thomas and Gwendolyn East. He is one of eight children (five boys and three girls) raised Catholic in San Diego, where the family moved when he was four. He is the younger brother of Msgr Ray East of St Teresa of Avila Church in DC. East first studied cello fro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harvey Mason
Harvey William Mason (born February 22, 1947) is an American jazz drummer, record producer, and member of the band Fourplay. Mason, who attended Berklee in the 1960s, received an Honorary Doctorate at Berklee's 2015 Commencement Ceremony for his achievement and influence in music and for his enduring contributions to American and international culture. Life and career Mason was born and grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States, and attended Atlantic City High School. He began playing drums at the age of four with the support of his father, a drummer in the army band. Equipment Mason endorses Canopus drums, Murat Diril cymbals, Remo drumheads, DW pedals, and Vic Firth drumsticks. Mason has his own Vic Firth Harvey Mason signature drumstick and Vic Firth Harvey Mason Chameleon signature drumstick. Discography As leader With Fourplay As sideman With Arthur Adams * ''I Love Love Love My Lady'' (A&M, 1979) With Christina Aguilera * ''My Kind of Chris ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chuck Loeb
Charles Samuel "Chuck" Loeb (December 7, 1955 – July 31, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist and a member of the groups Steps Ahead, Metro and Fourplay. Early years and education Loeb was born in Nyack, New York, near New York City. At a young age, he listened to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cream, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. According to a 2005 ''JazzTimes'' article, the first song he learned on guitar was Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone", which he would later play at a guest appearance with Dylan. He discovered jazz when he was sixteen through the music of guitarists Wes Montgomery, George Benson, John McLaughlin, and Pat Martino. At that point, Loeb chose to become a musician and "never thought of doing anything else". He studied with local music teachers, then traveled to Philadelphia and became a student of jazz guitarist Dennis Sandole. In New York City, he learned from Jim Hall. For two years he attended Berklee College of Music in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, and a Soul Train Music Award. A native of Portland, Oregon, Spalding began playing music professionally in her childhood, performing as a violinist in the Chamber Music Society of Oregon at age five. She was later both self-taught and trained on other instruments, including guitar and bass. Her proficiency earned her academic scholarships to Portland State University and the Berklee College of Music, both of which she attended, studying music. Spalding released her first album, '' Junjo'', in 2006 on the Spanish label Ayva Musica, after which she signed with the independent American label Heads Up, who released her 2007 self-titled album. Her third studio album, ''Chamber Music Society'' (2010), was a commercial success, charting at number 34 on the ''Billboard 200'', and resulting in Spalding winning her f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |