Fattburger Signs New Record Deal

It was a momentous occasion, but the members of Fattburger, San Diego’s nationally known pop jazz band, didn’t seem tense or particularly elated. Sprawled on hip-looking leather furniture in bassist Mark Hunter’s living room last week, they had gathered to consider an offer from a Los Angeles recording label.

Not just any offer.

An offer from a rising young label, Sin-Drome Records, that has already signed such commercially successful acts as Keiko Matsui and Bobby Caldwell and is headed by three partners, including Cliff Gorov, a former independent radio promotions consultant who helped earlier Fattburger releases climb radio industry charts.

An offer to replace the band’s longstanding deal with Enigma, which folded shortly after Fattburger’s last recording, “Come And Get It,” was released in the fall of 1990--with very little promotional support.

An offer the group’s drummer and resident business brain, Kevin Koch, landed during recessionary times when many labels have a freeze on signing new bands.

A day later, the band--Koch, Hunter, keyboard player Carl Evans and percussionist Tommy Aros--decided to say “yes” to Sin-Drome. Attorneys are hashing out details, and the long-awaited successor to the four previous successful Fattburger releases should be out on Sin-Drome this summer.

Meanwhile, “Best of Fattburger,” a compilation of 10 songs (put out by the company that bought Enigma) is due in music stores next week, and the group will host an album release party at the Catamaran Resort Hotel next Wednesday night.

The laid-back response to the new deal is not a sign of complacency or boredom, but merely evidence of the stable state of mind required to cope with the ups and downs of a fickle music business: the ups of a rising career, the downs of delays in continuing that career.

After all, the group is already a certifiable success. Its last two releases (“Time Will Tell” and “Come & Get It”) both went to No. 1 on radio industry contemporary jazz charts. Its last four cracked the top five, and all sold at least 50,000 copies.

So, with a proven track record, the last 18 months have been an especially frustrating time.

After Enigma closed, the group considered forming its own label.

“We wanted to buy back our catalogue, and Enigma was interested in selling,” Koch said. “But, once Blue Note got hold of it (Capitol/Blue Note acquired Enigma last year), I guess they figured there was money to be made (by releasing a compilation).”

Plans for the band’s own label were scrapped, and Koch sent demo tapes around to 25 companies. He talked to a dozen before Fattburger settled on the offer from Sin-Drome.

The initial recording for Sin-Drome, which the band had completed before accepting the firm’s offer, marks a transitional phase. It will be the first release from Fattburger that doesn’t include the services of longtime guitarist Steve Laury, who left to pursue a solo career shortly after “Come & Get It” came out.

Laury is a prolific songwriter, and his smooth, easygoing jazz guitar was featured prominently on several of Fattburger’s best-known songs.

“There’s some difference,” Koch said of the new, post-Laury music, “but I think the basic Fattburger sound is there.”

Minus Laury, Evans is the only permanent band member who plays a lead instrument capable of carrying melodies. In Laury’s absence, Fattburger looked to several guest artists to contribute songs and help fatten its sound.

Former San Diegan Marcel East, now living in Los Angeles, co-wrote a tune with Evans. Several San Diego musicians also helped out. Guitarist Kiko Cibrian plays on a song he wrote. Mark Shapiro handles guitar on other ones. And Mitch Manker blows his trumpet on a pair of tunes he co-authored with bassist Mark Hunter.

Along with some fresh help, the band’s other change is its increasingly sophisticated use of electronic gear and production methods.

Both Koch and Hunter have synthesizers and computerized digital recording equipment at home, and some of the new music was recorded in their home studios. On these songs, a professional studio was used only to add an instrumental part or two.

Most of the material, though, was recorded in a studio, with band members playing together, live, instead of adding their parts to the mix one by one. This lends the music a spontaneous quality.

Fattburger first got together in 1984. Its members banded together after the breakup of the Bruce Cameron-Hollis Gentry Ensemble.

“Even if that band (which included Hunter, Evans and Koch) hadn’t broken up, Fattburger would still have formed,” said Evans, who was already working on material with Laury and Hunter when Cameron and Gentry decided to break up their band.

Fattburger’s initial self-produced album was picked up by the Los Angeles-based Golden Boy label, which re-released it in 1985.

By 1987, the band had spent $20,000 on a follow-up recording before signing with Intima. That album, “Good News,” went on to become its all-time best seller with a solid promotional effort by Intima. But as Intima and its parent, Enigma, fell on hard times, promotional efforts on behalf of Fattburger grew weaker and weaker.

The first two releases on Intima --”Good News” and “Living in Paradise”--did well enough that Fattburger was able to re-negotiate a better deal with Intima’s parent, Enigma, for two subsequent recordings: “Time Will Tell” and “Come & Get It.”

While the band hasn’t approached the superstar status of a Kenny G, its members are living comfortably.

“We make about what a high school principal makes,” joked Evans.

But even with its growing reputation, Fattburger remains under-appreciated in its home town. The band regularly sells out venues of 1,000 seats and more in other cities. Yet in San Diego, familiarity breeds lack of interest on the part of promoters. The group plays to smaller audiences at the Catamaran, and has only played Humphrey’s Concerts by the Bay, a local showcase for top pop/jazz bands, once, shortly after its first release.

At Hunter’s house, Koch popped in a digital cassette of the new music, and it immediately became clear that Fattburger hasn’t lost its radio-ready touch. All of the signature Fattburger elements are there: the solid, funky backbeat, Evans’ light, lyrical keyboard lines, melodies that people will be humming--all glued together by airtight production.

“If it’s promoted properly, it should do very well,” Evans said. “It could easily top 100,000.”

That would be a well-deserved payoff for a band that has waited patiently for its time.