QLS Classic: Jon Batiste

Musician Jon Batiste joins Team Supreme to rehash his journey from small-town Louisiana to Musical Director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Course Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Musician John
Batiste joins Team Supreme to rehash his journey from smalltown
Louisiana to musical director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Originally released March fourteenth, twenty nineteen, Just follow On, You'll

(00:30):
get it.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Suprema Supremo, Roll Call, Suprema su su Supremo, Roll.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Call, Suprema Supremo, Roll Call Supremo, Supremo, rolls all day Yeah,
well winter spring and summer.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, two band leaders of Late Night. Yeah, both started
out as drummer Supremo Supremo roll God. Who's sma, uh
Supremo roll You're both real talented?

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Yeah Yeah, and the best band leader is Doc Severn
Suprema Supremo.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Roll I fell in my second line after the show. Yeah, yeah,
but have no fear.

Speaker 5 (01:23):
Yeah Supremo, roll Call, Supremo, Supremo.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Roll.

Speaker 6 (01:34):
Her name is Boss Bill, Yeah, right, as a Halogen,
Yeah Bill and a Steed and some Hollywood Africans roll Spremo,
roll call, Suprema so Supremo, roll call.

Speaker 7 (01:51):
Yeah, and it's going down Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Thomson yeah, all right, now.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Supremo Supremo, role called Suprema Supremo.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Roll it's John Battie. Yeah, and I'm in the house.

Speaker 7 (02:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
We about to get down. Yeah, that's what we about.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
Oh call Suprema su Supremo.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Roll call Suprema Suck, Suck Supremo, Roll call Supremo Supremo,
Roll call Supremo, Sun Supremo, roll call.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of course some
Supreme Late Night the Late Night. Right.

Speaker 8 (02:38):
Wait, he's starting already, He's starting already. Mother is Jamaica.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Shut. I knew I was going to have to play
thank you so rand Love make I love that. I
was going to say, I mean, I was going to
introduce our guests, but no, let's introd all right, well

(03:24):
let's let's just let's just keep it tradition, so we don't,
you know, scare off our viewers. Our guest today actually
needs no introduction, ladies and gentlemen. And there's not Late
Night Wars happening in this building yet. No. Our guest
today is I will say he's band leader supreme. Uh,
he is multi instrumentalist. You are a Juilliard graduate, And

(03:52):
I'll say that most of America currently now knows you
as the band leader for the number one show in
late night. Okay, no, no fake news, fake news no, no,
no snort nothing, h of course it's uh late Wait,

(04:14):
technically what is the show called. It's late Night with
Stephen Corbert Late show, the late show. There's like late
night late show later tonight. Yes, the show with Stephen Colbert.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to Quest of Supreme the
one and only John Patize. That's all man, So Bill

(04:36):
going on, Bill, I'm having to see I have not
seen since uh the salon, the foods a lot of
your house. That was like, have you ever had him
on Sesame Street? I just asked him.

Speaker 7 (04:55):
He got very upset because I grilled him about hasn't
he been on street?

Speaker 9 (04:59):
He's like tailor, Man, I know this. I have talked
to him about this, and I'm working on it. Everybody
simmered down. I haven't been here in a long time.
Everybody's for question. I've been here for a ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Just check it. Wait, can I ask you something? John?

Speaker 7 (05:16):
This is the one.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
This is the question I always wanted to know. Are
you silently because I know you have history way before
I knew of you, Like Lenny Kravis put me on
to you long ago, and you you You've actually inspired
some ideas I've had about how to put show presentations

(05:38):
on and everything. So I've known about you way before Colbert.
I mean you got hired by Colbert because of the
reputation that you were building. Yes, are you? Do you
get slightly annoyed when people come up to you and
just like, hey, Stephen, Colbert's guy, like without knowing the history,
like you just came out of nowhere to Yes, that

(06:00):
happened to you a.

Speaker 10 (06:01):
Lot, it does, you know, Like I'll be going somewhere
and I'll run into somebody and they'll be like, hey,
you're the guy from Colbert. What's your name? And then
after a while they were like, oh, yeah, that's John Bettiste.
But it's still from from the Lake Show.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Right, I mean you could be from Colbert technically, yeah,
you're from it, but it's almost like, you know, I'm
Jimmy Fallon's drummer. Yes, and you.

Speaker 7 (06:25):
Don't have the same issue too sometimes Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Because that's why.

Speaker 10 (06:34):
It's it's cool to and as as you do when
you have other things that you do that kind of
paints a full picture.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
I actually, all right, now that we're saying this, I
believe that's probably the real reason I stick to nineteen jobs,
because it's almost like, Hey, what am I my chef,
my cook guy today and my you know, music teacher
today and my like I always wanted to know. Is
that slightly irksome when people don't do the research and know, yeah,

(07:08):
your history.

Speaker 10 (07:09):
Yeah, it's it's something that I think over time, people
and people still have been digging back into the catalog
of seeing things that we're done. But I think over time,
the more you do and the more you just keep
doing your thing and not letting any one thing define you,
the more that you can continue to kind of bring
people into what you do with your art or your creativity.

Speaker 7 (07:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
But what about the flip side?

Speaker 9 (07:33):
Whereas what I was gonna say on the other side
was give you the megaphones that neither of you had
ever had PCT Right, I'm.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Gonna go out.

Speaker 11 (07:39):
When I saw the last episode of Corbert Report, when
you guys did the line, yeah, that was the first
time I ever saw you, and I was like, oh shit.
And then I just did the research and I was like, Okay, yeah,
it's a way to bring new people in.

Speaker 10 (07:50):
Absolutely it's amazing. I mean, oh good, just being on
a show that's kind of like this is fraternity and
it's hard to have any sort of malice or disrespect
to it, even if people just know you for that
right now. But I feel like I've always just been
somebody who likes to create and explore different things and
evolve and grow, and I'm always pushing myself to try

(08:13):
to find something else that's going to challenge me. So
the consistency of the show is one thing, but I
have to balance it out even just for me, not
even for the sake of people knowing that there's more
that I have to offer, but just for my own
well being as an artist. I got to keep pushing
and creating. So it gives me a chance to share

(08:34):
it with a lot more people.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
How easy is it to do? Because I know that
there's many sides to John Fatiz as far as like
your like, you'll do traditional jazz records stuff with State Human,
You'll do different projects. What I primarily knew you for
were these sort of kind of musicals speak easy so

(08:59):
to sea where I'll say, you know, years before he
was on the show. He would word would get around
that there's gonna be a secret John Patisse show at
some nondescript random warehouse in Harlem or in Brooklyn or
in the Bronx somewhere, And it's almost like it's the

(09:21):
musical version of Well, only New Yorkers will get this
reference of like Sleep No More. Sleep No More is
kind of like a play where the fourth wall is
sort of exposed and you're part of the play. You
as the spectator. So you go to this like big
wide open space and then John and State Human basically perform.

(09:45):
There's no traditional stage, so there's almost like four setups
they you know, they'll they'll pick one side of the
corner where their music's set up, and then they'll march
to the other side of the room where there's other
music instruments set up. Like everyone gets a chance to
be the front row seat, and it's and it's immersive,
and they have like stuff hanging around you could play

(10:05):
instruments and all that other stuff and enjoining. It's like
I never seen a show in which the artists that
the audience is actually immersed in with the show. Are
you able to still do those secret Smurf shows at all?

Speaker 6 (10:25):
Is it like.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
It's it's it's hard. I mean, I'm sure, as you know.

Speaker 10 (10:29):
The to keep the energy level up after doing the show,
I had to take the first six months when I
started doing Colbert just to figure out how to do
it and and figuring out how to balance everything else
that I have been doing with now my job on
the show. But then after I figured that out, I

(10:50):
started to focus more on recording things and be in
the studio because I was mostly playing live during that
time and exploring how to really present a real immersive
experience that brought people together so it work.

Speaker 7 (11:05):
I saw it live in Philly when you did it. Oh,
you're in the lobby of the Kimmel Center. Yeah, that show.
It was an amazing show that was fun for free.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
I was like.

Speaker 7 (11:16):
This and the lily jumped in the crowd went around.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah. I was wondering, like, how do y'all get paid, because.

Speaker 10 (11:25):
Well, sometimes, like when we go on the road, we'd
do them after the show, so it would be we
would take the guarantee from the show and use that.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
So you do a regular show, right, and then that's
like your Prince after party. Yeah, I never knew that.
I thought that was your bread and butter.

Speaker 10 (11:43):
Well, at one point it was when we were in
New York. Right then we started to get known for that,
and then we got an agent, and then we went
on the road. And then we went on the road.
We didn't want to stop doing that because every venue
doesn't accommodate, right that that kind of performance. So it
was kind of like, okay, well we can just do
two shows right right. It's cool. It's cool to see

(12:06):
how people react to the music when you put when
you put it in a different context, because like you
if we play jazz, for instance, and it's in a
jazz club, it's much different than if like somebody sitting
next to you on the piano or somebody sitting behind
the drums and they can really see the interaction with
the rhythm section and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
Does that does a plan sometimes backfire? Because you do
present this whole speak easy thing like it's it's like
you know, like sometimes it's almost like you're you're walking
into a set of an old like fifties burlesque, right,
So whoever like designs the stuff, and you know, sometimes
I'll see like people trying to sit on your piano

(12:49):
bench with you as your drink. Like, so, how you
know some drunk guy suddenly wants to sit in on
drums or know, Like, how do you guys control that situation?

Speaker 10 (13:03):
It's it's it's a casualty of the situation, Like you
got to go into it expecting some people to get
super free. That's the way we're like, Oh, this cat's
about to get super free. And then when that happens,
you almost plan the show, Like the set morphs from
whatever it was gonna be to accommodate whatever happens. So

(13:26):
if that guy comes in grabs drumsticks or something, then okay,
well let's go into the drum circle that we had
planned for the next three songs down and put that right.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Now.

Speaker 11 (13:37):
There's a question because I haven't I haven't seen one
of these, but they sound amazing, and I'm wondering, have
you ever done these at the schools?

Speaker 1 (13:43):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (13:43):
Yeah, yeah, not in New York actually, but we've done
them in schools we went to in Amsterdam, we actually
we did we did a show at the concert Gibaut,
which is like a concert hall there, and that was
just like a a traditional show. And then we went
into school and did basically kind of like this kind
of curated thing but in their auditorium. But that was

(14:07):
one thing we didn't. We also went into one of
the their equivalent of like the hood, and I got
I got them to put a piano in the middle
of the street, which I always loved that visual, just
having like instruments on the block, which I mean, I
know you you played. And that's kind of how we
started this whole kind of concept of immersion, which is

(14:31):
when we started playing on the streets and we play
in the subways in New York and we'll see how
people react when you see see the band come into
a cart and just set up for like thirty minutes
and play. It's like, Wow, these y'all not asking for money,
y'all not buss right because.

Speaker 7 (14:47):
At the end you get to the next car cident
on ass That's how you get to be.

Speaker 11 (14:52):
Honest, it's always it's always with the wary look when
somebody sets up on the trains.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
It's like, wait, I know exactly, like the first five
minutes on the Hardest have you do that? Have you
done New York trains yet? Oh? Yeah, yeah, really I
always wanted to do that everyone, Yeah, we should do
that one day. Yeah yeah, if a train and just

(15:16):
I guess nothing shocking in New York City? Who was
It was like who are those two guys pen Station
or something like that, and like nobody knew, like nobody
noticed it that they were there.

Speaker 7 (15:30):
Did it once?

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, I saw just like shredding the violin
and like Bleaker Street and people are like, actually, come
to think of it. So I tried to once get
jay Z to come to one of your events. Has
he seen it yet? Not that not the he saw
traditional one damn because the thing was, uh, I got

(15:54):
him the halfway agreed to it. I had seen the
first time I saw you, was I guessed, or the
time in which uh jay was doing something at Carnegie Hall.
I'm still a bad beating. So I said, okay, this
is what I want to do. I said, what I
want to do? This actually after reasonable doubt slightly, this
is like when American Gangster was out. Yeah, and I

(16:16):
told him, I said, this is what we're going to do.
You're going to do someone on stage right, and then
we're going to march into the the four air the
p and then when you're done, you and just Blaze
are going to do the Encore and the Nose Bleeds.
And he looked at me like, I'm not doing that shit,

(16:37):
but he I convinced him at least to do. He
did his Encore and the Nose Bleed. And unfortunately, what
I didn't realize with with Carnegie Hall was that the
way that the balconies are built, if you're like under,
if you're sitting on the floor row, you can't see
what's happening right there. So and of course they're like, no,

(16:59):
you got you can't stand and you know, like it
stands at Carnegie Hall. It was rather frustrating for the
people on the who weren't in the news right right, Yeah,
I bet they have a close up view for once
exactly exactly. I was like, no, just give it, give
them to there. It's good.

Speaker 10 (17:18):
So we're amazing.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
I want to know your story, like where were you
born and how was music brought to your life?

Speaker 10 (17:29):
Oh wow, So I was born in actually Metoie, Louisiana,
and I was raised in Kenner, Louisiana, between Kenner and
New Orleans.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
I was like, there are other places besides me. These
are like.

Speaker 10 (17:42):
Literally ten minutes outside of New Orleans. They're like suburbs
of New Orleans. But basically even though the airport is
in Kenner, it's called New Orleans International, Oh okay, so
it's like the New Orleans area. And my dad he's
a great bassist. My mother's not a musician, but she

(18:03):
has a really good ear. And my dad had six
brothers and they all played in the band together. And
from the six brothers, they're like thirty cousins. And at
the time when I was growing up, I was the
youngest of the cousins. Of all that Brude, Yeah, of
all of them when I was growing up, I was

(18:23):
the youngest, and there were two that were closer to
my age, and we started the junior band together. And
the three of us were drummers when we started the band.
But you can't have three drummers in the band. And
I'm the youngest, so obviously I'm gonna be the one
that switches instrument and the second youngest. He had to
switch the instrument because everybody wanted to play the drums,
so I switched to piano. Then it's around the time

(18:48):
it was like ten or eleven.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Adjustment.

Speaker 10 (18:53):
It was I was already kind of like we would
pick out songs from video games, and all of us
would Mario when Sega came out. Sonic Oh, Sonic soundtrack
is amazing, maybe.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Or maybe not created by Michael Jackson, by the way,
I know, maybe or maybe not, we don't know.

Speaker 10 (19:21):
Soundtrack is incredible, and street Fighter soundtracks from Street Fighter too,
all the way street Fighter Alpha, Final Fantasy seven like
we would play. We would legit transcribe the soundtrack and
play it on piano. So I kind of had a
little bit of piano chops. And then I was also

(19:42):
kind of, uh, you know, taking classical piano lessons but
not really taking them seriously. So I had a little
bit of a foundation, but when I switched to a piano,
I didn't really get serious about it until I was
like thirteen.

Speaker 7 (19:55):
Did y'all play for other kids? Because it seems like
that would have been dope for other kids to like
enter the world of as instrumentation and stuff.

Speaker 10 (20:01):
It was cool when we did a gig every year
at the Children's Museum. That was our first regular gig.
The band's called the Baptist Kids, and we printed these shirts,
uh it said purple and white shirts Baptist Kids, and
it had us on the shirt cartoon versions I remember

(20:24):
and we'll play. Our only gig for a while was
the Children's Museum in New Orleans every year, and we
played for kids at the museum game play the video
game Songs, and we played Marti Gross songs, Saints Go
Watch and then you know how uh, I.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Won't even say how important, but how And I know
that you're from Louisiana, so you gotta tread like how
burdensome is the idea of the tradition of New Orleans music.
Like I almost feel like if you come out the womb,

(21:04):
it's like you have to know every solo from Satimo.
You have to know it's true and is it right? Well,
I mean the thing is that you're I mean, I've
I've grew up in I mean, I've seen jazz nazis
all my life and.

Speaker 9 (21:24):
That's a technical term, jazz nazis.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
That's a real But I just really Steve is looking
at me right now. I asked the question, will you child?
But I mean there's I mean, the reputation of New Orleans.

(21:49):
I had to deal with Ellis Marcella's who I was
a kid. He told me give up, like you know,
he he just straight up told me to give up.
Like and I think that's what really pushed me to
not following because I went to school with Christian McBride,
Joey de Francesco, all these guys. So I was striving

(22:11):
to be a young lion. Yeah. Yeah, And I did
this masterclass with Ellis and he just like it was
past embarrassment and humiliation, like and you know, I was good,
you know what I mean, But it was just like,
you know, he like the tone of it. He like
the shirt I was wearing, like you're not a real
jazz cat, And like I just I gave up. I

(22:35):
didn't give up. I just like, well, you're right, go
let me go to what I really love, which which
is hip hop.

Speaker 7 (22:40):
Did he have a circle back? I just I just
need to know.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Branford and I laugh at her all the time, don't
mind dad. So, but I'm asking you, uh, was your
being the youngest of it? Where you're was your family
the same way where it was just like you don't
get any respect from us until you learn like everything
from Maple leave Rat to all these old scrolls of

(23:07):
ye it was it was like.

Speaker 10 (23:12):
It was it was an interesting mix of different flavors
of that. So, like, my family was coming from the
the Meters and it's like the funk tradition. So my
uncle was was one of the first keyboarders in the
Meters uh, and then my cousin Russell, he took over

(23:38):
in the Meters after Ziggaboo whose original drama Yeah so
zig that that was like my immediate family, and that's
kind of like what that's what I got from from
being around them, was kind of that tradition and just
almost vicariously because it was never like John play this,
this is how this beat goes, uh, the how these calls.

(24:00):
I would just be on stage as a kid, and
I'd be watching and kind of absorbing that. And that
was fun because that kind of influenced a lot of
how I look at performing for people in stage presence
and also just the communal aspect of music because they
would be playing and sometimes you know, you'd have musicians

(24:24):
just coming up on stage unannounced, and you know, it
would turn into this massive tribal groove and that was
one side of it. And then as I got older
and started getting into jazz, around thirteen and fourteen, there
was a camp that we all went to called the
Lewis Satchmo Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. And that's when I
started getting exposed to what you're talking about. And I

(24:46):
was lucky because there were a few of the I
call them like the village Elders that were just like
so open minded. But they also came from the generation
where it was like, you know, people were hard on them,
but they were so open minded with us, Like Alvin Battist,
he would just he would teach us how to play

(25:07):
stuff that was way beyond our level, but he would
do it in these little baby increments, Like we'd be
playing Giant Steps, and he would teach us like two
notes at a time, and then after we got the melody,
he would just show us the harmony. And then after
it would take like a month, but then after a
month we'd be like twelve thirteen playing Giant Steps, but
we wouldn't know that we were playing Giant Steps right,

(25:28):
and that if I didn't have him and a few
others who were kind of more just like, Okay, I'm
not gonna come at it from a critical place. I'm
gonna come at it from a place of okay, everybody
has a voice. Learned this and then once we got older,
I played in his band, the Jastronauts, and that was

(25:49):
a band where it was like, if it's not different
and weird, then it's not right. He'd always say it's
you can be correct, but that don't make it right.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
And I actually believe that he would say, because I
like unorthodox.

Speaker 10 (26:07):
Oh yeah, it's the best. I mean, he had a
sitar player on one of the gigs when we're playing
a jazz club, and I was fifteen at the time.
I was like, wow, you can do that.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
It just opened.

Speaker 10 (26:19):
So because of people like him, I kind of lucked out.
I didn't get caught in the dogma that can kind
of grapple you.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
Who were your uh your age peers at the time
that are notable now like who oh who is in
your circle?

Speaker 10 (26:35):
So at the camp we were both we started a
band together and that became the band that's still his
band now, same members eighty percent of the band trombone
shorty Okay. So Troy and I were like, he's a
little older, but we were basically came at the same time.
Christian Scott he was also at the camp and also

(26:55):
we went to high school together. They're just It's a
real interesting I think because we had the same teachers,
but we all came out in different routes. It's a
whole nother you know, each person doing their own thing.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
How important is as far as uh New Orleans as
a city, Well not how important is it, but how
uh explain to us or our viewers or listeners. Sorry
you're not on TV right now.

Speaker 7 (27:29):
I know.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
I'm so used to explain to our listeners the frequency
of of Well it's odd now to have music in nightclubs,
and when you're in New Orleans, every block still has
bands in it. Oh yeah, we were moving to North
We cop two houses in all get July two thousand

(27:55):
and five, July two thousand and five, and then Katrina
happened and then that was out the window. Like we
were going to go down and record game theory wow
in New Orleans, because the thing is New Orleans has
they still They're the last city left with like three
very distinctive jazz traditional jazz. Uh you know the zydog.

(28:20):
You have to explain zydogo music to me and how
that separates and then bounce music. Oh you know. So
they we were like, okay, this is this is a
city with three very distinctive styles to it, and we're
gonna move down there and figure our way into this
mess and then boom like it got ruined. But do

(28:44):
you guys even mix with each other? Like, first of all,
we're even allowed to listen to pop music as a kid?
Oh yeah, it wasn't frowned upon.

Speaker 10 (28:54):
No, no. I was always listening to cash Money, right,
I mean there was a point where when you're walking
down the street, out of every car you will hearing
either cash Money or No Limit, like bumping.

Speaker 7 (29:13):
That's the fourth that's the fourth element of New Orleans
that people forget about musically.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Right, well, bounce music?

Speaker 10 (29:18):
Yeah, is that really?

Speaker 7 (29:20):
Is that bounce?

Speaker 10 (29:21):
It's in the same strain, the the the drake.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
In my feelings, bet is New Orleans? Yeah, first of all,
is cash money and no Limit? Is that sort of
like the are you the one side or the other?
Is that like the Beatles and Rolling Stones.

Speaker 10 (29:43):
At the time At the time, not anymore, but at
the time it was like, oh yeah, you got choose side.

Speaker 7 (29:49):
You choose what side, you know, and cash money was
a little younger, right, So yeah, I.

Speaker 10 (29:54):
Mean I always because I'm looking at it from a
musical perspective, I was wanted them to make something together.
I thought it would be crazy if they came together.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
It never did.

Speaker 10 (30:07):
I thought it it just would be so powerful because
it was just such an embodiment of music in the
city up until that point. There's so much in the
sound that came from all of the different elements, even
like the the zartacle and the second line tradition. You
could hear it in the rhythm of what they were doing.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
So can you break down for us the difference between
the various music styles in New Orleans as far as.

Speaker 10 (30:33):
Oh, yeah, yeah, So this is what we call the
second line, which comes basically from marching traditions. So you
have like the marching band tradition, which was a big
thing in early American culture, and then in New Orleans
that tradition was changed because you had the influence of
the African rhythmic culture and Congo Square was doing slavery,

(30:56):
which on Sunday. All of the different front rhythms and
traditions that they did in Africa they would carry on
in New Orleans and that was the only place in
America where that was continued. So then that rhythmic culture
seeped its way into the marching tradition and that became
second Line. So the base rhythm of second Line is

(31:18):
the it's like a bamboola rhythm. And that rhythm you
can hear it in zydaical music. You can hear it
and you hearing Cash Money's music. Even if you think
of of mm hmmm mm hmmm, hmm mm hmmm mm

(31:41):
hmmmmm mm hm, you find I mean that rhythm I
feel like is the thing that ties all of the
styles together.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Wait now I'm thinking about it. What we what rockers
would traditionally called the Bodley rhythm. So that's basically, yes,
that's where the basis of that rhythm comes from.

Speaker 7 (32:09):
Louisiana.

Speaker 10 (32:10):
No, but Bo Diddley that the the that's the same.
And and to me, when you start hearing that, that's
how you can tell, Oh, that's kind of like a
New Orleans influenced music. But the things that change it
are the instrumentation and the different different ways that people

(32:31):
sing or like the instrumentation issarticle with the accordion versus
like second line is with tuba and marching instrumentation. And
then you have bounced music, which is made actually you
could do it on NPC. So it's it's a range
of different songs that you can get but the same DNA.

Speaker 7 (32:50):
But what's the first line?

Speaker 10 (32:52):
The first line is the church. So second line is
basically in the funeral some people call jazz funeral. The
first line of the family that goes into the church,
and that's a slow, mournful song. And the the second
line is when you're coming out leave and you leave,
and it's a celebration.

Speaker 7 (33:07):
Thank you John, like the whole world.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Didn't ye straight up, I never knew why I was
second line. I don't know. I didn't know that. I'm
telling you. I've seen a few, uh second line marches
for funerals. Yeah, and those are some extravagant productions, like

(33:30):
I've seen them. Damn. Are like hip it parade, throw
the casket in the air or whatever. Yeah, like they'll
take the casket and start our listeners can see what
I'm doing.

Speaker 9 (33:42):
Yeah, fist pumpings.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
They will fist pump it up. You know, like when
you get married and you sit in the chair and
they toss you up in the air like a pizza. Yeah,
you know what I'm talking about. Damn, Steve, you sleeping you.
You let me build the first time a minute. I'm
letting them, let me get some juice space. I appreciate something.

Speaker 7 (34:09):
No, I.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Never knew how easy is it. I found out that
anybody can get a permit to have a parade in
New Orleans.

Speaker 7 (34:25):
Like any launch for her wedding to anybody.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah, I didn't know it was that easy. Oh yeah, yeah,
I mean it's city.

Speaker 9 (34:33):
Hall and just you can hire a band for three
hundred bucks. You ever heard Hannibal Bursus thing when he
went to New Orleans. He's like he bought a band
for three They followed him around all night. Really, yeah,
So can I ask a real I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (34:46):
Real, I'm not leaving New Orleans question then, because I'm
just gonna ask him since we didn't know what the
line was, what is my gros really about?

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (34:54):
My goodness. So that that's a little more complex.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Not not getting drunk, I'm know.

Speaker 7 (34:59):
Whe it's a historical component. Yeah, people in some traditional
dress and you know and stuff. So I was always wondering.

Speaker 10 (35:06):
See the thing is Marti Grass goes into the Trinidad
tradition and Brazilian traditions like an Afro Caribbean tradition and
people think it's just oh, we go to Bourbon Street
and we just get drunk, and yeah, exactly, I'm sorry,

(35:28):
but no, no, it's it's it's a very beautiful tradition
that's about people coming together and family and and keeping
traditions that have been centuries old alive. And that's just
the party is something that has it's morphed into and
you know, it's fine the party, but it's not only
just a party.

Speaker 7 (35:48):
It's nice to know where it comes from.

Speaker 10 (35:49):
That's yeah.

Speaker 12 (35:51):
So how much Caribbean influences in all the types of
music that you just.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Told us about.

Speaker 10 (35:57):
Oh, it's like a like a line. You come from
West Africa, go through the Caribbean. New Orleans almost like
the northern tip of the Caribbean. To me, in my mind,
I think of it as the same. So that rhythm
and even even the stories that you hear about reggae
and how they would be listening to New Orleans music

(36:21):
and it be a bootleg signal and they couldn't hear
all of the full uh rhythm and they took certain
parts of it thinking that that was the rhythm, and
that influenced the reggae, and then it's kind of it's
like a feedback loop.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Wow, I never saw. Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 12 (36:40):
I mean, so New Orleans music influenced reggae, not the
other way around.

Speaker 10 (36:44):
Or no, it's it influences each other because because the
New Orleans music came from that line of the culture
moving across and basically sitting in New Orleans and Congo
Squad being the hub where it kind of was fermenting.
And then you know, at the end of Flavor, when

(37:05):
you kind of have this release, it's okay to have
people making their music and sharing it with the world.
You get people like Louis Armstrong who come out, Buddy Bold,
all these geniuses. It's like you let the lid off.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Speaking of which I just recently discovered, our listeners owe
it to themselves to discover the music of Lord Kitchener
who he's he's he's king of sort of trinid Daddy.
He's part if any Lord Kitchener. I would say that

(37:45):
maybe the origins of disco isn't the music because with
the sock symbol, like it's it's traditional Trinidaddy music, which
is more like so it's part New Orleans rhythm and
the sock symbol thing with it, but lyrically. And now

(38:09):
his music's coming from the forties and fifties, So he's
in the tradition of uh kind of uh, who's the
humorous forties jazz guy lou Louis. He's in the tradition
of Louis Jordan or almost like the beginning of what
Luke and Two Live Crew were about. Like his songs

(38:33):
are quasi risk and wait can I can I play
one song of Yes? Okay, it's this is Lord Kitchener's
Kitchener maybe like Kitchener. Yeah, it's a mirror talking, so
possibly I could be saying, okay, wait, rural jury, Yes

(38:55):
there is another rural Yes, I have a questioned.

Speaker 9 (39:02):
Yes, he's told you because in my head you're like
Yoda and you're like ninety five years old, because you
have that vibe.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
But I don't think of that.

Speaker 10 (39:07):
Old Oh no, thirty one?

Speaker 7 (39:10):
No, what still really? See?

Speaker 1 (39:12):
I thought that was a worthy question. He's an old
soul man, it's different.

Speaker 7 (39:15):
Yeah, you must have a It must be a lot
of ageism for you, because I know them jazz cats
be like, man, you don't know nothing.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, I mean so I would think, I mean, you
you speak wise so and you seem.

Speaker 7 (39:30):
To know you're the number is the number though, right,
Like sometimes they just like puts your thirty one now?

Speaker 9 (39:35):
But could you know nothing but a number?

Speaker 10 (39:39):
It ain't nothing, But I don't know number?

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Okay, all right, you got two choices. My favorite is
My Wife's ninety, in which a yeah, in which he
kind of invertently gets with her girlfriend who steals his
wife's clothes. Or Muriel in The Bug, which is story

(40:04):
about a bedbug that happens to make its home in
the most unsavory place of this woman. Yeah, I feel
like the choice has been made. Yes, I'm putting both
of those in the quest of Mixed Supreme with this.

Speaker 9 (40:20):
I love it when you intro to and give like
the lyrical.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Which one is this bedbugs?

Speaker 9 (40:31):
Now?

Speaker 1 (40:31):
I might have to do both because this is less
New Orleans tradition than the other song. But what screen?
First of all, that was an amazing ryan. Secondly, where'd
you find this?

Speaker 7 (40:44):
Yeah? How old is this?

Speaker 9 (40:46):
Who's like the person that hips you to this? That
says a lot about them?

Speaker 1 (40:51):
I don't know, Like, uh oh, I was looking at
Calypso because I knew there was more than Harry Belafontie.
So that figure history. The beautiful thing about streaming is
that's one of the best. He has a traditional Well
I didn't know if he had albums out with lyrics.

Speaker 7 (41:12):
Or he just he got one coming out with Kenny Gamble.

Speaker 10 (41:15):
Oh snap, really, it's been working on it, Kenny.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Going out anyway, I got play what's my wife's This
one is murial in the bedbug? No, what's the next one?
My wife's ninety? Oh yeah, because I might have to
charge you with loss in me. All right. He's known

(41:40):
as the King of calypso this is nice, but the
lyrics are funny. She came for one night with kitchen.
She seems of a decent character. But when I woke
up in the morning, my wife, pretty ninety, was missing.

Speaker 7 (41:59):
Come back with why.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Why this feels like a late night? I know, I know,
I know. So basically Kitch Kitsch's wife is away and
he's laying her girlfriend spend the night on the couch.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
By the way, here's my wife's night clothes the house. Well,
he also sexes her down on the third and fourth
and fifth verse. I was like seven verses. Wow, I
am an immense fan of of of of kitchen. Well
that's yeah, Lord kitchen.

Speaker 11 (42:39):
I'm wondering what the song negro by Injection is about.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Dog. It's exactly what you think. He goes there. I mean,
Jack's a lot of humor in politics. Yeah, yeah, that's sexy.
But yeah, a lot of you know, coming from uh Trinidad.

(43:04):
A lot of his music, the clips of music I
can hear sort of origins of New Orleans music and
in there and disco and other things like this was
in the fifties, so yeah, for listening get Boston. Uh yeah,
Lord around there right, no, right, in nineties.

Speaker 7 (43:27):
Because all the ladies know they don't need to fear.
They really don't go past your knees. The bed bugs,
so I don't really really yeah yeah, record I had
bed bugs ones. It was awful. They go to your elbow,
to your knees, all the things.

Speaker 9 (43:41):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
So your bad books weren't that clever to find that area?
Treasure treasure, treasure.

Speaker 10 (43:50):
Wow, that was a great lyrical choice.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
That was a great lyrical choice.

Speaker 9 (43:54):
And lost and ninety are really rhyming today.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
No, it's he's the best man it at that.

Speaker 10 (44:00):
Lewis Jordan energy too.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Yes, absolutely, with the humor and all that stuff. You
recorded your first album when you were seventeen, correct, yes, yes,
what did you know? How much information did you gather
in those five years that you learned traditional jazz to

(44:23):
make a record? Like did you know what you wanted?
And how did it come to be?

Speaker 10 (44:28):
I had been playing at a club in New Orleans
called the Snug Harbor, which is like our jazz club.
It's like you had the balcony where you can look
down at the bandstand, and then you had the bottom level,
which is like forty people down there. And I've been
leading bands there from the time I was fifteen, and
I kind of figured out what I wanted in the sound,

(44:52):
and I was composing music and things like that. So
by the time I was seventeen, I wanted to document
the stuff I had figured out by playing at Snug
Okay and also just document the different musicians that I've
been playing with at that time. So that was really
for me, a documentation of something that I wanted to

(45:15):
look back on because I was about to move to
New York. I moved to New York when I was
seventeen in two thousand and four, and that's when the
record was finished.

Speaker 7 (45:26):
You moved to New York when you was seventeen, Yes,
for Julia, yeah wow, and your parents never got to
do Man, what was that like for you today? Was
that the first time you've been to New York when
you were seventeen?

Speaker 10 (45:38):
Well, I was listening to Yeah, Well, I've been to
New York one time before. Then in two thousand and two,
we played Summer Stage with Troy and I tromon short
and we played the Apollo.

Speaker 7 (45:54):
You weren't seventeen, you was like fifteen fourteen, and when.

Speaker 10 (45:58):
We did that, that was the something yep and and
we played Summer Stage and we played the Apollo, and
that was the first time I ever been in New York.
And then a couple of years after that, I moved
to New York. But I had been listening to Actually,
I've been listening to a lot of records that you made,
and that was one of the reasons I wanted to

(46:18):
go to New York because I was I went off
for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
I went to to say this lead.

Speaker 10 (46:26):
I went to Berkeley the summer after I've been to
New York for it's like a summer that summer program yeah,
it's like a five week thing.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
I got rejected.

Speaker 9 (46:40):
Because Ellis Marsalis was on the community that.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
I didn't make it to the summer program Juilliard. I
couldn't afford to go. What year did you go to
the summer program? That was three? Okay, I'm older than here. Yeah,
oh wow, that's cool. You went to you it's like
years before that. Yeah, oh you went there. Yeah. I
didn't go to Berkeley, but to that you actually had
a childhood and then a teenage and I also played music.

Speaker 9 (47:10):
I like my science teacher. I like your science teacher.
Most of the time, I'm like your CPA. Now I'm
like your but I forgot Wait the joke John every
time he sees me if I comb my hair, he
never recognizes me. Listen, So like this is true on
three or four occasions.

Speaker 5 (47:28):
This is wrong, you're doing it wrong.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
But this is this is wrong. Listen every time. Listen.
He and I really meant when we worked on Hamilton. Okay,
so during the Hamilton mixing process and the recording process,
he had like long ass hippie hair. He was like, uh,
what's his name? With the latter the comedian not thinking

(47:52):
me the actor. We were he's supposed to do this show.
Seth rog why am I paying twenty five thousand dollars
pyramid right now? Seth brow his hair, He had a
Seth Brogan vibe about him. And then and then when
Hamilton was finally finished and we all took like the
master photo together, like my accountant came out. He had

(48:14):
this nice haircut and a suit and I shook his hand, O,
nice to meet you. A mirror and he looked at
me like, motherfuck it's me. So that's funny. But that
was like two and a half years ago. Months ago.
I was at six months ago. Six months.

Speaker 9 (48:33):
I've been doing this for years, Like we've been to Minneapolis,
were all these places together he's been on. Yeah, So
six months ago at a wedding, I was wearing glasses
like that like makes me a whole different person. I
was wearing a suit and glass. I walked up to him.
I was like, yo, and he was like a mirror.

Speaker 10 (49:01):
I like.

Speaker 7 (49:06):
It actually made sense in the conversation.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
She wasn't here for that show. I haven't been here
for six months.

Speaker 7 (49:20):
A black woman or an Indian American woman, like.

Speaker 10 (49:26):
You know.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
Jamaica. His mom's black, not by By Black, but the
step brother was like black Black, Yeah you can write
some peace.

Speaker 10 (49:38):
Yeah, I gotta get something. Can I love cooking? A
few things you can make really red beans and rice,
yes with Don Dows, sauce without part, yeah something.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Are you going to the house right now? She's herself.

Speaker 7 (49:56):
Can you pronounce that word again? Because nobody does that right.

Speaker 10 (49:58):
I'm doy like you knew how to say that.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Sausage first line and sausage and yeah wait, I was
gonna say uh. And lo was my man that always
cooks outside of his gigs.

Speaker 10 (50:14):
All Carmen Ruffings and the barbecue Swingers.

Speaker 7 (50:19):
Where they do shows.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Kermit En he plays.

Speaker 10 (50:24):
He did a thing at a club called Vaughn's and
he'd have every Monday night in the in the in
the gig a big old pot of red beans and
rice sitting there and you just go self served.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Dude. I love Kermit Ruffins music, but I really love
Kermit Ruffings cooking.

Speaker 10 (50:43):
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
It's yeah when like I he and he cooks out front, yeah,
like not even in the back where it's just like
for the musicians. He cooks the food in the front,
in the front. I'll be back sir, this pot while
I go play the solo real quick. My good fellas like,
I want to go yes week New Orleans.

Speaker 10 (51:06):
Yes, yes, Kermit Roffins rebirth alone. So okay, why did
you choose Julliart? So I was I wanted to come
to New York. I went to Berkeley before, and I
had gotten the scholarship to go there, and I thought
I was gonna go. Okay, I got that out the way.
I got one more year high school. Then I figured
out what I want to do. I wasn't even sure
if I wanted to go to college, but I was like,

(51:28):
if I can get to New York. Because actually I
was listening to those records that you made, and I
was reading the line of notes.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
What I used to do.

Speaker 10 (51:35):
I used to go to Blockbuster Video. In Blockbuster they
had a used c D ben and I used to
get sorry sorry, I used to get all of the
U c ds and and listen to them down whatever

(52:01):
it was, just to get some different sounds happening.

Speaker 7 (52:04):
Damn John tell him, wasn't that wasn't.

Speaker 10 (52:12):
The ones the ones that I bought some of them.
I bought a Tower record, So actually.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
No, it was a U c d MG Music Club.
And I didn't pay for that one, so.

Speaker 9 (52:24):
Anyone else want to Yeah, mine came from my roommate
record I haven't.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
I worked that game. Theory came outside and paid for
that one.

Speaker 10 (52:33):
Either things fall apart. I bought, uh, like water for
chocolate is the one that I was. So I bought
Dangerous Michael Jackson and like water for chocolate at the
same time.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Wow, that's random.

Speaker 10 (52:50):
It was a range of stuff that was it was
happening to the bend. Is just it's the gift that
keeps on giving.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
I see, well, most most people I know. I know
that Christian McBride chose Juilliard because Miles Davis went to Juilliard.
So usually like jazz cats that go to Juilliard, which
is it's not weird of itself because in education is
in education. But I do know that Miles Davis is
going to Juilliard is a big reason why most jazz

(53:20):
cats mess with Juilliard because otherwise they will all just
go to the New school. But a vibe, right, It's
like it's one of the music schools.

Speaker 10 (53:29):
It's a classical, right, I mean, it comes from that tradition,
so it has that like Lincoln Senna like, yeah, you know, did.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
You enjoy it? You got your masters from that, that
means you'd served six years there.

Speaker 10 (53:43):
Yes, sir, I was doing stuff that I wasn't supposed
to do, which made me take time off in the middle.
But then I went back basically because my mom was like,
you have one year left at the time, finish the degree.
Just go and finish it. But I was doing all

(54:04):
types of touring, and basically I kind of developed my
work ethic by going to Julliard and then playing all night,
and then touring on the weekends, and then coming back
and then on the breaks doing all kinds of stuff,
putting it together. So it was a really great experience
to kind of figure out how to do a bunch
of stuff at the same time.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
And pretty much you when did you finally get your degree?

Speaker 10 (54:31):
It was twenty eleven, so I started in two thousand
and four.

Speaker 7 (54:37):
So did you slide in some acting glasses while you
were there?

Speaker 5 (54:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (54:41):
I loved that school because there's so much that you
can do to kind of cross pollinate acting and dancing.
There's an orchestra, there's the drama division that you can
kind of put these all these different things together that
I was always interested in that. That's one of the
reasons that why I went. I read Miles autobiole truth right,

(55:07):
It's just something about Juilliard and also being in New
York and and checking out a lot of the people
who are online of knows that I liked the music,
lived in New York at the time, or played in
New York a lot. It just all seemed to make sense.
Just all Arrow's pointed, Well, go to Juilliard. If you
make it through school, that's great. If not, you'll be

(55:29):
in New York where everything that you like is happening.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
So can I naturally assume that perhaps Juilliard's where you
met the other band members of Stay Human? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I figured as much. So, Okay, how did you guys.

Speaker 10 (55:44):
For well, the the drummer and bassist Joe Selle, Yeah, Cowboy, Yeah,
Joe with the hat. We we met in high school.
He was visiting, uh, he's visiting New Orleans at the
jazz Fest actually, and I was cutting my theory class,

(56:08):
I think it was, and I was walking around town
in the French Quarter because our school was in Noka,
was near the French Quarter, and he was walking around
and he had a stick bag, and he recognized me
and came up and said, hey, man, do you want
to play? And I was like, yeah, let's go.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
So, hey, how you doing? How you doing? Let's play?

Speaker 10 (56:28):
Almost no words. We walked and didn't really speak after that,
and we walked to my class that I was cutting
and I was like, hey, I have a guest, and
we played a song for the class. And then the
next year he moved to New York to go to
the Manhattan School of Music. I moved to go to Juilliard,
and that's when the band came together.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
That's one experience that I regret really never having. I've
never been like a jammy guy.

Speaker 10 (56:58):
You don't like the jam What do you mean called
the roots?

Speaker 7 (57:00):
Damn?

Speaker 1 (57:05):
You used to? I avoid them ships.

Speaker 7 (57:08):
Now it's work, I got it.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
No, it's like it's it's expected, you know, because my
legacy's on jamming.

Speaker 7 (57:14):
But I don't know, like you created albums off of that,
like phrenology.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
It's just like, well for me, I don't like jam
sessions because someone has to be the.

Speaker 7 (57:25):
Bad guy say it's time for you to go all right,
that's you or no you can't.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Yeah, because there's again, I have two microphones, so I'm
the guy that's like, you know, trying to tell the
saxophone player, don't solo over Tarik, like play a riff,
play like it's it's it's it becomes like you think
I'm a pain in the ass here. Imagine me on

(57:50):
a job that I'm you.

Speaker 7 (57:51):
Know, like sometimes we see you back then.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Exactly. So maybe it's like I have to be the
bad guy. But more than that, it's just like I
like Kirk does that easily. Like Kirk goes up to
the whoever the guest band is on the show and
they talk about their their guitars and is this a
you know, sixty three Stratt and da da da da,
and then they start doing you know, riffs together and

(58:18):
I don't know, I never like and sometimes that happens,
like I feel, oh god, I feel horrible because Chris
Dave has been calling me like all week he's been
doing this presidency Robert Glaser. No, well, technically I was
out of town, so no disrespect Chris, of course, But
I just I don't know why I don't have musicians.

Speaker 7 (58:37):
If you've ever jammed without being the boss, maybe that's
the problem.

Speaker 10 (58:43):
Huh.

Speaker 7 (58:43):
Let somebody else.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
John, Like I think if it comes to like music collectors,
like record collectors, beeper, like that's my zone. But I've
never been the like I the thing is one I
don't I'm not one of those like do you know
like the oh this this Steinway was nineteen thirty nine,

(59:06):
Like I don't know what my drums are, like yeah,
oh this is made of wood or mahogany wood or yeah,
yeah that's not me. I don't know how you're not
a gear head. No, I don't think it's either you
know what else. I'm really not a vinyl head, even
though I have all those records. Yes I'm not.

Speaker 7 (59:26):
No, he means like the material, the vinyl, and then no, no,
I just meant like, you know.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
You're not like Steve. Yeah, like Steves everyone thinks like
it sounds better.

Speaker 7 (59:38):
Oh oh you're not one of those. Good for you,
Amir for coming out, because you know people will be scared.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
To say that I love vinyl because that's the thing
that me and my dad bonded on as when I
was a kid, like going to the rest of us.
I like record shopping, but I was never like I
don't know which turn people around October November, like, do
you recommend Christmas? Yeah? Can you recommend what turntable I
should get? And I'm like an iPhone? So you guys

(01:00:11):
just basically within five minutes you were like, hey you
played did you do that earlier in the day, earlier
in your life? Like you like the roots were more now, dude,
I start. My dad threw me into his oldies act,
like Tariq was the first person of my age that
I played with it even then, like my parents looked

(01:00:32):
at you know, he was you not you. Mom. Mom
listens to the show and gets mad that I was
throwing under the bus. Mom loved Tariq, Dad not so much.
So yeah, I love it. It's just you know, I
wish I could.

Speaker 7 (01:00:54):
Enjoy it. I don't know, Yeah, I guess I don't
that press.

Speaker 11 (01:01:01):
But you say it's on like not having a roadmap, right,
because we kind of went over this with Bobby McFerrin.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Hey, I love having roadmaps. Oh yeah, I just.

Speaker 7 (01:01:09):
I'm McFerrin with the juliar John No, he's everything.

Speaker 9 (01:01:13):
But would you say that when when the music becomes
a profession, the jamming aspect of it all to like
hang out and jam with friends thing kind of comes down.
I feel like that, like, yeah, I'm in music all
day long. I like going and like playing for the
sake of playing. Is a little different now than it
was when I was twenty two.

Speaker 10 (01:01:29):
I feel like when you're younger and you're jamming is
almost like practice, whereas at this point I feel like
we have to have an objective exactly like roadmap or
just a concept like we're jamming in order to figure
out the purpose. Yeah this is the sound because I feel.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Like, yeah, but tell that to Prince who, yeah, like
six hours you know, fuck the show, He'll give you
six hour jam session, which is probably my only inspiration
from he do it all right, I'll come that was
for a reason they weren't doing that for the show,
like figuring out the parts of the show and stuff

(01:02:10):
like that. At least that's what Prince like really enjoys jam.
He doesn't like talking to people, So you've rare the
jam with Wow. I mean I don't like jamming or
talking to people.

Speaker 10 (01:02:21):
It ben's on the people, right, because some people don't
know how to jam.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
So do you what if you're in a situation and
again you are you present a situation which people can
randomly walk up and play you do you have to
be the bad cops sometimes and like like no more
cow bell, thank you.

Speaker 10 (01:02:44):
Sometimes there's been times where it just crosses the line
and then you have to you have to shut it down.
But I feel like a thing that I find joy
and is taking something that's just like would otherwise be
disastrous and making music out of it. Like, oh snap,

(01:03:05):
this person is playing the piano. They're not trained. Well,
let's make this into something.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
See that's what Bob mcpherrn said when I asked him
about Heckler's He's like, the way that I extinguish it
is just incorporating whatever they're doing. Yeah, ah see, I
hate that. I'm a control freeing Oh wow, that's happening
right now. Okay, let's see what we can do with that.

(01:03:35):
Are these with random drunk audience people are like musicians.
You might ass random drunk musicians or.

Speaker 10 (01:03:42):
Super free arrange it's arranged. It can be anything, because
sometimes it can be you can you can have a
great musician who is is technically there but doesn't understand
the spirit of the moment or what's happening. Okay, and
then that can change what's happening, and you have to

(01:04:03):
go with that. Otherwise the band, the sounds this disconnected.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
So describe to me the day that you got the
phone call that you're being considered for the night show.

Speaker 10 (01:04:23):
Oh yeah, late Night with.

Speaker 7 (01:04:26):
Late Night.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
I'm sorry, Steven, I love you man all right? So
where were you? What was the day when you got
the phone call for the Late Show with Stephen cober So.

Speaker 10 (01:04:40):
I was in the studio and I got a phone
call from Stephen himself saying, I'm about to go on
vacation for ten days and when I come back, I
want to sit and have a conversation with you. And
he didn't tell me what it was about, but I
kind of figured what it was about.

Speaker 7 (01:05:01):
Y'all knew each other already at this point.

Speaker 10 (01:05:03):
I'd been on the Colbert Report a couple of times,
and after the second time we kind of had become
friends in a way where we could talk and I
call him sometime.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
But he was not.

Speaker 10 (01:05:16):
He wasn't at any way at the Colbert Reports offering
me the job. But I've been seeing in the news
everything was leading to him taking over for Letterman, and
I didn't hear there was a band yet. I figured, okay, well,
if there's a band, we may have heard about it,
or at least it's not solidified because they haven't announced it.
So when he called me, I figured, okay, he wants

(01:05:37):
to talk about that. So he goes off the grid
for about ten days, no phone or anything, and I
have thinking about it for ten days. Is this something
that I think he called me because he knew, okay,
think about this because when we come back, you're gonna
probably have to make a decision quickly, which is what happened.
We sat down and he talked to me about his

(01:05:57):
vision for the show, and that was like a a
pretty long conversation. Then I was introduced to the staff,
which was gonna move from the Cobet Report to the
late show, and I was, you know, walked around the
office and met everybody, and then after about two or
three hours, he's like, okay, so let me know something

(01:06:18):
you want to do and we'll call you in a
few next few days to you know, see where.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
You're at with it. Who else was in the running?
Do you know? Well?

Speaker 10 (01:06:29):
He told me after this is like after we had
done a few shows, a few test shows, came to
the dressing room, and he says, I don't know if
you knew this, but Alvis Costello was, Steve would have left.
He's like, Alvis Costello was basically I'd given him the gig.

(01:06:54):
But this is before I met you. Wait, Steve, did
you know this?

Speaker 1 (01:06:58):
I was going to go work for them. I knew it.
Steve reduced some Elvis records. Yeah, seriously, No, I didn't.
I didn't. I didn't. I don't think.

Speaker 7 (01:07:07):
If you had to make the decision, Steve, yes.

Speaker 12 (01:07:11):
Oh that would be Yeah, that would be a tough decision.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
I would let Steve do it. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 10 (01:07:16):
Thank god, John, Wow, you would have had to split.

Speaker 1 (01:07:22):
I mean I would understand, I would, yeah, you know.

Speaker 10 (01:07:28):
Oh man, I'm sorry here.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
So he was he was up there.

Speaker 10 (01:07:36):
Like yeah, yeah, but with his band or I'm not sure,
but apparently he flinched and Colbert had it in the
back of his mind. After we ad met and that
Colbert port Love Right performance, he was like, I'd be
cool to spend some time on stage with this guy.

(01:07:58):
He wasn't aware of it before then, but then.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Yeah, I was about to say, did he go to
any of the No.

Speaker 10 (01:08:02):
No, he's actually one of his producers went to one
of those and what y'all doing we.

Speaker 1 (01:08:10):
Were talking about at the beginning, Yeah, right, But this
also proves the point that there's Ronald McDonald's and then
there's Ray Crocs. And for every figurehead that you think, like,
did Steve Gobert go to these shows, it doesn't matter
because it only matters to the five people the Ray Crocs,
the five people there in Steven's ear about this is cool.

(01:08:32):
You should check it out right. It's never the person
that the Kanye is that I have. The idea is
it's the fifty people and Kanye's ear that he takes
them from anyway, So go ahead.

Speaker 10 (01:08:44):
So that that that was when we've done some test shows,
he said, you know, and and Elvis he flinched. He said,
you know, I don't know if I want to have
a boss. And then Stephen says, okay, well that's okay,
hangs up, the phone, calls me and it's like, hey,
do you do you want to have this conversation. Come

(01:09:06):
back in ten days. We have the conversation. He calls me.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
The next day.

Speaker 10 (01:09:09):
After we have this conversation, I meet the staff and
he says, you know, I want to you officially have
been named the band leader of the Late Show. Congratulations,
we start on this date, and you should start rehearsing
your band.

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
Did you human yet?

Speaker 10 (01:09:30):
So? Stay Human was basically for months and not only
Stay he was a wild thing in the air where
people were coming to me and telling me that I
should call Steven, telling me you should be the band.
The band was like, man, we had just finished like
a nine month tour and they were like, we didn't
have anything on the books. And the band was like, man,

(01:09:53):
you should call Steven. You cool with Steven, right, you
should call Steven. You should get that gig. Man, that
would be great. We should lay that get He's so cool,
it'd be so great. And I was just like, I
don't know. I just don't know if that's something that
I want to do. We just finished my first real
tour and like we have some momentum. I feel like

(01:10:14):
we could we have signed a label deal yet with
just like all this stuff that and all this stuff was, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:10:20):
I hadn't signed a label deal.

Speaker 10 (01:10:21):
No, I'm just putting out independent, just put it on
the internet, no marketing know anything.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Did you think?

Speaker 7 (01:10:27):
Let me just ask one question to the both of y'all,
what's the difference you signed on to the the to
Jimmy when how about how long have you been with him?

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
We agreed in April of two thousand and eight. That's
ten years, and it took about yeah, it took about
seven months to really make it real.

Speaker 10 (01:10:48):
Steve, that's like three four three years. It's the fourth year.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Now.

Speaker 7 (01:10:52):
Did you ever think to maybe make a call, because
I'm okay you made a call.

Speaker 10 (01:10:57):
In fact, I reached out, but we met before we
could even connect on the phone. The first night of
the show, Alex Soros had a birthday party, and you
basically laid the He laid the whole science of the
gig down at at this part at the Boom Boom Room.

(01:11:21):
It was the second time that I talked to Abandon.
The first person I talked to was was Schaeffer. Chevy
Chase introduced me to Schaeffer and.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Wait, you.

Speaker 10 (01:11:36):
I wasn't cool with Chevy really, but I had dinner
with him a couple of times from a mutual friend
and he was like, you should, and he plays piano,
so we bonded over the piano.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
For a minute before they got the deal.

Speaker 13 (01:11:53):
Chevy Chase, Chevy Chase plays piano. This is why you're
here because I never knew that Bill Evans this is
his idol. Wow, wait Chevy Chase comedy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Yes, okay, So did he introduced you to Paul?

Speaker 10 (01:12:10):
Yeah? Because I didn't know Paul, but obviously I wanted
to talk to him when this was kind of in
the running, and I went We went to p J.
Clarks up in Lincoln Center and and he and he
told me his experience. And then Mira we we met
on the first night of the show at Sorols and

(01:12:32):
he told us about how y'all do all of the
stuff with the talk back mike and the leftop, and
I mean, I kind of just I sought everybody out.
I called Branford and we linked up when he was
in town doing It's like a Bill Witherston at Carnegie.
It was all like, right around the beginning of the season, Well,
I'm having a.

Speaker 7 (01:12:52):
Brain fart, who's post Bradford from Philly And I.

Speaker 10 (01:12:56):
Went to see Kevin played with Dave Holland at the Vanguard, which, oh,
we're playing the Vanguard next week, shout out. But uh
so the Vanguard with Dave Holland.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
State human Uh yeah, hell yeah, I'm coming. Yeah, it
might be sold.

Speaker 10 (01:13:12):
Out nor Riscal way back.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
I know, ye, she was with us first anywhere. I'm
going to the winner circle.

Speaker 7 (01:13:32):
That's not true. You're a winner.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
I was playing. Go ahead, Elvis, just send me an email.
I gotta okay. So you're basically saying that you went
and sought out. Wow, you did it in ways that

(01:13:55):
I didn't even think of. I think maybe I talked
to Branford for like one second. Hit up.

Speaker 7 (01:13:59):
Do you know he's still around?

Speaker 10 (01:14:01):
Yeah? Doctors?

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Well he played with us, but I didn't. The thing was,
it's like we literally we weren't going to take it,
and I just doing those eight months from April to
to what September? I just figured, Okay, I know we're
not going to take this gig because the money was

(01:14:22):
getting good.

Speaker 7 (01:14:23):
Leave it alone. It's just numbers.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
What your math?

Speaker 11 (01:14:25):
It's you said eight months April to September, that's like
five Oh are you nerd.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
Any words? I mean I said September, but I guess
we told him it's real maybe in November. So I'm
just saying that. In my mind, I thought, Okay, you're
gonna say no, but at least you're gonna have a

(01:14:54):
friend in late night so that when the Roots released records,
you could be the musical guess. And that's all we
wanted because we were making good money at that point,
and you know, I I guess he kind of didn't
take no for an answer, But in my mind, I
just thought by that point a lot of acts that

(01:15:15):
we were opening for back in ninety four ninety five,
like we're now they're now opening for us, like and
no disrespect, I you know, I love but it I
would hate when our management would let run DMC open
for us, and I'm like, they're fucking run DMC like
they need the headline, And even run DMC was like, nah, dog,

(01:15:37):
we just do this hour, get our money be out,
and you know, like they didn't care about like whatever
romantic things I had in my head of us being legends.
They just like give us the money stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:15:49):
Not for nothing, y'all, but like, for real, have you
y'all too soaked up this moment where we just we
just mentioned all these past band leaders and this is great,
but this is the first time like the two brothers
have really been helming the the band leader thing on
the late night like the same time at the same time,
at the same time, at the same time on the
two competing shows, not on the late L L Late
and the Late Ya want to say, well, let.

Speaker 1 (01:16:14):
Me finish my point. My point was. My point was basically,
and I had Bill in mine when I did this,
let me finish my point. My point was pretty much that, uh,
I just I didn't want to be in that run
dem see position. I just thought, like, Okay, it's two
thousand and eight, man, what if we're not a thing

(01:16:37):
in two thousand and fifteen, we'll be running We'll be
run DMC opening for Drake or like like we could
ever do that anyway. I'm just saying that that was
part of my Okay, let's let's just go here and
get safe and we'll just go somewhere quietly to die.

(01:16:57):
And that's what I thought. Well, I never I never
once thought that it would be beneficial. So in your head,
after you got all this information, what were the pros
and what were the cons?

Speaker 10 (01:17:12):
Honestly, I was I was looking forward to touring more.
But I really Steven actually kind of really convinced me
because not by what he said. I just really liked
him because I wasn't familiar with the Cobert Report before
I was on the show, so I didn't know anything

(01:17:33):
about him or his whole ethos, of the whole kind
of sat tire that he came from in that tradition.
But when I met him and talked to him, we
just had a lot of things that I felt like
were in common and his objectives for the show, what
he wanted to do in the world in general, with
everything that he had been doing. I was really compelled

(01:17:54):
to do it because of that, and I also thought, well,
at the time, I was only six, so I was like,
why do you laugh every time?

Speaker 7 (01:18:05):
Because that's just amazing. It's like, what do you do
after this?

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
I remember where I was at twenty six, and it
definitely was not on late night.

Speaker 7 (01:18:10):
Television paying leadal like He' not just playing I'm.

Speaker 10 (01:18:14):
Just I just an appointment, right, It was?

Speaker 7 (01:18:21):
It was, It was.

Speaker 10 (01:18:22):
It was such a a great vision that he showed us,
and I mean, you know this is before Trump, but
it was just the idea that was, let's make a
show about people.

Speaker 12 (01:18:38):
So did you draw any parallels between his concept for
a show and what you've been doing the music?

Speaker 10 (01:18:42):
Absolutely, I mean there's something we talked about in the
first initial conversation about the show, calling the show the
joy machine, I guess a machine that you get into
and you basically create joy and you pump it out
through the airwaves.

Speaker 1 (01:19:03):
My word is a joy machine.

Speaker 7 (01:19:05):
That's my word. I tell people all the time. Joy
is the ultimate level. Like happiness is cool, joy is man,
Wait one, how did you how did you do not
know this?

Speaker 1 (01:19:15):
And Steve, how did you know this? I was just
trying to insult her. I didn't know.

Speaker 12 (01:19:21):
It.

Speaker 7 (01:19:21):
Real thing, like me and my dad, we have a
whole thing about joy And how really that didn't just happened.
Happiness is fleeting, but joy is forever. Even when you're mad,
it's still with this sense of this joy is.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
Just you're trying to be a dick. You're backfired on.

Speaker 9 (01:19:36):
That's actually actually.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
That was an introverted all.

Speaker 7 (01:19:41):
Wow, I would love to be that person. Se like
to bring joys work.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
That's so good, that's so okay. I'm curious to know.
I'm curious to know what your daily schedule is now,
and I want to know if it's similar to mine.
First of all, how often do you guys have to
do you guys?

Speaker 10 (01:20:00):
Ever?

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
Back up? Guests that come on the show.

Speaker 10 (01:20:02):
Yeah, yeah, we back up guests sometimes fragmented parts of
the band back up. I guess like the last thing
we did I played not with the band with Nas
mac Miller when he man, yeah.

Speaker 14 (01:20:22):
Wow, last performance on TV.

Speaker 1 (01:20:25):
Damn yeah yeah wow yeah man.

Speaker 10 (01:20:29):
Yeah, we we we do it a fair amount. In
season one we did it a lot, okay, but and
we also did a lot of sittings, and then after
about a year and a half we kind of scaled
back on that and now we're just.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
It's hard. I'll start first, well, okay, the thing is,
it's because I always want my fantasy's like, YO want
my idols to sit in with me. And the thing

(01:21:07):
is is like my idolds are I'm being generous if
I say sixty, they're more like sixty five, seventy seventy
five and years old and setting their ways. And the
thing is to be the position that we're in right now.
Oh trust me, we're birds of effects. I believe that

(01:21:28):
to be in the position that we're in right now
is a bunch of fast thinking thinking, fast thinking fast
man and someone that gets what man, So we want
who's who's the cat that uh right? No, no, no, no,
no class dead. So you know, wait, who's ill of

(01:21:52):
the dead? I got a great example. I got a
great example. There's two examples. Who's the guy who's the
guy that sings the theme to mister Belvidere and the
all the all detergent throwing to bro We can all utilize.

Speaker 7 (01:22:13):
I wanted to know mister Belvedere come ons a double
like he.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
Leon Redbon, so Leon Redbone? He's about was he like
seventy eight? Now how do you get the gig? Because Jimmy,
that's the thing like oftentimes, like random ideas will come
and then the unfortunate thing is like the perception of
oh the roots can do anything. Is that hurts us

(01:22:44):
so much because I'm a dog and smoking mirror a human? Yeah,
with with with with smoking mirrors. I mean, anything can happen.
But oftentimes we'll get thrown. Occasionally we'll get thrown a
curveball where it's like, oh, I want you know, I
want to hear the guy that's singing the all the
commercials from the seventies and and the mister Belvedere theme.

(01:23:07):
It's like, in theory, it's seems like a good idea. Yeah,
but it's like I'm the one that has Usually these
people are like seventy nine, eighty years old, right, so
it's like he's sixty nine. How old is he sixty nine?
Trust me, he's more like eighty nine. And it's like, okay,
so at the counter of three, we're going to start dope,

(01:23:27):
b bro, You're throwing to China, devote the vote rope
whatever the lyrics are to mister velvit. And it's like
they might not be that quick, you know what I mean.
And oftentimes they'll be like what dude, and they'll just
look at the camera like, oh man, who's the guitar player?

(01:23:50):
And uh reitha Wranglin was singing respect to him and
the Blues brothers. Uh oh oh, Mcutar Murphy, No, Mcott Murphy.
One time, Mad Guitar Murphy. You remember how aunt esther
and Friday when she was the Jove's witness, the way
she said fuck you, Well, the funniest moment in our

(01:24:20):
history of that show of sit ins. M Guitar Murphy
again up there in age or whatever. Didn't want to
wear in the ears or anything. So I'm like trying
to tell him, okay, the next song yeah, and he
just looked at me and he's just like fuck and
he took his guitar and walked off to walk off

(01:24:46):
over here over to you.

Speaker 9 (01:24:51):
Stories?

Speaker 1 (01:24:52):
What's your favorite? What stories are you allowed to tell?

Speaker 10 (01:24:55):
You can speaking in.

Speaker 14 (01:24:58):
We had jazz week that was yeah, we're talking about
some good oldies.

Speaker 1 (01:25:03):
Wow that it's only like twelve seconds of Tod and
Jimmy Heath.

Speaker 10 (01:25:11):
To the Heath Brothers Brothers. That week it was the
Heath Brothers, Wayne Shorter, Wow. Roy, Roy haynes Man, Yeah,
he can know.

Speaker 7 (01:25:25):
He's good. Roy is good.

Speaker 10 (01:25:28):
Roy played over Steven on a bumper.

Speaker 7 (01:25:32):
Yeah, eighty five, eighty five at least, right, he's ninety two.

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
We get fired from music director job late.

Speaker 10 (01:25:48):
He played over the bumpers at last, you know, like
twelve fifteen seconds coming in and then you stop and
then the show goes on, propels you into the next
act of the show. So Roy is playing and he's
in the middle of just this fiery solo, and like
all of us on stage are like, man, this is amazing.

(01:26:08):
But I'm like, how do I get him to stop?

Speaker 1 (01:26:13):
And I'm like waving my hands, no, no, oh, you
were coming in.

Speaker 10 (01:26:21):
How do I get him to stop, So what did
you do?

Speaker 7 (01:26:30):
What did you do?

Speaker 10 (01:26:31):
So at one point he realized it, but it was
about thirty seconds in and Stephen was like, did I
just hallucinate? Did y'all just hear that? You know, he
incorporated into the bit. But it's just the sittings are
very difficult.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
How how distracting? Can I ask? How distracting is noodling? Oh,
I hate to the show noodling? Okay, so it's guitar player.
I'm not throwing Jimmy under the bus at all. Jimmy
is very distracted by noodling.

Speaker 4 (01:27:09):
So just cooking noodles on the side of the stage.
It's just like your guitar, but you're not playing the
song even if the amp is off.

Speaker 1 (01:27:21):
You know, sometimes guitar players will sit there and like
practice a little bit, but Jimmy can still hear the
So oftentimes I have to remind people like any tuning,
any tuning, or you're basically supposed to be a frozen
statue while the show's going on, and oftentimes one little

(01:27:46):
like a or accidents happen, you know what I mean.
But it has the potential to throw his concentration game off.
It's like if you're shooting, uh a three point shot
with five seconds left in the game and suddenly your
mom's on the side, Hey, hey, hey, you know, distract

(01:28:08):
and it can throw off the game. So I'm saying,
how when mistakes like that happen, is there fear in
your heart, like, oh God, this is the end of mine.

Speaker 10 (01:28:21):
It's we've gotten good at at at moving around because
we still move around the theater and and and and basically,
we'll be playing in the balcony one break, or we'll
be playing and you know, we'll go to the there's
a two tiers, so we'll go to the balcony on
the stage side, or we'll go to the balcony on
the audience side, or we'll go in the aisles or

(01:28:43):
and and we have a lot of percussion instruments and
tambourines make a lot of noise when you pick them up.
So we've gotten good at it, so we don't have
as many hiccups anymore. But we got a note early on,
like in the first year, we got an email. I
get the email and it's like, so during the show,

(01:29:06):
would like it if the band area could be as
quiet as possible and I was like, oh, okay, but
the energy was like during the show, I knew it
was coming because I think somebody dropped the tambourine and
Steven looked over. He didn't say anything, but he looked
over like he's like, hmm okay. And then next day, Oh,

(01:29:31):
what what time do you have to be there? Normally, well,
it's changed production.

Speaker 1 (01:29:36):
Meeting or it's Marissa the production meeting person. What time
do you have to be there?

Speaker 14 (01:29:40):
In the more so, I technically don't work at the
Late Show anymore. I worked just for John, but I
worked there for three years. I actually worked the premiere
of the Late Show and the premiere of the Tonight Show.

Speaker 7 (01:29:51):
Took the information, and.

Speaker 14 (01:29:55):
So this is like a colliding of two worlds right
now a little a little bit. Yeah, but production meeting
starts at ten thirty, So back when I was an
employe at CBS had to be in around ten. John
usually gets in around The schedule change is depending on
how you feel with the band.

Speaker 1 (01:30:12):
How often you do live in Manhattan? Please tell me
you do? I used to.

Speaker 10 (01:30:16):
I don't anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
No, you Lioklyn, Brooklyn used to.

Speaker 14 (01:30:19):
Live two blocks away in Brooklyn.

Speaker 7 (01:30:21):
Look at him, Yeah, I belong in Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (01:30:23):
Yes, I still maintain they want me to live at
thirty one Rock.

Speaker 10 (01:30:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, Oh for sure.

Speaker 14 (01:30:30):
John would roll out of bed and walk to work
in probably fifteen seconds. That's how close here.

Speaker 1 (01:30:34):
Awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:30:35):
Now it's like an hour.

Speaker 10 (01:30:37):
I'll so I just wanted to get outside of it. Yeah.
And also I want I want to put a studio
because I have so many things that I want to record.
I'm putting the studio at the bottom floor, so I
can kind of just roll out of bit and go
to the studio and then go to work.

Speaker 7 (01:30:52):
Can I ask you just to rate your millennialism? What
part of Brooklyn do you live in?

Speaker 10 (01:30:57):
So it's like Clinton Hill, Fort Green Borders.

Speaker 7 (01:31:00):
What's what you think, Bill, that's like a little stage five?

Speaker 10 (01:31:07):
Great your millennium.

Speaker 11 (01:31:10):
He's living around the area where I used to live
when I first moved to Brooklyn and got priced out.

Speaker 7 (01:31:14):
Oh you gentified? Can as you never read any of
the the cons of because we all know that Steven
is so involved in the politics side of things. Does
that ever come at you in any type of way?

Speaker 10 (01:31:28):
You know it It doesn't, But it's definitely aligned to
tread in the sense that you have your identity, but
your identity is so closely related to the show and
the content of the show.

Speaker 1 (01:31:43):
So people watching the show probably know what they're getting into.

Speaker 10 (01:31:47):
Yeah, but I don't know if you know.

Speaker 7 (01:31:49):
That's true. But I didn't know if you get those.
I'm sure he still gets mean emails and hate stuff.
I'm talking about Steven, not John saying. Yeah, people still
don't like it. They know what he's saying. They don't
like it.

Speaker 1 (01:31:59):
I love it myself, but I feel like, if you're
watching Stephen Colbert, you know what you're getting.

Speaker 7 (01:32:05):
Oh you do?

Speaker 1 (01:32:10):
So anyway, what's the cafeteria like that?

Speaker 9 (01:32:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:32:14):
Yeah, Yeah, There's so many things I want to ask
about this show. First of all, what what's the degree
level of the of the theater? How cold is it?

Speaker 7 (01:32:27):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
Man, damn me.

Speaker 14 (01:32:31):
It's like i'd say, probably fifty eight degrees.

Speaker 10 (01:32:34):
Yeah, you can see your breath still cold.

Speaker 14 (01:32:37):
Yeah, they've kept it cold. They say that they keep
it cold to make people make people laugh, right, and
back in the day they kept it cold because the
lights were so hot. Now they're LEDs. They don't produce
any They.

Speaker 7 (01:32:46):
Always got a reason, they say, to strip levels of
the nipples hard. It's always exactly exactly.

Speaker 14 (01:32:54):
You got to wear a winter jacket when you're in there.

Speaker 1 (01:32:56):
We we should say that the CBS Theater letterman was
there first. Yeah, and he started normally it should be
sixty eight degrees, yes, and then when the lights come on,
then it's hot. But as she said, now it's led.
It doesn't there's no heat uh emanated from it. And
now it's like fifty eight degrees.

Speaker 10 (01:33:18):
That's not that's ballpark.

Speaker 14 (01:33:20):
But I think around there the other.

Speaker 10 (01:33:23):
Day it was factually recorded at fifty eight because that
was fake news. How big was the theater though there
was a it's about a five hundred seater.

Speaker 14 (01:33:35):
Really tall ceilings. There's a big dome.

Speaker 7 (01:33:37):
It's five hundred seats, bigger than another woman. Yeah, the
ceiling is that's what he has.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
No, No, because in my mind I thought you guys
were playing for like ten thousand people. No, it seems large.

Speaker 10 (01:33:49):
As like a little like four ninety something looks big
on cameracks.

Speaker 14 (01:33:55):
The dome is. The dome is pretty massive. But yeah,
seat wise, it's I think it's under five hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:34:00):
Yeah, damn, okay, it's nice. You guys have to warm
up at the beginning. Oh yeah, are you tired of
marching out and doing It's like a it's it's good
for the band if we keep it fresh. So if
we we change it.

Speaker 10 (01:34:17):
Exactly, so you gotta you gotta come out and you
have to do something that you don't even know how
it's going to turn out. It's almost like a way
for us to warm up ourselves, not even just the house.
So we've recently been we've been doing sunny rollins Saint Thomas.
Oh okay, yeah, but sometimes we used to go out

(01:34:42):
and it would just be like, here's here's the groove,
let's play sky in G and then we'll modulate on Q.

Speaker 1 (01:34:51):
To be flat. Right, So you guys have your your
code speaker. Yeah, okay, since you're playing in close quarters.
I will say that for the roots, at least these
last nine years brought us so close together in a
way that is scary, where we can now literally have
conversations with each other musically, which I mean just our

(01:35:18):
our our level of code speak, certain certain reference lines,
and Mark plays something we know, you know, third row
five seats in polka dot shirt.

Speaker 7 (01:35:32):
Not anymore because he's married.

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
Exactly look.

Speaker 7 (01:35:37):
Touch he can't look they.

Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
Heard that my fault mark, But I mean it's hypothetical.
But the point is that there's at least there's about
thirty things we can communicate with each other without saying
a word to each other. I could literally play something
on the tambourine or or or the symbol or something
if I want Kirk's attention, I know what riff to

(01:36:03):
play if I want the horns, and there's something I
do a rhythm on the fourth. So are you guys
at that zen moment now where you guys know each
other that?

Speaker 10 (01:36:13):
Well, yeah, it's it's some wild, just coldes that we
got happening with, especially with the band who the guys
who were part of the band before the show. We
brought some of that in because we developed a lot
of colds when we would play on the subways. Because
when we play on the subways, you couldn't always say

(01:36:36):
something to the cat, here comes thugs, let's go right, yeah,
you know what I mean. So it's like taking that
and then also playing together every days. It's been a
lot of little things that when we play a venue
now it just feels like, oh, we're running now. We
took the weight to off our ankles. It's like, oh,

(01:36:58):
this is like way easier than it used to be.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
All right. One of my final questions, are you tired
of people asking you how long is this going to
be for? Oh?

Speaker 7 (01:37:09):
My goodness, how long it is gonna be for?

Speaker 1 (01:37:11):
Well? I mean, I mean.

Speaker 10 (01:37:16):
Question, Hey, yeah, I gotta get.

Speaker 7 (01:37:20):
You got to ask every man, every thirty year old man,
that question, how long you're gonna be here for? Because
you know y'all like to.

Speaker 10 (01:37:26):
I mean, I tell you what. The the first part
of the contract is five years. Okay, so I'm there,
there you go, and the rest we'll see. I mean,
I love doing it. I don't have plans to leave,
and so it's just it's hard to know because we're
actually doing the show almost every day. And it's like,

(01:37:47):
you gotta be thinking about that.

Speaker 7 (01:37:49):
Because you can't now you can't do projects like you
did the season of tre May and stuff like that.
But you want to do you want to still do
things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
There's another question I asked, wait, digit can you does
each band member, well, it's this as does each band
member have their own backup sub just in case you
get a call about blah blah blah being in the
hospital or wow, someone's.

Speaker 10 (01:38:15):
I'm I'm never subbed.

Speaker 1 (01:38:18):
I'm just damn y'all love each other too.

Speaker 10 (01:38:21):
It was like, I'm just trying to think of what
would happen if we needed.

Speaker 1 (01:38:27):
A sub So if somebody's sick, they just.

Speaker 7 (01:38:31):
Yeah, nobody been sick. What kind of what y'all doing?

Speaker 1 (01:38:35):
Kind of health regiment.

Speaker 10 (01:38:37):
I've been sick on stage before. Steven's also been sick
on stage before.

Speaker 1 (01:38:43):
With y'all, it's kind of the show has to go on. Yeah,
I found I finally found a drummer that like, when
I closed my eyes, I was like, holy shit, I'm
playing drums? Who is that?

Speaker 7 (01:38:56):
Who?

Speaker 1 (01:38:56):
Did I just ask you about? Raised? Raised drumm? Willie
Jones Jones? I want him to be. I want him
to be. Do you just want vacation? No, well, I
mean just in case you get a call or something like.
That's the thing. It's it's things gonna happen. You know,
when my father passed away and I had to rush

(01:39:17):
to to take care of stuff and Philly, I need
someone to send him for four days, and I had
that person.

Speaker 12 (01:39:22):
But there's other things to your job besides drumming, like his.

Speaker 1 (01:39:28):
Yeah, but at the end of the day, it's it's
still I know that there's a lot that revolves, but
the way that the circle is now the way that
I planned it. You know, I could as long as
those twelve seconds are straight going in and going out.

Speaker 12 (01:39:43):
My point is that your guys jobs involved more than
just musicianship.

Speaker 1 (01:39:47):
You have to be charismatic, you have to be funny.
But there's Treek, see, there's.

Speaker 7 (01:39:52):
There's you got tore though, right, But John, Who's.

Speaker 1 (01:39:56):
Who's the second most charismatic person in the group? Just
in case, what would you say would do that?

Speaker 14 (01:40:01):
That's not like John, you got energy this like could
step in and be the front man.

Speaker 1 (01:40:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:40:09):
We I don't think we've ever.

Speaker 1 (01:40:10):
I don't mean forever.

Speaker 10 (01:40:11):
I just mean like a show school would do that because.

Speaker 7 (01:40:14):
Now I think we're messing them up because get sick,
you know, I feel.

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
Like we're getting energy has evil face.

Speaker 10 (01:40:26):
I was thinking, even even in situations where someone has
missed shows, we don't get a sub We just played
with with the band without like like like Lewis Cato
plays the bass and then when he was out for
a while, we just did shows where there was no base,
with no drugs. We have Tuba as well.

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
So, I mean.

Speaker 10 (01:40:49):
It would be interesting to do this.

Speaker 7 (01:40:50):
I don't I think this is dangerous. I don't know.
But you should just play, you should plan for it.

Speaker 10 (01:40:55):
But yeah, I gotta think about that. It's almost seven
hundred shows six What.

Speaker 1 (01:41:01):
Are you guys on, Alex We're on number No, we are,
We're about we're coming up on two thousand. We're on
eight hundred something right now?

Speaker 10 (01:41:09):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:41:10):
Are we in the nine hundreds?

Speaker 12 (01:41:11):
Yeah, we're nine to fifty on the Tonight Show and
we did like nine seventy on the first one.

Speaker 1 (01:41:16):
Oh shit, I forgot about. But who's late Night?

Speaker 7 (01:41:19):
John?

Speaker 10 (01:41:19):
Got about the first A John?

Speaker 7 (01:41:21):
What's a Hollywood African?

Speaker 1 (01:41:23):
Oh?

Speaker 10 (01:41:23):
My good?

Speaker 14 (01:41:24):
Nice segue?

Speaker 7 (01:41:25):
You like that?

Speaker 1 (01:41:27):
Well?

Speaker 10 (01:41:27):
So in entertainment, Jean Michelle Boskia, who I've been researching
for the last year because I'm doing a musical sinspired
by his life for Broadway. I've been researching him and
that's one of his paintings from eighty three.

Speaker 7 (01:41:43):
Is called fuck Why did not?

Speaker 10 (01:41:45):
Now?

Speaker 7 (01:41:45):
I feel ignorant?

Speaker 1 (01:41:46):
See? I thought she was trying to lead into something.
I thought you knew that.

Speaker 10 (01:41:48):
Well that's the title, yeah, that title? But title the
title of my album that when we just put an
album out called Hollywood Africans. But the idol is a
homage to Jean Michelle Bosquas nineteen eighty three painting where
he's kind of it's an indictment of the entertainment industry
and the way that there's a marginalization of African American

(01:42:11):
entertainers and how they have to wear a mask while
creating all these different things.

Speaker 1 (01:42:16):
Code speaking, Yeah, we talked about code speaking on the
show last week. It was the funniest thing ever on
y'all show because, uh, the actress that used to be
in The Hungry Games and now in Amanda. Yeah, yeah,
I forget it. Amanda. She was trying to explain what

(01:42:38):
code speaking was at each other, like someone gets it? Well,
you know, uh, you know, are there any other Have
we covered everything?

Speaker 7 (01:42:56):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
We don't everything. Is there something that you missed? Uh?

Speaker 12 (01:43:00):
No, it's just so ultra interesting, you know to hear about.

Speaker 1 (01:43:06):
Wow, Steve, what what was that way to wrap it up? Steve?

Speaker 7 (01:43:11):
Can I just ask I have to do this for
just because I'm a female and somebody's going to want
to know.

Speaker 10 (01:43:17):
You sing, Hey, I'm in a relationship, talk.

Speaker 7 (01:43:22):
About all right? I am your marriage dude, don't know
you always do that beauty.

Speaker 1 (01:43:30):
People like people relationship.

Speaker 7 (01:43:34):
They hit you too when I ask you about your personal.

Speaker 1 (01:43:37):
When they when you when one one guest of ours
was like, damn why she had to put me in
the autar like that?

Speaker 7 (01:43:46):
Nobody heard that one. Wow, thank you taking congratulations.

Speaker 1 (01:43:54):
And thank you John for the the the Late Night
Wars edition John, go ahead, Oh yeah, all we need
is what's his name formerly of mactub Oh, I can't
think of his name face but I can't uh Afro,

(01:44:16):
He's a He's Reggie something.

Speaker 9 (01:44:22):
Reggie watch watch Oh yeah, another late night music director.

Speaker 1 (01:44:27):
Yes, we need to have the a late night symposium
with all the Yeah. That would be so yeah, that
would be dope. Love Fred Armison, right, yes, yes, another drummer.
Or we like to thank you for being on the show.

Speaker 7 (01:44:50):
Than you.

Speaker 1 (01:44:51):
Shout out to you always come back to tonight show.
Check out John's new album on streaming on Pandora right now.

Speaker 7 (01:44:59):
Yes, and then go look at the look at the painting.

Speaker 1 (01:45:02):
I do have a lot of and I do have
a question of course. Go ahead, Steve.

Speaker 12 (01:45:06):
You guys have a rehearsal room there, like yeah, yeah,
it are.

Speaker 14 (01:45:15):
Seen both so yeah, you know ours it is pretty
much the same size. Yours is a little Yours is
better because you have an actual mixing board in there
and you can record straight into We don't have that
to get hooked up.

Speaker 1 (01:45:30):
Wait a minute, time out, I gotta extend this show
for three minutes. Wait a minute. You guys do that
show and don't document any ideas that you have during rehearsal.

Speaker 14 (01:45:40):
Oh yeah, we do voice memos on the iPhone, you know,
wow with an organized dropbox system.

Speaker 1 (01:45:52):
Again technology killing. I'm saying, get a little recording system
inside your rehearsal room. Yeah, and then you can document.

Speaker 10 (01:46:03):
See I thought you meant in the office, because I
have that in the office.

Speaker 1 (01:46:07):
No, we are. Our dressing room is our studio. We
made We made Elvis Costell's album inside of that dressing
room like places in real studios.

Speaker 7 (01:46:18):
Yeah, and always kind of debunked the like it's also
that's your just one dressing room. There's y'all got like five,
like I just y'all have.

Speaker 9 (01:46:26):
It's you we got to It's like it's like a
gym locker room there, I.

Speaker 10 (01:46:32):
Mean, because we have we have there's the two dressing rooms,
and then one of them is the band one half
of it is the band rehearsal room. And then I
have the office, but that's on the other side of
the building. So that's where like the drums and the
recording equipment are, but in the band area. I never
thought to put a recording situation.

Speaker 1 (01:46:53):
Yes, that way, and get you, get you a Steve,
get you a Steve. And then when you and then
have a computer on stage where everyone's in here, and
then oh, yeah, you have.

Speaker 10 (01:47:06):
That, but we just played the voice memos through it.
We record the voice and we play them that.

Speaker 1 (01:47:14):
You don't need an engineer.

Speaker 10 (01:47:16):
Just let's drop it.

Speaker 7 (01:47:18):
I'm sorry. Last random question, Can the Roots appear on
that show? And if you if your album could appear
on the other show, could you'll ever be on the
same show?

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
Sad we have uh Jon Batiste on the Tonight show.
Whether there's no who's the new Less Moons of Yes, yeah,
we don't hang out y'all, y'all y'all country without a president.

Speaker 10 (01:47:41):
Well you have the step in, but we don't have
No one has been brought in.

Speaker 1 (01:47:50):
I definitely know that, uh the Roots aren't welcome to
anything on CBS, including the Grammys during the Less Moons
period because the the proximity of the Late Night Wars
was like a thing.

Speaker 10 (01:48:03):
In his head.

Speaker 1 (01:48:03):
Oh wow, day, I want it, you want it, you
want it. No, I'm just saying that I have zero qualms.
And you know, Stephen and Jimmy have done that. They
did want each other shows before. Oh okay, and to me,

(01:48:26):
one of the greatest things, like I would love to
do in April Fool's Day where it's like both those
straight they're so stupid, but that would do. Would show
Remember that Charlie Brown, I think Brown battle.

Speaker 14 (01:48:41):
That was so we weren't allowed to post that though,
but maybe we'll take it out of the archives and
on Instagram, the Late Night War situation.

Speaker 1 (01:48:51):
He don't like you. I'm sorry, I don't know it was.

Speaker 14 (01:48:55):
I'm wasn't us to do it.

Speaker 1 (01:48:59):
Yeah, don't, I don't.

Speaker 12 (01:49:03):
I'm not saying to look like I'm supposed to know
what's going on on the Lord Michael's level.

Speaker 1 (01:49:10):
Again, this is what happens when executives and lawyers and
red tapes get involved. Let's take it out of the cool.
We had a we had a like Lucy Lionis.

Speaker 14 (01:49:29):
Via text message and it started out, how did it
start off?

Speaker 1 (01:49:33):
I think the James or James James.

Speaker 14 (01:49:37):
So Megan Trainer was on the show promoting the Peanuts
movie and uh, go.

Speaker 1 (01:49:42):
Back, wait to look on your face. That was like,
I wish the audience could see your face right now,
all of our viewers. Yeah, John's taking a picture.

Speaker 5 (01:49:55):
Stories like that's what.

Speaker 9 (01:49:59):
I don't remember can Train on the Peanuts movie.

Speaker 14 (01:50:02):
Soundtrack song song on it? But long story short, we
go back and she texted me and she was like,
I'm at tonight's show and I used to intern there
back in two thousand and I don't know something something,
So she recorded James. Uh or no, I recorded John
playing the Peanuts theme song on the piano and texted

(01:50:23):
over to her. Five minutes later, we get a text
from James. He's playing it back.

Speaker 7 (01:50:28):
It looks like black Charlie Brown, a little bit of like.

Speaker 14 (01:50:36):
He was like, okay, let's go. So John's like, all right, well,
we got to send one back. So we record John
and he throws this like bluesy flavor and it's like
I tried the level up. So then James sends back
one again and his is even more insane. Than John's
and we're like, all right, we're stepping it up.

Speaker 1 (01:50:56):
Let's go.

Speaker 14 (01:50:56):
So we go to the rehearsal room, like, tell the band,
all right, guys, we're gonna send another video to them.
We're gonna reveal you when the camera pans around. So
I got my iPhone. John starts a little intro and
then then we pan around. The band comes in and
we're like, all right, we got them, we got them,
send it back. We send it back, probably about like

(01:51:17):
two hours past. We're like, all right, we won Like
pretty much, they can't.

Speaker 7 (01:51:20):
They have nothing on us.

Speaker 14 (01:51:22):
Get a text message and it's a close up of
a mirror and they're in the studio and they start
playing the Peanuts theme song.

Speaker 7 (01:51:31):
I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 14 (01:51:32):
I'm pretty sure Keith.

Speaker 7 (01:51:33):
Filmed this or something.

Speaker 14 (01:51:34):
The phone pans back, the studio is full with the
audience and they're all doing the Charlie Brown dance and
this is probably this was about i'd say, two minutes
before we were supposed to go.

Speaker 1 (01:51:45):
On stage, and.

Speaker 7 (01:51:48):
What are we gonna do?

Speaker 2 (01:51:49):
Then?

Speaker 7 (01:51:50):
What are we gonna do?

Speaker 14 (01:51:51):
So we go on stage and you got I don't
want to say who I thought one. I mean, you
guys like went around the house and everyone was cheering
going to.

Speaker 1 (01:52:00):
March to the audience. I don't know, I'm gonna.

Speaker 7 (01:52:07):
Say I think the Roots.

Speaker 14 (01:52:08):
The Roots kind of had it down though with the
Charlie Brown dance in the audience that was that was tight.
But so we brought it to Steven and we were like,
we did this thing.

Speaker 7 (01:52:17):
It was so random.

Speaker 14 (01:52:18):
It's funny how it turned out, you know, like the
late night bands are friends, and he was like, oh,
this is a great idea. Do you know what we
should do. We should get we should do ours over
and get everyone to wear Charlie Brown T shirt and
do something like crazy like that, but then have the
to have John and the band march out of our
theater and into the tonight show theater. I joined them

(01:52:38):
on stage and make it like a charity thing around Christmas.
So this is twenty fifteen and.

Speaker 1 (01:52:47):
Three years of fast.

Speaker 7 (01:52:49):
We might bring it back Dan, which is dead, which
is big.

Speaker 10 (01:52:55):
He's done make it happen.

Speaker 1 (01:52:57):
We will make it happen. I never knew what happened
with it.

Speaker 14 (01:53:01):
I thought, sitting on my computer, wait, but we didn't
put it.

Speaker 1 (01:53:05):
On Twitter or Instagram or anything.

Speaker 14 (01:53:07):
They told us anything with it this Christmas, bring it back.

Speaker 1 (01:53:12):
All right, we shall bring it back. Continue, Let's do it.

Speaker 14 (01:53:15):
No, it's not late night friendship.

Speaker 1 (01:53:18):
That's the jokes. Continue always. Mister Rogers was still here.
Second starter war between me and mister Rogers. Some bloods
and crips between Street and mister Rogers. Johnny Costa, Yes,
John Costa, Yeah, all right, well on behalf of our

(01:53:41):
all questions. Thank you, all right, thank you, John, Patissa
Amerson don't know this, y on, behalf of Sugar Steve
and Boss Bill and and and and Boss Bill and
unpaid Bill. I forgot unpaid bills like I wasn't even here.
I know and Bill for this week. Yes you are

(01:54:03):
overdue Bill. I'm what's Fontcolo? He's not here doing his
basement or something. He's definitely like Matt finishing the stairway. Okay,
well this is quest love of course, Love supreme, and
we will see you on the next go round. And
I'm with I was waiting for purchased all of Kyoto's

(01:54:45):
all his scoring music. He it was like a Japanese
with the roots. Yeah, he said with us, Yeah, I
forgot that. Yeah, you win. And all we did was
his songs. Wow, what drink I want to get?

Speaker 10 (01:55:02):
Yokoshima mourat Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:55:05):
Man, all right, we're out, We're out, We're out.

Speaker 10 (01:55:12):
John H.

Speaker 1 (01:55:24):
Course Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For more
podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.