A Boise kid, a saxophone and a jazz singer in the pop charts

Curtis Stigers was born in Hollywood but grew up in Boise, Idaho. As a teenager he played in rock and blues bands and studied clarinet and saxophone in high school. A big part of his drive toward jazz came from jam sessions led by Gene Harris at the Idanha Hotel, and he later wrote “Swingin' Down at Tenth and Main” as a tribute to those nights.

After graduating he went to New York intending to become a rock musician, but he ended up spending more time in jazz clubs, singing and playing saxophone. Arista released his debut album, which sold in multi-platinum numbers. The mix of rock and soul also worked on the soundtrack of the 1992 film The Bodyguard, which carried his version of Nick Lowe's “(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”.

The song everyone remembers is “I Wonder Why”, which reached No. 5 in the UK and No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991. Its follow-up, “You're All That Matters to Me”, got to No. 6 in the UK. After that he signed with Concord Jazz, whose first release, Baby Plays Around, featured Chris Minh Doky and Randy Brecker, and made several more jazz-leaning albums before turning to country flavours on Let's Go Out Tonight in 2012, with covers of Steve Earle, Richard Thompson and Hayes Carll.

The list of people he has worked with is long: Elton John, Eric Clapton, Prince, Bonnie Raitt, Rod Stewart, the Allman Brothers Band and Joe Cocker. He recorded a duet with Julia Fordham on her version of “Where Does the Time Go?” in 1998. Television also found him, with “This Life” and “John the Revelator” used on Sons of Anarchy, and in 2009 he was a soloist at a Proms concert celebrating the MGM musical.