Speaker 1: Quest Love Show is a production of iHeart Radio people.
Speaker 1: What's Up? This is Quest Love And last week we
Speaker 1: brought you part one of my in studio conversation with
Speaker 1: Samara Joy. At the top of the month, she'll be
Speaker 1: competing for two Grammy Awards, all right, including Best Vocal
Speaker 1: Jazz Album for a Late Selpe Portrait. If you haven't
Speaker 1: heard already, to make sure you spend time with that album.
Speaker 1: And with part one of this interview, this is where
Speaker 1: I really got to learn her story and dig into
Speaker 1: her craft. So part two we're gonna have a little
Speaker 1: more fun. We talked about her time in the studio,
Speaker 1: her ensemble, and yes, where she gives her Grammy Awards.
Speaker 1: She's already one, all right, enjoy What was your first
Speaker 1: job ever?
Speaker 2: I was a cashier at shopwrite part time?
Speaker 1: Okay? What album have you committed to Memory from start
Speaker 1: to finish? No Skips, perfect album.
Speaker 2: The Audience with Betty Carter. That's live with John Hicks
Speaker 2: on piano, Curtis Lundy on bass, in Kenny Washington on drums.
Speaker 2: And he was actually my professor, but he was eighteen
Speaker 2: years old.
Speaker 1: Kenny Washington. It's nothing like I Got Gods with me.
Speaker 2: I mean, he was an incredible professor but also an
Speaker 2: amazing musician. I've gotten to play with him. But that
Speaker 2: album Betty Carter, she does things, the arrangements, the songs,
Speaker 2: the compositions.
Speaker 1: I love it, Okay, So it's kind of mad libby.
Speaker 1: The singer to whom everyone compares you to is.
Speaker 2: Saravon.
Speaker 1: However, the singer that you really pattern in your style after.
Speaker 2: Is Oh my gosh, Carmen McCrae.
Speaker 1: I'd love you say that if you can ever find
Speaker 1: there's a rendition she does of a song called The
Speaker 1: Mystery of Man. Got to look it up. It's devastating
Speaker 1: to hear, like just the way that she emotes in
Speaker 1: her voice. But what is it about Carmen mc Honestly?
Speaker 2: I think it's that, like she she's not necessarily mos
Speaker 2: acrobatic of singers. She comes from the school of Billie Holliday,
Speaker 2: as she says so herself, like that's one of her
Speaker 2: main inspirations, and so I think she just kind of
Speaker 2: gets right to the heart of a song, you know,
Speaker 2: And that's something I feel like I need to learn.
Speaker 2: It's like, as I'm learning the possibilities of what you
Speaker 2: can do with your voice. There's also something to be
Speaker 2: said about having taste and knowing when to withhold and
Speaker 2: knowing you knows more. Yeah, so I just in some cases.
Speaker 2: And so I feel like I listened to her over
Speaker 2: and over again, and I find something new every time,
Speaker 2: even if it's the simplest, you know, idea or riff
Speaker 2: or And she was also pianist too, So I admire
Speaker 2: that because I feel like she could pick out the
Speaker 2: pretty notes to improvise on on a melody that still
Speaker 2: go along with the chords without you know, maybe disrupting.
Speaker 2: But her rhythm was insane too, So yeah, I think
Speaker 2: her the way that she improvises on a melody, the
Speaker 2: way that her feel is like rhythmically interacting with the bank.
Speaker 2: And that's what I love.
Speaker 1: What other instruments do you play?
Speaker 2: I used to play bass electric.
Speaker 1: Used to, I mean like you forget after I used to.
Speaker 2: I used to because my dad he got me a
Speaker 2: Fender jazz bas for Christmas, along with our brothers Johnson
Speaker 2: Record and a couple more so, I was like learning
Speaker 2: their songs. Actually, host Johnson is like my I love
Speaker 2: his playing to the point where I was I looked
Speaker 2: up like an educational video that he did from the eighties. Yes,
Speaker 2: and I started off with I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 2: think that's time for me to put it out. Actually,
Speaker 2: but I play piano now, but I used to play bass.
Speaker 2: I miss it.
Speaker 1: Okay. Uh, name me an artist that we would be shocked.
Speaker 1: Is an influence on you or that we didn't see coming?
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm non jazz predictable.
Speaker 1: You know, how's your Metallica history? How's your I.
Speaker 2: Feel like I'm so predictable. I don't know. My My
Speaker 2: origins are pretty clear. Hmmm. As far as lyricists, do
Speaker 2: you know of a lady named Margo Gierian. No, she
Speaker 2: only released one album to her name, but she's from
Speaker 2: Long Island and she is She was a vocalist. I
Speaker 2: can't remember what the name of the album is. I
Speaker 2: think it's like sing a song or something like that.
Speaker 2: But she's a really dope lyricist. And I've been learning
Speaker 2: how to write lyrics to jazz compositions and she did
Speaker 2: that a lot.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I was going to ask you about your
Speaker 1: vocal least game because I'm realizing that y're like.
Speaker 2: She wrote lyrics to an ornate Coleman composition called Lonely Woman.
Speaker 2: It's unbelievable. So she's one that I that I look
Speaker 2: up to that might be unexpected.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm skipping now because since she brought it up. Okay,
Speaker 1: So in portrait of course, you know, every jazz artist
Speaker 1: does the American Songbook, you know, and they'll choose the
Speaker 1: safe ones. They'll choose autumn leaves or whatever. But you're
Speaker 1: like the you lay the gauntlet down, like you're choosing
Speaker 1: like Mingus' craziest period, even with sun Rot, so with
Speaker 1: Mingus alone. And I have an obsession and a love
Speaker 1: for jazz vocalise and you know, name it King Pleasure,
Speaker 1: Eddie Jefferson, Lambert Lambert Hendricks and Ross like all of
Speaker 1: the for our listeners. Vocalist is where I guess the
Speaker 1: rule is basically, you add lyrics to an existing jazz
Speaker 1: song and do you have to follow the pattern of
Speaker 1: what the solo is.
Speaker 2: You can, And I started off doing that, like writing
Speaker 2: lyrics only to the well writing lyrics to the melody
Speaker 2: and the solo. But now I just kind of write
Speaker 2: lyrics to the melody because the solo can be a
Speaker 2: little hard, a challenging when people doing triplets and sixteenth
Speaker 2: notes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So have you ever heard the grand Royal of all
Speaker 1: jazz vocalist posse cuts? Have you heard Freddy Freeloader by
Speaker 1: Yes Farren?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. So during the pandemic, that was one
Speaker 1: of my favorite exercises. I would DJ like five hours
Speaker 1: online and I think one night I read the comments
Speaker 1: where someone was telling me that there's a story of
Speaker 1: how Hendrix like literally micromanaged Bob McFerrin, George Benson and
Speaker 1: Algio to follow the Coltrane Miles solos on the original
Speaker 1: Freddy Freeloader, And I was like no, and I stopped
Speaker 1: the record and I put both albums up and played
Speaker 1: them and realize, oh god, they're literally they left no
Speaker 1: stone unturned. So with vocalists, gee, and you started on
Speaker 1: the highest mountain, you started only Mount Fiji. How did
Speaker 1: you even decide for that particular song? Like because Mingus
Speaker 1: is frightening to conquer?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's a blessing to have memusicians around
Speaker 2: you who put you on, for lack of a better word,
Speaker 2: like musicians they like I didn't listen to Sun Raw
Speaker 2: or Mingus before the band that I currently work with
Speaker 2: and so they're you know, listening to songs on their
Speaker 2: own time. They're listening to Mendelssohn and Revel and all
Speaker 2: this kind of stuff, and I'm just listening and absorbing.
Speaker 2: And so when I heard Reincarnation of Lovebird by Mingus,
Speaker 2: I realized that even though the melody is complex, it's
Speaker 2: still melodic, it's still lyrical, and I had the crazy
Speaker 2: idea to put words to it. And you know, standards
Speaker 2: one of I guess, or the bedrock of jazz music.
Speaker 2: You hear so many musicians, Max Roach, Bennigolsen, Miles playing
Speaker 2: standards and adding their own flair while also writing their
Speaker 2: own composition. So there's merit to doing it. But I
Speaker 2: guess they all learned form, they learn harmony, they learned
Speaker 2: ways to make the songs their own, and then wrote
Speaker 2: their own composition. So I guess that's how I tried
Speaker 2: to do it, as learned standards, learn you know.
Speaker 1: That's literally the best way to learn jazz is vocal wise,
Speaker 1: Like walk me through the process of I listened to
Speaker 1: the original and even as far as your lyric phrasing
Speaker 1: and whatnot, Like how long did it take.
Speaker 2: You to Oh, it took me like to learn the song.
Speaker 2: It took me at least six months because there were
Speaker 2: certain parts of it that I just couldn't I had
Speaker 2: to like slow it down because I couldn't hear like
Speaker 2: the exact pitches, and I need it in order to
Speaker 2: be able to think of words. Yeah, I have to
Speaker 2: like internalize the song and be able to sing it
Speaker 2: without the recording. And of course the arranger at the
Speaker 2: time had the idea for me to sing it completely
Speaker 2: acapella before all the music.
Speaker 1: That's what I say, and like, what the hell, you know?
Speaker 2: And it took me. It took me another couple of
Speaker 2: months to write the words to it because it's such
Speaker 2: a deep song. I wanted the words to kind of
Speaker 2: reflect that and be a compelling story that doesn't take
Speaker 2: away from the melody and take away from the story
Speaker 2: the melody is already telling. So yeah, it was a process,
Speaker 2: but I love singing it and now I feel like
Speaker 2: I've added another layer, you know, And I'm able to
Speaker 2: sing complex melodies that might not be written for voice,
Speaker 2: but you know, I can if it's in a certain
Speaker 2: key and in a certain range, I can make it happen.
Speaker 1: So will you try to conquer old Faris Sanders or
Speaker 1: Don Cherry or like, when you get into free.
Speaker 2: Jazz, maybe there's a vocalist, the one who sung Lonely
Speaker 2: Woman by Ornat Coleman, Jean Lee. She does she's like more.
Speaker 2: I guess she's classified as avant garde or free and
Speaker 2: she played with this pianist called Ran Blake, and so
Speaker 2: listening to her music and the stuff that she does
Speaker 2: with Anthony Braxton and stuff, I'm like, there's there's something here.
Speaker 2: I don't know quite yet. I'm still digging, but who knows.
Speaker 1: God damn, I never thought I'd mean someone who outschools
Speaker 1: me my own podcast. I want to know more sitting.
Speaker 1: You were born in Castle Hill? Yeah, right, all right,
Speaker 1: So that's not exactly the South. When I hear the Bronx,
Speaker 1: of course, I think of like, oh, well, hip hop
Speaker 1: started the Bronx projects. Isn't exactly the South Bronx. So
Speaker 1: what are your earliest memories or your fondest memories of
Speaker 1: growing up in Castle Hill?
Speaker 2: Well, it was my grandma's house. She bought it. She
Speaker 2: was from Virginia. She moved to Philly and then she
Speaker 2: bought that house. I want to say, in the sixties
Speaker 2: maybe late fifties, early sixties, because she wanted a family
Speaker 2: house and she wanted to be able to host people
Speaker 2: and have family and just have a place where we
Speaker 2: all could kind of settle. And so I grew up
Speaker 2: in that house. I grew up with her, and I
Speaker 2: grew up, you know, being friendly with the neighbors and
Speaker 2: my brother. You know, they're playing basketball outside my grandma,
Speaker 2: you know, making food, salmon croquettes and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff.
Speaker 1: So you're saying that, technically you should be a Philadelphian.
Speaker 2: I know, there's so many connections leading towards that. I'm
Speaker 2: that's adjacent, that's home.
Speaker 1: And then there was just a migration to the Bronx.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know how it happened.
Speaker 1: Got it? Okay? Do you still have family in Philly? Like?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, all spread out. God, my grandfather still lives
Speaker 2: in West Philly.
Speaker 1: All right, So what TV show would best describe your childhood? Great? Now,
Speaker 1: I feel another like.
Speaker 2: No, I actually did watch Saturday like cartoons and stuff.
Speaker 1: Okay, so cartoons still existed when you in your memory back,
Speaker 1: So what TV show best describes your childhood?
Speaker 2: This is not a cartoon, but that's a Raven. I
Speaker 2: guess maybe that's still new school.
Speaker 1: No, that's old school now, Okay, Raven's forty.
Speaker 2: My uncle used to also burn CDs of like Looney
Speaker 2: Tunes and The Jackson's Variety Show and stuff, So I
Speaker 2: used to watch that too.
Speaker 1: Man, it's so dope. All right, who's your first celebrity crush?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. It was probably from some Disney Channel movie,
Speaker 2: maybe like zac Efron or something. Probably gotcha, which means
Speaker 2: it was ultimately Corby and Blue as well. So I'll
Speaker 2: say those two.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pretend I know what those are.
Speaker 3: What's the.
Speaker 2: The style of cooking?
Speaker 1: I know, did posters adorn your childhood bedroom? And if so,
Speaker 1: who was there?
Speaker 2: I had a mix of posters. See, we would go
Speaker 2: to Blockbuster. I went to Blockbuster. I did rent DVDs
Speaker 2: You were.
Speaker 1: You was so born in.
Speaker 2: And so they would have like I think it was
Speaker 2: like Tiger Beat, like teen magazines, and my mom had
Speaker 2: a standing subscription with Jet in essence, and so it
Speaker 2: was a combination of like teen magazines and you know,
Speaker 2: black magazines that were on my walls.
Speaker 1: Got it, Okay, So I'm kind of placing a position
Speaker 1: as a musician where I'm judged by pop rules and
Speaker 1: hip hop, so everything's circular, looped and whatnot. And often
Speaker 1: I'm told, like, just keep the song as simple as possible.
Speaker 1: What is your process for writing original composition? Like what
Speaker 1: ritual do you have? Do you need to be in
Speaker 1: a space alone with your thoughts or is it you
Speaker 1: and someone else riffing and figuring out what it is.
Speaker 2: I don't write as much original material as I should.
Speaker 1: Eventually, you will say.
Speaker 2: I would say the one that I have that's on
Speaker 2: the album Peace of Mind was written and inspired by
Speaker 2: an Abby Lincoln record called straight Ahead. And there's a
Speaker 2: song on the album called in the Red and the
Speaker 2: composer and trumpeter Booker Little he wrote it to and
Speaker 2: he like, there's no defined time on the song. It's
Speaker 2: all like conducted, but it's like kind of slow and suspenseful,
Speaker 2: and he wrote it because he wanted to mimic or
Speaker 2: mirror the suspense that people feel when they're broke and
Speaker 2: when they're in the red. And I just thought about
Speaker 2: that tool, like that musical tool of like, oh so
Speaker 2: I didn't I didn't realize you could do that and
Speaker 2: express that kind of feeling through music. And if I did.
Speaker 2: I just didn't know it consciously.
Speaker 1: I'm totally channelling you out right now.
Speaker 2: And so with my first song, there's no defined time
Speaker 2: because it kind of came after the Grammys and I
Speaker 2: was feeling a little bit uncertain. There were people kind
Speaker 2: of projecting what they felt I should do. You have
Speaker 2: this attention, you can do anything, you can sing anything, yeah,
Speaker 2: or make the same record that you did that you know,
Speaker 2: and so I was just like, I don't want to
Speaker 2: do that, which is not a new feeling. Every artist
Speaker 2: has had to make that decision at one point or another,
Speaker 2: and so I was feeling that, and that uncertainty matched
Speaker 2: the suspense that I heard on that song, and so
Speaker 2: I wanted to write something that was dissonant that eventually
Speaker 2: had a constant resolution, which is Dreams Come True by
Speaker 2: Son Raw. But that feeling of being uncertain, of wondering
Speaker 2: what decision to make, of feeling like I'm trying to
Speaker 2: stay grounded by my life is just changing so much,
Speaker 2: and so I wanted to present that in the song,
Speaker 2: and so that was my inspiration for songwriting. At the time.
Speaker 1: I guess, uh, do you have siblings? Are you the
Speaker 1: only child?
Speaker 2: I have four siblings.
Speaker 1: Where do you fall in the.
Speaker 2: Second to last? I have three older siblings and one younger.
Speaker 1: And are they also artistically inclined?
Speaker 2: Yeah. My eldest brother, he was like in the early
Speaker 2: two thousands, he was like writing for Genuine and work
Speaker 2: with doctor Dre and all these different people. Is Antonio Okay,
Speaker 2: Antonio McLendon. My sister not so much. She sings when
Speaker 2: she's like around us, but she's more of a she's
Speaker 2: more of a business woman. My second oldest brother, Daniel,
Speaker 2: he was the one who put me onto Voodoo and
Speaker 2: you know he was he was listening to Kanye like
Speaker 2: he was listening. Sorry, I don't want to mention all
Speaker 2: these names out here, but but he was listening to
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff that I just hadn't seen or
Speaker 2: hadn't really been exposed to, Like Ryan Leslie. I had
Speaker 2: never listened to Diamond Girl and was like, I was like,
Speaker 2: what this is crazy? On ye sure, it was like,
Speaker 2: oh iTunes. I never I don't have my own laptop,
Speaker 2: so I don't know what that is. And my younger
Speaker 2: brother's into it too. But I think I think we're
Speaker 2: all musically inclined to one way or another. But they
Speaker 2: all influenced me in.
Speaker 1: An I gotta know what is it like recording at
Speaker 1: Van Gelder's studio. And I have to say, of the
Speaker 1: ten albums of Note that I know that we're recorded
Speaker 1: there in the last five years, yours is the only
Speaker 1: record that I feel really takes advantage of why that
Speaker 1: studio is so important.
Speaker 2: Thank you, because thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the thing was I listened to it and
Speaker 1: when I got to the fourth song, I stopped it,
Speaker 1: and then I went to my boys record and I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: this sounds like this smooth jazz, like this is me.
Speaker 1: And I was just under the impression I always wanted
Speaker 1: to go there to record, but after nine or ten
Speaker 1: records where I'm like, well, wait a minute, besides the
Speaker 1: physical space like different is it like? And I was
Speaker 1: just so that I've been recording all my joins in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: where the dap Kings are and whatever where it feels,
Speaker 1: and when I heard your record, I was like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, it's possible, So what gives.
Speaker 2: I wanted to match the chemistry that my band shout
Speaker 2: out to my septeent, that my band had built on
Speaker 2: stage and the setting that we have where it's me,
Speaker 2: then the horns, and then the rhythm section. I wanted
Speaker 2: we've built this chemistry of playing together and matching each
Speaker 2: other's dynamics and stuff on stage. I didn't want that
Speaker 2: to go away and have to hear everybody through headphones.
Speaker 2: So I had the drums in the room. Rudy van
Speaker 2: Guelder is perfect. Shout out Maureen and Don Sickler. It
Speaker 2: was an incredible, incredible and Brie Lynch it is an
Speaker 2: incredible room. It is an incredible room and it's perfect
Speaker 2: for acoustic music. Drums in the room, horns in the room, piano,
Speaker 2: I think the only thing no base was in the
Speaker 2: room as well. I was the only one who was
Speaker 2: isolated because I make mistakes and I want to fix them.
Speaker 2: But other than that, I wanted to capture the same
Speaker 2: acoustic sound and that feeling that we get when we
Speaker 2: play together. And so everything was like two to three takes, Max.
Speaker 1: What you talked? You serious? Yeah, Well how long did
Speaker 1: pre production take?
Speaker 2: I mean pre production was touring, so we were on
Speaker 2: the road for two years. We went into the.
Speaker 1: Studio, but even when you're in a room together, they
Speaker 1: have to place things perfectly.
Speaker 2: Once we got adjusted, though, two to three takes eighteen
Speaker 2: songs three days.
Speaker 1: Are you ever going to return to that studio?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Okay, we're friends now. Before I give them my business,
Speaker 1: I just want to witness this happening, because I refuse
Speaker 1: to believe that I was just on the impression that
Speaker 1: it'll never sound nothing will sound as good as any
Speaker 1: of the blue note stuff that he did, or any.
Speaker 2: Of the and they have so many great Mike's too.
Speaker 1: Yes, amazing, That's what I'm saying. How did you figure
Speaker 1: out the code that no one else figured out?
Speaker 2: The thing is Maureen, she's the only one. She's the
Speaker 2: only protege of Rudy van Gelder, and so she knows everything,
Speaker 2: the radar system that they use, all the buttons and stuff.
Speaker 2: They're all named in sort of an unorthodox way, and
Speaker 2: she's the only one. Like, nobody's allowed.
Speaker 1: Behind Yeah, are they preset or they're not?
Speaker 2: I think she sets them, but nobody's allowed behind her
Speaker 2: and behind the board. You can't be behind the board.
Speaker 1: So okay, one of those studios. Yeah, what is these
Speaker 1: significance behind the dear Beverly name for your imprint? What's
Speaker 1: the story behind that?
Speaker 2: My late aunt Beverly was a pianist and a vocalist,
Speaker 2: and the only time I met her was when I
Speaker 2: was just born. I was born on November eleventh, and
Speaker 2: a couple and a couple of weeks later was Thanksgiving
Speaker 2: and she was sick, and so she was kind of
Speaker 2: she was a little bit weak physically, and she got
Speaker 2: the chance to hold me a couple weeks after I
Speaker 2: was born, and that was the only time I ever
Speaker 2: met her. And since then, everybody says that I sound
Speaker 2: like her, and I even look like her sometimes.
Speaker 1: The genetics, Yeah, that's where it comes in.
Speaker 2: And so I wanted to name the imprint in honor
Speaker 2: of her.
Speaker 1: How did you choose the ensemble that worked with you
Speaker 1: on these and even with their producers? I know, Brian Lynch, like,
Speaker 1: how do you go about choosing this album?
Speaker 2: Was our first time meeting and working together. He's arranged
Speaker 2: and he's played with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers,
Speaker 2: but he also arranges and composes in his own right.
Speaker 2: And because this band disorted my first my first time
Speaker 2: playing with a larger ensemble with horns, how many pieces
Speaker 2: seven four horns, trumpet, alto, sacks, tenor sax and trombone,
Speaker 2: in rhythm section. I wanted to have somebody who had
Speaker 2: an ear for that music, but who also didn't try
Speaker 2: to come in and assume themselves as higher us, because
Speaker 2: we were the ones who I mean, the writers in
Speaker 2: the band are the horn players and the pianists, so
Speaker 2: they're the ones who are writing and we're the ones
Speaker 2: who are shaping it. And so I think he came
Speaker 2: in with an attitude, in a mindset of helping us
Speaker 2: and supporting us and not necessarily overtaking or anything like that.
Speaker 2: So I don't know, it just kind of came about.
Speaker 2: The band came about through multiple connections. I met the
Speaker 2: trombonist and tenor saxophonists in college, and the tenor saxophonist,
Speaker 2: Kendrick McAllister went to He has friends who went to
Speaker 2: Frost School of Music, University of Miami, and he also
Speaker 2: went to high school with them, and so that's how
Speaker 2: I met the alto saxophonists and trumpet Jason and David,
Speaker 2: and the rhythm section I kind of just met on
Speaker 2: the scene on the New York scene, jam sessions and whatnot.
Speaker 2: So it was multiple connections.
Speaker 1: You said my band a few times, like do you
Speaker 1: plan on keeping this unit or because oftentimes with jazz
Speaker 1: musicians it's almost like you meet who got called for
Speaker 1: the gig. Sometimes that's a weird I don't know if
Speaker 1: I could live that life. Like I love the fact
Speaker 1: that I played with the same people because we know
Speaker 1: each other, we know where we're going.
Speaker 2: And I plan on keeping this ensemble because we've grown
Speaker 2: so much in the years that we've played together already,
Speaker 2: and now recently we got the chance. They got the
Speaker 2: chance to write for orchestra for the first time, and
Speaker 2: so now we have stuff on the books with Atlanta Symphony,
Speaker 2: Chicago Symphony, New Yorkville, and I just feel like we've
Speaker 2: grown and we've developed and we've learned each other. But
Speaker 2: there's so much more to learn. But now it seems
Speaker 2: like they can write and not necessarily think of something
Speaker 2: for piano or something for trumpet, but it's for the
Speaker 2: person and for the range that they can handle, in
Speaker 2: the style and the attitude they can write for people.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we've learned each other to a point where
Speaker 2: I think it can grow even more.
Speaker 1: Is there a desire to ever record sound? Weird? Saying
Speaker 1: a modern sound modern for what you know period, a
Speaker 1: modern sounding LPI to pull in algio to do a
Speaker 1: soul album or whatever, like something outside of jazz. Do
Speaker 1: you have space for that yet or you're still just
Speaker 1: one step at a time.
Speaker 2: I think one step at a time. But a way
Speaker 2: that I try to explore and express that side is
Speaker 2: with my family. And so I recorded the full Holy
Speaker 2: Night with them right with my grandfather and you know,
Speaker 2: with my cousins and my dad and uncle. And it
Speaker 2: was such a great recording with Sullivan Fortner on the organ.
Speaker 2: Incredible that hopefully we get the chance to do an
Speaker 2: EP because my dad has like he has an arrangement
Speaker 2: of Mary did you know in Silent Night that we
Speaker 2: did on the last tour. That's really cool. We wrote
Speaker 2: an original song together.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: So yeah, maybe a holiday EP at some point. We can,
Speaker 2: you know, make it a little more fusion.
Speaker 1: I guess I feel incorrect in saying this since you
Speaker 1: are of the Elmo generation. Wow, actually you're younger than
Speaker 1: tip me Almo. Do you know this thing called tip
Speaker 1: me Elma? They came out there. Wait seriously, no, wait,
Speaker 1: I was kind of joking, but now he just stabbed
Speaker 1: Explain it.
Speaker 2: Explain it? Maybe I do.
Speaker 1: I'm just remembering, you know, Elmo was a character on
Speaker 1: Sesame Street, yes, which I was leading to. Was it
Speaker 1: like being on Sesame Street? Oh?
Speaker 2: Sorry, it was in the recesses of.
Speaker 1: My But I also realized that Tickle Me Elmo came
Speaker 1: out in ninety six, and that was that was okay great.
Speaker 2: I was not born back get it?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, you get it.
Speaker 2: You were in first grade when songs in the Key
Speaker 2: of Life came out. That is I'm still on that.
Speaker 2: But anyway, Sayesmey Street was amazing. Sayesmey Street was so dope.
Speaker 1: Did you find yourself talk? Okay? So my one of
Speaker 1: my former co hosts of this podcast, Unpaid Bill, he's
Speaker 1: probably the person that brought you on the show. I
Speaker 1: did the show once and during breaks, I actually found
Speaker 1: myself engaging in real conversations with the muppets, and maybe
Speaker 1: seven minutes into the conversation, I was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I'm not crazy, You're the one that's crazy. I'm still
Speaker 1: like talking to me. But they told me the role
Speaker 1: that they're not allowed to put the muppets down in
Speaker 1: front of kids or whatever, so they had to stay
Speaker 1: in character.
Speaker 2: So it was wild. I was still looking at the
Speaker 2: people while the cameras were rolling, and so one of
Speaker 2: my friends like, fixed your face to stop looking at
Speaker 2: the people on the ground. You need to be talking
Speaker 2: to the bumpets. And so I was like, you're right,
Speaker 2: let me smile and talk for the kids at home.
Speaker 1: So it was.
Speaker 2: Enjoyable, nice, It was so much fun.
Speaker 1: What's the three best concerts you ever been to?
Speaker 2: My first one was Aretha Franklin at NJ Pack. I
Speaker 2: was like eleven years old and I was right next
Speaker 2: to the spotlight.
Speaker 1: That's how I was eleven years old.
Speaker 2: Those bleeds.
Speaker 1: So this is twenty ten. Yeah, oh god, is this
Speaker 1: where she did Touch My Body by Mariah Carey.
Speaker 2: I don't remember that I did that really?
Speaker 1: Oh hell yeah, Oh my god. Arena, Oh one night
Speaker 1: she like seduced Maxwell was like she was wild. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's wild, all.
Speaker 2: Right in peace. I think the second is more recent.
Speaker 2: I saw the reuniontor at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn
Speaker 2: with Kirk Franklin and the Clark sisters and Belanda Adams
Speaker 2: and Marvin Sapp and all these people. And the third one,
Speaker 2: I actually just went to the Vanguard. I've been to
Speaker 2: the Vanguard a couple of times, but McBride was there
Speaker 2: for his two week residency. I've seen Chris Potter there
Speaker 2: like it's always amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I went last week to see him and told
Speaker 1: him I think next year I'll do one with him.
Speaker 1: Chris and I have a very unhealthy relationship to worshiping
Speaker 1: James Brown and the worships so deep that James Brown,
Speaker 1: I believe, is the only figure that is incapable of
Speaker 1: knowing what mediocrity is. And I'm saying that you usually,
Speaker 1: when we dismissed our artists or like whatever, it's never
Speaker 1: because it's bad songs. It's because it's just mediocre. It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, we heard that before. It's nothing special. James
Speaker 1: Brown will either change your life by redefining music or
Speaker 1: it's just so laughably humorous that to me it's even
Speaker 1: more genius. And so Chris and I kind of secretly,
Speaker 1: even though we're the number one and number two disciples
Speaker 1: of James Brown, behind closed doors, we only love his
Speaker 1: horrible work. It's an obsession. But you know, like something
Speaker 1: so bad it's great, That's what I'm saying. Like everything
Speaker 1: James Brown does is classic, including when he fails. He
Speaker 1: fails spectacularly, like horrible songs. So we want to do
Speaker 1: kind of a tribute band to only his bad period.
Speaker 1: The way to make that distinction is if he has
Speaker 1: a mustache with Yeah, the mustache period of James Brown
Speaker 1: is that means the music's.
Speaker 2: Not that good in loud and saying nothing, it's one
Speaker 2: of my favorite songs.
Speaker 1: Well, that's that's the good size a. He's right along, right,
Speaker 1: but for goodness sakes, take a look at those cakes.
Speaker 1: Is the mustache period of James Brown? So yeah, the
Speaker 1: titles alone, right, the titles alone, he cannot fail. Even
Speaker 1: when he's failing. It's it's life change. I assume you
Speaker 1: sort of gloss the earth a couple of times and
Speaker 1: touring what is the most beautiful city you've ever performed in?
Speaker 1: What's your what's the city that you love performing in
Speaker 1: the most?
Speaker 2: I think it's a tie between Paris and Bologna.
Speaker 1: Really, what is it about in Italy?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Paris is obviously so charming, and I've
Speaker 2: been there so many times and it still feels new,
Speaker 2: and it still feels like there's more to discover. Same
Speaker 2: with Italy. I haven't gone as as often as I
Speaker 2: want to, but it's so charming, that people are amazing.
Speaker 2: I feel like I can get around and learn the
Speaker 2: language a little little bit right and get myself, you know,
Speaker 2: at least a cup of tea or something. Maybe not
Speaker 2: a whole conversation.
Speaker 1: But if I could have a life redo. My relationship
Speaker 1: to Europe is just a little bit different because the
Speaker 1: first four years of The Roots life, like we ran
Speaker 1: away from home, stole our budget and got a flat
Speaker 1: in London and lived in Europe. We're soon going to
Speaker 1: do a scripted series based on our Fish out of
Speaker 1: Water experience and living in Europe. Wow. So like my
Speaker 1: experiences in Paris is like, it's not Paris unless someone's
Speaker 1: pulling a knife out on you and chasing you through
Speaker 1: the streets. And really, oh we're staying in like two
Speaker 1: star prostitute motels. I mean we're broke. You know. You
Speaker 1: get the pillow, you get the comforter, you get the blanket,
Speaker 1: this dinner tonight, bread and cheese, like we were. There's
Speaker 1: nothing like being a broke musician living in Europe. Like
Speaker 1: I know jazz musician that would tell me they would
Speaker 1: book you know, like the summers where you right half
Speaker 1: those cats tell me that, oh we don't even book
Speaker 1: like hotels. It's like at the end of the night
Speaker 1: they got to find somebody hook up with so that
Speaker 1: they can stay at our house or literally had Oh
Speaker 1: I'm serious, that's how That's how bad the Brokers is.
Speaker 1: So I love the fact that that, yeah, that you
Speaker 1: like appreciate, Like you talk about Italy, I'm like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: the time they thought we were the Nigerian drug cartel,
Speaker 1: like arresting us in them in the laundry mat Oh,
Speaker 1: yeah it was. We We have a lot of crazy stories,
Speaker 1: but I'm glad that those are your experiences. What city
Speaker 1: would you like to retire and if you don't retire
Speaker 1: in your native New York, what city would you ever consider,
Speaker 1: Like when all said and done, this is where this
Speaker 1: is my final stop, or you're in New York to
Speaker 1: the bone, I.
Speaker 2: Think I want to stay in New York, or at
Speaker 2: least near it. With all the beautiful places that we've
Speaker 2: had the opportunity to go, I still can't imagine, Like
Speaker 2: New York just feels like my home base. I will
Speaker 2: eventually probably want grass at some point, and not just
Speaker 2: be because I live in Harlem now, So that's true,
Speaker 2: just a little.
Speaker 1: I got a farm.
Speaker 2: State, Like, there's what about those taxes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, dude, I mean, what look what we do
Speaker 1: for a living. I know, I know, I get it.
Speaker 2: I mean I used to visit my cousin in Poughkeepsie
Speaker 2: all the time, and it's beautiful up there, so it's possible.
Speaker 2: And I love since you're Subway people, Metro North, Amtrak.
Speaker 1: You're young, you're in the twenties, trust me when you
Speaker 1: get up there.
Speaker 2: Huh on a farm.
Speaker 1: I panic purchased during the pandemic a farm. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: it was great. It was and it was the only
Speaker 1: time normally should have been that for me to purchase.
Speaker 1: I'll just say this much. It just happened to be.
Speaker 1: If you remember in twenty twenty, the week that George
Speaker 1: Floyd happened during the pandemic, that is when all of
Speaker 1: upper echelon New York was like, oh, they're going to
Speaker 1: decend the right and literally I guess this couple that
Speaker 1: they were in their eighties, like if you live in
Speaker 1: this part, that's your third house, you know, like people
Speaker 1: like oh, I have a house up state and da
Speaker 1: da da dah. That's not their main house. That's like
Speaker 1: you know, they stay there a month or two. Literally,
Speaker 1: like their kids are calling from the Swiss house, like
Speaker 1: we gotta get mom and dad all before they destroyed
Speaker 1: New York, you know, so thanks to the fear of
Speaker 1: Black Lives matter. Literally in two days, they moved their
Speaker 1: parents out of the United States and sold me that
Speaker 1: place dirt cheap. It's still being worked on, so there's
Speaker 1: a lot of work had to be done, but it's
Speaker 1: I never thought that I would embrace trees and quiet
Speaker 1: and as and like I wanted to live in the
Speaker 1: city and the chaos and all that stuff. But I'd
Speaker 1: learned the power of silence. Ideas come to you song,
Speaker 1: ideas come to you when it's dead silent.
Speaker 2: And now you can just play the drums whenever you want,
Speaker 2: no disturbing of any neighbor. I guess you'd do that anyway.
Speaker 1: I'm pass that drum. I'm talking about movies and writing
Speaker 1: books in the world leadership, oh drumming whatever, I'll drum for.
Speaker 3: You when things get stressful.
Speaker 1: What is your have you allowed yourself as self care routine?
Speaker 2: I'm working on it now. See the thing, when you're
Speaker 2: on tour, you don't I don't really have one, or
Speaker 2: it just changes by the day. But now, at least
Speaker 2: for the next two months, I've like deleted all social
Speaker 2: media and if I allow log onto it to my laptop,
Speaker 2: it's only to check messages. I check out and make
Speaker 2: a list of all the books that I've bought and
Speaker 2: haven't read throughout the year, and and start. I just
Speaker 2: finished Warmth of other Sons by Isabelle workers In on
Speaker 2: the Great Migration is beautiful. I put a face mask
Speaker 2: in because I bought when we went to Korea. I
Speaker 2: bought so much skincare stuff I haven't used yet, and
Speaker 2: so I'm like, oh, this serum, okay, in this face mask.
Speaker 2: I put it in the in the fridge for a
Speaker 2: couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: How I snuck them back to the States, I don't
Speaker 1: know how, but literally, when I came from a.
Speaker 2: Full suitcase of all the same care products I could have.
Speaker 1: I had to kipling bags of just broke road masks
Speaker 1: because they never think about the beer true, so oh
Speaker 1: my god, yeah they got road masks.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I'm fighting to stay.
Speaker 2: I cook, at least I try to. I like learn
Speaker 2: recipes nice and bake like I love making sweet potato pie.
Speaker 2: And I don't like asking my aunt to like make
Speaker 2: them all the time, Like I have to make them
Speaker 2: for myself at this point. So I'm learning how to
Speaker 2: make the podcast and all that kind of stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I just sort of tap into stuff I don't get
Speaker 2: the chance to do. You got to go all right?
Speaker 1: As we wrap up, all right, what is the emoji
Speaker 1: that you overuse?
Speaker 2: The crying one? But I use it as a way
Speaker 2: of life, A laughter. I was going to say all
Speaker 2: the time?
Speaker 1: All right, gotcha. So most people will do a jazz
Speaker 1: album as a departure album. If you were to do
Speaker 1: a departure album, what genre are you picking? Drill rock or.
Speaker 2: Such an old head? I probably want to do something
Speaker 2: like in the style of Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway than you.
Speaker 2: How does that one? But I have nothing. It's like
Speaker 2: one of my favorite Donny Hathaway ROBERTA. Flack duets, as
Speaker 2: well as of course like where's the Love?
Speaker 1: And you have you ever met Leila?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes I have. She's so dope.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's incredible. So my last question to you, what
Speaker 1: is the one thing you hope that we say about
Speaker 1: you when all is said and done, when you have
Speaker 1: a full cannon under your belt? And you're in the
Speaker 1: sunset of it all. What's the thing that you want
Speaker 1: us to say about you.
Speaker 2: I hope that people say she's true to her music,
Speaker 2: but she was also a very genuine person. Like I
Speaker 2: never like to leave anybody, any single person, whether it's
Speaker 2: an uber driver or you know, security guard or whoever,
Speaker 2: with a bad impression. And I always tell everybody good morning.
Speaker 2: So I hope they realized that I was authentic in
Speaker 2: my music. I never strayed for the sake of relevance
Speaker 2: or popularity. I wanted it to be something of substance
Speaker 2: no matter what, whether people listened or not. And I
Speaker 2: was genuine.
Speaker 1: From the bottom of my heart. I thank you. I
Speaker 1: you know, I don't even want to do the hyperbolic
Speaker 1: like now I believe in music again, like it's all
Speaker 1: writing on your shoulders and your shoulders only. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I really absolutely just baffled by your talent and the
Speaker 1: potential of what you have to offer and where you
Speaker 1: put your Grammys.
Speaker 2: I keep it with my parents, but they moved.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well that's that's that's good. Usually artists do the
Speaker 1: thing I used to keep them in the bathroom. Oh,
Speaker 1: just as a I don't care Raphaels used to make
Speaker 1: his like a doorstopper. Oh my god, John Legend broke his. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but then I can't.
Speaker 2: Look at it. If I look at it, and I'll
Speaker 2: be like, I gotta practice today, you know, I can
Speaker 2: take a day.
Speaker 1: Well. The thing is, I used to be dismissive of it,
Speaker 1: and then I started dating someone and she was like,
Speaker 1: you're a little too self deprecating, Like these are coming
Speaker 1: out the bathroom, yeah, and we are putting them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: We're letting you celebrate yourself.
Speaker 2: So that's uh, one day when I'm actually done. But
Speaker 2: it's not done yet.
Speaker 1: It's never done. If I want to thank you for
Speaker 1: doing the Quest Love Show and you're one of my favorites,
Speaker 1: thank you.
Speaker 2: Likewise, thank you.
Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is hosted by me Amir quest Love Thompson.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Sean g Brian Calhoun and Me.
Speaker 1: Produced by Britney Benjamin and Jacob Payne. Produced for iHeart
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Speaker 1: Additional support by Lance Coleman. Special thanks to Kathy Brown.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Sugar Steve Mandel. Please subscribe, rate, review,
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