Fourplay
American smooth jazz quartet
title: "Fourplay" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-jazz-ensembles", "smooth-jazz-ensembles", "warner-records-artists", "bluebird-records-artists", "musical-groups-established-in-1991", "1991-establishments-in-the-united-states"] description: "American smooth jazz quartet" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourplay" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American smooth jazz quartet ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Fourplay |
| image | {{Multiple image |
| align | center |
| width | 80px |
| image1 | Bob James, jazz musician (2004).jpg |
| image2 | NathanEast2 (cropped).jpg |
| image3 | Harvey Mason 2004 cropped.jpg |
| footer_background | |
| footer_align | |
| footer | |
| border | none |
| landscape | yes |
| caption | Bob James, 2004; Nathan East, 2005; and Harvey Mason, 2004 |
| background | group_or_band |
| genre | Smooth jazz |
| years_active | 1991–2017 (indefinite hiatus) |
| label | Warner Bros., Arista/Bluebird, Heads Up |
| website | |
| current_members | * Bob James |
| past_members | * Lee Ritenour |
| :: |
| name = Fourplay | image = {{Multiple image|total_width = 350 | align = center | width = 80px
| image1 = Bob James, jazz musician (2004).jpg | image2 = NathanEast2 (cropped).jpg | image3 = Harvey Mason 2004 cropped.jpg
| footer_background = | footer_align = | footer = | border = none | landscape = yes | caption = Bob James, 2004; Nathan East, 2005; and Harvey Mason, 2004 | background = group_or_band | genre = Smooth jazz | years_active = 1991–2017 (indefinite hiatus) | label = Warner Bros., Arista/Bluebird, Heads Up | website = | current_members = * Bob James
- Nathan East
- Harvey Mason | past_members = * Lee Ritenour
- Larry Carlton
- Chuck Loeb (deceased)
Fourplay (stylized as fOURPLAY) is a contemporary American smooth jazz quartet. The original members of the group were Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitars), Nathan East (bass), and Harvey Mason (drums).
In 1997, Ritenour left the group and Fourplay chose Larry Carlton as his replacement. In 2010, Carlton left Fourplay and was replaced by Chuck Loeb, who died on July 31, 2017. During Loeb's illness, saxophonist Kirk Whalum joined the group for performances.
The group has enjoyed consistent artistic and commercial success by grafting elements of R&B and pop to jazz, appealing to a broad mainstream audience. Their debut album, Fourplay (1991), sold over a million copies and remained at the number one position on the Billboard contemporary jazz chart for 33 weeks. Their next album, Between the Sheets (1993), reached number one, went gold, and received a Grammy Award nomination. In 1995, their third gold album, Elixir, also was number one and remained on the chart for more than 90 weeks. In 2015 the band celebrated its 25th anniversary with the release of the album Silver with former members Ritenour and Carlton.
Discography
::data[format=table]
| Title | Label | Released |
|---|---|---|
| Fourplay | Warner Bros. | 1991 |
| Fourplay Live: The Authorized Bootleg | Warner Bros. | 1992 |
| Between the Sheets | Warner Bros. | 1993 |
| Elixir | Warner Bros. | 1995 |
| The Best of Fourplay – (original release) | Warner Bros. | 1997 |
| 4 | Warner Bros. | 1998 |
| Snowbound | Warner Bros. | 1999 |
| Yes, Please! | Warner Bros. | 2000 |
| Heartfelt | Bluebird | 2002 |
| Journey | Bluebird | 2004 |
| X | Bluebird | 2006 |
| Energy | Heads Up | 2008 |
| Let's Touch the Sky | Heads Up | 2010 |
| Esprit De Four | Heads Up | 2012 |
| Silver | Heads Up | 2015 |
| The Best of Fourplay – (2020 Remastered) | evosound | 2020 |
| :: |
DVD-Video
- An Evening of Fourplay Volumes I and II (1994)
- Live in Cape Town (2005)
- Live at San Javier Jazz Festival (2006)
References
References
- "Fourplay".
- Lee Mergner. (February 15, 2010). "Larry Carlton Leaving Fourplay".
- (1 August 2017). "Chuck Loeb, Guitarist and Composer, Dies at 61 - JazzTimes".
- (1997). "[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music". [[Virgin Books]].
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::