At the age of 16, Eric started venturing out to perform in public by “sitting-in” with jazz, blues, and rock bands at dozens of different NYC venues to start honing his craft. One of his favorite memories is sitting in on a few tunes with the legendary Doc Cheatham and his band at the old famous jazz club “Sweet Basil’s” in Greenwich Village which closed in 2001.
Another epic and unforgettable experience for Knight was having the honor and privilege to open for Grover Washington Jr. for a few shows in New Jersey. In Eric’s opinion, Grover was the Godfather of the smooth jazz format and will always be one of his top musical heroes.
in 2022, Eric and his long time friend Doug Oberhamer got together and created a smooth jazz band called KnightHammer! Their first single called, “Kickin’ It” debuted in July and has been played on radio stations all over the world. Then in September they released their 2nd single called “Afterglow” which is a more intimate feature of Knight’s sound and approach on sax. KnightHammer will be releasing two more single’s before this year is up, the first one of which will be an original Christmas song called “Christmas, I Love You” followed by another original called, “Beyond the Vista”.
Eric’s debut radio single is finished; a unique contemporary jazz cover of the massive global hit “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. The track, which will appear on the forthcoming album called “Cover to Cover - Vol. 1” was co-produced and mixed by Multi-Platinum Drummer/Programmer Steven Wolf (Grover Washington Jr., David Bowie, Chaka Khan, P!nk, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Aretha Franklin, Miley Cyrus), Yaron Fuchs (Herbie Hancock, John Mayer, Sting, Paul Simon, Brian McKnight), and Spencer Hattendorf (Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, Jimmy Fallon).
Performances by keyboardist / pianist Bobby Sparks (Snarky Puppy, Marcus Miller, Kirk Franklin), pianist Andy Ezrin (Chris Botti, David Sanborn, Michael Bublé), guitarist Marcus Machado (Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway, Anderson .Paak), and bassist Will Lee (Late Show with David Letterman, The Brecker Brothers, George Benson).
Listen Eric Knight "Crazy" on SmoothJazz Weekend Radio Playlist
