Remastered Album: Fourplay (30th Anniversary)

Fourplay (30th Anniversary Edition) contemporary American smooth jazz quartet Album first released in 1991…

There was no great cunning master plan that brought noted jazz instrumentalists Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitar), Nathan East (bass) and Harvey Mason (drums) together to form a supergroup.

Released in October 1991, Fourplay – aided by the success of the smash single ‘After The Dance‘ – peaked at No. 1 in America’s Contemporary Jazz charts for 33 weeks and sold over a million copies. It rose to No. 16 in the R&B  rankings and No. 97 in America’s list of top pop records, The Billboard 200. Bob James‘ ‘Moonjogger‘ is a more ethereal-sounding instrumental and episodic in structure, going through different changes of gear and mood.

Lee Ritenour plays some tasteful guitar lines in a deft call-and-response exchange with James. Drummer Harvey Mason is responsible for ‘Max-O-Man,’ which opens with an intro spotlighting  James’ crystalline piano melodies before mutating into a brisk uptempo groove seasoned with Ritenour’s tasteful guitar lines. ‘After The Dance‘ reconfigures Marvin Gaye’s 1976 Motown hit into a silky slow jam featuring the vocals of Detroit singer, El DeBarge, who was also signed to Warner Bros at the time. “El DeBarge was a perfect complement to the record and brought his R&B audience along with his beautiful voice and musicality,” remembers Nathan East.  The Bob James‘ tune, ‘Quadrille‘ – named after a 19th-century country dance – is an elegant mid-tempo piece defined by subtle shifts in mood and instrumental colour. James plays a deft acoustic piano solo over a funk-infused section. Ritenour demonstrates his fingerboard prowess with a fleet-of-finger solo that blurs the line between jazz and rock vocabularies. The next tune, the Harvey Mason-written ‘Midnight Stroll,’  has the distinction of being the first song that the band recorded together and its easy-going, subtle elegance sets the tone for the album as a whole.

evosound has remastered using hi-resolution digital transfers from the original analogue master tapes and manufactured in the format of MQA-CD, hybrid SACD, 2 x 180g Vinyl LP, and Hi-Res digital. The hybrid SACD plays on both SACD and regular CD players, as a multi-channel hybrid SACD including a 5.1 surround mix. A previously unreleased long version of ‘After The Dance’ is included as a bonus track (only available in stereo). The remastering of the album was undertaken using the high-resolution digital transfers from the original analogue master tapes. The hybrid multi-channel SACD plays on both SACD and regular CD players. A previously unreleased long version of ‘After The Dance’ is included as a bonus track in the MQA-CD. The remastering of the album was undertaken using the high-resolution digital transfers from the original analogue master tapes. The MQA-CD plays on all CD players. When a conventional CD player is connected to a MQA-enabled device, the CD will reveal the original master quality. The 180g 2LP will be available in Limited Numbered Blue Vinyl and non-limited black Vinyl versions.

To learn more about Fourplay (30th Anniversary), please visit: fourplayjazz.com