Questlove and Christian McBride

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with
Questlove and Christian McBride.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Two for I'm just playing long we you. I'm just
playing in loon with you.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hey there, I'm Norah. Welcome to the show with me,
as always is Sarah Oda.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Welcome, welcome.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hey this was a twofer.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Oh yeah, this is our first two for Yes, it's
our first two for very exciting. We have not one,
but two incredible guest musicians in the studio with us.
We have drummer, producer, author, a frontman of the Roots
and fellow podcast hosts Yeah, Questlove, And we have Questlove's
fellow Philadelphian bass player, composer, educator, artistic director, Christian McBride.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was going to say storyteller and joke man. Yes
also yes, Yeah, this was a really fun, fun time
for me. It was like a dream. It was like,
should we just make an album? Why are we all here?

Speaker 4 (01:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
It was. They're both highly influential musicians who have you know,
taken their love of music to new heights by playing
in all sorts of different formats and situations, and they're
really good at bringing people together with music, and so
we just thought let's have a and they're collaborative pals from.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, well they went to high school together. So my
thinking for this being a two fer was I wanted
them both on the podcast, but how fun would it
be to hear them tell stories about each other and
talk about childhood and also, since they're a bass player
and a drummer, play with them perfect past form. Ye,
it was pretty great episode.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Well, Christian gets there a little earlier, so you're going
to hear a duet first, and then Questlove gets there
and you're gonna hear them jam out too. Yep, don't
forget to like and subscribe to Nora Jones is playing
along if you want to hear more.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
All right, I hope you have as much fun as
I did playing along with Questlove and Christian McBride.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
My man don't love me treats me?

Speaker 6 (02:30):
Ohso, I send my man he don't love me, he
treats me.

Speaker 5 (02:44):
Oh so?

Speaker 7 (02:53):
He's the lovest man.

Speaker 5 (02:57):
Hello e scene.

Speaker 6 (03:10):
He wears hot tring pants strips.

Speaker 7 (03:15):
I really know.

Speaker 5 (03:25):
He wears hard late paints stripes are really.

Speaker 6 (03:42):
When he starts in loving me. He's so fine and mellow.

Speaker 8 (03:56):
That would make you drink and gamble.

Speaker 5 (04:00):
And make you stand out.

Speaker 8 (04:02):
Ah, not all.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Love.

Speaker 6 (04:11):
We'll make you drinking gambles and make you stare at
all God long. That would make you do all Let's see.

Speaker 9 (04:33):
That.

Speaker 8 (04:33):
You know.

Speaker 10 (05:35):
What about about.

Speaker 9 (05:50):
Bay?

Speaker 6 (06:18):
No, if you treat me right, baby, I'll stay home
eh re day. If you treat me right, baby, I'll

(06:39):
stay home.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Day.

Speaker 6 (06:52):
But if you saw mean to me, baby, you know
you're gonna drive me away.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
That was just like a farce. It turns off and
it turns off.

Speaker 6 (07:23):
Hello, was just like a farzy. It turns off and
it turns Sometimes when you think it's on, baby is

(07:44):
turned off and gone.

Speaker 11 (08:07):
No Joe bringing the grits and gravy.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Oh my god, that's too early.

Speaker 11 (08:10):
For that kind of song.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
Before noon, That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Well, if you wake up at if you wake up
at seven usually then it's more like three in the afternoon.

Speaker 11 (08:20):
Right, Well, I suppose.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Oh thanks for doing that with me. That was fun.
I love that Billie Holiday song.

Speaker 11 (08:28):
That's thrill.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Is that is that old Billie Holiday song? Or did
she did she get it from somewhere else? That's hers?

Speaker 4 (08:37):
God?

Speaker 1 (08:37):
I love Billy Holiday.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
Man.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
I haven't sung that song in a really long time.

Speaker 11 (08:42):
You could have fooled me.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
That's from the old days, you know, the old days
of playing and singing in restaurants and just playing.

Speaker 11 (08:49):
We'll see that.

Speaker 10 (08:52):
Those gigs, you know, back in the day when you
were doing the you know, hotel lobby or restaurant gig,
whatever it is.

Speaker 11 (09:00):
You know, I always tell musicians that's your shared time.

Speaker 10 (09:04):
That's how you build, that's how you build your skills.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
And semi paid practice totally.

Speaker 10 (09:10):
What it is, Totally what it is. I mean, like
I used to play. I can't remember the name of it,
but Benny Green and I used to have this kind
of semi regular gig at some Chinese food restaurant over
on the East Side, and uh.

Speaker 11 (09:26):
We were just shared tunes.

Speaker 10 (09:28):
You know, nobody was really listening, kind of sort of
you know, so we just call songs and I'll be
learning the changes right there from the spot.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
That's the best.

Speaker 11 (09:37):
That's how you learned.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, I had a gig like that in Dallas. I
wish it was Chinese food. That sounds really good actually
right now.

Speaker 10 (09:45):
If I remember correctly, Just like most jazz venues, we
couldn't pick off the regular menu.

Speaker 11 (09:52):
They had a musician's menu.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
I remember that I had a gig in Midtown right
around the corner here at that place. So did you
ever work, Yes, I never worked there, but a lot
of people did.

Speaker 11 (10:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (10:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Actually was surprised he hired me because there were a
lot of really great piano players that play there. But
I think he liked my singing. And that guy was
really nice, actually, I really liked him. But they did
not let us order very nicely.

Speaker 11 (10:18):
Right.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
You go back to the kitchen and you could only
have like a few things and you had a set meal.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
Time, right, yeah, exactly, that's right.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
And it was like a four and a half hour gig, long.

Speaker 11 (10:29):
Gig, long gig.

Speaker 10 (10:30):
I remember when well, when I first moved to town,
most clubs were three sets a night. The Vanguard was nine,
eleven and one.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Oh it was three sets back oh yeah yeah, six
nights a week.

Speaker 10 (10:46):
Bradley's was ten, twelve and two. That was hard because
you had an hour break in between these shows.

Speaker 11 (10:53):
All your momentum yeah be gone.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, and if you're having a drink, it's or eating.
It just makes you tie.

Speaker 11 (10:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (11:00):
Yeah, I'll tell you what so much. See this is
why when people began to know who you were, you
were already all your skills were totally strong already. I'm serious,
you weren't starting from scratch. You've been out there working, hustling.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
I kind of feel like I could use a weekly
gig again, you know, like a weekly.

Speaker 11 (11:22):
Not a bad idea our gig.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
The stakes are low and the fun is high, you know, yeah,
just working it out.

Speaker 11 (11:29):
I'm sure you could find something.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
I love doing that.

Speaker 11 (11:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
That's what's great about living in.

Speaker 10 (11:34):
A city, right right, right, You can hide in a
crowd exactly.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Man, tell me about your base.

Speaker 11 (11:44):
This is many.

Speaker 10 (11:45):
Yeah, yes, she's like you, little but mighty.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Did you bring her for me, because I'm I'm sure.

Speaker 10 (11:55):
No, No, this has been my main base since January
of ninety six.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Really, oh man, So you have others that you use sometimes,
but this is your main This.

Speaker 10 (12:06):
Is my girl I had. I had a bass that
was I used to think it was made by John
jewsk but a guy in Czechoslovakia told me that John
Jewsek that's a big.

Speaker 11 (12:19):
Name in the bass world.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Oh, I know, because I dated a bass player. I'm
sorry for a long time and I will never forget
the bass saga of him getting a.

Speaker 10 (12:28):
Jews Well, I found out that John Jewsk was not
a bass maker.

Speaker 11 (12:33):
He was a base distributor.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
So it was all a lot.

Speaker 10 (12:36):
He was the middle man. Yeah. So I went to
Czechoslovakia to go kind of track him down.

Speaker 5 (12:45):
Really, I want to, I want to.

Speaker 10 (12:46):
Learn about the Jewsak family line. And I went to
this bass shop in Prague, and uh, it was so
funny because the guy said and he didn't really say
these exact words, but I was reading in between the lines.
He was like, oh, you dumb Americans. Yeah, you think
Jewsk was the guy. He was not the guy.

Speaker 11 (13:05):
He was the distributor, you know. I was like, oh, oh, okay,
so who was the guy?

Speaker 10 (13:10):
And then he gave me like a whole bunch of
check names that I couldn't spell.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
You couldn't find.

Speaker 11 (13:17):
Him, Yeah, I couldn't find him.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
But so there was more than one guy basically, Oh yeah,
there were several guys.

Speaker 11 (13:22):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
They were kind of the same community of making basis right, okay.

Speaker 10 (13:27):
And so I had a Jewsak distributed base from nineteen
eighty nine until British Airways destroyed it.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Oh, no, of ninety five.

Speaker 10 (13:39):
Yeah, that's right. I'll never forgive you for that. You know,
but yeah, I had my jews ak was was crushed,
fell out of the belly of the plane. You know,
it's like a foot drop, you.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Know, from on the ground.

Speaker 10 (13:54):
But still yeah, yeah, I mean I had it had
a really good case. But I you know, I guess
the you know it was it was so far drop.

Speaker 11 (14:01):
Uh. It just it didn't make it.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
That's a bummer.

Speaker 11 (14:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (14:05):
And so h David Gage, the guru, I know him,
I love him.

Speaker 11 (14:12):
He tried to fix it.

Speaker 10 (14:13):
He restored it, he did everything he could, but it
just didn't get that old sound back. And so while
I was waiting for him to fix it, he said, man,
somebody just came in my shop with an old base.

Speaker 11 (14:25):
They want to get rid of it. You need to
come check this out. And that was Many.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
That's it, he called it.

Speaker 10 (14:31):
Yep, this is an old German base made in estimated
in nineteen ten.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
That's beautiful.

Speaker 11 (14:38):
Yeah, so she speaks, she's.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
That's beautiful.

Speaker 11 (14:50):
Yeah, so many she's been there.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
That's great. I remember seeing on your maybe your Instagram
page once and you took a picture of a flight
attendant who was super sweet about your instrument.

Speaker 11 (15:03):
I always try.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
I was going to say, I think.

Speaker 7 (15:05):
You do that.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Don't you shout out when they're really nice?

Speaker 11 (15:07):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, do you shout out when they suck about it
or you?

Speaker 12 (15:11):
No?

Speaker 10 (15:11):
I just go direct to uh. I just go direct
to customer service. You know, I've discovered the uh. My
friend Terry on Gully, his wife is she writes letters all.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
The time, complaints, kind complaints, well worded, thoughtful and she
and he used.

Speaker 10 (15:30):
To tell me, he said, man, you know, those complaint
letters go a long way.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
They do like they really read them.

Speaker 10 (15:36):
I don't know if they do now, but yeah, you know,
so fortunately I have not had too many bad instances
in quite some time.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Yeah, it can be tough trying to go on a
plane with a weird shaped instrument. They just don't know.

Speaker 10 (15:53):
They just don't working musicians. I mean, I see flight
attendants giving trouble to just like guitar players. You know,
they got like a little soft gig bag that's not
gonna fit no overhead, of course it will.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, so it's a tough gig on both ends. I
think too.

Speaker 11 (16:11):
Well. Absolutely, you know, you gotta have empathy.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
You know, but sometimes people just stink about it.

Speaker 11 (16:22):
You know what I feel bad about.

Speaker 10 (16:23):
I go I go to the airport and before I
check in, you try to read the friendliest face.

Speaker 9 (16:31):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 11 (16:32):
So.

Speaker 10 (16:32):
Like I'll be standing in line and I'll see like
three ticket agents and I see one about to become open,
but they don't look like they're a nice person. Like
I'll turn to the person behind me, like no, no, no, no,
you go ahead, but you're next. No go, I'm waiting
for the nice person.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Did you start out on upright base?

Speaker 11 (16:54):
Nope?

Speaker 10 (16:54):
Started out on the electric at what age? Because of
my dad nine I was nine, he played bass. He
still does, he still does.

Speaker 11 (17:04):
He is one of the workingst bass players in Philly.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
That's amazing.

Speaker 11 (17:08):
He's my dad.

Speaker 10 (17:09):
His name is Lee Smith, and he's working more now
than he was when I was a kid.

Speaker 11 (17:15):
Ain't that right? Clyde?

Speaker 8 (17:21):
Hey are you?

Speaker 1 (17:25):
I got some good stories about you before you got here.
I'm just kidding.

Speaker 11 (17:29):
I'm just kidding.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
We didn't get to it yet.

Speaker 11 (17:33):
What's good man?

Speaker 13 (17:45):
All right, I'm gonna get my dress on and played
traditional for the first time in what thirty years?

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Traditional?

Speaker 9 (17:52):
How so?

Speaker 1 (17:57):
That's great. That's some technical thing that I don't know about.
You don't usually hold your taking exactly.

Speaker 11 (18:04):
Yeah, all my idols play this way like what wow says?

Speaker 9 (18:10):
That was twelve really?

Speaker 11 (18:11):
Yeah? Whole episode us.

Speaker 7 (18:28):
Good?

Speaker 11 (18:28):
Go whoa?

Speaker 6 (18:54):
I'm a change shown world?

Speaker 5 (19:06):
Am I cheating so bad?

Speaker 9 (19:15):
You know?

Speaker 5 (19:19):
As I sing this song him, I've done.

Speaker 9 (19:29):
So bad.

Speaker 5 (19:37):
I'm not.

Speaker 7 (19:45):
Best The messas.

Speaker 14 (19:47):
Day seemed to be a day. You may be bad, You.

Speaker 8 (20:11):
May be late.

Speaker 15 (20:14):
Locord immasial name those who changed so bad?

Speaker 16 (21:15):
Take another round, Take it another round.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
I'm going.

Speaker 17 (22:21):
Now the best day?

Speaker 5 (22:28):
Things are?

Speaker 8 (22:35):
They seem to lea.

Speaker 5 (22:43):
You maybe lie, you may be late?

Speaker 9 (22:49):
Just walk up?

Speaker 8 (22:50):
How messes made?

Speaker 5 (22:54):
Go tream so bad?

Speaker 11 (23:06):
Oh Chris.

Speaker 7 (23:37):
Brother?

Speaker 11 (23:38):
Yeah? But can we just be normal for once and
not evert? No, we can't?

Speaker 5 (23:46):
Or what you?

Speaker 11 (23:46):
What're you about to learn? You're about to be in
high school with us? This is This is a thirty
year camaraderie.

Speaker 10 (23:55):
Where uh.

Speaker 13 (23:58):
He and I are having a total inst conversation with
each other based.

Speaker 11 (24:01):
On like every reference.

Speaker 5 (24:04):
I know.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
I texted with you both for about ten minutes.

Speaker 11 (24:14):
Are you going there? This might be a three?

Speaker 7 (24:26):
I know?

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Right?

Speaker 2 (24:27):
All right?

Speaker 18 (24:27):
Give how long before you committed this to your memory?

Speaker 11 (24:48):
You gotta get that in this right right?

Speaker 13 (24:50):
Right?

Speaker 6 (25:02):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (25:03):
Lord?

Speaker 19 (25:05):
Ne mo.

Speaker 20 (25:13):
St say what by spot steaks a great.

Speaker 11 (25:28):
Crack break tight. That's been only long right now, he's

(25:59):
a question of you two.

Speaker 13 (26:00):
Yeah, so when all right, watch me take the podcast over,
take it over. So when when you two play, have
you two played long enough where you're literally in a
linear state of mind where you know the song and

(26:21):
you are playing you Because I just realized I only
realize who I am when I'm not in roots world,
because when I'm in roots world, I'm more.

Speaker 11 (26:31):
Like traffic cop.

Speaker 13 (26:32):
Yeah, but I noticed that when I'm in jam session,
like literally in that song, I've referenced maybe twelve drummers
from Bill Withers drummer ye yeah, between Yatsen and you know,
Clyde jab over, I try to do Melvin, but I couldn't.

Speaker 11 (26:53):
Bring myself to it. It might have been too slow
for Melvin.

Speaker 13 (26:56):
Right right right, And so I've literally going through See
the thing is Melvin is is reverse Clyde. So all right,
I do funck you woman. So basically James and I,
Chris and I are connection. Of course, is is James
Brown And so with James's I would say top three drummers.

(27:21):
Clyde Stubblefield has the probably the best ghost note left hand. Ever,
so a lot of is like slowed down a little bit,
so like he plays he plays a snare like like
old Black Church people play the tambourine with a little like.

(27:44):
Of course, the the pace is this, but he'll add the.

Speaker 11 (27:51):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 13 (27:56):
And Adris Muhammad is also in under this umbrella or
his left hand and the ghost note.

Speaker 8 (28:04):
Right.

Speaker 13 (28:05):
And also I would say Steve Roon, formerly of the Heartbreakers,
and of course the average white man who's probably a
more nuanced bannaring party like Bernard Purty's trademarkets. Of course, yeah,
you know what I mean. So Steve Maroni takes Clyde

(28:29):
Subtlefield's left hand and uh it takes Bernard Purtty's right hand.

Speaker 11 (28:42):
But also Adriz Muhammad does that a lot.

Speaker 13 (28:46):
But with James Brown's other drummer, uh clatde uh Javo,
John Javo starks he's more he's more of a fluid guy,
So I say, John Zavos starts.

Speaker 11 (29:06):
Like he's more about the pulse. So I'll say that even.

Speaker 13 (29:10):
Though we credit Clyde Stubblefield with being like James Brown's
funkiest drummer, Clyde stubble field is more like boutique shopping,
whereas JABO is more like common every day right, meat
and potatoes drummers, you know what I mean.

Speaker 11 (29:31):
Like he's more to swing.

Speaker 8 (29:36):
M hm.

Speaker 13 (29:42):
So that's and he's also heavy on the one that's
that's jab all day, so his emphasis is more on
the foot. Now, the thing is Melvin Parker.

Speaker 11 (29:59):
You don't p right.

Speaker 13 (30:01):
Melbourne Parker never hits on the one, so he hits
everything but the one, and so he's more like right,
ye ah, so that one that's missing, that's his enfloyance.

(30:22):
So he's more single pated drummer, you know what I mean.
But it's always my question to you is when you're
not playing your own material, are you do you morph
into another musician or like I find out I'm more
of a shape shifter than I am, Like I don't
think I've identified I've identified myself as a shape shifter

(30:46):
more than like, oh that's a mirror plan.

Speaker 11 (30:49):
But you know, when I'm playing.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
I think that's interesting because I feel like I know
when it's you.

Speaker 11 (30:54):
Well, also I've made my presence known.

Speaker 13 (30:57):
But also it's also like my style of drumming is
more like like right now in the culinary world. There's
there's a big giant worry that with words like kale
and plant based that we're gonna lose.

Speaker 11 (31:11):
I mean, you know, like this twenty twenty is the.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
Whole era of.

Speaker 13 (31:18):
The fight between you know, traditionalists how it used to
be and this is how I was raised, versus the
disruptors who are like, no, this is this is the new,
this is how it's going to be. And there's you know,
I guess my stake in that claim is more about

(31:38):
the musicianship.

Speaker 11 (31:40):
So you know, I never wanted to be.

Speaker 13 (31:46):
What they would call like a you know, like a
gospel drummer gospel chops. So I always imagine that I'm
the drummer that works at a steel mill in Ohio
or Milwaukee or whatever. You know, his wife lets him
play with the guys at the local bar, but he's
like real sloppy, you know, like like I could, I

(32:12):
could perfect it, but.

Speaker 11 (32:15):
For me, oh you have yeah.

Speaker 13 (32:18):
I mean see the problem is when I'm doing it
in terms of hip hop, I also not only have
to be the sample, but I have to also be
the drum programming. So that's that's my my my big
risk with his next record, because I'm actually not gonna
play like a computer and I'm gonna play. I'm trying

(32:42):
to play like the sloppiest drunk four year old, like
how I used to play when I was a kid,
without the like my minus that. But do you do
you like for you, do you guys shape shift as well?
Or do you are you just too preoccupied with the

(33:05):
melody whatever?

Speaker 11 (33:06):
Because when I'm drumming, it's so.

Speaker 13 (33:09):
Second hint, Like it's like the back of my head
where if I think about drumming, then I'm fucking up.
So I'm thinking about like cereal, yeah, and wait, that'll
leave my while or two, Like I'm thinking of anything
else but drumming. Really, yeah, because when you start thinking
about it, that's where.

Speaker 9 (33:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (33:26):
I remember once, uh, one of my dad's gigs when
I was eleven.

Speaker 11 (33:32):
We were doing we were doing all the Wings.

Speaker 13 (33:34):
Of Love and I was I was twelve years Yeah.

Speaker 11 (33:40):
Did you know that Steve Roon's drumming on that? Yeah?

Speaker 13 (33:42):
Yeah, yeah, I did not know that. So it's like
one in the morning, I'm twelve years old. We're in
the nightclub and this is like out in some some
club in uh like Darby, like in the in the
Outskirts and we're playing, you know, my dad's like, all right,
you know, you get on drums. The bar's empty, it's

(34:04):
like the last set. So he lets me sit in
and I did good. And then we got the on
Wings of Love and we got through the first verse,
and there's there's there's like you know, the drunk guy
most tavern on the Simpsons. Yes, he's looking at me,
and he's the only one that's like, wait a minute,
what's what's a twelve year old kid doing in this
nightclub at.

Speaker 11 (34:26):
At two in the morning on a school night.

Speaker 13 (34:28):
But he's real drunk and he's like, hey man, that
drummer is really good. And then I messed up that
just about So when I think about it, that's when
it's problematic. But it is it the same for you
at all?

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Like I think thinking about it is always a problem.
Feeling it is better. But I'm always trying to be
myself because also as a singer, it's more obvious when
you're copying other people you love, you know, I just
try to embody the lyrics in my own way usually.

Speaker 10 (35:03):
And we were talking earlier about that, the steady gig,
all those steady gigs you played, and you know, hotel
lobbies and things like that, and restaurants and bars.

Speaker 11 (35:13):
That's it.

Speaker 10 (35:14):
That's where we all got our training. You know, did
you ever paid the paper like that? I feel like
you came out the wound legend. I know, revision is history,
but I I mean, I've always been too pragmatic because,
like as a bass player, my my thing was do
whatever you have to do to keep the gig. I

(35:35):
was the best worried about, you know, individualism and trying
to find you know what, I'm just don't get fired.
That was always my number one thing. You play in
fight or flight? Well, I mean there's two ways to live.

Speaker 13 (35:48):
Either gonna fight or flight or you're gonna live like, hey,
what can I do to you know? I never I
never thought that you would ever have that thought, like
I don't want to get fired?

Speaker 11 (35:57):
Absolutely?

Speaker 10 (35:58):
Have you ever got a fire Christmas close? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
but it wasn't you remember this well? You remember the
no amp days, the the make Base Great Again days
when all of these young cats were coming on the
scene not wanting to play with an amplifier.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 10 (36:16):
Yeah, you know, we were trying to muscle up and yeah,
exactly right, right, and uh oh when I first moved
to New York eighty nine, ninety ninety one.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well, AM's just an extra thing to carry. What's that
as an extra thing? Yeah?

Speaker 11 (36:31):
Yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 10 (36:32):
So there was all these cats like, man, you know,
real bass players don't use an AMP. You got to
muscle up, raise your strings and you know, have the
microphone way out there and project right. So uh that
was that was courtesy of a particular sect.

Speaker 11 (36:48):
But I got on body wear suits. Are they from
New Orleans?

Speaker 10 (36:53):
See I'm trying to care nobody, but I want who
you're talking about name, no names, no names. But I
got on Bobby Watch his gig and he was like, say,
where's your AM. You know I don't use no amp.
I got a big sound. And he's like, I'm sure

(37:14):
you do buy one of them? Like, no, man, you
know amp man, that's that's some punk ship man.

Speaker 11 (37:20):
You know.

Speaker 10 (37:20):
He's like, oh it is huh say uh no, no, no, no,
wait wait wait I'm getting an AMP. And actually it
was it was Jeff Taine. Wats that saved my gig
with Bobby Watching because I was playing the vanguard with
Bobby and Bobby was pissed.

Speaker 11 (37:40):
He was like, man, get an AMP. You know.

Speaker 10 (37:41):
I was like, no, I was being a petulant eighteen
year old, you know. And Taine came down there one night,
and and this is when I learned, like, you know,
it's cool. So Tane was kind of part of that
whole crew. He had one foot in there and with us.
That's right, that's right. So I said, hey, man, can
you believe what he wants me to do? He wants

(38:02):
me to get an APP. And so Tane was like,
we'll get one. I was like, for real, He's like, man,
just because you have an app, don't mean you got
to crank it.

Speaker 11 (38:10):
Just just get an app. You know.

Speaker 10 (38:12):
I was like, for real, it's cool. You ain't gonna
be mad at me. There's something along those lines, right.
That sect was really powerful cool in the early nineties.
And Tane was like, man, you better get an AP
and keep your kick.

Speaker 11 (38:27):
So wait a minute.

Speaker 13 (38:28):
If now I can see if it's village varying guard,
but with that sect, say the same for oh, I
don't know, Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center.

Speaker 11 (38:37):
Yes, no AMP, under no circumstances.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
Are you serious?

Speaker 11 (38:41):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (38:41):
Wait?

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Was there a mic on?

Speaker 11 (38:43):
Yeah? It was a mic. Oh.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
The theory was I thought, I here, I was thinking
no amplification at all in a club. But well, you
mean there's a microphone.

Speaker 11 (38:53):
Yes, there was a microphone.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
So the theory was a pick up doesn't sound good.

Speaker 10 (38:57):
The theory was the sound, the natural sound of the
acoustic base was destroyed in the seventies and and early eighties.

Speaker 11 (39:04):
Now, I can't argue that you agree, uh two, And I.

Speaker 10 (39:10):
Think Ron Carter was probably one of the only ones
that that made it out of that whole era, like unscathed.
Like even though he was using an amp and used
the d I, he still sounded nice and fatten and
and good, you know. But a lot of other people
had that real, real.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
Sound, you know, and.

Speaker 11 (39:33):
Playing like that.

Speaker 10 (39:34):
Yeah, and so, but Ron was the only one that
everybody was like, Okay, that's.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Cool, its own thing kind of exactly.

Speaker 10 (39:45):
And then so in the late eighties, when when the
sect was was was getting big, you know.

Speaker 11 (39:51):
It was kind of like yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 10 (39:55):
So then it was like, well, everybody raised their strings,
unplugged the amps, We're going out natural to return the
base to his original glory, you know. And then Ray Brown,
Ron Carter, you know, mill Hitton, all the great bass legends.
They come here us playing we all.

Speaker 11 (40:10):
Be like.

Speaker 10 (40:16):
And that takes a toe on your hands and they'd
be like, what are you doings. Yeah, there's a I'm
gonna call him out because that's my man.

Speaker 11 (40:26):
There's a YouTube clip go. I think it was when
Harry Conney Jr.

Speaker 10 (40:30):
Was on some morning show and my brother Ben Wolf
was playing bass.

Speaker 11 (40:35):
From a long camera angle.

Speaker 10 (40:37):
You can see his strings are about that high, maybe three,
and he's playing like I'm very sure he had ten
to nighters at gut strings you know, high super high action.

(40:58):
And at some point I was just like, you know,
this is this is not right. It doesn't sound good,
you know. So Ray Brown changed all of that. So
this all right?

Speaker 13 (41:08):
So you're answering the question for me because at in
my studio set up a thirty rock. What I'm trying
to do is get acquainted with all of our plugins.
Like I spend my lunch time just like, okay, let
me figure out a new sound or whatever. So you know,
when you get a pro tools system, then you know

(41:30):
there's over like seven hundred plugins or seven thousand plugins,
and of course there's different combinations of that stuff.

Speaker 11 (41:38):
So you know, I'm trying to.

Speaker 13 (41:39):
Think of figure out a new sound, and I keep
I kept seeing this.

Speaker 11 (41:42):
There's a plug in called fat wood.

Speaker 13 (41:46):
Right, which caught my attention because I need right.

Speaker 11 (41:52):
I said, fat would that's right.

Speaker 13 (41:54):
Let me check this out right, and I got to it,
and my engineer, Steve uh, Steve Vandell was like explaining
to me how in the jazz world like the wood
the natural wood sound, there's an argument over should we
And he said, you know, how like your your DI

(42:15):
versus microphone thing or whatever, and how I don't like
the microphone to the more than I like a d
I sound, but I need it for a specific reason.
So now I get that. You you you.

Speaker 11 (42:29):
Your challenge was natural sound versus.

Speaker 10 (42:32):
And to find a happy medium. And uh, I think,
I mean, like right now I'm not using any d I.
It's just all microphone.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
Well I can't imagine using a d I in the
studio on an acoustic bass.

Speaker 10 (42:47):
I can't either. But it depends on it depends on
the on the music, what kind of music you're doing.
Like when we did the Philadelphia experiment, that was I
think that was mostly d I, not very much micro
but for that music, it was perfect.

Speaker 11 (43:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (43:03):
Yeah, see I got a story about her.

Speaker 11 (43:12):
He said.

Speaker 10 (43:12):
No, was like, wait, right, right, right right. It was
the first time I heard of you when you played
at Mcore.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Really yep, oh that was forever ago.

Speaker 10 (43:23):
It was like it was like two thousand and uh.
My manager at the time, it's like, hey, we're gonna
go see this girl, Norah Jones. You should come, you know.
I think all of the people from Ted Curlin's office came.
They all came right and yeah, like this girl is

(43:45):
gonna be huge, She's gonna be huge. Yeah, yeah, And
I remember it was packed and I was in I
was in the black of the club.

Speaker 11 (43:53):
I said it on purpose exactly. And uh. And then
you had your record come out yet.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
I can't, no, no, but I had a long lead
up to it.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
So the label was.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
I had a weekly gig there. It was a Jewish
community center, yes, and it was singles night on Wednesdays.

Speaker 11 (44:14):
And I had a.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Gig every Wednesday on Singles Night. And it started out
with nobody.

Speaker 11 (44:19):
A regular gig there.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
I had a regular gig there for a year and
it was a singles night and there weren't a ton
of people there for me and it was just singles,
and then it built up slowly and slowly. And then
right right before my record came out, I think we
had our last weekly or something and it was like bananas.

Speaker 10 (44:36):
Man, and then and then you shout out like a
cannon man, and I was just like that her.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
You came to the court, did you say.

Speaker 11 (44:42):
Hi, No, there's too much, too much traffic in there.

Speaker 13 (44:45):
Yeah, I was going to say the last the last
stages of your buzz before your debut came out. I
distinctly remember in a forty eight hour period, I can
claim that I saw you pre you and pre Ga,
gay You, pre You and pre Gaga, Stephanie uh at

(45:08):
sort of like piano bar gigs in New York area
within like a seventy one night. I think I saw
her on a Thursday night, and I saw you on
a Sunday night.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Wow.

Speaker 13 (45:18):
And yeah, it's that's probably the only time where I
saw someone in there there sort of like incubated level before.

Speaker 11 (45:30):
You know.

Speaker 10 (45:31):
John Batiste was my student at the Aspen Summer Program. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
in two thousand and one.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Look at him now, I'm telling you right.

Speaker 11 (45:40):
So when I see him now, I'm just like, you know,
you ain't famous.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
To me, that's crazy.

Speaker 10 (45:49):
But no, he and and and Diana crawl as well.
You know we kind of came up. She was together
at the no no no, but.

Speaker 11 (45:58):
Yeah we can.

Speaker 10 (45:58):
Yeah, like when she made her first album, well her
first album for g RP. It was ninety four, we
recorded that. I mean, you know, she was brand new,
you know she was she was doing like the the
bar and hotel circuit. Yeah, you know, and Timy Lapuma
heard her and the rest is history.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
And you played on that early stuff with her or
later I.

Speaker 11 (46:23):
Played on her.

Speaker 10 (46:25):
I think I've played on almost all of her records
except her second and maybe one other in between there.

Speaker 13 (46:32):
Okay, yeah, so you so you were produced by Tommy Lapuma.
That was my That was like my third dad. Okay
this on this album? Were you acoustic or electric? All acoustic?
Always always ever done anything electric with him?

Speaker 11 (46:49):
Big time. Yeah.

Speaker 13 (46:51):
It's like for me, if there's ever producer that has
such a sin got replaced.

Speaker 11 (46:55):
I was, how'd you know Marcus Miller?

Speaker 1 (47:00):
Okay?

Speaker 10 (47:02):
I was like, well, why don't you just get Marcus.
We's gotta break my heart when the record comes out.
I was like, damn wait.

Speaker 13 (47:07):
But it was cool later on Wait, what is that
like when you find out that you heartbreaking?

Speaker 11 (47:13):
Is that a common thing before? You know?

Speaker 10 (47:16):
I don't think it is now. I don't think that
happens much anymore. I can't be sure, but I don't
think that happens much. On Kenny Kirkland's first and only
solo album, Delfiel Marsalaz produced it, and I remember he
called me in and he said, hey man, we got
this track. We got like four bass parts on that.
We got Seannette Maffit, we got Robert Hurst. I think

(47:39):
maybe no what in Originalville, but it was just Hurst
and Seanette is like, put your bass part down because
we can't figure out which one we like. So I'm
pretty sure on one of those songs on Kenny Kirkland's record,
there's like three bass players on one and he just
kind of you know, I got four bars, four bars.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
I've almost done that. I don't think I've ever done that.

Speaker 11 (48:03):
Really.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
No, Well, I saw both. I saw you play when
I was in college down in Texas. I saw the roots.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
Really yeah.

Speaker 13 (48:10):
Wow, I thought I thought the first time we saw
each other was when you were sitting in the front
ro of.

Speaker 11 (48:16):
Wait, you're from Denton.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Text, well, from Dallas, but I went to college in Denton.

Speaker 13 (48:20):
Yeah, okay, I'm only learning about that. I'm doing the
Slide doc right now. And I didn't know that he
was born in Denton, Texas.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
I actually didn't know that either.

Speaker 13 (48:29):
No, I didn't know that he was born in I'm
in the there's a there's a really crazy lost concert
that we just found which is supposed to be like
this is this is in seventy two, so I'll say
this maybe like three months before Larry quit and the

(48:49):
first Okay, so of course, uh and in prime self
saboteur mode, you know, Slide used time as a means
to protest, always famous for being late to shows and whatnot.
So uh, you know, this is like his homecoming show.
You know, he went away for two years after his

(49:10):
triumphant Woodstock thing and you know, greatest Hits album was
was he was literally like the biggest star in the world,
and so you know, they planning this homecoming thing in Denton,
Texas and all you when when the they recorded live
and you know, wanted to preserve it on tape, and
so all of a sudden, you here it just starts

(49:32):
with booze.

Speaker 11 (49:33):
So obviously he was late, right, right, so he I believe.

Speaker 13 (49:41):
One of the band members told me that they were
waiting for about sort of north of ninety minutes, so
maybe like one hundred minutes yeh. And but he's also
he keeps getting away with it because he's also very charismatic,
charming guy. And literally when he walks on stage, he

(50:02):
you know, he does this, and you know, and he
does the look, guys, I'm sorry, but look, I can
either solve the problem and start playing now, or you
guys can just continue booing.

Speaker 11 (50:13):
What would you like to do?

Speaker 13 (50:14):
Like, He's really very logical, right and the second may
hit it was like they forgot everything.

Speaker 11 (50:23):
Yeah, and so that's.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
Exciting in Texas, man, I can't wait to see that.

Speaker 11 (50:28):
Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a lot that I'm learning right now.

Speaker 5 (51:00):
He la a line gun, you might drive him back.
All the voices tell me to gone. I know who
he had. If I try to escape, which way, shaid
I come pull the red tail.

Speaker 8 (51:19):
All of my lips, no mom past.

Speaker 5 (51:23):
Set all the lies A long should stood with me.
I'll pretend your everything and need take the bullet.

Speaker 7 (51:56):
Out that gun I bear.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
You must everything.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
You want to know swallow be.

Speaker 6 (52:08):
If I try to escape, you will play the part.

Speaker 5 (52:15):
If you dis at bit, I hold you my.

Speaker 6 (52:20):
S all moss up long sul.

Speaker 17 (52:36):
Now, I'll pretend that out five s oh lash was

(53:53):
of moum shuck.

Speaker 20 (53:57):
Shmaz.

Speaker 7 (54:03):
I'll pretend you have this singing.

Speaker 11 (54:07):
And so you saw they came to U.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
N t no that you guys were playing in Dallas.
We went down to Dallas to see you.

Speaker 11 (55:34):
Was it in that bowling alley?

Speaker 10 (55:37):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (55:37):
No, it wasn't.

Speaker 11 (55:38):
There's there's like a in Dallas.

Speaker 13 (55:39):
There was something bowl and it was like a bowling alley,
pool hall and kind of a house of bluesy what.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Is a theater?

Speaker 7 (55:48):
Right?

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Yeah, No, it wasn't there. It was a place where
there was a balcony surrounding the stage. I can't remember
where it was, okay. And then I tried to go
see you play with Josh Redmon and Brian Blade Caravan
of Dreams. But I was told later by Chris Thomas
that it was actually him.

Speaker 11 (56:05):
I was out of the vand but you were.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
You weren't there, and I think my memory got, you know, sideways,
But Chris was.

Speaker 11 (56:13):
Like, that was me. Christian Chris, No I.

Speaker 9 (56:18):
Knew who you were.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
No, no, no, I don't think I got to see
you till later, like maybe after I moved to New York.

Speaker 11 (56:25):
Yeah I didn't, I don't don't. Don't play in Texas much?

Speaker 1 (56:29):
Oh yeah is that true?

Speaker 11 (56:31):
Where's your like?

Speaker 10 (56:33):
How is if I do go to Texas, it's probably Houston,
Houston or Austin.

Speaker 1 (56:38):
No Dallas for you, huh not really?

Speaker 11 (56:41):
So where's your jazz?

Speaker 13 (56:43):
Where's your like every American and your American art does it?

Speaker 10 (56:49):
Kind of all the Amtrak so Boston, between Boston and
d C, Rochester, Buffalo, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis has gotten
a little better. Saint Louis not much in the South Man,

(57:09):
not not a whole lot.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
That's interesting becausecause Denton was a big old jazz school.
So well exactly we have people come through to the
college a lot.

Speaker 11 (57:17):
Right, Yeah, I've done like master classes.

Speaker 5 (57:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (57:20):
So the place where it was, of course in.

Speaker 10 (57:22):
La of course, you know, Seattle, all the way down
to San Diego, Phoenix, Denver.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Yeah, I think the only place there was a jazz
club in Dallas called Sambuca, but it was very small
and then there was a chain. Yeah, it was a chain.
But then there was a Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth,
which is like the club that was the one that
was the only real place that people came of.

Speaker 13 (57:43):
Yeah, so you're trying to tell me the place where
it was invented.

Speaker 10 (57:47):
It's almost like, well, in New York the same thing. Yeah,
I mean New Orleans is so insular. They're like, we
don't need no Northerners come down here.

Speaker 11 (57:55):
We got to go.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Oh yeah, there's not a lot of out of town
right gota. Yeah. And then you got the festivals in Europe.

Speaker 11 (58:03):
Yes, which are you tired of Europe? All right?

Speaker 13 (58:06):
So for me, like okay, for you is most of
your summers and for both of you when you're touring,
are most of your summers outside of the United States? Like,
have you been in the United States for a good
two months stretch without.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Going to Europe?

Speaker 11 (58:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (58:25):
I mean I don't tour as much as I used to,
but I did last summer just States, and this summer
I'm just doing a month in Europe. And I was
excited to do some of the same places I've done
a lot, and then I realized, oh, this is just
what there is for me. It's like all the same festivals,
a lot of the same places, which I do love, sure,
but it's like, yeah, it gets a little like, wait,

(58:47):
did I just go back in time?

Speaker 10 (58:49):
Yeah? Yeah, I mean the summer o itenerary tends to
look the same. Yeah, I mean, I don't think I've
seen the July seventeenth in the United States since we graduate.
Well I didn't see it then, so yeah, probably nineteen
eighty eight.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
So you're always in Europe every summer pretty much. Well,
maybe i'll see you this summer. Are you going to
be there this summer?

Speaker 11 (59:08):
Not for long?

Speaker 10 (59:09):
I'm actually this is I'm only doing two gigs in
Europe in July. I actually get to stay home.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
Stay home and work or stay home and hay.

Speaker 10 (59:18):
Oh I'm going to stay home and hay yeah, I'm
going to watch Law and Order. My ass off. It
would be marathon and like crazy.

Speaker 13 (59:27):
Oh man, Wow, this is this year mark the first
year that we're finally doing our first round of arena
tours really, because the thing is is that, you know,
we've played big numbers in New York City. Yeah, and
MSG really isn't that big.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
No, isn't it like nine or ten thousand?

Speaker 11 (59:51):
It's like maybe twelve thirteen.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
But you think of it as like thirty and.

Speaker 13 (59:54):
Yeah, you would think like forty some whatever, and we
just never you know, it's always like, okay, when when
do we when do we play our cards to see
if we can actually do arenas or not?

Speaker 11 (01:00:07):
So wow, But after the.

Speaker 13 (01:00:11):
The thing that we did at the Grammys this year
where we gathered everyone in the history of hip hop
to do like this mega twelve minute thing.

Speaker 11 (01:00:20):
Great, yeah, it was fun to watch. You look, dude,
I should have a separate podcast on d gigs.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
What you can talk about it.

Speaker 11 (01:00:32):
I've come close to suicide.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
And time musical director gigs. Oh yeah, you're were you're
running the show and trying to organize it all.

Speaker 13 (01:00:41):
I'll guarantee you know the story and basically say that
when I landed.

Speaker 11 (01:00:44):
In New York, my tooth fell out.

Speaker 13 (01:00:48):
So there's there's this there's this rock and roll Dennis
that Lenny Kravitz put the whole community onto in which
this guy does twenty four hour work.

Speaker 11 (01:00:56):
Like he even comes to your house.

Speaker 13 (01:00:58):
That's a little weird, Like yeah, like you leave them
keys whatever, you take these pills, you're asleep, you wake
up in the morning.

Speaker 11 (01:01:05):
He already operated.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Right Wait, wait, back up, back up, Yeah, are you
kidding me?

Speaker 11 (01:01:09):
I don't do that. I'm not I'm not that rich.
But yes you can.

Speaker 13 (01:01:13):
Actually this guy, he's the rock and roll Dennis, he
goes on tour. He could if you have a phoba,
you know, I've got time, we got to be home,
He'll hook you up, come to the crib.

Speaker 11 (01:01:21):
And he's in New York. So he's on a twenty
four hour call.

Speaker 13 (01:01:25):
And when I landed, the amount of stress that seven
weeks was because it's somewhere in between, like on Standby,
there was a.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
Life coach, because you a life coach.

Speaker 13 (01:01:38):
So we also experienced this and then the rock and
roll So in the rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
it's sort of the same thing where you have to
reunite people that haven't played with each other for a
long time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Oh and there's a lot of history there.

Speaker 11 (01:01:50):
Yeah, a lot of bad history.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Was there a therapist?

Speaker 13 (01:01:53):
Yeah, that's why I had to have this person there
like literally there to talk. So there was there's two
situations where where you know, you go back in two
thousand and seven, you took three thousand dollars out of
my bag and did it whatever like that. So there
was that, but then there was mostly like, well, how
many bars is da da da getting? And you know

(01:02:16):
how much explosions is da da da getting.

Speaker 11 (01:02:18):
I used to think that wasn't real, dude.

Speaker 13 (01:02:21):
It was like if you ever seen I don't know
if you watch thirty Rock, but if you ever watch
the Source Awards episode of thirty Rock, which alone is
a setup and a joke and a fund's line at
the same time.

Speaker 11 (01:02:36):
It literally.

Speaker 13 (01:02:38):
It was it almost went Murphy's Law, and then at
the last minute it was the it was the biggest
hal Mary with seconds on the clock left, tossed the
ball up and just praise someone on the other end
catches it and they caught it. I'll put it this way.

(01:02:59):
The last act loozy Bert, I didn't even know he
was on stage. And that's only because of the way
that the show was built. I couldn't see what was happening.

Speaker 11 (01:03:09):
Around the corner. But do you remember how like after
Princeton Purple Rain, and he.

Speaker 13 (01:03:14):
Stormed off stage like I've ruined everything.

Speaker 11 (01:03:17):
I fucked up. That's what I did. Like I was
having a panic attack.

Speaker 13 (01:03:21):
I was about to cry wow, And I stormed off
stage and I was like, oh man, I've ruined it.

Speaker 7 (01:03:26):
I ruined it.

Speaker 13 (01:03:26):
And then my band's like congratulating each other. I'm like,
what are y'all doing?

Speaker 11 (01:03:30):
She's like, you see what did I said? Wait? He
was there.

Speaker 13 (01:03:34):
Yeah, he came up last minute and literally they had
to show me on Twitter what had happened.

Speaker 4 (01:03:39):
You didn't even know and they were like, how.

Speaker 11 (01:03:41):
Did you not know? And you literally on stage?

Speaker 13 (01:03:43):
But I swear to God like see after after a point,
I just blanked out because I started going to my
head like I fucked this up.

Speaker 11 (01:03:50):
Everyone's going to cancel me. I'm be trending on Twitter.

Speaker 13 (01:03:53):
He messed up the Hip Hop thirty thing and literally
my last because there was even acts that dropped out
ten minutes before because they lost one our headliner. Uh
thought he might win a particular award, and you know
when it went to someone else.

Speaker 11 (01:04:11):
Man, fuck the Grammy. I'm like, yo, you cap And.

Speaker 13 (01:04:15):
It was every type of stress and that's how my
tooth fell out. So just in terms of like MDM, man,
it's hard. You can't be no one's friend. Sam Moore
got got mad at me one time. Sam Moore, Yeah,
Sam and Dave Yeah, Oh he's more famous for that.

Speaker 10 (01:04:32):
So we're at the White House and it was the
big Ray Charles tribute and I'm kind of wearing what
I have on exactly right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Now, a T shirt. Y.

Speaker 10 (01:04:40):
Yeah, I had a black T shirt on and a
black sports jacket. So I got the big band and uh,
a lot of you know, Demi Levado was there, Usher,
Jolanta Adams, all these people, so I wasn't paying attention.
I had a James Brown T shirt on.

Speaker 11 (01:04:58):
Oh no, oh no, but my jacket was, you know,
kind of clothes like this.

Speaker 10 (01:05:04):
And so Sam Moore comes in and, uh, you know,
mister Moore, you know, good morning, it's great to see you.
I'm so honored to work with you. He's like, who
is that? He looks at my shirt as soon as
he saw it. Oh, it was too late to change
my clothes. He's like, James Brown, what's their history? Why

(01:05:26):
y'all look at James Brown. I was like, well, mister Moore,
I can I can I can go change my shirt?

Speaker 11 (01:05:32):
No, no, no, it's too late. Now.

Speaker 10 (01:05:34):
Why you got a James Brown shirt on? It's like
it's the only clean one I have. Yeah, I've been
on the road for the last fight didn't get to
do laundry, you know. He's like, and for the next
fifteen minutes he wouldn't he wouldn't sing the song. He
was just I can't believe you wearing a chance Brown.

Speaker 11 (01:05:53):
Over it, could not thinking on one of them card games.

Speaker 10 (01:05:56):
So later on I texted Alan the story, what's the
deal and so Allan Lee's friend Alan, and.

Speaker 11 (01:06:08):
So he's like there was there was no direct story
that he knew of.

Speaker 10 (01:06:12):
It was just sort of like an overall He's like, man,
none of James Brown's Pierce from the sixties liked him.

Speaker 13 (01:06:18):
There's either a woman card game right right right? The
answery I got to cut you. I felt so bad.
I was like, man, I should run my room real quick.

Speaker 19 (01:06:29):
Seriously.

Speaker 10 (01:06:30):
I was like, let's take a forty five minute break.
I'm gonna go back to the hotel and change my shirt.
I did not, but the damage, oh my. He finally
got over it the day of the gig.

Speaker 11 (01:06:42):
I remember once we did you ever play River Deep
Mountain High? Sure? And that turnaround is one of the
hardest things, you know, right right? So that turnaround is hard, yes,
it is, yes.

Speaker 13 (01:07:01):
And we used to do this annual gig out in
the Hampton's where the former owner of the Apollo Theater
does one of those fancy spancy like ten twenty thousand
play thing and you know, like an occasional pal McCartney
shows up or whatever. You know, it's like a fun
time and like the Roots have been in the house
band for this thing for like like maybe the last

(01:07:23):
ten years. And but the thing is it is also
I think one of the downfalls of being on the
Tonight Show is a lot of people just believe in
the smoke and mirrors of it all of like, oh,
the Roots could do anything. Just no, no, they could
do it. And so you know, they'll come in the door,
they'll come in the gate, like, Okay, you're gonna play

(01:07:45):
these three songs with McCartney and three songs with Sting
and these three songs, so you know, we already got
like eighteen songs.

Speaker 11 (01:07:52):
But then always the last minutes like Banjovi wants to
do that, do you know what?

Speaker 13 (01:07:56):
Meanwhile you're playing the song and I got to put
on my computer and learn living on a prayer that way, like,
and so Darlene Love wanted to do River Deep, Mountain High.

Speaker 11 (01:08:07):
And this is all I know I messed up.

Speaker 13 (01:08:11):
Okay, so I messed up that turnaround, right, But at
least I was smart enough to just sixteen it. I
didn't know the count, so I just.

Speaker 7 (01:08:25):
Right right.

Speaker 11 (01:08:26):
I cheated it that way.

Speaker 13 (01:08:27):
Yeah, man, when I tell you, oh boy, like we
didn't even meet yet. But because she wasn't accustomed to
doing it like the way she normally does.

Speaker 11 (01:08:38):
It, all I remember was I took responsibility. I was like,
my bad whatever.

Speaker 13 (01:08:44):
She turned around and said, I'm going to fucking kill you.

Speaker 11 (01:08:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 13 (01:08:53):
Yeah, I will say that dealing with your heroes or
your peers.

Speaker 11 (01:09:00):
In the MD position is the fastest way. You just
gotta You just got bull's eye on your chest.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
You make enemies, they gonna get you.

Speaker 13 (01:09:07):
Now, somebody's gonna get you. Okay, without naming a name.
Has an idol ever?

Speaker 11 (01:09:13):
Wait?

Speaker 4 (01:09:14):
Do you know way?

Speaker 19 (01:09:15):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
No, no, no, has an idol ever been mean?

Speaker 11 (01:09:18):
Disappointed you?

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
No?

Speaker 11 (01:09:21):
Wow? Don't you lived at charm Life?

Speaker 1 (01:09:23):
I'm serious one time they kind of annoyed me. But
I'm not going to name a name. Oh yeah yeah,
Like I was like, oh they're kind of annoying, but
like still love them. I'm not even gonna say if
it's a man or woman.

Speaker 11 (01:09:38):
Well you already know my answer.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
Yeah, you've had some disappointments. I strangely haven't. I actually
am surprised. I've never had a disappointment.

Speaker 11 (01:09:47):
But wait, was that instance your last interaction with that person?

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
No, it wasn't. It was just like, okay, I'm not
gonna get too close there.

Speaker 10 (01:09:55):
Maybe yeah, I feel bad well about James Brown. No,
it was fine. It ended on a very high note.

Speaker 11 (01:10:07):
So it was good.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
Go back, who were you just James Brown? That was
tricky and it ended on a high note.

Speaker 11 (01:10:15):
Yeah, that was that was below tricky.

Speaker 13 (01:10:17):
Really, I'm almost saying that Chris has undersold his love
for James Brown.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
I think I did it.

Speaker 13 (01:10:24):
No, but it's it's beyond you know, it's beyond me
any anytime a person comes to me and like, hey,
you know this is James Brown.

Speaker 5 (01:10:31):
Probably no, no, no, no, no, no no.

Speaker 13 (01:10:33):
It's almost like I got to ask my dad first.
I'm like, did you ask Christian McBride first? Like it
goes beyond the DNA of James?

Speaker 11 (01:10:40):
Is you know heavy? And Chris tho.

Speaker 10 (01:10:43):
Well, you know, so that's a perfect segue into how
we met in high school, because you know, we both
grew up in Philly. We went to Creative and Performing Arts,
which is the same high school where the late great.
It still feels weird sayings late You just said that,
the late Great Joe D. Francesco, k Rosewinkle Boys, the

(01:11:06):
man Amel LaRue.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
I didn't know Kurt went there too.

Speaker 9 (01:11:09):
Ye.

Speaker 13 (01:11:11):
Yeah, Kirk was like he like it was like a
game and him and Joey were the crips and Kirk
was the bloods and I was on whatever side was
winning at the time. Well, this is my first time
that I've been in that situation where like I'm with

(01:11:32):
Pere's my age playing and so they're like traditional jazz,
so in order for me to get their respect, I
better speak their language. But then he's like trying to
unteach me everything they're teaching me by like this Captain
B part and this is for example, amazing and so.

Speaker 10 (01:11:50):
But but the the thing where I felt really alone
was I was also hardcoreing R and B and funk.
So I mean Joey could play it, but that he
didn't know that thing exactly, you know, uh, and Kurt didn't,
you know, So like I was by myself when it
came to you know, Motown and Stacks and James brown
Earth want to fire all that.

Speaker 11 (01:12:11):
So when then he comes to school and.

Speaker 10 (01:12:16):
Winkle's guitar, I thought you were playing this but not
not this bass, but you were playing the bass.

Speaker 11 (01:12:23):
You was messing around. I came in, I came in.

Speaker 10 (01:12:25):
The music room and there's this new this new dude
in the music program and he's kind of like.

Speaker 11 (01:12:38):
And I just kind of stood there.

Speaker 10 (01:12:41):
Like, oh, really, we got a James brown Head in
school now, and uh I mean instant bond, instant. And
my mother was so happy because she was like, thank God,
you got somebody who can talk to Funk. You know,
you got somebody you can hang with now talking about
instead of his old people.

Speaker 4 (01:13:02):
Exactly are you?

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Were you in a younger grade? Is that why you
came along?

Speaker 7 (01:13:08):
Later?

Speaker 13 (01:13:12):
For the first eight years of my life, I went
to the private version of that school, performing art school,
and then members a period where I don't know if
you know this, this educator named Marva Collins. Okay, I'll
tell you what. When you listen to songs in the
Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, when you listen to
the last two minutes of black Man where the teacher

(01:13:34):
who's like the little kids are yelling back at him.
Just listening to the last two minutes of black Man.
That's more of a Collins school in Chicago. And she
was a woman who Kribeini Green projects the good time.
Projects like these were like, you know, the worst kids
were the worst GPA on earth, and she just decided
one day, I'm gonna turn you all into mental level

(01:13:59):
Ivy League students, and so one by one, everyone who's
ever been in her class wound up going to doctors, uh,
nurses like that sort of thing. And so that's like
every seventies parent was like. So I went to a
lot of schools that were like private schools that were

(01:14:22):
guaranteed that your kid was going to be in Harvard
or whatever like at the end of their their school tenure.

Speaker 11 (01:14:29):
And then the last two years.

Speaker 13 (01:14:34):
I happened to see uh on on Channel ten on
on CBS, I saw this this fourteen year old kid
right dreams Yo don't even yo da that don't tape.

Speaker 11 (01:14:49):
No, but it's on YouTube. I hate you right now, man.

Speaker 13 (01:14:53):
Yes, Dreams is sort of like it's a made for
TV movie about about capital about school.

Speaker 11 (01:15:00):
This is before I went there, but I saw Joey.

Speaker 13 (01:15:05):
Playing on like this this clip, and I was just
mind blown that a thirteen fourteen year old could play
like an adult because I only grew up. You know,
my dad was an oldies duops singer, so I only
hung with old musicians, which is why I played the
way I played now, because literally it was like me

(01:15:27):
at five and a bunch of thirty year olds and
I never interacted with kids my own age whatever, So
that's you know, I just told my mom, like, I
want to play with kids my own age. Like I
grew up thinking like, oh damn, I'm the only kid
that knows how to play like this, and I came
in for the rudest awakening.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
That is kind of interesting, dude.

Speaker 13 (01:15:49):
The first day of school, Miles Davis is at school,
like giving him first two weeks of school.

Speaker 11 (01:15:57):
Yeah, something like.

Speaker 10 (01:15:58):
There used to be a morning talk show in Philly,
uh hosted by a guy named Bill Boggs. It's called
Tie Him Out, and they had uh right, and they
had Miles Davis as a guest. And so I found
this out later that uh they felt that because I

(01:16:18):
saw an interview with Bill Boggs. It was interesting. He
said he remembers that episode. Well, because the producers didn't
think Miles Davis's name was big enough to carry an
hour of a of a of an interview. Can you
imagine the absurdity of that. So it was Remember Maurice
Hines was also against that day. So that was the
reason they said, well, you know, we need a Miles

(01:16:43):
can't do it by himself, you know. And also to
to kind of make it cute. See, they decided they
would get some kids to play for Miles and so
and then Miles look at right now, well that's that's
what everybody said, right and so, uh so they had
me Joey Stacy Dozier playing drums. She she played drums

(01:17:06):
in a high school band before I mayor got there.
And they invited four uh young trumpet players from the
Philly school system to play and Miles would you know,
give them advice on live television.

Speaker 4 (01:17:20):
Foolish decision on YouTube?

Speaker 11 (01:17:23):
Yes, yeah, and I can't watch it, Yeah, it's watching.

Speaker 10 (01:17:29):
That sounds it was a really ridiculous idea, and you know, Miles,
Miles apparently not. They first of all, they needed the
the second seven second delay because Miles dropped a few
f bombs on.

Speaker 4 (01:17:43):
And this morning television morning.

Speaker 10 (01:17:45):
Yeah, you know, like all the parents and you know
that moms sitting you know, and uh, Bill Box asked Miles.

Speaker 11 (01:17:53):
He said, uh, you.

Speaker 10 (01:17:56):
Know, Miles, you know you you went into seclusion for
a few years. Know what was it that that to
come back? Seriously, Miles, Miles, he waited for a second.

Speaker 19 (01:18:06):
He said, one day, Dizzy Glass, we came over and
he said, man, what the fuck are you doing?

Speaker 11 (01:18:21):
God bless Bill Box. He's just sitting there like mm hmmm.

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
Trying to just act like it's totally regular.

Speaker 11 (01:18:31):
Get up off your ass so like. And there was
another time Miles was trying to remember somebody's name that.

Speaker 19 (01:18:39):
Yeah it was me and.

Speaker 11 (01:18:42):
Oh ship I forgot. Damn Miles, this is this is
my TV.

Speaker 9 (01:18:48):
Dude.

Speaker 11 (01:18:49):
This is my second week of school in a in.

Speaker 13 (01:18:53):
A public school, discovering that people born the same year
as me can play like me and better than me.
So the bubble I was in was instantly like Bursted
and I had so much catching up to do.

Speaker 11 (01:19:11):
Man, just.

Speaker 10 (01:19:13):
I kept begging him to join the All City Jazz Man.
I got him to come with me A couple of times.
I was like, dude, come on, He's like no, no, no, no,
no sit down. Play so playing like, come on, bro,
you got this, bros. And then little John Roberts was
up there too.

Speaker 13 (01:19:33):
And he was literally little John Roberts like I looked
at him like a little running because he was younger
than us.

Speaker 11 (01:19:39):
He's like in eighth grade, right, eighth or ninth. He
looked like he was in seventh grade.

Speaker 10 (01:19:45):
Yeah, yeah, he was two years behind us, I think, yeah,
but uh yeah, we we did have some good drummers.

Speaker 11 (01:19:51):
I mean, you know who's got more pocket than him?

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
I know, but you guys played together in and on
some school. Yeah school, but you were more in the
jazz zone and you didn't go deep into the jazz
zone to them.

Speaker 11 (01:20:09):
So my story is really it was like come on.
But the thing is is that I the the part
I always leave out.

Speaker 13 (01:20:19):
The story was like my dad was like a Joe
Jackson backstage mom. Really, oh the worst. So he wanted me.
My dad was like a dog. He was like, you
got two options, three options, Curtis Juilliard or a job.

Speaker 11 (01:20:42):
Curtis Juilliard or job. And I to this day.

Speaker 13 (01:20:47):
People don't believe me when I tell them my dad
didn't find out about the roots until our second album because.

Speaker 1 (01:20:58):
He was too much pressure.

Speaker 13 (01:20:59):
The amount of sneak I had to do. Yeah, she knew,
but she had the amount of sneaking I had to do.
Was like, I can't let these guys know I listened
to hip hop that way and can't let kurk Rosenwinkle
know that. Yes, you're trying to undo because the thing
was is Kirk was like, jazz needs to go forward.

(01:21:22):
And the first time that Kirk even planned the seed
to me that this particular god figure in jazz might
be a step backwards and not forward.

Speaker 11 (01:21:33):
Was he planned that seed to me?

Speaker 13 (01:21:35):
So he's like, yo, man, all the betpop stuff from
before you that's dead man, that's dead.

Speaker 11 (01:21:39):
We got to move.

Speaker 13 (01:21:40):
And he's trying to like tell me about like you know,
Embase and you know, like all these like crazy jazz
ensembles and everything that I'm like a lot of am
on guard whatever. So I'm doing my avant guard stuff
with Rosawinkle, but when these guys are around, I'm like, okay,
all right, so good Larry Jung's Unity record.

Speaker 11 (01:21:58):
Study that up and.

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
Down and then that sounds like a lot of conflict.

Speaker 11 (01:22:02):
It was. I was on whatever side was winning.

Speaker 13 (01:22:04):
But then but then because of public enemy, finally making
sense of my dad's boring record collection. You know, I
have someone upstairs that I'm like trying to build the
future with.

Speaker 11 (01:22:17):
And you know it's also in the name of impressing
a girl, always.

Speaker 8 (01:22:22):
That.

Speaker 11 (01:22:23):
But I got the career.

Speaker 5 (01:22:26):
Hey, whatever is.

Speaker 9 (01:22:35):
Man?

Speaker 11 (01:22:36):
So yeah, pretty much I decided. So you went to Juilliard? Yes,
And I was like, all right, well right, you did
the same.

Speaker 13 (01:22:46):
You did the Miles thing, right, studying sounds like I'm
gonna do the same. So I did my I did
my New School audition, my Curtis audition, and my Juilliard audition.
One particular, uh weekend, Tarik went with me and coming
back on the train, this is like, this is like
either somewhere in between a great poopone commercial or the

(01:23:07):
last scene and Dumber and Dumber, the world's most beautiful
girl walks up in slow motion and says, aren't you now?

Speaker 11 (01:23:16):
Side note? Side note?

Speaker 13 (01:23:17):
Yes, I was the drummer. Boys and Men had let
me drum in their Motown Films video. Ah, so she
got it mixed. She says, aren't you the drummer? And
the Spike Lee Levi's commercial so like busking just started
to become a thing in America where you know, there
was a kid that was playing bucket drums and Spike

(01:23:38):
Leader put him in a commercial whatever. He had similar
hair to mine. He had like twisting braids, and so
she came out. It was like great poopone. He's like,
aren't you that drummer in the Spike Lee Levi's commercial.
And my dumb ass was like, no, that's not me.
And she was like, oh, oh okay, and she walks

(01:23:59):
away and treek like you. I was like, because it
wasn't me, Joe, you knew she was talking about You
knew she was talking about Motel Philly, Like Tarik would
use me as his magnet, like wear the shirt. You
got the shirt on now, now go back and put
your outfit on, Like I don't have to wear that
outfit every weekend, right. So he spends the night at

(01:24:19):
the crib and we're watching Soul Train and commercial comes
on and it's the Spike Lee Levi's commercial and it
was the it was our Eureka moment.

Speaker 11 (01:24:29):
We looked the commercial.

Speaker 13 (01:24:31):
We thought about that girl that I could have got
her number but didn't, and we looked at each other, like.

Speaker 11 (01:24:37):
Yo, why don't we do that? Yeah? Yeah, and cut
to running in the kitchen sneaking the you know, the
chilling bucket out or whatever you know. You mean that
red bucket, the red chitling bucket. Every household has one.

Speaker 10 (01:24:55):
I remember, never forget the first time I'd smelled chiplings
my grandma. It was cooking child. I was coming. I
smelled them two blocks away. I was coming down Urban Street,
and I was like, I really pray to God, that's
not coming from our house. There's a line of people front.
I'm like, oh, no.

Speaker 11 (01:25:13):
There is no black household. Yeah, it doesn't.

Speaker 13 (01:25:15):
Even if you don't eat shitlands, you still have that
red bucket that you used for other.

Speaker 10 (01:25:21):
Stuff, along with the government corn flakes and the cheese
and the milk.

Speaker 13 (01:25:27):
Son all that all right, the government milk, Yes, I
still stand to it this day. And the corn flakes
were killing yes, yes, I can't believe we're talking about.

Speaker 11 (01:25:38):
This and that shop. Oh come on, man, dude.

Speaker 13 (01:25:42):
I would have to wake up when my parents weren't
tour Yeah, I would have to wake up, Uh, staying.

Speaker 11 (01:25:49):
At my grandmom's house.

Speaker 1 (01:25:50):
What your mom toured to?

Speaker 11 (01:25:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 13 (01:25:52):
Both my mom and dad were My father was famous
in the fifties.

Speaker 11 (01:25:56):
He had a group called Inges in the Hearts.

Speaker 13 (01:25:57):
They were on like Chess records, and then by the
time I was born, there was a a nostalgia wave
where they would do these oldies shows at you know
the Mason Square Guard and you know Bowser from Shanta Presents,
you know, Harvey and the Moon Blows and all that stuff.
So anyway, they got off that circuit and then just
had a nightclub act. And so when I couldn't tour

(01:26:20):
with them, I stayed my grandmom's house. Now in order
for me to watch soul trade at twelve, I would
have to do whatever chores were necessary. And on the
first of the month, that's when the new cheese supply comes.
And since I'm Filma's grandson, you know, it's like it

(01:26:42):
takes a village period where now not only do I
have to get cheese and stuff for my grandmom, but
I got to do too for miss Gussie, Missus Evans,
missus Fields.

Speaker 11 (01:26:52):
Across the street, got get the whole neighborhood right.

Speaker 13 (01:26:55):
So I got to get up at seven in the
morning and stand in the cheese line.

Speaker 11 (01:26:59):
Where did you grandmother lived? She was in Southwest Philly,
like a forty ninth and King Sex.

Speaker 13 (01:27:04):
Oh yeah, okay, so I would have to stand in
that line and do about four trips, not to mention
the ridicule the neighborhood kids like you and the cheese line.

Speaker 11 (01:27:13):
Yeah, they later that day told that this Jesus going
to your grandma's house.

Speaker 10 (01:27:21):
Motherfucker, Like yeah, hey, you know's how they doing.

Speaker 11 (01:27:25):
So I couldn't. Yeah, I couldn't.

Speaker 9 (01:27:27):
Uh.

Speaker 13 (01:27:28):
I couldn't even watch Soul Train until all that was done.
So every first of the month I hated it. But yes,
we took that chitp lim bucket on South Street. And
the thing is is that if we if we don't
make one hundred and twenty dollars in four hours, we're
not doing it again. It would just be like, hey,
you may that time we went on South Street and

(01:27:50):
pay for money or whatever. But we made like one
hundred bucks in the first like hour, and we looked like, yo,
we're rich because we was thinking, like yo, we get trizzy.
A transpass is you know, like a monthly ticket that
yeah New York has that here, right, Like yeah, a
train ticket for a month.

Speaker 11 (01:28:09):
It's like, yo, you can get it. Trisy and then
date night, see the movie.

Speaker 13 (01:28:13):
Before five pm movies on three bucks, go to wah wah,
get a quarter pound of turkey cheez like. We were
like rich, like, yeah, we gotta do it again. But
the next week we did it. I still was in
Settlement music school and the bass player there, Josh Aprams,
was like, yo, y'all going to do it again?

Speaker 11 (01:28:33):
I said yeah. He's like, well can I join? Yeah? Sure? Cool.

Speaker 13 (01:28:37):
So he picks me up in the station wagon and
he has his upright in the back and I'm bringing.

Speaker 11 (01:28:41):
The bucket and he's like, wait, we got the station wagon.
I was like, huh, I get the drums. He's like
at the drums.

Speaker 13 (01:28:47):
I was like, oh man, my dad, man, he's so
it was the most covert operation.

Speaker 1 (01:28:52):
Where like you had to sneak them out.

Speaker 11 (01:28:55):
And this is.

Speaker 13 (01:28:55):
Why like when people ask like why don't want to
play on a regular drum set, Like literally I was like, look,
we're just gonna get the kick drum drum and one
ride right sneak it out and literally I'm you know,
he's listening to sports talk upstairs, and you know, anytime
the water runs, like we're running outside whatever parked down
the plot and that entire summer of ninety two, like

(01:29:16):
I snuck and we got our independent record out, and
a year later when we finally signed to Geffen, Uh,
I was going to break the news to him, but
already he put a Philadelphia inquiry, which is like our New.

Speaker 11 (01:29:28):
York Times we were on the cover. He's like, what's this.

Speaker 13 (01:29:33):
I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, you know, I mean too,
we got a project, so you know.

Speaker 11 (01:29:39):
So well.

Speaker 10 (01:29:39):
I remember like when we were still at Kappa, uh
Tyreek came downstairs. He was he was an art major, right,
so I didn't even know he had any sort of
you know that he could he could freestyle like that.

Speaker 11 (01:29:52):
He's like, yo, play uh to the bone, right, So.

Speaker 13 (01:30:00):
We would call the rap reference like, oh, play the
Gidea by three times dupe, and then I've had to
play to him play James Brown stelling to the boat.

Speaker 11 (01:30:07):
So I was the middle man between all the hip hoppers,
right and him.

Speaker 13 (01:30:12):
But knowing that allowed me to sit with the cool
kids in the lunch room.

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
I feel like that says a lot about your personality
and your strengths, just this whole like dynamic of you
bridging all these different things.

Speaker 11 (01:30:25):
Yeah, I mean he he plays well in the playground.

Speaker 4 (01:30:28):
With everybody, you do.

Speaker 11 (01:30:30):
You know, yeah, I played just to get bye, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:30:33):
But it's no.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
Longer stressful, is it?

Speaker 11 (01:30:36):
Is it stressful? Probably?

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
I mean, I mean, I guess being the MD for
everything is always stressful.

Speaker 13 (01:30:43):
It's you know, for me, I'm I'm learning now, Uh okay,
this is not even, this is not even. I just
gotta come out and say it and not try to
diminish the humble braggingness of it all. But occasionally I
might call a famous former world leader and ask for

(01:31:09):
advice on how to be diplomatic and talk to people,
because that's one that's one thing I'm I'm I was
a reluctant leader. But clearly I'll be stuck in that
place if I don't get over the fact that I
have to, Like, you can't be everyone's friend.

Speaker 1 (01:31:25):
You have to get over it and.

Speaker 13 (01:31:27):
Manage people's expectations and all these things. So yeah, yeah,
and that that comes with being a band leader.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
I wonder which world leader you're talking about.

Speaker 11 (01:31:36):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:40):
You guys want to play tune and then we'll can
we do this Chris Christopherson time, so I can say
it's kind of weird. I was just with him a
couple of weeks ago, and I was just revisiting this
album that I love called Borderlord, and I just feel
like with your groove on it, it would be pretty awesome.

Speaker 11 (01:31:58):
Follow you might give me my note again. Take it easy.

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
Hm hmm, wait, I'm in the wrong key.

Speaker 9 (01:32:10):
Sorry.

Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
Darkness had us covered.

Speaker 7 (01:32:36):
When we spend.

Speaker 6 (01:32:37):
From Mansoda in morning.

Speaker 5 (01:32:46):
Back.

Speaker 6 (01:32:47):
His eyes was feeding and the street was sick and
shiny as snake. Each of us was a hring to
half forgotten echo hanging.

Speaker 5 (01:33:04):
No, he's the brain.

Speaker 6 (01:33:11):
Time in time and thinking of the time we never
had the time to say, loosing a rising. Cops live
in high and loving heart. They evy yesterday behind turning

(01:33:36):
every bridging costs. It's putting down before your off, burning.

Speaker 5 (01:33:42):
Like the devil, just in.

Speaker 6 (01:33:44):
Time, breaking many times before they by taking any coming
you can't find, putting like you're ready, tagging.

Speaker 5 (01:34:06):
It off tail. It's on.

Speaker 12 (01:34:12):
Understanding when you're heading for the board, load you.

Speaker 5 (01:34:19):
Bound cross you looking women and time you stop.

Speaker 6 (01:34:39):
Waiting there catch you when you fall getting back enough,
let him keep you back up. You'll just be fun
ll back the gifts loam looking let it ta before.

Speaker 5 (01:35:00):
They Brandy taking any come you can't find.

Speaker 17 (01:35:10):
Bunny reculate, I'll tell you no, take it easy.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
Well, it's all.

Speaker 12 (01:35:22):
Understand when you didn't fold the boat or load you
down across last.

Speaker 6 (01:36:07):
Wagging at a time for in mind taking covered, you
can find they like you ready out of town.

Speaker 5 (01:36:24):
I'm tag.

Speaker 7 (01:36:28):
Till the too.

Speaker 6 (01:36:31):
Understanding when you're heading for the board load you're bound across.

Speaker 8 (01:36:54):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 9 (01:36:59):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:37:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:37:16):
Norman Lear Production, right exactly. That was fun, like roberta
flat Ron Carter and uh Ray Lucas.

Speaker 1 (01:37:28):
Thanks for doing that. I love that.

Speaker 11 (01:37:30):
Thank you. Oh that was cool.

Speaker 1 (01:37:32):
We're not done yet. We still got two more songs.
Oh that was great. Thanks. I love that song because
his words are just always so good. And then I
like how it kind of changes keys. What key is
this in in the end?

Speaker 11 (01:37:47):
Down D? Yeah, that's the James Brown Keys. Did you
know that?

Speaker 9 (01:37:52):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:37:53):
No, I didn't.

Speaker 11 (01:37:53):
Everything's in D just about.

Speaker 4 (01:37:55):
I didn't know. It makes sense that, Stevie.

Speaker 1 (01:38:00):
But right right, do you guys have any any good
stories about each other from high school that are worth telling?

Speaker 10 (01:38:11):
My favorite one is uh so, I'm gonna reveal it now.
You already know because I told you in the text.
So we used to produce this big show every year
called it called Sentimental Journey, and it was like the
whole school, you know, like the dancers, the singers, the actors.
We all get together and put together this big Broadway

(01:38:32):
type show. And we were, of course the house band,
and uh, I mean what a house band? Me, you,
Kurt and Joey and a couple of horn players and uh.
So we had this big overture and at the end
of the overture we had to play New York, New York,
and so we had to play a real corny so

(01:38:52):
we had to like that. So yeah, right exactly. So
we get to the to the concert, me and him conspiring,
We're like, you know, it's in D.

Speaker 13 (01:39:04):
Wait now, Chris, you've set up that anytime we've got
sent to the principal's office, when any when anything ever
was like, at least in D for a good eight
to sixteen bars, it could be girsh wainning, it could
be whatever. We will find a way to code talk
to each other in a way, and eventually he caught

(01:39:28):
on to any reference it could be like.

Speaker 11 (01:39:38):
And then you know, and then already.

Speaker 13 (01:39:40):
You know, the kids are all like, you know, starting
to dance and all that stuff and get out of here.

Speaker 11 (01:39:45):
So it was it was our last chance to go rogue.

Speaker 10 (01:39:49):
And it was like, were you with us when we
went to see the fill off your orchestra rehearse because
they will have those open rehearsals, and so they were
playing to Ride a Spring. Yes there's one you know,
So there's one part in that piece for the timpany
plays boom bean boom bean boom bean boom, just for
those two bars. Remember Stacey knows you did.

Speaker 11 (01:40:11):
The boom boom boom.

Speaker 7 (01:40:13):
She go oh.

Speaker 11 (01:40:20):
In the middle of the Academy of Music. So we
we get no place.

Speaker 13 (01:40:28):
Yeah, we we get there that night and we we
had a look like hey, we're seniors, yes, and there's
only three weeks of school left.

Speaker 11 (01:40:38):
What are you gonna do to us? And what's he
going to send us to the principal's office here in
front of our.

Speaker 13 (01:40:42):
Parents at the show? Go go to the build up
for New York, New York. So we went and the
rehearsal was right, So that's rehearsal.

Speaker 3 (01:40:53):
Man.

Speaker 10 (01:40:54):
We get to the concert and so so me and
him we come he said, hey, man, you know we
should do that, and so then we pulled Joey and
kurt In on it too. So uh so here's how
the concert went. You know, all the parents to what
God spread and yo, the Kurt is going, it's only

(01:41:24):
for Joey's playing the organ patch.

Speaker 11 (01:41:27):
On his keyboard. He screamed the look or mister rozers.
He was so angry. Really, he was as red as
that exit.

Speaker 5 (01:41:39):
Could.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
He should have been proud at your music.

Speaker 11 (01:41:42):
Proud now, yeah, everyone's proud of it.

Speaker 10 (01:41:45):
He's glad we did it now, right, So I have
I found So I had this on VHS for for
like the last thirty five years or whatever it is.
My dad shot it, right, Yes he did, Yes, he did. God,
And so I finally got digitized.

Speaker 13 (01:42:01):
So sooner or later, ah God, Yeah, I was about
to say there there is there, there is.

Speaker 10 (01:42:08):
A Remember I went rogue on y'all when I did
my James Brown routine because I was always supposed to
sing two songs.

Speaker 4 (01:42:13):
We we always going rogue, Yeah, we had.

Speaker 11 (01:42:18):
And we added some sort of ad live and you said,
la diva was she? She was like, what is he doing?
Get him off the state?

Speaker 1 (01:42:28):
No?

Speaker 11 (01:42:29):
No, no, the audience is screaming exactly.

Speaker 13 (01:42:31):
He came out and fulled James Brown regalia, the wig
and the whole nine.

Speaker 10 (01:42:36):
Yes, that's when I could. I can still That's when
I could get up from a split. I can still
do a split.

Speaker 1 (01:42:46):
I want to see that.

Speaker 11 (01:42:48):
Yeah, I'm sure you do see that. That's our version
of Carlo Carlow. You know I still have that m
P three.

Speaker 5 (01:42:56):
I can't believe you.

Speaker 13 (01:42:57):
Know that, Yo, the amount of people we were on tour,
this is like, this is really when like pre social media,
when like AOL chat was you know, welcome you got.
You know, is there any more satisfying feeling than when
you plugged your hotel telephone man side the mode.

Speaker 11 (01:43:20):
And it goes through. Welcome you got was a great
feeling that was like different.

Speaker 10 (01:43:29):
Remember when they had, for a short period you could
download a celebrity to say that for you.

Speaker 11 (01:43:34):
Yes, I had, David.

Speaker 5 (01:43:39):
You used to I am me on right right.

Speaker 13 (01:43:41):
We were all pals and you sent me one of
my very first MB three's I had of Carlos.

Speaker 4 (01:43:48):
I did, yes, and.

Speaker 1 (01:43:51):
You were you surprised?

Speaker 11 (01:43:53):
Yeah, I played everyone like you know what she sent me?

Speaker 13 (01:43:55):
You know, it's weird that's such a weird time period
because now there's at least five other singers that did.

Speaker 11 (01:44:04):
Their version of going against type.

Speaker 13 (01:44:07):
Mariah is another person where she made the best album
of her career, but just as a joke, because she
was like obsessed with America's obsession with Whole and Courtney Love.
So during lunch breaks or dinner breaks, she would just
tell her band, like, you know, just play some like
ragged you know, grun song whatever, this 's us. But

(01:44:32):
I was listening to it, and I'm like, like, I
don't want to insult her, but I'm like, not for nothing,
but you know, this is your best record.

Speaker 4 (01:44:40):
Right Wait?

Speaker 1 (01:44:41):
Is this something that's out?

Speaker 13 (01:44:43):
So she wants she's figuring out what to do with it.
She did this like right when she was doing the
Butterfly record. Now, if you look throughout history, a lot
of the great musical decisions in music were always after thoughts,
never planned out. Like the Eisley Brothers tells the story
of that they had ten minutes left in the session

(01:45:05):
and they were like, let's do that church all on
real quick, and it was shout, you know, tequila, till
three minutes to do Like literally, there's a history of
like just last minute songs.

Speaker 11 (01:45:15):
So she she just made like fifteen songs of just
like you know, I hate my life and YO and
all this.

Speaker 13 (01:45:24):
But it's like it's the I still maintain it's Mariah
Carey's best moment singing ever because she's not being Mariah
carry she's being free in herself.

Speaker 1 (01:45:36):
And so there's a freedom in doing something that's not
your thing.

Speaker 11 (01:45:40):
We just think it's so how many other just like
let's fuck around and you got that.

Speaker 1 (01:45:46):
I do a lot of bands that aren't under the name,
but that one's the furthest from my thing probably ell Mass.

Speaker 11 (01:45:52):
So the world's never just you've never released Carlo for
the world.

Speaker 1 (01:45:55):
Oh no, it's been released. We released it.

Speaker 11 (01:45:57):
Did you clean it up?

Speaker 1 (01:45:58):
No, we released it. We released it then. What yeah,
back then we're back in the like two thousand and
four or five or six or something. But we released
it without any of our names on it because it
was a tricky thing. At that time. My second album
was still pretty big, and I didn't want it to
be like remember when Garth Brooks put out Life of

(01:46:19):
Chris Gaines. Yes, yeah, I didn't want it to be
a joke because it wasn't a joke. It was really fun.
But it was funny, but.

Speaker 11 (01:46:27):
I didn't want to ever do it in concert.

Speaker 1 (01:46:29):
We did a bunch of gigs at the Delancey down
on the Lower East.

Speaker 11 (01:46:32):
Side at the time, but you but where were people's
reactions to this.

Speaker 1 (01:46:37):
We wore wigs and crazy makeup, so which was also
part of the fun for me. I got to be
a character, you know, and part of it was hiding
myself from the audience, but part of it was just
the fun of doing that. Like I can't imagine putting
on a wig and crazy blade runner makeup to do
a Nora Jones show because I feel like people would
think I'm trying too hard to be somebody else.

Speaker 4 (01:46:59):
But never, but that's in my bones.

Speaker 11 (01:47:01):
I love dressing up, but never for an encore. Once
you're like dude and just go into it and the
audience is like, wait, what the hell is going on here?

Speaker 1 (01:47:08):
Oh yeah, Carlo, No, I feel like I couldn't do
it without them, without that band, that's yeah, But we
kind of we kind of parted ways eventually and the
album was released, but none of our names were on it,
so it's not like anybody knew about it. A couple
of people knew it was me, but it wasn't a
big deal.

Speaker 11 (01:47:28):
Well this also proves that I do know how to
keep a.

Speaker 1 (01:47:30):
Secret, because well now I wish it wasn't a secret
because in hindsight, like it's I love it, but at
the time, it just felt like people would pick it
apart too much, and that's not what it.

Speaker 11 (01:47:41):
Was for I was like, man, she's cool as.

Speaker 1 (01:47:46):
Maybe we'll get them on the podcast and we'll do
a repeat of it.

Speaker 10 (01:47:49):
You gotta show you know how I knew you were
cool because you were tight with Brian Blade. Uh huh,
and uh, you know when you when I knew it,
he had been working with you. He's one of those
kind of people that you know, if he can't mess
with you, he ain't gonna he's not gonna play with you,

(01:48:10):
right right, It won't even be mean r gonna.

Speaker 11 (01:48:14):
Ghost you, right, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:48:15):
He's definitely the coolest.

Speaker 10 (01:48:17):
Oh yeah yeah, and so, uh that's how we that's
how we connected through Brian recently.

Speaker 4 (01:48:25):
Yeah yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:48:27):
But I mean I've I feel like I've known you forever,
but I haven't. I know, we only played together once exactly,
and not that for Jazz House Kids Foundation. Yeah, and
I had a dog bit me on the nose that morning,
so I was all scared to show my nose.

Speaker 11 (01:48:46):
Yeah, but you killed it. It healed, all right, So
what's the next joint?

Speaker 7 (01:48:52):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:48:52):
So, so I wanted to try the Stangelo song?

Speaker 11 (01:48:56):
Okay, what do you think.

Speaker 1 (01:49:00):
You'll play Electric?

Speaker 11 (01:49:02):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (01:49:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:49:03):
I just thought you should play it on something, okay.

Speaker 11 (01:49:06):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:49:07):
And also if for this it can be sloppy, it's
no big deal.

Speaker 11 (01:49:10):
That's all I know.

Speaker 1 (01:49:11):
That's all I know. You said you wanted to be
some more sloppy. I'm your girl, But actually.

Speaker 13 (01:49:16):
I want to challenge myself to see if I can
play it unlike the record version.

Speaker 11 (01:49:21):
So this will be fun. We started it.

Speaker 13 (01:49:23):
We started, so it's weird that we're here. We actually
started Black Messiah in this very room.

Speaker 4 (01:49:32):
Really that took fourteen years to make, really.

Speaker 13 (01:49:35):
Like Voodoo took five, but Black Messiah was pretty much
started two thousand and two long. He's like molasses man.
So but we didn't we didn't do that here. I
think we did betray my heart at Electric Lady. But yeah,

(01:49:56):
just coming back to this room, I remember is this
primarily most jazz albums.

Speaker 11 (01:50:01):
Are recorded in this particular room that if you got
a nice budget. Yeah, the Crisscross records used to be
made upstairs. What yeah at see your sound. Yeah, but
there's a few records I made upstairs.

Speaker 1 (01:50:18):
Really. Yeah, I've done a bunch here. But you guys
both worked with.

Speaker 10 (01:50:25):
Di'angelo on Yeah, so pretty much thanks to him, I
got a piece a little tiny lickings.

Speaker 13 (01:50:39):
Yeah at Electric Lady, I'll say that, you know, probably
some of my most adventurous escape moments, like my chance
to not be a route and just to figure out
what else is out there? Like his projects allowed me
to do that, and then subsequently, once that record came
out and anything else I worked on, like or Erica

(01:51:01):
or Blow or that sort of thing. Like that's kind
of how the what they call the soul quarian era
like started.

Speaker 1 (01:51:11):
But yeah, man, that's how you go.

Speaker 11 (01:51:15):
I got a what if? What?

Speaker 10 (01:51:17):
So there's two what if Speaking of D'Angelo, you probably noticed,
D'Angelo told me that he initially had well, he was
going to go to VCU in Richmond, where he's from,
to study jazz piano with Elis Marcellus.

Speaker 11 (01:51:33):
Oh god.

Speaker 10 (01:51:34):
The year he graduated high school was the year Ellis
retired from VCU, so he was like, well, if I
can't study with him, I'm not going to study jazz.
I always wonder Alice Marcella stayed one more year.

Speaker 1 (01:51:47):
That's interesting.

Speaker 11 (01:51:49):
Who knows D'Angelo might have been the piano player in
Roy Hargrove's quintest Elice Man give me nightmares. Look at you.
You look like a rock drummer playing all that rock.
Why is that snare so tight?

Speaker 5 (01:52:07):
Oh?

Speaker 13 (01:52:07):
Really man? He he roasted me, man like on the news,
Why is that snare so tight? He said, why is
that snare so tight?

Speaker 11 (01:52:14):
After he played with James Black and and all them cats? Nah? Man,
he heartbreaking?

Speaker 10 (01:52:21):
Oh and another thing, when here's what if this came
back to Harnum In two thousand and one, I started
touring with Sting and so there was a bunch of
different drummers in there. My new catch a was first.
Then Aba Boreo Jur came in for a spell, and
Vinnie call you came in. So it's like a bunch

(01:52:42):
of different cats coming in. And so Sting said, uh.

Speaker 11 (01:52:45):
Hey, got I got a string of gigs who you
like playing with? Who can you?

Speaker 10 (01:52:49):
Who can you recommend. I said, you need to get
my man a mirror. He's like, oh, I'm not familiar.
So I gave him the Philly Experiment and I gave
him a couple of Roots records. He was like, oh,
oh that that guy. Yes, yes, So I gave him
the recordings. Never heard nothing. I said, well, okay, okay,
I ain't gonna you know, I ain't gonna pray you Sting,

(01:53:09):
you know who you want.

Speaker 11 (01:53:11):
Fast forward.

Speaker 10 (01:53:14):
Ten, maybe even fifteen years later, you finally you finally
played with him.

Speaker 11 (01:53:19):
Here's Sting's house band for almost like all.

Speaker 10 (01:53:21):
Of thee Yeah, and then I see him somewhere. He's like,
oh man, you know Questlove right, He's amazing. I was like, man,
I'm not going to tell you what I said on
the microphone. I was like, you remember what a long
time ago you asked me about drummers. That's who I

(01:53:42):
was talking about. Oh, like, can you imagine had we
played in these things band together that aren't crazy? Every
breath you take would have sounded a lot different.

Speaker 1 (01:53:54):
It would have sounded like a James Brown's.

Speaker 11 (01:53:59):
We'd put it in.

Speaker 13 (01:54:00):
He's so he's so triggered by Stuart's playing again this
is Oh gosh, yes, this is me being a shape
shifter that when I played with him.

Speaker 11 (01:54:09):
Yeah, he instantly knew and he stopped the song. Yeah,
he says he can't. Don't do that exactly. You can't
what he says.

Speaker 13 (01:54:17):
I know you you worship the police, but don't play
none of that. Don't play like Stuart. It triggers me,
like you don't know.

Speaker 11 (01:54:24):
He's very true, so I had to undo. I didn't
know how to play like anything. But you know my regular.

Speaker 10 (01:54:31):
Yeah right, like all of you know stuarts. Had we
played these things band, everything she does is magic. Every
little thing she does is magic.

Speaker 4 (01:54:41):
Would have been halftime, right, that's great.

Speaker 5 (01:54:52):
Are give me a g.

Speaker 11 (01:55:04):
Wait? Is this this is notated in like a real
or a fake book? What betrayed my heart?

Speaker 9 (01:55:10):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:55:10):
No?

Speaker 11 (01:55:11):
Oh? I was like, wow he really made it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:13):
Oh you thought I ticked it out from a fake book.

Speaker 9 (01:55:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:55:17):
I was like so proud, like whoa, no, no, no,
we just made some little No. I just don't understand.
I literally was something I had to do with. Literally,
isn't a fake book?

Speaker 5 (01:55:27):
Where maybe maybe it is?

Speaker 7 (01:55:29):
Maybe it is.

Speaker 1 (01:55:30):
Honestly, this is a great song.

Speaker 11 (01:55:32):
Thank you.

Speaker 7 (01:55:32):
Yeah asday my sake.

Speaker 6 (01:56:15):
It's sight em nine mistake between Surren's birth must surprise
and fall.

Speaker 7 (01:56:26):
I'll be there to see.

Speaker 5 (01:56:29):
You through just as long as it is turned. I
will live live your sight.

Speaker 6 (01:56:40):
And if you should ever faith, then my love is nsen.

Speaker 10 (01:56:44):
See.

Speaker 6 (01:56:45):
I will never betray your heart. I will never betray
your heart. I will never be chase her.

Speaker 5 (01:57:08):
Like a grez that blows engine. I will whisper to
keep you.

Speaker 6 (01:57:15):
Could this I swear in with all MISTI I take
nothing in place, sup. When you're freezing down down there,
you must love.

Speaker 1 (01:57:32):
You can't depend on me. You don't never have to
fear that my love is nice.

Speaker 6 (01:57:39):
Since I will never betray in my heart, I will
never betray in my heart.

Speaker 5 (01:57:50):
I will never betray my phone.

Speaker 14 (01:58:03):
Through the storm home to.

Speaker 6 (01:58:04):
The rain, I come running to ease your pain, like
the rails a constant train.

Speaker 5 (01:58:11):
Like a blood in my veins.

Speaker 21 (01:58:13):
I will never betray your heart. I will never betray
me your car. I will never betray no harm.

Speaker 11 (02:01:12):
See, that's the fun part of the danger. We don't
know where it's going.

Speaker 1 (02:01:15):
That was so danger experience.

Speaker 11 (02:01:17):
That was awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:01:19):
I think it was great. That was fun. That is
a hard asked to play, but it's so good and
the lyrics are so beautiful.

Speaker 11 (02:01:28):
This is the first time I've heard them in the
English language. I'm playing, I'm playing I Love You Man.

Speaker 1 (02:01:38):
It's a great song, though, and it's hard to play.

Speaker 11 (02:01:42):
I'm sitting in a photo of this right now.

Speaker 1 (02:01:45):
Tell him I love him, you love it. I don't
even know where one is in that song. No, I
don't need I don't if I think about it, I
don't know where it is.

Speaker 5 (02:02:01):
Music.

Speaker 1 (02:02:03):
Thanks you guys have been super generous with your time.

Speaker 11 (02:02:06):
Thank you, Nora. I appreciate this. Any any chance to
play with my brother and yeah, I agree, yes, no joke,
no joke.

Speaker 1 (02:02:15):
Honestly, I would have loved to do this with either
of you separately, but I just knew it would be
more fun together.

Speaker 11 (02:02:20):
Well, yeah, I never get to play with my man.

Speaker 5 (02:02:23):
I'm so glad.

Speaker 1 (02:02:24):
Thanks for doing this, y'all. A're special.

Speaker 11 (02:02:26):
Thanks for having us.

Speaker 1 (02:02:27):
Thank you, Thank you soon?

Speaker 11 (02:02:29):
All right? Sure enough?

Speaker 3 (02:02:42):
Because guys are such a blast.

Speaker 1 (02:02:44):
They're fun to listen talk.

Speaker 3 (02:02:45):
I love that they have so many inside jokes. It's
like they have their own language. Yeah, they do talking,
but also musically they have inside music jokes.

Speaker 1 (02:02:53):
Well, I started a text thrive with them when we
were trying to get together for this, and that alone
is like the most and I was just like, Okay,
I don't know what's happening because they were just fire
and wagon Ford. Yeah, they got their nicknames for each other. Oh,
I don't know what's happening.

Speaker 3 (02:03:09):
That's the history man. But we got a lot of
good stories.

Speaker 5 (02:03:12):
Yeah, and great music.

Speaker 1 (02:03:14):
So fun to hear a mirror questlove whose name is
a mirror? Do the drum lesson?

Speaker 3 (02:03:21):
Oh yeah, the breakdown, the breakdown now.

Speaker 1 (02:03:23):
All the different drummers. That was amazing and just playing
with Christian on the basis it's insane. Actually he's insane.
Wee amazing. That was a dream And I wish we
had just done two days. So I wish we had
made a record, which we wait, we did. Oh, I
got some words wrong.

Speaker 3 (02:03:42):
But if you want to look up the right words.

Speaker 1 (02:03:44):
But if you want to look up the right words,
here's the songs we did. We started off with fine
and Mellow and old jazz standard from nineteen thirty nine,
written by my favorite Billy Holliday. Why Am I Treated
So Bad? A song by Pop Staples and recorded many
times by many different people, including the Staples singers and
James Brown, among others. We did say No More from

(02:04:06):
one of my albums, pick Up Me Up, pick Up
Me Up, Off the Floor, and that song was actually
written by me and Myota, Sarah Oda, you wrote that song.
We did border Lord, a song by Chris Christofferson from
nineteen seventy two. Songwriters on that are Stephen Bruten, Donnie Fritz,
Terry Paul, and Chris Christopherson. I love that song, by
the way, and that's an amazing album. The last song

(02:04:28):
we did was Betray My Heart from DiAngelo's twenty fourteen
album Black Messiah, on which Questlove was a collaborator. Thank
you so much for listening. We had a blast. Hope
you did too. Don't forget to like and subscribe to
the podcast if you're able to, If you're kind, be kind.

Speaker 3 (02:04:44):
If you like us, actually even if you don't like us, Yeah.

Speaker 11 (02:04:47):
Just like us.

Speaker 1 (02:04:55):
This episode was recorded at Sear Sound in New York
City by Steven Saco, asist by Jasper Leach, Maximilian Trophy
Tanner Wallace, Andrew Kohinka, and mixed by Jamie Landry, edited
by Sarah Oda. Additional engineering by Greg Tobler and Pete
Rim artwork by Eliza Frye, Photography by Shervin Lenez, Produced
by Nora Jones and Sarah Oda. Thanks to everyone involved.

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