Paul Bass Photo
Stetson Branch Librarian Diane Brown with Chris "Big Dog" Davis at WNHH FM.
Chris “Big Dog” Davis signed up to co-produce an update of a hit song Stevie Wonder wrote. Little did he know at first that he would also be recording the song with the legendary musician.
The song is “Don’t Make Me Wait Too Long.” Wonder wrote it, and Donna Hathaway and Roberta Flack recorded and released it with a disco beat back in 1980.
Jazz singer Kimberly Brewer has recorded a new version of the song. She enlisted Davis to help. Davis — a twice-Grammy nominated producer, keyboardist, songwriter, and performer with 18 number-one Billboard smooth jazz hits who grew up in Waterbury and has a long relationship with New Haven’s Dixwell Stetson Branch Library — served as co-producer of the update and played the keyboards.
Stevie Wonder, for whom Brewer has sung backup, ended up participating as well, playing his trademark Chromatic harmonica on the track.
Davis was thrilled. Since his teens, studying in a Yale School of Music program, he had considered Wonder a seminal influence. He won a copy of Wonder’s 1976 double album Songs in the Key of Life, and “it changed my life.” as he developed his own keyboard style over the years, he, like Wonder, incorporated influences from funk and gospel to pop and jazz.
The new recording of a smooth jazz-updated “Don’t Make Me Wait” will be released Feb. 13. You can preorder it here.
Davis previewed and spoke about the recording, and Wonder’s influence, during an appearance Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
Months after completing the track, Davis was still filled with Wonder.
“How many times do we get to produce or play on a song that Stevie Wonder’s on? That and Carnegie Hall have been two of my biggest” career highlights, Davis said.
He had two more Wonder encounters in the past year. The first came at the Berks Jazz Festival in the Berkshires, where Davis hosted and produced a “Celebrating Women in Jazz” tribute that included versions of Stevie Wonder songs. During a break between sets, Wonder appeared live on a screen calling in congratulations and thanks.
Days later, Davis received a call from an unfamiliar number on his phone. It was Wonder, who spoke with him for 20 minutes. He told Davis, “Big Dog, we’ve got work to do. You and I have work to do in this universe.”
That upcoming work for Davis includes a second “Women In Jazz” event at the Berks Festival and a new single of his own, an update of Christopher Cross’s 1979 hit “Sailing.” Between that track and the “Don’t Make Me Wait” single, a 19th smooth jazz #1 might just be in the cards.
Click on the above video to watch the full conversation with Chris “Big Dog” Davis on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.”
Click here to subscribe to “Dateline New Haven” and here to subscribe to other WNHH FM podcasts.
And click above to watch Davis perform “The Entertainer” at a 2022 concert at the Stetson Branch Library.