I first heard Will Donato when he joined Steve Reid's Bamboo Forest. The band had been composed mostly of moonlighting Rippingtons but that configuration, with Will, Steve Oliver, and Blake Aaron, was a dream band in the making that put on a powerful show. Oliver, Aaron, and Will all went on to establish solo careers at a point in time where it is very difficult to get a high profile as a contemporary instrumental artist. Donato is a high octane musician and entertainer. He was in Florida for a festival a few weeks ago and played one of the most exciting sets of that star studded weekend. Words are never adequate when it comes to describing such performances, fortunately this one was recorded. Watch and listen to see the reason that if there were still stars he would be on the fast track to becoming one. He's also one hard working guy. I caught up with him as he was driving several hours to a performance after spending a day putting the finishing touches on his holiday CD.

SV: The holiday season is here. If you believe the stores it started a month ago. How is your seasonal project coming along?
WD:  We just sent  "We Three Kings," to radio and are getting great response. Steve Oliver is on it too. I do some of my favorite holiday songs. We even put a chill spin on "Angels We Have Heard On High" and I wrote a new song called "Gift of the Magi." It's available on my website.

SV: Which would be www.willdonato.com.
WD: Right.

SV: Just helping you out there (laughs).
WD: I'm actually just having a great time with the solo career thing. Getting out and playing. Even in these tough times I'm really enjoying getting out and meeting people and adapting to the changes in the business.

SV: Let's start there because you have been working steadily, doing all kinds of gigs,recording, building a following and making a living with your music but you began to build your solo career at the same time the traditional doors to stardom were closing. So a lot of people haven't discovered you yet. Tell us a little bit about where you came from because it's a pretty cool background to have.
WD: I was originally in a band that was signed to MCA called The Untouchables. It was a ska band back when ska was part of the new wave thing but it was a jazz project too. It was R&B, Jazz, and ska. Jeff Kashiwa was in the band too and I had the greatest time being with that group. We opened for UB40 on tour and we were in England a lot. Basically I had this wonderful opportunity to see the world with this performing band and that taught me a lot about enjoying and respecting audiences and just giving it all you've got.  When that project came to an end I started a smooth jazz project and took a lot of those elements of performing and just engaging  audiences. I met Steve Reid, Steve Oliver, Blake Aaron and a lot of players that I just love playing with now. When Jeff Kashiwa left Bamboo Forest to focus on his solo career he referred me to Steve Reid to take his place in that band. That's what started the wheels turning as far as thinking about doing a solo project. I met a lot of people in the band and around the country who really encouraged me. I took that lead and decided to do my own project and I just loved doing it. What people perceive as challenges I just enjoy doing as a process.

SV: Steve Reid actually worked with you on Will Power.
WD: I just loved working with him. I had such a great time doing that. I sort of humorously vowed that I would never be one of those guys who spend 24 hours in the studio and end up sleeping on a futon and having bed head the next day. I like my own home and my own bed. So I thought I would do bankers hours (laughs) but when you go to Steve Reid's studio I found myself spending many a night on that futon. Steve is so awesome. One morning I woke up and there he was with a grass skirt on and a Fez and a hammer in his hand and he says "I'm ready to go to work Mr. Donato." 

SV: Yeah, this is a guy who goes to Burning Man, where that would be considered conservatively overdressed.
WD: He's so great in the studio and we would work on the music then I would go into the main house and start doing stuff like cleaning the kitchen. I felt like the special guest of the Steve Reid studio compound. He's so creative in percussion colors and with the technology. I got to learn a lot about recording techniques and Pro-Tools by watching Steve at the the console and Steve Oliver was on the project too.

SV: You did your next one, Will Call, with another Bamboo Forest band mate too.
WD: I did it with Rogerio Jardim. He brought a real world music influence to that project. Again I ended up staying over a lot. They had a guest room and I'm so not a guest room kind of guy that I would go home, spend the night at my own place, then drive all the way back.

SV: Both those albums were major label quality work and you had a lot of well known guys playing on them but neither of them came out on a major and they never were promoted at that level, but then that goes back to you emerging as a solo artist when radio was still pretty much the only way to get exposed and radio was pulling away from new artists and new music.
WD: I had an interesting thing happen a few years before that that could have opened up a different path. When Dave Koz left Richard Marx's touring band I was going to be the next guy to do that show. I did the video for "Angelia" with him.

SV: That was a big hit song.
WD: I'm on that video on YouTube. I have long hair and cowboy boots.  I was tapped to be the guy after Dave Koz. That was going to be a good tour to be on. It was back when a tour would last almost a year,. It was so exciting for me. I was going to these meetings in tall buildings on Sunset Boulevard with his management company. Then we did the video, which was really cool. We did it in a barn in Santa Paula in a barn with the sun coming through the roof. It was really pastoral and really amazing. Then he took a really odd vacation and just stopped performing. When you are a young player waiting to go on a groundbreaking tour and you know the guy before you went gangbusters that's a big disappointment. I loved the music. It was very sax friendly and I felt like that show at that time in my life would have done so much. My path shifted to making records. I had the Art of Sax project, that was set up to sound kind of like Spyro Gyra. I really tried hard to make a group project work and I didn't know how hard it was going to be to try to make five guys make decisions. I tried to make that work but I feel like I may have been sidetracked in the process.

SV:: Sidetracks are part of the learning curve though. They happen to everybody.
WD: I did learn a lot about running a band and working with a lot of musicians. And we did put out a really good CD. The Art of Sax album is so good. It's dry and funky and not format-ish at all. I didn't even know about promoting it to radio or anything, we just wanted to play cool songs. I did learn some good grooves that I still incorporate in the live shows.

SV: So you did take some good things from the process.
WD: Exactly. I find it funny how different people have their definitions of success. I feel successful now because I really enjoy what I do. I get to play a lot. I have a very small decision making network, just me and my wife and some friends. I know my following really well and I know what they want from me.

SV: You've played in a number of configurations at the same time. You do the smooth jazz thing, you do the Motown-soul cover band show, you've had a number of different groups playing around Palm Springs and southern California.
WD: All those are still going. My corporate work, doing the private corporate events and parties, is really going well. It's just three guys so it's still joyous for me. There are all these entertainment agencies in LA that book you and you end up going out there in a tuxedo, it's like something from that movie "The Wedding Singer." But we have fun. We treat the audience nice and in return they treat us great. It's not that different from doing a smooth jazz show. There's an audience and theres the response going on. I call them my under the radar corporate gigs.

SV: After I write about them they aren't going to be very under the radar. What I am trying to get at is that if you are making a living playing music you have to be able to wear multiple hats and really switch from one mode to another. You're doing that pretty seamlessly.
WD: I remember this quote from Michael Brecker, who was, is, one of my idols. He said that you have to have to have a lot of lily pads going. If one takes on water, you find another lily pad. I've been doing a lot of stuff in my home studio that I never thought I would do but I enjoy it. For me still the live thing is what drives me. I just love it, it's home to me when I get to play in front of people.

SV: You have the closest I've seen to a Dave Koz like rapport as far as showmanship and working the crowd. What I love is that you talk to people in the crowd like you're just having a social conversation that is you talking with your voice and with your sax. You're really good at coming up with funny, entertaining stuff off the top of your head. You don't use any of the onstage cliches.
WD: I really watched some people that I respect. I watched the way they had an affinity with their audiences. I didn't want to do that kind of banter that reminded me of Bill Murray on those old Saturday Night Live lounge singer skits. I'll play with my audiences too. I'll tease them, like "I'm checking that you're listening."

SV: It's hard for some people to come up with stuff off the top of their head, that's why they fall into canned banter. Like the ones who say "how are you here in..." then they pause and look at the floor for the note that tells what town they are in.
WD: I perform so much that I feel comfortable in front of crowds. I had a friend that put it that he basically let the audience know he appreciated them in as many words. That sounds trite but I try to do that musically. One of my friends who isn't that comfortable with it yet was telling me that he stole a lot of my stuff and I told him that what you do is you turn off the filter and just really be yourself and you'll find a lot more things to say. And don't be afraid to push the envelope.

SV: It's harder to do that if it doesn't come naturally to you. Some people are just more outgoing and more natural conversationalists than others. Let's talk about the new album.
WD: It's called Laws of Attraction and the title song is already out. I did that one with Blake (Aaron) and Steve Oliver. I wrote all the songs and did it in my home studio. There's only one cover. We did "Drift Away" because I do that one in my cover band and we have fun with it there so I wanted to put it on the album. I really did something I had always wanted to do. I did it in  my studio and I literally only made two drives out of the house. With Rogerio and Steve Reid I was going to LA all the time and it was hard doing that. This time I literally gave somebody a flash drive or sent a file to them and I did everything on two drives. One to universal mastering and one to the drum studio. I thought that was phenomenal. I tried to fit the format more this time but I didn't want to sacrifice the fun.

SV: I kind of felt that when I listened to the album and it did seem a little more subdued. I wondered about it since the format is moving toward soft adult contemporary vocals and it will be really hard for an original instrumental to get on in that format.
WD: The shelf life of these things is funny. I started working on it about a year and a half ago when you could still get a lot of love at the top of the charts and I was still trying to get that home run out of the park radio single. I wanted to hit a lot of three minute thirty second nuggets with really catchy melodies. I love that Boney-Braun thing where there is a trumpet and tenor and I tried to do some of that.

SV: I don't want to give the readers the impression that the CD is full of unexciting songs though. The songs do have some energy and they are really catchy. It's not like a lot of the stuff out that is just riff and groove.
WD: The song that stays with me is the one I wrote for my mom, she's got Alzheimer's. It's called "Do You Remember Me." I actually have lyrics and want to find a vocalist for it. I remember writing it. I came  home from a show and I literally was crying while I wrote it. It's a trip for your mom to not remember you and it has a real haunting mood to it. I thought I would record it as an instrumental and let it speak for itself but I do want to record it with a vocalist. It's got kind of an anthemic feel to it that builds like that Sanborn song, "The Dream." I did it with my mixing engineer, George Landress, and we didn't have any other people playing on it. George worked with No Doubt but I met him through Steve Reid and Steve Oliver.

SV: I love the title song and "Head Over Heels", the first two tracks, and you have this deep groove with a real low tenor and bluesy guitar licks on "Moon Goddess."  To tell the truth these songs may have to much melody because the songs on the charts have more of a riff chill thing going on. 
WD: And theres a song called "From The Get-Go" that's really fun. It features a really talented guitar player from LA named Bobby Moses. He gets to cut loose on that one. I did want to do a "Pick Up The Pieces" kind of party song. That's what "Dial It In" is about.

WD: I know my following and I love my following. I want to build my following. I'm only writing songs not that will go into a show, that I feel good about. If it's not going to make my set list I don't want to write about it unless it was a really specific project that somebody said the needed a song for. Like to write it for a person, or a soundtrack or something. I'm blessed with being able to perform my material. I might as well write stuff that I'm going to be using in my shows. I did try to do the radio thing and I enjoyed it. I did it because it was challenging, it was something new to try. I have a really good feeling about what my audience likes from me. "No Stress Express" was inspired by War, I wanted something that was a kick back song like "All Day Music." 

SV: You have a lot of horn sections and layers of saxes on this one too.
WD: I really love doing harmonies and I wanted to get into that. I'm such a fan of Tom Scott's arrangements. I just got hired to do the horns on Alan Hewitt's new one and I did Blake's last CD.

We actually have a new horn section called the Studio Kings. It's a horn section for hire featuring Steve Madaio. He was the trumpet player on those original sessions with Stevie Wonder and Clapton. He's the section leader, and Steve Clark. He's a studio musician. I feel so good because now I have a real horn section so when my friends call me I don't have to say call this guy or that guy. I have a working horn section already together.

SV: In other words, another lily pad. As a working musician today what do you do to survive. You have a family, bills to pay, all that stuff. These are tough waters to swim.
WD: I've been very lucky. I've always gotten work. What I do has adapted with the times. I do corporate events, a wide range of material from jazz to dance stuff. I think it's about going more macro. Having your hands in a lot of interesting projects. I love playing and I have a great group of guys who have been together forever so there is always work at that level. We have to work hard for it. The smooth jazz shows are the jewels in what is a really fun schedule.

SV: By having to work hard for it what do you mean.
WD: You have to follow up if somebody inquires about wanting to hire you. You have to be aggressive as far as getting work. You have to do a good job at your venues and follow up.

SV: In other words you have to be a business person too.
WD: You have to be a business person. I sort of downplay that part of my protocol but I do work really hard in my home office during the day. It's kind of a mystique buster because as artists you are not supposed to be the guy that's behind a desk at 9 am. but we are there working the phones and propelling our own destinies, so to speak.

SV: You have to do that now though, because hiring someone else to do it costs a lot and who is going to look out for your best interests more than you.
WD: I try to be disciplined about it, to the point of pretty much keeping office hours. I think about how I would rate myself as an employee if I worked for another company. Would I give myself a D- for the day? or a B+. Every day I ask myself what did I do to fulfill my career. We creative people are really having to do the time management thing we use to see business people doing.

SV: Do you manage yourself?
WD: I don't have an official manager but I feel like I do in a way because I have a record label and they handle the radio promotion. I have Steve Butler from Mighty Music doing booking. I have Debbie Parks doing my PR and newsletter. I have a group of people who help me out in specific areas and it's good to have that mix of personalities too.

SV: This album comes out in January. What are your plans for getting it out there.

WD: I'm in a learning process with this one. I know we are going to have to do a lot of things we haven't done before because the market has changed so much. We have to get a lot of Internet coverage and staying in touch with the fans. My publicist is doing a lot of work in that area. You have to cultivate every potential outlet and I'm trying to be open minded and see what's out there. As much as I want to pick up the horn every day I know I'm going to have to start doing some research on the Internet to see what people are doing. My favorite part will always be playing live though, that's my bread and butter.

SV: I have to ask you about the title too, since it is coming out after "The Secret" was the buzz book for so long.
WD: I got the biggest kick out of people who discovered that like it had just come out. I'm thinking when did having a good game plan and hoping for the best outcome become a new thing. It's how I live my life. I didn't call it anything. I really express gratitude. If I have a little I feel good about it. I work for and hope for the best outcome. There it is. I wanted to put a positive footprint out there on my little terrain that title seemed to say it best.

SV: And as you bring in the new year with this new album and explore new ways to get it heard we wish you the best and express gratitude to you for taking the time to talk to us.