June 12, 2024 • 24 mins
JBMV Discussion (including music by) Greg Manning, Jazz Musician, Composer & Producer.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:18):
Welcome to the season finale of the second season of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
I am Joseph Simmons, the host and also author of the new book,
Just Buy My Vote, African-American Voting Rights in the Chicago Condition.
You've been enjoying the music of Greg Manning, who is in the studio with me today.
(00:40):
So I'm so excited. I'm barely sitting in my seat excited. Mr.
Greg Manning, welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
Hi, Joseph. I'm very happy to be here. And, you know, I'm glad you're excited.
Thank you, sir. It took us a while to connect. That's all right.
(01:02):
It's been worth it. Let me tell you.
Here we are. Here we are. So, you know, with all your hype, I hope this is not a big letdown.
Oh, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You got this. Yes. The pressure is on.
This is what I know. You are an awesome jazz musician, a pianist, composer, producer.
(01:25):
You've toured all over the world.
So where I'd like to start is you were born in Nigeria and then spent most of
your life in Switzerland, which is where the accent is from.
That's right. That's what shaped you into the professional you are today.
Right. That makes you unique with a unique perspective.
(01:46):
You moved to Los Angeles in 2002. I know you're relocated here to Nevada from California.
I was happy to be a part of your relocation here.
Shameless plug for my real estate business, but I digress. Yes.
So given your unique perspective, Greg Manning, what are some of your favorite
(02:08):
sources that you can share with the JBMV avatar?
I'm happy to do this, you know. Believe it or not, Joseph, one of my sources is just Google.
When I'm interested in something, I Google it.
And of course, then a thousand links show up. And usually I start with mainstream
(02:29):
media, New York Times, CNN, sometimes even Fox, just to get the other perspective.
And I go from there.
And I think it's actually interesting, though, if you're a scholar and you buy
a book and you go deep into research, you really study the book and the author.
(02:52):
After all, it's actually just one opinion.
And the beautiful thing is about Google, in like a few seconds,
you can have access to a lot of different opinions.
And as we talked before we started recording, your question about sources to
(03:12):
me is very deep because it pertains to the truth.
You know, I mean, history, sources in history.
If you ask a Native American about North American history, if you asked one
of the settlers about North American history, completely different answers.
Right. And what is the truth, you know? Right.
(03:36):
It's sometimes very hard to get to the bottom of it.
Yeah. But I think… Go ahead, please. Go ahead.
No, you go ahead. But I think it's nowadays, you know, we are so polarized.
People of different opinions don't talk to each other. It's either my way or the highway.
I do enjoy hearing different opinions, you know. And sometimes, Joseph called me crazy.
(04:02):
Sometimes I Google flat earth.
And you would be surprised what's coming up. Wow. You know. I've done that one.
Do that. I will. And then check out the sources.
And I got to say, I mean, some of it is totally bogus, totally crazy.
But some stuff makes you think for a second.
(04:25):
You know, your preconditioned ideas, how to think about the earth,
about the rotation of the celestial bodies.
It just makes you think for a second.
Interesting. Yeah. Google has changed our lives, no doubt. out um it has and
so now from your google searches what give me some give me some some sources
(04:48):
that uh help reveal who you are.
Uh i know that you have a couple of books that you were going to tell me about,
yeah absolutely i mean i'm i'm a musician that's not really who i am that's
what i do but i i take it very seriously okay i do take my craft very seriously
(05:08):
and one of my heroes of of course, is Herbie Hancock.
And he has an autobiography called Possibilities written with Lisa Dickey.
And it's a great book. And the great thing about, you know, autobiographies,
you hear it from the source.
This is actually pretty close to the truth.
(05:28):
Right. Right. I mean, you mentioned Herbie Hancock. First thing that comes to
my mind is bow bow bow bow bow yes yes yes chameleon with the head honors right
yeah he he he changed fusion you know would tell us a little bit about that
book what'd you find interesting in there.
And shockingly, he disclosed that when he was in his 50s, Herbie got addicted to crack. Wow.
(05:56):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it took a while for him to get off of it.
And luckily, his wife, his family was a big part of it.
And he's clean now. and I
mean I don't want to brag but
I don't say this often but Herbie and
(06:17):
I we go back a little bit because when
I moved to Los Angeles I was just a huge Herbie fan and I know that he's a Buddhist
so I started researching what sect he's a member of and they had so to speak
they had a branch in Los Angeles on Venice Boulevard And because I love Herbie so much, I thought, oh,
(06:40):
if I become a Buddhist, I'm probably going to play better.
Okay. Stupid thoughts, you know, it didn't happen.
But I was lucky enough to meet Herbie and chant with Herbie Hancock in the same room.
Wow. And just, you know, just being with him, watching him do it,
(07:01):
it's just, you know, master and disciple.
It's just amazing. One thing I've learned from Herbie, I mean,
of course, he has amazing ears and musically, one thing that I know for sure,
the way that man hears sus chords, suspended chords,
nobody else on this planet hears it like he does.
(07:22):
But another thing, just by watching him, his laser focus, the ability to focus,
tune out the world and do only one thing.
It was, to me, it was amazing just watching him. I bet. Really amazing. Goodness gracious.
I mean, what an experience that is. I mean, he's one of the pioneers for sure, right?
(07:45):
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah. And, you know, his background in classical music, then moving to jazz,
playing with all the greats, his stint with Miles Davis, then going out on his own.
It's, I mean, legendary.
Legendary. Wow. He's a giant that any, every piano player basically lifts on his shoulders.
(08:12):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Amazing.
You got a second one for us? Yeah. I also got a little bit into producing.
And, of course, my hero is Quincy, Quincy Jones.
Okay. Quincy wrote a book with Bill Gibbons called Q on Producing.
Wow. And there are so many amazing stories in there.
(08:34):
And also, you know, people sometimes think, oh, Quincy Jones,
you know, affiliated with Michael Jackson.
He started out as a millionaire producer.
But, oh boy, you know, again, I think his roots were in Chicago.
And it was a tough beginning. Tough beginning. I bet. I bet.
(08:56):
Yeah. Wow. What else you got?
I just picked something from a bookshelf. I read it a while ago,
but I just loved her podcast, Krista Tippett.
I think she was on NPR for a while. And the book is called Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise.
(09:17):
And that is one of my goals in life.
Amen to that. Not becoming, I don't know, more intellectual.
Just becoming more wiser. Sure.
There's a difference between being extremely smart and being extremely wise.
(09:38):
There is a difference. No doubt. No doubt about it.
Let's shift gears just a little bit. Tell me a little bit about your music. What are you working on?
Oh, right now, I'm a little lazy right now, because I just finished Kirk Whalum's record.
And yeah, it came out a few days ago.
(10:01):
And it was a labor of love, but so much work.
I was wearing so many different hats during producing that record.
It was a bit overwhelming. overwhelming and right now
i'm i'm i have slowed down a little bit i'm enjoying
life i'm going out to the movies enjoying
art listening to concerts uh but but still you know i'm practicing it as a matter
(10:25):
of fact uh next week i'm going to go to memphis and i'm going to play with uh
kirk whalen oh nice we're going to do a show together and it's actually his
record release party wow Wow.
What's that record? What's the song?
The record is called Epic Cool.
Nice. It's on the label called Mac Avenue, and it came out middle of May.
(10:49):
Interesting. And you guys are going to be down in Memphis. It's brand new.
Yes. Kirk does a series called Cafe Kirk.
And every two or three months, he invites artists to play with him.
And I got lucky that I got the call to work with him. Very nice. And so I'm old school.
So I, you know, in my research, I saw a number of names mentioned in your repertoire,
(11:14):
Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum, as you mentioned, Earl Klug.
Tell us a little bit about your music and how you've evolved.
Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, I think a career in music is never a straight path.
There's turns and everything.
I initially started, I came to this country, I'm from Switzerland,
(11:37):
but I came to this country in 1990.
I went to Berklee College of Music and I studied.
Yes. At that time, there was no such school in Europe. So I had to come to the States.
Luckily, I got a scholarship. And I stayed there for about two years, two and a half years.
(11:59):
Unfortunately, I never graduated because I had the possibility,
I had the opportunity to work on a musical in Switzerland.
Wow. And I thought, OK, I'm going to work on this just, you know, a quick leaf of absence.
Now I'll be back in a year or two. But that thing in Switzerland really exploded.
And I never went back. Although I think I have like seven credits left, which is ridiculous.
(12:24):
So at one point I should go back and get my bachelor's.
You thought about doing it when things settled down, maybe? Maybe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just just just, you know, just to have that.
I mean, you know, in music, diplomas are not really important. Right.
But I just but I think just for me to start something and actually finish it,
(12:45):
that is an important thing.
So I may go back and finish.
I have seven credits left. What was the project in Switzerland that took you back?
You know, it's crazy. A comedian, very established, very famous comedian in
Switzerland, Marco Rima, he heard my music somewhere while I was in school at Berkeley.
(13:09):
He heard it somewhere in Switzerland and called me.
He got my number. He called me and said, hey, Greg, I really like your style.
I really like how you compose. I suppose.
I've been thinking about doing a modern musical for a long time and,
you know, in the music industry, everybody talks about great projects,
(13:29):
everybody says, hey, man, we're going to win a Grammy next week and then nothing ever happens.
To my amazement, Joseph, the guy stood at my door in Boston three days later.
He flew over, and he was like, Greg, I want to work with you.
Let's work on music. Wow.
Yeah, yeah. And it just, I think to this day, it's a funny thing.
(13:55):
It's not really musical.
It's like a hybrid of a musical and comedy show.
It's in German. Interesting. My native language is Swiss German, so it's in German.
And I think to this day, it's probably the most successful German-speaking musical. Wow, interesting.
Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I before actually graduating from Berkeley,
(14:19):
I had a great start in the industry. Absolutely.
Yeah. And then I stayed in Switzerland for a few years. I had my own TV band.
There was a TV show called Taquito.
And believe it or not, Justin Timberlake, when he was with NSYNC,
he was a guest on the show and I played with him and the group.
That's cool. I bet that was a lot of fun, huh?
(14:41):
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, we had artists from the States come over.
Hasselhoff came and sang with us. Wow. Yeah, it was really something.
But, you know, funny enough, everybody kept telling me in Switzerland,
man, your music sounds too American.
It's not really Swiss. Interesting. Which I always took, you know,
as a big compliment. But in Switzerland, it wasn't.
(15:04):
So in 97, I decided to
actually move to the States to pursue a career
in music and one of my buddies from
Berkeley he had a production company Brian Preston he
had a production company in Atlanta and he invited me to come over work with
him and we did some you know we did some some commercials for for McDonald's
(15:26):
for for for corporations that's how I made a living nice but but I'm going back
for for a second while at Berkeley I,
One of the professors did a master class with Jonathan Butler.
Wow. Great, you know, great guitar player, singer from South Africa.
And we struck up a friendship.
(15:48):
We always stayed in touch. And when I came back to the States,
Jonathan actually hit me up and said, Hey, Greg, you know, why don't you play with me in my band?
And I ended up playing with him for almost a decade. Wow.
Toured the world with him. Oh, wow. For a decade. I became, first I was his
keyboard player, then I became his musical director.
(16:11):
And that man taught me so much about music. Interesting. I mean,
to me, it's like, you know, Herbie going with Miles.
For me, it was like, you know, playing with Jonathan Butler.
No doubt. An incredible musician.
Interesting. What's one of your favorite Jonathan Butler tunes?
Heal Our Land. Interesting. It's about, you know, the apartheid system in South Africa.
(16:38):
Interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's one of my favorite songs.
As a matter of fact, I just did a remix for him.
I can't talk about it too much, but I think and I hope it's going to come out pretty soon. Nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good. So now where did I pick up the Earl Klug connection?
(16:59):
Earl Clue, he has a festival.
You know, now I'm spacing. I'm not exactly sure where the festival was.
But he was hosting a festival, and I played there with Mindy Hebert.
I also played keyboards for Mindy Hebert for a while.
And I think Earl, he hosted the festival, and he was sitting in with us. Interesting.
(17:21):
Interesting. But I have never recorded with him. Okay.
I think maybe I saw, maybe you redid a song of his or something like that.
Oh, Joseph, you know more about me than I do.
I'm doing a little bit of research here. Thank you. No, you did a great job.
Thanks for the gentle reminder.
(17:41):
I'm a dummy. I'm a dummy. Yes, I did record a song of his called Twinkle with
the late guitar player Daryl Crooks. Wow.
It's actually one of my favorite songs. Very, very, very funky.
Oh, cool. Cool. Very good.
And then what's the Gerald Albright connection?
(18:02):
I did a tour with him. I don't think it exists anymore. There was a tour called Guitars and Saxes.
Very popular in North America. And I think Jonathan was on there and Gerald.
Interesting. So I started playing with Gerald. I did some live dates with him. Interesting.
(18:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great, I mean, great sax player.
Really? Oh, my God. And the scary thing is, he is as good on the bass as he
is on the saxophone. Interesting.
Wow. Yes, yeah, perfect pitch, everything.
So, tell me, how did you get started in music, Greg?
What brought you to the music world? Oh, it's such a funny story.
(18:50):
I still don't really understand it. For the longest time, I was not interested in music.
You know, my buddies, they had their favorite singer, their favorite group.
And I was kind of oblivious. I was like, yeah, yeah, music.
And then I'm not sure how it happened. One night the radio was on.
(19:11):
And I think, I don't know, I was probably 12.
I heard a song called Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder. Of course.
Changed my life. Really? Changed my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Changed my life. And, you know, now that I'm a little bit older,
I've been thinking about that evening for a long time.
(19:33):
And I think, you know, besides the music, I think I also connected with my ancestry,
with the black part of me. You know, I'm biracial. Okay.
I grew up in Switzerland, basically in a white society.
Both of my parents, well, my stepdad is white.
Great, great upbringing. but that part was kind of missing.
(19:56):
And I think, you know, music is always telling a story under the current that
people are not really aware of.
But I think when I heard Stevie, I heard Africa.
Interesting. Something, yeah, something made me connect with it.
And you started off on the piano?
Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Interesting. Yeah, piano, Fender Rhodes, organ.
(20:21):
Never really synthesizers in the beginning and
later on i kind of moved to synthesizers and
i love playing synth bass on stuff that that's that's also from stevie okay
a lot of his a lot of his hit songs it's actually synthesizer bass right i i
love doing it interesting interesting so you're you're kind of taking a little
(20:43):
break right now you're not uh not not super into a lot
of projects what's what what are you thinking next well i
mean i'm still active touring as i
said i'm going to memphis i'm going to be
on on the san diego jazz festival oh nice
and end of june so you know i'm
i have about about six no probably
(21:06):
10 shows left until the end of the year nice
and i'm i'm still producing not as frantically as
i did last year but i'm still producing artists like kim
scott uh jeff ryan is
still there uh less sabler on
on guitar and that that uh san
diego jazz festival sounds like fun yes yes yes i'm really looking forward to
(21:33):
it i think it it's it's a great uh it's it's at a great venue a great fun great
artists i'm really looking forward to meeting people over there. Wow, wow, I bet.
Well, what else? What else you got going on, big ones, other than Memphis and San Diego on your tour?
I'm going to be in Stockton. Okay. I'm going to be in Stockton as well.
(21:57):
I'm going to be at a smaller venue, but that's actually my old stomping grounds,
Spaghetini and Seal Beach. Interesting.
Yes, I'm going to be there in October.
Wow, nice. And so I went to see you when you were in Henderson.
I can't remember the name of that location. Do you do that anymore?
(22:18):
Or is that on your schedule anymore?
Gatsby's. Gatsby's, yes, yes. Actually, the ownership changed over there,
and unfortunately they don't do jazz anymore over there.
Oh, okay. All right. Any potential shows for you here in Las Vegas?
I'm going to go tomorrow at Jazz in the Park to see a great singer.
(22:40):
I hope, fingers crossed, I hope I can do my own show next year.
Nice. That would be really wonderful.
Well, let's consider that already done then. And I mean, that's going to happen.
Let's speak it and it will be done. That's right. That's going to happen for sure. Yes, yes, yes.
Well, this has been unbelievable for me.
(23:02):
Greg Manning, thank you, brother, from the bottom of my heart.
And to everyone listening, thank you for listening.
I look forward to the next season of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
And thanks again, Greg Manning.
Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me, Joseph.
Music.
Music.
(00:18):
Welcome to the season finale of the second season of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
I am Joseph Simmons, the host and also author of the new book,
Just Buy My Vote, African-American Voting Rights in the Chicago Condition.
You've been enjoying the music of Greg Manning, who is in the studio with me today.
(00:40):
So I'm so excited. I'm barely sitting in my seat excited. Mr.
Greg Manning, welcome to the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
Hi, Joseph. I'm very happy to be here. And, you know, I'm glad you're excited.
Thank you, sir. It took us a while to connect. That's all right.
(01:02):
It's been worth it. Let me tell you.
Here we are. Here we are. So, you know, with all your hype, I hope this is not a big letdown.
Oh, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You got this. Yes. The pressure is on.
This is what I know. You are an awesome jazz musician, a pianist, composer, producer.
(01:25):
You've toured all over the world.
So where I'd like to start is you were born in Nigeria and then spent most of
your life in Switzerland, which is where the accent is from.
That's right. That's what shaped you into the professional you are today.
Right. That makes you unique with a unique perspective.
(01:46):
You moved to Los Angeles in 2002. I know you're relocated here to Nevada from California.
I was happy to be a part of your relocation here.
Shameless plug for my real estate business, but I digress. Yes.
So given your unique perspective, Greg Manning, what are some of your favorite
(02:08):
sources that you can share with the JBMV avatar?
I'm happy to do this, you know. Believe it or not, Joseph, one of my sources is just Google.
When I'm interested in something, I Google it.
And of course, then a thousand links show up. And usually I start with mainstream
(02:29):
media, New York Times, CNN, sometimes even Fox, just to get the other perspective.
And I go from there.
And I think it's actually interesting, though, if you're a scholar and you buy
a book and you go deep into research, you really study the book and the author.
(02:52):
After all, it's actually just one opinion.
And the beautiful thing is about Google, in like a few seconds,
you can have access to a lot of different opinions.
And as we talked before we started recording, your question about sources to
(03:12):
me is very deep because it pertains to the truth.
You know, I mean, history, sources in history.
If you ask a Native American about North American history, if you asked one
of the settlers about North American history, completely different answers.
Right. And what is the truth, you know? Right.
(03:36):
It's sometimes very hard to get to the bottom of it.
Yeah. But I think… Go ahead, please. Go ahead.
No, you go ahead. But I think it's nowadays, you know, we are so polarized.
People of different opinions don't talk to each other. It's either my way or the highway.
I do enjoy hearing different opinions, you know. And sometimes, Joseph called me crazy.
(04:02):
Sometimes I Google flat earth.
And you would be surprised what's coming up. Wow. You know. I've done that one.
Do that. I will. And then check out the sources.
And I got to say, I mean, some of it is totally bogus, totally crazy.
But some stuff makes you think for a second.
(04:25):
You know, your preconditioned ideas, how to think about the earth,
about the rotation of the celestial bodies.
It just makes you think for a second.
Interesting. Yeah. Google has changed our lives, no doubt. out um it has and
so now from your google searches what give me some give me some some sources
(04:48):
that uh help reveal who you are.
Uh i know that you have a couple of books that you were going to tell me about,
yeah absolutely i mean i'm i'm a musician that's not really who i am that's
what i do but i i take it very seriously okay i do take my craft very seriously
(05:08):
and one of my heroes of of course, is Herbie Hancock.
And he has an autobiography called Possibilities written with Lisa Dickey.
And it's a great book. And the great thing about, you know, autobiographies,
you hear it from the source.
This is actually pretty close to the truth.
(05:28):
Right. Right. I mean, you mentioned Herbie Hancock. First thing that comes to
my mind is bow bow bow bow bow yes yes yes chameleon with the head honors right
yeah he he he changed fusion you know would tell us a little bit about that
book what'd you find interesting in there.
And shockingly, he disclosed that when he was in his 50s, Herbie got addicted to crack. Wow.
(05:56):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it took a while for him to get off of it.
And luckily, his wife, his family was a big part of it.
And he's clean now. and I
mean I don't want to brag but
I don't say this often but Herbie and
(06:17):
I we go back a little bit because when
I moved to Los Angeles I was just a huge Herbie fan and I know that he's a Buddhist
so I started researching what sect he's a member of and they had so to speak
they had a branch in Los Angeles on Venice Boulevard And because I love Herbie so much, I thought, oh,
(06:40):
if I become a Buddhist, I'm probably going to play better.
Okay. Stupid thoughts, you know, it didn't happen.
But I was lucky enough to meet Herbie and chant with Herbie Hancock in the same room.
Wow. And just, you know, just being with him, watching him do it,
(07:01):
it's just, you know, master and disciple.
It's just amazing. One thing I've learned from Herbie, I mean,
of course, he has amazing ears and musically, one thing that I know for sure,
the way that man hears sus chords, suspended chords,
nobody else on this planet hears it like he does.
(07:22):
But another thing, just by watching him, his laser focus, the ability to focus,
tune out the world and do only one thing.
It was, to me, it was amazing just watching him. I bet. Really amazing. Goodness gracious.
I mean, what an experience that is. I mean, he's one of the pioneers for sure, right?
(07:45):
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.
Yeah. And, you know, his background in classical music, then moving to jazz,
playing with all the greats, his stint with Miles Davis, then going out on his own.
It's, I mean, legendary.
Legendary. Wow. He's a giant that any, every piano player basically lifts on his shoulders.
(08:12):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Amazing.
You got a second one for us? Yeah. I also got a little bit into producing.
And, of course, my hero is Quincy, Quincy Jones.
Okay. Quincy wrote a book with Bill Gibbons called Q on Producing.
Wow. And there are so many amazing stories in there.
(08:34):
And also, you know, people sometimes think, oh, Quincy Jones,
you know, affiliated with Michael Jackson.
He started out as a millionaire producer.
But, oh boy, you know, again, I think his roots were in Chicago.
And it was a tough beginning. Tough beginning. I bet. I bet.
(08:56):
Yeah. Wow. What else you got?
I just picked something from a bookshelf. I read it a while ago,
but I just loved her podcast, Krista Tippett.
I think she was on NPR for a while. And the book is called Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise.
(09:17):
And that is one of my goals in life.
Amen to that. Not becoming, I don't know, more intellectual.
Just becoming more wiser. Sure.
There's a difference between being extremely smart and being extremely wise.
(09:38):
There is a difference. No doubt. No doubt about it.
Let's shift gears just a little bit. Tell me a little bit about your music. What are you working on?
Oh, right now, I'm a little lazy right now, because I just finished Kirk Whalum's record.
And yeah, it came out a few days ago.
(10:01):
And it was a labor of love, but so much work.
I was wearing so many different hats during producing that record.
It was a bit overwhelming. overwhelming and right now
i'm i'm i have slowed down a little bit i'm enjoying
life i'm going out to the movies enjoying
art listening to concerts uh but but still you know i'm practicing it as a matter
(10:25):
of fact uh next week i'm going to go to memphis and i'm going to play with uh
kirk whalen oh nice we're going to do a show together and it's actually his
record release party wow Wow.
What's that record? What's the song?
The record is called Epic Cool.
Nice. It's on the label called Mac Avenue, and it came out middle of May.
(10:49):
Interesting. And you guys are going to be down in Memphis. It's brand new.
Yes. Kirk does a series called Cafe Kirk.
And every two or three months, he invites artists to play with him.
And I got lucky that I got the call to work with him. Very nice. And so I'm old school.
So I, you know, in my research, I saw a number of names mentioned in your repertoire,
(11:14):
Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum, as you mentioned, Earl Klug.
Tell us a little bit about your music and how you've evolved.
Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, I think a career in music is never a straight path.
There's turns and everything.
I initially started, I came to this country, I'm from Switzerland,
(11:37):
but I came to this country in 1990.
I went to Berklee College of Music and I studied.
Yes. At that time, there was no such school in Europe. So I had to come to the States.
Luckily, I got a scholarship. And I stayed there for about two years, two and a half years.
(11:59):
Unfortunately, I never graduated because I had the possibility,
I had the opportunity to work on a musical in Switzerland.
Wow. And I thought, OK, I'm going to work on this just, you know, a quick leaf of absence.
Now I'll be back in a year or two. But that thing in Switzerland really exploded.
And I never went back. Although I think I have like seven credits left, which is ridiculous.
(12:24):
So at one point I should go back and get my bachelor's.
You thought about doing it when things settled down, maybe? Maybe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just just just, you know, just to have that.
I mean, you know, in music, diplomas are not really important. Right.
But I just but I think just for me to start something and actually finish it,
(12:45):
that is an important thing.
So I may go back and finish.
I have seven credits left. What was the project in Switzerland that took you back?
You know, it's crazy. A comedian, very established, very famous comedian in
Switzerland, Marco Rima, he heard my music somewhere while I was in school at Berkeley.
(13:09):
He heard it somewhere in Switzerland and called me.
He got my number. He called me and said, hey, Greg, I really like your style.
I really like how you compose. I suppose.
I've been thinking about doing a modern musical for a long time and,
you know, in the music industry, everybody talks about great projects,
(13:29):
everybody says, hey, man, we're going to win a Grammy next week and then nothing ever happens.
To my amazement, Joseph, the guy stood at my door in Boston three days later.
He flew over, and he was like, Greg, I want to work with you.
Let's work on music. Wow.
Yeah, yeah. And it just, I think to this day, it's a funny thing.
(13:55):
It's not really musical.
It's like a hybrid of a musical and comedy show.
It's in German. Interesting. My native language is Swiss German, so it's in German.
And I think to this day, it's probably the most successful German-speaking musical. Wow, interesting.
Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I before actually graduating from Berkeley,
(14:19):
I had a great start in the industry. Absolutely.
Yeah. And then I stayed in Switzerland for a few years. I had my own TV band.
There was a TV show called Taquito.
And believe it or not, Justin Timberlake, when he was with NSYNC,
he was a guest on the show and I played with him and the group.
That's cool. I bet that was a lot of fun, huh?
(14:41):
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, we had artists from the States come over.
Hasselhoff came and sang with us. Wow. Yeah, it was really something.
But, you know, funny enough, everybody kept telling me in Switzerland,
man, your music sounds too American.
It's not really Swiss. Interesting. Which I always took, you know,
as a big compliment. But in Switzerland, it wasn't.
(15:04):
So in 97, I decided to
actually move to the States to pursue a career
in music and one of my buddies from
Berkeley he had a production company Brian Preston he
had a production company in Atlanta and he invited me to come over work with
him and we did some you know we did some some commercials for for McDonald's
(15:26):
for for for corporations that's how I made a living nice but but I'm going back
for for a second while at Berkeley I,
One of the professors did a master class with Jonathan Butler.
Wow. Great, you know, great guitar player, singer from South Africa.
And we struck up a friendship.
(15:48):
We always stayed in touch. And when I came back to the States,
Jonathan actually hit me up and said, Hey, Greg, you know, why don't you play with me in my band?
And I ended up playing with him for almost a decade. Wow.
Toured the world with him. Oh, wow. For a decade. I became, first I was his
keyboard player, then I became his musical director.
(16:11):
And that man taught me so much about music. Interesting. I mean,
to me, it's like, you know, Herbie going with Miles.
For me, it was like, you know, playing with Jonathan Butler.
No doubt. An incredible musician.
Interesting. What's one of your favorite Jonathan Butler tunes?
Heal Our Land. Interesting. It's about, you know, the apartheid system in South Africa.
(16:38):
Interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's one of my favorite songs.
As a matter of fact, I just did a remix for him.
I can't talk about it too much, but I think and I hope it's going to come out pretty soon. Nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good. So now where did I pick up the Earl Klug connection?
(16:59):
Earl Clue, he has a festival.
You know, now I'm spacing. I'm not exactly sure where the festival was.
But he was hosting a festival, and I played there with Mindy Hebert.
I also played keyboards for Mindy Hebert for a while.
And I think Earl, he hosted the festival, and he was sitting in with us. Interesting.
(17:21):
Interesting. But I have never recorded with him. Okay.
I think maybe I saw, maybe you redid a song of his or something like that.
Oh, Joseph, you know more about me than I do.
I'm doing a little bit of research here. Thank you. No, you did a great job.
Thanks for the gentle reminder.
(17:41):
I'm a dummy. I'm a dummy. Yes, I did record a song of his called Twinkle with
the late guitar player Daryl Crooks. Wow.
It's actually one of my favorite songs. Very, very, very funky.
Oh, cool. Cool. Very good.
And then what's the Gerald Albright connection?
(18:02):
I did a tour with him. I don't think it exists anymore. There was a tour called Guitars and Saxes.
Very popular in North America. And I think Jonathan was on there and Gerald.
Interesting. So I started playing with Gerald. I did some live dates with him. Interesting.
(18:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great, I mean, great sax player.
Really? Oh, my God. And the scary thing is, he is as good on the bass as he
is on the saxophone. Interesting.
Wow. Yes, yeah, perfect pitch, everything.
So, tell me, how did you get started in music, Greg?
What brought you to the music world? Oh, it's such a funny story.
(18:50):
I still don't really understand it. For the longest time, I was not interested in music.
You know, my buddies, they had their favorite singer, their favorite group.
And I was kind of oblivious. I was like, yeah, yeah, music.
And then I'm not sure how it happened. One night the radio was on.
(19:11):
And I think, I don't know, I was probably 12.
I heard a song called Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder. Of course.
Changed my life. Really? Changed my life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Changed my life. And, you know, now that I'm a little bit older,
I've been thinking about that evening for a long time.
(19:33):
And I think, you know, besides the music, I think I also connected with my ancestry,
with the black part of me. You know, I'm biracial. Okay.
I grew up in Switzerland, basically in a white society.
Both of my parents, well, my stepdad is white.
Great, great upbringing. but that part was kind of missing.
(19:56):
And I think, you know, music is always telling a story under the current that
people are not really aware of.
But I think when I heard Stevie, I heard Africa.
Interesting. Something, yeah, something made me connect with it.
And you started off on the piano?
Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Interesting. Yeah, piano, Fender Rhodes, organ.
(20:21):
Never really synthesizers in the beginning and
later on i kind of moved to synthesizers and
i love playing synth bass on stuff that that's that's also from stevie okay
a lot of his a lot of his hit songs it's actually synthesizer bass right i i
love doing it interesting interesting so you're you're kind of taking a little
(20:43):
break right now you're not uh not not super into a lot
of projects what's what what are you thinking next well i
mean i'm still active touring as i
said i'm going to memphis i'm going to be
on on the san diego jazz festival oh nice
and end of june so you know i'm
i have about about six no probably
(21:06):
10 shows left until the end of the year nice
and i'm i'm still producing not as frantically as
i did last year but i'm still producing artists like kim
scott uh jeff ryan is
still there uh less sabler on
on guitar and that that uh san
diego jazz festival sounds like fun yes yes yes i'm really looking forward to
(21:33):
it i think it it's it's a great uh it's it's at a great venue a great fun great
artists i'm really looking forward to meeting people over there. Wow, wow, I bet.
Well, what else? What else you got going on, big ones, other than Memphis and San Diego on your tour?
I'm going to be in Stockton. Okay. I'm going to be in Stockton as well.
(21:57):
I'm going to be at a smaller venue, but that's actually my old stomping grounds,
Spaghetini and Seal Beach. Interesting.
Yes, I'm going to be there in October.
Wow, nice. And so I went to see you when you were in Henderson.
I can't remember the name of that location. Do you do that anymore?
(22:18):
Or is that on your schedule anymore?
Gatsby's. Gatsby's, yes, yes. Actually, the ownership changed over there,
and unfortunately they don't do jazz anymore over there.
Oh, okay. All right. Any potential shows for you here in Las Vegas?
I'm going to go tomorrow at Jazz in the Park to see a great singer.
(22:40):
I hope, fingers crossed, I hope I can do my own show next year.
Nice. That would be really wonderful.
Well, let's consider that already done then. And I mean, that's going to happen.
Let's speak it and it will be done. That's right. That's going to happen for sure. Yes, yes, yes.
Well, this has been unbelievable for me.
(23:02):
Greg Manning, thank you, brother, from the bottom of my heart.
And to everyone listening, thank you for listening.
I look forward to the next season of the Just Buy My Vote podcast.
And thanks again, Greg Manning.
Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me, Joseph.
Music.
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