He framed the entire album around Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up,” “Rock Steady” by Aretha Franklin, and “Keep on Truckin’” by Eddie Kendricks.
“Most of the time when I start a CD, I have some kind of theme in mind. With my CD prior to ‘Rock Steady,’ ‘Metro Blue,’ my goal was to draw on my R&B influences growing up in the ‘70s. That is how it started, but it morphed into this Euro-jazz influenced thing. It completely went away from the original concept,” he said. “I was thinking to myself, ‘How can I come up with a theme and stay focused on the original idea? The way I did it was, I took three covers that were significant songs to me growing up. (Then) I could build originals around those three songs, I recorded those songs first, and that put me in the mind-set. As I wrote the remaining songs, they carried that theme.”
Why those particular songs?
“There’s a lot of music from that period that I love. I made a list of songs from that period and those three stuck out,” he said.
He became re-acquainted with the song “Move on Up” from the movie “Bend it Like Beckham,” which is used at the end of the movie.
“I was like, ‘I remember that song; that is a great song,’” he said. “‘Rock Steady’ I think was used in a car commercial. That painted that in my head.”
“Keep on Truckin’” contained the big, epic, orchestral sound and feel he was looking for, he said.
Elliot, who was named Best Wind Player at the 2010 American Smooth Jazz Awards, performs April 2 in North Central College’s Wentz Concert Hall.
A former horn section member of the legendary jazz band Tower of Power, Elliot has more than 15 recordings and thousands of live performances under his belt. He has had six albums reach No. 1 on Billboard’s new adult contemporary chart.
Elliot was born in Scotland and raised in Los Angeles. He picked up the saxophone at age 11, during summer school.
“I thought it would be fun to take up an instrument. I looked around at all the instruments and saw the sax, and it looked cool,” he said. “I liked the shape and thought it would be fun to give it a try. I am definitely a product of music programs in the public school systems. I am a big believer in those kinds of programs. When I do clinics in schools, I tell them music is a great thing, regardless of whether you are considering it as a career. It fills in so much in the kids’ development. It helps in math and other logical types of thinking as well as developing the creative side.”
His high school music teacher was a professional musician — he did recording sessions for Hanna-Barbera cartoons and movie soundtracks.
“He was able to offer insight into being a professional musician. That locked it up for me,” Elliot said. “My first year of high school, I thought, ‘This is what I want to do for a living.’”
He learned a lot from that teacher, including the maxim: no matter how good you are, there is always someone better. That is why although he values the title “Smooth Jazz Player of the Year,” he doesn’t set too much stock by it.
“I kind of look at it as a form of recognition and acknowledgement, and that’s wonderful. It’s a great thing to be acknowledged by my fans and my peers,” he said. “It’s wonderful, but it’s not the core reason why I do what I do. I love making music and if it touches people in a positive way, I have achieved my goal. But it was really nice and very unexpected.”
Elliot landed his first professional gig touring with Natalie Cole and The Pointer Sisters while he was still in high school. He played with the adventurous fusion band Kittyhawk and recorded with his Motown heroes Smokey Robinson, The Four Tops and The Temptations.
He later performed with Melissa Manchester and Yellowjackets, which led him to five years’ service with Tower of Power. He released his debut album “Trolltown” in 1986. His solo career took off with his cover of “When a Man Loves a Woman.”
For many years, Elliot was known for his near non-stop touring schedule. These days, he has cut back in order to spend time with his wife and their five children, ages 6 through 20.
However, the touring season starts now and continues through the summer, so he will be out on the road for awhile.
Other upcoming projects include a new, as-yet-untitled CD that will be out midsummer. Naperville audiences will probably hear a sneak preview of that new material, he said.
In addition to the new songs, audiences can expect a lot of fun and the high energy of a rock show, he promised.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We try to have a lot of fun. We play jazz or jazz-influenced music, but we come from an R&B and rock ‘n’ roll background,” he said. “As a result, we put a lot of energy in our show and we try to convey that energy so it feels more like a rock show than a jazz show.”
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