Chart-Topping Musician “Dr. Dave” Re-emerges With “Reserved for Abbie” featuring Ronnie Laws

Years after his first extended run of radio hits and success on the contemporary jazz charts, SoCal based composer/guitarist Dr. Dave mounted a massive comeback in 2018, forming The Housecall Band and stirring up excitement among longtime fans (while creating thousands of new ones) with the 2018 release of Midnight Daydream. The funky, powerhouse, horn-drenched album spawned four hit singles, starting with the sultry, infectiously seductive “Sexy Cindy” – one of Dr. Dave’s biggest hits ever, ranking #1 for Smooth Jazz Guitar songs in the U.S. on Radio Guitar One’s Top 20. The song was named for Cindy Sanchez Medina, Miss Santander, Colombia 2018, who appeared in the much-viewed YouTube video.

Dr. Dave’s got another magnificent female muse in mind on his latest single, the cleverly titled “Reserved for Abbie,” a seductive, deeply passionate ballad expressing his enduring affection for a onetime girlfriend who lived several states away. A dynamic showcase for the guitarist’s crisp, soulful melodic magic and adventurous improvisation, the romantic-mindedtrack also features the dynamic saxophone of the great Ronnie Laws, whose richly nuanced playing and adventurous soloing takes the song to intense emotional heights. Inviting an illustrious jazz artist to play on the track follows in Dr. Dave’s longtime tradition of having genre stars guest on his recordings – a list that includes Freddie Hubbard, Ernie Watts and legendary San Diego musicians Carl Evans, Jr. (leader of Fattburger) and Hollis Gentry.  

Along the way, as on “Sexy Cindy,” Dr. Dave includes dreamy, lilting female backing vocals, sharing lines reflecting his feelings about her: “Reserved for Abbie/In my world. . .She’s the girl,” “Reserved for Abbie/From the start. . .In my heart,” and “Reserved for Abbie/Please be mine. . .For all time.” The last lyric of the song goes: “Reserved for Abbie/Come back.”

Though he wrote it several years ago, Dr. Dave clearly has fond memories of this amazing woman and the beautiful connection they shared. “Though it’s also about a special person, ‘Reserved for Abbie’ is a much more personal song than ‘Sexy Cindy’,” he says. “When we met and hit it off, I lived in San Diego and she lived in Dallas, so I wrote it as a romantic gesture that also had the feeling of longing that’s part of every long-distance relationship. It was frustrating that she was so far away, and I wrote it from the standpoint of, I just can’t wait to get back to see her. “That’s why, at the end, I have them sing ‘Come back.’If you listen closely, you can hear me singing with the girls.

“I carved out time in my schedule reserved exclusively for Abbie,” Dr. Dave adds. “At the time, I truly felt, as the lyrics go that she was the one I wanted forever, and towards that end, I always tried to make more time for her. On a musical level, ithas a nice pocket and a cool urban vibe that’s fully intended to crossover and appeal not only to jazz but also pop radio. And I can’t say enough about Ronnie’s incredible playing.”

Which leads us to the second interesting story that makes “Reserved for Abbie” a track everyone can connect with both thematically and musically. Dr. Dave got passes to see Ronnie Laws, who was headlining at the iconic San Diego venue The Bacchanal. He went backstage and introduced himself to the saxophonist, who said he was familiar with and liked Dr. Dave’s music.

“It was my first time meeting him, and he was a really nice guy,” the guitarist says. “I told him about a new project I was working on, and he seemed interested. I asked if he would like to play on one of the tracks, and he kindly agreed. I invited him to join me at my friend and fellow guitarist Hank Easton’s studio the next day. Ronnie came in with his legendary brother, flute player Hubert Laws, and we all had a great time, with Ronnie adding his amazing energy to ‘Reserved for Abbie’ and Hubert playing on another special tune I had written, ‘I Hold My Pillow.’ We all hit it off so well that we went over to La Jolla High School and played tennis afterward.

“I didn’t tell Ronnie how to play,” Dr. Dave adds. “I just produced the track the way I always do, leaving the perfect spots for him and letting him bring his own unique style to it. I always feel that if you leave great musicians alone to do what they do best, you get the best performances out of them – and we did in this case. It was a great collaboration, and among the many contemporary jazz tunes I’ve written, it’s one of my favorites.  




In addition to the across-the-board success of “Sexy Cindy,” Dr. Dave’s return to contemporary jazz with Midnight Daydream led to a prolific flow of radio and streaming hits, including the guitarist’s all-time top streamed song “Cecil’s Groove,” currently at 3.7M+ streams on Spotify. The title track “Midnight Daydream” earned a multitude of accolades: #1 most added on the Radio Wave Internet Airplay Chart; #5 on the SmoothJazz.com Radar Chart; #9 on the SmoothJazz.com Top 100 Indie Chart and #14 on the SmoothJazz.com Top 100. A third single, “Cabo Time,” reached #19 on the SmoothJazz.com Radar chart.

The album’s fourth single was a blues, jazz, funk and rock track developed around the opening “Hey Hey Hey Hey” riff heard nightly since 2014 by the house band (who wrote it) on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Dr. Dave and the Housecall Band followed up in 2021 with Carefree Revisited, a full band revamp of an earlier unreleased solo album.

Longtime fans of contemporary jazz may remember Dr. Dave from his initial success as a recording artist in the mid-90s, when his albums I Like It Like That, Smooth and Cruisin’ made big splashes in the early days of the Smooth Jazz format. Cruisin’ also featured performances by Ronnie and Hubert Laws. After that initial splash in the genre, Dr. Dave switched gears and moved for a time to Brazil, where he performed for several years. He got back in the recording groove, and geared up by releasing two compilations of earlier material – some of which had never been played on radio. In 2013, he released Love Potion, a collection of romantic songs, which he followed with the perfectly titled The Doctor Is In, full of Dr. Dave’s early up-tempo tracks. The smooth jazz format’s embrace of these recordings inspired Dr. Dave to return to the scene full-forcewith Midnight Daydream.

After many years of being signed to independent labels, Dr. Dave has taken control of his career and vast catalog as the head of Hatherill Records (his given last name). He is currently working on fresh full band recordings of previously unreleased material.

https://www.drdavehousecallband.com/

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