Speaker 1: Question Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Have you guys been at thirty rock fall along right
Speaker 1: for for a while? Pretty much? Yeah? Pretty much? That's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. We made it through the story. I can't
Speaker 1: believe it. You know, it's like everybody has everybody has
Speaker 1: a story for the last year, exactly exactly ready. Yeah, Oh,
Speaker 1: I thought i'd hit start video bad. What's up? Yea,
Speaker 1: I was up? Everybody? What's up? I heayd up? What's up?
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: I'm your host. Questo. Um, we have Team Supreme with
Speaker 1: us right now. Um, well, I can't assign myself another moniker. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just took you a second. I wasn't sure you
Speaker 1: knew where I was, because you know, whenever we're in
Speaker 1: the presence of greatness, I just mean, I understand my
Speaker 1: my think. I'm just goes the other words dude just
Speaker 1: played on every record ever. I wish, I truly wish
Speaker 1: we had like James Brown's intro, just so I can
Speaker 1: right right start naming it like literally, I don't do
Speaker 1: tears in heaven get lucky? Uh what loose? Saving all
Speaker 1: my love for you? I just can't stop loving you.
Speaker 1: Oh morning, Morning, Steve, Steve about this stuff? Easy lovers,
Speaker 1: There you go through the fire. I mean even even
Speaker 1: underground classics like smooth sailing by the Eyes of the Best,
Speaker 1: freaking who has any worked with Tima read Dion Warwick,
Speaker 1: like Whoever? Like Eric Clapton the Weekend, justin timber Lake,
Speaker 1: BB King, Mary J. Blige, Ladies and Gentlemen's the most
Speaker 1: used sessing musician of Wait are I'm kind of saying
Speaker 1: this and just but Nathan East, are you the most
Speaker 1: used session musician of all time? You know what a mayror.
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure how to verify that, but we
Speaker 1: can say that I've been busy and gentlemen a great
Speaker 1: Philadelphia is on the show, Nathan East to quest love
Speaker 1: supre it is a pleasure, a joy and an honor
Speaker 1: to be here. I mean you've had everybody from Michelle
Speaker 1: Obama to working on here and now Nathan East. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: how how how are you right now? Where Where are you? Okay?
Speaker 1: I know that we can't see you because this is
Speaker 1: an audio show, but um, I should say that, uh
Speaker 1: in the land of zoom when you're watching like news pundits,
Speaker 1: sit behind their library collection while they're in the books.
Speaker 1: Nah Navan needs is someunthing. Like I'm certain that all
Speaker 1: those guitars and basses hanging on your wall I have
Speaker 1: a story to tell, correct, they really do. There was
Speaker 1: there's the one that was on some of those early
Speaker 1: Barry White records that was like the bass in the
Speaker 1: background is is my Like that's your Barry White? Was
Speaker 1: your first client as a professional bass player? Yes? Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, let's start. Um. This is the thing. Like
Speaker 1: I've known you for the longest and of course, like
Speaker 1: you know, you've come to the tonight show and you've
Speaker 1: said it and all that stuff. I still can't wrap
Speaker 1: my head around the fact that you're a Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: at that, like I'm really elated to speak to someone.
Speaker 1: Usually all the music musical luminaries from Philadelphia that I
Speaker 1: talked to are are kind of from a certain like
Speaker 1: my dad's range, like born in the late thirties, early forties,
Speaker 1: and really can't give me a lay of the land
Speaker 1: of what Philly was like to grow up in Philly
Speaker 1: as as a youngster in the seventies when all this
Speaker 1: magic was happening. But what is your Philadelphia story. Where
Speaker 1: in Philly were you born? Well, actually North Philly Doctor's Hospital, Um,
Speaker 1: roughly sixty five years ago. And uh my, that's the motion.
Speaker 1: Are we supposed to give away those things? Yeah? When
Speaker 1: you like that, you are actually drop drop the skin Nick,
Speaker 1: I need a skin care regiment. That's a rent all
Speaker 1: at least at night. I don't know. As you said that,
Speaker 1: I was like, he might be like five years older
Speaker 1: than me. Wow, you know. And you know, my my
Speaker 1: dad went to Cheney Cheney State in the Cheny, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: He had the world's record in the fifty and hundred
Speaker 1: yard dash, you beat Jesse Owens in nineteen forty, made
Speaker 1: the Olympics, but the due to the war, the Olympics
Speaker 1: were canceled. So I didn't have that bragging, right, but
Speaker 1: he was the world's fastest human. My daughter is now
Speaker 1: keeping keeping it going. She runs track for UC Berkeley
Speaker 1: on their d one packed out twelve track team there
Speaker 1: in Texas. A uh and then this weekend, you know,
Speaker 1: for the for the regional finals. So you know there's
Speaker 1: a lot. But but Philly I left early when he
Speaker 1: had an aerodynamics aviation job in Convert, San Diego, where
Speaker 1: he moved the family, but we would go back to
Speaker 1: Philly every summer and kind of just jam and I
Speaker 1: a lot of great musical influences. And then I don't
Speaker 1: know what's in the water, but there's so many bass
Speaker 1: players Anthony Jackson and Eddie Henderson. It just like what
Speaker 1: it's base heaven over there. You know. So what was
Speaker 1: your family emerged in music as well or just like
Speaker 1: how how what was your first musical memory that you had. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was there was always a piano kind of around
Speaker 1: the house that uh, pops and moms both would play.
Speaker 1: But you know, it was like, you know, music, music
Speaker 1: filled the neighborhood and and you know, so you did
Speaker 1: glad as Night Marvin Gay out, you know, blasting through
Speaker 1: the homes of this of the neighborhood. But it was
Speaker 1: really I'll never forget my my first forty five was
Speaker 1: more loved by Smokey Robinson. We were just always gathered
Speaker 1: around the radio and listening to music. And I remember
Speaker 1: when I played cello for three years and then I
Speaker 1: discovered the base and it was it was actually in
Speaker 1: church my brothers and I were doing that. They were
Speaker 1: doing like these uh folk masses back in the day.
Speaker 1: When all that started, and uh, and then there was
Speaker 1: a base on the altar and I went, I picked
Speaker 1: it up, and nobody claimed it and I picked it
Speaker 1: up and I said, oh lord, you yourself out to play? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I just started playing, just just out of
Speaker 1: my love for music. And it only had four strings,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't it wasn't that difficult. But you played
Speaker 1: the cello before, But I played the cello before anyway,
Speaker 1: I was in the range of the bass cleft. So
Speaker 1: that that kind of got me got me going, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is interesting because usually, um, anyone that we interview
Speaker 1: on the show, uh, that's an axe men or an
Speaker 1: axe woman. Um. Nine times out of ten, there's like
Speaker 1: a the thirty dollars Sears guitar things story that happens,
Speaker 1: like with Sears having these affordable instruments and you know,
Speaker 1: people teaching there, getting their kids lessons and whatnot. But
Speaker 1: you started on the cello and then worked your way
Speaker 1: to the base, right, and that the weather is the
Speaker 1: thirty actually forty nine dollar story story from that from
Speaker 1: the pod shop where my mom got me. My first
Speaker 1: base was about that long, you know, it was it
Speaker 1: was a you know, a short scale no name, but um,
Speaker 1: you know that that was my you know, ticket to
Speaker 1: ticket to everything, you know. And I started playing in
Speaker 1: all the bands and uh stage band in high school
Speaker 1: and okay, you know the drill. One thing leads to
Speaker 1: another next thing. You know. You doing a couple of
Speaker 1: gigs I learned. I learned that a string the easter ring,
Speaker 1: and then I had a gig already, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: and then the first gigs we were in church and obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, I always say that's the best place to
Speaker 1: have your first gigs because if you make a mistake,
Speaker 1: they're ready forgiving. You know, you don't get it. I see,
Speaker 1: do you remember, um, well, at the time when you're
Speaker 1: learning your craft, were there any other notable musicians that
Speaker 1: you grew up with or or artists that you we're
Speaker 1: kind of hanging with during your you're FORMERTI the years
Speaker 1: as a teen or yeah, yeah, well as a team
Speaker 1: we Uh it's funny because we backed up. We had
Speaker 1: a band called Power and there was a stacked review
Speaker 1: that Rufus Thomas very White. A bunch of people came
Speaker 1: and played and we were the house band for everybody.
Speaker 1: And after that gig, Verry White invited us all to
Speaker 1: his office up in Beverly Hills. We went up there
Speaker 1: and he hired our whole band on the spot to
Speaker 1: go tour with him, and um, so are like my
Speaker 1: first gig was at the Apollo Theater. Um. Then we
Speaker 1: did Madison Square Garden, we did Kobo Arena in Detroit.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm like sixteen years old. This was like
Speaker 1: seven let's see, seventy one maybe, okay, so at the
Speaker 1: very beginning of very White's career. Yeah, seventy seventy one too,
Speaker 1: and he he started, you know, he had all these
Speaker 1: hits and uh, were you lying about your age? Like Ny?
Speaker 1: But you know, I didn't volunteer my age. It was
Speaker 1: just one of those things where you know, you're saying,
Speaker 1: opportunity knocks, you got to go, you know, and how
Speaker 1: do you propose this to your parents? How did that conversation?
Speaker 1: Well that was another thing that they were you know
Speaker 1: how parents are there, they're always a little reluctant about that,
Speaker 1: but they they went along to it because I was
Speaker 1: with my brothers, you know, my and and all my
Speaker 1: my homies and from the neighborhood. So we were all
Speaker 1: together in this and it was it was really special
Speaker 1: to to be with an act like that, you know,
Speaker 1: an arena act where you're you know, selling out arenas
Speaker 1: and it was unbelievable. So did you ever do the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia circuit that would have maybe eventually landed you in
Speaker 1: M F S B. Or was that already Anthony's gig?
Speaker 1: And yeah, that was that was already done and dusted,
Speaker 1: and that would have been been his gig. And I
Speaker 1: would have been already out on the West coast by then.
Speaker 1: But those those were they you know, those were the
Speaker 1: dream gigs that everybody wanted, you know, gambling huff and
Speaker 1: and uh, those tombs are very near and dear to
Speaker 1: my heart. But by that time we were out on
Speaker 1: the West coast. And then so so Barry was kind
Speaker 1: of he was kind of it and and then you
Speaker 1: know I would played with him live, but before I
Speaker 1: started recording, but then you know, started doing all those records,
Speaker 1: and and he would, you know, most people don't know
Speaker 1: he he'd drive up from from Watson a Stuts bearcat
Speaker 1: with gold emblems on it, and then he'd get out
Speaker 1: with the three fifties seven magnum you know, twirling it
Speaker 1: like well, like he's like He's in the country western
Speaker 1: movie and they would sit on the console, you know,
Speaker 1: like this thing I wanted, I wanted to ask you.
Speaker 1: So you're you're the you're the third guest of the
Speaker 1: show that's had very white interactions. But I've heard, you know,
Speaker 1: through throughout my coming up in the industry, like some
Speaker 1: gangster Berry stories, but I can't every like what was
Speaker 1: he like to deal with deal with? Ray Parker Jr.
Speaker 1: Told the story of like, you know, he actually didntly
Speaker 1: crashed uh Verry White uh Mercedes trying to play him
Speaker 1: the demo for one of those songs don't let the
Speaker 1: music play? And then um, his former tour manager Alan
Speaker 1: Leeds had a few stories about you know, Barry's whole
Speaker 1: uh modus operandi, and you know that I knew of
Speaker 1: the gun always there. Like in general, was he I
Speaker 1: don't want to say sugar Knight is like was he
Speaker 1: fearsome or was he cool to get along with or
Speaker 1: you know in general he was he was very cool.
Speaker 1: Week we had a we had an amazing relationship, and
Speaker 1: he was just always he was always very supportive, I mean,
Speaker 1: especially if he liked you. You know, he was one
Speaker 1: of those guys that that you know, if if he
Speaker 1: liked you, and then you know, Gene Paige was the
Speaker 1: arranger for all those sessions, and you know the great
Speaker 1: Gene Page and and so there was always just when
Speaker 1: when it was happening, it was it was incredible, Like
Speaker 1: you know, Barry was just he loved the fact and
Speaker 1: you know, we we're making some some hits in there,
Speaker 1: So I mean he was he was gracious and appreciative.
Speaker 1: We wrote a couple of things together. I had a
Speaker 1: song on the Love and Limited album called Easing. You know,
Speaker 1: he would always end up with his name on everything.
Speaker 1: You know, the writer word get a third concept right
Speaker 1: exactly the side note. Does anyone ever remember the bridge
Speaker 1: to Jay Z's New York New York song? Do you
Speaker 1: remember it New York? Which one exactly exactly Jay Z's
Speaker 1: New York song? Do you remember the bridge to that
Speaker 1: New York state of mind? Oh? Do you remember the
Speaker 1: bridge exactly? So you know, I teased all the time that,
Speaker 1: oh okay, because when Jay won the Grammy for that,
Speaker 1: Alicia one too, and I was trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what it was like. She insisted on adding that bridge
Speaker 1: so that she too can get right as great for it,
Speaker 1: and I never knew a best song had a bridge.
Speaker 1: I knew the hood exactly exactly, there's a bridge. But conversely,
Speaker 1: the bridge that Don't Got Don't Stop? Do you Get Enough?
Speaker 1: Which was written by Greg Feeling Game, now that's the
Speaker 1: you know, we know that story. And conversely, now that
Speaker 1: was something that that was worthy of and you know
Speaker 1: what sent So it happens, it goes down. Um with
Speaker 1: those sessions, Ray told us that Um very tracked everything
Speaker 1: at the same time, with multiple I mean, at least
Speaker 1: for Ray, you know, he would say like sometimes it
Speaker 1: be two sometimes four guitars playing at the same time,
Speaker 1: that he didn't do a lot of post mixing and
Speaker 1: none of that stuff. Like So I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: figure out the one question I never got to ask
Speaker 1: him about that and doing it is if Barry doesn't
Speaker 1: do any post mixing once the song is cut, how
Speaker 1: long do you guys have to play a song in
Speaker 1: the studio before the engineer captures the right e Q,
Speaker 1: the right compression, the right sound. Like someone has to
Speaker 1: play over and over again while they're like, okay, getting
Speaker 1: levels right, while you're while you're playing over and over
Speaker 1: in and you're learning the tune and Barry's given everybody
Speaker 1: a part. Like if you're looking in the studio, literally
Speaker 1: there's three guitars, there's there's Ray Parker, there's way you know,
Speaker 1: it could be Lee written Hour sometimes Dean Parks, I
Speaker 1: mean David t. And so you'd have those guys. Uh.
Speaker 1: He had like a touring band at the time and
Speaker 1: they were not really known. So his name was Willie C.
Speaker 1: Strang Um, but another bass player because he he was
Speaker 1: on there is every thing I remember about is he
Speaker 1: was always so nervous. He was sweating from the palms
Speaker 1: of his hand, you know, because when Barry came around
Speaker 1: to you, there was a force to be reckoned with,
Speaker 1: you know, and he'd starts singing a part to you
Speaker 1: and okay, you play bowl bo bo, you know, and
Speaker 1: so he would he would so literally you got a
Speaker 1: room full of musicians Barry. There was a road in
Speaker 1: the middle of the room. Jean was in there, Ed
Speaker 1: Green was over on drums, and then he'd go around
Speaker 1: and sing the part to every guy and and you
Speaker 1: would literally start to hear a hit being just developed,
Speaker 1: just break before your very eyes, and pretty soon you're
Speaker 1: playing this thing like like for hours and next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, when you add all those parts and bits
Speaker 1: and pieces, you know, they they hit record. Barry White
Speaker 1: didn't read or write music. No, no, he would if
Speaker 1: you said you said, here's play me middle c he wouldn't.
Speaker 1: He would not know where to go really really as
Speaker 1: many times as I thought, you know, to see the
Speaker 1: piano and on it stuff, even though he was the maestro,
Speaker 1: you know. But but I mean, but at the same
Speaker 1: time he knew. You know. That's that's what I love
Speaker 1: about music anyway, because you don't really have to, you know,
Speaker 1: be schooled for those notes to come out, you know,
Speaker 1: and we we all have the same twelve notes, like
Speaker 1: Quincey says, you know, we got the same twelve notes
Speaker 1: for to work with. So, um, are you on the
Speaker 1: do you know the the uh the stretch of the
Speaker 1: very white discography that you were on at the time
Speaker 1: or yeah. I think one of the first ones that
Speaker 1: I was on was called The Messages Love and it
Speaker 1: had just the way you are. A bunch of those
Speaker 1: tunes had you know, there was whichever album had extasy
Speaker 1: when you lay down next to me, just casually that
Speaker 1: that baseline you know, and and and those you know
Speaker 1: that was my first kind a heartbreak in the business,
Speaker 1: because you know when when you're in the studio every day,
Speaker 1: all day and then you get that album, you crack
Speaker 1: it opening, you look for your name and it's not there.
Speaker 1: It was like produced by Barry Right, written by Barry White,
Speaker 1: album by bar Right, all songs and no musicians. And
Speaker 1: I said, what's what's up with this? He Oh, he
Speaker 1: doesn't want anybody steal his sound, you know, so you
Speaker 1: were surprised. You didn't know ahead of time that your
Speaker 1: your name ain't gonna be had, your name is not
Speaker 1: gonna be on the record, And so guys, you see,
Speaker 1: that's why I always thought that like rhythm arranger and
Speaker 1: all those other like made up credits is for you know,
Speaker 1: we won't give you write a credit of production credit,
Speaker 1: but well we'll just say that you did rhythm arrangement
Speaker 1: or you know, just another auxiliary credit. I mean, love
Speaker 1: theme was was a gene arrangement to a song, and
Speaker 1: the arrangement was so bad that it was so powerful
Speaker 1: that they took the lyrics off the song and they
Speaker 1: didn't even finish the tune exactly. Was Wide World of
Speaker 1: four every Saturday. I mean, it was like watching the
Speaker 1: guy fall down? Dude, No, I remember how how does
Speaker 1: one I'm not saying, I'm not asking, like how does
Speaker 1: one stay territorial? But okay, so your Barrys go to
Speaker 1: guy in your mind if you don't say how high
Speaker 1: when he says jump in terms of like all right,
Speaker 1: we got a session next week? Can you make it?
Speaker 1: Can you make it? Who are you worried about that's
Speaker 1: right around the corner that might take your gig? Like
Speaker 1: were you territorial? Like, okay, I got Barry White? Now
Speaker 1: do you start sifting for other people so you can
Speaker 1: go higher and keep Barry White? Or because I'm trying
Speaker 1: to figure out, like if you're in l A and
Speaker 1: you're competing against like Chuck Ranny and Lewis Johnson and
Speaker 1: all those things. I know that mainly producers have their
Speaker 1: main guy that they always stick with, But you seem
Speaker 1: to be the main guy that everyone always sticks with.
Speaker 1: So how do you how do you your territory to
Speaker 1: make sure that the next guy behind you doesn't take
Speaker 1: it in case you get sick one day or well
Speaker 1: while still being a teenager. Well, the only way to
Speaker 1: really mark your territory is is what you leave on
Speaker 1: on the tape, you know in the studio, the note
Speaker 1: you play are your marketing here? And and like Quincy
Speaker 1: used to always say, if he to get the call
Speaker 1: is one thing, to get the call back is uh?
Speaker 1: Is the other part of the equation that like and
Speaker 1: and and I never really was too territorial. I was.
Speaker 1: I was always just so appreciative because I said, man,
Speaker 1: with all these bad cats in this town, Lewis Johnson
Speaker 1: and Abla Boria, I mean just I mean an a
Speaker 1: list of players. So whenever I kind of got a gig,
Speaker 1: I was just going, oh man, either they weren't available
Speaker 1: or you know, just just bring your bring your a game,
Speaker 1: you know. So that for me, it was just like
Speaker 1: just just leave it, you know, leave leave your mark
Speaker 1: on the on the table. Hypothetic we speaking, all right,
Speaker 1: Let's say ed Green does not exist, and it's four
Speaker 1: and I'm Barry White's studio drummer. How much am I
Speaker 1: getting paid? How? How do I get paid? Uh? Is it?
Speaker 1: Are you getting paid by the hour? Is it by
Speaker 1: the song or just by the session. Those sessions usually
Speaker 1: had a contractor um. And as we all know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot of politics in this, you know, but the
Speaker 1: contractor was the he was actually the one getting paid,
Speaker 1: and so he was like on double scale. And then
Speaker 1: because he was, he would put himself as the leader. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you have to be a f M. You had
Speaker 1: to be a FM. Yeah. And and then so there
Speaker 1: were two sessions a day that there was ten to one,
Speaker 1: two to five basically, so I see. So there was
Speaker 1: always someone there to make sure the musicians got paid.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't like Barry was just like reaching in
Speaker 1: his pocket like all right, here's you didn't get an envelope.
Speaker 1: It was it was all It was all very um
Speaker 1: unionized and um, and people like Gene Page was there.
Speaker 1: He was there to make sure that happened to you know,
Speaker 1: so you you got paid, you know. And then back
Speaker 1: in the day, everybody would show up to the union
Speaker 1: and you'd have a stack of checks waiting for you.
Speaker 1: And by the way, are you on are you on
Speaker 1: Gene Pages? Love? Look record Love look Um? He came
Speaker 1: out in Atlantic seventy five. You know, in all honesty,
Speaker 1: i'd have to look okay, of course I'm thinking no,
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't forget that, you know. Okay, but there's
Speaker 1: you know, when when there's been quite a few, you know,
Speaker 1: they start to they started to hard to keep tracking.
Speaker 1: I always kind of go to all music dot com
Speaker 1: when I went or even they forget stuff too. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So what was your next pivot after Barry White? And
Speaker 1: I can remember when I had to because I started
Speaker 1: getting calls from Hubert Laws and and and Ronnie Laws
Speaker 1: and some of the guys in the sort of in
Speaker 1: the jazz idiom. And I can remember having a call
Speaker 1: where it landed on the same day as Barry and uh.
Speaker 1: I can remember ask him because theoretically the way you
Speaker 1: go from single scali double is if you have so
Speaker 1: much work that you that you have to charge double
Speaker 1: in order to keep so, so you could say no
Speaker 1: to somebody else, you know. So I can remember going
Speaker 1: to Barry and asking, you know, I said, man, what
Speaker 1: should I do? When the guy said, well, if you
Speaker 1: ask him, it's been nice knowing you. You know. They
Speaker 1: were just like giving me their blessings. But I I
Speaker 1: pulled them aside, and then I got up the guts
Speaker 1: and I said, I was just wondering if I could
Speaker 1: just ask for double scale because I'm getting some other
Speaker 1: offers and and if I say no to you, you know,
Speaker 1: then it'll help me say no to them if I
Speaker 1: get double here. So he looked at me. I saw
Speaker 1: the three fifty seven sitting there on the wow and
Speaker 1: he put he put his arm, he put his arm.
Speaker 1: Rounmies in mate, if you want that, you got that,
Speaker 1: I mean, gave you a big smile. And it was like,
Speaker 1: I mean, these are the moments in music that like
Speaker 1: people don't know about, you know, stay. So that was
Speaker 1: the That was the first time. And then then then
Speaker 1: I was like a double scale cat, you know, which
Speaker 1: was cool. You know, that's what's up on any of
Speaker 1: the running laws stuff for Oh yeah, I want to
Speaker 1: know if you're on the pressure sensitive album. But that's
Speaker 1: with uh, that's the that's the what you called it sample. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I don't care about but always there, always there. That's
Speaker 1: h with that's on friends and strangers, correct, that's friends.
Speaker 1: Say yeah again, I'd have to look because it's it's
Speaker 1: it's enough decades, it's it's longer than four decades ago.
Speaker 1: So i'd have to look quite all right, quite all right.
Speaker 1: When you are booked, uh for a session, do you
Speaker 1: least get the courtesy of hearing the song first to
Speaker 1: see if this is something you might be into or
Speaker 1: you just kind of jump into it and not know
Speaker 1: what it's going to wind up being. Yeah, no, no,
Speaker 1: courtesy of the song. It's it's if you get there
Speaker 1: and it's baptism by or fire and you. So you
Speaker 1: have to learn these songs on the spot, on the spot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, are let me ask Nathan this what
Speaker 1: kind of music did you want to make? Like when
Speaker 1: you started out? Like what was the dream? Oh? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: the dream was was all these guys. I remember reading
Speaker 1: an article um that Shaka Khan was talking about. She said,
Speaker 1: Anthony Jackson is my favorite bass player because he laid
Speaker 1: down the gauntlet on all those recording that it was
Speaker 1: the bible of bass. You know what he played, and
Speaker 1: I studied it, um. But when I read that article,
Speaker 1: I thought, oh man, I would like to be everybody's
Speaker 1: favorite based player. Like that was my dream and the
Speaker 1: dream and I'm still living the dream. I mean, you
Speaker 1: couldn't you couldn't make it up, you know, once it
Speaker 1: started hitting in January. I remember January second ninety I
Speaker 1: did it hurt to Rent a car? Jingle commercial? Gene
Speaker 1: Page was the composer. Um. James Gatson was on drums,
Speaker 1: Ray Parker and Lee written Ire on guitar, Sonny Burke
Speaker 1: at the I mean I'm up there writing in my
Speaker 1: diary all these guys, you know, and and and I
Speaker 1: worked every day since then because then it was kind
Speaker 1: of like once these guys hear you, they start going
Speaker 1: telling people about you, and it was just like stepping
Speaker 1: stones and and it was crazy that way. And that's
Speaker 1: your tribe. So that's even crazy exactly so for the
Speaker 1: musicians that listen to this podcast. And I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: and ask this in a way so it doesn't alienate
Speaker 1: or offend them. Already knows I'm going no, But I
Speaker 1: think this, I think this is important, and you know,
Speaker 1: this is this is a battle I always work with
Speaker 1: because we live in we live in a time now
Speaker 1: where musicianship is just in the wild wild West. Um
Speaker 1: and again, and I've talked about gospel chops for a
Speaker 1: long time, where like the gospel chop community sort of si.
Speaker 1: I I mean, like, yo, man, why are you always
Speaker 1: coming down on us and playing on But and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know if the rules that apply then applied
Speaker 1: now now. I'm just I'm I come from a place
Speaker 1: where you know, the musicianship of the sixties, seventies and
Speaker 1: some of the eighties. You know, that's my bread and butter,
Speaker 1: because you know, it's it's you know, it's it's undeniably classic. However,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a new generation that sort of feels
Speaker 1: like the need to go from one from zero to
Speaker 1: sixty and four seconds and kind of show you everything
Speaker 1: you know they have. But it's it's almost like, in
Speaker 1: your opinion, where do you feel that that script got
Speaker 1: lost in or is this just a natural evolution and
Speaker 1: now we just live in a time where you gotta
Speaker 1: do everything but the kitchen sink to impress and keep
Speaker 1: your job. Whereas you know, all the time I tell
Speaker 1: musicians like, dude, just play you know, in the beginning,
Speaker 1: I used to take their music, their stuff away and
Speaker 1: just like play this one thing and this one thing only.
Speaker 1: But like, does someone have to tell you that, like
Speaker 1: what what's I guess what I'm asking is what stopped
Speaker 1: you from trying to show boat to let people know
Speaker 1: like I'm the ship and just do what's called for
Speaker 1: and match it. Yeah, you know, it's it's very seductive
Speaker 1: to to want to. Yeah, in certain instruments, I think
Speaker 1: like like piano like this this like crazy Olympic fast chops.
Speaker 1: You know, they kind of lends itself to two people
Speaker 1: wanting to really it. But but I never wanted somebody
Speaker 1: to walk away from a gig say well, he was
Speaker 1: the fastest guy ever ever heard. What I actually like
Speaker 1: to do now is I go down the Instagram feed
Speaker 1: with the sound off, you know, so, and then you know,
Speaker 1: you see everybody playing and and you try to figure
Speaker 1: out who's playing something that's worth listening. And very rarely
Speaker 1: do I you when when I turn it on, you know,
Speaker 1: like very few notes. But I learned early on to
Speaker 1: just play the play the groove and the ink and
Speaker 1: and and let it, you know, play that funk. It does.
Speaker 1: But does that truly matter? And like I think all
Speaker 1: of us in this room right now like agree with you.
Speaker 1: But then it's also like does that matter anymore? Does
Speaker 1: it truly matter? Yeah? I think it will always matter. Um.
Speaker 1: And the only thing that I based that on is
Speaker 1: that I'm still I'm still fairly busy, like like like
Speaker 1: really really busy, you know, where every day there's something
Speaker 1: to do. After we finished here, I'm running the studio,
Speaker 1: and uh, I got my four songs waiting UM. So
Speaker 1: to me, it's the same concept of and I remember
Speaker 1: when Barry said when when the Lynn drum machine came,
Speaker 1: he said, it's over for drummers, you know, and and
Speaker 1: so like it can't be over for drummers that can play,
Speaker 1: you know, because this is a machine and it will
Speaker 1: not come up with something that God put in its
Speaker 1: head by itself, you know. And so I I think
Speaker 1: that regard and it but it's tempting. It's seductive when
Speaker 1: you hear a machine um to think that that's gonna
Speaker 1: be the way of the world. But when it when
Speaker 1: it gets right down to it, um. Just like you
Speaker 1: you know, you play every day of your life, and
Speaker 1: and that's what you do, you know, and that's what
Speaker 1: people That's what I think the humans want to hear,
Speaker 1: you know that they don't necessarily want to hear a machine.
Speaker 1: And I don't think they want to hear a person
Speaker 1: playing like a machine. But in that in that proof,
Speaker 1: and like certain new artists putting like they still have
Speaker 1: to dip back, like Bruno Mars still gotta dip back,
Speaker 1: like Anderson I still gotta dip back, like there's just
Speaker 1: there are some artists that see I'm gonna need this
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna be funky. And when they dip back, everybody,
Speaker 1: Oh man, if you heard this is the most amazing
Speaker 1: thing I've heard. It's new y'all. Remember Childish Gambino. I'm
Speaker 1: playing Donald, I'm I'm playing I'm pretty for you though, Uh,
Speaker 1: what personally, what do you prefer? Do you prefer studio
Speaker 1: rats or do you prefer like being a road dog?
Speaker 1: Which is a great question, you know, because some people
Speaker 1: are either either or I've I've enjoyed being both, you know,
Speaker 1: I've been I've enjoyed my life on the road. Uh.
Speaker 1: It comes with experiences and and something that you know,
Speaker 1: when it's live, there's nothing like that, you know, especially
Speaker 1: if you're playing you know, we we did live aid
Speaker 1: two and a fifty thousand people in Philly. You know,
Speaker 1: there's no feeling like that, you know, and to look
Speaker 1: out and see that um. But then there's nothing else
Speaker 1: like being in the studio and here in your instrument,
Speaker 1: just like being recorded pristinely by one of the top engineers.
Speaker 1: And then when you hear that playback, it just sounds
Speaker 1: like heaven, you know. And and so those are those
Speaker 1: are the two kind of sides of the coin of
Speaker 1: a music of a musician, you know, and I think
Speaker 1: it's important to have both of those qualities. How did
Speaker 1: COVID change, uh you uh, you know, do your workflow
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, how did you have to
Speaker 1: shift once the pandemic it? Yeah, you know, the I
Speaker 1: watched um and and I had some very significant touring
Speaker 1: set up. You know, Eric Clapton had three months in
Speaker 1: the summer and we're gonna do like six Royal Albert
Speaker 1: Hall shows and then go to Europe. And we had
Speaker 1: all that planet and I don't ahead. I had a
Speaker 1: Russian tour. You line up the and uh playing with
Speaker 1: this Russian orchestra. So I was looking for that, and
Speaker 1: so I watched. I watched, like literally the revenue for
Speaker 1: the whole year that would have tightened me up go
Speaker 1: right out the window, you know. And uh when when
Speaker 1: when COVID hit, it's like you are instantly becoming an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: Now you got the merchandise, let's talk about it. You
Speaker 1: get to see how to deal with LAMB, you know,
Speaker 1: and then what're you gonna do, whether that's whether that's
Speaker 1: uber driving or you have some friends that had to
Speaker 1: hit you know, or or coming up with a way.
Speaker 1: You know, never let a good pandemic go to waste.
Speaker 1: You know. So are your voice work because like when
Speaker 1: you said that, I was like, yeah, you are a
Speaker 1: voice actor, dudu. I hear it, and you that's what
Speaker 1: you was blessed. I did some voice over working, and
Speaker 1: since I have a studio, um, it really came in
Speaker 1: handy because people send me songs and and files and
Speaker 1: and so I could I could do that un till
Speaker 1: four in the morning. I end up doing a lot.
Speaker 1: Have have you written a book? You know what? I
Speaker 1: have a book in the works, and definitely there's some
Speaker 1: there's some fun stories. So that's that's in the works
Speaker 1: at the moment. No, I was just gonna say it
Speaker 1: could probably just list all the albums you played on.
Speaker 1: That would be the whole book, right Have you have
Speaker 1: you had a session that you were kind of not
Speaker 1: satisfied with your performance and you're shocked that like oh
Speaker 1: I got away with that or that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: or you know, it's funny because are you allowed are
Speaker 1: you allowed to? Like I'm certain that you're being hired
Speaker 1: because it's like, okay, Nathan will be you know, Nathan
Speaker 1: will knock this out in one or two takes, won't
Speaker 1: be that hard. Let's go through it. Or you know,
Speaker 1: if he had a moment where you felt like I
Speaker 1: could have did better, and they were like, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm fine with that. It's good. And then you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny. Every everything that I ever hear back, I
Speaker 1: always think I always hear something that I said, Oh man,
Speaker 1: if I did it again, I would I would have
Speaker 1: made that little hipperode. It would just put a little
Speaker 1: something extra on that note or something. I mean, everything
Speaker 1: I hear that I do, I always feel like there's
Speaker 1: there's a room for, uh, for some kind of improvement.
Speaker 1: But however, you know when the guys, like when when
Speaker 1: Daft Punk, they did get lucky and they were mixing
Speaker 1: the bass part and I actually had the chance to
Speaker 1: redo that because we recorded the track and then they
Speaker 1: sent it back and then Nile put his guitar on,
Speaker 1: and when Nill put the guitar on, that's where the
Speaker 1: funk just like it just it just pulled the funk
Speaker 1: out of the thing. So I asked the guys, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, if if I could have another shot at
Speaker 1: the base, and I kind of went from my Bernard
Speaker 1: Edward impersonation, and uh and I was actually happy because
Speaker 1: they added to everything to the to the team, but
Speaker 1: they said, hey, your base part. We we ended up
Speaker 1: just using most of the one one, same take, one
Speaker 1: whole take, which was cool. And and you know it
Speaker 1: was funded. Now that was a fun one to here.
Speaker 1: And and my kids thought I was cool because I
Speaker 1: played right A question? Um, Okay, So I guess, um,
Speaker 1: for most bass players, especially bass players that are are
Speaker 1: coming of sort of coming of age, Um, in the seventies,
Speaker 1: You've been born in fifty five, you you would have
Speaker 1: been uh, fifteen years old in nineventy, and I'm certain
Speaker 1: by this point you were playing. Yeah, you were, you
Speaker 1: were a fully realized bass player by the nineteen seventy. Correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I was. I was like like just jumping
Speaker 1: getting into the realization. Okay, So that said, can you
Speaker 1: describe to me what you're what the reaction or what
Speaker 1: the feeling was when you first heard Thank you for
Speaker 1: letting me be myself again? Because Okay, So I have
Speaker 1: this thing with Christian McBride about my disdain for songs
Speaker 1: and e minor because like, I have an obsession with
Speaker 1: collecting really horrible funk songs in E minor because you know,
Speaker 1: it's like when you're playing the minor that that's the
Speaker 1: easiest key for a beginner and base to play. And
Speaker 1: of course my thought is that you're trying to top
Speaker 1: the mount Rushmore of E minor, which is basically thank
Speaker 1: you for letting me be myself again that that's in there.
Speaker 1: But no, that's I wouldn't even consider that the mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was definite. I was trying to think.
Speaker 1: Was that the same all songs in the KIV? So
Speaker 1: thank you for letting me be myself? H Shining Star
Speaker 1: could be in there. I would think, Well, it's kind
Speaker 1: of weird because I don't know if I can let
Speaker 1: Larry in twice. I mean he he's already the the alpha.
Speaker 1: So anything that comes out to thank you for letting
Speaker 1: me be myself, no matter what song it is, release
Speaker 1: yourself here and right, all those things. So but for you, though,
Speaker 1: did you have a like come to Jesus moment when
Speaker 1: you heard that? Like what did you make of the sound?
Speaker 1: Because I always wanted to ask a bass player that
Speaker 1: was of age who knew what bass playing was beforehand,
Speaker 1: which I'm certain that. You know, James Jamison was the
Speaker 1: leader of that. But what was thank you for letting
Speaker 1: me be myself for you in terms of hearing that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd have to say that was that was
Speaker 1: one of the wheels, you know what I mean. It
Speaker 1: was like, um, and I can remember the guys in
Speaker 1: my back and you know, as I said, man, have
Speaker 1: have you heard this cat Larry Graham? You know, and
Speaker 1: so they came in with Graham Central Station and they
Speaker 1: came in with that and like you're listening and you're
Speaker 1: just going, I mean, to be that innovative at that
Speaker 1: time period where there wasn't too much before that. That
Speaker 1: that said that much, you know. And I love those
Speaker 1: YouTube now where you can see Slide in the studio
Speaker 1: listening to listening to those tracks, you know, just going wow,
Speaker 1: this is crazy, you know. And so it was. It
Speaker 1: was a it was a big revelation. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie in and e Minor. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: as a bass players always funkingny you know, everybody Lewis
Speaker 1: Johnson doubt it. And you know, I get I get
Speaker 1: asked to judge these uh Battle of the Base base
Speaker 1: contest sometimes and you know, you almost I'd rather have
Speaker 1: a root canal. I mean, I walk out of there
Speaker 1: and everybody comes walks in the room with the thumb out,
Speaker 1: and you know, they don't They don't check the tuning,
Speaker 1: that don't check the volume. They just start whacking the base,
Speaker 1: you know, and it's like funking e. And it's like,
Speaker 1: please guys, It's like how many ways can we reinvent
Speaker 1: the wheel? So but for you it's okay. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: is there still challenges that have yet to be discovered
Speaker 1: or or just in terms of the sport of bass playing, Well,
Speaker 1: if you if you think about baselines like um for
Speaker 1: the Love of Money, when Anthony Jackson walked in and
Speaker 1: saw a d mine here on the paper and he
Speaker 1: came up with that baseline, you know, and and and
Speaker 1: then when you think about until you come back to me,
Speaker 1: Chuck Rainey, you know, these these are to me where
Speaker 1: the base really caresses the song, you know. And and
Speaker 1: if there's one thing that I that I would tell
Speaker 1: and I have students at my online school base, and
Speaker 1: I say, make every single note count. Don't don't just
Speaker 1: go in there and start playing. You first you have
Speaker 1: to listen and know what the song is all about
Speaker 1: you know, and and and we're just part of a
Speaker 1: big picture. So you know, when everybody goes in whacking
Speaker 1: and smacking the base, it's like, really, guys, you know.
Speaker 1: And I remember Anthony Jackson used to say, if you
Speaker 1: if you want slapping and popping, you gotta call Marcus,
Speaker 1: you know, he said, he said that costs me two
Speaker 1: hundred fifty grand a year. But he wouldn't. He refused
Speaker 1: to do it. Really yeah, I mean he never played
Speaker 1: with this thumb at all. You have not heard if
Speaker 1: you find it, if you can find did he always play?
Speaker 1: Did he always play with a pick at least? Or
Speaker 1: he used to pick um? Yeah, a pick in his fingers.
Speaker 1: But but I think for the love of money, is
Speaker 1: is with You can hear the pick? Yeah? For you though,
Speaker 1: what is your what is your preferred weapon of choice?
Speaker 1: Your thumb? What I do I grow my I grow
Speaker 1: my name just long enough so that I can switch between.
Speaker 1: If I need a little extra percussive sign, I'll hit
Speaker 1: it with the nail. And actually that came from an
Speaker 1: article I read about Chuck Rainey said he did the
Speaker 1: same thing, so he would you'd use the meat the
Speaker 1: meat fleshy part of your finger, like you know, and
Speaker 1: get that big fat Jamison sign. But if you wanted
Speaker 1: to have a little more percussive, like a pix out
Speaker 1: instead of using a pick, I just used my finger nails.
Speaker 1: And what is your preferred weapon as far as your
Speaker 1: your base collections and um, one of the basis like
Speaker 1: all those songs you named, it's it's my it was
Speaker 1: the predecessor to my signature, Yamaha base, but it's called
Speaker 1: a motion base, and it's just we we had like
Speaker 1: this basse that they had made for me, and then
Speaker 1: this box that I used to carry around and it
Speaker 1: it has it was like an e Q box that
Speaker 1: would shave the mid frequencies. And that's that's been the
Speaker 1: base I've played on, you know, like countless, I need
Speaker 1: a Baker record, I mean everything. You know those two
Speaker 1: name change World, Get Lucky and and so that's my
Speaker 1: my five string it's it's the equivalent to my five
Speaker 1: string signature. But it's like a prototype. What was your okay?
Speaker 1: So you know there's over two thousand credits you have
Speaker 1: and at least two hundred of those songs are like
Speaker 1: life changing songs. So you know, I won't even pick
Speaker 1: your brain about each and every song, But what was
Speaker 1: the first song that you've recalled out of your comfort
Speaker 1: zone that you played on, Like there's a difference between
Speaker 1: Barry White's Ecstasy when You Lay next to Me and
Speaker 1: Footloose by Kenny Loggins, so like, or was it just
Speaker 1: a gradual thing where it's like, oh, rock gig today
Speaker 1: or or pop gig or yacht rock gig or But
Speaker 1: what what was the first like, Okay, this is out
Speaker 1: of out of my normal my out of my normal
Speaker 1: realm of client clientele. Well, well, one of the one
Speaker 1: of the most challenging records that was Wayne Shorter joy
Speaker 1: Rider and Treat Russian played on that robbin before I
Speaker 1: think was on guitar. And it's one of those things
Speaker 1: like Wayne's writing, it doesn't it doesn't take into account
Speaker 1: like how this stuff lays under your fingers. It's just
Speaker 1: it's just these notes that are that are in a
Speaker 1: uniquely random order that are that are amazing. But you really,
Speaker 1: I mean, I remember all of us having our heads
Speaker 1: buried in the music thinking and I think somebody said, hey,
Speaker 1: would it be cool to take this home for a
Speaker 1: couple of days and then come and shed it and back,
Speaker 1: and they were kind of because you don't want to
Speaker 1: you you want to make it sound like you own
Speaker 1: it when you when you're playing the music, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: the song Footloose was was a baseline that we had.
Speaker 1: I had the benefit of playing on the road every
Speaker 1: day like for months with Kenny. We'd go practice tune
Speaker 1: and by the time we recorded it, that was like
Speaker 1: one take, you know, but it was cool. Um. Early
Speaker 1: on with Hubert Laws, there was an album called Family. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's that's my joint. Bobby Career was on there and
Speaker 1: it was the sister was singing devil yeah saying and that.
Speaker 1: That was one of the more kind of challenging I
Speaker 1: wrote a song that I played with like electric bass
Speaker 1: and piccolo where played the melody together and it was
Speaker 1: kind of a little bit of a chop buster. It's
Speaker 1: called Wildfire and the piccolo together. Yeah, so piccolo and
Speaker 1: or separate tracks. Um, and that the separate tracks, you know,
Speaker 1: I was like wait, yeah, and so uh it was.
Speaker 1: It was one of those that you know, required a
Speaker 1: little bit of shedding before going into the studio, but
Speaker 1: for the most part, you go in the studio like
Speaker 1: site unseen and they you know, they either through this
Speaker 1: music in front of you or play a demo like
Speaker 1: you know, when the many ways to articulate what they
Speaker 1: want you to play, and you go from there. I
Speaker 1: was gonna answer the things that you need for your session,
Speaker 1: that you have to have, you know, normally it's it's
Speaker 1: not a one of the uh the last things we
Speaker 1: did and and we uh, I gotta congratulate John Batis
Speaker 1: because we did the music for Soul and we were
Speaker 1: in Capital. Yeah, and we were over there, uh January
Speaker 1: twenty like like the first week of January twenty. We
Speaker 1: were in Capital Studio A and uh that was interesting
Speaker 1: because he u, I had my upright basse, I had
Speaker 1: my electric upright, my electric bass, and we kind of
Speaker 1: auditioned all three and we ended up using my my
Speaker 1: my upright basse. You know, the real wood base engineer
Speaker 1: got a fantastic sound out of it. And I was
Speaker 1: I was just so so proud to see didn't walk
Speaker 1: away with the with the statue. You know. That was amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was awesome. So you always bring a choice with
Speaker 1: you in every session, and if I can, a lot
Speaker 1: of times they if they just say, you know, they
Speaker 1: may just say bring the electric basse, you know, um
Speaker 1: and uh for for baby Face. You know, they probably
Speaker 1: not going to be a lot of upright plane right,
Speaker 1: all right? So when you're when you're doing sessions, for instance,
Speaker 1: with all Right, let's let's say Through the Fire, do
Speaker 1: you mostly do you have good relationships with the producer
Speaker 1: that chooses you for the session or is it just
Speaker 1: all right? So what was it like working with um?
Speaker 1: I don't hear stories about r If Martin. It's hard
Speaker 1: to pronounce his name. Reef Martin, Yeah, a Reef Martin. Um,
Speaker 1: because you know, Soccer's album was such I feel for
Speaker 1: your album was such a landmark album which was sitting
Speaker 1: somewhere between uh, the past and the future that was
Speaker 1: to come, you know them, uh sort of exploring new
Speaker 1: sounds and new new technology. Were you on that entire
Speaker 1: record or were you just on Through the Fire? Let see,
Speaker 1: I was on a few a few cuts on that.
Speaker 1: I'd have to look. But Through the Fire was actually
Speaker 1: produced by, written and produced by David Foster and my
Speaker 1: buddy who I share a studio with, Tom Keane wrote
Speaker 1: it as co writer on that song. Okay, that was
Speaker 1: a cool song because David Foster years before he had
Speaker 1: he came up with this, uh kind of like a
Speaker 1: solo album of all instrumentals, and that tune was actually
Speaker 1: on it. Um I don't know if you me, yeah,
Speaker 1: And and so I was familiar with the tune, loved
Speaker 1: the tune, and so again, you know, to get to
Speaker 1: play on it, I was I had a my heart
Speaker 1: was already connected to it. And then David was a friend,
Speaker 1: and so we were we were having a great time
Speaker 1: in the studio, you know, John Robinson on drums, think
Speaker 1: Mike Landau on guitar, David on keys, and so the
Speaker 1: tune kind of played itself, like every song is unique,
Speaker 1: as we we all know, like a song like Tears
Speaker 1: in Heaven. I always say that that that I didn't
Speaker 1: play song. It played me because I knew kind of
Speaker 1: clapton Beautiful Little Boy and just the emotion of going
Speaker 1: in the studio and recording that note and what it
Speaker 1: was all about, you know, I mean, I don't even
Speaker 1: remember the notes I played, And you know, like I
Speaker 1: said that, the song kind of just plays you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Are there two versions of Is there a studio version
Speaker 1: of Tears and have an ambi unplayed version? Or is
Speaker 1: it just one definitive. Yeah, there's two. The studio version
Speaker 1: is on a soundtrack called Rush Yeah Joint Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and you did both versions were Yeah, so you played
Speaker 1: with Okay, I see yeah. When I think when I
Speaker 1: first met you, I'm sure that we've met before, but
Speaker 1: the first time I really got to talk to you
Speaker 1: we were in a Carousel and it was one of
Speaker 1: the most surreal gigs of my life because it was
Speaker 1: at the time you were playing with Toto, correct right, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so it was it was Toto, Dina Ross, The Roots,
Speaker 1: Prince Oh and Los Lobos and uh, what's the one
Speaker 1: fest in London or something maybe really know it was?
Speaker 1: It was um, it was okay, what's what's what's the event?
Speaker 1: What's the festival in Rotterdam? Um? Okay. It was like
Speaker 1: because Carousel is sort of occupied by yeah, the Netherlands,
Speaker 1: like it's it's the North Sea Jazz Festival. Before Carousel
Speaker 1: knew what I was kept staying out and is is
Speaker 1: it slightly between like South America and it's somewhere in
Speaker 1: the middle of nowhere. It's not Europe and it's not
Speaker 1: South America. It's like that, you know, like it's like
Speaker 1: way below Cuba. Okay, so they're brown. They're brown there,
Speaker 1: They're yeah, they're kind of brown. Was on that Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was, Yes, there was a lot, but just that
Speaker 1: was the one because we were therefore, I think four
Speaker 1: days before the gig even started. Like I thought, it
Speaker 1: was weird that we all came out early. Yeah, me too,
Speaker 1: to hang, I've never done that. Usually I get there
Speaker 1: the day of the gig, do the gig, and I'm
Speaker 1: out and then I'm like, wow, one, you'll you'll never
Speaker 1: catch me, uh swimming or in the beach. But yet
Speaker 1: here i am swimming in the beach, like and I'm
Speaker 1: talking to you know, to Toto and and you know,
Speaker 1: like everyone everyone's there. So wait a minute. Was Journey
Speaker 1: also on that gig as well? May have been on
Speaker 1: that gig as well. Okay, so I'll bet you I
Speaker 1: could find the poster or something of that gig because
Speaker 1: I try to say, you know, all the yeah, all
Speaker 1: the information, but I mean, it was like all these people.
Speaker 1: You know. I sat next to Diana Russe on the
Speaker 1: flight back home. It's crazy. Really, Yes, we got to talk.
Speaker 1: It was it was incredible. It was a very it
Speaker 1: was a very surreal, surreal gig even like the fact
Speaker 1: that Prince was so accessible. It was like, wow, everybody
Speaker 1: stayed up to see Princes. I mean, it was unbelievable. Prince.
Speaker 1: Prince was so killing that he did an additional two hours.
Speaker 1: That was the roots time. So so on Prince's side
Speaker 1: of the stage, there's like sixty thou people one more so,
Speaker 1: and then on our side of the stage, it was
Speaker 1: like people, I mean, and we just told them what
Speaker 1: promoter is going to get mad at him? You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. We told the promoter what do you
Speaker 1: want us to do because Princeton took our time. He's
Speaker 1: just like, uh yeah, just do the seat and go home.
Speaker 1: So literally like we did. We did three songs, we
Speaker 1: did the next movement, you got me. The scene was like,
Speaker 1: all right, good night people. You literally are like a
Speaker 1: golf clap, like but the promoter's dream, like Prince will
Speaker 1: not get off the stage, dude. That was we were
Speaker 1: over there watching him and there was like, oh ship,
Speaker 1: we gotta go on stage, like and I'm asked. I'm
Speaker 1: literally asking him back stage like you're doing another encore
Speaker 1: because I gotta run to the other stage. And all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do one more. I'm just like, okay, well
Speaker 1: there's no more routo. But but when you're in that situation,
Speaker 1: like especially with with legacy bands and whatnot, how often
Speaker 1: like with Toto, I'm certain that you're not just doing
Speaker 1: it for that gig. But do they hire you for
Speaker 1: like a year duration or is it just like for
Speaker 1: this particular tour? And yeah, that that particular tour was. Um,
Speaker 1: they actually called me and said, you know, Mike Pricaro,
Speaker 1: who's who's the bass player and the suffering with a
Speaker 1: l S. And what we would like to do is
Speaker 1: go on tour and raise some money to help him
Speaker 1: with his medical expenses. So so this this was the
Speaker 1: tour where it was just from the heart, you know,
Speaker 1: and these guys I know thirty years and and those
Speaker 1: are on my boys. And so we we got together
Speaker 1: and proceed from the tour was going to his family
Speaker 1: to help him because he at that point he was
Speaker 1: you know, he was off the circuit. Okay, speaking of
Speaker 1: like Toto, can you can you explain the sort of
Speaker 1: the somewhat stranglehold that they had on just a particular
Speaker 1: sound and sonic like I know, I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: insulting when I say, like, oh, yacht rock or whatever,
Speaker 1: because like I'm a really big fan of all that
Speaker 1: Michael master Yamaha d X seven fretless bass sound like
Speaker 1: I like, you know, easy man, like I love that
Speaker 1: yacht rock stuff. But I mean at the time when
Speaker 1: you're doing it, when you're doing it in real time,
Speaker 1: like between that period of like eight one in seven,
Speaker 1: when this new sort of l a glossy sound sort
Speaker 1: of takes over, Like are you realizing that sonically it's
Speaker 1: a little bit than what was kind of like with
Speaker 1: with with the grid of the seventies sound like did
Speaker 1: you notice a change or yeah, I mean it and
Speaker 1: they got they got beat up for oh they're so slick,
Speaker 1: and they got beat up in the beginning. But now
Speaker 1: it's like, in hindsight, I love the ship out that sounds.
Speaker 1: So it's like it's almost like we're visioning his history,
Speaker 1: like yeah, I always loved Africa and all those things,
Speaker 1: but like what were they? Were they the the who
Speaker 1: was who was the And it's it's always like some
Speaker 1: up for debate, like who's technically the first yacht rock
Speaker 1: smooth l a sound Like people say like whoever the
Speaker 1: producer was of captain and to Neil's level, keep us together.
Speaker 1: Like many will cite that as the the first moment
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy three where it's suddenly like that Neil
Speaker 1: Sedaka does it. And then but you know, at the
Speaker 1: time when you're digging into l A like what was
Speaker 1: the basic perception of like the Picard guys, like oh,
Speaker 1: they's some badass motherfucker's or like absolutely, and you know,
Speaker 1: and and and back in the day to you like
Speaker 1: you had A and M studios, you know where the carpenters,
Speaker 1: you know, and they were there were all these like
Speaker 1: very very lush kind of signing records. It's funny, I
Speaker 1: was over there the other day. We're doing that Mary
Speaker 1: Clayton Tiny Desk concert. Yeah, and it was it was
Speaker 1: it was really cool. But every time I go in there,
Speaker 1: it just takes me back because I mean I was
Speaker 1: in there. I did Johnny I did Johnny Mathis with
Speaker 1: a fifty piece orchestrategy DM warwork. A lot of people
Speaker 1: in there, uh you know Don Henley, I mean so
Speaker 1: many they say the ten thousand hours like like we
Speaker 1: we all have ten thousand hours and a lot of studios,
Speaker 1: you know, and uh, the total, the total project. If
Speaker 1: you think about every one of those guys has such
Speaker 1: a powerful, um individual voice on their instrument. I'm Steve
Speaker 1: pacarl Um, my man wrote he wrote Human Nature from
Speaker 1: Michael Jackson, and you can hear in those chords that's
Speaker 1: Steve for carl you know, one guy plays like that,
Speaker 1: David Paige, same thing, very powerful personality. And and those
Speaker 1: guys were like all of us, you know, students of music.
Speaker 1: They studied, they studied sly and and everything. You know,
Speaker 1: so when they went in the studio there, those were
Speaker 1: the standards that they kept, you Jeff for carl Um,
Speaker 1: you know, these are some bad l a finance basically,
Speaker 1: you know. And so they went in and you listen
Speaker 1: to listen to Africa Now and and those songs like
Speaker 1: uh hold the line. And so it was fun for
Speaker 1: me because as soon as uh, as soon as they
Speaker 1: asked me to play, you know, it was like playing
Speaker 1: on top forty band. He played great songs and Rosanna
Speaker 1: and and you know, I couldn't ever really figure out
Speaker 1: why they were getting such a bad rap. Oh they're
Speaker 1: too slick, and you know, I mean, what you're getting
Speaker 1: punished for for trying to have a good sound and
Speaker 1: come up with some good tunes, you know. Okay, So
Speaker 1: oftentimes if I get asked to do a gig nine
Speaker 1: times out of ten, I asked like, well, if I
Speaker 1: think they're hiring me because of a certain sound that
Speaker 1: I had, then I'll recommend them, Well, you should go
Speaker 1: to this studio because this is where I recorded this
Speaker 1: particular record that I had died and right, you'll get
Speaker 1: the sound that you want. Um how much control do
Speaker 1: you have over like the the sound and the texture
Speaker 1: of what you want? Or you just got to trust
Speaker 1: the engineer and the producer. And that's you know, um
Speaker 1: Al Schmidt who we just lost. And I worked to
Speaker 1: capital a lot and and we the Warner Brothers, ust
Speaker 1: to have a studio and that we we did when
Speaker 1: we first started four Play. The first real four Play
Speaker 1: album was was a Bob James album called Grand Piano Canyon,
Speaker 1: and uh that was what he called me. Harvey Lee
Speaker 1: Lee written hour and actually Harvey Mason and Lee written
Speaker 1: how are both recommending me? When he asked about who
Speaker 1: should I get on base? You know? So the four
Speaker 1: of us got in that quartet. There's a song called Restoration.
Speaker 1: I call that the first four play song. It's on
Speaker 1: that that album, and Al Schmidt recorded that, and I
Speaker 1: used to take that recording around to other a and
Speaker 1: and Sunset Sound Wait and say, guys, my base sounds
Speaker 1: like this, you know, because you know how like you drum,
Speaker 1: you could play in ten different studios and it'll sound
Speaker 1: like ten different guys, you know, And I can't ever
Speaker 1: figure out, like how does the same instrument translate so
Speaker 1: differently in different studios, you know, So whenever possible, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll recommend. And one of my favorites, uh spent tons
Speaker 1: of time in was ocean Way Studio. Okay, we did
Speaker 1: the first well we did so much stuff there but
Speaker 1: first four play record. But we used to record there
Speaker 1: with Lionel Richie. We did Uh, we did Kenny Loggin's
Speaker 1: Levelill follow, I mean ton this record I did. One
Speaker 1: of the things I'm most proud of is we did
Speaker 1: a song called if you Think You're Lonely Now Bobby Womack.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, yeah, you were on the Monster, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the ocean Way Studio. And as funny as I all
Speaker 1: these tunes, I can remember, I could kind of just
Speaker 1: remember being there. It's almost like the day and so
Speaker 1: that being one of my favorites. You know, when I
Speaker 1: went to go do my solo album, you know where
Speaker 1: did I go? Ocean Way which is now called United
Speaker 1: Studio Record. Yeah, yeah, we did podcasts there. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: did like three of the studios he dropped so far
Speaker 1: and yeah yeah, okay, those are the big ones Capital Record.
Speaker 1: I have a question, Nathan, at any point in your
Speaker 1: career did you mess with key bass? You know, um
Speaker 1: playing based on a keyboard? You know, there was, there was,
Speaker 1: I was. There was a time in the Algaro days
Speaker 1: that he had a couple of tunes that had key
Speaker 1: bass on uh, like Boogie Down Down. There was one
Speaker 1: I can't quite remember the name, but it was that
Speaker 1: this like really funky key base and so so I
Speaker 1: darken the roof. Yeah. I loved him so much. I
Speaker 1: loved him so much I couldn't even like him. But
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get used to call me name for me. Wait, Nathan,
Speaker 1: can I ask have you ever worked with Tommy la Puma? Yes? Many, many,
Speaker 1: many times. Okay? Have you have you worked with him
Speaker 1: between like the era that you work with him was
Speaker 1: at least between seventy five and eighty five? Yes, Okay,
Speaker 1: Tommy la Puma has such he has such a distinct
Speaker 1: down He has a very distinct sound with his production
Speaker 1: for all of this stuff, for his Algebro stuff, for
Speaker 1: any record that he produces that I'm almost under the
Speaker 1: impression that whatever studio he used, he kept it on
Speaker 1: one setting and never ever adjusted, because it's to me,
Speaker 1: it's it's so like even with the stuff that he
Speaker 1: did with like Brenda Russell, and there's a sound that
Speaker 1: he gets in his base and its Finder Rhodes where
Speaker 1: I instantly no, that's a Tommy Lapa. Tommy first of all, Tommy,
Speaker 1: Tommy Lapuma would start every session off with lunch at beach.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like he would like he was more
Speaker 1: concerned about taking everybody to lunch and get the best
Speaker 1: bottle of wine in the place, and then what you
Speaker 1: got that, then you were cool, Let's go make some music.
Speaker 1: He's this another Quincy uh fake out. Do you know
Speaker 1: Quincy's theory about this? So Quincy Quincy does the same thing.
Speaker 1: He wants The session is late at night, and he
Speaker 1: wants the guys to have the itis and to be
Speaker 1: a little tipsy um and somewhat sleepy, and then he'll
Speaker 1: start usually at one in the morning because he knows
Speaker 1: that uh any r, yeah, yeah, you're not thinking, you're
Speaker 1: tired and all that stuff. So he purposely will track
Speaker 1: important things between like one and six in the morning
Speaker 1: because like you're not as alert and you won't challenge
Speaker 1: him on something and overthinking, overplay. I've had many sunrise
Speaker 1: services with Quincy by the way, and an Algero for
Speaker 1: that matter. But you know, it's it's it's funny because
Speaker 1: Stevie is a king. You know. He called you know,
Speaker 1: he his tie and he marches still different. I mean
Speaker 1: we recorded the last record, Um, it was me, Ricky
Speaker 1: Lawson and him in the studio and he got to
Speaker 1: take it four am. And I remember thinking, I'm man,
Speaker 1: I got I got a ten am with j Grayden
Speaker 1: on something and uh but but yet, you know, getting
Speaker 1: back to time, and he he was that guy that
Speaker 1: he wasn't the kind of producer that told you, hey,
Speaker 1: I need an a flat on the third bar that
Speaker 1: you know of the of the bridge, you know, but
Speaker 1: he he just knew how to put people together. And
Speaker 1: and to this day, Anita Baker will tell you that
Speaker 1: the record she did with him is sonically her favorite record,
Speaker 1: giving you the best that I got. No, it was
Speaker 1: was a Rhythm of love or I think it's rhythm
Speaker 1: of love. I'll have to check. It was the one
Speaker 1: that I apologize and body and soul. It was the
Speaker 1: one who came out. I think Frontie went on record
Speaker 1: and saying that was his favorite and it's not my favorite.
Speaker 1: I think my favorite is compositions. But we had the
Speaker 1: most fun on compositions and fair Tales being one of
Speaker 1: my favorite two minutes long going acting a fool at
Speaker 1: the end of FERRONI you know what it is? Okay?
Speaker 1: Well one her entire discography is not available for streaming,
Speaker 1: so I really I can't even lay judgment. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have a cassette somewhere, but it's like I haven't
Speaker 1: touched my cassettes and eons, so you know, for me,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, no rapture, nothing else but well, I mean,
Speaker 1: Songstress was was the was our first time in the
Speaker 1: studio together, and that the song ain't You're on song stress?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah that's you Angel? Yeah? Of course you really
Speaker 1: from day one? You know I love it? Wow? Um
Speaker 1: what was her producer, the guy Michael J. Powell? What
Speaker 1: was he like because I've always you know, the great
Speaker 1: general giant and the greatest I mean, one of the
Speaker 1: greatest producers ever. We speak, we speak from time to
Speaker 1: time and again the producers producers really really soft spoken,
Speaker 1: but knew what he knew what he needed and got
Speaker 1: the best out of everybody, you know, and put some
Speaker 1: great cats together, you know. All right, So without naming names,
Speaker 1: because I know there's always two sides to a coin, right,
Speaker 1: have you ever been in a situation what was kind
Speaker 1: of like amateur hour with the producer like he didn't
Speaker 1: know what he's doing, not too communicative with you know,
Speaker 1: every they wanted every now and then you get those
Speaker 1: guys that you say, how did they get to be
Speaker 1: the producer for this important project? You know? And um,
Speaker 1: one of the things those kind of producers do, and
Speaker 1: I have to give it to their credit, is they're
Speaker 1: called they'll call the catch, you know. And and one
Speaker 1: guy who will remain nameless, But we were in and
Speaker 1: Jeff Carl was playing drums and after every take he
Speaker 1: would look to Jeff and Jeff would either say yeah
Speaker 1: or nay, that either was the take it wasn't. You know.
Speaker 1: That's how you would determine if you do another take again.
Speaker 1: But I mean, for the most part, and a lot
Speaker 1: of people say, oh they have there been some some
Speaker 1: sessions you've hated, But for the most part, I've I've
Speaker 1: enjoyed all of them and and been blessed with some
Speaker 1: really talented, gifted producers. How how do you know if
Speaker 1: a session is bad, Like if you have to spend
Speaker 1: more than an hour on a particular song, or yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're beating up on a song and next thing
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's looking up at their watch and you
Speaker 1: don't have a take, and like you keep trying, and
Speaker 1: then the takes just get worse. I mean, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't in the song. But you know, even
Speaker 1: even until recently, you know, sometimes people bring a song
Speaker 1: in and somebody has said, oh man, this isn't really
Speaker 1: a great song, but they'll have Like if you got
Speaker 1: filling games on keys, he's gonna make theirs. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: gonna And and I was telling David Foster the other day,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. And of course Quincy Quincy is you know,
Speaker 1: one of the top guys ever, but we were doing uh,
Speaker 1: Patty Austen, James Ingram, how do you keep the music
Speaker 1: playing the story. But but we were in there and
Speaker 1: we don't have it, just like Quincy said, well we
Speaker 1: don't have an intro for this and and anybody And
Speaker 1: David Froster literally he has his legs clothes and he
Speaker 1: says crossed, and he goes, what about this but doom
Speaker 1: and he plays the intro exactly what you hear on
Speaker 1: the record. That's when yes, yes, thanks, okay, speaking of which,
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry, I feel like I'm about to steal
Speaker 1: your question, but I gotta ask the intro too. After
Speaker 1: the dance. Oh, that's my question for play after Yes,
Speaker 1: I don't like that intro to me is probably the
Speaker 1: first thing that I think of if I start thinking
Speaker 1: of like smooth jazz f hm. Yes, it's such an airworm.
Speaker 1: It never leaves you. So it's not like I have
Speaker 1: an opinion on It's not like, oh that's my favorite
Speaker 1: or I hate that intro, but it's like it lives
Speaker 1: in my head. Rent Free, that was my favorite. Who
Speaker 1: came up with that intro? And by because I can't
Speaker 1: get rid of vibe James, you know what, and that's
Speaker 1: the same thing. That's what he he just said, how
Speaker 1: about you know he always writes everything else and he
Speaker 1: says stand by, and he writes us, how about this?
Speaker 1: And you play it? And now I'll go on record
Speaker 1: saying that's probably my favorite intro. It's to only second
Speaker 1: to minute by minute. Michael mcdonbain before that, Nathan can
Speaker 1: you tell the story? And Nathan East and Bob James,
Speaker 1: because like how did that marriage come together? And when
Speaker 1: did y'all know? It was like like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: We we knew we had something special on Bob's record.
Speaker 1: And he was an A and RC. He was an
Speaker 1: executive at Warner Brothers Record when we did his solo album.
Speaker 1: So he said, guys, I could um, I could propose
Speaker 1: this to the Warner Brothers. He said, I think we
Speaker 1: could get a deal right away. He came back, he
Speaker 1: and and you know what, they didn't even have to
Speaker 1: hear a demo or anything. There's a sign. And when
Speaker 1: we did our first session, we showed up at Ocean
Speaker 1: Way and and there was Moe Austin, Michael Auston, Lenny Warnerker,
Speaker 1: I'm in the big Warner Brothers where they beat us
Speaker 1: to the studio excited that excited. How was Moe Austen
Speaker 1: as an executive. Man. I've heard like a lot of
Speaker 1: stories about him, But how was you know, the last
Speaker 1: of the Mohicans. You know, he was record When you
Speaker 1: look up Record executive, there's his picture right there, you know.
Speaker 1: And but that that was like our first you know,
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's here in this and we go
Speaker 1: in the studio. And when Bob wrote that intro, I
Speaker 1: just said, bro And but of course, like he wrote,
Speaker 1: you know that crazy arrangement of feel like making love
Speaker 1: and a matter of fact, he he had a hit
Speaker 1: with that instrumentally and ROBERTA. Flack had a hit with it.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like a hit time on two
Speaker 1: different formats. And uh so it's been you know, and
Speaker 1: believe it or not, we we're having our thirtieth anniversary
Speaker 1: right now. And yeah, in my mind, my child mind,
Speaker 1: you're like the best of friends. And y'all got you
Speaker 1: have Sunday dinner. That's you. We're brothers. We're brothers with
Speaker 1: without a die from another mother and and uh you
Speaker 1: know we we've had a chance to go around the
Speaker 1: world together and and just have you know, have the
Speaker 1: best time. And so he's he's actually uh he he
Speaker 1: and Gregor actually got fathers to my son Noah, who
Speaker 1: plays keys. Uh As we want to do a record
Speaker 1: because we we've been playing a couple of gigs over
Speaker 1: the weekend. We played in Omaha for Walter Scott Junior's
Speaker 1: ninetieth birthday celebration and we had the best time ever.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, David Foster was there and all
Speaker 1: the guys and and he's turned into one of my
Speaker 1: favorite musicians. Man the four play catalog. Man that for me,
Speaker 1: like the Between the Sheets album and their LICKXA album,
Speaker 1: those came out when I was in high school and
Speaker 1: so I used to do my homework those records and
Speaker 1: like chant was my joint. I love those joints. And y'all,
Speaker 1: like I noticed like leave Written Now he was on
Speaker 1: those records. And then the guitarist y'all switch. What was
Speaker 1: the reason for the changing personnel? Yeah, I think after
Speaker 1: three records, Lead Lee really got um into the more
Speaker 1: of executive branch of the of the record record business series.
Speaker 1: Okay in one of his friends and he and Dave
Speaker 1: Grucing and g RPRP. He started getting busy with kind
Speaker 1: of doing doing records on the executive level level. And
Speaker 1: so that takes up so much time too. Yeah, y'all
Speaker 1: record to joint the Phil Collins the why can't it
Speaker 1: wait till morning? Man? Y'all tell me about that session? Man?
Speaker 1: You know we sent that over to Phil Um. I
Speaker 1: called films manager and uh, you know, it's great when
Speaker 1: these guys are your friends too. But I called films
Speaker 1: manager and uh, secretary answers for and she said, she said,
Speaker 1: what's this regard? And I said, as for recording four play?
Speaker 1: They said, well, I don't know if he can help
Speaker 1: you with that, but I get but I mean, he
Speaker 1: we said, and we wanted to do something obscure, so
Speaker 1: we we kind of found this song that wasn't necessary,
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't a number one, but I can't wait
Speaker 1: till morning. It was a little obscure, and we we
Speaker 1: sent him over and again Bob came up with this
Speaker 1: this in arrangement. We sent it over and he went
Speaker 1: into his studio put the vocal on. When he sent
Speaker 1: it back, we all sat in the studio and cried.
Speaker 1: You know, it was just like, nah, that's a gorgeous
Speaker 1: song man. There was a singer that there was a
Speaker 1: singer that LEAVE used to work with a lot. Eric
Speaker 1: Tag did you ever give any sessions with him? Yes, dude,
Speaker 1: what was he liked? Because he's like one of my
Speaker 1: favorite singers. Everybody's so low key. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if he's still making music now. You know. He sang
Speaker 1: like Stevie Wonder too, you know, yes, yes, real Stepig
Speaker 1: ste Florence. He was from He was from Texas. Really
Speaker 1: great guy and and he was in Leeds band. I
Speaker 1: remember when I Leaves was banded. Was one of the
Speaker 1: first ones I was in the first time we went
Speaker 1: to Japan was with Lee and you know, Eric was
Speaker 1: in those bands. You know that That's the thing I
Speaker 1: love about music. There's so many great people out there
Speaker 1: that a lot of people haven't even heard of. But
Speaker 1: you know, it was something about the way y'all pulled
Speaker 1: stuff out of people. We were talking abou that earlier,
Speaker 1: about the Michael McDonald record, and I was like, the
Speaker 1: way that Michael was singing on that record, but just
Speaker 1: felt different. Michael's different. Yeah, yeah, that different. You know,
Speaker 1: if I could, if I could have a voice, it
Speaker 1: would be his, you know. And then I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: his his uh Chriest Love Supreme podcast too. He was
Speaker 1: He's so he's so down and he's sang on my
Speaker 1: first solo album, we did that version of Moon to Dance,
Speaker 1: you know, like a big band version came and and
Speaker 1: crushed this record. Yeah, I was what's the process of
Speaker 1: picking the songs to reinvent? Because I was just listening
Speaker 1: to a song you did with Bob It was uh
Speaker 1: and dense gil um crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah from crazy that, I was saying, howork you guys
Speaker 1: are unbelievable, But yeah, how do y'all decide what songs
Speaker 1: to reinvent? Which in your mind are you thinking this
Speaker 1: is how I always heard it? Or man if I
Speaker 1: could only touch it and you can apply and if
Speaker 1: you can apply that answer to your arrangement to Sir Duke,
Speaker 1: I would appreciate that because we still haven't forgive you.
Speaker 1: We're still not forgiving you for it's some genius ship
Speaker 1: to this day. We we've studied it so much that
Speaker 1: it never leaves us. First of all, you can't like
Speaker 1: you can't touch a Stevie song, Like if you're doing
Speaker 1: a Stevie song, it's it's it's already the Bible, you know,
Speaker 1: So you do that. But then for some weird reason. Like,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of the studio, I said, what
Speaker 1: if we when we got to this this part, we
Speaker 1: just changed like every four bars wait, let me let
Speaker 1: me explain to put it in perspective, and after like,
Speaker 1: I gotta go listen to it because I forget. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like you you know, he's taken he's taking songs, you know,
Speaker 1: and sort of putting a new spin on it. So
Speaker 1: the song that he really did that too, was there's
Speaker 1: an arrangement of Sir Duke, of which that horn part
Speaker 1: is very intricate, just as is anyway. And what he
Speaker 1: decided to do was to just modulate, and it's some
Speaker 1: sort of non secretary way modulate the key in two
Speaker 1: keys that aren't supposed to fit, so in other words,
Speaker 1: instead of regularly, and he to another key and then
Speaker 1: and then another key. So you're basically have to transpose
Speaker 1: every four bars a new key that's not related to
Speaker 1: what you did before. Ste So it's there's no rhyme
Speaker 1: of reason, literally, it's it's kind of random, just like
Speaker 1: pulling them out of the air and saying, oh, well
Speaker 1: that works, and then okay, we gotta get back. So
Speaker 1: what would we end which one? You know? So the
Speaker 1: first one, you know, is that you know, the last
Speaker 1: one has to lead you back, and then the other
Speaker 1: two Heaven knows whether I'll put it this way, I'll
Speaker 1: put it this way. Hip hop heads uh if you're
Speaker 1: familiar with uh most y'a seen bays Uh Cassa Bay
Speaker 1: song and yeah, constant switching. Yeah, this this has nothing
Speaker 1: on that song. We I mean we practice Cassa Bay
Speaker 1: like maybe as a whole song an hour straight. But
Speaker 1: this one part of that Stevie Wonders song. Oh God,
Speaker 1: that that was almost like a two hour nightmare thing. Sorry,
Speaker 1: but I'm I'm glad we survived it and it was
Speaker 1: fun hitting it with no rhymer reason. There was no
Speaker 1: song that y'all picked and y'all were like, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: this is this is why you know Stevie and I
Speaker 1: realized that every everything I've ever recorded, I I had Stevie.
Speaker 1: I've done like at least two or three Stevie. We
Speaker 1: did Overjoyed, which came out of I do these sting
Speaker 1: rainforest benefits we do in the Carnegie Hall every year,
Speaker 1: and Stevie was on one and I was just fooling
Speaker 1: with the changes of joy It on base It's kind
Speaker 1: of like a rehearsal when nothing was happening, and I'm
Speaker 1: kind of trying to figure him out. And next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, I hear harmonica and now he's playing, and
Speaker 1: now I look up their sting Elton, John, Bonnie Rate.
Speaker 1: They're all just standing there looking like looking on and
Speaker 1: I'm going, oh Lord, and I'm as I'm learning the changes.
Speaker 1: Stevie is playing and we get to the end and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they all give they all start clapping. Then
Speaker 1: Stevie comes over and says, if you ever record that call, man,
Speaker 1: I want to play on it. So that was my
Speaker 1: next question. Responses from these revisions, can you share like
Speaker 1: what have been those like I wish I would have
Speaker 1: done that, Nathan, I wish you was suggested that. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, if Stevie offers to play on your record,
Speaker 1: you have to do it. Man. I could have had
Speaker 1: Stevie on my record, you know. So he came and
Speaker 1: blessed the record, and the way we what we did was, um,
Speaker 1: we we recorded a track and then when I played
Speaker 1: on his record, I brought the track over and then
Speaker 1: he you know, two in the morning, he he popped
Speaker 1: it on one take. See you later he wrote it,
Speaker 1: really all right, we um a former quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 1: I guess that we just had was aut de Barge. Um.
Speaker 1: I know your name is on the In a Special
Speaker 1: Way album, but do you recall anything from that DeBarge session?
Speaker 1: Do you know what songs you played on? Are you
Speaker 1: Onna Stay with Me? Are you on time Reveal? Are
Speaker 1: you on a dream? You know? I'm embarrassed. This is
Speaker 1: many an album called did he do an album called Gemini?
Speaker 1: Do you know? Is that that one? We did the
Speaker 1: whole thing? And there there are a few songs that
Speaker 1: really like stand out in my mind, like broken Dreams,
Speaker 1: Okay and Turned Away. I mean Jack took out these
Speaker 1: tunes these and these are elder Bards at his finest
Speaker 1: writing style, you know. And and and I'd have to
Speaker 1: look on the on the other one, because back in
Speaker 1: those days you were just ripping and running in and
Speaker 1: out of Motown studios and these studios and then literally
Speaker 1: everything was like a machine, you know. And I know
Speaker 1: Freddie Washington's on on at least the Yeah. The reason
Speaker 1: why I asked was because the other two names on
Speaker 1: base were already Freddie Washington, but then James Jamison Jr.
Speaker 1: And Jamison, I didn't. I didn't realize that James Jamison Jr.
Speaker 1: Had a career as a professional basis on records, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. So I was trying to figure
Speaker 1: out like what songs were yours and what songs were Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was getting called and sometimes it's it's a little
Speaker 1: unfair because the way they listed they just they would
Speaker 1: have base and they have three names, you know, so
Speaker 1: you wouldn't really know who played what and that you
Speaker 1: were very familiar with their their style. But speaking of
Speaker 1: James Jamison at that very studio that that we used
Speaker 1: to record at Motown, Um, one day somebody asked me
Speaker 1: to replace the Jamison park and um, that's the only
Speaker 1: time I've ever refused to play a part because I
Speaker 1: Am not going to replace James Jamison. Right, Please, are
Speaker 1: you the type of can you shape shift yours your sound?
Speaker 1: So if I say, like, okay, I wanna go for
Speaker 1: something more pastoric sounding, and you know, I know exactly
Speaker 1: how to proximate that sound, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like draw bars on the Hammond. You know, you
Speaker 1: can go from church too to jazz, you know, and
Speaker 1: and everything in between. You know, But but on the
Speaker 1: base if I want to go for the jackal sound,
Speaker 1: I go for the back pickup, you know, which is
Speaker 1: what he used to do. And then of course I
Speaker 1: have offender jazz basis Yamaha, I mean I have I
Speaker 1: have a lot of bases we can just get different
Speaker 1: sounds on. So yeah, that's and that's one of the
Speaker 1: fun things to do. You know, you listen to the
Speaker 1: song figured out you know what what does this song
Speaker 1: call for? Oh? I was gonna ask who was some
Speaker 1: of your favorite players? Like who were the guys that
Speaker 1: you learned from and that you learned from as you know,
Speaker 1: when you were younger, and some of the guys that
Speaker 1: you still pick up stuff from now. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: the guys I mentioned and early on it was like
Speaker 1: Verdine White from earth Wind, you know, Rocco from Tower
Speaker 1: of Power, James Jammerson, Chuck Rainey, Ron Carter, Charlie Mingus.
Speaker 1: I mean it was like the best sons, only the best,
Speaker 1: so many great guys, Anthony Jackson, Marcus you know, Jocko
Speaker 1: of course, So excluding excluding your four play guys, who
Speaker 1: would you pick in your you're starting five lineup? Like
Speaker 1: career retrospective, Who's on drums, Well, who's on drums? And
Speaker 1: you played with the best dead or alive? Yeah, dead
Speaker 1: or alive? Who who did you jell with the like
Speaker 1: what drummer brought brought the best out of you? I'll
Speaker 1: tell you. I have to say, Jeffrey picarl Um. If
Speaker 1: you listen to a song called Lady Loved Me by
Speaker 1: George Benson, um a Reef Martin produced it. Um, I
Speaker 1: think so another song. Yes, listen to the fade and
Speaker 1: and what you hear in me and jeff It sounds
Speaker 1: like two kids playing in sandboxing, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: it was like it was and and he was just
Speaker 1: every time we walked in the studio and saw each other,
Speaker 1: we just started smiling when we did. We did everything
Speaker 1: from Maurice White's solo album b G S, Barbara Streisan
Speaker 1: uh um, we did Randy Newman, I Love l A
Speaker 1: all that kind of dude. Okay, I was gonna ask
Speaker 1: you next doing and doing? Why do I feel like
Speaker 1: you're more or less early too? What's her name's video?
Speaker 1: That as opposed to the actual song? Right? Right? No? Uh,
Speaker 1: Chris Jenner made up you're allergic to that name? Original
Speaker 1: a right? But I'm only asking because that's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite Randy Newman albums ever. And Real Emotional Girl
Speaker 1: is like one of my all time favorite songs. Uh
Speaker 1: that's not David the original I'm gonna idiot. Yeah, now people, Randy,
Speaker 1: Randy was first. Um, but yeah, what were your memories
Speaker 1: of doing that? The Randy Newman album, you know, the
Speaker 1: memories was basically that was that was the entire total band.
Speaker 1: You know, Page, Luca th Um, Lenny Castro was playing cushion. Uh,
Speaker 1: Steve Carl, you know what I mean, it was like
Speaker 1: Jeff Carl, it was. It was literally and and those
Speaker 1: guys were the go to guys for for everybody. You know,
Speaker 1: when when Eric Clapton came to record his first you
Speaker 1: know when of his album it's called Behind the Sun
Speaker 1: in l A. The Warner Brothers guys, Okay, use our
Speaker 1: guys and there you go again, Jeff Carl, Feeling Gaines,
Speaker 1: Luca th Michael o'marty and I mean it was like
Speaker 1: the the the session aces of that time. So that
Speaker 1: was the Randy Newman record was just amazing because he
Speaker 1: would sit around the piano and he showed the tunes
Speaker 1: and then we just start go cutting. There's there's two
Speaker 1: guys that I often see their names on credits, but
Speaker 1: they're not in the total circle because of course the
Speaker 1: page the page cats. But um, did you work a
Speaker 1: lot with uh, like Bill Wolfer or Michael Back, Michael
Speaker 1: Body Bodeka, Yes at all, Yeah, absolutely, Yeah. And Michael
Speaker 1: Bicker was another one of those names you look at
Speaker 1: on all these records and there's Michael Boticker, George Benson,
Speaker 1: give me the Night, there's Michael Bocker, you know, like
Speaker 1: all these records to Night. And I did uh several
Speaker 1: several things with him, including the Academy Awards. Yeah, he was.
Speaker 1: We were down underneath the stage. Wait a minute, guys,
Speaker 1: I knew, I know there's going to be an episode.
Speaker 1: We always have like a coorsemote post mortem thing where
Speaker 1: we finished an episode and then we start getting mad
Speaker 1: because we forgot. I forgot to ask, We forgot to ask.
Speaker 1: That's gonna happend. I believe I was trying to sit
Speaker 1: here and figure out, like, what is the ultimate signature
Speaker 1: bass performance you've given on a record. I'm praying this
Speaker 1: is you. Are you playing bass on Dennis Edwards? Don't
Speaker 1: look any further. Yes there, Yes, indeed, I can't believe
Speaker 1: that's the one thing I did. That's the one thing
Speaker 1: I need to do my homework. I was just like,
Speaker 1: get paid in full without that song. Wow, dude, I
Speaker 1: totally forgot. I was like, I know, he has a
Speaker 1: signature song that is like a tattoo that's we're forgetting about.
Speaker 1: You know, that is such you know, that is just
Speaker 1: incredible to me a musicologist there. But but it's it's
Speaker 1: such an iconic baseline that did you write that baseline
Speaker 1: or was it just like like it's such a base
Speaker 1: lead thing. Did you get write as credit for it
Speaker 1: or did they tell you this is what you're playing.
Speaker 1: The baseline is the hook of that song. It's a
Speaker 1: combination and that's one of my favorite lines. It's a
Speaker 1: combination of what was already It was basically already there,
Speaker 1: and so I was I was the executioner of that line.
Speaker 1: And so did you how many times did you work
Speaker 1: with because you mentioned Dennis Lambert, did you work with
Speaker 1: him and all after that or yeah? Lots? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: uh Dennis Souther, I mean, you know it was it
Speaker 1: was a very fertile period. I mean we're talking, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm just thankful that we were born at a time
Speaker 1: like the seventies, eighties, nineties where music was just it
Speaker 1: was so fertile. I mean, there was so much music now.
Speaker 1: I had somebody sent me a picture of a piano
Speaker 1: with two keys on it the other day, and then
Speaker 1: the game used to write, you're right ato now and
Speaker 1: like you almost get penalized for having too many chords.
Speaker 1: Now you know where this You had lines, baselines, you
Speaker 1: had chords, you you had melodies, and and so uh
Speaker 1: you know what another one of those baselines that it
Speaker 1: was the el the barge woo doo doo doo doo
Speaker 1: doo doo doo. That's what I'm saying, the dream Okay,
Speaker 1: that is you okay, good do do do do do
Speaker 1: do do right, but all of these do do do
Speaker 1: do do do do do do do? I mean, and
Speaker 1: I'll never forget, you know, being in the studio that
Speaker 1: day now and that you know this one is special,
Speaker 1: very special. Okay. I was gonna ask you win all right,
Speaker 1: good Steve asked the question, hit it, it's your question.
Speaker 1: He never answered it. The dream lineup. We only got
Speaker 1: to the drummer. We didn't get to the other way
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, great, feeling games. Okay, that's your keyboard player,
Speaker 1: that's your keyboard players. Who's your guitarist? We got guitarist,
Speaker 1: I have to say, and this is You're gonna You're gonna.
Speaker 1: You may you may laugh at this one, but Pat
Speaker 1: Matheny is my favorite guitar player. Yes, yes, I'm wait
Speaker 1: a minute, uh springs it here? Not even how many
Speaker 1: how many Matheni albums are you on? None? You're not? Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not going a single Mathenia. That's that's my bucket list. Yeah,
Speaker 1: wow story really yeah, we uh, we played we played
Speaker 1: a concert for we we had this thing at at
Speaker 1: Dodger Stadium. It was Elton John and Eric Clapton and
Speaker 1: Matheny came and Steve and I quoted one of the
Speaker 1: songs that Steve's playing on it's in seven four and
Speaker 1: Steve and we started playing that during a solo and
Speaker 1: Pat went crazy. You know, it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: fifty thousand people out there. We saw Pat given his
Speaker 1: wife a high five when we played this tune. You know,
Speaker 1: But you know, Pat, he's he's just he's just a
Speaker 1: consummate musician. And I've always he's always been one of
Speaker 1: the guys on my bucket list to play with, you know,
Speaker 1: to record with. We've played together kind of jammed up
Speaker 1: at this place on the Upper West Side, but I've
Speaker 1: never had the pleasure of being on one of his records.
Speaker 1: Of course, Georgia Manson, I mean and and then you know,
Speaker 1: as bands go, you know, if you look at you know,
Speaker 1: we lost four play lost Chuck Lobe, who's um, the
Speaker 1: guy could do no wrong by me. He could play funk, jazz,
Speaker 1: rock and uh and on top of all that, he
Speaker 1: was the Swedish guy. So you know, check I think
Speaker 1: about him every day. When did he pass? When did
Speaker 1: Chuck pass? They think? Can I ask what musicians or music?
Speaker 1: You and Noah talk about? What is what does he
Speaker 1: put you onto? Since he is like an amazing musician, Well,
Speaker 1: you know he's amazing. Well of course everybody's you know,
Speaker 1: on onto Jacob Cayer, so he's like, he's like phenom
Speaker 1: of phenoms. But we you know, we we go with
Speaker 1: Herbie and uh. He I look at his you know,
Speaker 1: because he goes to the not only does he go
Speaker 1: to University of California bat Berkeley, but he goes to
Speaker 1: YouTube University. Yeah there, and he studies you know, Billy
Speaker 1: Preston go and uh people like uh Billy and and
Speaker 1: uh Herbie. Uh. You know. He he's kind of all
Speaker 1: over the map, you know, with with everything, and he
Speaker 1: loved we we do one of our favorite songs to play,
Speaker 1: Sunny Side of the Street, you know, which is a
Speaker 1: sixth year old song that that Louis Armstrong sang back
Speaker 1: in the day. So he he knows everything. But then
Speaker 1: we we love algar Row and you know, kind of
Speaker 1: kind of a diz. I mean, he's just a musical
Speaker 1: musical guy. Yeah by the looks of YouTube, but like
Speaker 1: you had a baby music genius. You know, he has
Speaker 1: perfect pitch and he not only does he's not one
Speaker 1: of these guys that like, if you look, you're gonna
Speaker 1: hear a million Olympic chops, you know. But he's got
Speaker 1: heart and soul. And it's the choices, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the it's the it's what you don't play. It's a
Speaker 1: space you leave that makes makes it specially, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'd like to see a lot of
Speaker 1: the younger guys, uh kind of understanding, because you know,
Speaker 1: now I just start scrolling, it's like you just hear
Speaker 1: everything every a z in the first bar. Right, Uh, Steve,
Speaker 1: do you want to ask the question? Should I go? Well? Actually,
Speaker 1: I'm curious about you said you played it live in Philly.
Speaker 1: Um was that with Phil Collins? Was with Kenny Loggins?
Speaker 1: With Kenny Loggins, Yeah, you're also very well known for
Speaker 1: playing with tem N and Kenny Loan said at uh
Speaker 1: in Elliot Live A yeah, U yeah, but you're I
Speaker 1: guess you're you're um applying my obsession with Easy Lover
Speaker 1: and your association with with Phil how many Phil Collins? Um?
Speaker 1: That was the Philip Bailey album that that song was on,
Speaker 1: yet you know it was Philip it and and my
Speaker 1: relationship with Philip is what got me on the gig
Speaker 1: phil Phil Collins. He was going to be the producer
Speaker 1: and Philip said, hey, I want to bring I want
Speaker 1: to bring an eight eight East over to London with
Speaker 1: me and so yeah, you know, so we we went
Speaker 1: to London recorded that in Um. Yeah, we wrote that song.
Speaker 1: It was the last song that we recorded. It was
Speaker 1: like after two weeks of recording and Philip said, man,
Speaker 1: we still didn't need like an undeniable single, and we
Speaker 1: went to went over the piano and twenty minutes later
Speaker 1: that came out. Wow, just twenty minutes later. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: and what it was was we kind of like had
Speaker 1: the we had all the parts, and um, we said,
Speaker 1: let's make a demo over the track and then tomorrow
Speaker 1: will listen to the demo and come back. And so
Speaker 1: we made the demo. The next morning we put it
Speaker 1: up and George Massenburg was the engineer. He recorded, Um,
Speaker 1: we played it, and everybody, hey, and I like it.
Speaker 1: What's wrong with that? But let's go with that? And
Speaker 1: then I heard Philip Collins kind of singing these choosy
Speaker 1: lover was the name, you know it was? It was
Speaker 1: the lyric he was singing. But as he was singing, um,
Speaker 1: I said managed voice sounds and said, man, why don't
Speaker 1: you guys just do it as a duet? Okay? Really yeah, Nathan,
Speaker 1: everyone it was it was a Phil Bailey record, you know.
Speaker 1: But then you could hear like Phil's Boys, And at
Speaker 1: that particular week, the song Against All Odds was number one,
Speaker 1: Phil's first number one, and it was like number one
Speaker 1: on the charts. So it was like, this is a
Speaker 1: no brainer. The two of them is a do it
Speaker 1: and man, you to hear it on like three radio
Speaker 1: stations at once. It's still one of the greatest. So
Speaker 1: that was that was that that allowed me to kind
Speaker 1: of solidify my my standing with the folks. I bought
Speaker 1: my house and finally they said, you know, because you know,
Speaker 1: your parents were saying yeah, but you said, have something
Speaker 1: fall back on. Yeah, your dad had a whole job.
Speaker 1: I still can't repeat arrows something. So I knew that
Speaker 1: he was in the space business, that design engineer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you designed the f F sixteen swept wings and the
Speaker 1: C five a tail, you know, and East always bring
Speaker 1: these rocket uh pictures homes of these rockets and silos.
Speaker 1: So that's where we got our kind of We have
Speaker 1: four pilots in the family. I fly, my brother's flies.
Speaker 1: My dad was a rocket scientist. Is there um, Is
Speaker 1: there a session or a song that you had to
Speaker 1: pass on that wound up becoming like like did you
Speaker 1: get the call first for like we are the World
Speaker 1: or something like that and you had to pass on
Speaker 1: it because you were already doing a gig somewhere. Well,
Speaker 1: Fortunately I can't tell that story because because no is
Speaker 1: one of the words that I have not been able
Speaker 1: to say. And I don't turn down anything, but my collar.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no talk about it. So I
Speaker 1: should take all the gigs, all right, thank you? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? I learned early on, like my
Speaker 1: accountant said, nobody's following you around with a pension plant,
Speaker 1: and we gotta, you know, the career, well, studio musicians
Speaker 1: careers four years, We got to figure out what to
Speaker 1: do with your money. And he told me that in
Speaker 1: nineteen eight. You know, wow, So you know you're always thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, is this is this it a man the peak?
Speaker 1: And is it gonna Am I going to be on
Speaker 1: the other side? You know? They say that the four
Speaker 1: stages of a musician's careers. Uh, who's Nathan East getting me?
Speaker 1: Get me Nathan East? Get me a young Nathan East?
Speaker 1: Whose Nathan got that? One more time? Say it again?
Speaker 1: Whose Nathan East? Get me? Nathan Ease? Get me a
Speaker 1: young Nathan Ee? Who's Nathan Eas? I hate that. David
Speaker 1: Foster told me that that hurt. I read that one
Speaker 1: of my voice over books of that has kept me
Speaker 1: going for forty years now. I've never heard it put
Speaker 1: that way, And now that that totally don't don't you
Speaker 1: start feeling in other part and the other part they say.
Speaker 1: The only other part I've heard of that same saying.
Speaker 1: Only other variation I've heard is the additional stage of
Speaker 1: get me Nathan East at any price. So like that's
Speaker 1: kind of before. I mean, like that to this day,
Speaker 1: my brothers called me and they always go as soon
Speaker 1: as they answered, to get me a young Nathan East.
Speaker 1: You know, they always you know, but but it's good
Speaker 1: to kind of have a little bit of that fear
Speaker 1: because especially back in the day, there was always the
Speaker 1: new guy, you know, like in the eighties, you know,
Speaker 1: like especially young guitar you know that you had you
Speaker 1: had like Larry Carlton, and then you had Lee written
Speaker 1: Hour and on these guys coming in and Luca Third
Speaker 1: and so there was always like this this heavy hitter
Speaker 1: waiting in the wings, you know, to be the next guy,
Speaker 1: you know. So not now I think we can we
Speaker 1: can rest a little easier because there's not a million
Speaker 1: studios and a million gigs going on like they were
Speaker 1: back then. Well, who who in your in your eyes
Speaker 1: was uh kind of who who do you admire of
Speaker 1: the Well, I guess like young lions to you are
Speaker 1: now established musicians. But I mean, if I'm talking to
Speaker 1: mid nineties, Nathan, He's like, who who were the musicians
Speaker 1: that were coming up that you were like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: messed with them, or you know, like who do you
Speaker 1: feel that the future is safe with? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: when because I remember, you know, first here and s
Speaker 1: Brown's and Spalding and she was one of these like
Speaker 1: she was young, new newcomer, and then next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: she had Album of the Year, you know, the Grammys,
Speaker 1: and then um again there's people like Jacob Cayer and
Speaker 1: and Justin Lee Schultz now that are that I think
Speaker 1: are very very promising that I feel comfortable leaving them
Speaker 1: with the with the torch, you know, because they they
Speaker 1: seem to be putting in some serious time and then
Speaker 1: they're they're they're quite a few. And and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: excited by my son Noah too, because I think he's
Speaker 1: he's becoming a student of of music and really like
Speaker 1: a sponge, you know, just absorbing um everybody from Keith
Speaker 1: Jarrett to Bill Levins to you know, Herbie and uh
Speaker 1: everybody in between. He's playing now, he's playing Hammond Oregon
Speaker 1: B three and so he's listening to a lot of
Speaker 1: the lot of the cats that Jimmy Smith, Joey Deep,
Speaker 1: It's crazy all right, before we wind up, I just
Speaker 1: I'm still thinking of the postmortem talk. It's nah, I
Speaker 1: just okay, um are you I know you played with
Speaker 1: the Point of Sisters. Are you on? I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: I'm on, I'm so excited. Jesus, I played the point
Speaker 1: of Sisters and my cousins by marriage. So we actually, uh,
Speaker 1: we actually re recorded all the hits and they asked
Speaker 1: me to produce it because a lot of times, you know,
Speaker 1: like Pepsi will say hey, we want to use I'm
Speaker 1: so excited, and the record labels say, okay, give us something,
Speaker 1: give us some and so they they hired me to
Speaker 1: produce it. So it was so easy because then I
Speaker 1: just called Greg and John Barnes and all the guys
Speaker 1: that played on the original and we went and rere
Speaker 1: recreated all those songs and use them on You know,
Speaker 1: now when you see him on a Pepsi commercial, those
Speaker 1: are the ones and they're they're benefiting from it, which
Speaker 1: is great. And that's what Prince did you know? Yeah
Speaker 1: you can re record you yeah, yeah, because you you know,
Speaker 1: the label onto the Masters and you know that's been
Speaker 1: Prince put slave on his right and he just went
Speaker 1: in and recut him. But sometimes it backfires, like you
Speaker 1: know before. Thank thank you Sylvia Room for finally releasing
Speaker 1: the heat Wave discography for streaming, because I don't know
Speaker 1: if I could have taken another like Boogie Nights. You know,
Speaker 1: some acts like re recording it not really quite nailing
Speaker 1: it the way that you know, some cases it doesn't work,
Speaker 1: but in this case it does work. Another dance classic
Speaker 1: of yours is that your base work on Woolmack and
Speaker 1: Woolma's Baby I'm Scared of You. I'm on Walmac and Woolmack,
Speaker 1: and I'd have to I'd have to look and remember
Speaker 1: if I could the particular tune. So let me look
Speaker 1: that up and I'll get back to you on that one.
Speaker 1: That's a great problem to have, accept it, except start
Speaker 1: stacking about, you know after after a thousand tunes. It's
Speaker 1: just it's crazy. He's on another iconic hip hop bass sample.
Speaker 1: So you you're, you're, you're playing on uh Flack and
Speaker 1: Bryson's Born to Love album. Correct, They're they're, they're, they're
Speaker 1: do wet right. Yeah, Second Childhood Primo Bam Boom boom boat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, you're reminded me of stuff that I that
Speaker 1: I completed. And you know this happens in Japan because
Speaker 1: they pay attention to everything, and sometimes I'm walking down
Speaker 1: the street they'll come up with a big armful of
Speaker 1: vinyl records that you completely forgot that you played on.
Speaker 1: You went to the side and everything. But see, that's
Speaker 1: and that's what I I wish that you know, the
Speaker 1: powers that be and and the Red Tape the red
Speaker 1: Tape people and the lawyers and whatnot, um would realize
Speaker 1: that the beauty of sampling is that cats like us,
Speaker 1: we'll see what gets sampled, and now not only will
Speaker 1: we purchase the the ROBERTA. Flack and People Bryson album,
Speaker 1: but then we're gonna read the credits and see who
Speaker 1: played on it, and then purchase everything that they played
Speaker 1: on and still on and further down the rabbit p s.
Speaker 1: I would like to tell the masses who are listening
Speaker 1: to this, there's an app for that, and it's called Deeper.
Speaker 1: Just saying black owned go get it deeper. It's an
Speaker 1: app called Deeper. Like if you find a song you like,
Speaker 1: the bass player, you touched the basse player's name and
Speaker 1: you can see everything that the basse player did. Wow, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna deeper and well, you know, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: like um, Aaron Schwartz did with Reddit. He he wanted
Speaker 1: to make available legal documents that usually people that are
Speaker 1: in m I. T. Studying they have to pay thirty
Speaker 1: five bucks to get a legal thing. So so he
Speaker 1: kind of he started making those things available and that's
Speaker 1: where he got in trouble. He got sued by the government.
Speaker 1: But it's it's one of those things where you are
Speaker 1: we gonna are we gonna keep it going moving forward
Speaker 1: so that people can know what what happened before, you know,
Speaker 1: because we don't want them to forget about Natalie Cole
Speaker 1: and you know, Ella Fitzgerald, and you just don't want
Speaker 1: you know, Billy Holiday and and you do you want
Speaker 1: our our youth to really have access to that. You know,
Speaker 1: So if if we put too many restrictions and and again,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll they'll figure out a way to monetize
Speaker 1: and and get it. But I think too to kind
Speaker 1: of put so many restrictions on everything, it's just it's
Speaker 1: just rough, you know, Okay, warmer thing, Okay, give me
Speaker 1: a free more because there's too many, man, because I'd
Speaker 1: be remiss and I would hate trying to remember because
Speaker 1: it was a two parter. I'm gonna have this. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna this in the whole. But you've also worked with
Speaker 1: narda Michael Walden of course, doing his magic streak with
Speaker 1: Aretha and Whitney and whatnot. That's you on saving all
Speaker 1: my love for you, dude? That okay, what kind of
Speaker 1: base are young on on saving all my love for you?
Speaker 1: Because that white bass right but it's this white bass
Speaker 1: right behind me. It's a B B three thousand yamaha basse.
Speaker 1: It's uh, Gene Page wrote, listen, he Gene Page wrote
Speaker 1: all those those notes too. Michael Master was producing. We
Speaker 1: were in Devonshire studios. We you know that the greatest
Speaker 1: love of all right behind me. But my my question
Speaker 1: about saving all my love for you though? And is
Speaker 1: that a five string base? It's five string basse. Okay.
Speaker 1: That explains everything, because the thing is is that even
Speaker 1: though I didn't, I didn't when when when I came out,
Speaker 1: I was I was fourteen years old, but it was
Speaker 1: in the eighties and so for me though, when you
Speaker 1: get to the last bridge because the night is the
Speaker 1: night I'm dealing there, all right. You played in such
Speaker 1: a low register that I was like, there's no, there's
Speaker 1: no base that can actually pay like he's playing below
Speaker 1: uh an e right, you were, And I never heard that,
Speaker 1: Like normally someone would would go to the upper register
Speaker 1: to play it, but you went low with it. And okay,
Speaker 1: you played on a five string, and I was I
Speaker 1: was actually shocked that because that was the first kind
Speaker 1: of some of the first five string records I was
Speaker 1: playing on. And and I was kind of saying, as
Speaker 1: it is, it's really gonna be cool, and am I
Speaker 1: gonna get away with this? You know, because it was
Speaker 1: it was at risk. It was unusual to hear because
Speaker 1: I just never heard a base go that low before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and okay, you know I have to say. And and
Speaker 1: by the way, congratulations you did an amazing job as
Speaker 1: musical director for the Oscars and I appreciate that you have.
Speaker 1: You know, to me, you brought the show into into
Speaker 1: the current state something beyond uh no. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you it seemed like on paper, it just seems easy,
Speaker 1: like oh, quest love DJ did. But man, the only
Speaker 1: reason why I know those three letters, A f M. Yes,
Speaker 1: of course we have an a FM here at the
Speaker 1: tonight show, and we deal with the rig of of whatever.
Speaker 1: But yo, they do not play in Los Angeles, and
Speaker 1: I thought everything was gonna be gravy. And then the
Speaker 1: a FM rep came and was like he wanted to
Speaker 1: know every song I was playing, and I guess the
Speaker 1: deal they made was like basically, um, if if these
Speaker 1: are a FM uh orchestra members, then you have to
Speaker 1: pay a certain rate for this and that. So it's
Speaker 1: it's the night before I had to redo and clear
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of songs because you know, I plan
Speaker 1: on just playing like movie themes and Williams scores and
Speaker 1: like do the normal thing. And then the FM guy
Speaker 1: was like, nope, there are FM union members. We got
Speaker 1: to pay them all, like we were trying to find
Speaker 1: our way to safety in a pandemic. And then like
Speaker 1: the last minute, the guys like, no, you must play.
Speaker 1: You must pay all seventy members of the people who
Speaker 1: played the theme the Rocky in order for you to
Speaker 1: play the song. I was like, no, We're not doing that.
Speaker 1: So I had to get super super creative and was
Speaker 1: just like okay, I'm just gonna play regular songs. Are
Speaker 1: most young musicians in the Union, well, those those particular
Speaker 1: things that you mentioned are gonna be a lot of
Speaker 1: the strength players that you know had had recorded those, right.
Speaker 1: That's why I was thinking, a lot of them aren't
Speaker 1: even living. They know the money goes to the FM. Ye,
Speaker 1: But but it's it's great that if if it's possible
Speaker 1: for it to get to the people that deal. But
Speaker 1: but they they will, they will come and and and
Speaker 1: check on you. Now, and you had access to the tracks, right,
Speaker 1: I mean you yeah, well for uh for as um
Speaker 1: as was great. By the way, I took a risk
Speaker 1: and I was just like what I hit up? Stevie
Speaker 1: was just like can I can I get the master please?
Speaker 1: And you know I had to explain like what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do and all that stuff. And when he
Speaker 1: heard it one, I didn't know that Dean Parks was
Speaker 1: playing um acoustic guitar on that, and it was even funnier.
Speaker 1: Was you think you're bad? Stevie didn't know that, and
Speaker 1: so he was sort of like, you know, how did
Speaker 1: you make this? It's it's like a country song. And
Speaker 1: I was like, no, that's that's just dem Parks, I
Speaker 1: just left you and Dean Parks singing alone. He's he
Speaker 1: felt like we redid and did a whole another arrangement
Speaker 1: to it. And I'm like, no, I just I took
Speaker 1: what was there and just accented some things and that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. But that's literally you know, some songs
Speaker 1: and people really and it was really a beautiful, uh persion.
Speaker 1: And how great is it that you can get the
Speaker 1: original master from Stevie and and be able to do that.
Speaker 1: You know, That's that's impressive. That's that's the that's the
Speaker 1: perk of the job. I enjoyed that. And I was
Speaker 1: with Dean Parks over the weekend and uh, it's we
Speaker 1: we were playing. Um we went to a club and
Speaker 1: sat in and I said, man, it's not every day
Speaker 1: we get to hear Dean Park stretch out like this,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? He was he brought it
Speaker 1: and uh, here he is, you know, still doing it
Speaker 1: after all these years. But he's a dream guest of mine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's I got to meet him two years ago at
Speaker 1: the Oscars and it's such a such a cool cat,
Speaker 1: very cool and uh but yeah, the the original hoping
Speaker 1: I'm going wait a second, I think A Mayor got
Speaker 1: the track. Oh this is incredible Flix. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: got lucky walk about working your magic now. It was
Speaker 1: really great. Thank you, thank you. You know, I know
Speaker 1: there's like forty nine other songs that I I could
Speaker 1: nerd out on and albums that you've played on. But
Speaker 1: you know, the whole thing is that you. You You're
Speaker 1: the You're the magic touch and and I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you for coming on the show and talk to us.
Speaker 1: I was so excited that last night I kept looking
Speaker 1: at my watching Man, Okay, it's on a twelve more hours.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to come up because listen, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've You've had everybody come on, Michelle Obama, Man, Michelle Obama.
Speaker 1: Now Nathan, I'm excited about Wait now, now that you
Speaker 1: mentioned it, Yo, you should really because when I'm closing
Speaker 1: my eyes, I thought I was talking to Donnie Simpson
Speaker 1: for half a second. You you really have you you
Speaker 1: have a future in voice over work, but really have
Speaker 1: a future like that should be your your your your pivot, Brent.
Speaker 1: But it's a lot of fun. You know. I was
Speaker 1: friends with Don la Fontaine, who was the guest who
Speaker 1: was the guy yes, family and I are still very
Speaker 1: dear and very close. But he he's so you have
Speaker 1: great pipes, you know, he had the voice of God,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, Well, I thank you very much for
Speaker 1: doing the show, and thank you guys, and thanks man.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the music. On what you're doing. It's
Speaker 1: it's very relevant. It's not every relevant very much, so
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Thanks for everything you do, and
Speaker 1: congratulations on everything Disney collaboration and you know, thank you everything.
Speaker 1: We're looking forward to the next generation to East shot. Okay,
Speaker 1: now right, yeah, well listen, it's been a joy, pleasure
Speaker 1: and an honor and uh let's uh, let's keep it going. Well,
Speaker 1: you heard it from the horse's mouth, lads and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: That was Nathan East and on behalf of Fontillo like
Speaker 1: and Schipstein. My name is quest Love and this is
Speaker 1: Love Supreme and we'll see you on the next go
Speaker 1: round for the next episode of us Love Supreme. All right, yo,
Speaker 1: what's up? This is Fonte. Make sure you keep up
Speaker 1: with us on Instagram at QLs and let us know
Speaker 1: what you think and who should be next to sit
Speaker 1: down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. Hi, Peace,
Speaker 1: m h M. What's Love Supreme is a production on
Speaker 1: my heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.