Nathan East - How positive music influences Soul Priorities

As East's reputation grew on the L.A. session scene, so did his job calls. From that point on, East worked consistently. He toured with Loggins appearing with the singer at Live Aid in 1985. Eric Clapton heard Nathan and invited him to join his band. With keyboardist Greg Phillinganes and drummer Phil Collins, they toured the world over and performed multiple concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall which resulted in the release of Clapton's "24 Nights" CD, (1988). With Clapton, he would go on to record numerous CD's including Journeyman, August, Behind The Sun, Pilgrim, Reptile and the Multi-Grammy Award winning multi-platinum Clapton MTV Unplugged CD.In 1990, while in the studio recording Bob James' Grand Piano Canyon album, the keyboardist asked East, Lee Ritenour, and Harvey Mason if they'd be interested in forming a group where each member would be an equal partner and could contribute songs. James, who at the time held an executive position at Warner Bros.' jazz A&R department, got them a deal with the label; a couple of months later, the group now known as Fourplay began recording their debut album. Their first record, 1991′s Fourplay, sold over a million copies and remained at the number one position on Billboard's contemporary jazz charts for 33 weeks. Their next LP, 1993′s Between the Sheets, reached number one, went gold, and received a Grammy nomination. In 1995, their third gold album, Elixir, inherited the number one position from Kenny G's Breathless and remained on the charts for more than 90 weeks. Fourplay's 4 album entered the jazz charts at number one when guitarist Larry Carlton joined the band. Now, after fifteen years together, nine CD's and 5 Grammy nominations, Fourplay's X CD debuted at number one (Billboard Contemporary Jazz) remaining there for more than two months.