Black Music Month QLS Classic: Bobby McFerrin & Madison McFerrin

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
episode was produced by the team at Pandora.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
What up, y'all, it's unpaid bill from Questlove Supreme. As
you may have seen throughout June, we are celebrating Black
Music Month. We're at leasing an episode every day, so
every day you either hear especially picked a QLs classic,
and on Wednesdays we are dropping new two part episodes
with Main Brady and the legendary James Poyser, both of
which were filmed in studio. Black music is deeply important
to me and has been an influence throughout my entire career.

(00:29):
It's also something to celebrate here in ULLs. In twenty eighteen,
QLs had father daughter, Bobby and Madison mcfaranog. This was
a phone episode really worth revisiting given that they worked
together on Madison's recent album I Hope You Can Forgive
Me Enjoy.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
All right?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Giving Baseline fun day a boom boom? Why are you
thinking of the Jungle Brother's cool at the end of
the record.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
My name is Questlove. Yeah, it's fact that one Yeah,
I can remix my own theme. Yeah, anytime I want.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Bo call Supreme Sun South Supreme, call Supreme, so Supreme.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
My name is Fante. Some say I'm Locoa. I had
to sing it like Bobby and do it Aco Poco.
Supreme Supreme called Supreme.

Speaker 5 (01:33):
Supreme.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
My name is Sugar. Yeah, I always worry. Yeah, I'm
never happy. Yes, just give up on me already.

Speaker 6 (01:45):
Supreme Supreme Supreme.

Speaker 7 (01:52):
Supreme.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, of course, love Supreme. Yeah, Tilling with the man, Yeah,
I mean the best Cosby Theme.

Speaker 6 (02:03):
Supreme Supreme Supreme Supreme Role.

Speaker 5 (02:12):
It's like yeah, and Bobby mcphern. Yeah, now you know
your friends A Night in the Tunisia and Blackbird. Yeah
that's all I'm hearing. I don't care.

Speaker 6 (02:22):
Supreme Supreme Supreme.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
Supreme Role.

Speaker 8 (02:30):
My name is Maddie. Yeah, I'm here with dad. Yeah,
this is my first time. Yeah, and I am happy.

Speaker 6 (02:40):
Supreme Supreme.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Supreme, Supreme Supreme.

Speaker 9 (02:48):
My name and Bobby super Shabby. Yeah it's still.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Uber Uber.

Speaker 6 (02:59):
Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, super Supreme.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Do Do Do Bo bo.

Speaker 9 (03:22):
Don't watch me for a bunch of music nerds.

Speaker 5 (03:32):
We are just rolled over, like wait, they're still that's right, Jesus.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I was like, Okay, where is this going like we
are the the u exchelon of music knowledge. Yet we
couldn't just theme breakout six pm every week like you
you know, okay, often.

Speaker 7 (03:57):
Do you do these? These?

Speaker 1 (04:00):
You? You are what he will? We're past our hunter
episode now episodes Yeah, yeah, first I was very bad
at this, but now I'm just mediocre. Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to another episode of course love Supreme on Pandora.
As you our guest today is probably one of the

(04:25):
most purest artists in the sense of the word pure. Uh.
He is a living, breathing instrument very much Uh, as jazz,
as he is hip hop, as he is soul, as
he is classical.

Speaker 10 (04:39):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
He is a ten time Grammy winner, absolutely bar none,
probably one of the most unique chameleons, vocal chameleons and music,
having collaborated with such illuminaries as Chick Area, Herbie Hancock,
uh Farah Sanders, vocalists like Algie Road, George Benson, John Hendrix,

(05:01):
smaal Ding, Manhattan Transfer, his own voice sestra, and his
mind blowing I really want to talk about the Vocabularies
project and recording twelve hundred vocal tracks is wow, I
would say that he's probably the artist in which leaving
his comfort zone is his actual comfort zone. He's made

(05:25):
children's he's won Grammys for children's records with Jack Nicholson's
done projects with Robin Williams simultaneously in Minnesota, with the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra over in Barcelona, the ourrel I
can't pronounce him, the Orleo Catalia that I'm going on effort. Yeah,

(05:48):
there was one point where I was just doing like
a bunch of abbreviations. But even his own freaking offspring
are killing it. Of course, we love Taylor, who's uh
noted be box God and he's uh right now in
the in the contemporary jazz world making stuff with napalm
from Hiatus Coyote and Robert glasper of course, Javan actor

(06:12):
in his own right, is currently the title role in
uh in a very unknown off Broadway production of his
play called Hamilton. Oh I'm sorry my pocket okay, but yeah,
okay anyway, Uh and last but not least are our
second guest today, uh Madison, Yeah, last but not damn.

(06:42):
This introducces is like seven minutes the extended disco version
Our good Friend, Yes, our good Friend Madison McFerrin. She's
blazing trails in her own right, uh, sort of with
her brand of what I call sensual lapella. Oh, yes,

(07:04):
that's good sexual solapella with both her albums, The Foundation Projects,
Volume one and Volume two. And yeah, I want to
talk about that insane video too. Yeah. So, ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome the McFerrin's to Quest Love Supreme. Yes, Bobby Madison. Yes,

(07:26):
one day, I'm going to have like a very sustinct
and just to the point intro that only takes thirty
thirty second. Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, we have Bob mcferrinn
on the show. So how how are you today, sir?
I well, thank you and yourself. I'm fine, easy to
be here. You're speaking voices, calmed us down right two.
We might as well do it on NPR levels. So

(07:48):
you're you're fine today? You're good?

Speaker 7 (07:50):
Yes, I am, thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
And Madison, how are you?

Speaker 8 (07:54):
I'm doing really well. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
I haven't seen you in the month of Sundays, so
it's good to see you.

Speaker 8 (07:58):
It's been a long time.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's since I've left Philadelphia. Wow. Yeah, well, I mean
you got you guys. I know that you're you have
roots in Philadelphia, Minnesota and the Bay Area, but like,
what do you consider home or is it just where
you lay your dreadlocks that's your home.

Speaker 7 (08:22):
Where I dread.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Well.

Speaker 7 (08:25):
Probably for me, the answer would be California.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (08:30):
I grew up in Los Angeles.

Speaker 10 (08:32):
My parents moved to LA when I was eight, so
I went through all my teenage years. I went to
college in Sacramento. I went to Sacramento State, right I
think now it's called California State University in Sacramento, where
I was a composition student. Then all my kids were
born in San Francisco, So I think that that pretty

(08:53):
much covers it.

Speaker 8 (08:54):
And our family, like the people who we really are community,
they're still in the Bay first.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Area, so still fighting, still still there. They haven't been
chased out yet.

Speaker 8 (09:05):
Yeah, my mom is in San Francisco right now. So okay,
it just goes to show you when dad's away, she
goes back there, goes back home to visit.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
So you were born and where were you originally?

Speaker 10 (09:16):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (09:17):
Not originally? Like there's a remix remix?

Speaker 7 (09:20):
Are you talking to me?

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yes? I am. Where were you born?

Speaker 7 (09:23):
I was born here in Manhattan.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
You're in New York. Yeah, okay, okay, So what did
your parents do for a living?

Speaker 7 (09:31):
They were both singers.

Speaker 10 (09:33):
My father was was the first African American to sign
a contract with the Metropolitan Opera in nineteen fifty five.
He was the voice of Sidney Poitier in the movie
version of Porgy and Porgy and Bess. He was yes,
in nineteen.

Speaker 7 (09:52):
So that was all this time. I thought that was
you thought that was Sydney.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, I did know.

Speaker 7 (10:02):
No, that was my father.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
That explains a lot. So what what were your your
your formative years at least before the age of ten,
as far as exposure to music.

Speaker 10 (10:13):
And well, my parents love jazz and so in addition
to Beethoven and Bach and Mozart, you know, I was
exposed to Count Basie, to Joe Williams, to uh Dinah
Washington and Edda Jones, uh.

Speaker 7 (10:33):
The Loneous mug.

Speaker 8 (10:36):
Uh.

Speaker 7 (10:37):
You know, lots of different different jazz artists.

Speaker 8 (10:41):
Weren't you also in that like Juilliard prodigy?

Speaker 10 (10:44):
I wrote Juilliard when I was six.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
By the way, can we just like mock roll the
theme right now? That's the end of our.

Speaker 10 (11:00):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Really wow.

Speaker 10 (11:02):
Yeah. They had a program for aspiring musicians. At that
that age, I was admitted and was under the tutelage
of Miss Bamberger, and we did some compositions. In fact,
there's a composition that I wrote when I was six
that Maddie and I even play together sometimes on the

(11:22):
piano call the Spanish fiesta do do Do Do Do
Do Do Do Deep do do do Do Do Do
do do do.

Speaker 8 (11:35):
But you wrote it on the fly.

Speaker 7 (11:36):
I wrote it on the fly. Yeah.

Speaker 10 (11:39):
I wrote it the night before the class the next
day and it just it just it just kind of
stayed out there.

Speaker 8 (11:47):
It's very good. As I like thinking about a six
year old making this song. I couldn't make this song
at twenty six. It blows my mind still.

Speaker 10 (11:59):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
So initially, like were you studying piano or any other?

Speaker 10 (12:05):
Piano was my main instrument all through college. I played
flute in the school orchestra. That was my second instrument.
I was a composition major. I at the time thought
that I wanted to write for for television and movies
and do arrangements for various groups. And Dave Grusen was

(12:25):
my hero at that time. I won one day, made
a phone call to his home. I got his number
from the Musicians Union directory, and I called him and
he called, he called. He returned my call about three
days later and invited me to his scoring session he

(12:49):
was filming. He was doing a score for a film
called Tell Him Willie Boyd's Here with Robert Redford. And
he told me to bring me down my compositions. And
so I became a student of his in composition for
a while, and then later on in life we became friends.
We worked together and became friends.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Would that ever work in hip hop?

Speaker 7 (13:11):
Now?

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Fante like, if someone like say Charles Hamilton, I'm sorry,
God do another example, rapper X okay just calls your
you know yeah two thousand and one. Yeah, that kind
of happened to me in twenty eleven. The real rapper

(13:31):
that just sent me a text and I was like,
is this really? Are you kidding me? And it was
really him?

Speaker 5 (13:37):
But really you didn't really respond?

Speaker 1 (13:40):
No, I did respond. I did respond after I vetted
and see if it was really him. I was like,
is this really told me? He was like, yeah, so
you gotta say who it was? Drake? But really, wait,
that's how I thought Drake just mentioning like an interviews
I didn't realize that. Like I just got like a
random text We're about the Blue one day and like
he was back in like twenty eleven, and I hit
I was like, yo, is this really him? He was like, nah,

(14:02):
it's him, dude. I said, okay, oh damn, oh wow,
Dave Grus, it works for you. No, I always catch him,
like you know, when before they're bubbling over. Like while
A swears that I was just no. John Legend swears
that also.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
When he was John Stevens, he was kind of I didn't.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
He never made himself known. That's why we gotta get
him on the show, because I'm tired of him saying
that I was just sunning him all that time.

Speaker 5 (14:31):
Philly.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
It's like the book that was James Poyser, not me anyway, No,
throw him under the bus. So yeah, But at six,
were you you knew what what path you wanted to
take in life? Or was it just like your parents.

Speaker 10 (14:49):
Just I didn't really know what I wanted to do
really until I was a senior in high school. And
up until that time I thought of myself in different ways.
I wasn't I can't recall off the top of my
head what I was thinking. At that time, I think
I was just into being a teenage kid who just
loved to go to parties and dance and stuff like

(15:11):
that and hang out. But I was called in to
the senior counselor's office one day and he asked me
a question, he said, and he asked, so what do
you want to do with yourself? Who do you think
you are? And my answer was, well, I guess I'm

(15:32):
a musician.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
I don't know why he was understatement.

Speaker 7 (15:38):
Of I'm a musician life.

Speaker 10 (15:41):
And it wasn't until that moment that I actually have
the thoughts solidified in my mind that that's really the
path I wanted to take, because I didn't really know
anything else.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
By his time, though, since your parents were professionals, did
they notice that you were special in that way? Did
they see it?

Speaker 10 (15:59):
My parents knew I was a musician before I was two.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
How did they say they know?

Speaker 7 (16:04):
They just they just knew it.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
You're going to be a musician. You're going to be
a musician.

Speaker 7 (16:08):
What they could tell see?

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I was trying to before we got to this interview,
I was trying to I guess I was analyzing or
over analyzing the path that brought you here, and I thought, well, either,
because the thing is you're you're you're spontaneous, fearless nature.
It's so daredevil the way that you approach stuff that

(16:33):
it's almost like you're a permanent thirteen year old. So
either I thought so. Either, I thought, well, similar to
Michael Jackson, like you're you're making up for I thought, okay, Well,
he had a rigid, strict childhood in the beginning, and
then once he became a kyleege jage an adult and

(16:53):
it's like, I'm gonna you know that that scene where
in Home Alone where what's his name just goes crazy
in the house. Uh mcauleay, call I thought it was that,
or maybe you know, since the age of two, you
were the class clown type, like always disruptive noises in
those things, Like I didn't expect this answer that you

(17:16):
developed into who you are ten fifteen years later in life,
Like well, because to develop the gift that you have,
I feel like that is beyond the ten thousand hour
genius theory. I feel like that takes forty thousand hours
of because it's fearlessness and you know, you can sing

(17:39):
our peggios.

Speaker 10 (17:40):
What's interesting is that for the longest time. You know,
even though I was studying piano and playing piano, I
always had a nagging suspicion that I wasn't a pianist.
You know, there was something that I wasn't satisfyed with
just playing piano. Piano didn't do enough for me. And

(18:02):
as I was asking myself this question about you.

Speaker 7 (18:07):
Know, who am I really?

Speaker 10 (18:08):
Am I a pianist even though I, in my inner
self knew that the answer was in the negative, that
I was not a pianist. I discovered Keith Jarrett and
his solo concerts. So I thought to myself, if he
can be on stage alone without knowing having the slightest
idea of what he's going to play when he sits down,

(18:29):
why can't I do something like that? So I decided
to explore myself as a vocalist and dedicated six years
to learning teaching myself my technique, and for about six
years I practiced about two hours a day before I
did my first solo.

Speaker 8 (18:47):
Concert and it started at twenty seven.

Speaker 7 (18:50):
Though I started at twenty seven, that is unheard.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
That is unheard.

Speaker 5 (18:56):
So what were you doing before? And then, like, what
were you doing for a living?

Speaker 10 (18:59):
And I was doing casual gigs, you know, playing weddings
and going on the road and playing lounges with lounge
bands and playing stuff for covering the pop stuff on
the radio.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Give me example, what was like your repertoire in let's say,
whatever band.

Speaker 10 (19:20):
You were in nineteen seventy nine, Like, well, by seventy nine,
I was doing solo concerts.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Okay, So this spirit is seventy five seventy four the spirit, No, no, no,
I mean just like you're pre pre solo concerts, solo
concerts I was. I was playing in bands from playing
piano and what songs were like hot at the time
that you had to have.

Speaker 7 (19:44):
Marvin Gaye.

Speaker 10 (19:47):
And others, I mean, just other stuff. Yeah, I guess
Stevie Wonder he's my prompter here.

Speaker 8 (19:57):
I've heard a lot of stories. I want to make
sure that they like.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
That's amazing. Okay, So I have a question real quick
before we move on from Keith Jarrett.

Speaker 11 (20:08):
So he does that thing where he's sort of singing
and grunting while he's playing. So was that part of
the influence on what you're talking about?

Speaker 7 (20:18):
No influence on me at all. His grunting and squealing
so it's just.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
His bravery up on stage or his improv.

Speaker 10 (20:27):
The fact that could walk and sit. I thought it
was a very brave act action on his part to
simply sit at the piano, greet the instrument, and engage
in this musical dance that he had with, you know,
with with that instrument, with that grand instrument. And I

(20:48):
wanted to do that as a vocalist. Now, it took
me some time to get enough courage to do it
and enough stamina to be on stage alone for ninety
minutes without any idea of what I was going to play.
That's very, very difficult to do. It's funny, though I would.
I made a rule for myself early on that my
first two pieces would be completely improv complete improvisation. The

(21:14):
first piece was easier than the second. The second one
was really difficult to do.

Speaker 7 (21:18):
For some reason.

Speaker 10 (21:19):
I had the hardest time pushing through that wall of
of anything, wall of just something that stopped me from
going on.

Speaker 7 (21:30):
You know.

Speaker 10 (21:31):
The first piece was just so easy to sit down
and don't launch it, baby leive about And sometimes my
first improvs would be ten minutes. Sometimes they'd be fifteen
or twenty minutes. Then to stop and re enter into
that improvisational space. Was for some reason a lot harder

(21:53):
for me to do this. You know, the second piece
was very, very difficult, so that that became part of
my role do the riskiest thing first.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Really yeah, well that one show that you and I
did together at town Hall. I've never in my adult
life lost more sleep or had more anxiety about any performance.
And I'm in I've been in situations that like where

(22:24):
I've had to give speeches and things I didn't want
to do publicly.

Speaker 5 (22:30):
How do you even prepare for a BODYMC theory?

Speaker 1 (22:32):
That's the thing I kind of called and hinted like, okay,
so to draw a map what should I do? And
which is nothing, We'll just we'll figure it out on stage.
And I'm like wait. So then it was to the
point where I was like going to Jill new like
how much your tickets? Okay, so how much people? How
much entertainment does a person expect for? Blah blah blah?

Speaker 10 (22:54):
Right?

Speaker 1 (22:54):
Right, Because usually when I, like, when I plan my
shows or whatever, I start with what are the last
three songs? Because in my mind, I'm like a person
in the audience remembers the first ten minutes, how you
come on stage, and even if you have an absolute
shit show, if the last three songs ye are straight,

(23:16):
then they that men in black flashies them and they
forget and for the I was just like, well, wait,
only have four things going for me? And I was like,
all right, I have an electronic drum set, a real
drum set, and my turntables. And then even then I
had like five things going for But once we got

(23:39):
once we got into the groove, though, it was over
and it was over and in this second and this
is just you on drums and him on and him
that's it. Yeah, never rehearsed, never like it was just
a musical conversation.

Speaker 8 (23:55):
And then by the end you guys switched and he
got on drums and you started doing something.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Yeah, anyway, sir, I just want to say so, by uh,
when I actually discovered you on your second album, The Voice,
which you know, most Mcfharrinheit's are like that's their album.

(24:22):
Assuming that you perfected or at least found, uh a
formula if you will, on the Voice project previously, like
what notes did you keep? Because I assuming that from
your very first time that you did a solo show

(24:42):
until that point in eighty four where at least sounded
like you were comfortable on that album. What techniques have
you learned besides the first and the second song, as
far as like breath control and harmony and audience participation.

Speaker 10 (25:00):
In well, let me back up. I used to go
to my father's recitals. He used to do classical recitals,
and it always ended his shows with spirit negro spirituals,
and he had a way on stage where he invited
the audience and it was really genuine and comforting and

(25:23):
caring and all these positive words that I can't think
of right now. But I loved watching him on stage.
He was very easy going and I wanted. I felt
that the best thing for me to be on stage

(25:44):
was to be as relaxed as possible, and that's a
big key to the success of my concerts. You had
to relax your audience. They have to feel very comfortable
with you, and I allowed them to be participants with me.
So it wasn't only myself singing, but it was the
audience engaged in singing.

Speaker 7 (26:05):
Along with me.

Speaker 10 (26:07):
My technique was more than myself. It was me and
the audience. You know what, I couldn't do the audience
could do or they could hear, so they would fill
in the blanks. So my solo technique is more about us.

Speaker 7 (26:24):
Than me, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Do you have a formula as far as the delivery
upset song? Because even in doing the roll call theme,
I was panicled like should I be the drums? Should
it be? The bass? Should harmony? Should I?

Speaker 10 (26:41):
So?

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Is there some sort of polarizing because when I hear
you sing a song, I can hear the blanks filled in,
even the parts that I don't hear. I hear where
you're going. So is it Is it a formula you've
established where it's like, Okay, I'll do a little vocal
here and then the established the basin.

Speaker 10 (27:01):
No, everything is a surprise. Every note is a surprise.
I don't have any rules. I don't have any plans.
I enter the stage empty and I exit full.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Is that on the time?

Speaker 7 (27:19):
That's the time.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
So I'm going to ask you a question that I
ask most stand up comedians, because you're up there alone
four year solo shows. How do you deal with the
disruptive or heckler kind of incorporated? So that's how you
extinguish the fire, That's.

Speaker 10 (27:47):
How I deal with it. I just I just take
whatever the heckler is heckling me about and musicalize it.
One time a guy came in late and he was
sitting in a balcony and when he sat down, the

(28:10):
chair squeaked. So I squeaked, and he squeaked, and I
squeaked some more. So he started he started playing his
seat the squeak. So I did a duet with the
squeak and his seat.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
You know, So it's almost like you welcome it, because
I don't know if you're thinking of like a show
like oh time eater, Oh good, I have something to
eat up this particularly two minutes or whatever. But so
you do you welcome those types of distractions or well?

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Is it?

Speaker 10 (28:44):
I guess it does depend, But I can honestly say
that at least ninety percent of the time I use
whatever is given to me. I just take it and
incorporate it. And whatever the improvisation is, whatever the landscape is,
I take it and I use it. So I don't

(29:06):
I don't fear anything on stage really. In fact, I'm
scared sitting in this chair just thinking about it.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah, just like everything I do, always have to map
it out before I do it so well.

Speaker 10 (29:19):
I used to be that way as a composition student.
You know, you're writing everything down exactly the way that
you want it, and even solos. I would even write
the solos out because I wanted to the solo was
to go on a certain direction.

Speaker 7 (29:36):
But then.

Speaker 10 (29:38):
Miles Davis was playing at a club in Los Angeles
called Shelley's Manhole. Shelley man the drummer, and the band
included Keith Jarrett, h Michael Henderson, who was I think
borrowed from James Brown or Slider family Stone or something.
He was in Motown. Yeah, right, well you're right. Jack

(30:03):
Djanet on drums, Gary bart On soprano, sacks. My Miles
was sporting some black leather pants and a black shirt,
playing a drag a black trumpet hooked up to a
wild wah pedal. And when I left the club that night,
I literally was walking on air. My feet didn't touch

(30:26):
the ground for at least two weeks because I understood
what improvisation was. From that moment on, I understood it.
You know, it's complete musical freedom.

Speaker 8 (30:38):
You should tell that story, though, because that's a pretty
good story of going to that show.

Speaker 7 (30:42):
When I was.

Speaker 10 (30:43):
When I arrived to the show, there was a line
down the block and around the corner. The place was
already packed with people, so the people that were standing
in line, it was just hopeless that you were going
to get in. So I'm standing there with my date.
A woman walks out of the club and for some

(31:03):
reason she stopped at me and said, do you would
you like two tickets? And I said, well yes, So
I had my two tickets, walked into the club and
the last two seats were right next to the band stand,

(31:25):
I mean just to butted the bandstand, so I got
a full view of the entire band, last two seats.

Speaker 7 (31:33):
So that was the night that I was introduced to
Keith Jarrett and the band just blew me away.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Was this a Bitch's Brew tour or something like that?

Speaker 7 (31:42):
This was Live Evil?

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Okay, okay, right before on the corner right, yeah, you
should have been. There was James in to me. There
is percussionists.

Speaker 7 (31:55):
I don't recall percussion okay.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
Yeah, James, he came in seventy two, slightly.

Speaker 7 (32:02):
Yeah, this was in February of seventy one.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Yeah, right beforehand. So with well, that's good to see
that you were open to that because then I know
many a jazz snob. Who you know, depending on who
you speak to, like former writer for The Village Voice

(32:27):
of Boys, Stanley Kroud Stanley, Yeah, crowds would have been
like whatever you know. But it's it's almost it's good
to hear your your perspective of it as as a younger.
Uh well, I mean, I know that you were immersed
in jazz already, haven't grown up in it, but you know,

(32:48):
usually people have different points of view of Miles's early period,
right right? So who were your just as far as
your musical idols at the time in the early seventies
as you're finding yourself, like who were your absolute heroes?

Speaker 7 (33:11):
Oka?

Speaker 10 (33:11):
So mm hmmm, whoa Okay, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Speaker 7 (33:19):
H I've drawn I'm drawing a blank.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Keith Jarrett, Herbie well, Herbie for sure. Wow, it's amazing.
So okay, I want to skip slightly ahead to simple
pleasures without mentioning the D word. But what I want
but what I want to what I want to know

(33:47):
is not that were you shocked at this success? But
I'm certain that with the audience that discovered you, and
I won't lie like I won't say like, oh, yes,
I knew you were a bomb mean fair the whole time.
When I first saw you on the Grammys, I think, uh,
you're doing around about Midnight with Herbie Hancock R. My

(34:11):
first response was, Yo, that's the that's the Levi's file
fiber one cluse die oh he sings. So the way
that audiences have discovered you were you not slightly dismayed.
But I know that it had to have been a
weird change after Simple Pleasures comes out with with the

(34:34):
with the massive success of Don't Worry Be Happy, whereas
now maybe non jazz fans or non uh sophisticated music.

Speaker 4 (34:47):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (34:48):
He was on VH one, The video was on VH one.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah, But I'm just saying that is it.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
Is.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
It was it somewhat dismaying for you to have this
new audience that really doesn't understand the art of jazz
and what it is that you were about and you
just want to don't Worry Be Happy.

Speaker 11 (35:06):
Guy.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
I never.

Speaker 10 (35:08):
I never really thought of myself as a jazz musician
because I did so many different kinds of pieces during
an evening. I mean I might follow up a James
Brown piece, you know, seeing the Ave Maria by Bob
then follow it up with the Beatles tune, and then
follow that up with something just completely wild and crazy
and out of hand and chaotic and rambunctious and and all.

(35:32):
So I never thought I never promoted myself as a
jazz singer, though I did sing jazz pieces.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
You know, of course, what was the process like just
kind of going back a little bit to signing your
record deal, like, how were you able you know, what
was the market like for what you were doing at
that time, because it was it was really unique.

Speaker 10 (35:53):
So how well after my first album, which was you know, selfish,
self titled Bobby mcfair, and after that one.

Speaker 7 (36:02):
They wanted to make me into the new algi Row.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
I was going to say, my first album is rather
traditional for what was right.

Speaker 10 (36:12):
So they hired a top Hollywood arranger by the name
of Johnny Mandel, who was a fabulous musician.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Any relations Steve no but he wrote the mash theme.
I think also did that.

Speaker 7 (36:27):
Johnny Mandel, Oh really okay?

Speaker 10 (36:32):
And I was down in Los Angeles working in his
studio for about two weeks when at the end of
the session I said to him, you know, this doesn't
feel right. I don't feel good about the direction that
that they're pushing me towards. And so I called off

(36:55):
that particular project and was immediately summoned into the Presidents office.

Speaker 7 (37:02):
AH.

Speaker 10 (37:04):
By the name of Bruce Lunvall. He had what was
the name of the what was the name of the
label musician elect Electric Musician, you see the logo, and
he says, well, Bobby, what's what's going on. Why didn't
you want to do the project? And I said, it's

(37:26):
because I have in my heart to do solo pieces,
solo concerts. And he asked me what that was, and
I tried to explain to him. I said, well, it
would just be me recording shows and improvising. And he says,
this is really important to you, is it? And I said, yes,
God wants me to do it. Yeah, that's what I said,

(37:49):
And that's exactly what Bruce says. Well, we can't argue
with God. So he allowed me to do my second
album of the Voice.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
The way that you wanted to do it than I
wanted to do. You did. There were a few a
few a cappella esque songs on the first record, right, yeah,
So I interrupted you to you I'm sorry, no, no, no,
I was just figuring if maybe that was added after

(38:21):
the fact that you had the talking and said this
is what I'm more about as opposed.

Speaker 10 (38:25):
To Right, that's pretty much I wanted to introduce my
audience to the South. Then I knew that I was.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
I think Bruce later was president Blue Note right at
the time when we were doing the Elvis Costello project.

Speaker 7 (38:44):
That's that's correct.

Speaker 1 (38:45):
Bruce also, I think, famously signed Bill Withers to Columbia
after Clarence Avont dissolved Success Records. So that's how Bruce.

Speaker 10 (39:02):
So for the.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
How did the commercial world discover you with the Levi's
stuff and the Ocean Spray and all the others.

Speaker 10 (39:14):
I don't know, in the Cosby theme, you know, all
those those pieces, those those.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Well, by the time Cosby came along, you were a
household name. But I mean just in the beginning I
heard your voice on commercials and that sort of thing like.

Speaker 7 (39:30):
Like Ocean Spray.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Yeah, was it was it? Mark? Was there marketing geniuses
behind this, like this is how we're going to promote you?

Speaker 10 (39:36):
Or was it just how do people don't know how
to answer that? Yeah, Linda is probably the answer to
that question, manager. Okay, So with uh, you're is is
the project? With wait, wait before I say anything, I

(39:59):
got to figure out how Freddie Freeloader was recorded with Algio,
John Hendricks and George Benson.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah, who wrote the lyrics?

Speaker 7 (40:12):
John Hendricks?

Speaker 1 (40:14):
How long did it take you to study? Because at
the time when I heard it, someone explained to me
that you guys literally transposed every solo on the original
Miles Davis piece applied words to it right and once
I at first I didn't believe it, and then I
had to literally get both copies and go and I

(40:35):
was mind blown at the commitment that it took. Could
you discuss the recording process of recording? Like was it
done in parts or.

Speaker 10 (40:44):
It was done each singer recorded their part individually, you know,
in their own studio.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Okay.

Speaker 10 (40:52):
And I can't remember if I learned the original solo
by Tommy Flanagan or if I if I had studied
the words first. I don't remember, Okay, but it took me.
It took me about four or five days, I think,

(41:13):
to get it down. And what's really interesting is that
he left out a verse. You know, he wrote he
wrote all these words and I said, well, John, you
forgot this verse, And he sat down in the studio
and wrote the lyrics out.

Speaker 7 (41:32):
Then at that moment, I'm not sure.

Speaker 10 (41:34):
The spot on the spot, because he could he could
hear words in melody, you know, he had this gift
of understanding what the melodies were saying. So he wrote
it out and we recorded it, and and it was
It was a delightful. It had a delighted, delightful outcome.
It was a good experience.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Did you commit that entire solo to memory or was
it like, Okay, I'll do eight bars here and then
listen to the original and figure out Like.

Speaker 10 (42:01):
Nons, I believe my memory serves me well that I
pretty much had it nearly perfectly memorized. But I think
I even but I think I used the lyrics on
a music stand, just just in case I should in
recording the piece, you know, have a misstep and my

(42:23):
memory and forget certain words. But but I think it
came off pretty well.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
Yeah. That that that is probably, bar none, my favorite
performance of you. But I'll say that maybe like it's
maybe my top ten songs of all time because beyond
beyond the just beyond the magnitude of hearing. You know,

(42:52):
four very unique vocalists again Algebra, George Benson, John Hendricks,
and Bob McFerrin attempt this. John John Hendricks is like
the father of what they call vocalist like they'll they'll
often or you remember we were laughing at Eddie Jefferson
doing bitches brus.

Speaker 8 (43:13):
No.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
But even even even Eddie Jefferson fault like I mean,
Eddie Jefferson is more like I would say he's close
to to like Rufus Thomas if Rufus Thomas were jazz
center right or whatever or od b I don't know,
but yeah, John Hendricks of formerly of A, Lambert Hendricks
and Ross. I mean they were like the original Manhattan

(43:37):
transfer slash.

Speaker 5 (43:40):
So is that why so because I'm looking, I'm looking
up for free Loader?

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Is that?

Speaker 5 (43:43):
Is that why only John Hendrix is listed on the
song on his album?

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah, it's on his album. So it's sort of like,
you know, getting the most unique vocals. But even George
Benson's uh approach, Uh you know that's an I tell
him that's my favorite.

Speaker 5 (44:01):
Is this post Simple Pleasures or this pre Simple Pleasures?

Speaker 1 (44:04):
You guys did that in ninety I think I'd like
to think it was nineteen ninety. I'm not sure.

Speaker 7 (44:09):
I think we were still living in San Francisco.

Speaker 8 (44:13):
If it was ninety, I wasn't a.

Speaker 7 (44:19):
Yeah, I think before me. Yeah, that's right, Yeah around
that time there, I.

Speaker 5 (44:26):
Asked because I was just wanted to in the still
in the simple Pleasures bad because you said that you
don't consider yourself a jazz vocalist. But I wonder if
you consider yourself like a conduit to all music because
a lot sometimes people don't know if you're aware of this,
but sometimes people learn of other musical genres and songs
through you.

Speaker 10 (44:42):
Well, I would call myself a folk musician, okay, okay,
you know music music of the folk. You know. I
tried to whenever I go to different countries, if I
have an opportunity to hear some of the musical styles
that come from that culture, I try and incorporate it
in my improvs, you know, as well as I can.

(45:05):
I've gone to several music schools, you know, in different
countries where they would have ensembles play for me and
invite me to participate with them. So I would take
what I could from that experience, you know, onto the
stage with me and play with the sounds and the
scales and hm, how.

Speaker 5 (45:26):
Many countries do you think you've done that in, like
improvising with other cultures like that?

Speaker 7 (45:33):
Lots?

Speaker 8 (45:36):
Are there any that have stumped you?

Speaker 7 (45:41):
Stumped me?

Speaker 8 (45:42):
Like, what's been the hardest to incorporate.

Speaker 5 (45:46):
Language?

Speaker 10 (45:50):
That's a good question. I can't think of any off
the top of my head. Stumpers. Meet one man dare

(46:11):
to up escape Yeah, like did.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
You see red Pepper? Yes, we often fall in the
rabbit holes on this show. Wait you you're the one
that put the link up right? Yeah? Yeah, I got
I got to meet that dude. Man is black, Yes,
a black as a brother in London that does like
all that stuff that's the scary Uh in a world
where so and something?

Speaker 5 (46:32):
I thought that was a white man with a my
snad it was it was he died.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
He has but he looks like it looks like ving
rains now like but has a polite accent co accent.

Speaker 7 (46:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
I think I said it right.

Speaker 5 (46:50):
Right, Yeah, sat on the streets saying crazy ship.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
I'm straat, I'm straight man. So okay, now I guess
I will bring up the D word. Uh. At what
point did you realize that this song was going beyond
just having a hit single and that about d W
B A W we got we got it, that's what you.

Speaker 8 (47:27):
Know.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
What I showed showed the shirt that he had on. Yeah, yeah,
I gave it to Slan you did. Yeah, they laughed
at it. He had a shirt that said don't worry beyond.

Speaker 8 (47:40):
Yeah, I saw that it was my shirt, but I
made him wear it for.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
That's hilarious. They got a kick out. Yeah. So, I mean,
was there a point where you because assuming that you
took it out your repertoire or if you ever I
don't know if you ever performed it live and kind
or whatever.

Speaker 10 (48:00):
But I haven't performed that song live in concert since
November of nineteen eighty eight.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
Why why are you so specific?

Speaker 4 (48:10):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (48:11):
Because the election. The tune came out September September before that,
I believe.

Speaker 5 (48:18):
Thirty year anniversary, Yes thirty I'm late, sorry, mass Well.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Why specifically November? Like, what's the significance of.

Speaker 10 (48:29):
I just remember that when I started doing solo concerts
that I refused to do that that peace on stage
because I wanted the audience to to know me as
an improviser, right, you know, So I didn't want to go,
you know, be falling back on that tune all the time,

(48:49):
or have them expected they they they grew out of
it over time, you know, they said, well, he's not
going to do that, he's not going to do that
sound because he doesn't do it anymore.

Speaker 7 (48:59):
And I still do it.

Speaker 8 (49:00):
You still get asked, I still get hill.

Speaker 5 (49:03):
Do you make mean faces when they ask or you
just say no.

Speaker 7 (49:05):
I don't make faces. I just say no. I probably
won't do it.

Speaker 10 (49:10):
I occasionally might hint to the melody in the middle
of an improv, you know, it might come up. I
don't intentionally do it. And the only exceptions that I
make are for kids. You know, for kids should say would.

Speaker 7 (49:25):
You sing that song?

Speaker 10 (49:27):
I might sing the chorus, you know, a chorus or something.

Speaker 8 (49:31):
And I've probably heard you sing like one verse in
my entire life.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Wow, probably okay, next show, I'm fringing like.

Speaker 8 (49:42):
The only time I've ever seen you do some of
it in a show setting was one time when we
were on tour and there was a kid who was
severely disabled who asked, and so then I think you
did like a verse and a chorus, But we did
it in like a samba style or something like that,
like it wasn't the same.

Speaker 10 (50:07):
What's that.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
That might be? Don't HERVEI be handcoffed?

Speaker 5 (50:16):
Didn't nobody asked you to circle around around the I
hate to bring it on a downturn, but on the
death of Robin Williams. Did anyone asked you to bring
it back around during that then the time of the
death of Robin Williams since the video.

Speaker 3 (50:28):
No.

Speaker 10 (50:28):
The weirdest request I ever had to do that to
was the one year at the Academy Awards they wanted
me to sing that song to.

Speaker 7 (50:37):
The losers and I said, shil are you out of
your mind? You want me to sing that show? Sing
that song on national television to the losers?

Speaker 1 (50:50):
You got to be ridiculous, speaking of which you hold
the uh the Doobies honor of winning both Records and
Song of the Year in a time in which I
thought that man in the Mirror was going to be

(51:10):
Michael Jackson's redemption from losing the five awards of the
previous year for the Bad Awards, and he didn't.

Speaker 8 (51:18):
I was.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
I was elated and happy that you won. What was
your when did you feel as though like you had
a chance.

Speaker 10 (51:27):
Or was it just like I didn't really pay much
much attention to it.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah, you scattered your thank you thinging. I was like,
I used to watch it all the time, like a stop.

Speaker 8 (51:47):
Is that the year that Michael sent you Beatles albums?
That's like congratulations or something like that.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
He's about it.

Speaker 5 (51:54):
I wouldn't have known about the Beatles if it wasn't
for Bob may Fair and not for nothing, I would
have took me a little longer. I will say that,
like your driving my car was like oh, and then
I heard it.

Speaker 9 (52:02):
I was like, oh, they did it too.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Right, all right, I'll be honest. Yeah, I'll say that
ninety percent of the Beatles catalog I discovered cover everyone else.

Speaker 8 (52:17):
Yeah, I was like, oh blackbird the Yeah, I didn't
know Blackbird Bird was a Beatles song for a very
long time.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
And what's weird is I still consider his version the version, Yeah,
even when McCartney still does it now, and in my
head I can't imagine anyone not singing the it's hard
to go to I've lost my voice voice, how do

(52:46):
you handle sickness on the road?

Speaker 10 (52:50):
And I use what voice I've got If I've got
two octaves I just used the two octaves.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
How many octaves? What's your octave range for?

Speaker 7 (53:00):
Wow, that's the average person health.

Speaker 5 (53:05):
I'm gonna say, translate.

Speaker 8 (53:06):
That for me.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Yeah, I was break you. I mean your octave range
is I mean that average person? I'm sure me Steve octapers,
I'm sure a singer, maybe fan taking maybe yeah, because
he sings in this so maybe three. But when you're
dealing with four and five octave range, that means you're special.

Speaker 10 (53:28):
So hello, everybody, aren't we.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
You? Have you ever had uh offers for Saturday Morning.

Speaker 10 (53:40):
Cartoons and voiceovers stuff like that, like.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
But a regular series, not just like.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
It though.

Speaker 8 (53:49):
I've been telling him that he needs to do it
for the longest because this man, Yes, but this man
gives the best story time ever.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
You Madison mcerne.

Speaker 8 (54:00):
I had him read me stories until I was twelve
years old in bed because it was like and I
wouldn't even have my mom read me stories because she
couldn't do all the voices. It wasn't it wasn't the
same thing.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Where were Okay, So by the time you're born via
medicine music, all right, I'll at least start you at three.

Speaker 8 (54:28):
I think I was like one when medicine music came out, right, I.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Know that, but I'm just saying that, how are you
when are you processing what you're in? Because you're the
youngest of this brute, and I'm certain that your brothers
are even via trickle down talent or just as spontaneous
and creative as he was, Like, how are you processing

(54:52):
the situation that you're in?

Speaker 8 (54:57):
I didn't realize the magnitude of who he was or
what he could do until I got to college.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
So wait, say what before then?

Speaker 8 (55:06):
Yeah, you met me my freshman year of college, first semester, So.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Before then he was just oh, that's dad.

Speaker 8 (55:13):
Yeah, pretty much to the records.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
You didn't realize.

Speaker 8 (55:16):
Well, see, here's the thing is like he my friend
pointed this out to me, and I hadn't even realized
until she did. I guess she got asked in a
class once they were talking about my dad. She mentioned
that she knew him and this is a friend of
mine who I've known since we were three, And the
professor was like, Oh, what's it like knowing him? And
she said, oh, he makes noise all the time. And
I didn't even recognize that that was a thing until

(55:38):
she pointed that out to me, because he is, in
fact making noise all the time, and when your dad
is just making noise all the time, that doesn't Yeah,
it doesn't register as something that's like particularly unique or
particularly different or strange. Like I didn't realize. I didn't
listen to his music as a musician until I got
to college, and then all of a sudden, I was like, oh, wow,

(55:59):
this is very difficult to do. But this is somebody who,
like I have been going to shows of his as
long as I can remember, and so it's just like normal.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
So I want to ask, how can you take someone
serious that's like have your ass home by ten? That's
also like.

Speaker 8 (56:21):
It's he was never really the enforcer of that. That
was my mom. So I didn't bad he was asleep,
He goes to bed at like nine o'clock. He was
kind of the Yeah he was in terms of good
cop bad cop dynamic, he's the good cop okay slash
the cop who's on the road all the time. So
mom has to be bad cop hangers.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Like in my mind, you're you're And I said, even
the day where I first met you and your brothers,
like you guys are like the animaniacs.

Speaker 8 (56:49):
To me, pretty pretty accurate.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
And he's doctor, uh, the one that in the tower
with them. So yeah, So to you, did you know
that you wanted to sing as well?

Speaker 8 (57:06):
Or just I decided I wanted to be a singer
when I was five, And I don't know if that
was It definitely wasn't because like my parents were like, oh,
you're going to be a singer. I think it was
like I saw my dad was a singer and he
enjoyed doing it. I liked going to shows, I liked
singing with him, and I was like, Oh, if dad

(57:27):
can do it, I can do it. And then I
kind of just didn't question that thought, which I'm curious
about as an adult, like if that was really I mean,
I still love doing it, but it was very much like, oh,
I'm going to be a singer, and then I just
didn't question.

Speaker 5 (57:41):
Decision inclines as you get older, your friend, exactly, how
are you.

Speaker 11 (57:46):
All making decisions at age five and six? I don't
even remember deciding anything at that age.

Speaker 8 (57:52):
Well before that, I wanted to be a tightrope walker.

Speaker 5 (57:54):
Okay, how does it feel?

Speaker 10 (57:59):
Boy?

Speaker 5 (58:00):
It's funny because I just saw Madison show for the
first time, even though I've known her for a few
years now, I'm like that, but I just saw her
for the first time this year, and it is so
derivative of you, but also just like her own fresh take. Yeah, like,
what does that feel like watching your kids do that?

Speaker 10 (58:13):
I'm glad that they have taken what I've done and
expanded on it, you know, and have developed it to.

Speaker 7 (58:23):
Something that.

Speaker 10 (58:27):
Then I feel I feel like I'm a part of it,
you know what, Whatever they do, I feel like I
am a part.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Of it.

Speaker 7 (58:34):
Because of the influence I guess I've had on them
in the musical.

Speaker 8 (58:40):
Field slash literal DNA.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
But I got I got, I got it right.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
But it's also to your father and your mom. It's
all trickled down, and so it must be Sometimes you
have a conscious moment of like, oh.

Speaker 10 (58:53):
My god, my parents, we're in a Broadway I can't
remember if it was a Broadway show in nineteen forty
nine called Lost in the Stars.

Speaker 7 (59:06):
Do you know this piece? No, Yeah, lost in the Stars.

Speaker 10 (59:09):
I've got an old program that someone found with the
cast of characters, and at the bottom of the list
is Robert McFerrin Villager. So he had a small role,
and my mother was in the chorus, and so they
had a chance to sing together. I remember early in

(59:30):
my childhood they were away a lot, which I didn't like.
I was very lonely for them as a kid. But
we eventually ended up in Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Do you have any other siblings or it's just you.

Speaker 7 (59:43):
I have a sister who's also a singer.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Really still currently.

Speaker 7 (59:52):
In and out of jobs.

Speaker 10 (59:53):
You know, the life of a musician, it can be
really tough, especially in musical mecca life Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Okay, how do you get other people out of their
comfort zone? Because, uh, my introduction to Yoyo Mam was
through you. But then seeing him in his regular environment
and in such a strict discipline atmosphere as classical music,

(01:00:22):
I mean, you're really pulling him towards the the jazz
world almost, you know, doing improvising and soloing. So one,
how do you do you plan all your collaborations that way, Like,
let's just throw some spaghetti on the wall and see
what sticks.

Speaker 7 (01:00:39):
And well with yo Yo. We we just brought it.

Speaker 10 (01:00:43):
We didn't we didn't know what the album was going
to sound like. We just got together and had a
stack of music yeah. I remember, we must have had
hundreds of pieces and we just went through them and said, well,
let's try this, try that. And I had had also
written five pieces I think for the album, and so

(01:01:07):
we just kind of went through a lot of material
and we worked. We worked on my stuff. I think
it took about a week to record all this material.
And I sensed from playing with him that he could
improvise if he wanted to, just because of the spirit

(01:01:29):
of his behind his playing. He had a very strong
spirit and I could tell. I could tell that he
would make a great improviser, and I kept telling him, so,
I said, you can, you can do this, you can.
So what I did to aid him was give him
some some points for him to play too, you know,

(01:01:53):
and then once he played to that point, that I
would direct him to another point and have him play
to that point. And I knew he could handle it.
Even though he probably doesn't improvise much anymore, I really
don't know. He has a group called the Silk Road Project, okay,
and it's music gathered from various cultures. Then he's brought

(01:02:18):
together as an ensemble, and I'm not sure exactly how
he works within that ensemble. But I hope that he's
doing some improv.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Do you feel as though that your influence on him
has caused him to step outside.

Speaker 7 (01:02:32):
Of his comfort zone?

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:02:35):
Maybe a little, maybe a little.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
The Voice Sester project, which you know, as far as
the phrasing, like, as far as the phrasing is concerned
and the arrangements, how did you tackle that particularly because
I don't I would assume that nothing on that album

(01:03:02):
or any of your projects with Voice Voices Throw was spontaneous.

Speaker 5 (01:03:06):
Like it took so how many people?

Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
Yeah, so as far as writing parts for like, as
far as rehearsal and all that.

Speaker 7 (01:03:15):
Well, you're you're referring to vocabularies that project.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
I'm sorry, I said voices, Yes, vocabularies yeah, how many?
I read that it was over twelve hundred vocal tracks,
the vocal tracks, yes, and everything on that project was done.

Speaker 7 (01:03:32):
By the voice was done by voice.

Speaker 10 (01:03:34):
Yes, what does that?

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
There's me there's a project?

Speaker 8 (01:03:39):
Have you?

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
Have you ever heard of vocal sampling from Cuba?

Speaker 7 (01:03:41):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Okay, yeah, like I thought, vocal sampling from it. They
were it was like three cousins and three brothers, almost
like the Take six Soil, but they're in Cuba. But
when they do percussion, I swear to God it was
the real thing, like I thought. I made them prove
to me that. Yeah. And but this how as far

(01:04:11):
as engineering and all that stuff, is that just you?

Speaker 10 (01:04:14):
And project began. I worked with an arranger by the
name of Roger Trees, and he went through the vocester files.

Speaker 7 (01:04:27):
He just went through everything.

Speaker 10 (01:04:28):
He listened to all the the solo the the improvisational
concerts that we did, and he found certain themes and
developed them and he's responsible for all of the arrangements.
I think we worked on the project for a good
two years.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:04:51):
And he would record, say the basis for a while,
and then he record another group, you know, the tenors
and the altos and sopranos.

Speaker 7 (01:05:03):
So he did the one group at a time. Sorry
I was coughing, and with my parts.

Speaker 10 (01:05:12):
He would simply put the recording on a loop so
that you know, for example, he wanted a funky basline,
so he would have me seeing a funky based line
for eight bars and then he'd loop it around. So
I would do twenty eight baselines, and then he'd choose
the one that he wanted to work off of and

(01:05:33):
That's pretty much how we worked. I just go into
the studio and he'd say, I need a new melody
for this line, and so I would just sing that
melody or that line a multitude of times, and then
he would take it, work on and expand and develop it.

(01:05:54):
And that's pretty much how we worked on it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
So it's physically only twelve people.

Speaker 10 (01:06:00):
There's probably more than twelve, but I'm not sure how
many voices voices voice group, the performing group is twelve people.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Has the Vocabulary Project ever done anything live?

Speaker 10 (01:06:19):
Uh? Well, a couple of pieces, say lad.

Speaker 8 (01:06:24):
No, it was like the Garden right, like when we
went to Poland that time, there was that group that
did some stuff from like two pieces from.

Speaker 7 (01:06:37):
It from good Danks, Goodanks with me. I've forgotten the question.

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
No, it was just one of the Yes. No, just
I'm trying to imagine you guys recreating any of those songs.

Speaker 10 (01:06:58):
Yeah, it's today. Well, yeah, there is a group I
think it's called They're called called.

Speaker 8 (01:07:05):
Sticks s t y Oh yeah, is that that you're
thinking of Pentatonics?

Speaker 7 (01:07:15):
No, I'm not thinking.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
I don't know.

Speaker 8 (01:07:17):
Oh, the German group that was in Poland with us,
I think they were.

Speaker 5 (01:07:22):
Called sticks, but not another Jesus got about Pentatonics, though.

Speaker 8 (01:07:30):
I actually heard over the holidays Pentatonics. I guess they
came out with a Christmas album or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
That's the only time I hear from me, right, And
I was.

Speaker 8 (01:07:40):
In Bloomingdale's and you know, they're playing only Christmas music,
and all of a sudden, I hear they don't Worry
Be Happy theme and it's not him, you know, And
so I recorded a video of myself being like, oh goodness,
what is this all of a sudden, All of a sudden,
it goes it goes from thank thank God. I was
recording myself because it goes from the don't Worry Be

(01:08:01):
Happy theme into sleigh bells ring, and I was like,
the shock on my face was I'm still shocked. I
don't know how to deal with that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
You did a song it was a couple of years ago,
was a minute ago for Pixar short.

Speaker 8 (01:08:27):
Knick Knack Nick Knack?

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Is that out? Can like? But I love that song?

Speaker 8 (01:08:31):
Is it?

Speaker 10 (01:08:31):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
Can you purchase it? Or can you email it to me?
As his vocal was actually one of up being the
that was the one they used. Yeah, yeah, and that
which I forget which one was it that was in
it was Finding Nemo. Yeah, because my son be around.

Speaker 8 (01:08:52):
Well then it actually you had actually done it in
the eighties though, right, the original one, and then they
brought it back they did for Finding Nemo.

Speaker 10 (01:09:03):
Which you supplying me with a fresh cup of tea.

Speaker 5 (01:09:08):
For I'm not even gonna touch.

Speaker 7 (01:09:14):
Zerr spoon from Yes.

Speaker 8 (01:09:17):
We actually saw that together, that we saw Finding Nemo together,
just the two of us and Nick Knack came on,
which apparently side note in the original one, the Mermaids
boobs are a lot bigger, and so they shrunk them
for the for the Disney a little more, a little
more PG. And at the end of Nick Knack, you

(01:09:39):
know in big letters, it says Bobby McFerrin, and my
dad just leaned over and he was like, I wonder
what he's doing right now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
I love that song. I love immediately when I'm seeing it,
seeing it and in here I was like, that's Bobby.
It's got to be him. And then when it came
out and I was like, that's cool. You had a
really good, uh Finding Nemo experience.

Speaker 9 (01:10:04):
I mean, because.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Finding experience, how is that possible? A long story, long story.
Was it a date that feel bad? No, that's when
Prince tired me and played Finding Nemo instead. I remember
that that was like, you're so bad, I want to
put this Dy in the club.

Speaker 8 (01:10:34):
Is a great movie though, so you know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:36):
Just I wasn't big on Dory though, was kind of
like I thought it was.

Speaker 8 (01:10:39):
A decent follow up. It was a decent follow up,
but like Finding Nemo is definitely not.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
That's the one that bigs all kind of but they
got to get back on they was. I don't Yeah,
I don't know if I can trust their the because
now everything's just getting like top tier Rotten Tomato ratings,
the cars and that was the one that like printed
money and.

Speaker 8 (01:11:00):
You know the merchandise queens. He's actually to circle a background.
He's wearing a Monster's Inc. Shirt right now, right now
underneath if it was so cold in here.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Yeah, from your visit, I said, right, I want to
talk about the Paper Music Project. Okay, first of all,
did you were you conducting and singing at the same
time or was that.

Speaker 10 (01:11:29):
Just as far as on concerts I would conduct and
sing at the same time, which I really didn't like
to do.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Yeah, I was like, how can you do that, because that's.

Speaker 10 (01:11:39):
Well the pieces would have to be. They'd have to be,
first off, not very complicated. They'd have to be something
that the orchestra could play by themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
So you were still conduct them by hand. And I
still turn the page and still sing your solos.

Speaker 7 (01:11:56):
Yeah, pretty much.

Speaker 5 (01:11:58):
What did you I mean, I'm not just to as
soon as you learn the art of conducting back when
you were in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
Know what happened.

Speaker 10 (01:12:08):
What happened was as my fortieth birthday was approaching, I
wanted to give myself a special gift, and I went
through a list of all kinds of ideas, and I
had written down conducting on that list, and so I
started attending. I was living in San Francisco at the time.

(01:12:29):
I started attending concerts, classical concerts, and would end up
backstage and I drop hints, you know, I'd say, boy,
it'd be great to conduct you one day.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
Wait a minute, I'm sorry because you just said that.
And I'm in my fortieth birthday and the only option
I was thinking of, like are we doing Sylvia's or Red?

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
I never wanting deeper.

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
For real, Jesus.

Speaker 10 (01:13:00):
So I finally got a phone call from the from
the Orchestra inviting me to to conduct them. This, you know,
this is after of course, don't worry, be happy. So
they're thinking pension, fun and all that kind of stuff, right,
And so.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Is this why you moved to Minnesota or is this
because you were in Minnesota?

Speaker 8 (01:13:23):
No?

Speaker 10 (01:13:23):
I wasn't in Minnesota yet, okay, but eventually I got
there through conduct you know, it was it was all
about conducting anyway. So they invited me to conduct them,
and my my fortieth birthday was available. So I conducted
Beethoven seventh on my fortieth birthday. That was my That
was my conducting debut, and as far as I was concerned,

(01:13:46):
that was all the conducting I was I was going
to do.

Speaker 7 (01:13:48):
I mean, it was a really difficult.

Speaker 5 (01:13:50):
Thing to That's what I'm saying. How did you know
how to?

Speaker 10 (01:13:53):
Just? Well? I studied, I studied the score, and I
had a couple of teachers. I had some lessons with Segozawa.

Speaker 7 (01:14:02):
One with Leonard Bernstein.

Speaker 10 (01:14:04):
I ended up working on a continual basis with my
conducting teacher, Gustav Meyer, who passed about a year ago.
We went to the score, so I knew it pretty well.
I conducted the piece and then I thought I was done,
but I started getting phone calls. They started calling Linda,
what can we get him to conduct our come to

(01:14:26):
our city and conduct our orchestra. So all of a sudden,
I found myself with all these conducting engagements. And when
I was conducting the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minneapolis,
there was a position open, and I asked for it
because I wanted to At this point, I'm serious about conducting.

Speaker 7 (01:14:49):
I want to learn the art of conducting.

Speaker 10 (01:14:52):
So I asked for the position and got it and
stayed with the stayed with the chamber orchestra for seven seasons.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
Can you explain us as exactly what goes into conducting,
because it just like it's just you waving the Potomac's
got No, it's.

Speaker 10 (01:15:06):
About your entire body. I mean, the way you look
at an orchestra can influence that play. It's the gestures
of the body. You display the music that's being played
through through your body. You inform your orchestra what you
want by the motion of your hands, the gestures of

(01:15:26):
your of your body, you know, smiling at them, scowling
at them, or whatever.

Speaker 7 (01:15:35):
But it takes a lot of work.

Speaker 10 (01:15:37):
It's it's tedious work, at least it us for me,
and after eighteen years of doing it, I decided to stop.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
So you that's a challenge that was like a challenge
that made you think twice about it, and.

Speaker 10 (01:15:57):
Well, I really do love it. I love conducting Mozart
most of all. He's a very impish kind of character.
He has. He tells lots of musical jokes. He's very playful,
boisterous and serious and deep. I conducted a piece of

(01:16:18):
his that he wrote when he was eight, and, for
the life of mare, I can't think of the name
of it. It was a short symphony, it was about
fifty minutes in length, but as a piece that he
wrote when he was eight years old, and when you
listen to it, you wonder, how can an eight year
old have those kinds, have this deep emotional depth of

(01:16:40):
understanding of the human condition. You know, the emotions that
he that he discovered through music was pretty profound. I
couldn't understand how he could write something so deep at eight,

(01:17:00):
But he was that well developed a musician, and he
burned out in his thirties, you know, after writing some
incredible music.

Speaker 7 (01:17:11):
He's my favorite to the dark.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
The world of classical music is so discipline. Do you
feel as though maybe perhaps it rarely allowed any sort
of spontaneity.

Speaker 10 (01:17:25):
Well, you know what surprised me standing in front of
an orchestra, a full orchestra with eight bases. And during
this time I was doing, I'd open up with a
classical piece or two, and then i'd do a solo
set and then the concept. Then there'd be an intermission,

(01:17:47):
and then there'd be a classical piece, you know, Beethoven
piece or Bernstein or something.

Speaker 7 (01:17:55):
Something would take place in the second half.

Speaker 10 (01:17:57):
And I remember walking over to the base section one
by one, asked if one of them would be interested
in playing a B flat blues with me? And none
of them could do it. Wow, And that blew me
away because I thought, how can you not play? How
can you not give me a B flat blues? So
I can, you know, improvise. On top of that, I

(01:18:21):
just thought every bass player could you know, either classically
trained or not, could play a B flat, A blues
and B flat.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
Yeah. I think we're classical musicians. They conditioned themselves to
read on the spot.

Speaker 10 (01:18:34):
That's why I call it paper music, because they live
on the page.

Speaker 7 (01:18:40):
Starts work right, but I love classical music.

Speaker 1 (01:18:46):
Well, you live in between worlds because you I assume
that you can read on site. We're given five ten
minutes to recap it. Okay, yes, so I mean do
you when that blew your way? Like they didn't even
know the technical the technical notes to do, like the
one chord and then the four chord and the five four.

Speaker 10 (01:19:09):
Well that wasn't true of all orders. Says that there
were some that could you know, play blues and B flat,
but lots of things shocked me about that that world is.
It's very very different. Everything he's organized, everything has to
be discussed, even down to what are we going to wear?

(01:19:30):
I conducted controversions of Porgy and Bess, and I wanted
the orchestra in the chorus to be as colorful as possible.
I didn't want the blacks, black and white suits and
all that kind of stuff in Acquirro wearing black and
white whatever.

Speaker 7 (01:19:45):
I didn't want that.

Speaker 10 (01:19:46):
I said, where everything where African garb? Where just be
colorful because we're talking about catfish row here, we're talking
about a village of people. So they didn't walk around
in suits and ties. They walked around in bare feet
and patches on their clothes and different colors.

Speaker 5 (01:20:04):
They must have loved it.

Speaker 10 (01:20:06):
So as soon as the cars would come in, even
before we played a note, the audience knew that something
was up, something wonderful was going at was going to happen,
just because of the way everyone looked, even the orchestra.
But they'd have to have meetings about this kind of stuff.
What do you mean wear color?

Speaker 7 (01:20:25):
What colors?

Speaker 10 (01:20:26):
And I said many, many colors, short sleeve, long sleeve.
I said, I don't care, jean slacks doesn't matter.

Speaker 7 (01:20:37):
I don't care. You know, free, You're free. Just play.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Madison. What was this like for you growing up? Because
you seen he seems like he would be like the
coolest dad ever, Like, well, did he allow you to
express yourself like that as well? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:20:57):
We were always really encouraged to express ourselves in whatever ways.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
They are, the Animaniacs, the Smallest.

Speaker 10 (01:21:09):
Stay, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
The Smalletts, Journey Smilett, the family. We had them on
the show, like the whole When I see you know,
the Tasmanian double, I just see that with the four them.

Speaker 5 (01:21:24):
Together, the Little Girl from East Byue, I was trying
to give him a I'm like, what's the well.

Speaker 8 (01:21:30):
I mean, it was interesting and like similar to what
I had mentioned earlier about not really putting two and
two together until I got to college. We were always
going to shows, you know, we were always going to
whether it was a solo show or a classical show.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:21:46):
I just remember being little and needing to like sit
on my mom's jacket because I wasn't big enough to
see the stage type of thing, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
And and this was in San Francisco. This is where
you were.

Speaker 8 (01:21:58):
I'm we moved from San Francisco when I was just
under three, and then I did like elementary school in
Minneapolis and then pretty much middle school and high school
in Philadelphia. Uh. But it was another one of those
things where you really take for granted that like I'm
not thinking about the fact that, oh, all my friends

(01:22:19):
aren't going to see classical shows like every other weekend.
You know. Like that didn't that really didn't compute. And
it also didn't connect because you know, he was gone
a decent amount on the road and my two best friends,
one of them her dad was a like a consultant
who was on the road all the time, and the
other one her mom was a businesswoman who was on

(01:22:40):
the road all the time. So I was kind of like, oh,
apparent is gone. That's just kind of the vibe.

Speaker 1 (01:22:46):
What did you did your mom? She was not a
singer or anything like that. No, music, not at all.

Speaker 8 (01:22:52):
No, my mom has wonderful taste in music.

Speaker 1 (01:22:55):
She's not chicken.

Speaker 10 (01:23:00):
Is very very very Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:23:05):
And she's from the West Coast.

Speaker 8 (01:23:06):
No, she's from Illinois. Okay, but apparently, I mean dad
can say this better than I can. But apparently one
of the things that caught his eye when they met
in seventy five is that when he went to her apartment,
and this is a white woman, she had a copy
of Downbeat magazine in her apartment. Did and so. But

(01:23:30):
she is a different kind of artist in the sense
of she is an incredible interior designer and has an
eye for that kind of detail. And but she always
says that if she could sing, she'd be a blues singer.
So she had a voice, she would want to do that.

Speaker 5 (01:23:46):
But that is not what she does.

Speaker 8 (01:23:49):
But I think it's actually better that way, since he
is like such a virtuoso. I feel like having two
musician couple.

Speaker 1 (01:23:59):
Lawyer if not so like, have y'all collaborated? We are.

Speaker 8 (01:24:05):
I'm in his band in one of his bands with
him called Spirit You Wall. So we did about two
years of touring together, which was really fun. I said,
I essentially got paid to travel the world.

Speaker 10 (01:24:21):
And last because we would something would happen on stage
and we would get to laughing so hard so we
couldn't even look at each other.

Speaker 8 (01:24:30):
Yeah, it was bad. His sound guy, Dan Vaccari, he
after one show he told me he was like, if
something happens like you, you can't look at your dad
because you guys will look at each other and he'll
fall out and until turn into a whole thing. But
we definitely have a way of setting each other off.
I actually recently found a photo of the two of

(01:24:52):
us sitting at the piano when I'm probably like six
or something, and we're both making silly faces, and it
pretty much sums up Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:24:59):
Pretty What was What was your training like? Did you
were you formally trained or did you just kind of
pick it up.

Speaker 8 (01:25:05):
Yourself a little bit of both yourself. Uh. I started
taking piano lessons when I was about like three or
four or something like that. But then when we moved
to Philadelphia. I still took up lessons, but I wasn't
as serious about it. And then I also took drum
lessons simultaneously, and same vibe. Wasn't as serious, and same thing.

(01:25:27):
I took quarter lessons and wasn't as serious about it.
I have a wooden recorder that my dad got me.
That's pretty legit.

Speaker 1 (01:25:38):
And then how were you when you did that?

Speaker 8 (01:25:40):
Uh ten or eleven something like that to twelve?

Speaker 5 (01:25:47):
I could? I could.

Speaker 8 (01:25:48):
I could play pretty well. I was decent.

Speaker 5 (01:25:50):
I wasn't.

Speaker 8 (01:25:50):
I wasn't like the squeaky because I you know, they
play that in school and I would always have to
be put to the side because it was like you,
this is past or this is below your pay grade.
I couldn't. I mean, they never gave it to me,
but I guess I probably could. I would have to
like sit in the hallway while everybody else was learning
something else because they were like, here's the more advanced

(01:26:12):
piece that you can figure out for yourself. But I
always knew I wanted to be a singer, so I
was like in choirs and in high school, I was
like in the a cappella group in the choir and
the Madrials like and all that stuff. So I was
singing every day of the week pretty much, and then
we'd sing in the house, not anything like formally, and

(01:26:35):
anytime he had a show that I was at a
we always would do some kind of duet together. But
definitely the most formal training I got was probably at Berkeley.

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
After the facts, well, I know he produces, but does
he is.

Speaker 8 (01:26:49):
Just dipping into the into the singing because he definitely
he steered away from doing what Dad does, and I
think as the oldest it was kind of like I'm
trying to prove that I'm not my dad type of thing.
So he's just now dipping into it. Whereas Javon and
I both like were active in choirs and stuff. But

(01:27:10):
Javon also always wanted to be an actor. Okay, I
went to Germantown Friends School.

Speaker 1 (01:27:17):
Oh, Javon went to Kappa Okay, yeah, wait why Philadelphia,
that's the question. Was it just like coming to America, like.

Speaker 7 (01:27:29):
It's the windsors Man the windsor.

Speaker 1 (01:27:33):
Minnesota was pretty bad, I can imagine.

Speaker 10 (01:27:38):
I was invited by the Philadelphia Orchestra to conduct him
in April and so one. So I'm sitting with my
soundman then at an outdoor cafe with the trees blooming
and everything, and and I called up my wife and
I said maybe we should think about because we were
thinking about moving, but we didn't know where.

Speaker 7 (01:28:00):
I said, well, let's take a look at Philadelphia. And
they were also.

Speaker 5 (01:28:06):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
No Prince runnings in Minnesota. Nothing, No, no trips to
Paisley Park.

Speaker 7 (01:28:12):
No, Yeah, we went to Paisley Park.

Speaker 1 (01:28:14):
Okay, have you ever played with him or done one of.

Speaker 10 (01:28:17):
His He's come to some couple I think a show
or two of mine.

Speaker 8 (01:28:21):
Okay, didn't you see him in the club once or
something like?

Speaker 7 (01:28:24):
So him in the club, we met and talked for
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:28:28):
I did a show in La He.

Speaker 10 (01:28:32):
They cleared out the balcony so that he could sit
in the balcony alone, so he could watch me in peace.
And that was He was a very I wish I
had gotten to know him. He was a very quiet.
He had a very quiet voice. He was very small,
but he had such a presence about him, you know,

(01:28:53):
And it would have been great to have sat down
with him as as we're as we are and just
talk about music and talk about our lives.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
And so and finding your your voice, especially for your projects,
Like how how much not nerve or how did you
deal with any reservations you had with sharing your music
with your family, let alone the world.

Speaker 10 (01:29:24):
But just.

Speaker 8 (01:29:27):
Well, I thankfully I got. I used to be really
nervous when I would sing, especially in high school. But
then when I was in college, I was in a
band called Cosmodrome and we played a lot, and I
did go to Berkeley.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
What was that like? Because that's a very doggy dog world.

Speaker 5 (01:29:45):
Her eyes are closed and she's thinking, wait a.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
Minute about it, Okay, Berkeley, wait right now.

Speaker 8 (01:29:53):
Berkeley is a place where I think I had a
very interesting experien being my father's daughter that I was
slightly unprepared for, just because you know, you go to
college and you want to kind of be anonymous and
figure out your own stuff. And even though I was

(01:30:14):
outed before I even got there, apparently there were people
who were talking administration. Yeah, administration had been like telling
people that I was going to be there, and.

Speaker 1 (01:30:25):
So I it does a person that service, though, right,
And so it was this it was this.

Speaker 8 (01:30:31):
Thing where like you know, obviously there's a little bit
of you know, it's cool and popular type of thing.
But then it was also this thing of like it
was like that kind of thing, but also you know,
like people introducing themselves and the first thing they would
ask me is like, how's your dad doing? And I'm like,
you don't want to know right exactly, And so it

(01:30:51):
really it ended up giving me a lot of hesitation
towards getting to know certain people because with a motivation, yeah,
I don't know what their motivation is. And at the
same time, it's like, like I had mentioned, it's like
I hadn't really listened to him as a musician until
I got there. So it's like people are freaking.

Speaker 5 (01:31:09):
Out because they've been studying him all right.

Speaker 8 (01:31:12):
They're freaking out, and I'm like, Yo, this is just
my dad, and like he's a really wonderful father, and
like that's cool that you really admire him, but like
I'm still trying to figure out my stuff. People would
automatically assume that I was like a really good scatter
and it's like, no, like that's not what I do.

Speaker 1 (01:31:27):
Did you ever meet home from work day?

Speaker 5 (01:31:30):
Like that's the thing.

Speaker 8 (01:31:32):
He helped me move into my college norm room, you know,
And so then people are like.

Speaker 5 (01:31:35):
Oh my god, bom fairness, like, but wait, do you
know your story sounds similar to late Leila Halthaway in
that way that doesn't surprise me, But her dad wasn't.

Speaker 8 (01:31:50):
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but.

Speaker 5 (01:31:55):
I'm awkward.

Speaker 8 (01:32:00):
I actually I actually d m her on Instagram on time,
so I was like, I'm happy to see like fellow
daughters of you.

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
Know God, Yeah, did she hit?

Speaker 5 (01:32:13):
You did your back?

Speaker 1 (01:32:14):
She did?

Speaker 8 (01:32:15):
We following each other, but yeah, so I had I
was able to like do the cosmodrome thing and then.

Speaker 1 (01:32:23):
I still that was how I just goage you. Actually
I did well.

Speaker 8 (01:32:26):
Because that's when I was still doing my music music
blog and I and Amir actually was like, oh if
you write about foreign exchange fontale probably like.

Speaker 10 (01:32:37):
I saw it.

Speaker 1 (01:32:37):
I was like, And the thing was, though, like did
you ever get that album one hundred?

Speaker 10 (01:32:41):
I did?

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
She did?

Speaker 8 (01:32:42):
Album was Pippa Butterfly was number one.

Speaker 1 (01:32:46):
Because you know what I know all ninety nine, I
didn't know what your hundred record yea, because the thing
was I didn't even know I didn't find out who
you were until afterwards, Like I was just reading your blog,
like you did I join. I was like, okay, let
me see what else she does. So then I was
just following your blog. It wasn't until later on that
I realized that, oh that's Madison Fair. I was like, oh,
she's Bobby's dog. Was like, oh, okay, some people.

Speaker 8 (01:33:07):
It takes a while for them to put the connection together.
I don't know if it's because i'mlight skinned or what,
but it's like some people I saw.

Speaker 1 (01:33:13):
It was then like because you would put up pictures
like on Instagram and with you of your mom and
you and your mom have like the exact twins. Yeah, dude,
like for real?

Speaker 5 (01:33:21):
So can I ask the question? Because the first time
I met Madison was with you and Miir and she
was already singing live on stage. She was about to
sing for Roots Picnic and sing some of the parts.

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
So yeah, that's right. I forgot we did work together. Yeah,
so I forget what.

Speaker 5 (01:33:32):
Made you go, Madison come over here sing come to
the Roots Picnic? And how did that work?

Speaker 8 (01:33:37):
Because I was background?

Speaker 5 (01:33:39):
Okay, so that's what I was trying to go together.
I know she sings a lot of singers.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
You know, there's no method in my math. Come real quick,
And that's how it was.

Speaker 8 (01:33:49):
You asked me like a week before it happened or
something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:52):
It was like very I prepare very late, and I
realized like, oh, someone's gonna have to sing these day
songs and it won't be me.

Speaker 5 (01:34:00):
Know.

Speaker 1 (01:34:00):
That was and I definitely like, it took me forever
to meet you. Yeah, I purposely hid from him forever.

Speaker 5 (01:34:07):
You was you said that real fast. You was singing
backgrounds for Daylight. But I'm just yeah, just well.

Speaker 8 (01:34:12):
Just at the Roots picnic and then another time on
Valin and then there was like a Super Bowl Budweiser party. Yeah,
but that was before I was even doing solo stuff.
I just started doing solo stuff about two years ago,

(01:34:33):
so that was. But I thankfully had enough practice under
my belt and had played music for my family and
my friends to be able to be like.

Speaker 1 (01:34:40):
Okay, let me do that, like like playing music for
your family.

Speaker 8 (01:34:45):
I mean, like the solo stuff. Well I was really,
I mean I was. This was the first time that
I was releasing solo music, and I was really happy
with what I had come out with, and the fact
that it was a cappella stuff actually made me a
little more comfortable, which I think some people probably would

(01:35:05):
assume that I would be less comfortable playing it for
my dad, but it for me it was more like, oh,
I have this amazing resource to be like, what do
you think of this music that is completely derivative of you?
And you have been around the block a few times,
and even like I did the first one by myself

(01:35:28):
using his studio, after he'd go to sleep, I'd like, no,
I wasn't sneaking. He knew I was doing it, but
I was like, he goes to bed at nine, and
so I'd be in there from like ten to four.
And so then the second time around, I was much
more time.

Speaker 1 (01:35:45):
At four o'clock in the morning, No, I get up.

Speaker 8 (01:35:49):
But I had to go to bed. Oh school I
forgot Well, no, I wasn't in school anymore. She's like,
I like sleep changing. Yeah. But then the second time around,
I was much more with finding Foundations volume two, I
was even that much more intentional with having him be

(01:36:10):
a part of the process, and just while I was
making it, be like, what do you think of this?
What are your arrangement notes? Like do you think I
should take something out? Do you think I should put
something in? And there were definitely some key parts.

Speaker 1 (01:36:23):
Is it hard to be honest or not. Is it
hard to be honest because the one thing in life
I can't do is give a critique. I'd rather end
of friendship.

Speaker 5 (01:36:38):
I've never given donatique staying in a family since Like, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
I don't critique nobody. I hate doing vocals like I
just I. So you're saying you don't critique in terms
of like while you're recording or like after the record
is done this period, I like, give me your honest opinion, like,
because if I discover your music, it's because I actually

(01:37:02):
like you and I dig you. But you know, but
so if somebody's like, give me honest to be on this,
you don't. You're just like nah.

Speaker 8 (01:37:09):
I found that out very early because I asked him
an opinion about something and he was like, I don't
do that, and I was like, all right, I mean
you know, I mean this was also like six seven
years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:37:22):
Love does not do emotions? Well is this same? So
what's the next around the bend for you?

Speaker 8 (01:37:32):
I have produced music in the works, okay and right, yeah,
but that was stuff. This is the thing. I wrote
this produced stuff before I wrote the a cappella stuff.
But I, similar to my dad, had a vision of
me being on stage by myself and so, but I

(01:37:56):
can't play all these other instruments, and I don't even
I can play the piano. I don't feel super confident
playing and singing at the same time, even though that's
how I wrote the songs that are going to be produced.
And so I was like, oh, snap, I need something
else if I'm going to do these solo shows. And
so I wrote some a cappella tunes with my loop pedal,

(01:38:17):
and I was like, oh, these are pretty cool. I'll
like record these and then just put these out.

Speaker 1 (01:38:21):
All those loops are programmed inside your loop.

Speaker 8 (01:38:26):
Pedal when I do it live, but when I record them,
I record each track individually. Each track is doubled.

Speaker 5 (01:38:32):
I don't want no shading nobody else. But watching Madison
on stage is like watching what Eric could be trying
to do with her machine on stage, but then you
kind of just execute it in a Sometimes she use
a machine on stage, but you execute it like.

Speaker 1 (01:38:49):
But air could put that machine down.

Speaker 5 (01:38:52):
Yeah, that was a compliment.

Speaker 8 (01:38:58):
That was Actually the first time I saw somebody use
loop pedal was at Roots Picnic when two Yards played
like the second Yeah, like the second Roots Picnic or something.

Speaker 5 (01:39:06):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:39:07):
I was asking because when Kirk used to do that
on his guitar solos, he would lose the information at
the end turn it off. I was like, well, damn,
what's the sense in looping if you can't keep you know,
in a hard drive or whatever. But I was asking, like,
in your pedal, you.

Speaker 8 (01:39:24):
You can keep, you can save it. Okay, so I
save stuff and you can like technically save it and
then just put it into the computer and have that
be that. But I much prefer you can't get like
doubles and panning and all, like I'm trying to get
it rich.

Speaker 5 (01:39:39):
And it's phenomenal to watch. It's dope.

Speaker 8 (01:39:42):
But yeah, so that the acapella thing happened totally by accident,
so it was just like and people are really into that.
So I was like, okay, I'll do that. And also
is very easy for me to travel, you know. It's like, yeah,
one pedal that I put in a backpack and then
I'm off to the race.

Speaker 1 (01:40:02):
I hope you don't lose that.

Speaker 8 (01:40:05):
Well you know, it stays on my back, you know,
and even if I do lose it, it's like I
all of my tracks, I performed them live, so if
I lose it, then like that sucks, but like it doesn't,
so you just don't have a background. I just need
to go to a guitar center and like buy a pedal.
I have not lost a pedal, but yeah, but I know.

(01:40:29):
But I'm just saying that, like it's not even though
there are ideas in there that I would love to have,
I'm not so attached to them that if I were
to lose it, I would be like, oh my god,
there's one there's one idea in there that I composed
that I don't know how to remake it. And I

(01:40:52):
even played it for my dad and he was like, WHOA.
But I still to this day am like there are
too many lines and parts where I'm like, I don't
know how to re constructed. I really would too, so
that'd probably be the only one that I would be
sad about.

Speaker 1 (01:41:04):
Are you and Taylor do y'all do anything together? Because
I really liked this album. Was supposed to be on
that album We Want Something Something, but no, I love
that record and like I like what you do.

Speaker 8 (01:41:17):
So you know, he's actually supposed to produce what the
next produced project is. Hopefully he's got to finish his album. First,
I have one song that is finished and it's actually
a song that's on Finding Foundations Volume one that I
had written for the first produced project and then he
he produced it and I'm really excited about it. But

(01:41:41):
it's funny. We used to live in the same building
and like kept being like, we need to make music,
we need to make music, and then like it didn't happen,
and now he lives in LA and it's like, so
when we make a music, but he makes he I mean, granted,
I'm so biased, but like he produces the kind of
music that like I hear in my head, you know,
which I'm sure that comes from. We have the same upbringing.

(01:42:04):
But whenever I think about I would love to, Yeah,
I would love to get into production at some point
in time, but like until that point, like he produces
the kind of music that I right.

Speaker 10 (01:42:15):
So DNA, DNA. You know what's really interesting is Taylor
would come to me sometimes he said, Dad, you gotta
hear this, you gotta hear this, and he played for
me and I go, man, this was my favorite favorite
piece you know when I was your age. You know,
he plays something else for me and I said, he said, Dad,
you got to hear this. This is really great. I say, man,

(01:42:38):
I love that piece.

Speaker 7 (01:42:39):
I already knew that piece.

Speaker 10 (01:42:40):
You know it must be DNA thing because I would
be constantly shocked at the stuff that he loved was
also stuff that I loved, you know, before I even
had kids, right, you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (01:42:52):
This is George Duke album.

Speaker 10 (01:42:54):
Like I don't know if it was his first one
or his second one, but he was working with Frank
Zapp at the time, and he produced his own album.
And the opening piece on this album I used to play.

Speaker 7 (01:43:05):
Over and over and over and over and over again.

Speaker 10 (01:43:07):
And so he comes to me by day and says, Dad,
you got to hear this.

Speaker 7 (01:43:10):
And it's the George do the same thing.

Speaker 10 (01:43:12):
It's the same thing he didn't even he didn't remember.

Speaker 5 (01:43:14):
Just just way with our parents, I feel like all
of us are not.

Speaker 1 (01:43:19):
Yeah, maybe now I'm playing. You know you are joking.
I'm joking, all right, So have my dad's record collection
before we split. I just want to know about the
Give Me Five project, And well, yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:43:37):
It's a miniature voice sister, Okay.

Speaker 10 (01:43:40):
It incorporates I have one soprano one out to one
tenor in one base and myself, and it's all improvised.

Speaker 7 (01:43:47):
It's just five of us.

Speaker 1 (01:43:49):
Ah, well, you guys have been singing together forever, so
oh my goodness. I would hope that you know each
other that well. But that was so scary to me to.

Speaker 7 (01:43:58):
Not know what's gonna happ.

Speaker 1 (01:44:00):
Well, they would they trust that you're the alpha? Would
they trust that? Okay, we'll follow his lead and when
you end the song, and.

Speaker 10 (01:44:07):
Yeah, pretty much we've been working. Some of them, like Rhiannon,
who's thet sits to my left. We met in nineteen eighty.
We've been working since nineteen eighty.

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
Okay, so.

Speaker 7 (01:44:20):
That's that's what it is. It's just a small improv group,
five voices.

Speaker 1 (01:44:25):
Well, I'm really glad and happy that we finally have
this conversation. It's like our first real conversation. We did it.

Speaker 10 (01:44:33):
We did it.

Speaker 7 (01:44:36):
Fifteen years.

Speaker 1 (01:44:38):
No, I really appreciate it, and I pluge your artistry
and it's effect on me, even though I'm one of
those stick to what I know, stay in my comfort
zone type people. But yeah, thank you for your music. Man.
It's so many parts of my childhood, Like I have

(01:45:00):
distinct memories of like stuff you've done and like just
your voice. It like takes me back to when I
was a kid.

Speaker 5 (01:45:05):
So think you Simple Pleasures was me and my father's joy.
Like that's what we would play on the weekends and just.

Speaker 8 (01:45:15):
Won't cry.

Speaker 1 (01:45:19):
We're gonna just out this way, gentlemen on behalf of
the Supreme team. Sugar Steve paid up and about to
cry down down.

Speaker 5 (01:45:49):
I got a little manitude call him in the morning.

Speaker 8 (01:45:56):
That take kids, it's sound and they get on their.

Speaker 10 (01:46:01):
Clothes, ball the silly, your loud and.

Speaker 8 (01:46:06):
King these.

Speaker 4 (01:46:08):
Then I come a bet, David.

Speaker 1 (01:46:11):
I said, there to get it, get it.

Speaker 5 (01:46:14):
It's trying to get yourself together. It's such a beautiful
d outside.

Speaker 8 (01:46:20):
Simple get there, I'll go happen. I'm a happy man and.

Speaker 5 (01:46:32):
So simple things all the.

Speaker 1 (01:46:35):
Bad simple things on the board. That's it. Please say
that work.

Speaker 7 (01:46:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:47:03):
Of course. Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This
classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Black Music Month QLS Classic: Bobby McFerrin & Madison McFerrin