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Group Members: Steve Laury
All Music Guide:
One of the most popular pop/jazz groups, Fattburger has been classified by some as new adult contemporary music, contemporary jazz, or smooth jazz. The San Diego-based unit has survived through many trends and still plays the same type of accessible funky music that was its original goal. Saxophonist Hollis Gentry, while in high school, led a group (Power) that opened for Cannonball Adderley at a college concert in 1972. After graduating, Gentry toured with R&B groups. He attended San Diego State University and during the second half of the 1970s had opportunities to play straight-ahead jazz with Bruce Cameron. When their last band broke up, Gentry and the other musicians (keyboardist Carl Evans, bassist Mark Hunter, drummer Kevin Koch, and guitarist Steve Laury) went out on their own and became Fattburger. Tommy Aros joined the band as their percussionist and in the early '90s, when Laury started a solo career, Evan Marks became Fattburger's guitarist. In the mid 90's, Fattburger found a home on the Shanachie label, releasing a string of well-received albums into the 21st Century.
Wikipedia:
Fattburger is a jazz group, best categorized in the jazz-funk, contemporary jazz, or jazz fusion subgenres. The band was formed by saxophonist Hollis Gentry, keyboardist Carl Evans Jr., bassist Mark Hunter, drummer Kevin Koch, and guitarist Steve Laury in San Diego during the early 1980s. Tommy Aros soon joined as a percussionist.
After their first album, Hollis Gentry left the band to launch his solo career (but came back as a part-time member in the 1990s) and after the release of Come & Get It, Steve Laury also left to embark on a solo career. As a result, their next album, "On A Roll," was the first recording of Fattburger as a four-piece band (although Kiko Cibrian and Mike Shapiro appeared as studio guitarists). Guitarist Evan Marks joined the band as a permanent member in 1995. After their latest album, Work to Do (2004), Hollis Gentry died on 5 September 2006 and Carl Evans Jr. died on 10 April 2008.
Later, Fattburger regrouped to play live at the Anthology jazz club on 26 June 2009, featuring Allan Phillips as a new keyboardist. Today the band is still touring.
Fattburger's most commercially successful CDs were Sizzlin' and T.G.I.F.attburger!, although the best representations of their contemporary jazz-funk style may have been five earlier albums: On a Roll, Good News, Living in Paradise, Come and Get It, and Time Will Tell.
