Mindi: I’ve had a pretty cool year. We’ve been busy on the road, we’ve had a blast playing for everyone. We spent the very beginning of 2004 in the studio recording this CD so, here it comes. It’s awesome that it’s being released now, I’ve been waiting for this time, the release date, and finally it’s here.

Smitty: You’ve done so many interesting things in just one year, some of which many artists don’t get around to doing for several years. For example, you played at just about every major venue, TV appearances; you’ve played the National Anthem at baseball stadiums. How do you keep up?

Mindi:: (Laughing) Well, I think I have that kind of personality anyway; I’m really the happiest when I’m out and about, and doing things, and creating things. So this actually fits my personality quite well. But I really wanted to do all of this. People would come to me and ask; “hey do you want to play the National Anthem for the Dodgers game” and I’d say; “Yes, of course I do, I’d love to”! And to get to do Emeril’s show was absolutely amazing. Then I got to taste everything, which was so good. There’s been so many cool things; to open for Josh Groban on tour was absolutely fantastic, playing in front of 15,000-20,000 people. I mean, we were tired at the end of that tour, but it was so amazing. I think for me and my band, we’re having fun doing all of these different things, and we’ll deal with the tiredness later.

Smitty: You mentioned being on tour and opening for Josh Groban, and that had to of been a fun gig. Tell me how all of that came about?

Mindi: I guess Josh was looking for an opening act, and my record label was contacted, and they sent my CD’s, the first one and my new CD. And I guess Josh listens to a lot of stuff, as he really wanted to be personally involved, and choose who was going to open up for him. Which I think is really cool you know, some people don’t do that. So I got a call from his manager, and he said; “We really enjoyed your music and we really think that you would be a really cool opening act, so let’s do this”. So I got the chance to open up for him for a month, and it was just breathtaking night after night. He’s such an interesting artist because he appeals to such a wide variety of people. I mean, you’d have teenagers there, but you’d have older people too. You’d have anywhere from fifteen year olds to seventy year olds. And for someone to appeal that much across the board, it was very cool. And for me it was very interesting to walk on stage to an audience of which probably ninety percent of them didn’t know who I was. So night after night, me and my band got to walk on stage to people who first looked at us and went “hmm, she’s not Josh Groban” (both laughing), to maybe the second song and went “huh, ok, that’s pretty cool”. Then on third and fourth songs they were clapping and clapping after solos and really getting into it, and by the end, a lot of times we’d get standing ovations. And it’s so fun for me to go into an audience that doesn’t know me or doesn’t know my music, I feel like it’s such a cool quest to win them over or to just show them who I am. So this past month has been really, really amazing for me.

Smitty: Well, they know who you are now, don’t they?

Mindi: They do, they do.

Smitty: And I love the conversion factor, because when you’re appealing to an audience that normally doesn’t listen to this genre of music, and have never heard of the artist, and then at the end of the performance, they recognize you so well, it’s just a beautiful thing.

Mindi:Yes, I mean, I was really, first of all just honored to open for him. Because I think he’s such a talented guy, and he puts so much quality in what he does, and he’s really a perfectionist. And his voice is amazing, the music he does is amazing, the arrangements, the orchestra, just the whole show is phenomenal. So to be a part of it in the first place was just incredible. But to have the chance to be in front of people and show them who you are, and hopefully win them over, that’s a chance not many people get, so I was pretty honored, it was an amazing month.

Smitty:Well even though you’ve had so many nice things to say about him, I took the liberty of asking Josh what he thought about you being on tour with him. And this is what he said; “I was a fan the moment I saw a tape of one of her concerts. Her ability to connect with the crowd and appeal to jazz fans as well as those who aren’t as familiar with her, makes her such an exciting artist, and I was thrilled to have her as a guest on my tour”. How about that?

Mindi: : Wow. I’m honored that he would say anything close to that. That’s incredible. He’s a top notch artist, so I’m the lucky one that I got to be on tour with him. What a great quote! Wow.

Smitty: Indeed it is! Just to switch gears a little, you’ve got to tell me a little about the Emeril show. That had to be so cool!

Mindi: Yes, I played there for about two or three years. It was quite an education, it was fantastic for a young man as I was, to be there in the symphony orchestras in Paris and play with all of the great composers, discovering music that I did not know of and the sound of the orchestras. It was a great experience.

Smitty: Yes, I can just imagine. So, how did you slip into jazz from all of that great orchestral music surrounding you (both laughing)?

Mindi: Yes! I have to say, he was one of the nicest guys on the planet. You know, you never know how people are behind the scenes, you always kind of wonder. He seems like such an amiable guy when you see him on television. But he couldn’t have been more gracious and nice. I sent my music to his band, and his band learned about six of my songs, and we went in there and just rehearsed for about twenty minutes before the show. And they knew everything, and we did these cool little acoustic arrangements, and changed around some instrumentation to kind of fit them, and it turned out so vibey and cool. And Emeril, between all of the segments, he would introduce us and introduce the song or the album and……it was just a party!

Smitty: Could you smell the food on the set?

Mindi: No, you couldn’t smell it too much because it was a chocolate special. For example, he made this chocolate mousse out of mascarpone with all of these really rich ingredients, and he made this chocolate spaghetti, it was inSANE, it was SO good and he passed it around and anything that didn’t get passed around of course was passed to the band. So, I’m sitting over there getting ready to play, because I know the break is coming up, but I’m woofing down this chocolate stuff and strawberries…(both laughing). I know that’s not what you’re supposed to do before you play, but I broke the rules for Emeril.

Smitty: How could you resist!

Mindi: I couldn’t. That was the perfect show for me….C’mon, you get to play on a show that’s doing a special about chocolate.

Smitty: That’s to dream for, no doubt.

Mindi: Pretty much, it doesn’t get much better than that. That was a good day.

Smitty: Mindi, you’ve been on the road literally all of 2003, you were in every major event as far as contemporary jazz, and beyond. And then you had some time the first part of 2004 to do this great CD. What was that like, coming out of that barrage of all-out great shows and appearances and then getting into the studios? How did you get into the mode of doing this new CD?

Mindi: For me, it’s very much kind of a ying yang situation, and I really love the live performances, it’s what I’ve done my whole life, it’s just amazing to me. But then to come off the road and be able to let all of this music pour out of you, it’s a whole different amazing. And for me, I enjoy both and it’s a great kind of evening out period for me. So, I got off the road in January from the Peter White Christmas Tour, and I just started writing and worked with a few friends and spent a lot of time with Matthew Hager, writing, he is the guy who produced my first record. We really had a kind of very “home grown’ experience with the whole thing. I would go over to his little bungalow right across the street from my house, and we’d get on the porch and we’d write songs, and when we thought it was written enough, we’d move inside and start recording. And a lot of the recording process happened as we were writing the songs, and I’d record sax in the bathroom, so I had my whole little setup in there. And he would be in the control room which was the bedroom (both laughing). So it was very “Low Fi”, as a lot of recordings go. Some people get into the big studio and spend lots of money and lots of time. But we really embraced the opportunity to take chances, record what we wanted, and try some different things. And if we didn’t like something, we’d do it over. We didn’t have a big studio with a clock running, with money being spent, we really got to do what we wanted.

Smitty: And that is so cool because then you’re into such a beautiful atmosphere for writing, recording, and you don’t have the pressure and you recorded it while it was fresh, you know.

Mindi: Yes, that’s my feeling. On my first CD, It Just Happens That Way, a lot of times we had the demos that we would do, kind of like when we would write the songs you just go in and put a mic in front of me and I’d just blow through it and do my thing. While when you actually go to record the album, you try to recreate that. And many times on that record, we tried to recreate it, and it just wasn’t the same. It didn’t have that spirit of …we’ve just written the song, when it was fresh and it was new, and I wasn’t thinking about what I was playing. Therefore, it came out but not with the same spirit, and half of that record was the demos. But we just went back and said, “You know what, it’s shinier and cleaner, and all of this, but it just didn’t have the spirit that it used to have. So, we scraped a lot of stuff in the big studio. So this (The new CD) for us was …we wanted to make a very real record, a record that was very honest to what I was feeling at the time, to who I am as an artist, and explore some different facets of who I am that maybe no one has heard before.

Smitty: And the vocals, wow Mindi the vocals are fantastic! I could feel some crossover pop vibes there too. Perhaps you should have been standing next to Josh Groban (both laughing).

Mindi: Thank you! You know I sang a lot on his tour actually. We did three vocals in our set and two of them were off this new record and they went over great. It was really fun to be able to play them for the first time and kind of find out how they work live and feel the audience response to them, and they responded great, which is always nice.

Smitty: Oh yeah, that’s for sure. I know you and I did a follow up of last year’s tour, and I know there were many performances after that. So tell me, what was the most interesting experience you had on tour last year?

Mindi: I don’t know if I can break it down to just one experience. I think looking at the year as a whole; we started out as a band that no one knew. And me myself, people knew as someone’s saxophone player. They knew me because they seen me with Jonathan Butler, or Adam Sandler, or The Backstreet Boys, or Duran Duran. But no one knew me as a solo artist, no one knew what to expect. So we were the band that started out as the opening act for every festival. And we’d open up at 11AM or 12 Noon, and people were walking in. And from that point to where we are now, we started headlining, and I’ve had a lot of theater shows where I’ve been the headliner now, and wow it’s such a different feel, and a different place than where we were even a year ago. And it’s so fun, the guys in my band and I look at each other sometimes and just go “Wow, we’ve done this in the last year, we’ve come this far”. And it’s so fun to work your way up and to prove yourself, and get out there and play, and win fans. People actually come back to the shows now and they say “Hey we’ve been to three shows of yours in the last year, and wow this is a different show and it’s so cool, we’ve seen you grow this far”, and it’s fun. It’s fun to change your show and evolve and to try different things, and to win over new people. So in that respect, I don’t know if there has been one thing that would stand out, I think it was the whole year that was just spectacular in that respect.

Smitty: Yes, I guess I’m guilty of that too, I think I caught at least two or three shows last year myself.

Mindi: Yeah!

Smitty: Mindi, I’ve got to give your Dad some props here. Because I really love that little duet thing you did with him in Vegas. That was ultra cool.

Mindi: Thank you. Well I’ve been trying to get him to sit in with my band for so long. And he’s always been kind of shy about it, or you know…didn’t want to invade his daughter’s space, you know he’s very wary of that. He doesn’t want to intrude and be the dad, “hey ah, I can come sit in, you know.” That kind of stuff (both laughing). But I really just beg him and beg him, and finally he was like “you know, maybe we’ll come out to Vegas”, and he sat in and it was amazing wasn’t it?

Smitty: It was truly amazing. I couldn’t help thinking, “I know where she got her talent”, because man he ripped it up, it was totally cool. And I noticed how the audience was totally into that, I think they wanted more.

Mindi: I think they did want more. We only had a finite amount of time to get up there because there were a lot of groups on that day. But I don’t even think my band knew what to expect. Because I told them that my dad was going to sit in, and this is what we’re going to do, and they were like “yeah, ok cool, Mindi’s dad’ going to sit in, that will be nice”. And really, when he came out, I just don’t think they expected that much, and he came out and really played. I mean, he’s like a rock n roll, gutsy, growly, fun player. He gets out in people’s faces and get down! And I think they were more shocked than even the audience. That was a dream come true for me. We’re going to do it as much as humanly possible. I’m actually flying him down to play at my CD release party.

Smitty: Oh cool! When’s the CD release party?

Mindi: September 15th in Los Angeles, at the “Garden Of Eden”.

Smitty: Oh a “Wave” deal!

Mindi: A “Wave” deal! My home turf, you’ve got to do it.

Smitty: Yeah, I must come out for that.

Mindi: You must come out to it. It will be a lot of fun.

Smitty: Mindi you’ve had so many highlights in your career already, I think you’ve erased three years. I think you are three years ahead of where most artist are, given the time of your debut release, you’ve erased a lot of time, and a lot of great shows in such a short period of time. You’ve covered a lot of ground.

Mindi: I appreciate that. We’ve just been having a good time and taking what’s been thrown our way, and it’s been a pretty special year and a half for all of us. I think that we all, from myself to the guys in my band to Matthew who produces my CD’s, we all just get together and soak it in. We’re not the types of people who take it for granted, or don’t think about it. I think all of us worked to get to where we are. I mean I’ve done everything from play on the street, to waitress, and answer phones when I first moved to LA, and did anything I could to sit-in at all of these clubs. I’m just not the type to, now that it’s in front of me, to not take advantage of it, or not have a good time with it and not embrace it, and know what a special thing it is. So for me and the people surrounding me, we’re just soaking it in and having a good time with it. Because it doesn’t happen this way for most people. And most people don’t have the opportunity to do these really cool amazing things like open for Josh Groban or play concerts with people like David Sanborn, or Al Jarreau, or whoever. I mean these are just amazing life experiences, so I’m just soaking it in and smiling a lot.

Smitty: That’s too cool. I guess it just happens that way sometimes huh?

Mindi: (Both laughing) It’s funny how that phrase ended up being used a lot this past year and a half. Very fitting.

Smitty: I must tell you that I often get numerous requests for Mindi Abair to come back to Houston, Texas.

Mindi: Oh, I want to come back to Houston so badly. We are actually working on it as we speak. So hopefully I can come back there.

Smitty: It was such a great night when you were in Houston, and everyone after the show was just blown away, which is normal, and they just couldn’t wait for you to come back. So you have a special request from Houston, Texas.

Mindi: All right, you tell Houston that I will be there as fast as humanly possible.

Smitty: Yes, and please give my regards to Matthew and Bud Harner, as they did a magnificent job with the production of this CD. Great sound, the vocals are great, you really mixed it up on this one very well.

Mindi: Yeah, I think that maybe people have a preconceived notion of what this record will be for me, and I think it is probably wrong (both laughing). I think that this is probably not the record that people might think I’d make, but it’s definitely the record that was in my heart to make. And it explores a lot of different styles and fun things while still keeping, even more keeping with who I am. It’s a very personal record for me, I had a lot of friends play on it, my father played on it and I wrote everything on it, so it’s a very fun record, I’m very proud of it.

Smitty: Yes, and you rolled out some great guitar players on this one.

Mindi: Yes, well you know me, I love guitars. So most of my songs are very guitar based. So yeah, you’ve got to have some fun guitars on it. Mike Landau, Matthew Hager, and Ty Stevens.

Smitty: Yes, and give it up for the Band, they really rocked it out.

Mindi: Ah, thank you. They do a great job, I have great guys playing for me.

Smitty: Are they still acting as body guards?

Mindi: (Both laughing) Ahh, no, no, not so much. We just have a good time out there and goof off and eat Krispy Kreme donuts, and get into trouble and, you know.

Smitty: And you’ve got Steve Ferrone, Luis Conte on your new record, and smiling Russell Ferrante.

Mindi: Yes, Russell Ferrante was amazing. I actually got together with him to write a couple of songs and it was pretty amazing.

Smitty: What’s the release date for the record?

Mindi: September 14, 2004.

Smitty: Wow, that’s not far away.

Mindi: Not far away is right! I’m so excited!

Smitty: You should be. You‘ve had such a great solo career. Short in time frame but packed full of substance. So people can go to the website and check out some new things about the new record, and all of the activities and check out your seriously cool road diary of course?

Mindi: Yes, you can either go to my website which is www.mindiabair.com and check out the road diary, it’s pretty fun, it’s on the “touring” page. There I put up pictures of most every show that we do, with kind of a recap of what happened that night, and special stuff like that. Actually, we do have info about the new record on my website, and if you go to www.grp.com they have some samples of the new songs, some information about who’s on the record, the artwork and everything.

Smitty: Well Mindi it’s always great to talk with you and all of the exciting things that you are doing, and it gets us excited as well. It always a party, and you know that you have a standing invitation here at The Jazz Nation.

Mindi: Thank you! You guys have been so good to me, and thank you so much for coming out to so many shows, and you know, keeping up with the latest, because there’s a lot to keep up on. You’ve been so great, just calling or coming up and saying “what’s going on, or come back up and do an interview”. I love that.

Smitty: Thank you. It’s my pleasure. So I will catch up to you soon on the road. I can’t wait to hear some of the new songs at the shows, because I know it will be times ten live.

Mindi: Yes, we have already been changing up the show and putting a bunch of the new songs in, and it’s turning out to be a lot of fun to mix it up and try the new material, and who knows what craziness we will get into this year.

Smitty: Mindi, it’s been my pleasure. Please come back again and talk about your great career and the new music.

Mindi: You got it.

Smitty: We’ve been talking with saxophonist and songwriter, GRP recording artist, the lovely Ms Mindi Abair, she has a great new CD that comes out September 14, 2004 appropriately called Come As You Are. Put this one at the top of your CD purchase list! Mindi thanks again, and much success in 2004.

Mindi: Yes, thank you. Hopefully I will see you in Houston soon.

JazzUSA: Hi Miki, how are you doing?

MH: Pretty Good!

JazzUSA: A little history first. I know you’re a native Chicagoan, and I was wondering if you ever get a chance to go back?

MH: I did go back! You know I had a house in Chicago for a while, and I plan on going back again. There’s something about it, every time I go there I want to stay… I never want to leave. I love Chicago!

JazzUSA: Let’s talk about the new album, “Three Wishes”. I notice that it’s mostly ballad stuff… you saved the funk for the last tune.

MH: (laughing) It’s the only one!

JazzUSA: Was that planned? Is there a reason for that?

MH: I believe it probably just worked out that way. I’ve never really been known for up-tempo songs. I just do whatever… just do whatever fits.

JazzUSA: There’s a lot of Gospel influence in your style.

MH: You know why! My Mom and Dad were both Gospel singers. I was heavily influenced by singers like James Cleveland, Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Shirley Bassey, Lena Horn, Pearl Bailey, on and on and on… I guess that’s why.

JazzUSA: This release is being marketed to both the R&B and the smooth jazz audiences. Historically, you are not known as a jazz performer, but you’ve actually done a lot of jazz over the years.

MH: Really, truly. I think I was more popularly exposed and accepted by the R&B audience. I think I have never been 100% exposed to the Jazz population, you know? But I really love jazz, it’s really what I love to do…

JazzUSA: Right… you did an entire album of….

MH: BILLIE HOLIDAY!

JazzUSA: Exactly… you also played Billie Holiday in the Spike Lee movie “Malcolm X”. Any other plans to go on the silver screen?

MH: I would love to, maybe once or twice if it’s something really, really great that I think I could really do, but it’s not my career direction to go into acting, uh uh.

JazzUSA: But if it happens, fine?

MH: Yeah, you know everybody wants to be in the movies! It’s the best feeling in the world to see yourself on that screen.

JazzUSA: What’s your favorite track on the new album?

MH: “Kiss of a Stranger”.

JazzUSA: Why?

MH: Because it exemplifies who I am and what I do, right now.

JazzUSA: You write music, but none on this CD…

MH: No… This record… well I had several years off. And in some cases I had time to pick the tunes, and I just did whatever I thought I liked, then the record company… we all had to agree, and these are the songs we all agreed on.

JazzUSA: Let’s see… you put out three CD’s in three years, took three years off, put out two more releases in two years, took three more years off, put out two MORE releases in two years, then took another three years off, and now “Three Wishes”.

MH: (Laughing) yes, that’s me!

JazzUSA: Based on your track record, we should expect another record next year, right?

MH: Hopefully…

JazzUSA: Are you planning to tour at all for this CD?

MH: Oh DEFINITELY! I LOVE to tour…I can’t WAIT to tour this summer!

JazzUSA: So there IS a tour planned?

MH: (Laughing) Yes… come see me! Tell everybody to buy tickets and come see me. Purchase the record.. because ALL artists need audience support. It’s not good enough to just say “I LOVE so-and-so”…

JazzUSA: They need to BUY so-and-so….

MH: Yes, or we won’t be able to continue making records.

JazzUSA: Where can our readers go to find out more about your upcoming tour and latest CD information?

MH: To the Peak Records web site. I’m supposed to do my own web site, but I’ve yet to get around to it.

JazzUSA: It’s a great album and It’s nice to hear you back on the air. Any last words for our readers?

MH: I’d just like to say that everyone should consider other people’s feelings, try to be more loving and patient. That’s the only thing I want to say to everybody.

JazzUSA: That’s a wonderful thing, and you say it in your music too.

MH: Thank you.

FJ: Where does your ‘story’ begin?

MS: Well, in music in general, I was kind of a, my mom used to be an avid piano player. She almost was a professional classical player, but she had a bunch of kids, so that was that. It took a lot of her time. She used to listen to a lot of music around the house, so I was always very much into music and I kind of got into, started playing the piano for a little bit and then I just decided I kind of wanted to choose my own instrument and started playing guitar. I was way into it and it felt great. For the next bunch of years, I was kind of taking some lessons but more self-taught and playing along with more rock kind of stuff and blues players, Hendrix and B. B. King were early influences, players like that. Then a few years after that, like seven or eight years, I started when I was about twelve, so by the time that I was eighteen, I was much more into jazz. I hate the label “jazz,” but I think you know what I’m talking about, Fred. I was listening to more Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall, those kind of players. Then I got more and more into that genre and just fell in love with it. My style, I guess, is a kind of both worlds. And I don’t try to fight it. I don’t try to compartmentalize my style. Even if I’m playing standards, I think you can sometimes hear some kind of influence from some of the other stuff. “Body and Soul” with a stack of amplifiers, it’s not like that. But certainly, there some of the influences from blues and from rock as part of my style and certainly a lot of traditionals in jazz too, of course.

FJ: Do you recall your first guitar?

MS: I guess the very first one was a nylon string guitar. I forget what the make was. It was state of the art (laughing). It was good enough. It sounded cool. And then I got a, actually, I got a really great guitar a few years later. I got an ES175, which is a Gibson. And then I also was into, I had a Fender guitar too. I’ve kind of settled on this Telecaster, or Telecaster style guitar, which is what I use. I use two now. One is a Tele that was made for Tele style like a Fender, but it’s not a Fender. It’s a custom guitar made for me. Somebody in Boston who used to see me play a lot when I was using a Telecaster, which was Danny Gatton’s old guitar. Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan. Danny got it from Roy and I got it from Danny. It was an amazing guitar, but it got ripped off. When I was in Boston, some kid pulled a gun on me so, he had a persuasive argument and I let it go, which is a drag. But this guy who builds guitars used to see me play with that guitar all the time and so he made me some kind of guitar that looks like a Tele, but it’s really not.

FJ: Who knew that Boston was such a high crime area?

MS: Well, every city can be. I just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. But since then, Yamaha has also made a signature model for me, which I was certainly delighted about. They designed it after this custom guitar that I use, so I use this custom guitar and I use the Yamaha guitar. They’re very similar.

FJ: Getting back to Boston for a moment, you studied at Berklee and it was during that time that you met Pat Metheny during that time.

MS: Well, it’s hard to say. I wasn’t really studying with Pat. We, kind of, he was teaching there and he was about twelve at the time (laughing). He was like nineteen of something. I was about twenty. I heard him play and I heard his reputation and stuff and I said, “Well, I’d really love to study with him.” And I went in and we played a standard tune and I hit all the wrong notes and he said, “Man, sounds great.” So after that, we just played. He would just come in with whatever he was writing or whatever we was working on or some tunes that he taught would be fun for us to play and we would just play. He would suggest a couple of things, so it wasn’t teaching in a formal sense.

FJ: So it was more like an instrumental think tank?

MS: We were just playing to tell you the truth, Fred. It was really just playing and he’d say, “Yeah, sounds cool.” It wasn’t so specific. He was more supportive. I think of him, he was just very supportive in helping me to gain my confidence or something in some ways. I tend to be self-critical in a lot of ways, which is useful to me. That was the deal with him. He was just really supportive. And like I said, I tend to be, and certainly was then, very self-critical in some ways, which is a good thing, a positive things in some ways because it keeps you growing. In some ways, it’s not so great because it can get you really insecure. He used to say that I had some stuff going on that he seemed to hear and it took a minute for me to kind of relax about it and get some confidence in playing. He just suggested that I play more and just push past whatever doubts I had and all that stuff and play as many real situations as possible, so he got this audition with Blood, Sweat, and Tears and they were looking for a guitar player and so he recommended me for the audition. I went and I got the gig, all the while trying to talk myself out of doing it. But then, I went ahead and did it and it was great. It was a really good learning experience and a fantastic band actually.

FJ: Let’s talk about your days with the before mentioned Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

MS: That was great for me. First of all, Jaco Pastorius was in the band for about three months, right before he joined Weather Report. He played with Blood, Sweat, and Tears. And he was killing, Fred. Larry Willis was the piano player, who is amazing. I think he is playing with Roy Hargrove. He’s played with Cannonball, with everybody. He’s an amazing piano player. The bass player, when I first joined the band, right before Jaco joined, was Ronald McClure for a while, another fantastic player. The horn section was amazing. Different cats came in and out, but they were all fantastic players. For me, it was great, but I was terrified. I was a little bit nervous to do it. After about six months or so, I settled into it and I learned a lot from that gig. David Clayton-Thomas was singing and I think he’s still got that band together. And at that time, Bobby Colomby was still the drummer and then they changed up. I was there for about two years and they changed it to Roy McCurdy was the drummer after that. He’s a fantastic drummer. Don Alias played drums for a while. He’s actually a percussionist, but he also plays great drums. He played drums there for a while and played percussion for a while. It was a bunch of fantastic players. I played rock and blues gigs in DC, where I grew up before then and then all of the sudden I was in this situation of playing a lot bigger venues and playing with that band. It can focus the brain a little bit. It got me in a very real situation where I had to deal with whatever you have to deal with in a real live situation. It was fun. I learned a lot just from the players and the whole experience.

FJ: Let’s touch on your tenure in Miles Davis’s band.

MS: After Blood, Sweat, and Tears, I went back to Boston and I was playing just a lot of more straight-ahead bebop gigs. I had been playing some before Blood, Sweat, and Tears in Boston, but much more when I went back to Boston. I started playing with this guy, Jerry Bergonzi.

FJ: Very good tenor player.

MS: Yes, he’s one of the great tenor players. He’s an amazing tenor saxophone player. The cat is killing. So I played with him a bunch and also with this guy Tiger Okoshi in a kind of more electric jazz kind of setting.

FJ: Good trumpet player.

MS: Great trumpet player. I played with him for years. Actually, Fred, me and Bill Frisell used to play in the same band. Sometimes we’d play gigs together with Tiger. We were in Tiger’s band. He played before me. I played in that band for a while. And then after that, I got a call to play with Billy Cobham about another year, just after Blood, Sweat, and Tears. I spent a year in Boston just playing with those two guys, mainly, and then some other gigs that were pretty much straight-ahead. Then I got a call to play with Billy Cobham and I played with him for about a year. I had played at this one little place in Boston. I played a gig with Bill Evans, the saxophone player, playing just some standards. Bill really liked my playing and he said, “You know, I’m working with Miles Davis now. We’re recording. We’re actually getting ready to go on the road and if some reason it doesn’t work out with the guitar player he already has, I’ll let Miles know about you and see if that works out.” I said, “Gee, that would be nice.” But I didn’t think anything of it. I thought, “That’s not going to ever happen.” So I was playing with Billy Cobham in this tour that I did close to a year and I was playing in New York City and Bill Evans called me up and actually, we were taking a break. We were at the Bottom Line in New York and Bill Evans called me and said, “Guess who I’m bringing to the gig to check you out?” I went, “Oh shit!” I guess he liked what he heard because he hired me and I played with the band, with his band for about three years. It was a fantastic experience with Al Foster playing drums, Marcus Miller on bass, and Mino Cinelu on percussion, and Bill Evans on saxophone, and Miles.

FJ: As one of the legends of this music, Miles’s persona has been subject to so much speculation. Having spent such a prolonged residency with him, you have first hand knowledge of his demeanor.

MS: He’s a great cat in a lot of ways. I mean, difficult, a little nuts, but not as crazy or as mysterious as people perceive. People write all kinds of stuff just from first impressions, but if you talked to him, he was a lot more down home then some people realized and also could be incredibly supportive. I did a gig where he got so much attention because he had been in retirement for like seven or eight years and all of the sudden he came back and he was like a superstar. I’m playing with him and playing in New York. I moved to New York because of that gig. It was an exciting time and some kind of pressure also to play with Miles. He was great. He just said, “Just play and have a ball. You play your ass off.” He was always just very supportive, the kind of thing that people don’t realize about Miles. He could be really very sensitive in a lot of ways. Obviously, I think that was his gift and also the price he had to pay for whatever his gift was. He was very sensitive. Once again, it was like starting over. It was such a special situation that I was nervous about it, and he was just really supportive about it. In general, Miles was much more sensitive and much more compassionate. He certainly had a side like that, that people never knew. If you knew him, you got that sense. And then of course, he had a more difficult side to him when he’d get pissed off about stuff, kind of like everyone else I know (laughing). That’s kind of a normal thing, but with Miles, maybe it was a little bit more extreme. He was a lot warmer than a lot of people think. Sometimes, I think, people characterize him as kind of more mysterious and a bad motherf—er, you know, this and that, but he was a lot more sensitive and warmer than people gave him credit for, at least that was the vibe I got. I always hear that in his playing, for sure. I feel like you can’t hide who you really are. If you play long enough and a chance to develop your own voice, it comes out. You can hear the gentle Miles, you know what I mean, Fred? The essence of his soul definitely came through in his playing and that’s the way he was.

FJ: The same trappings that Miles’s persona fell prey to occurred with another musician you have played with, Jaco Pastorius.

MS: He was like a really good friend of mine, an amazingly good friend of mine and we just hung out all the time, played all the time, and were kind of crazy together all the time, which was the way some of those years were. I worked with him with Word of Mouth and we used to play together constantly, just jam together, standards. He’d come over and stay in my place in New York and we’d just play a lot. I played with Jaco, as I already said, with Blood, Sweat, and Tears and when he was with Blood, Sweat, and Tears, he was just coming out of Florida. People knew about him in Florida, but a lot of people hadn’t heard him. No one ever heard a groove played that hard. He was killing. I played with his band, like I said, and it was a great experience. We were just real tight and I really miss him, obviously. He left a lot of really great music behind, but I wish he was still around because he was a sweetheart, a really great cat. Just to know him personally was great, also the same kinds of things as Miles, very difficult in a lot of ways sometimes, but he was a really great cat and an amazing musician.

FJ: Is Jaco’s life tragic in that his mark on the music may have been something much more heavier had it not been for his untimely death?

MS: I think he could have done more, most certainly more people would have heard about him if he were still around, but more than that, just knowing him as a friend, even if he decided to put down the bass, I’d still want to hang with him a lot. We were just really close friends, so on that level it’s really just a tragedy. It’s always a tragedy when someone dies at such a young age. It was a tragedy for his family and all his close friends. I think musically, there was a lot more in him and a lot more people would have heard of him. But the other side of it, Fred, is that he did leave a lot of great music behind, which is forever.

FJ: In his day, was he the best bass player in the world?

MS: It’s hard to say best or worst with anybody I think because people have their own, after a certain point, if you do stuff enough, I think you kind of have your own voice and your own heart comes out in music and it’s like up for grabs. It’s just a taste kind of a thing. Certainly, I have played with amazing players and to me on some nights, I hear them do what they do better than anybody. They’ve got their own voice so it’s really hard to say best or worst. But he was amazing. He was really amazing. One of the things that I loved about him could play the electric bass and make it sound like an upright. He definitely had that kind of a concept. When he was swinging, it was swinging. And that’s hard to do on the electric bass. I think Lincoln Goines does that amazingly well. It’s a hard thing to do, to make it sound like that and that kind of legato. He was swinging.

FJ: Throughout your career you have frequently collaborated with Michael Brecker, you were in a group with him called Steps Ahead.

MS: He has been on a bunch of my records with Atlantic Records, which I am happy about because it’s been a long stay at the same label and they’ve been cool with me. They’ve kind of let me do what I want to do. They have suggestions but no one forces my hand in terms of if I want to try something new. So that’s been great. Brecker is on about three, maybe four of mine and we’ve played together a lot. He’s a very close friend and a fantastic musician and a great writer as well. I worked with him in Steps Ahead, originally, with Mike Mainieri, Darryl Jones, the bass player, and Steve Smith. It was a really fun band. And then I worked with Mike in his band right after that. That was also a great experience. He’s like the most, in some ways, the most, of all the guys that I’ve gotten a chance to work with, he includes all the musicians in shaping the sound of the band. He definitely has his own ideas and his own concepts, but he asks everybody their opinions. If anybody has an idea he is down to try it. He is open that way. In some ways, I think I’ve learned more, if not as much, than from anybody else I’ve ever worked with. He’s just an amazing musician.

FJ: Let’s touch on your last album GIVE AND TAKE and your latest Atlantic release PLAY.

MS: That one was really, just the whole album was really fun to make because like it was with DeJohnette, who I played with a little bit, but not much. And boy, is he a special drummer, Fred. Because he plays great piano also, he’s just got a sense for hearing everything that’s going on and kind of playing around it. I guess the more, from what people have told me that have worked with him a lot, the more he feels comfortable, when he feels like the time is taken care of by all the players, he feels like he doesn’t have to play time so much. He can just color the music in certain ways and do like amazingly unpredictable things, which he does a lot of, certainly on that CD, I think. I loved the way it came out because of that, because of his playing and John Patitucci’s playing and they’ve played together some and so he felt really comfortable with John, and of course Mike is on there too. And he just plays great on that CD. But the trio stuff was in some ways the most fun that we did. So when we did the trio stuff, we did a bunch of trio stuff. I couldn’t use it all on the CD. A lot of stuff came out that was pretty good but I had to pick and choose. One of the things that we did was “Giant Steps” and we did it playing ahead and in front and then playing solos. Some of the trio stuff, I just called the tunes, some tunes that I had in mind that I knew everybody knew. Sometimes we just started playing the stuff and the tape was rolling. So with “Giant Steps,” we did two or three versions, one that was even faster then the one on the album. Actually, Jack suggested, “Just start on it and don’t play the head until the end.” So I did. We did that. We just started right from the blowing and we played the melody at the end and the vibe was really cool and Patitucci, of course, is an amazing player. That was a fun, just that whole couple of days of doing that, that record was really fun.

FJ: And that leads us to PLAY, which has the three most phenomenal guitarists of my generation, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and yourself.

MS: Thank you, Fred. Thank you. I guess you have heard the record.

FJ: It’s is a kick ass record.

MS: Oh, man, Fred, I appreciate that a lot. Well, that was really fun for me. It was the same kind of idea that I had in min with GIVE AND TAKE. It was like, since I’ve made now, GIVE AND TAKE was the eighth record for Atlantic and this is the ninth, PLAY, I want to try to do different things. In the past, I have used so of the same people on records, and it still has got different stuff, I’m always trying to change stuff, but it was a little bit, these last to for me were a little bit more adventurous. I was using people more at the last minute and maybe it’s not the band that I have been touring with so much, that kind of thing. I still wanted to get the band that I had been touring with on this record as well, so I kind of wanted, same thing with GIVE AND TAKE, I kind of like went for it in some ways without trying to arrange everything. Just keep it kind of loose. I wanted to, it was kind of last minute, I had some tunes and I thought maybe this is the record to do one of those things that I’ve always said I want to do eventually, which is to record with John Scofield and Bill Frisell, who were friends of mine for years. I have never had another guitar player on anyone of mine. I just felt that this was the time to do that and I called Bill and Sco and they both said that they would be into it. We just kind of went for it. I had some music that I kind of tweaked a little bit and a couple new tunes that I wrote with those guys in mind and thinking, “This would fit Sco’s style great and this would fit Frisell.” It seemed like it worked out. And then I did this stuff with them and then I wanted to do some stuff with my own band, with Bob Malach on tenor saxophone and Dennis Chambers on drums and Lincoln Goines on bass. Lincoln plays on this whole CD, but the other drummer that plays with the other guitar players is Ben Perowsky, a drummer that I’ve played with a lot. He’s a great, great player. With my band, I just kind of did it on, it was one day with Frisell or a day and a half with Frisell and then a day with John Scofield and then a day with my own band. At the end of it, I tried to sequence it and it was no problem. I thought it was going to take it out of the thing of just being guitarists and maybe I should get another guitar player in addition to Frisell and Sco and keep it all in that kind of thing because it might be too defused as a record if all of the sudden there is a saxophone and not two guitars. It seemed like it worked out great. I like it better in regards to that in some ways. It’s just that it is not a guitar kind of record. I don’t really think of those guys as, I know they are guitarists, of course, but Sco and Frisell, I think of them as such complete musicians, who happen to play guitar. They are a couple of my favorite musicians too. They are just fantastic overall musicians. They are great writers and have really strong concepts on where they want to go musically and that kind of thing.

FJ: If this were a pop album, what would the first single from PLAY be?

MS: I’d say maybe the second tune or “Small World” or maybe that tune, “All Heart.” Bill Frisell plays acoustic guitar on it.

FJ: Let’s talk about someone whom you have worked with for an extensive period, a monster drummer, Dennis Chambers.

MS: (Laughing) He really is. He’s, all these guys are such good friends. That really, to me that’s so important in the music, the whole vibe. That’s as important as anything else in some ways. If there is a guys who is an absolute motherf—er and you don’t get along that well on a personal level, for me, that wouldn’t work. I couldn’t tour with somebody like that. Sometimes you hear about stuff like that where people don’t even talk to each other but they play. I couldn’t hang with that. I am certainly lucky to be playing with all these guys and they’re all such really good friends too. Dennis, I’ve known him for years. We’ve been working together for years in different kind of situations. He was in a band with me and Bob Berg. Lincoln and Dennis were the rhythm section. But Dennis, man, he keeps getting better and better, which is kind of amazing because when I first heard him, I was completely blown away. He’s got some really unique stuff happening. He’s rock solid. He’s got amazing time. His groove is really deep. It’s phenomenal. But the more he plays in this setting, he plays a lot more straight-ahead, a lot more swinging stuff. He’s really getting strong at that and what he is doing solo-wise is just incredible. Sometimes we’d play a vamp and we’d just kind of play over this static kind of vamp on a couple of tunes that I kind of wrote. I wrote them with Dennis in mind and just, kind of, a drum, a feature for the drummer, whoever the drummer is and most of the time, it’s Dennis, to kind of play over this vamp, and Dennis takes it out. It’s literally like playing a different tune over this vamp, so it’s really hard to keep the time. I feel like at the end of one of Dennis’s solos in this kind of context, I feel like taking a bow just for keeping the time. He really played like either like right behind the beat or right on top of it or in a totally different time feel and it’s so strong, so it sounds almost Charles Ives-y. It’s like two things happening at once. It’s really kind of deep. The way Dennis thinks of it, it’s so home grown. It’s so underground. It’s nothing like I’m doing this over that or metric modulation. It’s just, “Oh yeah, that’s the way I’m feeling.” It’s just like this straight-ahead kind of way of coming up with some amazingly complex shit. It’s really cool. He’s great. He’s an amazing player.

FJ: I would never have believed it if I had not seen it with my own eyes, but I have seen Dennis take a twenty-five minute drum solo. I know because I timed him. Does he take those extended solos while he is on tour with you?

MS: Oh yeah, and sometimes I want him to and then at certain time, logistically, it’s kind of a drag because you want to play longer and sometimes you just can’t. The club says that it’s an hour and fifteen for the whole thing. That’s like about a solo for Dennis (laughing). But a lot of times, we get to stretch and everybody kind of stretches out in a live setting, especially with that band. Bob Malach also is just a ridiculously great player. I’m really fortunate to have that group together and I hope to be keeping that band together for a while. There is another guy that I play with a lot who also is I think a fantastic drummer that sometimes does a gig, Richie Morales, who used to play with Brecker Brothers. He played with Spyro Gyra for a while when they were actually at the top of their commercial success, which was, he was great at that gig too, but he’s real strong suit is actually more about really playing and swinging and he can go in a whole bunch of different directions, similar to Dennis and all those guys. He’s got a lot of depth to his musicality so he’s another cat that I love working with. I’ve really been lucky to get some great musicians. I don’t know how they put up with me. Thank God they do.

FJ: Tour plans?

MS: A lot of stuff is in Europe. I’ve been doing some stuff in the States, in Los Angeles, DC, and in New York. Now I’m going to Europe with a special project actually, this bass player, Chris Minh Doky (Doky Brothers), who is from Denmark and we’re playing in Denmark and Ben Perowsky, who plays on PLAY and this tenor player, this fantastic tenor player who I’ve been working with a lot lately. That’s kind of a special project in the middle of, at the end of October, beginning of November. And then I’m going to Brazil with the group I was just talking about, with Dennis. And then it’s December. I know I will be doing some stuff at the Blue Note with that same band in February in New York. There is some stuff in the middle before that. Then we’re going to Europe in the middle of March, end of April. I’ll post all that stuff on the home page.

FJ: What’s the home page address?

Mike Phillips (MP): Most good man, how about yourself?

Smitty: Alright, feeling good, especially after the last couple of nights! (laughing)

MP: Man, it was crazy.

Smitty: Yeah, did we have a great time, or what?

MP: Man, especially times when people were just on their feet, waving their hands, it was awesome, I enjoyed it.

Smitty: Oh yeah, it was cool. We are always happy to have you come back, so it was a great couple of nights of great music, and it’s always that way when Mike Phillips comes in to Houston.

MP: No doubt, no doubt. You know how we like to bring it. We like to bring a lot of energy, a lot of fun and incorporate different things in the music and show people how different things can connect. We can all have fun.

Smitty: We definitely did that! Let’s talk about this new record. When You Have Reached Mike Phillips was released, a lot of fans were able to reach you because of this great album and now you’ve released Uncommon Denominator. Talk to me about how you continue to connect with your fans and with new fans with this new record.

MP: I think that You Have Reached Mike Phillips was just self-explanatory. It’s an introduction, it’s like everybody up here is happy to be a part of this young man, this is my reason, my individuality, you know, and there’s so many different flavors that pertain to this format. I just wanted to make sure that I can look in the mirror and stay true to the flavor I can bring to it, and You Have Reached Mike Phillips was that. It was like, ‘listen everybody, this is me’. Uncommon Denominator, you know, I took about three years between the first and the second record but between that time I’ve done the Musicology tour with Prince and, I’ve toured with Stevie Wonder. When you’re around those icons you have to have the ability to grow as a musician. Just being around Prince, he has a habit of just growing and making sure that musically you’re always changing and everything, growing and morphing into something that isn’t like before. So Uncommon Denominator, it culminates from the spirit of that, which is growth, which is connecting with new things and doing some things a little bit different, but still staying to the fire and emotion that I want people to hear every time I put my lips to the horn.

Smitty: And you were Philly last night, you weren’t Mike Phillips last night, you were Philly!

MP: Oh no doubt, no doubt

Smitty: (Laughing) That was too cool. I think that’s a great statement you just made because I know during the Musicology tour with Prince you can’t help but grow with him, and what a tour that was.

MP: Yeah, it was the number one grossing tour last year and for me to be, you know, a smooth jazz artist and to be a part of that, to see how big things can get, not to stay in the box that has developed and the genre of our music but to see how things can get when you combine different genres and add things and have the music appeal to more people than the box can deliver. It’s beautiful. So to be a sideman next to these great musicians, it helped me in my mindset as to what I want to accomplish as a solo artist.

Smitty: It’s interesting that you made those comments about Prince because he had some pretty strong accolades for you as well after watching you play on his tour, you know, he was amazed by the way you connect with the fans at the live shows, he was amazed at how you were able to peak their emotions by the music you were delivering at each show so, there was sort of an interchange of compliments there with the both of you making it quite a unique collaboration.

MP: Yes and when I read that in Rolling Stone……his compliments came as he was coming back on stage; because I take a 10 minute break’, he takes a 10 minute break and gets changed and I come out then and play my little solo and what he said in Rolling Stone that ‘when I get back out on stage I want to get to the level that Mike Phillips was on’, when that’s quoted, it actually gave me goose bumps, man (laughing), that this dude, not only is he a great artist but he can sit back and appreciate something and give it the most highest compliment and so, from Prince, that’s a scary compliment! (laughing). It’s kind of two-fold, I’m happy he said it but I’m like ummmmm, I don’t know, it scares me! (laughing) But I’m glad that the spirit and the emotion moved him to say that, what a beautiful compliment. Speaking of that I think my threesome is, Art Porter, George Howard and Grover (Washington Jr.), and the big difference is that you felt something when they played, they just weren’t playing pretty notes, you felt the emotion.

Smitty: Yeah, absolutely

MP: Grover, Art Porter and George Howard, if they look down at me and if I make them proud, I know that I’ve accomplished the aspect of giving everything that’s in my soul and in my heart. So people can feel it and that’s what the whole premise of the Mike Phillips experience is.

Smitty: It’s a beautiful thing. I must tell you that, because each time that I’ve seen your live performance, I noticed not just the level of your music but how the fans come to your level as fans in their emotions.

MP: It’s a great thing because I cover the Frankie Beverly song, We Are One. Literally when there’s a concert or where there’s a gig, that’s exactly what it is. I give it to you, they give it to me and we are all co-existing in this one musical umbrella of me giving it to people appreciating it and moving in a circle.

Smitty: It’s truly an amazing experience. You’ve traveled with Stevie Wonder, you’ve collaborated with Rochelle Farrell, Wayman Tisdale, Jonathan Butler, Babyface, Boyz2men, Jill Scott, I mean the list goes on of a who’s who in music, period. No doubt you’ve got to have taken some beautiful elements of life from those experiences as well. Talk to me about how you’ve incorporated those experiences into the Mike Philly thing.

MP: Well, for 100 percent I remember I was one of those guys, like when I was in 10th grade or even younger, we used to hang out on the corner and one guy does the beat box and I would do my rhythmic thing, we’d always think that we would grow up to be Jay Z or something like that (laughing). I think that whole aspect of what hiphop is, what great music is and how it’s done is truly a part of my presentation, not because it sounds cool, because it’s a part of who I am. So when I have a track that’s hiphop oriented, I’m that same type of dude that was out on the corner, I’m battling somebody, you know, I want to have a hiphop freestyle battle (musically), you know. So even when you hear me on a rap, I relate to that stuff because I am that stuff. Now, mind you, I can put on a suit and we can go the wineries and we can play and I can have my linen shirt on and linen pants and blowing in the wind and, that’s cool too because I appreciate the aspect of embracing the fact that you have to attain some level of versatility. However, keep in mind that even when Bird, Trane and all those guys, Dizzy, they started experimenting with Bebop, that stuff came from the ghetto, it came from the inner city, Kansas City and those places like that where Bebop would just pop up out of nowhere. It didn’t start in what you call the high echelon aspect of musical society so, I think even embracing hiphop, embracing other elements that are grass roots and ground breaking, that’s the spirit of what Bebop was from the beginning.

Smitty: Yes, absolutely man, and you’ve really done a unique job of blending those cultures in your music today and I think that’s why it’s embraced so much by your fans because I think many of them remember that era, and then you have some that perhaps have not even experienced that but it’s so cool for them to be, the appreciative newbies of this style of music.

MP: Oh yeah.

Smitty: So, not only have you pulled those cultures together but you’ve gotten into some pretty high profile events yourself, such as sporting events, the NBA Finals, the US Open, the Ronald MacDonald House charity, you were on tour with the charity tour with Venus and Serena Williams.

MP: With Venus and Serena, which I just recently spoke to, I kind of expressed that, I’m in Houston now and the bad thing about that is now I’m not going to be able to see them play at the US Open, but, you know, I’ve got to hold it down, I’ve got to support the record.

Smitty: When I heard you were on tour with them, I got real jealous (laughing).

MP: Well, you know, I’ll get Serena to send you a picture.

Smitty: Oh please! (laughing)

MP: You see, my thing is, being that sometimes the business of smooth jazz not embracing something different, sometimes I have to take the alternative routes. So, looking at the grass -roots clubs, the fact that I can go on tour with Venus and Serena, and you know, hit and make impressions on 30,000 people when they are playing tennis, and I’ll come out and do the national anthem, and they also have me to play a song when they change sets. Another thing is hooking up with the historically black colleges like FAMU and Tennessee State; when they have the Battle of the Bands, I’ll be there, I’ll be in the middle helping do the battle and then I’ll come out and play a song and that’s 70,000 people in one stadium. Hooking up with the NBA, the NFL and doing the national anthems and all the college the NCAA and all of these different things. It allows me to build a grass-roots foundation without getting on my knees and begging the infrastructure who control what happens to let me in. Now, I’m sure that the record is good enough to be sanctioned for the format, but at the end of the day I think you get more attention by being more pro-active in your career. And then when they sanction it and when BA and all the other smooth jazz stations finally sign off on it, then I’m cool because I’m so excited about being involved with the format. I think we have to find different ways to reach another generation because there’s a whole next level of college kids and younger generation of people that are ready to experiment and get into the format, but the environment right now in this format is not breathing the next generation. So, at the end of the day, we are going to be stuck in the old format if we don’t reach out and do innovative things to get the next wave of people that will support this great format and I’m doing that right now.

Smitty: I totally agree with you, because you’ve got to have creativity, you’ve got to have growth in anything you do. If you don’t grow, then what happens? You eventually wither away.

MP: Exactly and then I want this format to survive so that the next Mike Philly or the next Grover, the next whoever, 35 years after this can have a shot and, not only play some great music but have a built-in fan base that when they do their thing in the format they will be appreciated.

Smitty: Very well stated.

MP: You know, when you talk about the format and the growth of the format, I can’t think about how I’m going get my style, obviously as a musician who has accomplished a little in my small time in the music industry, I’ve never missed a meal. So it’s not about me but it is about making sure that the next generation of musicians are properly set up so that they can enjoy the hard work. You look at John Coltrane and these great musicians who played during his era, after they finished playing a gig, they could not even sit down and eat everyone, they had to go to the back or sit where the garbage was. Then, that made life easier of Quincy (Jones) which made life easier for Grover (Washington Jr.), which made life easier for Wayne (Shorter)… you see what I’m saying, so now, it’s still legacy, whether you want to view it like that or not. What I feel I have to do is truly just stick to my guns of being who I am and maybe an executive will understand how cool that is, and the next dude that’s ready to do what I’m doing but on a whole other high level will be ready to insert himself into the business and give the next generation of listeners great music.

Smitty: We appreciate you for what you’ve done in the music world because you’ve definitely torn down some walls and opened some new doors as well and it’s a wonderful thing. So, let’s talk about this record, man, because I’m really digging it. You already know my favorite track on the whole record is If it takes all Night (laughing)

MP: You’ve been listening to that message! (laughing)

Smitty: I’m a good listener, man. (laughing)

MP: Yeah, that song is for all the brothers, like, if it takes all night, you’ve got to make it happen!

Smitty: That’s right (laughing)

MP: I think it’s one of the sexiest songs on the album. I always tease people and say if you’re not trying to have any babies then you have to listen to track 4! (laughing)

Smitty: That’s cool. You’ve done something else that’s not common, speaking of Uncommon Denominator; you’ve done something that’s not so common. There are 16 tracks on this record. So you’ve given everyone their money’s worth, they’re not only getting quality but they’re getting quantity too.

MP: I feel that’s highly important now. Sometimes we might, how it works is, you get a budget and the less songs you do, you know, the less money you spend. The less money you spend, if you don’t spend you’re budget money then you can get it back. My goal was never to turn around and see how much money I could keep. It was always based around the fans and even delivering 16 tracks is the same thing because you split up all your budget money to make these songs, but at the end of the day, when people have a great choice, they like 80 percent of the album that’s still more songs than what one album would normally have. 80 percent of my album would be 13 songs, so I just wanted to diversify and do some different things but also raise the track amounts so people can have a variety of music that they truly enjoy. Because people are not going to like every single track, but if you can diversify and slip in a little bit of Latin over here, and do hiphop here, and do some fusion with some cool and different changes. Then you get to bounce around and people will overall like the product, because you tried as an artist to do so many different things within the context of the record without it being too confusing. I appreciate the fans so much that, this record, I just had to put it out there and do something that they can truly enjoy and have a choice, a huge amount of track choices.

Smitty: Very Cool! Talk to me a little about some of the cats on this record because you’ve got some great musicians. I see that you mentioned Wayman Tisdale that was cool of you.

MP: Yeah, if it wasn’t for Wayman I wouldn’t even be in this format. He’s one of the guys that, I was playing in the clubs in New York, he picked me up and was like, ‘listen, I want you to play a gig with me’. After I played that gig with him, I kind of looked at what he was doing and said ‘you know what, one day I want to be a part of this community, of this jazz community’ but, without Wayman taking me under his wing and exposing me to what it is to be a part of this, I would never have gotten the opportunity to even deliver the music to people that are now Mike Phillip fans.

Smitty: Yeah, I know. He’s a cool cat.

MP: Yeah, He’s a cool cat. Jeff Lorber, we did the single Heartbeat of the City, and Rex Rideout.

Smitty: Yeah, Mr. Club 1600!

MP: So, it’s a lot of great musicians and producers. The thing on this record, I wanted to keep the guests to a minimum because I didn’t want this record to have a compilation feeling to it. So I had some great producers and musicians, this was solely from start to finish a Mike Phillips record because when you look at it, a typical album sometimes can have like 11 tracks and, you have maybe 5 or 6 featured artists, so now you have 70 percent of your album being done with or by other people. I think it just sends a wrong message in what it means to do your album so people can feel what you do from start to finish. If it’s a compilation concept like Unwrapped, then that’s cool because you have different artists, you’ve got different guests but I think a personal albums need to be so much more of a statement of who and what the person is trying to play.

Smitty: They get Mike Phillips on Mike Phillips record.

MP: Even though my first record was titled You Have Reached Mike Phillips, I want that to always happen. When it’s time for a Mike Phillips record I want you to always reach me.

Smitty: You’ve accomplished that goal with both albums, but it’s nice to have a couple of cats on there that can mix it up a little.

MP: Yeah, and that’s why we put Jeff on Heartbeat of the City and he also did an organ solo on We are one. He killed it! Frankie Beverly heard it and he flipped out! So, I mean, I have great musicians just to add some spice and some life to the record other than what we can do ourselves. It’s a great blessing to have a guy of that caliber on my record.

Smitty: Yes indeed. This is a great album, well constructed with a lot of fire and with a lot of open doors where people can see some different shades and some different sides of music and the creativity of music, I should say. You’ve really mastered this CD quite well and mixed it slick It comes over really well, and I think it’s important to make a record that you can really expand upon in a live setting and I think you accomplish that every night. I think that’s very important.

MP: Yes, yes, it is. I’m just truly happy when I’m out there for all the fans out there that understand that I am different and that embrace me. When you look at the title Uncommon Denominator, I was reading the Miles Davis biography…. and he and his father, they were listening to a Mockingbird so Miles father said to him ‘do you know what that is?’ and Miles was like ‘No’ and his father said ‘what you hear is a Mockingbird’ and a Mockingbird’s responsibility is to listen to every other bird and emulate the sound, and as Miles Davis father said ‘you are not that Mockingbird, I want you to have your own sound’ so, you know, just the whole energy of Uncommon Denominator is being influenced by all the people who influenced me, from Grover, Trane, Sonny Rollins, taking all of these and throwing them in the pot and then looking in the mirror and saying ‘what is my individuality?’ and throwing that in the pot and mixing it up and coming up with something I can truly authentically say is Mike Phillips. Although I’ve been influenced by so many people and I’ve absorbed that influence, but when I’ve sprinkled my little fingerprints on it and mixed it up into something that truly and authentically comes from my heart’. I’m thankful for even having people’s ears to listen and then to appreciate it, that’s nothing but love.

Smitty: Yes it is, and I’m sure you appreciate the love of Hidden Beach. I heard you mentioning it at the show last night, the love of Hidden Beach, to allow you to put this record together, the last record and really let it flourish and let people enjoy it.

MP: Yeah because, I mean, Hidden Beach, what I like to call these albums nowadays is the CCCA, Cheerfully, Corporately, Consulted Albums where the labels will sit you down and say ‘OK, we’ve have to do this because we have to reach this criteria’ ,’we have to do this, no we can’t not this, blah, blah, blah’, Hidden Beach never, from day one did things in the spirit of that. I feel that’s a point because at the end of the day what Steve McKeever told me, He said ‘if you don’t know what you want to do, then I cannot help you’. So that was him signing off on the confidence in my individuality to come up with something that can authentically, truly be a style that I would be proud of and Hidden Beach would be ready to market and promote.

Smitty: Yes, give it up for Hidden Beach.

MP: So, I’m just happy to have a label that allows me to, you know, I can..

Smitty: Do your thing.

MP: Yeah, do my thing and just, just like Ray Charles said in the movie “Ray” ‘Make it do, what it do’ (laughing) and I make it do, what it do! (laughing)

Smitty: Yeah (laughing) I like that. That’s a great example, I like that.

MP: Yeah, I’m going to quote that ‘I’m going to make it do what it do’.

Smitty: Well Mike it’s been real this past weekend and just a beautiful experience to have you back in town and hanging with you and mixing it up with the music, you know, and just doing the overall ‘hang’.

MP: Definitely man, I’d love you to give the inside about what you saw in the show, how the hiphop elements had people flipping out. I think it’s really important for people to understand the energy that they haven’t experienced yet and just having good guys like you within the media to really let people understand where I’m coming from. I’m really glad I have this outlet to speak to you so then you can crunch the information and speak to the people that I’ll never be able to speak to, but you can speak to them, with you being the media. So, thank you so much Smitty, you’re my man for real.

Smitty: Hey,that’s the real about it. I’m just glad you’re out there still creating and making great music. Keep doing your thing my friend.

MP: Well, it’s nothing but love, my brother.

Smitty: Yes, indeed. Alright Mike, and hey. Let’s do it again man, let’s do it again.

MP: Keep in touch with your boy too.

Smitty: Yeah man, you know it. We’ve been talking with the incomparable Mike Phillips, his great new album, Uncommon Denominator, this is one you’ve got to put in your CD changer. I highly recommend this album. Mike, thanks so much, thanks to everyone at Hidden Beach and please come back and visit with us again.

JazzUSA: Congratulations on your latest CD Impure Thoughts. We have received a lot of interest from our readers, and as you know, John Barrett, Jr. was the first to bring it to our attention here at JazzUSA.com. How did the concept for the project come about?

MW: To tell you the truth, there were two reasons. First of all, I just grew up listening to all kinds of music and I always loved music from Africa and South America and that kind of music. Being a jazz lover, I love music by Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley who both had experimented with those different kinds of music. Second, my first gigs were with Cal Tjader, who is the Latin jazz vibist, and the second was with Airto Moriera and Flora Purim from Brazil — so I was always drawn to that kind of music. After doing a lot of straight-ahead music for the last five or six years, I thought I’d do something different. I hear a lot of World music, in addition to spending a lot of time in Europe – particularly in Paris — so I just wanted to put that music into what I was playing…especially those beats.

JazzUSA: It sounds great. I’d like to focus on a few aspects of the music from the three components of music: rhythm, harmony and melody. First, in the harmonic sense, you’ve based the music more on Middle Eastern scales, which is a big change in the harmonic sense of your playing. Why did you choose this particular approach for Impure Thoughts?

MW: I’d just been listening to…particularly working with the tabla, Badal Roy and the tabla,and that instrument just has that feeling (harmonic) to it for me. The way that the tabla is played is a swinging kind of jazz instrument in that way and yet I think that the tones that I hear out of it just seem to fit. You know in Indian music, it’s all based on one major tone; they don’t modulate. They just have everything in one key so they have many more notes. We have 12 notes in our chromatic scale and they have a lot more. Just having those scales (Middle Eastern) just seemed to me that they would feel like there would be more colors going on within a root.

JazzUSA: The band is playing a lot of music around drone tones and as a result, the tone colors we hear from you are constantly developing and lay the groundwork for the next theme or subject of the improvisation. This is especially strong on the opening track, “Eritrea” and on “Euphoria.”

MW: Right.

JazzUSA: The mix of African and Indian beats and sounds is especially intriguing and mystical. I really like the compositional synthesis of Badal Roy’s tablas with John B. Williams’ bass and your piano underlining the musical centers of the songs. Was there a particular circumstance or event that shaped “Eritrea?”

MW: Yes, actually my mother and stepfather took a trip to Eritrea and Ethiopia about five years ago. They travel all over the world and usually bring back music from all these places. This particular CD had Arabic writing and I had no idea what it was! So I listened to it, and I heard this mix of Indian and African music so that was really the inspiration for that. Also there was a guy named John Cartwright who worked for many years with Harry Belafonte who had traveled a lot in Africa. He had some different sample beats on a drum machine. So I put those two things together again and came up with that tune. That was the whole basis for the concept for the whole band and the CD.

JazzUSA: That’s cool! The title track, “Impure Thoughts” features Alex Foster out front on the saxophone stating the melody. He seems to abandon himself to the flow of music, immersing himself in the magic of the musical thought, so to speak…sort of like a Sonny Rollins kind of vibe! Had you been playing together a lot?

MW: Alex and I have known each other for over 20 years! He and I moved from the San Francisco area so we’ve had many bands together. He and I breathe together. He and I and John B. Williams have been playing together for years. Whatever we do together, it’s always in sync…neither has to move a muscle. It just goes. It’s amazing how it works.

JazzUSA: It sure does work! You’ve had some pretty intense associations with some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, and have played a variety of jazz styles, i.e., Airto’s style, Sonny Rollin’s style, Christian McBride’s style, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis’, style, etc. They all have quite different styles and make up a really nice gumbo of jazz! How would you compare “Impure Thoughts” to the mixture of jazz giants that you’ve worked with?

MW: Well I think that Impure Thoughts is kind of a step forward in that it’s blending the jazz background that I have with more World Music and funk. Cannonball Adderley always said he was trying to get that last foot out of Birdland and he was trying to keep it moving forward. I’m not the kind of person that wants to go recreate music from the 50s, although I like what other people do, I want to try to come up with something new. Knowing where I’m coming from and utilizing the past but pairing what’s going on in the present and projecting into the future…that’s where I’m coming from.

JazzUSA: “On Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” you elaborate further on their original funky melodic concepts by adding some great homophonic textures. These are both outstanding songs but you approach the piano with total harmonic, rhythmic and melodic freedom.

MW: Right and as you know, most of our music is based around a very simple chord center as is most of folk music. I feel that jazz and the music that I play is a combination of folk music and our music. It’s not one or the other. That’s what makes the folks like it! And then again, as a piano player, I see myself not only as a soloist but also as an orchestrator. So when the bass is thumping on songs like “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” I have complete freedom to play any color I want.

JazzUSA: Your rendition of “In A Silent Way” is classic! There is such a cerebral aspect to it as well as your skill in arranging the melody for saxophone, the addition of exotic percussive instruments and your piano solo really capturing the listener with its manipulation of musical motives, your varying them and elaborating on them. This song is still a catalyst that ignites one to put together another remarkable body of work that is serene but explosive. You’ve done a great job with this one.

MW: Thanks. That’s a tune that I’ve always loved and I recorded once before. I just can’t get enough of it. It’s magic. When it came out in ’69, it blew my mind! It blew everybody’s mind. It’s a whole different direction. Joe Zawinul, who’s responsible for the tune, really laid the groundwork for Miles’ electric fusion days with this one. Alex Foster also doubled on bass clarinet on the melody to give it a little more bottom and richness. I played it in a totally different mode than what the tune is…I played my piano solo in a major 7th different scale.

JazzUSA: Do you plan to feature any of the songs in concert this year? If so, where can your fans see and hear you?

MW: Absolutely. We’re playing the whole CD in concert this year. We’ll be at the Kennedy Center on January 11th at the Terrace Theater for the Art Tatum Piano Series. Benny Green, Ellis Marsalis, Cyrus Chestnut will be there. On the 12th, I’ll be in New York City playing at The Friends Seminary School, which is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration and Fundraiser and I will be a part of the International Association of Jazz Educators Panel on the 13th. Also on the 13th, we’re playing at The West Bank Café, which is where we started the band. And on the 14th we’ll be at Miami Jazz Festival with Pancho Sanchez, David Sanborn, Jonathan Butler.We have a U.S. Tour starting in February 2001 so check out the schedule at our website http://www.michaelwolff.com

JazzUSA: We sure will. Thank you so much for this interview, Michael. We really are enjoying Impure Thoughts and wish you continued success with it.

JazzUSA: Why did you decide to do a ballad album at this time?

MB: Well, the idea had been lingering in the back of my mind for a few years. It had been suggested strongly to me years ago by Charlie Haden, and a few other people. Somehow, this year, Richard Seidel at Verve suggested it again to me, and the idea kind of resonated more strongly. I just felt more like I could do it now, and I had more of an inclination to do it.

JazzUSA: Why did you include James Taylor?

MB: Once I decided that I was going to have vocals, my first thought was to call James, because I’m an amazing James Taylor fan. I love his voice and he and I have been friends for years. I’ve recorded six or seven albums with James.

JazzUSA: Isn’t that you on the original version of “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight?”

MB: Yes, we did it back in 1970, 71, somewhere in there. We have a good blend, a good chemistry.

JazzUSA: But you don’t associate James Taylor, one, with jazz, and you don’t associate James Taylor with a group that includes Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny.

MB: That to me was the exciting idea of it. I associate James with being an amazingly great musician, and being around him a lot, I know what he can do. He’s a great guitarist, a great composer and he has the ability to be spontaneous, so I knew that that would work. The idea was exciting, to hear him surrounded by Herbie, Pat, Charlie and Jack (De Johnette) I knew that it would work. And it work even beyond what I expected.

JazzUSA: You know, a lot of people don’t associate James Taylor with spontaneity either. Obviously you know something that people who buy his work, or at least jazz people who know his work, don’ t know.

MB: Well, yeah. I’ve worked with him a lot and I know his approach. He never sings the same song twice the same way. He’s not a jazz singer, or not coming from the jazz tradition, like Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Ella, Billie Holiday, he’s not coming out of that jazz tradition, but he can be spontaneous and has great ears.

JazzUSA: Pat’s a big fan of his too, isn’t he?

MB: In fact, Pat has a song called “James,”

JazzUSA: Yep, written for James Taylor.

MB: Yeah, so the idea was pretty natural for us.

JazzUSA: This record, to me, seems to be a departure from your last couple of Impulse records, in that, well, to, me, there is a broad line between acoustic jazz and contemporary jazz that a number of people like you and Pat seem to straddle effortlessly, and you seemed to have straddled that line on previous records. Whereas this record doesn’t seem to be a contemporary jazz record at all.

MB: I don’t know, because I don’t quite know what all the labels mean anymore. I’m not quite sure what you mean by contemporary jazz.

JazzUSA: Well electric jazz. I mean you screaming away on your EWI and Pat wailing away, ain’t exactly acoustic be-bop.

MB: Well the last three records of mine have been completely acoustic, so it ‘s hard for me to comment on that.

JazzUSA: I hear what you’re saying Mike, but like that album with you, McCoy Tyner and Pat, (Tales From The Hudson,) sure it was an acoustic record, but it completely has that vibe of a contemporary jazz, or electric album, not a traditional jazz record.

MB: Okay, okay, I see what you’re saying. That’s just the sort of sensibility I bring to it. I’m a product of my time. I grew up playing electric music as well as acoustic. I am who I am, influenced by a lot of different musical voices and that comes out when I play. It also influences who I play with, et cetera. Even though they are acoustic records, they’re not in the traditional jazz vein.

JazzUSA: But the new one is right there in the acoustic jazz vein, even with James Taylor’s appearance on it.

MB: I’d agree with that.

JazzUSA: I’m a child of the 70’s, so you’re a hero because of your funk escapades. You’re a bona fide funkateer.

MB: (laughs) Oh, thank you.

JazzUSA: Is any of that still in your smorgasbord now? Do you go back to your P-Funk roots?

MB: Well, when I play with my brother, we try to visit those roots.

JazzUSA: So you and your brother still play together?

MB: Yes, we just finished a tour of Europe. It was an acoustic group, but it was pretty funky.

JazzUSA: What does Coltrane mean to you?

MB: Coltrane was probably my biggest influence. His music is what kind of propelled me into pursing music as a lifetime pursuit.

JazzUSA: In what way? Can you elaborate?

MB: Well, it’s just that he and his quartet reached places in me that I didn ‘t know could be reached through music and affected me on a number of levels. Enough so that I wanted to try to play music and see if I could have more of that (laughs)

JazzUSA: To try to find whatever it was he was looking for?

MB: Well, in my own way. I’m a different person (laughs) I don’t know how to put it.

JazzUSA: In a different time,

MB: Yeah, in a different time and in a whole different set of circumstances. Coltrane’s music for me was extremely exhilarating, powerful, spiritual, intelligent, emotional, technical, non-technical, everything.

JazzUSA: Did you keep following him after the heyday of the quartet and he moved into “Om,” and…

MB: Yes, I listened to everything and continued to. He was a brilliant force. I think his music affected all of the arts. He had the ability to move forward and change in a way that I couldn’t even begin to approximate. He was a real musical spirit.

JazzUSA: You said ‘moved forward and changed,’ has there been times in your career where you’ve said ‘yes, I’ve accomplished something and I’m moving on.’ Have you ever felt that?

MB: It doesn’t quite come like that. It comes in small steps for me. Changes for me have been gradual and not so fast and big. Coltrane from year to year, but I think if you were to examine it on a day to day basis, it would appear to be smaller, but the overall effect was fast and rapid growth. I’m a much slower learner. It takes me a much longer time. I’m perfect with small changes in small increments.

JazzUSA: We heard those changes in big steps, but he recorded so much, he was on to something else, by the time we heard a new album,

MB: That’s true.

JazzUSA: So to us, it seems like big shit,,,

MB: Number one, you’re right, he recorded a lot. At a pace that I couldn’t even imagine. They seemed to be in the studio every couple of months. Coltrane played a lot and practiced a lot. If you listen to night to night performances, you can hear them performing the tunes that they recorded, and realize that he was working on that stuff and gradually change. But he played so much, that the overall effect was huge change from record to record, at least from period to period..

JazzUSA: So this tour, is all this month, and it’s you, Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove and who else.

MB: It’s a tour of 28 dates and it will also feature John Patituci and Brian Blade.

JazzUSA: Wow, that’s a great group. How did this come together?

MB: The idea was the brainchild of a guy named Scott Southerd, a friend of mine, who also happens to be a booking agent. He approached us with the idea and we all liked it. It seemed to be a good time to do it, and I knew we were going to have a lot of fun. Also, for me, a chance to learn.

JazzUSA: In what way?

MB: Well, for me, anytime I get to play with Herbie, it’s always a learning experience. I mean, he is such a brilliant musician, and we’ll be reinterpreting some of Miles and Coltrane compositions, and of course, Herbie was one of the prime elements in one of the greatest Miles’ bands ever. So that will be interesting.

JazzUSA: Have you played with Roy Hargrove before?

MB: I’ve done a teeny-weeny bit of playing with him. So I’m looking forward to hitting with him. I’m a big fan. I think he is so incredibly talented. And I’ve played a lot with John Patituci, and this will be a fine chance to play with Brian Blade as well. I think the group has a great chemistry.

JazzUSA: Any plans on recording this group?

MB: It’s kind of hard to call it Northwest Jazz, because the musicians that are around here have played in all parts of the country with other people, they just happen to live here. I don’t think we have a certain style, just a jazz sound. You know, like in the east coast you got the hard hitting stuff, the west coast you have more of a laid back style which is a kind of a smooth thing; like the LA sound. As far as the Northwest, it’s kind of hard for me to put my finger on it.

JazzUSA: What about NAS? Some say that New Age originate in Portland or Seattle with that whole Jeff Lorber, Kenny G. thing.

MB: Well from that standpoint, it really started right here in Portland with Jeff Lorber. Lorber was a part of my band when I first moved back here from New York. When our saxophone player left, Jeff said “I have a friend in Seattle who plays alto”. I said “bring him down.” I knew him as Kenny Gorlick.

A couple of nights later I was leaving the club and I said to Jeff, “let me help you with your electric piano.” He said, “No I’ve got it, everythings cool.” I didn’t realize it at the time, but he and Kenny were waiting for me to leave the club so they could go to the club owner. They told the owner “we’ll start our own band and work for less money than Mel is charging you.” I got wind of that through Thera (Memory), that’s when I fired them. That’s when they started that Lorber thing.

JazzUSA: The rest is history. So in a strange way, you’re kind of responsible for the whole new age jazz thing getting started.

MB: Yeah, Jeff came to me and said “let’s practice this, let’s see what this is about.” So Thera, myself and Omar, we just kind of laid down grooves, and said this is a different feel but let’s try something. We kind of started some stuff, but he (Jeff) twisted it into another direction.

JazzUSA: What made you decide to become a musician?

MB: Actually from the time I was 12 or 13, when I started playing the drums. My dad was a Scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts. He brought in an assistant from New York, a guy that just got out of the service. His assistant turned me onto the jazz thing. He said, “Oh you like jazz? Here I got a tape of some music, try this out.” And it was that “Milestone” album with Miles Davis. I heard that and I said “this is what music is about, this is what I want to do.” But the guy, the assistant Scoutmaster that brought this music to me, his cousin is Max Roach. So that got me off and running.

JazzUSA: What about education?

MB: I started in the seventh grade playing drums. When I got really into the jazz scene, got really serious, I hit it. And then I had a scholarship to college, actually to any school I wanted to take it to, through the Oregon Women’s League, so I went to school at Portland State. That’s when it was Portland State College, back in 1962, we only had four buildings. So my junior year I switched to Business Admnistration, because by that time I was already recording with Billy Larkin and the Delegates. I saw things that were happening in LA and I said to myself “what happens if I get in a car wreck and I can’t play drums? I gotta have some back up!” I’m a numbers man, so I just got into accounting.

JazzUSA: You said you spent time in New York?

MB: Yeah, I lived there for five years, 1970 to 1975. I was working with the Temptations at the time.

JazzUSA: We talked a minute ago about how you helped launch the careers of Kenny G. and Jeff Lorber. Are there any other noteable jazz musicians out there now, that did a stint with you?

MB: Not from right here in Portland per say. There are a lot of drummers around here that I’ve taught that are out doing some things now.

JazzUSA: Like who?

MB: There’s a guy named Bruce Carter, he’s playing with Kenny G now. Basically, every drummer around town was a student of mine at one time or another. There are some guys that aren’t playing jazz, but are doing other things. There’s a guy by the name of Dee Castranova, that has been playing with all the heavy rock bands. He use to play with a group called Bad English, he’s recorded some with Kiss and now he’s like the rock and roll drummer.

JazzUSA: I know Max Roach is one answer, who else would you say were your two biggest influences.

MB: My other two teachers, Philly Joe Jones and Poppa Joe Jones.

JazzUSA: What about the rumors that you’re really just a blues muscian, playing jazz, as opposed to a jazz musician who can play the blues.

MB: Basically, I’m just a musician that can play all different styles.

JazzUSA: You like the blues?

MB: Oh yeah, I didn’t wake up and start playing jazz. I started out with rock and roll and then got into the blues. I use to work with some different people. I was working with Little Johnny Taylor and I did some things with Lowell Folsom. My very first gig that I ever played, I mean professional gig, was here (in Portland) at the Crystal Ballroom, with Ike and Tina Turner. I’ve covered so many different genres, cause when I was very young I was classically trained. A lot of guys used to tease me because I was standing up in an orchestra playing nothing but a snare drum, or I was playing timpani. They said, “awww man, you need to come out in the street and see what the other stuff is about.”

JazzUSA: You did a stint with Motown, didn’t you?

MB: Yeah, a long one.

JazzUSA: Were you living there as well?

MB: I was actually in California, but I was in Detroit so much, you might as well say I was living there.

JazzUSA: I was looking at the list of people you played with. And Motown list like everybody, I mean everybody. The only person I didn’t see on the list was Smokey, and you probably played with him.

MB: Oh yeah, I was with Smokey. I started with Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. See, every year back in Detroit we had a Christmas show, and it ran from Christmas Eve to New Years Day. Everybody that had a contract with Motown was on the show. So while I was out with Martha, doing “Jimmy Mack” or “Dancin’ in the Street,” or “My Baby Loves Me,” Gladys (Knight) would be in the wings singing, Smokey over here, Levi (Stubbs) and boys they were waiting in the wings. It was a big family affair.

JazzUSA: Give me one thing you remember most from your Motown days.

MB: I just remember a bunch of fun, because it was a big family thing. You could be recording something for Junior Walker and Stevie Wonder would run by. And you’d say “Stevie what are you doing in here?” and he would pick up something and just start playing, that’s how things were back then. Even with the singers! They could be laying down some tracks and somebody would walk through, and they would say “hold it, hold it stop the track, put your voice on this!” A lot of the stuff like that was happening. Even with Martha and the Vandellas you might hear a male voice in the background… that could have been Johnny Bristol or Harvey Fuqua.

JazzUSA: What about now? You’ve got a new album out. It’s recorded live in a club (Jimmy Macks in Portland) but the acoustics are nice. Did it come out the way planned?

MB: Oh sure, it came out even better than I anticipated. I wanted to capture that live thing like Cannonball had on that “Mercy, Mercy,” where the crowd is involved. Most of the things I do here, if it’s a live album, the band is across the street and the crowd is on the other side of the street. The two don’t really mix, you’ll hear a few applause… that’s it. But with this CD you can hear people hollering, screaming and clapping and getting involved.

JazzUSA: Who’s idea was it to do that?

MB: I actually wanted to do something live, and Tim Gallineau (The Producer) said “ok, I’ve got the people that can do that.”

JazzUSA: People need to know you have a rich history. There’s going to be a lot of people who say “who the heck is Mel Brown?” Then they’re going to read this and realize that they’ve been listening to Mel Brown all their lives.

MB: Plus there are going to be people back on the east coast, who are going to say “I wondered what ever happened to him!”

JazzUSA: Any gripes with the business in general?

MB: It’s just time that somebody from back behind the scenes, gets a chance to come out in front. As you and most of the people know, everybody always talks about the singers out in the front. Who are the musicians who made the singers sing the way that they sing? There’s a lot of those guys who are dead now, that were actually back there doing those things. There are very few of us still around, and back then they didn’t even put our names on the albums.

JazzUSA: Drummers seem to have a tendency to write pieces that are drum-centric, and listeners don’t always want to listen to things that are drum-centric for an entire CD. You almost seem to take a backseat throughout this taping . You are the driving force but you give a lot of space to the other performers.

MB: Basically, what’s happening with me is I don’t have to prove a point. These other guys are saying “look at me I’m going to compete for the number one slot in Downbeat magazine, to be the best drummer.” I don’t want to do that, I want to compete with the other folks who are saying the President of this bank knows me by my first name, because I put a lot of money into this bank. So it’s the main appeal, I put myself in the position of saying if I sat in the audience, how long could I sit there and listen to this group.

JazzUSA: How did you choose your band members?

MB: I kind of hand picked them. There was a certain sound that I wanted to hear. And I knew who could give me that sound.

JazzUSA: What are you going to do in the future besides working six days a week?

MB: I gotta slow down before I go crazy here. I’m getting that itch to travel and move around, It’s time for me to get on the road. I need to get in touch with what’s happening musically. Do some festivals as opposed to playing clubs. Clubs are fine but, but I like the whole festival situation too; I guess it’s about 50/50. The thing about playing festivals that’s nice is that you don’t play for a long period of time, and you make pretty decent money. But you also spend half the night on your set adjusting to the sound because the sound men that are there aren’t familiar with your sound. You have to fight these guys to get what you want. When I do a soft press roll, they start turning up the dials, and it sounds like the building is coming down. So you spend all your time really upset by the time you finish your set. You didn’t play the music, you just fought for 45 minutes to an hour. Whereas in the club you can kind of get situated and the the sound can get down. And you can really get into your stuff.

JazzUSA: Any more albums in the works?

MB: We’re going to try and get busy and do something else, maybe with the sextet. We’re gonna take it and mesh it together with the quintet on one release. It’s not going to be a live thing, but it’s going to be the sextet on one side and the quintet on the other.

Simply put, McCoy Tyner is one of the best piano players in the world. His new album, “McCoy Tyner And The Latin All-Star” features Dave Valentin, Steve Turre, Giovanni Hildalgo and a host of musicians.

JazzUSA: McCoy, why did you choose a Latin theme for your latest album?

MT: Avery has been with me 17 and Aaron for ten.