Curtis Stigers

b. Boise, Idaho, USA.

Stigers originally started out playing in punk and blues bands in his local music community. However, his classical training was in clarinet, before he decided to switch to saxophone in high school. It was then he took the decision to move to New York in search of rock 'n' roll. There, he moved back to familiar waters: "When I got there I started out in the Blues scene. I wanted to play with other people and they had the best jams!" Despite having worked hard to attract record company interest on the club circuit, it was in the unfamiliar world of jazz he would be discovered. He was playing saxophone and singing in a jazz-influenced trio with piano and bass, when spotted by the son of record company mogul Clive Davis (Arista Records' head): "I could have gone to other companies and had unfettered freedom. But I wanted the guidance. I had to learn to collaborate". Stigers quickly became a MOR airwaves favourite, likened disparagingly to Michael Bolton, but with his true influences Ray Charles and Otis Redding. Transatlantic hits in 1992 with "I Wonder Why" and "You're All That Matters To Me", if not delineating a bold new talent, marked him as an adequate commercial balladeer. His subsequent chart career failed to reproduce the success of these early hit singles, and by the new millennium he had returned to his jazz roots with the Concord Records session Baby Plays Around.

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