''Fourplay'' is the debut album by the American

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...

group

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 ...

which was released in 1991. The group was originally composed by Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitars), Nathan East (bass) and Harvey Mason (drums). The album went to number 1 on the Contemporary Jazz charts, number 16 on the R&B charts and number 97 on the US

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

. Since then the album went Gold according to the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

and has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

Overview

With this debut LP Fourplay's lineup consisted of keyboardist Bob James, guitarist

Lee Ritenour Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s. Biography Ritenour was born on January 11, 1952, in Los Angeles, California, United States. At the age of eight he started play ...

, bassist

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 degr ...

and drummer

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 ...

Track listing

Personnel

Fourplay * Bob James – Yamaha C7 MIDI grand piano, keyboards, synthesizers, programming *

– electric guitars,

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

guitar synthesizer A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities. Overview Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partner ...

– 5-string bass,

6-string bass An extended-range bass is an electric bass guitar with a wider frequency range than a standard-tuned four-string bass guitar. Terminology One way that a bass can be considered 'extended-range' is to use a tuning machine mechanism that allows fo ...

, backing vocals (6) *

– drums Additional musicians *

Harvey Mason Jr. Harvey Jay Mason Jr. (born June 3, 1968) is an American record producer, songwriter, movie producer and current CEO of The Recording Academy. He has written and produced songs for artists including Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Deniece Wil ...

– synthesizer programming, computer programming *

El DeBarge Eldra Patrick "El" DeBarge (born June 4, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He was the focal point and primary lead singer of the family group DeBarge. Popular songs led by El DeBarge include " Time Will Reveal", " Who's Hold ...

– lead and backing vocals (6) * Darryl DeBarge – backing vocals (6) *

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman. LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul". She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singe ...

– backing vocals (6), BGV arrangements (6) *

Philip Bailey Philip James Bailey (born May 8, 1951) is an American R&B, soul, gospel and funk singer, songwriter and percussionist, best known as an early member and one of the two lead singers (along with group founder Maurice White) of the band Earth, Wi ...

– backing vocals (11)

Production

* Fourplay – producers * Bob James – executive producer * Don Murray – recording, mixing * Geoff Gillette – additional recording *

Khaliq Glover Khaliq Glover popularly known as Khaliq-O-Vision, is a Grammy award winning recording mix engineer, producer and the author of ''Secrets: How The Stars Make Music IRRESISTIBLE!''. Khaliq is the recipient of the 2001 Grammy Award for M² (album) by ...

– additional recording * Femi Jiya – additional recording * Mike Kloster – assistant engineer * Paul May – assistant engineer *

Clif Norrell Clif Norrell is an American record producer, recording engineer, music mixer, and musician. He has worked with many prominent artists including Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Jeff Buckley, No Doubt, Rush, Faith No More, Shania Twain, Mick Jagger, ...

– assistant engineer * Harvey Mason Jr. – technical assistance * Robert Vosgien – digital editing * Wally Traugott – mastering at Capitol Mastering (Hollywood, California). * Debra Johnson – production coordinator * Kim Champagne – art direction * Leslie Wintner – design * Stuart Watson – photography * O'Brien and Schridde – band photography Track information and credits adapted from

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 databas ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fourplay (Fourplay Album) Fourplay albums 1991 debut albums Warner Records albums