November 2024 –

Smooth Jazz saxophonist Richard Elliot is as at home with R&B and good old rock & roll as he is with the smooth and contemporary jazz that has earned him 20 top singles.

Elliot’s sister’s record collection purportedly started his musical journey. As a teenager, Elliot landed his first job with Natalie Cole and the Pointer Sisters, and had the chance to record with Motown legends Smokey Robinson, the Four Tops, and the Temptations.

Elliot started out as a member of the jazz-rock unit, KittyHawk, playing lyricon (a wind synthesizer) and saxophone, and recording several albums with them. His career then took a significant turn when he joined the renowned funk and classic R&B band Tower of Power through the mid 1890s, where he spend five years honing his skill.

He then became a member of the funk band Tower of Power, playing tenor sax for five years during the 1980s. group Tower of Power. For five years in the 1980s, he was a big part of the classic R&B band’s horn-based sound. His career took a significant turn when he joined the renowned funk band Tower of Power. His five-year stint with Tower of Power in the 1980s was a formative period, where he played tenor saxophone and honed his skills in a high-energy ensemble setting.

The culmination of those experiences brought him to his debut solo album, Trolltown, released in 1986. His solo career took off when he remade the Percy Sledge classic “When a Man Loves a Woman”, and his 1993 album Soul Embrace rocketed to the top of the Billboard contemporary jazz charts, where he has had a consistent presence ever since.

On his albums and theirs, Elliot has enjoyed collaborations with an incredible A-list peer set including Dave Koz, Gerald Albright, Mindi Abair, Rick Braun, Jeff Lorber, and many more. Never still, Elliot is known to pay over 100 dates a year.

Prolific in performance and in creation, Richard Elliot released his 21st recording as a leader, Straight Up Down, on Shanachie Entertainment this September. Middle C Jazz looks forward to his agile and bluesy sound with hits new and old on Friday and Saturday, November 22-23.

More about Richard Elliot at his website.

If you cannot be there in person, you can tune in to hear his Saturday 6:15 performance livestreamed. Check out Middle C On Demand to learn how.