In April 2001 the The Secret Garden reviewed the album Listen To Your Heart by a Russian vocalist brand new to recording, Natalia Nazarova. One of the standout features of the recording was the trumpet and flugel horn playing of a Chicago based performer with a rapidly growing reputation, Orbert Davis.

At the time we commented, ‘The compositions are well crafted, the arrangements are consistently engaging, the session musicians are a cut above and the playing of Orbert Davis is exceptional. Three tracks stand out. The opening number ‘Come Back To Me’ written by Orbert Davis brings with it a smooth Latin rhythm that just about blends with the vocal. It is a number that deserves good airplay. Track, #5 ‘I Believe In Love’ again written by Orbert Davis reveals the vocals of Natalia Nazarova as being at their best when she does not force it. Here, in gentle mood, we find her at her best’.

Now Orbert Davis is back in his own right with the CD Priority. As the sleeve notes explain, this is Davis’s second album coming fully six years after his debut Unfinished Memories. The time lapse suggests that this concoction has been stewing for some time and this really is an eclectic mix, a generous smorgasbord of flavors, styles and sentiments. Intermate ballads stand side by side with funk driven workouts, briskly scatted blues and even a trad jazz romp.

As a chronicle of primarily smooth jazz sounds this review will move swiftly past the trad and linger awhile with track #9, ‘Ain't No Sunshine’. This well-known Bill Withers composition is the second of his tracks to make it into The Secret Garden. ‘Use Me’ featured as our Smooth Soul Survivor in the same April 2001 edition that reviewed the Listen To Your Heart project.

Certainly the work of Withers stands alone, dappled by blues, touched by country, warmed by soul and blessed with gospel. Perhaps ‘eclectic’ sums it up rather well.

Bill Withers was born on 4 July 1938 in Slade Fork, West Virginia and his early upbringing in this working class mining area influenced much of the subject matter of his music.

His career took off when he moved to Los Angeles and recorded, in 1971, the album, Just As I Am. It was produced by Booker T Jones and set Withers on the road to stardom with a sequence of hit records on Sussex, Columbia and CBS throughout the seventies and into the eighties.

During his career Withers teamed with a number of luminaries from the world of contemporary music, most notably with smooth jazz heavyweight Grover Washington Jr., a relationship that endured well into the nineties. It also linked him, as a writing partner, with Ralph McDonald. The two of them worked together with notable success on the 1984 hit In The Name Of Love.

The working relationship he had with Grover Washington is testimony to Withers strong jazz links. He has also worked with the Crusaders.

Al Jarreau devotes an entire CD to Bill Withers covers with his 1998 A Tribute To Bill Withers. In addition it is featured on Companion by Patricia Barber, an album that was recorded live at Chicago’s famous Green Mill jazz club. This reference to the Green Mill is particularly relevant given that it is a venue where Orbert Davis has appeared many times.

Orbert Davis is known as a teacher at Columbia College and Roosevelt University in his hometown of Chicago as well as being the driving force behind that city’s MUSICALIVE programme. Now his fame continues to spread even further and even wider.

While sitting in the movies the other evening I was pleased and surprised to see that, in the credits for that excellence Tom Hanks and Paul Newman film Road To Perdition, Orbert Davis was named as the musical advisor.
Is there no end to this mans versatility?

‘Aint No Sunshine’ is a much-covered track but here on Priority Davis breathes some real new life into the piece. Davis himself refers to the tune as ‘modern blues in both tone and lyric’. On the album he dedicates the number to the memory of Cootie Williams, Rex Street and to the great Grover Washington Jr. The Orbert Davis version of ‘Aint No Sunshine’ is a recording that deserves to achieve cross over status and make him familiar to a whole additional jazz audience. WNUA please note.

To discover more about Orbert Davis visit his web site at www.orbertdavis.com.

Now for the latest entrant in the occasional ‘what’s smooth jazz?’ series. The purpose of this feature is to draw up a short list of the really great examples of smooth jazz that could be used to explain smooth jazz to someone brand new to the genre.

This month the track is ‘Love Is Like A River’ taken from the 1994 recording on the Shanachie label Livin Large. The band is of course that underrated purveyor of quality West Coast smooth jazz, Fattburger.

Fattburger, varyingly described as a new adult contemporary, contemporary jazz, or smooth jazz band are certainly one of the most popular recording artists among those who know smooth jazz. However, for some inexplicable reason has failed to make the impact of, say, Peter White, Dave Koz or Rick Braun. Who knows, possibly it is more difficult for bands, yet there is no doubt that Fattburger has been responsible for some fine examples of smooth jazz over the last fifteen plus years.

Fattburger - Livin Large

The San Diego-based unit has survived through many trends and still plays the same type of accessible funky music that was its original goal. Saxophonist Hollis Gentry, while in high school, led a group that played under the name of Power. The band opened for Cannonball Adderley at a college concert in 1972. After graduating, Gentry toured with various R&B groups. He attended San Diego State University and during the second half of the 1970s had opportunities to play straight-ahead jazz with Bruce Cameron. When their previous band broke up, Gentry and the other musicians, keyboardist Carl Evans, bassist Mark Hunter, drummer Kevin Koch, and guitarist Steve Laury went out on their own and became Fattburger.

It is interesting to note that in those early days, Joe McBride played with the band before going on to carve out a great career as a solo artist and with his touring band the Texas Rhythm Club.

Tommy Aros joined the band as their percussionist and in the early '90s, when Laury started a solo career, Mark Evans became Fattburger's guitarist.

Fattburger have been labelled as being essentially a five-piece rhythm section that would, from time to time, benefit from the inclusion of a lead voice. This is debatable. Saxophonist Hollis Gentry helps out when and where with vocals that produce an end product that is generally pleasing.

Their first album One Of A Kind, from 1985, sold well and the band has been together ever since, recording for Golden Boy, Intima, and Shanachie.

‘Love Is Like A River’ is a stand out strong smooth jazz track that serves well as a benchmark for the genre. A driving beat, great guitar work and top notch backing vocals all contribute to a really excellent smooth jazz track.
As well as being able to find the track on the bands Livin Large release check it out also on the outstanding compilation from 1996, JazzFusions Three. Here it is found in the superb company of great tracks such as ‘Goodbye Manhattan’ by Pieces of A Dream, ‘Between The Sheets’ by Fourplay and the exceptional ‘Don’t Get Any Better’ by Tom Scott, a track that features the sumptuous vocals of Maysa Leak.

Finally for this edition, as the clock moves us on towards Thanksgiving, Christmas and a brand new year it’s a good time to look back on the highlights of the past twelve months. If you have a favourite CD of the year, a best new smooth jazz artist or memories of a great gig you were able to attend then why not e-mail The Secret Garden with the details. A review of the best examples will be included in the January 2003 issue.