9 minute read
Four80East
from March-April 2022
GROOVE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE NORTHERN BORDER
By Ken Capobianco
anadian smooth jazz-funk band Four80East is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year––not bad for a group that started as a side project for cofounders Rob DeBoer and Tony Grace. The groove-oriented act that draws inspiration from all musical genres was born while DeBoer and Grace were working on their more pop-dance and R&B-focused band, The Boomtang Boys, and maintaining their dance label Boomtang Records in the mid-1990s. The producer duo had been heavily influenced by the acid jazz movement and R&B dance acts from the United Kingdom such as The Brand New Heavies, Soul II Soul, Jamiroquai and Stereo MC’s, among others. While taking a timeout from the Boomtang music lab, DeBoer and Grace experimented with a groove-oriented musical vibe that would become Four80East’s signature sound. A quarter of a century later, the duo has become a mainstay on the smooth jazz circuit and one of Canada’s enduring acts. “When we started making this music, we didn’t know anything about smooth jazz,” said DeBoer in a joint interview with Grace from their studio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “We knew of musicians who were considered smooth jazz––George Benson and Kenny G at that point. But beyond that, we had no idea. “The smooth jazz format just didn’t exist as such here in Canada,” added Grace. The two artists don’t quite punctuate
each other’s sentences, but their easy relationship was evident by how they complement one another during the wide-ranging conversation. The duo’s music hit the smooth jazz market accidentally and without the band courting the genre’s audiences. DeBoer explained, “We didn’t have any intention of putting out the music that was heavily influenced by the U.K. acid jazz scene, but eventually we amassed a large set of tunes, and our partner in the U.K. said, ‘You should put this into an album and release it in the U.K. Go after the acid jazz crowd.’ That’s what we did with our first record [The Album] in 1997.” The set found its way to a smooth jazz radio station in New York and went into heavy rotation. “We switched gears, and the U.S. became our market for the music,” DeBoer continued. “We didn’t consider ourselves smooth jazz, so we just kept our focus on making the music we wanted, and luckily it still found a home with smooth jazz listeners to keep us going in that circuit. It’s been great and something that has sustained us.”
The Album became a surprise hit with smooth jazz fans, propelled by the single, “Eastside,” which established Four80East as a force with which to be reckoned. Since their debut, the duo has refined and expanded their sound, which owes as much to fusion and rock (echoes of ’70s Jeff Beck) as it does to the classic U.K. groove music the band revered. As DeBoer, who plays keyboards, bass and guitar, and percussionist Grace assert, they are producers first and foremost. They have been constantly tweaking the Four80East sound over the course of their 25-year career, which spans eight studio albums, one EP, one remix collection and a live record. Their last studio album, 2020’s Straight Round, expanded their aesthetic, adding greater dimension while retaining the breezy vibe that has endeared them to smooth jazz audiences. (They released a more club-oriented remix version of the album, Mixed Up, to bide time during the pandemic.) The duo said they have survived the devastating toll the COVID-19 crisis has taken on the music industry and continue to thrive despite having to postpone a number of live dates. “A lot of that has to do with we are not road warriors,” DeBoer said. “We only do 30 shows a year, usually in the middle of the year. We have been around long enough and have a back catalog to get passive royalty income, so we didn’t have to freak out too much during the pandemic like a lot of artists I know who are more dependent on gigs.” The producers, who augment their live shows with a full musical ensemble, claim live shows were not a large part of their plan from the very beginning, especially since they were so involved with their label and other production work. “For the first four or five years, we didn’t tour,” Grace added. “We hoped we could get away without it because we had young families. But then the bottom dropped out of the music industry around 2000, and we were
“I enjoy festivals. like ‘OK, we need to get a real
We’ve played Berks job,’ and that’s when we did more touring and production work for film a couple of times–– and television. Then things settled down it’s been fun. in the industry, and we were back in the saddle.” The group, which derived its name from their first
Festivals encompass studio address, is looking forward to playing a number of everything we love about smooth jazz festivals this year, including the 31st Annual Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest and the 23rd Annual Seabreeze smooth jazz, which is Jazz Festival in April. “I enjoy festivals,” DeBoer said. “We’ve the community.” played Berks a couple of times––it’s been fun. Festivals encompass everything we love about smooth jazz, which is the community. It’s like family reunions at them. This year it will be a bit somber at Berks, though, considering it comes on the heels of losing Nick Colionne so unexpectedly [the much-loved guitarist died on New Year’s Day this year]. That will probably be weighing on everyone.” After a long pause, Grace added: “I enjoy it when everyone shows up at the hotels, and you run across all of your old friends. It’s less pressure for us than club dates because we don’t have to worry about tickets. There’s a built-in audience. We have the diehard fans who know us well, and we know them, but there’s people who didn’t come for us and are like, ‘Oh man, I’ve never heard you before, and we loved you.’” The musicians’ warm rapport reflects their creative relationship, which they say has been smooth and extremely productive despite working together for a quarter of a century. That is quite rare
“We decided after the first record, we were going to split everything down the middle publishing-wise. Look at Paul McCartney and John Lennon—probably the most revered and successful pop songwriters— and they split everything down the road. For us, that seemed obvious.” Both artists maintain active lives outside of
Four80East. They have families with grown children, manage their prospering label, produce other artists, and work on film and television scoring. With a new album in the works, they say it doesn’t leave much time for too many activities, but DeBoer enjoys cycling when Toronto is not buried under 2 feet of snow, as it was at the time of the interview. Grace plays golf and hockey, and is looking forward to going sailing this summer.
DeBoer asserted that there isn’t much downtime. “If it’s not administrative work and time with our families, we’re making music, and people have been responding to it for a while now. That’s really fulfilling.”
For more information on Four80East, visit https://four80east.com.
continued from page 33 considering how many jazz and pop acts with two main songwriters and producers have imploded due to overinflated egos and creative differences. When discussing their songwriting and production work, the duo had a tendency to get in the weeds about the creative process––much of it might be obscure to those unfamiliar with songwriting, studio work and the art of getting the proper sound. It’s easy to understand their business and musical partnership, though. “We’ve always gotten along, and we figured out some of the problems that might arise early on,” DeBoer said. “There’s a lot of overlap between our influences, and we have pretty much the same instincts about things, and our musical relationship goes beyond Four80. We’ve been working together doing our dance label since 1991. If we’re not in the studio creating, we’re working on administrative things or chasing people who owe us money or dealing with film clearances.” Grace maintained that the things that usually interfere with partners––songwriting credits and publishing rights––were ironed out once Four80East got off the ground.
APRIL 3 31st Annual Boscov’s Berks Jazz Fest DoubleTree by Hilton Reading Reading, Pennsylvania www.berksjazzfest.com APRIL 24 23rd Annual Seabreeze Jazz Festival Aaron Bessant Park Amphitheater Panama City Beach, Florida www.seabreezejazzfestival.com
ON TOUR ON TOUR
MAY 4 Algarve Smooth Jazz Festival
Pine Cliffs Resort Algarve, Portugal www.algarve.smoothjazzfestival.de/
MAY 7 Jazz on the Vine
The Osthoff Resort Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin www.jazzonthevine.net
AUG. 6 Marcus Anderson’s Jazz AND Coffee Escape
Asheville, North Carolina jazzandcoffee-escape.net
continued from page 8 “I noticed that Billy had been struggling to sing,” said Hardwick. “So, I asked him what was wrong. He’s a very private person, so it took awhile for him to share everything he had going on. That’s when I knew we had to help. So, Laurie and I decided to host a benefit concert here at Spaghettini.” Hardwick immediately called multi-Grammy-nominated saxophonist Eric Marienthal, who is close friends with DW3, and asked him to help organize the band and artists. “I have been playing at Spaghettini for a very long time, and Cary Hardwick has become a good friend,” said Marienthal. “Cary had the idea of putting on a fundraising concert for DW3, and I was more than happy to help. I had also been involved with a GoFundMe campaign for a friend last year and thought that DW3 could really benefit from a similar campaign, especially knowing how many fans and friends they have in our music community who would be eager to help. “DW3 has been a very important part of The Smooth Jazz Cruise for many years, and with the great generosity of people like Michael Lazaroff and many, many others, this GoFundMe campaign so far has been extremely successful.” When the campaign went live on Feb. 14, Hardwick donated $3,000, followed by Lazaroff’s $10,000 contribution. In less than 24 hours, it grew to more than $34,000 raised toward its $100,000 goal. Hardwick called Billy to tell him the good news. “Billy was overwhelmed with appreciation,” Hardwick said. Then he recalled a bittersweet comment Billy made: “‘This is the first time I’ve spent Valentine’s Day without Irma.’” Between their rapidly mounting medical bills and their recent inability to work as they normally do, Eric, Billy and vocalist Damon Reel are slowly emerging from this dire situation. As the Mondragon brothers continue to heal and recover from their health issues, they plan to perform select dates with DW3 at Spaghettini, but on a limited schedule. Hopefully, when the benefit concert takes place on March 22, Irma’s condition will have improved, and there will be celebrating along with more fundraising. Pat Prescott, 94.7 The WAVE’s on-air personality, is scheduled to host the show featuring Marienthal, surprise smooth jazz stars and other special guests. Hardwick said that proceeds from all ticket sales will be given to the Mondragons and Reel, who plan to attend the event. Although this concert has sold-out, if you are interested in donating to these beloved artists during this difficult time, contributions of any amount can be made to their GoFundMe account. Meanwhile, our prayers, and continued fundraising efforts, are with the Mondragon families, Damon Reel and the entire DW3 band and crew. For more information on DW3 (the moniker for “Down With 3”), visit www.dw3music.net. To donate to their GoFundMe campaign, please visit https://gofund.me/d7a4c104.
