Smooth jazz pioneer Jeff Lorber said music industry heavyweight Clive Davis didn't exactly know what he had in those first albums from Whitney Houston and Kenny G.
The founder of Jeff Lorber Fusion was in Minneapolis as the featured performer of Shaun LaBelle's tremendous two-day, four-show gig at the Dakota. Incomparable musicians Dave Barry, Daryl Boudreaux, Kenni Holmen, Donnie LaMarca and Stokley Williams also played.
At Manny's for dinner on Saturday night with LaBelle, Lorber told stories that made me wonder Where's the book, Jeff? According to Lorber, Davis was "not at all" confident he had a hit with Houston's first album. "He was really worried about it," said Lorber, who thought he heard a few sure-fire hits in "You Give Good Love," "Saving All My Love for You," "How Will I Know" and "The Greatest Love of All."
Lorber said Davis was "insecure. He wasn't sure. It's a tough business. And at that time, I don't think Arista was doing that great as far as R&B music. You know, the music business is very cyclical. I think they were in a downward cycle at the time."
When it came to Kenny G., whose solo career was launched after he had been a credited member of Jeff Lorber Fusion, Davis didn't foresee the platinum sales in the sax player's future. "I had to convince him [Kenny G.'s] album would do well," Lorber said.
Davis also had an interesting way of showing his toughness. If you were on time for a meeting with Davis, who was perpetually late, he might invite you to sit in on the meeting he was wrapping up. "He would let you in to hear him rip somebody else a new [expletive], about something absolutely none of your business, before he got to you," Lorber said.
The butt of jokes Multi-instrumentalist Shaun LaBelle played his tail off on that bass.
That's saying something considering LaBelle was experiencing considerable coccyx pain during rehearsals and performances of songs from his first CD "Desert Nights" and some of his favorite Jeff Lorber tunes. LaBelle had slipped on ice leaving a KBEM Jazz 88 radio interview with Patty Peterson. "As I was airborne, I knew as soon as I hit the pavement that it was going to be serious. I got up and I was dazed and almost nauseous from the pain," he said. But the show must go on, so he drove to the Maple Grove studio where the band was rehearsing sans Lorber, who first rehearsed with the group hours before their early show Sunday.