Baatin

Few musicians have marched onto the smooth jazz music scene with as much
assurance, authority and versatility as Baatin displays on his debut album,
Sunday Brunch.  Not only does he demonstrate his talent as a producer,
arranger, songwriter and occasional singer, but also his depth as a musician
on keyboards, saxophone, guitar, bass and flute, among other instruments.

In addition, Baatin (pronounced BAAH-teen) shows a mastery of several styles
-- smooth jazz instrumentals, silky-smooth R&B vocal numbers, and soulful
funk tunes.  His background lends itself to this variety of material since
he
has recorded and performed with "The Original P" Parliament/Funkadelic,
jammed
 with the Allman Brothers, recorded with Bonnie Bramlett, toured with Otis
Redding III, and spent years in Macon, Georgia, playing with top musicians
from the backing bands of James Brown, Bobby Womack, Joe Simon, Al Green and
Joe Tex.

Baatin first developed his singing in high school when he sang tenor and was
the student director of the renowned Boggs Academy A Cappella Chorus which
toured the country giving concerts for two years.  When Baatin was 19 and in
college, he began his recording career with Playboy Records and released the
instrumental single "Laid Back Funk" by his group Darkness of Evil.  Baatin
wrote and produced the song which was a Top 20 regional hit in the Northeast
and Midwest.

"I appreciate many types of music," explains Baatin, "but for this album I
chose smooth jazz because I feel there is a lot of room for further
exploration in this genre.  I like to incorporate bits and pieces of
different styles into the mix.  That's something I learned from listening to
Miles Davis, who didn't hesitate to take jazz and mix in rock, R&B, blues,
classical, world music or whatever he felt at the moment.

"People always ask me if I have a favorite instrument, but they're all equal
to me.  I just pick up whichever one I'm hearing in my head for a particular
song.  It's like I'm Sybil with a multiple personality disorder when it
comes to instruments.  In one situation I feel most at home on keyboards,
but
the next tune I might feel the most appropriate sound is saxophone.  When I
record, it's like I'm playing the studio more than just instruments.  I love
assembling the parts of the song and putting the music together.  Since I
play most of the instruments, I can move fast to get the sound I want and
every aspect of the music is under my control.  I don't have to call up a
guitarist and try to explain to him what I want.  I just do it."

Baatin has been inspired by a wide variety of musical styles -- R&B (Ray
Charles, Otis Redding), soul (James Brown, Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder,
George Duke), jazz (Jimmy Smith, John Klemmer, Miles Davis, John Coltrane,
McCoy Tyner, George Benson, Wynton Marsalis), country (Hank Williams) and
rock (The Doors, Cream, Santana, Frank Zappa).  "There's something of value
to experience in all genres of music."

Baatin's album kicks off with the title track, "Sunday Brunch," which he got
the idea for while playing that type of event.  "Everyone was laid back, but
feeling festive.  The audience is in a relaxed frame of mind with good food
and good drink, and all they need is the right music to match that mood."
The tunes range from the guitar-driven "The Uphill Road" to the
saxophone-ori
ented "For Grover" (Baatin's tip-of-the-hat to Grover Washington, Jr.).
Baatin sings lead and background vocals on two songs -- Anita Baker's
"Whatever It Takes (To Make You Happy)" (the only song on the album Baatin
didn't write) and "U Make Me Smile" ("that's my a cappella choir training
coming out").  Two others feature only backing vocals  including the
perfectly-titled "Something Funky 4 U."

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The album is already receiving airplay nationwide, but the road to national
recognition had tough beginnings for Baatin, who grew up in a small Georgia
town without a father in the house and during the early days of school
integration.  Born in Cleveland, he was raised from the age of three in
Hawkinsville, Georgia (population 1,500 at that time).  Distantly related to
Patti LaBelle, Baatin learned to sing harmony in church from his mother.
They had an old upright piano and he began teaching himself to play it at
age
five.  "The first things I learned to play were a primitive 12-bar blues
that
we called 'Boogie Woogie' and songs on the radio like Ben E. King's 'Stand
By Me'."  Baatin started formal piano lessons at eight, and taught himself
recorder and saxophone at nine.  When he was only 13, he was already playing
sax and organ professionally in the band The Soul Groovers in clubs on what
was called "the chittlin' circuit."

"The first year they integrated the schools in the Sixties, I was the only
Black student in Hawkinsville to be in the high school marching band, which
was rough."  For his last few years of high school, Baatin went to Boggs
Academy near Augusta where he learned to sing in the choir, got to travel
and
met underclassman Ike Willis (who went on to be the lead singer for Frank
Zappa and the Mothers of Invention).  "I mentored Ike and showed him the
ropes at Boggs, and he introduced me to guitar playing."  Baatin directed
the
men's Glee Club and the Men's Quartet (first place in state two years in a
row), was President of his class, and earned the highest score in school on
his SAT.

Baatin enrolled at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and earned a B.A.
Degree in Sociology.  There was an active music scene in Macon, a city where
many national acts lived, recorded or came to get musicians for their bands
including Aretha Franklin, James Brown, King Curtis and Bobby Womack.
Capricorn Records was based there and many of their artists (Allman
Brothers,
Wet Willie) held jam sessions in the clubs or in the park on Sunday
afternoons.  "I was in one of the first integrated bands in that region.  We
called ourselves Black Snow.  Then I started playing again with my old band
from Hawkinsville.  A booking agent changed our name to Darkness of Evil and
we recorded for Playboy Records.  I also did a session with Neil Larsen and
Buzzy Feiten for a Bonnie Bramlett album on Capricorn."  Baatin was
listening
to improvisational rock groups, but also began to explore avant garde jazz
such as Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis.  Also during college,
Baatin musically tutored Otis Redding's sons, Dexter and Otis Jr. (whom
Baatin still occasionally performs with).

Baatin also was in the group Bone, Holmes & Friends which included
trombonist
Tony "Bone" Dorsey (who went on to play with Paul McCartney & Wings, Joe
Tex, Al Green and Joe Simon) and drummer Samarai Celestial (who joined Sun
Ra's band).  Baatin began concentrating more and more on jazz and started a
three-piece combo called Top Secret with drummer Jamal Thomas (who has
played
with Maceo Parker, the S.O.S. Band and Black Oak Arkansas).  Another band,
Light Years, featured guitarist Greg Wright (The Jacksons, Mick Fleetwood's
The Zoo).

A life-threatening illness in the mid-Eighties caused Baatin to analyze his
life and decide to concentrate more intensely on his music.  He outfitted
his
own recording studio, began performing regularly under his own name, and
eventually moved to Atlanta to broaden his audience.  He met "The Original
P" Parliament/Funkadelic and they invited him to contribute to their 1998
What
 Dat Shakin' album.  On "We Believe In The Funk," "Party Down" and the
title track, Baatin contributed various parts including keyboards, guitar, a
sax solo and backing vocals (he also engineered and mixed those tunes in his
studio).  Then Baatin joined the band for a lengthy national tour.

Baatin's name is an Arabic word that stands for a latent aspect of God.
"It's appropriate because I have always felt there is more to me than meets
the eye.  When I first met the guys in P-Funk, they just thought I was a
backing keyboardist, saxophonist and rhythm guitarist.  At rehearsal, they
were deciding how to arrange 'Red Hot Mama' for the tour and when they came
to the third guitar solo, I told them, 'I'd like to get a piece of that.'
They didn't know I could play lead guitar.  They thought I was kidding.  But
they said go ahead and give it a shot, and afterwards they gave me even more
solos in the show.  Sometimes with music it's fun to hold something back as
a surprise and wait for just the right moment to bring it on."
                                   #     #     #
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Sunday, October 15, 2000
Section: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Edition: ONE STAR
Page: G-2
 Records are rated on a scale of one (poor) to four (excellent) stars:  Jazz

"Sunday Brunch," Baatin. All N All. ***
 Never heard of this guy? Neither had I. But the Atlanta-based
multi-instrumentalist has done studio work with Bonnie Bramlett and
Parliament-Funkadelic, toured with the latter and tutored Otis Redding Jr.
in music, so you know he knows something.  If you didn't know otherwise
ahead of time, you would have a hard time believing that Baatin's not a
group. He plays just about everything you hear -- keyboards, guitar,
saxophone, flute, bass. He also sings and wrote all the material except for
one track. That would be mind-blowing enough, except he has the audacity to
lead with different instruments on different tunes. He's derivative, to be
sure, but it's hard to sound unique playing all those axes.  Baatin offers a
Gene Harris vibe on the theme of the title track, which starts out with
flute and synth piano -- but leads on guitar on the Doc Powell-ish "The
Uphill Road." He switches to soprano sax and flute on "For Grover," in
memory of the late Grover Washington Jr.  The dreamy vocal intro on "U Make
Me Smile" makes that tune, as does his Larry Graham-style heavy baritone
voice on "Whatever It Takes (To Make You Happy)" by Anita Baker. "Something
Funky 4 U" has him plucking some bass a la Wayman Tisdale.  The only minus
here is that he doesn't use a live drummer, but I'll cut him a break there,
since he does everything else quite competently. I was impressed. 

 Rick Nowlin

Check out Baatin's Web site at
www.baatin.com