Speaker 1: Of Course. Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora.
Speaker 1: What Up, y'all? This is Layah and this week's q
Speaker 1: LS classic is one of my favorite episodes of all time.
Speaker 1: The one and only Bobby McFerrin stops by to talk
Speaker 1: about his unique journey in music, and not only that,
Speaker 1: we have his daughter Madison, who is crazy talented as well.
Speaker 1: This episode is from September. Enjoy are giving base? M
Speaker 1: do do? Dude? Why are you thinking of the Jungle
Speaker 1: Brothers cool? At the end of the rector, my name
Speaker 1: is Love Yeah this fact. Yeah. I can remix my
Speaker 1: own theme anytime I want. Road call Supreme something Supreme,
Speaker 1: cam Supreme, something so Supreme, roll call. My name is Fonte. Yeah,
Speaker 1: some saying I'm Loco. Yeah. I had to second like Bobby,
Speaker 1: Yeah and do it aka Poco Supreme, Suprema, roll call
Speaker 1: Supreme Supreme. My name is Sugar. Yeah. I always worry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm never happy. Yeah, just give up on me already.
Speaker 1: Supreme Supreme, Supreme Supreme, rollcome Yeah, of course I love Supreme. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It with the man, Yeah, you mean the best Cosby
Speaker 1: theme something so Supremo, Supreme Supreme. It's like Eve yeah
Speaker 1: and Bobby mcbern Yeah, now you know your friends A
Speaker 1: Night in the Tunisia and Blackbird. Yeah that's all I'm hearing.
Speaker 1: I don't care. Sup Supreme Supreme. My name is Maddie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm here with dad. Yeah. This is my first time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I am happy. Supreme Supreme, Come Supreme, Supreme Supreme.
Speaker 1: My name and Bobby Bobby do suber Shabby. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: still me tip s Supreme, Supreme, Supreme Supreme. Do do
Speaker 1: do Do Do do do do do boe bo bo bo,
Speaker 1: don't watch me for a bunch of music nerds. We
Speaker 1: are like, we're not alaugh, that's right, my bad Jesus was.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, where's this going? Like we are
Speaker 1: the Brachelon of music knowledge, yet we couldn't just break
Speaker 1: out sids every week like you you know, Okay, do
Speaker 1: you do this a lot? You you are? He will
Speaker 1: We're past our hundred episode now over episodes and now
Speaker 1: so yeah yeah, first I was very bad at this,
Speaker 1: but now I'm just mediocre. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
Speaker 1: another episode of course Love Supreme or on Pandora. UH
Speaker 1: as you our guest today, is probably one of the
Speaker 1: most purest artists in the sense of the word pure. Uh.
Speaker 1: He is a living, breathing instrument very much UH as jazz,
Speaker 1: as he is hip hop, as he is sold, as
Speaker 1: he is classical. Uh. He is a ten time Grammy winner,
Speaker 1: absolutely bar none, probably one of the most unique chameleons, yes,
Speaker 1: vocal chameleons in music, having collaborated UH with such illuminaries
Speaker 1: as Chickarrea, Herbie Hancock, UH, Pararell Sanders, vocalists like Alja,
Speaker 1: ro George Benson, John Hendricks, Smalding Manhattan Transfer, his own
Speaker 1: voice st and his mind blowing. I really want to
Speaker 1: talk about the vocabulary project and recording twelve hundred vocal
Speaker 1: tracks is wow. I would say that he's probably the
Speaker 1: artist in which leaving his comfort zone is his actual
Speaker 1: comfort zone. He's made children's He's won Grammys for children's
Speaker 1: records with Jack Nicholson, has done projects with Robin Williams.
Speaker 1: UH simultaneous lye in Minnesota, with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra,
Speaker 1: UH over in Barcelona, the or Reality I can't pronounce him,
Speaker 1: the or Leota. I'm going on. Ye, there was a
Speaker 1: one point I was just doing like a bunch of
Speaker 1: U abbreviations. But uh, even as even his own freaking
Speaker 1: offspring are killing it. Of course, we love Taylor, who's
Speaker 1: uh noted be box God and he's uh right now
Speaker 1: in the in the contemporary jaz As World making stuff
Speaker 1: with napalm from Hiatus Coote and Robert Glasper. Of course,
Speaker 1: Javon actor in his own right, is currently the title
Speaker 1: role in a very unknown off Broadway production of play
Speaker 1: called Hamilton's I'm Sorry Okay but yeah, okay anyway. Uh.
Speaker 1: And last but not least our our second guest today, Uh, Madison,
Speaker 1: Mr Last, but not like damn. This introduces like seven
Speaker 1: minutes these extended disco version. Yes, our good friend Madison McFerrin.
Speaker 1: She's blazing trails in her own right, uh sort of
Speaker 1: with her brand of what I call sensual solo pella, yes,
Speaker 1: central solo, with both her albums The Foundation Projects, Volume
Speaker 1: one and Volume two, and yeah, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about that in same video too. Yeah. So, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: please welcome the McFerrin's to Quest Love Supreme. Yes, Bobby, Yes,
Speaker 1: one day I'm gonna have like a very sustinct and
Speaker 1: just to the point intro that only takes ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: We have Bob mcfarren on the show. So how how
Speaker 1: are you today? Uh? Sir, well, thank you and yourself.
Speaker 1: I'm fine. You're speaking voices calmed us down right. We
Speaker 1: might as well do it on NBR levels. So you're
Speaker 1: you're fine today? You're good? Yes, I am, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. And Madison, how how are you? I'm doing
Speaker 1: really well. Thank you. I haven't seen you in a
Speaker 1: month of Sunday, so it's good to see you. Spent
Speaker 1: a long time. It's good to see you since I've
Speaker 1: left Philadelphia. Yeah, well, I mean you got you got is?
Speaker 1: I know that you're you have roots in Philadelphia, Minnesota
Speaker 1: and the Bay Area, But like, what do you consider
Speaker 1: home or is it just where you well, your dreadlocks
Speaker 1: that's your home? Well probably for me, the answer would
Speaker 1: be California. Okay. I grew up in Los Angeles. My
Speaker 1: parents moved to l A when I was eight, so
Speaker 1: I went through all my teenage years. I went to
Speaker 1: college in Sacramento. I went to Sacramento State, right, I
Speaker 1: think now it's called California State. University in Sacramento, where
Speaker 1: I was a composition student. Then all my kids were
Speaker 1: born in San Francisco, So I think that that pretty
Speaker 1: much covers it. And our family, like the people who
Speaker 1: we really our community, they're still in the Bay A,
Speaker 1: still fighting, still still there. Yeah. My mom is in
Speaker 1: San Francisco right now. So okay, just goes to show you.
Speaker 1: When dad's away, she goes back home to visit. So
Speaker 1: you were born and where were you originally? Uh? Not originally?
Speaker 1: Like there's a remix? Are you talking to me? Yes?
Speaker 1: I am. Where were you born? I was born here
Speaker 1: in Manhattan. You're in New York? Yeah, okay, okay. So
Speaker 1: what did your parents do for a living? They were
Speaker 1: both singers. My father was it was the first African
Speaker 1: American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera in
Speaker 1: nineteen uh he was the voice of Sydney Potier in
Speaker 1: the in the movie version of Porgy and Porgy and Bass.
Speaker 1: He was, Yes, that was all this time, I thought
Speaker 1: that was you, that that was Sydney. No, that was
Speaker 1: my my father. That explains a lot. So what what
Speaker 1: were your your your formative years at least before the
Speaker 1: age of ten, as far as exposure to music, and well,
Speaker 1: my parents love jazz, and so in addition to Beethoven
Speaker 1: and Bach and Mozart, you know, I was exposed to
Speaker 1: Count Basie, to Joe Williams two uh, Dinah Washington and
Speaker 1: in a Jones, uh, Thelonious mog uh. You know, lots
Speaker 1: of different different jazz artists. Weren't you also in that
Speaker 1: like Juilliard prodigy Juilliard when I was six. By the way,
Speaker 1: can we just like mock roll the theme right now?
Speaker 1: That's the end of our show. Yeah. They had program
Speaker 1: for aspiring musicians at that that age. I was admitted
Speaker 1: and was under the tutelage of Ms. Bamburger, and we
Speaker 1: did some compositions. In fact, there's a composition that I
Speaker 1: wrote when I was six that Maddie and I even
Speaker 1: play together sometimes on the piano called the Spanish piesta
Speaker 1: DoD do de do de do Deep do Deep deep
Speaker 1: Deep Deep do de do de do? But you wrote
Speaker 1: it on the fly? I wrote it on the fly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wrote it the night before the class the next
Speaker 1: day and it just it just it just kind of
Speaker 1: stayed out there. It's very good, as I like thinking
Speaker 1: about a six year old making this song. I couldn't
Speaker 1: make this song at twenty six. It blows my mind still.
Speaker 1: So initially, like were you studying piano or any other?
Speaker 1: Piano was my an instrument All through college. I played
Speaker 1: flute in the school orchestra. That was my second instrument.
Speaker 1: I was a composition major. I at the time thought
Speaker 1: that I wanted to write for for television and movies
Speaker 1: and do arrangements for various groups. And Dave Gruson was
Speaker 1: my hero at that time. Ah I won. One day
Speaker 1: made a phone call to his home. I got his
Speaker 1: number from the Musicians Union directory and I called him
Speaker 1: and he called, he called. He returned my call about
Speaker 1: three days later and invited me to his scoring session
Speaker 1: he was filming. He was doing a score for a
Speaker 1: film called Tell Him Willie Boys Here with Robert Redford,
Speaker 1: and he told me to bring me down my compositions.
Speaker 1: And so I became a student of his in composition
Speaker 1: for a while, and then later on in life we
Speaker 1: became riends. We worked together and became friends. Would that
Speaker 1: ever work in hip hop now? Fante Like if someone
Speaker 1: like say Charles Hamilton, sorry God do another example, rapper
Speaker 1: x okay just called your that kind of happened to
Speaker 1: me in twenty eleven. The rapper to just sent me
Speaker 1: a text and I was like, is this really are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? And it was really him? But really
Speaker 1: you didn't really respond? No, I did respond. I did
Speaker 1: fond aft, I vetted and see if it was really him.
Speaker 1: I was like, is this really to me? And he
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you gotta say who it was Drake?
Speaker 1: But how thought Drake just mentioned like in interviews. I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that now. Like I just got a random
Speaker 1: text him out the blue one day and he was
Speaker 1: back Inleven and I hit NIGHTE. I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: is this really him? He was like, no, ad him do?
Speaker 1: I said, okay, Oh damn? So oh wow, I know,
Speaker 1: Dave Grusen. It works for you know, I always catch them,
Speaker 1: like you know, when before they're bubbling over. Like while
Speaker 1: he swears that I was just no, John Legend swears
Speaker 1: that also when he was didn't, I didn't. He never
Speaker 1: made himself. Now that's why we gotta get him on
Speaker 1: the show, because I'm tired of him saying that I
Speaker 1: was just sunning him all that time. Philly, that was
Speaker 1: James Poyser, not me. Anyway, throw him under the bus um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, but at six, were you you knew what
Speaker 1: what have you wanted to take in life? Or was
Speaker 1: it just like your parents just I didn't really know
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do really until I was a
Speaker 1: senior in high school. And up until that time, I
Speaker 1: thought of myself in different ways. I wasn't I can't
Speaker 1: recall off the top of my head, but I was
Speaker 1: thinking at that time. I think I was just into
Speaker 1: being a teenage kid who just loved to go to
Speaker 1: parties and dance and stuff like that and hang out.
Speaker 1: But I was called to the senior counselor's office one
Speaker 1: day and he asked me a question, he said, you know,
Speaker 1: he asked, so what do you want to do with yourself? Who?
Speaker 1: Who do you think you are? And And my answer was, well,
Speaker 1: I guess I am a musician understatement of musician. And
Speaker 1: it wasn't until that moment that I actually have the
Speaker 1: thoughts solidified in my mind that that's really the path
Speaker 1: I wanted to take, because I didn't really know anything
Speaker 1: else about this time. Though. Since your parents were professionals,
Speaker 1: did they notice that you were special in that way?
Speaker 1: Did they see it? My parents knew I was a
Speaker 1: musician before I was too. How did they say they know?
Speaker 1: They just they just knew it. You're going to be
Speaker 1: a musician. You're going to be a musician. You see.
Speaker 1: I was trying to before we got to this interview,
Speaker 1: I was trying to. I guess I was analyzing or
Speaker 1: over analyzing the path that brought you here. And I thought, well, either,
Speaker 1: because the thing is you're you're you're a spontaneous, fearless nature.
Speaker 1: It's so daredevil the way that you approach stuff that
Speaker 1: it's almost like you're a permanent thirteen year old. So
Speaker 1: either I thought so. Either I thought, well, similar to
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, like you're you're making up for I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: well he had a rigid, strict childhood in the beginning,
Speaker 1: and then once he became of college, JJ an adult
Speaker 1: and it's like, I'm gonna you know that that scene
Speaker 1: with in Home Alone where what's his name just goes
Speaker 1: crazy in the house of Macaulay culch, Like I thought
Speaker 1: it was that, or maybe you know, sit it's the
Speaker 1: age of two. You were the class clown type of
Speaker 1: like always disrupted noises and those things. Like I I
Speaker 1: didn't expect this answer that you developed into who you
Speaker 1: are ten fifteen years later in life, like well, because
Speaker 1: developed the gift that you have. I feel like that
Speaker 1: is beyond the ten thousand hour genius theory. I feel
Speaker 1: like that takes forty thousand hours of because it's fearlessness,
Speaker 1: and you know, you can see what's interesting is that
Speaker 1: for the longest time, you know, even though I was
Speaker 1: studying piano and playing piano, I always had a nagging
Speaker 1: suspicion that I wasn't a pianist. You know, there was
Speaker 1: something that I wasn't satisfied with just playing piano. Piano
Speaker 1: didn't do enough for me. And as I was asking
Speaker 1: myself this this question about you know, who am I really?
Speaker 1: Am I a pianist? Even though I, in my inner
Speaker 1: self knew that the answer was in the negative, that
Speaker 1: I was not a pianist. I discovered Keith Jared and
Speaker 1: his solo concerts m So I thought to myself, if
Speaker 1: if he can be on stage alone without knowing having
Speaker 1: the slightest idea what he's going to play when he
Speaker 1: sits down, why can't I do something like that? So
Speaker 1: I decided to explore myself as a vocalist and dedicated
Speaker 1: six years to learn, teaching myself my technique, and for
Speaker 1: about six years I I practiced about two hours a
Speaker 1: day before I did my first solo concert and I started.
Speaker 1: I started at seven, that is unheard. So what were
Speaker 1: you doing before and there? Like what were you doing
Speaker 1: for a living? And I was doing casual gigs, you know,
Speaker 1: playing weddings and going on the road and playing lounges
Speaker 1: with lounge bands and playing stuff. We're covering the pop
Speaker 1: stuff on the radio. What was like your repertoire and
Speaker 1: let's say whatever band you were in seventy nine, like, well,
Speaker 1: by seventy nine, I was doing solo concerts. Okay, so
Speaker 1: this period is seventy five seventy four the spirit no no, no,
Speaker 1: I mean just like your pre pre solo concerts, solo
Speaker 1: concerts I was. I was playing in bands from playing
Speaker 1: piano and what songs were like hot at the time
Speaker 1: that you had to have Marvin Gay and others. I
Speaker 1: mean just other stuff. Yeah, I guess, Stevie Wonder, here's
Speaker 1: my prompter here. I've heard a lot of stories. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that like that's amazing. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I have a question real quick before we move on
Speaker 1: from Keith jarrett Um. So he does that thing where
Speaker 1: he's sort of singing and grunting while he's playing. So
Speaker 1: was that part of the influence on on what you're talking. No,
Speaker 1: no influence on me at all. His grunting and squealing,
Speaker 1: So it's just his bravery up on stage or his
Speaker 1: improv the fact that im provides kild walk and sit.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a very brave act action on
Speaker 1: his part to simply sit at the piano, greet the instrument,
Speaker 1: and engage in his musical dance that he had with
Speaker 1: you know, with with with that instrument, with that grand instrument.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to do that as a vocalist. Now.
Speaker 1: It took me some time to get enough courage to
Speaker 1: do it and enough stamina to be on stage alone
Speaker 1: for ninety minutes without any idea of what I was
Speaker 1: going to play. That's very, very difficult to do. It's funny,
Speaker 1: though I would. I made a rule for myself early
Speaker 1: on that my first two pieces would be completely improv
Speaker 1: complete improvisation. The first piece was easier than the second.
Speaker 1: The second one was really difficult to do. For some reason,
Speaker 1: I had the hardest time pushing through that wall of
Speaker 1: of anything, the wall of just something that stopped me
Speaker 1: from from going on. You know. The first piece is
Speaker 1: just so easy to sit down and change and do
Speaker 1: Baby will Be. And sometimes my first improvise would be
Speaker 1: ten minutes. Sometimes they'd be a fifteen or twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Then to stop and re enter into that improvisational space
Speaker 1: was for some reason a lot harder for me to
Speaker 1: do this, you know. The second piece was very, very difficult,
Speaker 1: so that that became part of my my rule, do
Speaker 1: the riskiest thing first. Really, yeah, well that one show
Speaker 1: that you and I did together at town Hall. I've
Speaker 1: never in my adult life lost more sleep or have
Speaker 1: more anxiety about any performance. And I mean I've been
Speaker 1: in situations that like where I've had to give speeches
Speaker 1: and things I didn't want to do publicly. Um, how
Speaker 1: do you even prepare for a body make theory? That's
Speaker 1: I kind of called and hinted like okay, so to
Speaker 1: draw map? What should I do? And it's just nothing,
Speaker 1: We'll just we'll figure it out on stage, and I'm
Speaker 1: like wait. So then it was to the point where
Speaker 1: I was like going to Jill, how much your tickets? Okay,
Speaker 1: so how much people? How much entertainment. Does a person
Speaker 1: expect for blah blah bla right? Because usually when I like,
Speaker 1: when I planned my shows or whatever, I start with
Speaker 1: what are the last three songs? Because in my mind,
Speaker 1: I'm like, as in the audience remembers the first ten
Speaker 1: minutes how you come on stage, and even if you
Speaker 1: have an absolute ship show, if the last three songs
Speaker 1: are straight, then they that men in black flashies them
Speaker 1: and they forget and for I was just like, wait,
Speaker 1: only have four things going for me? And I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I would have electronic drum set, a real
Speaker 1: drum set, and my turntables. And then even then I
Speaker 1: like five things going for But once we got once
Speaker 1: we got into the groove, though, it was over in
Speaker 1: it was over in the second Is it just you
Speaker 1: on drums and him on and him as it? Yeah,
Speaker 1: never rehearsed, never like, it was just a musical conversation.
Speaker 1: And then by the end you guys switched and he
Speaker 1: got on drums and he started doing some yea anyway, sir,
Speaker 1: I just want to say so, by uh, when I
Speaker 1: actually discovered you on your second album, The Voice, which
Speaker 1: you know, most mcpahrenknights are like that's their album. Assuming
Speaker 1: that you perfected or at least found uh a formula
Speaker 1: if you will, on the Voice project previously, Like what
Speaker 1: notes did you keep? Because I assuming that from your
Speaker 1: very first time that you did a solo show until
Speaker 1: that point in eighty four where at least sounded like
Speaker 1: you were comfortable on that album. What techniques have you
Speaker 1: learned besides the first and the second song as far
Speaker 1: as like breath control and harmony and audience participation. Well,
Speaker 1: I was immersed in. Well, let me back up. I
Speaker 1: used to go to my father's recitals, used to do
Speaker 1: classical recitals, and they always ended his shows with spirit
Speaker 1: negro spirituals. And he had a way on stage where
Speaker 1: he invited the audience and it wasn't really genuine and
Speaker 1: and comforting and caring and and all all these positive
Speaker 1: words that I can't think of right now. But I
Speaker 1: loved watching him on stage. He was he was very
Speaker 1: easy going and I wanted. I felt that the best
Speaker 1: thing for me to to to be on stage was
Speaker 1: to be as relaxed as possible. And that's a big
Speaker 1: key to the success of my concerts. You have to
Speaker 1: relax your audience. They have to feel very comfortable with you,
Speaker 1: and I allowed them to be participants with me. So
Speaker 1: it wasn't only myself singing, but it was the audience
Speaker 1: engaged in singing along with me. My technique was more
Speaker 1: than myself. It was me and the audience. You know
Speaker 1: what I couldn't do, the audience could do or they
Speaker 1: could hear so they would fill in the blanks. So
Speaker 1: my solo technique is more about us than me, if
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Do you have a formula
Speaker 1: as far as the the delivery upset song? Because even
Speaker 1: in doing the the roll call theme, I was panicled,
Speaker 1: like should I be the drums that be the base?
Speaker 1: Should harmony? Should I? So? Is there some sort of
Speaker 1: polarizing because when I hear you sing a song, I
Speaker 1: can hear the blanks filled in, even the parts that
Speaker 1: I don't hear. I hear where you're going. So is
Speaker 1: it Is it a formula you've established where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'll do a little vocal here and then established the
Speaker 1: base And no, everything is a surprise. Every note is
Speaker 1: a surprise. I I don't have any rules, I don't
Speaker 1: have any plans. I enter the stage empty and I
Speaker 1: exit full. Is that one of the time that's at
Speaker 1: the time. So I'm gonna ask you a question that
Speaker 1: I asked mo stand up comedians, because you're up there
Speaker 1: alone four year solo shows. How do you deal with
Speaker 1: the disruptive or heckler kind of incorporated? So that's how
Speaker 1: you extinguished the fire. That's how I deal with it.
Speaker 1: I just I just take whatever the heckler is heckling
Speaker 1: me about and musicalize it. One time a guy came
Speaker 1: in late and he was sitting in a balcony and
Speaker 1: when he sat down, the chair squeaked. So I squeaked,
Speaker 1: and he squeaked, and I squeaked some more. So he
Speaker 1: started place started playing his seat the squeak. So I
Speaker 1: did a duet with the squeak in his seat. You know.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like you welcome at because I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're thinking of like a show like oh
Speaker 1: time eater, Oh good, I have something to eat up
Speaker 1: this particularly two minutes or whatever. But so you do
Speaker 1: you welcome those types of distractions or well? Is it?
Speaker 1: I guess it does depend, But I can honestly say
Speaker 1: that at least nine of the time I use whatever
Speaker 1: it is given to me. I just take it and
Speaker 1: incorporated and whatever. Whatever the improvisation is, whatever the landscape is,
Speaker 1: I take it and I use it. So I don't
Speaker 1: I don't fear anything on stage really. In fact, I'm
Speaker 1: scared sitting in this chair just thinking about it, like yeah,
Speaker 1: just like everything I do, always have to map it
Speaker 1: out before I do it. So kudos to you. Well,
Speaker 1: I used to be that way as a composition student.
Speaker 1: You know, you're writing everything down exactly the way that
Speaker 1: you wanted and even solos. I would even write the
Speaker 1: solos out because I wanted to the solo was to
Speaker 1: go on a certain direction. But then Miles Davis was
Speaker 1: playing at a club in Los Angeles called Shelley's Manhole.
Speaker 1: Shelley Man the drummer, and the band included Keith Jarrett, uh,
Speaker 1: Michael Henderson, who was I think borrowed from James Brown
Speaker 1: or sliding the family Stone or or something. He was
Speaker 1: in Mo times. Stevie's right, Well, that you're right, Jack
Speaker 1: Dejanette on drums, Gary bart on surpri the sacks. Uh My,
Speaker 1: Miles was sporting some black leather pants and a black shirt,
Speaker 1: playing a drag a black trumpet hooked up to a
Speaker 1: wild wah pedal, and when I left the club that night,
Speaker 1: I literally was walking on air. My feet didn't touch
Speaker 1: the ground for at least two weeks because I understood
Speaker 1: what improvisation was. From that moment on, I understood it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's complete musical freedom. You should tell that story,
Speaker 1: because that's a pretty good story of going to that
Speaker 1: show when I was When I arrived to the show,
Speaker 1: there was a line down the block and around the corner.
Speaker 1: The place was already packed with people. So the people
Speaker 1: that were standing in line, it was just hopeless that
Speaker 1: you're going to get in. So I'm standing there with
Speaker 1: my date. A woman walks out of the club and
Speaker 1: for some reason, she stopped at me and said, do
Speaker 1: you would you like two tickets? And I said, oh yes,
Speaker 1: So I had my two tickets, walked into the club,
Speaker 1: and the last two seats we're right next to the
Speaker 1: band stand, I mean just to butted the band stand,
Speaker 1: so I got a full view of the entire band
Speaker 1: last two seats. So I that was the night that
Speaker 1: I was introduced to Keith Chair and the band just
Speaker 1: blew me away? Was this a Bitches Brew tour or
Speaker 1: something like that? This was right before on the corner. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you should have been, there was jameson to me, there
Speaker 1: is percussionists. I don't recall percussions. Okay, James, he came
Speaker 1: in seventy two. Yeah, this was in February of seventy one,
Speaker 1: right beforehand. Um so with well, that's good to see
Speaker 1: that you were open to that because then I know
Speaker 1: many a jazz snob. Who you know, depending on who
Speaker 1: who you speak to, like former writer for the Village
Speaker 1: Voice of Boys, Stanley Crowds. Stanley Crowds would have been
Speaker 1: like whatever you know, but it's it's almost it's it's
Speaker 1: good to hear your your perspective of it. As as
Speaker 1: as a younger. Uh well, I mean I know that
Speaker 1: you were immersed in jazz already, haven't grown up in it,
Speaker 1: but you know, usually people have different points of view
Speaker 1: of of of Miles is uh early period. So who
Speaker 1: who were your just as far as your musical idols
Speaker 1: at the time in the early seventies as you're finding yourself,
Speaker 1: like who were your absolute heroes? Okay? So m hm
Speaker 1: whoa Okay, fred As Stair and Ginger Rogers. H I've
Speaker 1: drawn I'm drawing a blank. Keith out Herbie Well Herbie
Speaker 1: for sure. Wow, that's amazing. So okay, I'm I want
Speaker 1: to skip slightly ahead too Simple Pleasures without mentioning the
Speaker 1: D word. But what I want but what I want
Speaker 1: to what I want to know is um not that
Speaker 1: were you shocked at this success? But I'm certain that
Speaker 1: with the audience that discovered you, And I won't lie
Speaker 1: like I won't say like, oh, yes, I knew you
Speaker 1: were brought me my fair the whole time. When I
Speaker 1: first saw you on the Grammys, think you're doing Round
Speaker 1: about Midnite with Herbie Hancock, my first response was, Yo,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the Levi's fible Fiber one please guys.
Speaker 1: So the way that audiences have discovered you, were you
Speaker 1: not slightly dismayed? But I know that it had to
Speaker 1: have been a weird change after Simple Pleasures comes out
Speaker 1: with with the with the massive success of Don't Worry,
Speaker 1: Be Happy, whereas now maybe non jazz fans or none
Speaker 1: uh sophisticated music. He was on VH one the video
Speaker 1: was he yeah, but I'm just saying that is it is?
Speaker 1: It was it somewhat dismaying for you to have this
Speaker 1: new audience that really doesn't understand the art of jazz
Speaker 1: and what it is that you were about, and you
Speaker 1: just want to don't worry, be happy because I never
Speaker 1: I never really thought on myself as a jazz musician
Speaker 1: because I did so many different kinds of pieces during
Speaker 1: an evening. I mean I might follow up at James
Speaker 1: Brown Peace, you know, seeing the ave Maria by Barb
Speaker 1: and follow it up with the Beatles too, and then
Speaker 1: follow that up with something just completely wild and crazy
Speaker 1: and out of hand and chaotic and rambunctious and and all.
Speaker 1: So I never thought. I never promoted myself as a
Speaker 1: jazz singer, though I did see jazz pieces. You know,
Speaker 1: of course, what was the process like, um, just kind
Speaker 1: of going back a little bit to signing a record deal,
Speaker 1: like how were you able? You know, what was the
Speaker 1: market like for what you were doing at that time?
Speaker 1: Because it was it was really unique. So after the
Speaker 1: first album, which was you know self self titled Bobby mcfair,
Speaker 1: and after that one, they wanted to make me into
Speaker 1: the new Algio. The first album is rather traditional for
Speaker 1: what was so they hired a top Hollywood arranger by
Speaker 1: the name of Johnny Mandel, who who was a fabulous musician.
Speaker 1: Any relations Steve No but um he wrote the mash theme.
Speaker 1: I think also that John johnny Man, Oh, okay. And
Speaker 1: I was down in Los Angeles working in his studio
Speaker 1: for about two weeks when at the end of the
Speaker 1: session I said to him, you know, this doesn't feel right.
Speaker 1: I don't feel good about the direction that that they're
Speaker 1: pushing me towards. And so I called off that particular
Speaker 1: project and was immediately summoned into the President's office, uh
Speaker 1: by the name of Bruce slun Ball. He had what
Speaker 1: was the name of the what was the name of
Speaker 1: the label music Music Electro Musician, you see the logo,
Speaker 1: And he says, well, Bobby, what's what's going on. Why
Speaker 1: didn't you want to do the project? And I said,
Speaker 1: it's because I have in my heart to do solo pieces,
Speaker 1: solo concerts. And he asked me what that was, and
Speaker 1: I tried to explain to him and said, well, it
Speaker 1: would just be me recording shows and improvising. And as
Speaker 1: he says, this is really important to you, is that
Speaker 1: I said, yes, God wants me to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I said, And that's exactly what Bruce says. Well,
Speaker 1: we can't argue with God. So he allowed me to
Speaker 1: to do my second album of the voice the way
Speaker 1: that you wanted to do it, that I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: There were a few a few acapella esque songs on
Speaker 1: the first record, so it was done dance. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I interrupted, you see what I'm sorry, No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I was just figuring it. Maybe that was added after
Speaker 1: the fact that you had to talk and said, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm more about as opposed to right, that's
Speaker 1: pretty much right. I wanted to introduce my audience to
Speaker 1: the self. Then I knew that I was. I think
Speaker 1: Bruce uh later was president Blue Note at the time
Speaker 1: when we were doing the Elvis Costello project. That's that's correct. Bruce. Also,
Speaker 1: I think famously signed Bill Withers to Colombia after Clarence
Speaker 1: Avant does all success records. So that's how I know Bruce.
Speaker 1: So for the how did the commercial world discover you
Speaker 1: with the Levi stuff in the ost Spray and all
Speaker 1: the other I don't really know. In the Cosby theme,
Speaker 1: you know, all those those pieces, those those well, by
Speaker 1: the time Cosby came along, you were a household name.
Speaker 1: But I mean just in the beginning, I heard your
Speaker 1: voice on commercials and that sort of thing, like like
Speaker 1: Ocean Spray was it was it? Mark was their marketing
Speaker 1: genius is behind this, like this is how we're going
Speaker 1: to promote you? Or was it just how do people
Speaker 1: just don't know how to answer that? Yeah, Linda is
Speaker 1: probably the answer to that. Okay my manager, Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: so with uh you're is is the project? With Wait?
Speaker 1: Wait before I say anything, I gotta figure out how
Speaker 1: Freddie Freeloader was record it with Algero, John Hendricks, and
Speaker 1: George Benson who wrote the lyrics. John Hendrix, how long
Speaker 1: did it take you to study? Because at the time
Speaker 1: when I heard it, someone explained to me that you
Speaker 1: guys literally transposed every solo on the original Miles David's piece,
Speaker 1: applied words to it and once I at first I
Speaker 1: didn't believe it, and then I had to literally get
Speaker 1: both copies and go and I was mind blown at
Speaker 1: the commitment that it took. Could you discuss the recording
Speaker 1: process of recording? Like was it done in parts or
Speaker 1: it was done each singer recorded their part individually, you know,
Speaker 1: and in their own studio. And I can't remember if
Speaker 1: I learned the original solo by Tommy Flanagan or if
Speaker 1: I if I had studied the words first, I don't remember, okay,
Speaker 1: but it took me. It took me about four or
Speaker 1: five days, I think, to get it down. And what's
Speaker 1: really interesting is that he left out of verse. You know,
Speaker 1: he wrote, he wrote all these words, and I said, well, John,
Speaker 1: you forgot this verse. And he sat down in the
Speaker 1: studio and wrote the lyrics out. Then at that moment,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure on the spot, because he could he
Speaker 1: could hear words in melody, you know, he had this
Speaker 1: gift of understanding what the melodies were saying. So he
Speaker 1: wrote it out and we recorded it and and it
Speaker 1: was It was a delightful. It had a delightful outcome.
Speaker 1: It was a good experience. Did you commit that entire
Speaker 1: solo to memory or was it like, okay, i'll do
Speaker 1: eight bars here and then listening to original and to
Speaker 1: figure out I believe my memory serves me well. Did
Speaker 1: I pretty much had it nearly perfectly memorized? But I
Speaker 1: think I even but I think I used the lyrics
Speaker 1: on a music stand, just just in case I should
Speaker 1: in in recording the piece, you know, have a misstep
Speaker 1: in my memory and forget certain words, But but I
Speaker 1: think it came off pretty well. Yeah that that that
Speaker 1: is probably bar none my favorite performers of you. But
Speaker 1: I'll say that maybe like maybe in my top ten
Speaker 1: songs of all time because beyond beyond the just beyond
Speaker 1: the magnitude of hearing, you know, four very unique vocalists
Speaker 1: again Algabro, George Benson, John Hendricks, and Bob McFerrin attempt this.
Speaker 1: John John Hendricks is like the father of what they
Speaker 1: call vocalist like they'll they'll often uh or you remember
Speaker 1: we were laughing at Eddie Jefferson doing bitches brue No,
Speaker 1: but even even even Eddie Jefferson fault like I mean,
Speaker 1: Eddie Jefferson is more like I would say, he's closer
Speaker 1: to like Rufus Thomas if Rufus Thomas were jazz or
Speaker 1: whatever or O d B. I don't know, but uh yeah,
Speaker 1: John Hendricks of formerly of Lambert hendrickson Ross. I mean
Speaker 1: they were like the original Manhattan transfer slash. So is
Speaker 1: that why so on because I'm looking I'm looking up freeloader?
Speaker 1: Is that is that why only John Hendricks is listed
Speaker 1: on the songs on his album? Yeah, it's on his album.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of like, you know, getting the most
Speaker 1: unique vocals. But even George Benson's approach, you know, that's
Speaker 1: not tell him that's my favorite. Is this post simple
Speaker 1: pleasures or this presimple pleasures? You guys did that in
Speaker 1: ninety I think I'd like to think it was nine.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I think we were still living in
Speaker 1: San Francisco. If it was, yeah, I think yeah. I
Speaker 1: asked because I was just wanting to be in the
Speaker 1: still in the simple pledges back because you said that
Speaker 1: you don't consider yourself a jazz vocalist, but I wonder
Speaker 1: if you consider yourself like a conduit to all music,
Speaker 1: because a lot sometimes people don't if you're aware of this,
Speaker 1: but sometimes people learn of other musical genres and songs
Speaker 1: through you. Well, I would call myself a folk musician, okay,
Speaker 1: you know music music of the folks. You know, I tried.
Speaker 1: I tried to. Whenever I go to different countries, if
Speaker 1: I have an opportunity to hear some of the musical
Speaker 1: styles that come from that culture, I try and incorporate
Speaker 1: it in my improvs, you know, as well as I can.
Speaker 1: I gone to several music schools, you know, in different
Speaker 1: countries where they would have ensembles play for me and
Speaker 1: invite me to participate with them. So I would take
Speaker 1: what I could from that experience, you know, onto the
Speaker 1: stage with me and play with the sounds and the
Speaker 1: scales and mm hmm. How many countries do you think
Speaker 1: you've done that in, like improvising with other countries like that? Lots?
Speaker 1: Are there any that have stumped you? Stumped me? Like,
Speaker 1: what's been the hardest to incorporate language? That's a good question.
Speaker 1: I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Speaker 1: Man stumpers meat one man dare to like, did you
Speaker 1: see red Pepper? Yes? We often fall into rabbit holes
Speaker 1: on this show. Wait you you're the one that put
Speaker 1: the link up right, Yeah? I got I gotta meet
Speaker 1: that dude. Man. Yeah, I never knew he was black
Speaker 1: as a black. It's a brother in London that does
Speaker 1: like all that stuff the scary in a world where
Speaker 1: and so I thought that was a white man. It
Speaker 1: was he died, but he looks like it looks like
Speaker 1: being rains now but has a polite accent. Cock me accent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'd said it right. Yeah, say crazy s
Speaker 1: I'm great. I'm great man. So okay, now, I guess
Speaker 1: I will bring up the D word. Uh, At what
Speaker 1: point did you realize that this song was going beyond
Speaker 1: just having a hit single and that what song are
Speaker 1: we talking about? Uh? D W B yes, w we
Speaker 1: got we got it. You know I showed I showed
Speaker 1: the shirt that he had on. Oh yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: gave it to the lunch. Yeah, they laughed at it.
Speaker 1: He had a shirt that said don't worry beyond. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I saw that my shirt, but I made him wear
Speaker 1: it for aous. They gotta kick out of that. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I mean, was there a point where you because
Speaker 1: assuming that you took it out your repertoire or if
Speaker 1: you ever I don't know if you ever performed it
Speaker 1: live in concert or whatever. But I haven't performed that
Speaker 1: song live in concert since November of specific oh, because
Speaker 1: it was the alleging the tune came out September September
Speaker 1: before that, I believe, thirty year anniversary. It's yes, I'm late, sorry, masks,
Speaker 1: But why specifically November, Like, what's the significance of I
Speaker 1: just remember that when I started doing solo concerts that
Speaker 1: I refused to do that that piece on stage, because
Speaker 1: I wanted the audience too to know me as an improviser, right,
Speaker 1: you know, so I didn't want to. Can't you be
Speaker 1: falling back on that tune all the time? Or have
Speaker 1: them expected? They they grew out of it over time,
Speaker 1: you know, they said, well, he's not gonna do that.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna do that time because he doesn't do
Speaker 1: it anymore. And I just don't do it. You still
Speaker 1: get asked, still do you make me faces? When they asked,
Speaker 1: are you just say no, I don't make faces. I
Speaker 1: just said no, I probably won't do it. Occasionally might
Speaker 1: hint to the melody in the middle of an improv,
Speaker 1: you know, it might come up, but I don't intentionally
Speaker 1: do it. And the only exceptions that I make are
Speaker 1: for kids. You know, for kids should say, would you've
Speaker 1: sing that song? I might sing the chorus, you know,
Speaker 1: a chorus or something, and I've probably heard you sing
Speaker 1: like one verse in my entire life. Probably okay, next show,
Speaker 1: I'm freaking like the only time I've ever seen you
Speaker 1: do some of it in a show setting was one
Speaker 1: time when we were on tour and there was a
Speaker 1: kid who was severely disabled who asked and so then
Speaker 1: I think he did like a verse in a chorus,
Speaker 1: but we did it in like a samba style or
Speaker 1: something like that. Like it wasn't the same, did he?
Speaker 1: What's that that might be? Don't Herbie be handcucked? Didn't
Speaker 1: Nobody asked you to circle around around the I hate
Speaker 1: to bring it on the downturn, but on the death
Speaker 1: of Robin Williams asked you to bring it back around
Speaker 1: during that in the time of the death of Robin
Speaker 1: Williams since the video. No. The weirdest request I ever
Speaker 1: had to do that tune was they one year at
Speaker 1: the Academy Awards, they wanted me to sing that song
Speaker 1: to the losers? Are you out of your mind? You
Speaker 1: want me to see that show seeing that song on
Speaker 1: national television? To the losers? You gotta be speaking of
Speaker 1: which um you hold the uh the dubi's honor of
Speaker 1: winning both the Record and Song of the Year in
Speaker 1: a time in which I thought that Man in the
Speaker 1: Mirror was going to be Michael Jackson's redemption from losing
Speaker 1: the five awards of the previous year for the Bad Awards,
Speaker 1: and he didn't. I was I was elated and happy
Speaker 1: that you won. What was your when did you feel
Speaker 1: as though like you I had a chance or was
Speaker 1: it just like whatever? I didn't really pay much much
Speaker 1: attention to it. You scattered your thank you thinging. I
Speaker 1: was like that all the time, like is that the
Speaker 1: year that Michael sent you Beatles albums? As like congratulations
Speaker 1: or something like that was a good sport about it.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have known about the Beatles if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for bothering me fair and not for nothing, I would
Speaker 1: have took me a little longer. I will say that,
Speaker 1: like you're driving my car, was like oh, And then
Speaker 1: I heard Dares. I was like, oh they did it too,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll be honest. Yeah, I'll say that of
Speaker 1: the Beatles catalog I discovered cover, I was like, oh
Speaker 1: blackbird Yah. I didn't know Blackbird Bird was a Beatles
Speaker 1: song for a very long time. And what's weird is
Speaker 1: I still consider his version the Yeah. Even McCartney still
Speaker 1: does it now, And in my head I can't imagine
Speaker 1: anyone not singing the it's hard to go to I've
Speaker 1: lost my voice? Your voice? How do you handle sickness?
Speaker 1: On the route? And I used what voice I've got?
Speaker 1: If I've got two actors. I just used the two actors.
Speaker 1: How many octaves? What's your active range for? That's like
Speaker 1: that for me? Yes, you, I mean your octive range?
Speaker 1: Is I mean that average person? I'm sure me Steve
Speaker 1: two octaves? I'm sure a singer maybe taking yeah, because
Speaker 1: he sings in this so maybe three. But when you're
Speaker 1: dealing with four and five octave range, that means you're special.
Speaker 1: So hello, everybody, aren't we special? You are? Have you
Speaker 1: ever had offers for Saturday Morning cartoons and voiceovers and
Speaker 1: stuff like that? Like, but a regular series? Not just
Speaker 1: like to do it though. I've been telling him that
Speaker 1: he needs to do it for the longest because this man, Yes,
Speaker 1: but this man gives the best story time ever. I
Speaker 1: had him read me stories until I was twelve years old,
Speaker 1: play in bed because it was like and I wouldn't
Speaker 1: even have my mom read me stories because she couldn't
Speaker 1: do all the voices. It wasn't it wasn't the same thing.
Speaker 1: What we're Okay, So by the time you're born via
Speaker 1: medicine music, all right, I'll at least start you at three.
Speaker 1: I think I was like one when medicine Music came out.
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying that how are you what are
Speaker 1: you processing what you're in? Because you're the youngest of
Speaker 1: this brute, and I'm certain that your brothers are, even
Speaker 1: via trickle down talent, are just as spontaneous and creative
Speaker 1: as he was, Like, how are you processing the situation
Speaker 1: that you're in? Um? I didn't realize the magnitude of
Speaker 1: who he was or what he could do until I
Speaker 1: got to college. So what you before then? Yeah? You
Speaker 1: met me my freshman year of college, first semester, So
Speaker 1: before then he was just dad. Yeah, pretty much. Listen
Speaker 1: to the records. You didn't realize We'll see. Here's the
Speaker 1: thing is, like he My friend pointed this out to me,
Speaker 1: and I hadn't even realized until she did. I guess
Speaker 1: she got asked in a class once they were talking
Speaker 1: about my dad. She mentioned that she knew him and
Speaker 1: this is a friend of mine who have known since
Speaker 1: we were three, And the professor was like, Oh, what's
Speaker 1: it like knowing him? And she said, oh, he makes
Speaker 1: noise all the time. And I didn't. I didn't even
Speaker 1: recognize that that was a thing until she pointed that
Speaker 1: out to me. Because he is, in fact making noise
Speaker 1: all the time. And when your dad is just making
Speaker 1: noise all the time. But yeah, it doesn't register is
Speaker 1: something that's like particularly unique or particularly different or strange.
Speaker 1: Like I didn't realize. I didn't listen to his music
Speaker 1: as a musician until I got to college, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I was like, oh, wow, this
Speaker 1: is very difficult to do. But this is somebody who,
Speaker 1: like I have been going to shows of his as
Speaker 1: long as I can remember, and so it's just like normal.
Speaker 1: So I want to ask, how can you take someone serious?
Speaker 1: That's like have you asked home by ten? That's also
Speaker 1: like it. He was never really the enforcer of that.
Speaker 1: That was my mom, so that I didn't he was asleep.
Speaker 1: He goes to bed at like nine o'clock. He was
Speaker 1: kind of the Yeah he was in terms of good
Speaker 1: cop bad cop dynamic. He's the good copy slash the
Speaker 1: cop who's on the road all the time. So Mom
Speaker 1: has to like, in my mind, you're you, And I
Speaker 1: said it even the day where I first met you
Speaker 1: and your brothers, like you guys are like the animaniacs.
Speaker 1: It's pretty pretty accurate. And he's doctor in the tower
Speaker 1: with them. So yeah, so to you, did you know
Speaker 1: that you wanted to sing as or just I decided
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a singer when I was five, Um,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if that was. It definitely wasn't
Speaker 1: because like my parents were like, oh, you're going to
Speaker 1: be a singer. I think it was like I saw
Speaker 1: my dad was a singer and he enjoyed doing it.
Speaker 1: I liked going to shows, I liked singing with him,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Oh, if dad can do it,
Speaker 1: I can do it. And then I kind of just
Speaker 1: didn't question that thought, which I'm curious about as an adult,
Speaker 1: like if that was really I mean, I still love
Speaker 1: doing it, but it was very much like I'm going
Speaker 1: to be a singer, and then I just didn't question
Speaker 1: decision it inclines as you get older, your friend, how
Speaker 1: are you all making decisions at age five and six?
Speaker 1: I don't remember deciding anything that well. Before that, I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a tightrope walker. Okay, how does it feel, Bobby.
Speaker 1: It's funny because I just saw Medicine show for the
Speaker 1: first time, even though I've known it for a few
Speaker 1: years now. I'm like, but I just offered the first
Speaker 1: time this year, and it is so derivative of you,
Speaker 1: but also just like her own fresh takes that. Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: what does that feel like watching your kids do that?
Speaker 1: I'm glad that they have taken what I've done and
Speaker 1: expanded on it, you know, and have developed it two
Speaker 1: to something that that I'm I feel I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm a part of it, you know what. Whatever they do,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm a part of it because of
Speaker 1: the influence I guess I've had on them in the
Speaker 1: musical field literal DNA, but right, but it's also to
Speaker 1: your father and your Mom's all trickled down, and so
Speaker 1: it must be sometimes do you have a conscious moment
Speaker 1: of like, oh my god, my parents. We're in a
Speaker 1: Broadway I can't remember if it was a Broadway show
Speaker 1: in nineteen nine called Lost in the Stars. H do
Speaker 1: you know this? This piece? Yeah, lost in the Stars.
Speaker 1: I've got an old program that someone found with the
Speaker 1: cast of characters, and at the bottom of the list
Speaker 1: is Robert McFerrin Villager. So he had a small role
Speaker 1: and my mother was in the chorus, and so, uh,
Speaker 1: they had a chance to sing together. I remember early
Speaker 1: in my childhood they were away a lot, which I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't like I was very lonely for them
Speaker 1: as a kid, but we eventually ended up in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Do you have any other siblings? Is just you? I
Speaker 1: have a sister who was also a singer. Really yeah,
Speaker 1: still currently in and out of jobs. You know, the
Speaker 1: life of a of a musician. It can be really tough,
Speaker 1: especially in musical mecca like Los Angeles. Okay, how do
Speaker 1: you get other people out there? Fort zone? Because uh,
Speaker 1: my introduction to the Yo Yo man was through you,
Speaker 1: but then seeing him in his regular environment and in
Speaker 1: such a strict discipline atmosphere is classical music. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're really pulling him towards the the jazz world almost,
Speaker 1: you know, doing improvising and solo. So one, how do
Speaker 1: you do you plan all your collaborations that way, Like
Speaker 1: let's just throw some spaghetti on the wall and see
Speaker 1: what sticks. And well with Yo Yo, we we just
Speaker 1: brought it. We didn't we didn't know what the album
Speaker 1: was gonna sound like. We just got together and had
Speaker 1: a stack of music. Yeah. I remember, we must have
Speaker 1: had hundreds of pieces and we just went through them
Speaker 1: and said, well let's try this, try that. And I
Speaker 1: had also written five pieces I think for the album
Speaker 1: and so we we just kind of went through a
Speaker 1: lot of material and we worked, we worked on my stuff.
Speaker 1: I think it took about a week to to record
Speaker 1: all this material. And I I sensed from playing with
Speaker 1: him that he could improvise if he wanted to, just
Speaker 1: because of the spirit of his behind his playing. He
Speaker 1: had a very strong spirit, and I could tell. I
Speaker 1: could tell that he would make a great impro improviser.
Speaker 1: And I kept telling him, so, I said, you can,
Speaker 1: you can do this, you can. So what I did
Speaker 1: to aid him was give him some some points for
Speaker 1: him to play too, you know, and then once he
Speaker 1: played to that point, that I would direct him to
Speaker 1: another point and have him played to that point. And
Speaker 1: I knew he could handle it. Even though he probably
Speaker 1: doesn't improvised much anymore, I really don't know. He has
Speaker 1: a group called the Siuk Road Project, okay, and it's
Speaker 1: music gathered from various cultures. Then he's brought together as
Speaker 1: an ensemble. And I'm not sure exactly how he works
Speaker 1: within bad ensemble, but I hope that he's he's doing
Speaker 1: some improv Do you feel as though that your influence
Speaker 1: on him has caused him to step outside of his
Speaker 1: comfort zone? Maybe a little, maybe a little. Um the
Speaker 1: voice Ster project project um, which you know, as far
Speaker 1: as the phrasing, like, as far as the phrasing is
Speaker 1: concerned and the arrangements, how did you tackle that particularly
Speaker 1: because I don't I would assume that nothing on that
Speaker 1: album or any of your projects with voices voices it
Speaker 1: was spontaneous, like it took how many Yeah, so as
Speaker 1: far as writing parts for like, as far as rehearsal
Speaker 1: and all that, Well, you're you're referring to vocabularies that project.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I said voices, Yes, vocabularies, yeah, how many?
Speaker 1: I read that it was over twelve vocal tracks. There
Speaker 1: were a lot of vocal tracks, and everything on that
Speaker 1: project was done by the voice was done by voice. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's there's a project. Have you Have you ever heard
Speaker 1: of vocal sampling from Cuba? Okay, yeah, like I thought
Speaker 1: vocal sampling from they were it was like three cousins
Speaker 1: and three brothers, almost like the Take six Swords, but
Speaker 1: they're in Cuba. But when they do percussion, I swear
Speaker 1: to god it was the real thing, like I thought.
Speaker 1: I made them prove to me that it was actually. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and but this how as far as engineering and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, is that just you and project began. I
Speaker 1: worked with an arrangement by the name of Roger Trees,
Speaker 1: and he he went through the voice sister files. He
Speaker 1: just went through everything. He listened to all of the solo,
Speaker 1: the the improvisational concerts that we did, and he found
Speaker 1: certain themes and developed them and he's responsible for all
Speaker 1: of the arrangements. I think we worked on the project
Speaker 1: for a good two years. Yeah, yeah. And he would
Speaker 1: record say the basis for for a while. Then he
Speaker 1: recorded another group, you know, the tenors and altos and sopranos.
Speaker 1: So he did the one one group at it. Sorry
Speaker 1: I was and with my parts, he would simply put
Speaker 1: the recording on a loop so that you know, for example,
Speaker 1: he wanted a funky baseline, so he would have me
Speaker 1: seeing a funky baseline for eight bars and then he'd
Speaker 1: loop it around. So I would do twenty eight baselines,
Speaker 1: and then he choose the one that he wanted to
Speaker 1: work off of. And that's pretty much how we worked.
Speaker 1: Just going to the studio and he said, I need
Speaker 1: a new melody for this line, and so I was
Speaker 1: just seeing that melody or that line a multitude of times,
Speaker 1: and then he would take it and work on and
Speaker 1: expanded development. And that's pretty much how we worked on it.
Speaker 1: So it's physically only twelve people. There's probably more than twelve,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure how many voice group. The performing
Speaker 1: group is twelve people. Has the Vocabulary Project ever done
Speaker 1: anything live? Uh? Well, a couple of pieces say lie
Speaker 1: to you. No, it was like the Garden right, Like
Speaker 1: when we went to Poland that time, there was that
Speaker 1: group that did some stuff from like two pieces from
Speaker 1: it from Good Danks, Good Danks with me. I've forgotten
Speaker 1: the question. No, I was just one of them. No,
Speaker 1: I just I'm trying to imagine you guys recreating any
Speaker 1: of those songs. Yeah, it's to that level. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: is a group I think it's called They're called They're
Speaker 1: called Sticks. S t y. You're thinking of Pentatonics, No,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I oh, the German group that was in
Speaker 1: Poland with us. I think they were called Sticks, but
Speaker 1: not us about Pentatonics, though I actually heard um over
Speaker 1: the holidays Pentatonics. I guess they came out with a
Speaker 1: Christmas album or something like that. That's the only time
Speaker 1: I hear from right and I was in Bloomingdale's and
Speaker 1: you know, they're playing only Christmas music, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden they hear that don't Worry Be Happy theme
Speaker 1: and it's not him, you know, And so I recorded
Speaker 1: a video of myself being like, oh goodness, what is
Speaker 1: this all of a sudden. All of a sudden, it
Speaker 1: goes from thank thank god. I was recording myself because
Speaker 1: it goes from the don't worry Be Happy theme into
Speaker 1: sleigh bells ring And the shock on my face was
Speaker 1: I'm still shocked. I don't know how to deal with that.
Speaker 1: You did a song. It was a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: Was a minute ago for a Pixar short. Um knicknack? Nicknack?
Speaker 1: Is that out? Can like? But I love that song?
Speaker 1: Is it? Can you purchase it? Or can you email
Speaker 1: it to me? In his rough vocal, was actually wanted
Speaker 1: up being the yeah and that was which one was it?
Speaker 1: That was in it was funning email yeah because my
Speaker 1: son favorite loved that. I should be around there. It
Speaker 1: Actually you had actually done it in the eighties though, right,
Speaker 1: the original one, and then they brought it back they
Speaker 1: did for finding email. Are you supplying me with a
Speaker 1: fresh cap of tea, thank you com me for I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna problem than a spoon from Yes, we actually
Speaker 1: saw that together, that we saw Finding Nemo together, just
Speaker 1: the two of us, and Knickknack came on, which apparently
Speaker 1: signed note in the original one, the Mermaids boobs are
Speaker 1: a lot bigger, and so they shrunk them for the
Speaker 1: for the Disneys yet more a little more PG. And
Speaker 1: at the end of Knicknack, you know in big letters,
Speaker 1: it says Bobby McFerrin, and my dad just leaned over
Speaker 1: and he was like, I wonder what he's doing right now.
Speaker 1: I love that song. I love immediately when I seeing it,
Speaker 1: seeing it and in here, I was like, this, Bobby,
Speaker 1: it's gotta be him. And then when it came out
Speaker 1: in I was like that school, you had a really good, uh,
Speaker 1: finding Nemo experience, because finding Nemo experience, how is that possible?
Speaker 1: Long story long, was a date that feel bad. That's
Speaker 1: when Prince fired and played Finding Nemo instead, like, you're
Speaker 1: so bad, I want to put this VD on in
Speaker 1: the club. Finding is a great movie, though, so you know,
Speaker 1: just I wasn't big on Dory though. Dorry was kind
Speaker 1: of like I thought it was a decent follow up.
Speaker 1: It was a decent follow up, but like Finding Nemo
Speaker 1: is definitely not That's the one that pigs all kind
Speaker 1: of me. They got to get back on. They was
Speaker 1: I don't yeah, I don't know if I can trust
Speaker 1: there because now everything's just getting like top tier rotten
Speaker 1: Tomato ratings. And that was the one that like printed
Speaker 1: money because you know the merchandise Lightning Queen, he's actually
Speaker 1: to circle a background. He's wearing a Monster's Inc. Shirt
Speaker 1: right now, right now underneath if it was so cold
Speaker 1: here we are. Um, I want to talk about the
Speaker 1: Paper Music Project. Okay, first of all, did you were
Speaker 1: you conducting and singing at the same time or was
Speaker 1: that just as far as on concerts I would conduct
Speaker 1: and seeing at the same time, which I really didn't
Speaker 1: like to do. I was like, how can you do
Speaker 1: that because that's well, the pieces would have to be
Speaker 1: they'd have to be, first off, not very complicated. They'd
Speaker 1: have to be something that the orchestra could play by themselves.
Speaker 1: So you were still conducting by hand and I still
Speaker 1: turn the page and still sing your solos? Yeah? Pretty much?
Speaker 1: What did you mean? Am I just too as soon
Speaker 1: as you learned the art of conducting back when you
Speaker 1: were in you know what happened. What happened was, as
Speaker 1: my fortieth birthday was approaching, I wanted to give myself
Speaker 1: a special gift, and I went through a list of
Speaker 1: all kinds of ideas and I had written down conducting
Speaker 1: on that list, and so I started attending. I was
Speaker 1: living in San Francisco at the time. I started attending concerts,
Speaker 1: classical concerts and would end the backstage and I drop hints,
Speaker 1: you know, I'd say, boy, would be great to conduct
Speaker 1: you One day. I'm sorry because you just said that.
Speaker 1: And I remember my fortieth birthday and the only option
Speaker 1: I was thinking of, like are we doing Sylvia's or
Speaker 1: red Booster for Jesus? So um? I finally got a
Speaker 1: phone call from the from the orchestra inviting me to
Speaker 1: to conduct them. This you know, this is after of course,
Speaker 1: don't already be happy. So they're thinking pension fund and
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. And so is this why
Speaker 1: you moved to Minnesota or is this because you were
Speaker 1: in Minnesota? No, I wasn't in Minnesota yet, but eventually
Speaker 1: I got there through conduct. You know, it was it
Speaker 1: was all about conducting anyway, so they invited me to
Speaker 1: conduct them, and my my forty birthday was available, So
Speaker 1: I conducted Beethoven seventh on my forty birthday. That was
Speaker 1: my That was my conducting debut, and as far as
Speaker 1: I was concerned, that was all the conducting I was
Speaker 1: I was going to do. I mean, it was real.
Speaker 1: It's a really difficult thing to That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: How did you know how to? Just? Well? I studied,
Speaker 1: I studied the score, and I had a couple of teachers.
Speaker 1: I had some lessons with C. G. O's, one with
Speaker 1: Leonard Bernstein. I ended up working on continual basis with
Speaker 1: my conducting teacher, goostaf Meyer, who passed about a year ago.
Speaker 1: We went to the score, so I knew it pretty well.
Speaker 1: I conducted the piece and then I thought I was done.
Speaker 1: But I started getting phone calls and started calling Linda,
Speaker 1: what can we get him to conduct our come to
Speaker 1: our city and conduct our orchestra. So all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I find myself with all these conducting engagements. And when
Speaker 1: I was conducting the Saint pol Chamber Orchestra in Minneapolis, uh,
Speaker 1: there was a position open, and I asked for it
Speaker 1: because I wanted to At this point, I'm serious about conducting.
Speaker 1: I want to learn the art of conducting. So I
Speaker 1: asked for the position and gout it and stayed with
Speaker 1: the simple, stayed with the chamber orchestra for seven seasons.
Speaker 1: Can you explain us exactly what goes into conducting, because
Speaker 1: it just works like it's just you're waving up time,
Speaker 1: But it's it's it's it's about your entire body. I mean,
Speaker 1: the way you look at an orchestra can influence their playing. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's the gestures of the body. You display the music
Speaker 1: that's being played through through your body. You inform your
Speaker 1: orchestra what you want by the motion of your hands,
Speaker 1: the gestures of your of your body, you know, smiling
Speaker 1: at them, scowling at them or whatever. But it takes
Speaker 1: a lot of work. It's it's tedious work. At least
Speaker 1: it was for me. And after eighteen years of doing it,
Speaker 1: I decided to stop. So that's a challenge that was
Speaker 1: like a challenge that made you think twice about it,
Speaker 1: and well, I I really do love it. I love
Speaker 1: conducting Mozart most of all. He's a very impish kind
Speaker 1: of character. He has. He tells lots of musical jokes.
Speaker 1: He's very playful and boisterous and serious and deep. I
Speaker 1: conducted a piece of his that he wrote when he
Speaker 1: was eight, for the Life Man. I can't think of
Speaker 1: the name of it. It was. It was a short symphony,
Speaker 1: it was about fifty minutes in length, but as a
Speaker 1: piece that he wrote when he was eight years old,
Speaker 1: and when you listen to it, you wonder, how can
Speaker 1: an eight year old have those kinds of have this
Speaker 1: deep emotional depth of understanding of the human condition. You know,
Speaker 1: the emotions that he that he discovered through music was
Speaker 1: pretty profound. I couldn't understand how he could write something
Speaker 1: so deep at eight, But but he was that well
Speaker 1: developed a musician, and he out in his thirties, you know,
Speaker 1: after writing some incredible music. He's my favorite to get dark.
Speaker 1: The world of classical music is so disciplined. Do you
Speaker 1: feel as though maybe perhaps it rarely allowed any sort
Speaker 1: of spontaneity. Well, you know, it surprised me standing in
Speaker 1: front of an orchestra, a full orchestra with eight bassis
Speaker 1: mm hmm. And during this time I was doing I
Speaker 1: had opened up with a classical piece or two, and
Speaker 1: then I do a solo set, and then the concept
Speaker 1: that then there'd be an intermission and then there'd be
Speaker 1: a classical piece, you know, Beethoven piece or Bernstein or
Speaker 1: something something would take place in the second half. And
Speaker 1: I remember walking over to the base section and one
Speaker 1: by one asked if one of them would be interested
Speaker 1: in playing a B flat blues with and none of
Speaker 1: them could do it, And that blew me away because
Speaker 1: I thought, how can you not play? How can you
Speaker 1: not give me a B flat blues? So I can
Speaker 1: you know, improvise? On top of that, I just thought
Speaker 1: every base player, could you know, either classically trained or not,
Speaker 1: could play a B flat blues and B flat? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we classical musicians. They condition themselves to read
Speaker 1: one on the spot. That's why I call it paper music,
Speaker 1: because they live on the page sarcasm and humor working
Speaker 1: this um. But I love classical music. Were you live
Speaker 1: in between worlds? Because you I assume that you can
Speaker 1: read on site. Were given five ten minutes to recap it, okay,
Speaker 1: so it's I mean, do you when that blew your weight?
Speaker 1: Like they didn't even know the technical the technical notes
Speaker 1: to do, like the one chord and then well that
Speaker 1: wasn't true of all orders, is that there were some
Speaker 1: that that could, you know, play blues and B flat.
Speaker 1: But lots of things shocked me about that that world.
Speaker 1: It's very very different. Everything is organized, Everything has to
Speaker 1: be discussed, even down to what are we gonna wear.
Speaker 1: I conducted concert versions of Poor Gian Bess, and I
Speaker 1: wanted the orchestra in the course to be as colorful
Speaker 1: as possible. I didn't want the black, black and white
Speaker 1: suits and all that kind of stuff, you know, require
Speaker 1: all wearing black and white whatever. I didn't want that.
Speaker 1: I said, where everything where African garb? Where just be
Speaker 1: colorful because we're talking about catfish row here, we're talking
Speaker 1: about a village of people. So they didn't walk around
Speaker 1: in suits and ties, you know, they walked around in
Speaker 1: bare feet and patches on their clothes and different colors.
Speaker 1: Must have loved it. So so as soon as the
Speaker 1: cars would come in, even before we played a note,
Speaker 1: the audience knew that something was up, something wonderful. What's
Speaker 1: looking at? What's going to happen? Just because of the
Speaker 1: way everyone looked, even the orchestra. But they'd have to
Speaker 1: have meetings about this kind of stuff. What do you
Speaker 1: mean where color? What colors? And I say many, many colors?
Speaker 1: Short sleep, long sleep. I said, I don't care, Jane
Speaker 1: slacks doesn't matter. I don't care. You know, you're free,
Speaker 1: just just play. Madison, what was this like for you
Speaker 1: growing up? Because you seem he seems like he would
Speaker 1: be like the coolest dad ever, Like, well, did he
Speaker 1: allow you to express yourself like that as well? Yeah?
Speaker 1: We were always really encouraged to express ourselves in whatever ways. Um,
Speaker 1: they are the animaniacs, Moslet. I have no idea what
Speaker 1: you're talking about. The Smiletts, Journey Smilett, the family. Uh,
Speaker 1: we had them on the show, like the whole Fara
Speaker 1: when I see you know, the Tasmanian double chaos. I
Speaker 1: just see that with the four them together, the little
Speaker 1: girl from East Boy I was trying to give him.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, um, I mean it was interesting and
Speaker 1: like similar to what I had mentioned earlier about not
Speaker 1: really putting two and two together until I got to college.
Speaker 1: We were always going to shows, you know, we were
Speaker 1: always going to whether it was a solo show or
Speaker 1: a classical show. Um. You know, I just remember being
Speaker 1: little and needing to like sit on my mom's jacket
Speaker 1: because I wasn't big enough to see the stage type
Speaker 1: of thing, you know. And and this was in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: This is where you were. I'm we moved from San
Speaker 1: Francisco when I was just under three, and then I
Speaker 1: did like elementary school in Minneapolis, UM and then pretty
Speaker 1: much middle school in high school in Philadelphia. Uh. But
Speaker 1: it was another one of those things where you really
Speaker 1: take for granted that like I'm not thinking about the
Speaker 1: fact that, oh, all my friends aren't going to see
Speaker 1: classical shows like every other weekend, you know, Like that
Speaker 1: didn't That really didn't compute. And it also didn't connect because,
Speaker 1: you know, he was gone a decent amount on the road.
Speaker 1: And my two best friends, one of them, her dad
Speaker 1: was a like a consultant who was on the road
Speaker 1: all the time, and the other one, her mom was
Speaker 1: a businesswoman who was on the road all the time.
Speaker 1: So I was kind of like, oh, a parent is gone.
Speaker 1: That's just kind of the vibe. What did your did
Speaker 1: your mom? She was not a singer or anything like that.
Speaker 1: No music, not at all. No, my mom has a
Speaker 1: wonderful taste in music. She's not apparently the world's best
Speaker 1: friend chicken. Yes, yes, and she's from the West. No,
Speaker 1: she's from Illinois. But apparently, I mean, Dad can say
Speaker 1: this better than I can. But apparently one of the
Speaker 1: things that caught his eye when they met in seventy
Speaker 1: five is that when he went to her apartment, and
Speaker 1: this is a white woman, she had a copy of
Speaker 1: Downbeat magazine in her apartment and so so um. But
Speaker 1: she is a different kind of artist in the sense
Speaker 1: of she is an incredible interior designer um and has
Speaker 1: an eye for that kind of detail. And but she
Speaker 1: always says that if she could sing, she'd be a
Speaker 1: blues singer. So she had a voice, she would want
Speaker 1: to do that, but that is not what she does.
Speaker 1: But I think it's actually better that way. Since he
Speaker 1: is like such a virtuoso, I feel like having to
Speaker 1: musician couple, not like, have y'all collaborated yet we are.
Speaker 1: I'm in his band in one of his bands with him,
Speaker 1: UM called Spirit You Wall. So we did about two
Speaker 1: years of of touring together, which was really fun. I
Speaker 1: got I said, I essentially got paid to travel the world.
Speaker 1: And last because we would something would happen on stage
Speaker 1: if we would get to laughing so hard so we
Speaker 1: couldn't even look at each other. Yeah, it was bad.
Speaker 1: His sound guy, Dan Vaccari, he after one show he
Speaker 1: told me, he was like, if something happens like you,
Speaker 1: you can't look at your dad because you guys will
Speaker 1: look at each other and he'll fall out and until
Speaker 1: turn into a whole thing. Um. But we definitely have
Speaker 1: a way of setting each other off. I actually recently
Speaker 1: found a photo um of the two of us sitting
Speaker 1: at the piano when I'm probably like six or something,
Speaker 1: and we're both making silly faces, and it pretty much
Speaker 1: sums up yeah, pretty much. What was What was your
Speaker 1: training like? Did you were you formally trained or did
Speaker 1: you just kind of pick it up yourself a little
Speaker 1: bit of both. I started taking piano lessons when I
Speaker 1: was like three or four or something like that. Um.
Speaker 1: But then when we moved to Philadelphia, I still took
Speaker 1: up lessons, but I wasn't as serious about it. And
Speaker 1: then I also took drum lessons simultaneously, and sat Vibe
Speaker 1: wasn't as serious and same thing. I took quarter lessons
Speaker 1: and wasn't a serious about I have a wooden reporter
Speaker 1: that my dad got me that's pretty Mugit um, and
Speaker 1: how are you when you did that? Uh ten or
Speaker 1: eleven something like that to twelve? I could. I could.
Speaker 1: I could play pretty well. I was decent. I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I wasn't like the squeaky because I you know, they
Speaker 1: played that in school and I would always have to
Speaker 1: be put to the side because I was like, you,
Speaker 1: this is past or this is below your pay grade.
Speaker 1: Everything I couldn't. I mean, they never gave it to me,
Speaker 1: but I guess I probably could. I would have to
Speaker 1: like sit in the hallway while everybody else was learning
Speaker 1: something else because they were like, here's some more advanced
Speaker 1: pains that you can figure out for yourself. UM. But
Speaker 1: I always knew I wanted to be a singer. UM.
Speaker 1: So I was like inquires and in high school I
Speaker 1: was like in the acapella group, in the choir and
Speaker 1: the Madrial's like and all that stuff. So I was
Speaker 1: singing every day of the week pretty much. UM. And
Speaker 1: then we'd sing in the house, not anything like formally. UM.
Speaker 1: And anytime he had a show that I was at out,
Speaker 1: we always would do some kind of duet together. UM.
Speaker 1: But definitely the most formal training I got was probably
Speaker 1: at Berkeley after the fact, Well know, he produces because
Speaker 1: he is just dipping into the into the singing, because
Speaker 1: he definitely he steered away from doing what Dad does.
Speaker 1: And I think as the oldest it was kind of
Speaker 1: like I'm trying to prove that I'm not my dad
Speaker 1: type of thing. Um, So he's just now dipping into it.
Speaker 1: Whereas Javan and I both like were active in choirs
Speaker 1: and stuff. But Javan also always wanted to be an actor. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I went to German Town Friends School. Oh, Gavan went
Speaker 1: to Kappa Okay, yeah, wait, why Philadelphia, that's the question.
Speaker 1: Was it just like coming to America? Like it's the
Speaker 1: winds man? The wind Minnesota was pretty bad, I can imagine.
Speaker 1: I was invited by the Philadelphia Orchestra to conduct them
Speaker 1: in April. So one, so I'm sitting with my Salam
Speaker 1: and Dan on an outdoor cafe with the trees blooming
Speaker 1: and everything, and and I called up my wife and
Speaker 1: I said maybe we should think about because we were
Speaker 1: thinking about moving but we didn't know where. I said, well,
Speaker 1: let's take a look at Philadelphia so we can also
Speaker 1: black people. And they were also black. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: Prince Runnings in Minnesota, nothn No, no trips to Paisley Park. No, yeah,
Speaker 1: we went. Okay, have you ever played with him or
Speaker 1: done one of his? Doesn't come to some A couple
Speaker 1: I think a show or two of mine. Okay, didn't
Speaker 1: you see him in the club once or something like so,
Speaker 1: I'm in the club. We met and talked for a
Speaker 1: little bit. I did a show in l A. He
Speaker 1: they cleared out the balcony so that he could sit
Speaker 1: in the balcony alone, so he could watch me in peace.
Speaker 1: And that was He was a very I wish I
Speaker 1: had gotten to know him. He was a very quiet.
Speaker 1: He had a very quiet voice. It was very small,
Speaker 1: but he had such a presence about him, you know.
Speaker 1: And it would have been great to have sat down
Speaker 1: with him as as we're as we are and just
Speaker 1: talk about music and talk about our vibs and stuff.
Speaker 1: So and finding your your voice, especially for your projects,
Speaker 1: like how how much uh not nerve or how did
Speaker 1: you deal with any reservations you had with sharing your
Speaker 1: music with your family, let alone in the world. But
Speaker 1: just um well, I thankfully I got I used to
Speaker 1: be really nervous when I would sing, especially in high school. Um.
Speaker 1: But then when I was in college, I was in
Speaker 1: a band called Cosmo Drama and we played a lot
Speaker 1: and Berkeley. I did go to Berkeley. What was that like?
Speaker 1: Because that's a very doggy dog world. Her eyes are
Speaker 1: closed and she's thinking, wait a minute about okay, Berkeley.
Speaker 1: Berkeley is a place where I think I had a
Speaker 1: very interesting experience being my father's daughter that I was
Speaker 1: slightly unprepared for us because you know, you go to
Speaker 1: college and you want to kind of be anonymous and
Speaker 1: figure out your own stuff. And even though the first
Speaker 1: year I was out it before I even got there,
Speaker 1: who apparently there were people who were talking administration. Yeah,
Speaker 1: administration had been like telling people that I was going
Speaker 1: to be there, and so I does a person, right,
Speaker 1: And so was this It was this thing where like,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously there's a little bit of you know,
Speaker 1: it's cool, unpopular type of thing, but then it was
Speaker 1: also this thing of like ddy, It was like that
Speaker 1: kind of thing, but also you know, like people introducing
Speaker 1: themselves and the first thing they would ask me is like,
Speaker 1: how's your dad doing? And I'm like, you don't want
Speaker 1: to know, right exactly? And so it really ended up
Speaker 1: giving me a lot of hesitation towards getting to know
Speaker 1: certain people, because yeah, I don't know what their motivation is.
Speaker 1: And at the same time, it's like, like I had mentioned,
Speaker 1: it's like I hadn't really listened to him as a
Speaker 1: musician until I got there. So it's like people are
Speaker 1: freaking out because they've been studying him all his right, right,
Speaker 1: They're freaking out, and I'm like, Yo, this is just
Speaker 1: my dad, and like he's a really wonderful father, and
Speaker 1: like that's cool that you really admire him, but like
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure out my stuff. People would
Speaker 1: automatically assume that I was like a really good scatter
Speaker 1: and I's like, no, like that's not what I do. Um,
Speaker 1: did you ever meet to bring your daddy home from work? Well,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. He helped me move into my college
Speaker 1: dorm room, you know. And so then people are like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, Bob being verness, like, but wait, do
Speaker 1: you know your story sounds similar to la hath the
Speaker 1: way in that way that doesn't surprise me. But her
Speaker 1: dad was like, you didn't have to finish. I'm sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: but I'm awkward. I actually I actually damned her on
Speaker 1: Instagram one time. So I was like, I'm happy to
Speaker 1: see like, fellow, do you know God? Yeah she hit
Speaker 1: she did, Um, we're following each other. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so I had I was able to like do the
Speaker 1: Cosmo drum thing, and then I still that was how
Speaker 1: I just go to you. Actually I didn't because that's
Speaker 1: when I was still doing my music and I and
Speaker 1: A Mirror actually was like, oh, if you write about
Speaker 1: for an exchange, Fonteo probably like it. I was like,
Speaker 1: And the thing was, though, did you ever get that
Speaker 1: Butterfly was number one? Because you know what I knew
Speaker 1: all ninety nine, I didn't know. Because the thing was,
Speaker 1: I didn't even know. I didn't find out who you
Speaker 1: were until afterwards. Like I was just reading your blog
Speaker 1: like you did. I joined. I was like, okay, let
Speaker 1: me see what else she done. So then I was
Speaker 1: just following your blog. It wasn't until later on did
Speaker 1: I realized that, oh that's Madison. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's Bobby's dog. Was like, okay, some people it takes
Speaker 1: a while for them to put the connection together. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's because I'm light skinned or what,
Speaker 1: but it's like some people. I thought it was then
Speaker 1: like because you would put up pictures like on Instagram
Speaker 1: and with your of your mom and you and your
Speaker 1: mom have like the exact twin, dude, Like for real?
Speaker 1: So can I ask the question? Because the first time
Speaker 1: I met Madison was with you a mirror and she
Speaker 1: was already singing live on stage. She was about to
Speaker 1: sing for Roots Picnic and sing some of the parts.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's right. I forgot we did work there,
Speaker 1: So I forget what made you go, Madison, come over
Speaker 1: here sing come to the Roost picnic? And how did
Speaker 1: that work? Because I was background? Okay, So that's what
Speaker 1: I was trying to put together. Okay, I know she
Speaker 1: sings a lot of singers, you know you from There's
Speaker 1: no method to my man, you uick. And that's how
Speaker 1: it was. You asked me like a week before it
Speaker 1: happened or something like that. It was like very I prepare,
Speaker 1: very late, and I realized, like, oh, someone's gonna have
Speaker 1: to sing these daylight songs and it won't be me.
Speaker 1: That was and I definitely like, it took me forever
Speaker 1: to meet you. Yeah, and then purpose you hid from
Speaker 1: him forever? You you said that real fast you was
Speaker 1: singing backgrounds for Daylight, but I'm just just well just
Speaker 1: at the Roots picnic, and then another time on Valin
Speaker 1: and then there was like a Super Bowl Budweiser party. Hum.
Speaker 1: But that was before I was even doing solo stuff. Um.
Speaker 1: I just started doing solo stuff about two years ago,
Speaker 1: so that was But I thankfully had enough practice under
Speaker 1: my belt and had played music for my family and
Speaker 1: my friends to be able to be like, Okay, what
Speaker 1: was that like, like playing music for your family? I mean,
Speaker 1: like the solo stuff, Well, I was really, I mean
Speaker 1: I was. This was the first time that I was
Speaker 1: releasing solo music, and I was really happy with what
Speaker 1: I had come out with, and the fact that it
Speaker 1: was acapella stuff actually made me a little more comfortable,
Speaker 1: which I think some people probably would assume that I
Speaker 1: would be less comfortable playing it for my dad, um,
Speaker 1: but it for me, it was more like, oh, I
Speaker 1: have this amazing resource to be like, what do you
Speaker 1: think of this music that is completely derivative of you?
Speaker 1: And you have been around the block a few times,
Speaker 1: and even like I did the first one by myself
Speaker 1: using his studio after he'd go to sleep, I'd like,
Speaker 1: I wasn't sneaking he knew I was doing it, but
Speaker 1: I was like, he goes to bed at nine, and
Speaker 1: so I'd be in there from like ten to four.
Speaker 1: And um. So then the second time around, I was
Speaker 1: much more you wake up at four o'clock on the morning.
Speaker 1: I get up between six, but I had to go
Speaker 1: to bed. Um. Well, no, I wasn't in school anymore.
Speaker 1: She's like, I like sleep, Um yeah. Um. But then
Speaker 1: the second time around, I was much more with finding
Speaker 1: conditions while him too. I was even that much more
Speaker 1: intentional with having him be a part of the process,
Speaker 1: and just while I was making it, be like what
Speaker 1: do you think of this? What are your arrangement notes?
Speaker 1: Like do you think I should take something out? Do
Speaker 1: you think I should put something in? Um? And there
Speaker 1: were definitely some key parts. It's it hard to be
Speaker 1: honest or not? Is it hard to be honest? Because
Speaker 1: the one thing in life I can't do is give critique.
Speaker 1: I'd rather end a friendship I've never given donaty saying
Speaker 1: in a family sense, like your sister, I don't critique nobody.
Speaker 1: I hate doing vocals like I just I. So you're
Speaker 1: saying you don't critique in terms of like while you're recording,
Speaker 1: or like after the record is done period, Like if
Speaker 1: someone no idea of like give me your honest opinion,
Speaker 1: like discover your music, it's because I actually like you
Speaker 1: and I dig you. But you know, but so if
Speaker 1: somebody's give me honest being on this, you don't, You're
Speaker 1: just like nah. I found that out very early because
Speaker 1: I asked him an opinion about something and he was like,
Speaker 1: I don't do that, and I was like, all right.
Speaker 1: I mean this was also like six seven years ago.
Speaker 1: Love does not do emotions with this, So what's next
Speaker 1: around the bed for you? Um? I have produced music
Speaker 1: in the works, um and right, but that was stuff.
Speaker 1: This is the thing. I wrote this produced stuff before
Speaker 1: I wrote the acapella stuff. But I, similar to my dad,
Speaker 1: had a vision of me being on stage by myself
Speaker 1: and so but I can't play all these other instruments,
Speaker 1: and I don't even though I can play the piano,
Speaker 1: I don't feel super confident playing and singing at the
Speaker 1: same time, even though that's how I wrote the songs
Speaker 1: that are going to be produced. And so I was like, oh, snap,
Speaker 1: I need something else if I'm going to do these
Speaker 1: solo shows. And so I wrote some acapella tunes with
Speaker 1: my loop pedal, and I was like, oh, these are
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I'll like record these and then just put
Speaker 1: these out. Um, all those loops are programmed inside your
Speaker 1: loop pedal when I do it live, but when I
Speaker 1: record them, I record each track individually. Each track is
Speaker 1: doubled for nothing. I don't want them the shadey nobody else.
Speaker 1: But watching Madison on stage is like watching what eric
Speaker 1: could trying to do with her machine on stage. But
Speaker 1: then you kind of just executed in a Sometimes she
Speaker 1: used the machine on stage, but you executed like but
Speaker 1: Erica machine down. Yeah, that was a compliment Madison. That
Speaker 1: was actually the first time I saw somebody use loop
Speaker 1: pedal was at Roots Picnic when two Yards played like
Speaker 1: the second, like the second a Ruse picnic or sometimes Well,
Speaker 1: I was asking because when Kirk used to do that
Speaker 1: on his guitar solos, he would lose the information at
Speaker 1: the end turning off. I was like, well, damn, what's
Speaker 1: the sense in looping if you can't keep you know,
Speaker 1: in a hard drive or whatever. But I was asking, like,
Speaker 1: in your pedal, you you can keep it, you can
Speaker 1: save it, so I save stuff. But and you can
Speaker 1: like technically save it and then just put it into
Speaker 1: the computer and have that be that. But I much
Speaker 1: preferred you can't get like doubles and panning and the like.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get it rich and it's phenomenal. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so that the the acapella thing happened totally by accident.
Speaker 1: So it's just like and people are really into that,
Speaker 1: so I was like, okay, I'll do that. Also, is
Speaker 1: very easy for me to travel. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: one pedal that I put in a backpack and then
Speaker 1: I'm off, I hope you don't lose that bag. Well
Speaker 1: you know, it's stay is on my back, you know.
Speaker 1: And even if I do lose it, it's like I
Speaker 1: all of my tracks, I performed them live, so if
Speaker 1: I lose it, then like that sucks, but like it
Speaker 1: doesn't so you just don't have a background. I just
Speaker 1: need to go to a guitar center and like buy
Speaker 1: a pedal. I have not lost a pedal, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not. But I but I'm just saying that, like
Speaker 1: it's not. Even though there are ideas in there that
Speaker 1: I would love to have, I'm not so attached to
Speaker 1: them that if I were to lose it, I would
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, there's one there's one idea
Speaker 1: in there that I composed that I don't know how
Speaker 1: to remake it. And I even played it for my
Speaker 1: dad and he was like, WHOA. But I still to
Speaker 1: this day, I'm like, there are too many lines and
Speaker 1: parts where I'm like, I don't know how to reconstruct it.
Speaker 1: I really want to, So that'd probably be the only
Speaker 1: one that I would be sad about. Are you a Taylor,
Speaker 1: y'all do any work together? Because I really liked this album.
Speaker 1: I was supposed to be on that album, really, but
Speaker 1: but no, I love that record and like, I like
Speaker 1: what you do. So you know, he's actually supposed to
Speaker 1: produce what the next produced project is. Hopefully he's got
Speaker 1: to finish his album first. I have one song that
Speaker 1: is finished, um, and it's actually a song that's on
Speaker 1: Finding Foundations Volume one that I had written for the
Speaker 1: first produced project and then he he produced it, and
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about it. Um. But it's funny. We
Speaker 1: used to live in the same building and like kepting
Speaker 1: like we need to make music, we need to make music,
Speaker 1: and then like it didn't happen, and now he lives
Speaker 1: in l A. And it's like, so when we make
Speaker 1: a music, but he makes he I mean, granted I'm
Speaker 1: so biased, but like he produces the kind of music
Speaker 1: that I hear in my head, you know, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure that comes from we have the same upbringing. But
Speaker 1: whenever I think about I would love to, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would love to get into production at some point in time,
Speaker 1: but like until that point, like he produces the kind
Speaker 1: of music that I right, So DNA DNA. You know
Speaker 1: what's really interesting is Taylor would come to me sometimes
Speaker 1: he said, Dad, you gotta hear this. You gotta hear this,
Speaker 1: and he played for me and I go, man, this
Speaker 1: was my favorite favorite piece, you know, when I was
Speaker 1: your age. You know. He played something else for me
Speaker 1: and I said that. He said, Damn, you gotta hear this.
Speaker 1: This is really great, And I say, man, I love
Speaker 1: that piece. I already knew that piece. You know it
Speaker 1: must be DNA thing because I would be constantly shocked
Speaker 1: at the stuff that he loved was also stuff that
Speaker 1: I loved, you know, before I even had kids, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. This is George Duke album. Like
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was his first one or
Speaker 1: the second one. But he was working with Frank's App
Speaker 1: at the time and he produced his own album and
Speaker 1: the opening piece on this album I used to play
Speaker 1: over and over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: And so he comes to be my day and says, Dad,
Speaker 1: you gotta hear this, and it's the George. It's the
Speaker 1: same thing he didn't remember. Just it's in blood way
Speaker 1: with our parents. I feel like all of us were not. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Maybe now I'm playing. I'm joking. I'm joking, all right.
Speaker 1: So I have my dad's record collection, so ye before
Speaker 1: we split, Um, I just want to know about the
Speaker 1: Give Me Five projects And well, yeah, it's a miniature
Speaker 1: voices Okay, it incorporates I have one soprano one out
Speaker 1: to one tenor on one base, and myself and it's
Speaker 1: all improvised. It's just five of us. Uh. Well, you
Speaker 1: guys been singing together forever, so oh my goodness. I
Speaker 1: would hope that you know each other that well. But
Speaker 1: that's so scary to me. Do not know what's gonna happen? Well,
Speaker 1: they would they trust that you're the alpha? Would they
Speaker 1: trust that? Okay, we'll follow his lead and when you
Speaker 1: end a song, and yeah, pretty much. We've been working
Speaker 1: some of them like Rhianne and Who's the Affinuncy sits
Speaker 1: to my left. We met in nineteen eighty. We've been
Speaker 1: working since nineteen eighty. So that's that's what it is.
Speaker 1: It's just a small improbably five five voices. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: really glad and happy that we finally have this conversation.
Speaker 1: It's like our first world conversation. We did it years. No,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it and I plug your artistry and
Speaker 1: it and it's effect on me even though I'm one
Speaker 1: of those, uh, stick to what I know, stay in
Speaker 1: my comfort zone type people. But yeah, thank you for
Speaker 1: your music. Man. There's so many parts of my childhood,
Speaker 1: Like I have distinct memories of like stuff you've done,
Speaker 1: and like just your voice, it like takes me back
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. So simple pleasures was me
Speaker 1: and my father's joy. Like that's what we will play
Speaker 1: on the weekends and just I'm gonna cry. We're going
Speaker 1: to spit out this way, gentlemen, or in behalf of
Speaker 1: the Supreme Team, Sugar Steve, Unpaid, Bill Boss Bill get
Speaker 1: up early and the mother are you about to cry?
Speaker 1: Like like to sit down, sit down and read. Get
Speaker 1: in the right way, stock got preak, jail in the
Speaker 1: manitude I call them and the mom and not sick kids.
Speaker 1: Get it sounds and then get on the stop all
Speaker 1: the s and the DNA come a bad damn it
Speaker 1: after dn the get it, get that signdics. Get yourself.
Speaker 1: It's such a beautiful day. Simple Sam so happened. I'll
Speaker 1: must happy to me. I'm so hast Simple things is
Speaker 1: all the bad. Simple things is all the please pay
Speaker 1: that came to work. Thank you much Love Supreme's a
Speaker 1: production of My Heart and Radio. This classic episode was
Speaker 1: produced by the team at Pandora. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.