Nathan East

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Question Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
Have you guys been at thirty rock fall along right
for for a while? Pretty much? Yeah? Pretty much? That's
pretty cool. We made it through the story. I can't
believe it. You know, it's like everybody has everybody has
a story for the last year, exactly exactly ready. Yeah, Oh,

(00:26):
I thought i'd hit start video bad. What's up? Yea,
I was up? Everybody? What's up? I heayd up? What's up?
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode quest Love Supreme.
I'm your host. Questo. Um, we have Team Supreme with
us right now. Um, well, I can't assign myself another moniker. Yeah,

(00:49):
it just took you a second. I wasn't sure you
knew where I was, because you know, whenever we're in
the presence of greatness, I just mean, I understand my
my think. I'm just goes the other words dude just
played on every record ever. I wish, I truly wish
we had like James Brown's intro, just so I can

(01:12):
right right start naming it like literally, I don't do
tears in heaven get lucky? Uh what loose? Saving all
my love for you? I just can't stop loving you.
Oh morning, Morning, Steve, Steve about this stuff? Easy lovers,

(01:34):
There you go through the fire. I mean even even
underground classics like smooth sailing by the Eyes of the Best,
freaking who has any worked with Tima read Dion Warwick,
like Whoever? Like Eric Clapton the Weekend, justin timber Lake,

(01:54):
BB King, Mary J. Blige, Ladies and Gentlemen's the most
used sessing musician of Wait are I'm kind of saying
this and just but Nathan East, are you the most
used session musician of all time? You know what a mayror.
I'm not exactly sure how to verify that, but we
can say that I've been busy and gentlemen a great

(02:21):
Philadelphia is on the show, Nathan East to quest love
supre it is a pleasure, a joy and an honor
to be here. I mean you've had everybody from Michelle
Obama to working on here and now Nathan East. Um, yeah,

(02:43):
how how how are you right now? Where Where are you? Okay?
I know that we can't see you because this is
an audio show, but um, I should say that, uh
in the land of zoom when you're watching like news pundits,
sit behind their library collection while they're in the books.
Nah Navan needs is someunthing. Like I'm certain that all

(03:05):
those guitars and basses hanging on your wall I have
a story to tell, correct, they really do. There was
there's the one that was on some of those early
Barry White records that was like the bass in the
background is is my Like that's your Barry White? Was
your first client as a professional bass player? Yes? Yes, Um,

(03:26):
Jesus Christ, let's start. Um. This is the thing. Like
I've known you for the longest and of course, like
you know, you've come to the tonight show and you've
said it and all that stuff. I still can't wrap
my head around the fact that you're a Philadelphia and
at that, like I'm really elated to speak to someone.

(03:46):
Usually all the music musical luminaries from Philadelphia that I
talked to are are kind of from a certain like
my dad's range, like born in the late thirties, early forties,
and really can't give me a lay of the land
of what Philly was like to grow up in Philly
as as a youngster in the seventies when all this

(04:09):
magic was happening. But what is your Philadelphia story. Where
in Philly were you born? Well, actually North Philly Doctor's Hospital, Um,
roughly sixty five years ago. And uh my, that's the motion.
Are we supposed to give away those things? Yeah? When
you like that, you are actually drop drop the skin Nick,

(04:34):
I need a skin care regiment. That's a rent all
at least at night. I don't know. As you said that,
I was like, he might be like five years older
than me. Wow, you know. And you know, my my
dad went to Cheney Cheney State in the Cheny, Pennsylvania.

(04:55):
He had the world's record in the fifty and hundred
yard dash, you beat Jesse Owens in nineteen forty, made
the Olympics, but the due to the war, the Olympics
were canceled. So I didn't have that bragging, right, but
he was the world's fastest human. My daughter is now
keeping keeping it going. She runs track for UC Berkeley
on their d one packed out twelve track team there

(05:18):
in Texas. A uh and then this weekend, you know,
for the for the regional finals. So you know there's
a lot. But but Philly I left early when he
had an aerodynamics aviation job in Convert, San Diego, where
he moved the family, but we would go back to
Philly every summer and kind of just jam and I

(05:41):
a lot of great musical influences. And then I don't
know what's in the water, but there's so many bass
players Anthony Jackson and Eddie Henderson. It just like what
it's base heaven over there. You know. So what was
your family emerged in music as well or just like
how how what was your first musical memory that you had. Yeah,

(06:04):
there was there was always a piano kind of around
the house that uh, pops and moms both would play.
But you know, it was like, you know, music, music
filled the neighborhood and and you know, so you did
glad as Night Marvin Gay out, you know, blasting through
the homes of this of the neighborhood. But it was
really I'll never forget my my first forty five was

(06:27):
more loved by Smokey Robinson. We were just always gathered
around the radio and listening to music. And I remember
when I played cello for three years and then I
discovered the base and it was it was actually in
church my brothers and I were doing that. They were
doing like these uh folk masses back in the day.

(06:47):
When all that started, and uh, and then there was
a base on the altar and I went, I picked
it up, and nobody claimed it and I picked it
up and I said, oh lord, you yourself out to play? Yeah,
I mean I just started playing, just just out of
my love for music. And it only had four strings,

(07:07):
so it wasn't it wasn't that difficult. But you played
the cello before, But I played the cello before anyway,
I was in the range of the bass cleft. So
that that kind of got me got me going, Okay,
this is interesting because usually, um, anyone that we interview
on the show, uh, that's an axe men or an
axe woman. Um. Nine times out of ten, there's like

(07:30):
a the thirty dollars Sears guitar things story that happens,
like with Sears having these affordable instruments and you know,
people teaching there, getting their kids lessons and whatnot. But
you started on the cello and then worked your way
to the base, right, and that the weather is the

(07:50):
thirty actually forty nine dollar story story from that from
the pod shop where my mom got me. My first
base was about that long, you know, it was it
was a you know, a short scale no name, but um,
you know that that was my you know, ticket to
ticket to everything, you know. And I started playing in
all the bands and uh stage band in high school

(08:12):
and okay, you know the drill. One thing leads to
another next thing. You know. You doing a couple of
gigs I learned. I learned that a string the easter ring,
and then I had a gig already, okay, you know,
and then the first gigs we were in church and obviously,
you know, I always say that's the best place to
have your first gigs because if you make a mistake,

(08:33):
they're ready forgiving. You know, you don't get it. I see,
do you remember, um, well, at the time when you're
learning your craft, were there any other notable musicians that
you grew up with or or artists that you we're
kind of hanging with during your you're FORMERTI the years

(08:56):
as a teen or yeah, yeah, well as a team
we Uh it's funny because we backed up. We had
a band called Power and there was a stacked review
that Rufus Thomas very White. A bunch of people came
and played and we were the house band for everybody.
And after that gig, Verry White invited us all to

(09:17):
his office up in Beverly Hills. We went up there
and he hired our whole band on the spot to
go tour with him, and um, so are like my
first gig was at the Apollo Theater. Um. Then we
did Madison Square Garden, we did Kobo Arena in Detroit.
You know, I'm like sixteen years old. This was like

(09:38):
seven let's see, seventy one maybe, okay, so at the
very beginning of very White's career. Yeah, seventy seventy one too,
and he he started, you know, he had all these
hits and uh, were you lying about your age? Like Ny?
But you know, I didn't volunteer my age. It was

(10:00):
just one of those things where you know, you're saying,
opportunity knocks, you got to go, you know, and how
do you propose this to your parents? How did that conversation?
Well that was another thing that they were you know
how parents are there, they're always a little reluctant about that,
but they they went along to it because I was
with my brothers, you know, my and and all my
my homies and from the neighborhood. So we were all

(10:20):
together in this and it was it was really special
to to be with an act like that, you know,
an arena act where you're you know, selling out arenas
and it was unbelievable. So did you ever do the
Philadelphia circuit that would have maybe eventually landed you in
M F S B. Or was that already Anthony's gig?

(10:43):
And yeah, that was that was already done and dusted,
and that would have been been his gig. And I
would have been already out on the West coast by then.
But those those were they you know, those were the
dream gigs that everybody wanted, you know, gambling huff and
and uh, those tombs are very near and dear to
my heart. But by that time we were out on
the West coast. And then so so Barry was kind

(11:04):
of he was kind of it and and then you
know I would played with him live, but before I
started recording, but then you know, started doing all those records,
and and he would, you know, most people don't know
he he'd drive up from from Watson a Stuts bearcat
with gold emblems on it, and then he'd get out
with the three fifties seven magnum you know, twirling it

(11:25):
like well, like he's like He's in the country western
movie and they would sit on the console, you know,
like this thing I wanted, I wanted to ask you.
So you're you're the you're the third guest of the
show that's had very white interactions. But I've heard, you know,

(11:46):
through throughout my coming up in the industry, like some
gangster Berry stories, but I can't every like what was
he like to deal with deal with? Ray Parker Jr.
Told the story of like, you know, he actually didntly
crashed uh Verry White uh Mercedes trying to play him
the demo for one of those songs don't let the

(12:07):
music play? And then um, his former tour manager Alan
Leeds had a few stories about you know, Barry's whole
uh modus operandi, and you know that I knew of
the gun always there. Like in general, was he I
don't want to say sugar Knight is like was he

(12:30):
fearsome or was he cool to get along with or
you know in general he was he was very cool.
Week we had a we had an amazing relationship, and
he was just always he was always very supportive, I mean,
especially if he liked you. You know, he was one
of those guys that that you know, if if he
liked you, and then you know, Gene Paige was the

(12:51):
arranger for all those sessions, and you know the great
Gene Page and and so there was always just when
when it was happening, it was it was incredible, Like
you know, Barry was just he loved the fact and
you know, we we're making some some hits in there,
So I mean he was he was gracious and appreciative.
We wrote a couple of things together. I had a

(13:11):
song on the Love and Limited album called Easing. You know,
he would always end up with his name on everything.
You know, the writer word get a third concept right
exactly the side note. Does anyone ever remember the bridge
to Jay Z's New York New York song? Do you

(13:33):
remember it New York? Which one exactly exactly Jay Z's
New York song? Do you remember the bridge to that
New York state of mind? Oh? Do you remember the
bridge exactly? So you know, I teased all the time that,
oh okay, because when Jay won the Grammy for that,

(13:55):
Alicia one too, and I was trying to figure out
what it was like. She insisted on adding that bridge
so that she too can get right as great for it,
and I never knew a best song had a bridge.
I knew the hood exactly exactly, there's a bridge. But conversely,

(14:20):
the bridge that Don't Got Don't Stop? Do you Get Enough?
Which was written by Greg Feeling Game, now that's the
you know, we know that story. And conversely, now that
was something that that was worthy of and you know
what sent So it happens, it goes down. Um with
those sessions, Ray told us that Um very tracked everything

(14:45):
at the same time, with multiple I mean, at least
for Ray, you know, he would say like sometimes it
be two sometimes four guitars playing at the same time,
that he didn't do a lot of post mixing and
none of that stuff. Like So I'm just trying to
figure out the one question I never got to ask

(15:05):
him about that and doing it is if Barry doesn't
do any post mixing once the song is cut, how
long do you guys have to play a song in
the studio before the engineer captures the right e Q,
the right compression, the right sound. Like someone has to
play over and over again while they're like, okay, getting

(15:27):
levels right, while you're while you're playing over and over
in and you're learning the tune and Barry's given everybody
a part. Like if you're looking in the studio, literally
there's three guitars, there's there's Ray Parker, there's way you know,
it could be Lee written Hour sometimes Dean Parks, I
mean David t. And so you'd have those guys. Uh.

(15:51):
He had like a touring band at the time and
they were not really known. So his name was Willie C.
Strang Um, but another bass player because he he was
on there is every thing I remember about is he
was always so nervous. He was sweating from the palms
of his hand, you know, because when Barry came around
to you, there was a force to be reckoned with,

(16:12):
you know, and he'd starts singing a part to you
and okay, you play bowl bo bo, you know, and
so he would he would so literally you got a
room full of musicians Barry. There was a road in
the middle of the room. Jean was in there, Ed
Green was over on drums, and then he'd go around
and sing the part to every guy and and you
would literally start to hear a hit being just developed,

(16:36):
just break before your very eyes, and pretty soon you're
playing this thing like like for hours and next thing,
you know, when you add all those parts and bits
and pieces, you know, they they hit record. Barry White
didn't read or write music. No, no, he would if
you said you said, here's play me middle c he wouldn't.

(16:56):
He would not know where to go really really as
many times as I thought, you know, to see the
piano and on it stuff, even though he was the maestro,
you know. But but I mean, but at the same
time he knew. You know. That's that's what I love
about music anyway, because you don't really have to, you know,
be schooled for those notes to come out, you know,
and we we all have the same twelve notes, like

(17:18):
Quincey says, you know, we got the same twelve notes
for to work with. So, um, are you on the
do you know the the uh the stretch of the
very white discography that you were on at the time
or yeah. I think one of the first ones that
I was on was called The Messages Love and it

(17:40):
had just the way you are. A bunch of those
tunes had you know, there was whichever album had extasy
when you lay down next to me, just casually that
that baseline you know, and and and those you know
that was my first kind a heartbreak in the business,

(18:01):
because you know when when you're in the studio every day,
all day and then you get that album, you crack
it opening, you look for your name and it's not there.
It was like produced by Barry Right, written by Barry White,
album by bar Right, all songs and no musicians. And
I said, what's what's up with this? He Oh, he
doesn't want anybody steal his sound, you know, so you
were surprised. You didn't know ahead of time that your

(18:21):
your name ain't gonna be had, your name is not
gonna be on the record, And so guys, you see,
that's why I always thought that like rhythm arranger and
all those other like made up credits is for you know,
we won't give you write a credit of production credit,
but well we'll just say that you did rhythm arrangement
or you know, just another auxiliary credit. I mean, love

(18:45):
theme was was a gene arrangement to a song, and
the arrangement was so bad that it was so powerful
that they took the lyrics off the song and they
didn't even finish the tune exactly. Was Wide World of
four every Saturday. I mean, it was like watching the
guy fall down? Dude, No, I remember how how does

(19:08):
one I'm not saying, I'm not asking, like how does
one stay territorial? But okay, so your Barrys go to
guy in your mind if you don't say how high
when he says jump in terms of like all right,
we got a session next week? Can you make it?
Can you make it? Who are you worried about that's
right around the corner that might take your gig? Like

(19:31):
were you territorial? Like, okay, I got Barry White? Now
do you start sifting for other people so you can
go higher and keep Barry White? Or because I'm trying
to figure out, like if you're in l A and
you're competing against like Chuck Ranny and Lewis Johnson and
all those things. I know that mainly producers have their

(19:52):
main guy that they always stick with, But you seem
to be the main guy that everyone always sticks with.
So how do you how do you your territory to
make sure that the next guy behind you doesn't take
it in case you get sick one day or well
while still being a teenager. Well, the only way to
really mark your territory is is what you leave on

(20:12):
on the tape, you know in the studio, the note
you play are your marketing here? And and like Quincy
used to always say, if he to get the call
is one thing, to get the call back is uh?
Is the other part of the equation that like and
and and I never really was too territorial. I was.
I was always just so appreciative because I said, man,

(20:33):
with all these bad cats in this town, Lewis Johnson
and Abla Boria, I mean just I mean an a
list of players. So whenever I kind of got a gig,
I was just going, oh man, either they weren't available
or you know, just just bring your bring your a game,
you know. So that for me, it was just like

(20:53):
just just leave it, you know, leave leave your mark
on the on the table. Hypothetic we speaking, all right,
Let's say ed Green does not exist, and it's four
and I'm Barry White's studio drummer. How much am I
getting paid? How? How do I get paid? Uh? Is it?

(21:16):
Are you getting paid by the hour? Is it by
the song or just by the session. Those sessions usually
had a contractor um. And as we all know, there's
a lot of politics in this, you know, but the
contractor was the he was actually the one getting paid,
and so he was like on double scale. And then

(21:38):
because he was, he would put himself as the leader. Okay,
so you have to be a f M. You had
to be a FM. Yeah. And and then so there
were two sessions a day that there was ten to one,
two to five basically, so I see. So there was
always someone there to make sure the musicians got paid.
So it wasn't like Barry was just like reaching in

(21:59):
his pocket like all right, here's you didn't get an envelope.
It was it was all It was all very um
unionized and um, and people like Gene Page was there.
He was there to make sure that happened to you know,
so you you got paid, you know. And then back
in the day, everybody would show up to the union
and you'd have a stack of checks waiting for you.

(22:21):
And by the way, are you on are you on
Gene Pages? Love? Look record Love look Um? He came
out in Atlantic seventy five. You know, in all honesty,
i'd have to look okay, of course I'm thinking no,

(22:41):
because I wouldn't forget that, you know. Okay, but there's
you know, when when there's been quite a few, you know,
they start to they started to hard to keep tracking.
I always kind of go to all music dot com
when I went or even they forget stuff too. Yeah, exactly.

(23:03):
So what was your next pivot after Barry White? And
I can remember when I had to because I started
getting calls from Hubert Laws and and and Ronnie Laws
and some of the guys in the sort of in
the jazz idiom. And I can remember having a call
where it landed on the same day as Barry and uh.

(23:25):
I can remember ask him because theoretically the way you
go from single scali double is if you have so
much work that you that you have to charge double
in order to keep so, so you could say no
to somebody else, you know. So I can remember going
to Barry and asking, you know, I said, man, what
should I do? When the guy said, well, if you

(23:45):
ask him, it's been nice knowing you. You know. They
were just like giving me their blessings. But I I
pulled them aside, and then I got up the guts
and I said, I was just wondering if I could
just ask for double scale because I'm getting some other
offers and and if I say no to you, you know,
then it'll help me say no to them if I

(24:05):
get double here. So he looked at me. I saw
the three fifty seven sitting there on the wow and
he put he put his arm, he put his arm.
Rounmies in mate, if you want that, you got that,
I mean, gave you a big smile. And it was like,
I mean, these are the moments in music that like

(24:27):
people don't know about, you know, stay. So that was
the That was the first time. And then then then
I was like a double scale cat, you know, which
was cool. You know, that's what's up on any of
the running laws stuff for Oh yeah, I want to

(24:49):
know if you're on the pressure sensitive album. But that's
with uh, that's the that's the what you called it sample. Yeah, well,
I don't care about but always there, always there. That's
h with that's on friends and strangers, correct, that's friends.
Say yeah again, I'd have to look because it's it's

(25:10):
it's enough decades, it's it's longer than four decades ago.
So i'd have to look quite all right, quite all right.
When you are booked, uh for a session, do you
least get the courtesy of hearing the song first to
see if this is something you might be into or
you just kind of jump into it and not know

(25:30):
what it's going to wind up being. Yeah, no, no,
courtesy of the song. It's it's if you get there
and it's baptism by or fire and you. So you
have to learn these songs on the spot, on the spot. Yeah,
wait a minute, are let me ask Nathan this what
kind of music did you want to make? Like when

(25:52):
you started out? Like what was the dream? Oh? Yeah, no,
the dream was was all these guys. I remember reading
an article um that Shaka Khan was talking about. She said,
Anthony Jackson is my favorite bass player because he laid
down the gauntlet on all those recording that it was
the bible of bass. You know what he played, and
I studied it, um. But when I read that article,

(26:14):
I thought, oh man, I would like to be everybody's
favorite based player. Like that was my dream and the
dream and I'm still living the dream. I mean, you
couldn't you couldn't make it up, you know, once it
started hitting in January. I remember January second ninety I
did it hurt to Rent a car? Jingle commercial? Gene

(26:34):
Page was the composer. Um. James Gatson was on drums,
Ray Parker and Lee written Ire on guitar, Sonny Burke
at the I mean I'm up there writing in my
diary all these guys, you know, and and and I
worked every day since then because then it was kind
of like once these guys hear you, they start going
telling people about you, and it was just like stepping

(26:54):
stones and and it was crazy that way. And that's
your tribe. So that's even crazy exactly so for the
musicians that listen to this podcast. And I'm gonna try
and ask this in a way so it doesn't alienate
or offend them. Already knows I'm going no, But I

(27:19):
think this, I think this is important, and you know,
this is this is a battle I always work with
because we live in we live in a time now
where musicianship is just in the wild wild West. Um
and again, and I've talked about gospel chops for a
long time, where like the gospel chop community sort of si.

(27:40):
I I mean, like, yo, man, why are you always
coming down on us and playing on But and you know,
I don't know if the rules that apply then applied
now now. I'm just I'm I come from a place
where you know, the musicianship of the sixties, seventies and
some of the eighties. You know, that's my bread and butter,

(28:01):
because you know, it's it's you know, it's it's undeniably classic. However,
you know, there's a new generation that sort of feels
like the need to go from one from zero to
sixty and four seconds and kind of show you everything
you know they have. But it's it's almost like, in
your opinion, where do you feel that that script got

(28:25):
lost in or is this just a natural evolution and
now we just live in a time where you gotta
do everything but the kitchen sink to impress and keep
your job. Whereas you know, all the time I tell
musicians like, dude, just play you know, in the beginning,
I used to take their music, their stuff away and
just like play this one thing and this one thing only.

(28:45):
But like, does someone have to tell you that, like
what what's I guess what I'm asking is what stopped
you from trying to show boat to let people know
like I'm the ship and just do what's called for
and match it. Yeah, you know, it's it's very seductive
to to want to. Yeah, in certain instruments, I think
like like piano like this this like crazy Olympic fast chops.

(29:10):
You know, they kind of lends itself to two people
wanting to really it. But but I never wanted somebody
to walk away from a gig say well, he was
the fastest guy ever ever heard. What I actually like
to do now is I go down the Instagram feed
with the sound off, you know, so, and then you know,
you see everybody playing and and you try to figure

(29:31):
out who's playing something that's worth listening. And very rarely
do I you when when I turn it on, you know,
like very few notes. But I learned early on to
just play the play the groove and the ink and
and and let it, you know, play that funk. It does.
But does that truly matter? And like I think all

(29:53):
of us in this room right now like agree with you.
But then it's also like does that matter anymore? Does
it truly matter? Yeah? I think it will always matter. Um.
And the only thing that I based that on is
that I'm still I'm still fairly busy, like like like
really really busy, you know, where every day there's something

(30:16):
to do. After we finished here, I'm running the studio,
and uh, I got my four songs waiting UM. So
to me, it's the same concept of and I remember
when Barry said when when the Lynn drum machine came,
he said, it's over for drummers, you know, and and
so like it can't be over for drummers that can play,

(30:36):
you know, because this is a machine and it will
not come up with something that God put in its
head by itself, you know. And so I I think
that regard and it but it's tempting. It's seductive when
you hear a machine um to think that that's gonna
be the way of the world. But when it when
it gets right down to it, um. Just like you

(30:58):
you know, you play every day of your life, and
and that's what you do, you know, and that's what
people That's what I think the humans want to hear,
you know that they don't necessarily want to hear a machine.
And I don't think they want to hear a person
playing like a machine. But in that in that proof,
and like certain new artists putting like they still have
to dip back, like Bruno Mars still gotta dip back,

(31:18):
like Anderson I still gotta dip back, like there's just
there are some artists that see I'm gonna need this
if I'm gonna be funky. And when they dip back, everybody,
Oh man, if you heard this is the most amazing
thing I've heard. It's new y'all. Remember Childish Gambino. I'm

(31:39):
playing Donald, I'm I'm playing I'm pretty for you though, Uh,
what personally, what do you prefer? Do you prefer studio
rats or do you prefer like being a road dog?
Which is a great question, you know, because some people
are either either or I've I've enjoyed being both, you know,

(32:02):
I've been I've enjoyed my life on the road. Uh.
It comes with experiences and and something that you know,
when it's live, there's nothing like that, you know, especially
if you're playing you know, we we did live aid
two and a fifty thousand people in Philly. You know,
there's no feeling like that, you know, and to look
out and see that um. But then there's nothing else

(32:24):
like being in the studio and here in your instrument,
just like being recorded pristinely by one of the top engineers.
And then when you hear that playback, it just sounds
like heaven, you know. And and so those are those
are the two kind of sides of the coin of
a music of a musician, you know, and I think
it's important to have both of those qualities. How did

(32:45):
COVID change, uh you uh, you know, do your workflow
in terms of you know, how did you have to
shift once the pandemic it? Yeah, you know, the I
watched um and and I had some very significant touring
set up. You know, Eric Clapton had three months in
the summer and we're gonna do like six Royal Albert
Hall shows and then go to Europe. And we had

(33:07):
all that planet and I don't ahead. I had a
Russian tour. You line up the and uh playing with
this Russian orchestra. So I was looking for that, and
so I watched. I watched, like literally the revenue for
the whole year that would have tightened me up go

(33:29):
right out the window, you know. And uh when when
when COVID hit, it's like you are instantly becoming an entrepreneur.
Now you got the merchandise, let's talk about it. You
get to see how to deal with LAMB, you know,
and then what're you gonna do, whether that's whether that's
uber driving or you have some friends that had to
hit you know, or or coming up with a way.

(33:51):
You know, never let a good pandemic go to waste.
You know. So are your voice work because like when
you said that, I was like, yeah, you are a
voice actor, dudu. I hear it, and you that's what
you was blessed. I did some voice over working, and
since I have a studio, um, it really came in
handy because people send me songs and and files and
and so I could I could do that un till

(34:13):
four in the morning. I end up doing a lot.
Have have you written a book? You know what? I
have a book in the works, and definitely there's some
there's some fun stories. So that's that's in the works
at the moment. No, I was just gonna say it
could probably just list all the albums you played on.
That would be the whole book, right Have you have

(34:33):
you had a session that you were kind of not
satisfied with your performance and you're shocked that like oh
I got away with that or that sort of thing,
or you know, it's funny because are you allowed are
you allowed to? Like I'm certain that you're being hired
because it's like, okay, Nathan will be you know, Nathan

(34:55):
will knock this out in one or two takes, won't
be that hard. Let's go through it. Or you know,
if he had a moment where you felt like I
could have did better, and they were like, no, no,
I'm fine with that. It's good. And then you know,
it's funny. Every everything that I ever hear back, I
always think I always hear something that I said, Oh man,

(35:16):
if I did it again, I would I would have
made that little hipperode. It would just put a little
something extra on that note or something. I mean, everything
I hear that I do, I always feel like there's
there's a room for, uh, for some kind of improvement.
But however, you know when the guys, like when when
Daft Punk, they did get lucky and they were mixing

(35:37):
the bass part and I actually had the chance to
redo that because we recorded the track and then they
sent it back and then Nile put his guitar on,
and when Nill put the guitar on, that's where the
funk just like it just it just pulled the funk
out of the thing. So I asked the guys, I said,
you know, if if I could have another shot at
the base, and I kind of went from my Bernard

(35:59):
Edward impersonation, and uh and I was actually happy because
they added to everything to the to the team, but
they said, hey, your base part. We we ended up
just using most of the one one, same take, one
whole take, which was cool. And and you know it
was funded. Now that was a fun one to here.
And and my kids thought I was cool because I

(36:21):
played right A question? Um, Okay, So I guess, um,
for most bass players, especially bass players that are are
coming of sort of coming of age, Um, in the seventies,
You've been born in fifty five, you you would have

(36:43):
been uh, fifteen years old in nineventy, and I'm certain
by this point you were playing. Yeah, you were, you
were a fully realized bass player by the nineteen seventy. Correct. Yeah,
I think I was. I was like like just jumping
getting into the realization. Okay, So that said, can you

(37:03):
describe to me what you're what the reaction or what
the feeling was when you first heard Thank you for
letting me be myself again? Because Okay, So I have
this thing with Christian McBride about my disdain for songs
and e minor because like, I have an obsession with

(37:30):
collecting really horrible funk songs in E minor because you know,
it's like when you're playing the minor that that's the
easiest key for a beginner and base to play. And
of course my thought is that you're trying to top
the mount Rushmore of E minor, which is basically thank
you for letting me be myself again that that's in there.

(37:52):
But no, that's I wouldn't even consider that the mount Rushmore.
I mean, I was definite. I was trying to think.
Was that the same all songs in the KIV? So
thank you for letting me be myself? H Shining Star
could be in there. I would think, Well, it's kind
of weird because I don't know if I can let

(38:14):
Larry in twice. I mean he he's already the the alpha.
So anything that comes out to thank you for letting
me be myself, no matter what song it is, release
yourself here and right, all those things. So but for you, though,
did you have a like come to Jesus moment when
you heard that? Like what did you make of the sound?

(38:35):
Because I always wanted to ask a bass player that
was of age who knew what bass playing was beforehand,
which I'm certain that. You know, James Jamison was the
leader of that. But what was thank you for letting
me be myself for you in terms of hearing that.
I mean, I'd have to say that was that was
one of the wheels, you know what I mean. It

(38:56):
was like, um, and I can remember the guys in
my back and you know, as I said, man, have
have you heard this cat Larry Graham? You know, and
so they came in with Graham Central Station and they
came in with that and like you're listening and you're
just going, I mean, to be that innovative at that
time period where there wasn't too much before that. That

(39:16):
that said that much, you know. And I love those
YouTube now where you can see Slide in the studio
listening to listening to those tracks, you know, just going wow,
this is crazy, you know. And so it was. It
was a it was a big revelation. I mean, I'm
not gonna lie in and e Minor. I mean, you know,
as a bass players always funkingny you know, everybody Lewis

(39:37):
Johnson doubt it. And you know, I get I get
asked to judge these uh Battle of the Base base
contest sometimes and you know, you almost I'd rather have
a root canal. I mean, I walk out of there
and everybody comes walks in the room with the thumb out,

(40:00):
and you know, they don't They don't check the tuning,
that don't check the volume. They just start whacking the base,
you know, and it's like funking e. And it's like,
please guys, It's like how many ways can we reinvent
the wheel? So but for you it's okay. Well, I mean,
is there still challenges that have yet to be discovered

(40:24):
or or just in terms of the sport of bass playing, Well,
if you if you think about baselines like um for
the Love of Money, when Anthony Jackson walked in and
saw a d mine here on the paper and he
came up with that baseline, you know, and and and
then when you think about until you come back to me,
Chuck Rainey, you know, these these are to me where

(40:47):
the base really caresses the song, you know. And and
if there's one thing that I that I would tell
and I have students at my online school base, and
I say, make every single note count. Don't don't just
go in there and start playing. You first you have
to listen and know what the song is all about
you know, and and and we're just part of a

(41:08):
big picture. So you know, when everybody goes in whacking
and smacking the base, it's like, really, guys, you know.
And I remember Anthony Jackson used to say, if you
if you want slapping and popping, you gotta call Marcus,
you know, he said, he said that costs me two
hundred fifty grand a year. But he wouldn't. He refused

(41:28):
to do it. Really yeah, I mean he never played
with this thumb at all. You have not heard if
you find it, if you can find did he always play?
Did he always play with a pick at least? Or
he used to pick um? Yeah, a pick in his fingers.
But but I think for the love of money, is
is with You can hear the pick? Yeah? For you though,

(41:52):
what is your what is your preferred weapon of choice?
Your thumb? What I do I grow my I grow
my name just long enough so that I can switch between.
If I need a little extra percussive sign, I'll hit
it with the nail. And actually that came from an
article I read about Chuck Rainey said he did the
same thing, so he would you'd use the meat the

(42:13):
meat fleshy part of your finger, like you know, and
get that big fat Jamison sign. But if you wanted
to have a little more percussive, like a pix out
instead of using a pick, I just used my finger nails.
And what is your preferred weapon as far as your
your base collections and um, one of the basis like
all those songs you named, it's it's my it was

(42:33):
the predecessor to my signature, Yamaha base, but it's called
a motion base, and it's just we we had like
this basse that they had made for me, and then
this box that I used to carry around and it
it has it was like an e Q box that
would shave the mid frequencies. And that's that's been the
base I've played on, you know, like countless, I need
a Baker record, I mean everything. You know those two

(42:55):
name change World, Get Lucky and and so that's my
my five string it's it's the equivalent to my five
string signature. But it's like a prototype. What was your okay?
So you know there's over two thousand credits you have
and at least two hundred of those songs are like
life changing songs. So you know, I won't even pick
your brain about each and every song, But what was

(43:18):
the first song that you've recalled out of your comfort
zone that you played on, Like there's a difference between
Barry White's Ecstasy when You Lay next to Me and
Footloose by Kenny Loggins, so like, or was it just
a gradual thing where it's like, oh, rock gig today
or or pop gig or yacht rock gig or But

(43:42):
what what was the first like, Okay, this is out
of out of my normal my out of my normal
realm of client clientele. Well, well, one of the one
of the most challenging records that was Wayne Shorter joy
Rider and Treat Russian played on that robbin before I

(44:02):
think was on guitar. And it's one of those things
like Wayne's writing, it doesn't it doesn't take into account
like how this stuff lays under your fingers. It's just
it's just these notes that are that are in a
uniquely random order that are that are amazing. But you really,
I mean, I remember all of us having our heads
buried in the music thinking and I think somebody said, hey,

(44:23):
would it be cool to take this home for a
couple of days and then come and shed it and back,
and they were kind of because you don't want to
you you want to make it sound like you own
it when you when you're playing the music, you know. Um,
the song Footloose was was a baseline that we had.
I had the benefit of playing on the road every
day like for months with Kenny. We'd go practice tune

(44:45):
and by the time we recorded it, that was like
one take, you know, but it was cool. Um. Early
on with Hubert Laws, there was an album called Family. Yes,
that's that's my joint. Bobby Career was on there and
it was the sister was singing devil yeah saying and that.
That was one of the more kind of challenging I

(45:06):
wrote a song that I played with like electric bass
and piccolo where played the melody together and it was
kind of a little bit of a chop buster. It's
called Wildfire and the piccolo together. Yeah, so piccolo and
or separate tracks. Um, and that the separate tracks, you know,

(45:27):
I was like wait, yeah, and so uh it was.
It was one of those that you know, required a
little bit of shedding before going into the studio, but
for the most part, you go in the studio like
site unseen and they you know, they either through this
music in front of you or play a demo like
you know, when the many ways to articulate what they

(45:49):
want you to play, and you go from there. I
was gonna answer the things that you need for your session,
that you have to have, you know, normally it's it's
not a one of the uh the last things we
did and and we uh, I gotta congratulate John Batis
because we did the music for Soul and we were
in Capital. Yeah, and we were over there, uh January

(46:12):
twenty like like the first week of January twenty. We
were in Capital Studio A and uh that was interesting
because he u, I had my upright basse, I had
my electric upright, my electric bass, and we kind of
auditioned all three and we ended up using my my
my upright basse. You know, the real wood base engineer

(46:33):
got a fantastic sound out of it. And I was
I was just so so proud to see didn't walk
away with the with the statue. You know. That was amazing. Yeah,
that was awesome. So you always bring a choice with
you in every session, and if I can, a lot
of times they if they just say, you know, they
may just say bring the electric basse, you know, um

(46:53):
and uh for for baby Face. You know, they probably
not going to be a lot of upright plane right,
all right? So when you're when you're doing sessions, for instance,
with all Right, let's let's say Through the Fire, do
you mostly do you have good relationships with the producer
that chooses you for the session or is it just

(47:17):
all right? So what was it like working with um?
I don't hear stories about r If Martin. It's hard
to pronounce his name. Reef Martin, Yeah, a Reef Martin. Um,
because you know, Soccer's album was such I feel for
your album was such a landmark album which was sitting

(47:37):
somewhere between uh, the past and the future that was
to come, you know them, uh sort of exploring new
sounds and new new technology. Were you on that entire
record or were you just on Through the Fire? Let see,
I was on a few a few cuts on that.

(47:57):
I'd have to look. But Through the Fire was actually
produced by, written and produced by David Foster and my
buddy who I share a studio with, Tom Keane wrote
it as co writer on that song. Okay, that was
a cool song because David Foster years before he had
he came up with this, uh kind of like a
solo album of all instrumentals, and that tune was actually

(48:20):
on it. Um I don't know if you me, yeah,
And and so I was familiar with the tune, loved
the tune, and so again, you know, to get to
play on it, I was I had a my heart
was already connected to it. And then David was a friend,
and so we were we were having a great time

(48:42):
in the studio, you know, John Robinson on drums, think
Mike Landau on guitar, David on keys, and so the
tune kind of played itself, like every song is unique,
as we we all know, like a song like Tears
in Heaven. I always say that that that I didn't
play song. It played me because I knew kind of
clapton Beautiful Little Boy and just the emotion of going

(49:08):
in the studio and recording that note and what it
was all about, you know, I mean, I don't even
remember the notes I played, And you know, like I
said that, the song kind of just plays you. Yeah.
Are there two versions of Is there a studio version
of Tears and have an ambi unplayed version? Or is
it just one definitive. Yeah, there's two. The studio version

(49:29):
is on a soundtrack called Rush Yeah Joint Yeah yeah,
and you did both versions were Yeah, so you played
with Okay, I see yeah. When I think when I
first met you, I'm sure that we've met before, but
the first time I really got to talk to you

(49:49):
we were in a Carousel and it was one of
the most surreal gigs of my life because it was
at the time you were playing with Toto, correct right, Yeah, yeah,
so it was it was Toto, Dina Ross, The Roots,
Prince Oh and Los Lobos and uh, what's the one

(50:17):
fest in London or something maybe really know it was?
It was um, it was okay, what's what's what's the event?
What's the festival in Rotterdam? Um? Okay. It was like
because Carousel is sort of occupied by yeah, the Netherlands,
like it's it's the North Sea Jazz Festival. Before Carousel

(50:40):
knew what I was kept staying out and is is
it slightly between like South America and it's somewhere in
the middle of nowhere. It's not Europe and it's not
South America. It's like that, you know, like it's like
way below Cuba. Okay, so they're brown. They're brown there,
They're yeah, they're kind of brown. Was on that Yeah,

(51:01):
there was, Yes, there was a lot, but just that
was the one because we were therefore, I think four
days before the gig even started. Like I thought, it
was weird that we all came out early. Yeah, me too,
to hang, I've never done that. Usually I get there
the day of the gig, do the gig, and I'm
out and then I'm like, wow, one, you'll you'll never

(51:22):
catch me, uh swimming or in the beach. But yet
here i am swimming in the beach, like and I'm
talking to you know, to Toto and and you know,
like everyone everyone's there. So wait a minute. Was Journey
also on that gig as well? May have been on
that gig as well. Okay, so I'll bet you I

(51:45):
could find the poster or something of that gig because
I try to say, you know, all the yeah, all
the information, but I mean, it was like all these people.
You know. I sat next to Diana Russe on the
flight back home. It's crazy. Really, Yes, we got to talk.
It was it was incredible. It was a very it
was a very surreal, surreal gig even like the fact
that Prince was so accessible. It was like, wow, everybody

(52:07):
stayed up to see Princes. I mean, it was unbelievable. Prince.
Prince was so killing that he did an additional two hours.
That was the roots time. So so on Prince's side
of the stage, there's like sixty thou people one more so,
and then on our side of the stage, it was

(52:28):
like people, I mean, and we just told them what
promoter is going to get mad at him? You know
what I'm saying. We told the promoter what do you
want us to do because Princeton took our time. He's
just like, uh yeah, just do the seat and go home.
So literally like we did. We did three songs, we
did the next movement, you got me. The scene was like,

(52:49):
all right, good night people. You literally are like a
golf clap, like but the promoter's dream, like Prince will
not get off the stage, dude. That was we were
over there watching him and there was like, oh ship,
we gotta go on stage, like and I'm asked. I'm
literally asking him back stage like you're doing another encore
because I gotta run to the other stage. And all right,
I'm gonna do one more. I'm just like, okay, well

(53:10):
there's no more routo. But but when you're in that situation,
like especially with with legacy bands and whatnot, how often
like with Toto, I'm certain that you're not just doing
it for that gig. But do they hire you for
like a year duration or is it just like for
this particular tour? And yeah, that that particular tour was. Um,

(53:37):
they actually called me and said, you know, Mike Pricaro,
who's who's the bass player and the suffering with a
l S. And what we would like to do is
go on tour and raise some money to help him
with his medical expenses. So so this this was the
tour where it was just from the heart, you know,
and these guys I know thirty years and and those
are on my boys. And so we we got together

(53:59):
and proceed from the tour was going to his family
to help him because he at that point he was
you know, he was off the circuit. Okay, speaking of
like Toto, can you can you explain the sort of
the somewhat stranglehold that they had on just a particular

(54:21):
sound and sonic like I know, I mean, I'm not
insulting when I say, like, oh, yacht rock or whatever,
because like I'm a really big fan of all that
Michael master Yamaha d X seven fretless bass sound like
I like, you know, easy man, like I love that
yacht rock stuff. But I mean at the time when

(54:41):
you're doing it, when you're doing it in real time,
like between that period of like eight one in seven,
when this new sort of l a glossy sound sort
of takes over, Like are you realizing that sonically it's
a little bit than what was kind of like with

(55:03):
with with the grid of the seventies sound like did
you notice a change or yeah, I mean it and
they got they got beat up for oh they're so slick,
and they got beat up in the beginning. But now
it's like, in hindsight, I love the ship out that sounds.
So it's like it's almost like we're visioning his history,
like yeah, I always loved Africa and all those things,

(55:28):
but like what were they? Were they the the who
was who was the And it's it's always like some
up for debate, like who's technically the first yacht rock
smooth l a sound Like people say like whoever the
producer was of captain and to Neil's level, keep us together.
Like many will cite that as the the first moment

(55:48):
in nineteen seventy three where it's suddenly like that Neil
Sedaka does it. And then but you know, at the
time when you're digging into l A like what was
the basic perception of like the Picard guys, like oh,
they's some badass motherfucker's or like absolutely, and you know,
and and and back in the day to you like

(56:09):
you had A and M studios, you know where the carpenters,
you know, and they were there were all these like
very very lush kind of signing records. It's funny, I
was over there the other day. We're doing that Mary
Clayton Tiny Desk concert. Yeah, and it was it was
it was really cool. But every time I go in there,

(56:29):
it just takes me back because I mean I was
in there. I did Johnny I did Johnny Mathis with
a fifty piece orchestrategy DM warwork. A lot of people
in there, uh you know Don Henley, I mean so
many they say the ten thousand hours like like we
we all have ten thousand hours and a lot of studios,
you know, and uh, the total, the total project. If

(56:52):
you think about every one of those guys has such
a powerful, um individual voice on their instrument. I'm Steve
pacarl Um, my man wrote he wrote Human Nature from
Michael Jackson, and you can hear in those chords that's
Steve for carl you know, one guy plays like that,
David Paige, same thing, very powerful personality. And and those

(57:13):
guys were like all of us, you know, students of music.
They studied, they studied sly and and everything. You know,
so when they went in the studio there, those were
the standards that they kept, you Jeff for carl Um,
you know, these are some bad l a finance basically,
you know. And so they went in and you listen
to listen to Africa Now and and those songs like

(57:35):
uh hold the line. And so it was fun for
me because as soon as uh, as soon as they
asked me to play, you know, it was like playing
on top forty band. He played great songs and Rosanna
and and you know, I couldn't ever really figure out
why they were getting such a bad rap. Oh they're
too slick, and you know, I mean, what you're getting

(57:57):
punished for for trying to have a good sound and
come up with some good tunes, you know. Okay, So
oftentimes if I get asked to do a gig nine
times out of ten, I asked like, well, if I
think they're hiring me because of a certain sound that
I had, then I'll recommend them, Well, you should go

(58:17):
to this studio because this is where I recorded this
particular record that I had died and right, you'll get
the sound that you want. Um how much control do
you have over like the the sound and the texture
of what you want? Or you just got to trust
the engineer and the producer. And that's you know, um

(58:39):
Al Schmidt who we just lost. And I worked to
capital a lot and and we the Warner Brothers, ust
to have a studio and that we we did when
we first started four Play. The first real four Play
album was was a Bob James album called Grand Piano Canyon,
and uh that was what he called me. Harvey Lee

(59:00):
Lee written hour and actually Harvey Mason and Lee written
how are both recommending me? When he asked about who
should I get on base? You know? So the four
of us got in that quartet. There's a song called Restoration.
I call that the first four play song. It's on
that that album, and Al Schmidt recorded that, and I
used to take that recording around to other a and

(59:21):
and Sunset Sound Wait and say, guys, my base sounds
like this, you know, because you know how like you drum,
you could play in ten different studios and it'll sound
like ten different guys, you know, And I can't ever
figure out, like how does the same instrument translate so
differently in different studios, you know, So whenever possible, yeah,
I'll recommend. And one of my favorites, uh spent tons

(59:45):
of time in was ocean Way Studio. Okay, we did
the first well we did so much stuff there but
first four play record. But we used to record there
with Lionel Richie. We did Uh, we did Kenny Loggin's
Levelill follow, I mean ton this record I did. One
of the things I'm most proud of is we did
a song called if you Think You're Lonely Now Bobby Womack.

(01:00:07):
I was gonna say, yeah, you were on the Monster, Yeah,
the ocean Way Studio. And as funny as I all
these tunes, I can remember, I could kind of just
remember being there. It's almost like the day and so
that being one of my favorites. You know, when I
went to go do my solo album, you know where
did I go? Ocean Way which is now called United

(01:00:28):
Studio Record. Yeah, yeah, we did podcasts there. Yeah, we
did like three of the studios he dropped so far
and yeah yeah, okay, those are the big ones Capital Record.
I have a question, Nathan, at any point in your
career did you mess with key bass? You know, um

(01:00:51):
playing based on a keyboard? You know, there was, there was,
I was. There was a time in the Algaro days
that he had a couple of tunes that had key
bass on uh, like Boogie Down Down. There was one

(01:01:11):
I can't quite remember the name, but it was that
this like really funky key base and so so I
darken the roof. Yeah. I loved him so much. I

(01:01:33):
loved him so much I couldn't even like him. But
I'm trying to get used to call me name for me. Wait, Nathan,
can I ask have you ever worked with Tommy la Puma? Yes? Many, many,
many times. Okay? Have you have you worked with him

(01:01:54):
between like the era that you work with him was
at least between seventy five and eighty five? Yes, Okay,
Tommy la Puma has such he has such a distinct
down He has a very distinct sound with his production
for all of this stuff, for his Algebro stuff, for
any record that he produces that I'm almost under the

(01:02:16):
impression that whatever studio he used, he kept it on
one setting and never ever adjusted, because it's to me,
it's it's so like even with the stuff that he
did with like Brenda Russell, and there's a sound that
he gets in his base and its Finder Rhodes where

(01:02:38):
I instantly no, that's a Tommy Lapa. Tommy first of all, Tommy,
Tommy Lapuma would start every session off with lunch at beach.
You know, It's like he would like he was more
concerned about taking everybody to lunch and get the best
bottle of wine in the place, and then what you
got that, then you were cool, Let's go make some music.

(01:03:00):
He's this another Quincy uh fake out. Do you know
Quincy's theory about this? So Quincy Quincy does the same thing.
He wants The session is late at night, and he
wants the guys to have the itis and to be
a little tipsy um and somewhat sleepy, and then he'll
start usually at one in the morning because he knows

(01:03:22):
that uh any r, yeah, yeah, you're not thinking, you're
tired and all that stuff. So he purposely will track
important things between like one and six in the morning
because like you're not as alert and you won't challenge
him on something and overthinking, overplay. I've had many sunrise

(01:03:44):
services with Quincy by the way, and an Algero for
that matter. But you know, it's it's it's funny because
Stevie is a king. You know. He called you know,
he his tie and he marches still different. I mean
we recorded the last record, Um, it was me, Ricky

(01:04:05):
Lawson and him in the studio and he got to
take it four am. And I remember thinking, I'm man,
I got I got a ten am with j Grayden
on something and uh but but yet, you know, getting
back to time, and he he was that guy that
he wasn't the kind of producer that told you, hey,
I need an a flat on the third bar that

(01:04:28):
you know of the of the bridge, you know, but
he he just knew how to put people together. And
and to this day, Anita Baker will tell you that
the record she did with him is sonically her favorite record,
giving you the best that I got. No, it was
was a Rhythm of love or I think it's rhythm
of love. I'll have to check. It was the one

(01:04:48):
that I apologize and body and soul. It was the
one who came out. I think Frontie went on record
and saying that was his favorite and it's not my favorite.
I think my favorite is compositions. But we had the
most fun on compositions and fair Tales being one of
my favorite two minutes long going acting a fool at

(01:05:12):
the end of FERRONI you know what it is? Okay?
Well one her entire discography is not available for streaming,
so I really I can't even lay judgment. I mean,
I have a cassette somewhere, but it's like I haven't
touched my cassettes and eons, so you know, for me,
I'm just like, no rapture, nothing else but well, I mean,

(01:05:35):
Songstress was was the was our first time in the
studio together, and that the song ain't You're on song stress?
Oh yeah that's you Angel? Yeah? Of course you really
from day one? You know I love it? Wow? Um
what was her producer, the guy Michael J. Powell? What

(01:05:58):
was he like because I've always you know, the great
general giant and the greatest I mean, one of the
greatest producers ever. We speak, we speak from time to
time and again the producers producers really really soft spoken,
but knew what he knew what he needed and got

(01:06:19):
the best out of everybody, you know, and put some
great cats together, you know. All right, So without naming names,
because I know there's always two sides to a coin, right,
have you ever been in a situation what was kind
of like amateur hour with the producer like he didn't

(01:06:39):
know what he's doing, not too communicative with you know,
every they wanted every now and then you get those
guys that you say, how did they get to be
the producer for this important project? You know? And um,
one of the things those kind of producers do, and
I have to give it to their credit, is they're

(01:07:00):
called they'll call the catch, you know. And and one
guy who will remain nameless, But we were in and
Jeff Carl was playing drums and after every take he
would look to Jeff and Jeff would either say yeah
or nay, that either was the take it wasn't. You know.
That's how you would determine if you do another take again.
But I mean, for the most part, and a lot

(01:07:20):
of people say, oh they have there been some some
sessions you've hated, But for the most part, I've I've
enjoyed all of them and and been blessed with some
really talented, gifted producers. How how do you know if
a session is bad, Like if you have to spend
more than an hour on a particular song, or yeah,

(01:07:42):
if you're beating up on a song and next thing
you know, everybody's looking up at their watch and you
don't have a take, and like you keep trying, and
then the takes just get worse. I mean, for whatever reason,
maybe it wasn't in the song. But you know, even
even until recently, you know, sometimes people bring a song
in and somebody has said, oh man, this isn't really

(01:08:03):
a great song, but they'll have Like if you got
filling games on keys, he's gonna make theirs. Yeah, he's
gonna And and I was telling David Foster the other day,
I'll never forget. And of course Quincy Quincy is you know,
one of the top guys ever, but we were doing uh,
Patty Austen, James Ingram, how do you keep the music
playing the story. But but we were in there and

(01:08:29):
we don't have it, just like Quincy said, well we
don't have an intro for this and and anybody And
David Froster literally he has his legs clothes and he
says crossed, and he goes, what about this but doom
and he plays the intro exactly what you hear on
the record. That's when yes, yes, thanks, okay, speaking of which,

(01:08:49):
and I'm sorry, I feel like I'm about to steal
your question, but I gotta ask the intro too. After
the dance. Oh, that's my question for play after Yes,
I don't like that intro to me is probably the

(01:09:13):
first thing that I think of if I start thinking
of like smooth jazz f hm. Yes, it's such an airworm.
It never leaves you. So it's not like I have
an opinion on It's not like, oh that's my favorite
or I hate that intro, but it's like it lives
in my head. Rent Free, that was my favorite. Who
came up with that intro? And by because I can't

(01:09:37):
get rid of vibe James, you know what, and that's
the same thing. That's what he he just said, how
about you know he always writes everything else and he
says stand by, and he writes us, how about this?
And you play it? And now I'll go on record
saying that's probably my favorite intro. It's to only second

(01:09:58):
to minute by minute. Michael mcdonbain before that, Nathan can
you tell the story? And Nathan East and Bob James,
because like how did that marriage come together? And when
did y'all know? It was like like, I don't know.
We we knew we had something special on Bob's record.
And he was an A and RC. He was an
executive at Warner Brothers Record when we did his solo album.

(01:10:19):
So he said, guys, I could um, I could propose
this to the Warner Brothers. He said, I think we
could get a deal right away. He came back, he
and and you know what, they didn't even have to
hear a demo or anything. There's a sign. And when
we did our first session, we showed up at Ocean
Way and and there was Moe Austin, Michael Auston, Lenny Warnerker,

(01:10:40):
I'm in the big Warner Brothers where they beat us
to the studio excited that excited. How was Moe Austen
as an executive. Man. I've heard like a lot of
stories about him, But how was you know, the last
of the Mohicans. You know, he was record When you
look up Record executive, there's his picture right there, you know.
And but that that was like our first you know,

(01:11:03):
and it's it's it's here in this and we go
in the studio. And when Bob wrote that intro, I
just said, bro And but of course, like he wrote,
you know that crazy arrangement of feel like making love
and a matter of fact, he he had a hit
with that instrumentally and ROBERTA. Flack had a hit with it.

(01:11:24):
I mean it was like a hit time on two
different formats. And uh so it's been you know, and
believe it or not, we we're having our thirtieth anniversary
right now. And yeah, in my mind, my child mind,
you're like the best of friends. And y'all got you
have Sunday dinner. That's you. We're brothers. We're brothers with
without a die from another mother and and uh you

(01:11:47):
know we we've had a chance to go around the
world together and and just have you know, have the
best time. And so he's he's actually uh he he
and Gregor actually got fathers to my son Noah, who
plays keys. Uh As we want to do a record
because we we've been playing a couple of gigs over

(01:12:08):
the weekend. We played in Omaha for Walter Scott Junior's
ninetieth birthday celebration and we had the best time ever.
And uh, you know, David Foster was there and all
the guys and and he's turned into one of my
favorite musicians. Man the four play catalog. Man that for me,
like the Between the Sheets album and their LICKXA album,

(01:12:30):
those came out when I was in high school and
so I used to do my homework those records and
like chant was my joint. I love those joints. And y'all,
like I noticed like leave Written Now he was on
those records. And then the guitarist y'all switch. What was
the reason for the changing personnel? Yeah, I think after
three records, Lead Lee really got um into the more

(01:12:55):
of executive branch of the of the record record business series.
Okay in one of his friends and he and Dave
Grucing and g RPRP. He started getting busy with kind
of doing doing records on the executive level level. And
so that takes up so much time too. Yeah, y'all
record to joint the Phil Collins the why can't it

(01:13:16):
wait till morning? Man? Y'all tell me about that session? Man?
You know we sent that over to Phil Um. I
called films manager and uh, you know, it's great when
these guys are your friends too. But I called films
manager and uh, secretary answers for and she said, she said,
what's this regard? And I said, as for recording four play?
They said, well, I don't know if he can help

(01:13:37):
you with that, but I get but I mean, he
we said, and we wanted to do something obscure, so
we we kind of found this song that wasn't necessary,
Like it wasn't a number one, but I can't wait
till morning. It was a little obscure, and we we
sent him over and again Bob came up with this

(01:13:59):
this in arrangement. We sent it over and he went
into his studio put the vocal on. When he sent
it back, we all sat in the studio and cried.
You know, it was just like, nah, that's a gorgeous
song man. There was a singer that there was a
singer that LEAVE used to work with a lot. Eric
Tag did you ever give any sessions with him? Yes, dude,

(01:14:22):
what was he liked? Because he's like one of my
favorite singers. Everybody's so low key. I don't even know
if he's still making music now. You know. He sang
like Stevie Wonder too, you know, yes, yes, real Stepig
ste Florence. He was from He was from Texas. Really
great guy and and he was in Leeds band. I
remember when I Leaves was banded. Was one of the
first ones I was in the first time we went

(01:14:44):
to Japan was with Lee and you know, Eric was
in those bands. You know that That's the thing I
love about music. There's so many great people out there
that a lot of people haven't even heard of. But
you know, it was something about the way y'all pulled
stuff out of people. We were talking abou that earlier,
about the Michael McDonald record, and I was like, the
way that Michael was singing on that record, but just

(01:15:05):
felt different. Michael's different. Yeah, yeah, that different. You know,
if I could, if I could have a voice, it
would be his, you know. And then I really enjoyed
his his uh Chriest Love Supreme podcast too. He was
He's so he's so down and he's sang on my
first solo album, we did that version of Moon to Dance,

(01:15:27):
you know, like a big band version came and and
crushed this record. Yeah, I was what's the process of
picking the songs to reinvent? Because I was just listening
to a song you did with Bob It was uh
and dense gil um crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy crazy.
Yeah from crazy that, I was saying, howork you guys

(01:15:52):
are unbelievable, But yeah, how do y'all decide what songs
to reinvent? Which in your mind are you thinking this
is how I always heard it? Or man if I
could only touch it and you can apply and if
you can apply that answer to your arrangement to Sir Duke,
I would appreciate that because we still haven't forgive you.

(01:16:14):
We're still not forgiving you for it's some genius ship
to this day. We we've studied it so much that
it never leaves us. First of all, you can't like
you can't touch a Stevie song, Like if you're doing
a Stevie song, it's it's it's already the Bible, you know,
So you do that. But then for some weird reason. Like,

(01:16:34):
right in the middle of the studio, I said, what
if we when we got to this this part, we
just changed like every four bars wait, let me let
me explain to put it in perspective, and after like,
I gotta go listen to it because I forget. Yeah,
like you you know, he's taken he's taking songs, you know,
and sort of putting a new spin on it. So
the song that he really did that too, was there's

(01:16:57):
an arrangement of Sir Duke, of which that horn part
is very intricate, just as is anyway. And what he
decided to do was to just modulate, and it's some
sort of non secretary way modulate the key in two
keys that aren't supposed to fit, so in other words,
instead of regularly, and he to another key and then

(01:17:26):
and then another key. So you're basically have to transpose
every four bars a new key that's not related to
what you did before. Ste So it's there's no rhyme
of reason, literally, it's it's kind of random, just like
pulling them out of the air and saying, oh, well

(01:17:47):
that works, and then okay, we gotta get back. So
what would we end which one? You know? So the
first one, you know, is that you know, the last
one has to lead you back, and then the other
two Heaven knows whether I'll put it this way, I'll
put it this way. Hip hop heads uh if you're
familiar with uh most y'a seen bays Uh Cassa Bay

(01:18:08):
song and yeah, constant switching. Yeah, this this has nothing
on that song. We I mean we practice Cassa Bay
like maybe as a whole song an hour straight. But
this one part of that Stevie Wonders song. Oh God,
that that was almost like a two hour nightmare thing. Sorry,

(01:18:32):
but I'm I'm glad we survived it and it was
fun hitting it with no rhymer reason. There was no
song that y'all picked and y'all were like, yeah, no,
this is this is why you know Stevie and I
realized that every everything I've ever recorded, I I had Stevie.
I've done like at least two or three Stevie. We
did Overjoyed, which came out of I do these sting

(01:18:55):
rainforest benefits we do in the Carnegie Hall every year,
and Stevie was on one and I was just fooling
with the changes of joy It on base It's kind
of like a rehearsal when nothing was happening, and I'm
kind of trying to figure him out. And next thing,
you know, I hear harmonica and now he's playing, and
now I look up their sting Elton, John, Bonnie Rate.

(01:19:16):
They're all just standing there looking like looking on and
I'm going, oh Lord, and I'm as I'm learning the changes.
Stevie is playing and we get to the end and uh,
you know, they all give they all start clapping. Then
Stevie comes over and says, if you ever record that call, man,
I want to play on it. So that was my
next question. Responses from these revisions, can you share like

(01:19:38):
what have been those like I wish I would have
done that, Nathan, I wish you was suggested that. Well,
I mean, if Stevie offers to play on your record,
you have to do it. Man. I could have had
Stevie on my record, you know. So he came and
blessed the record, and the way we what we did was, um,
we we recorded a track and then when I played
on his record, I brought the track over and then

(01:20:00):
he you know, two in the morning, he he popped
it on one take. See you later he wrote it,
really all right, we um a former quest Love Supreme.
I guess that we just had was aut de Barge. Um.
I know your name is on the In a Special
Way album, but do you recall anything from that DeBarge session?

(01:20:24):
Do you know what songs you played on? Are you
Onna Stay with Me? Are you on time Reveal? Are
you on a dream? You know? I'm embarrassed. This is
many an album called did he do an album called Gemini?

(01:20:48):
Do you know? Is that that one? We did the
whole thing? And there there are a few songs that
really like stand out in my mind, like broken Dreams,
Okay and Turned Away. I mean Jack took out these
tunes these and these are elder Bards at his finest
writing style, you know. And and and I'd have to

(01:21:09):
look on the on the other one, because back in
those days you were just ripping and running in and
out of Motown studios and these studios and then literally
everything was like a machine, you know. And I know
Freddie Washington's on on at least the Yeah. The reason
why I asked was because the other two names on
base were already Freddie Washington, but then James Jamison Jr.

(01:21:34):
And Jamison, I didn't. I didn't realize that James Jamison Jr.
Had a career as a professional basis on records, you know,
I didn't know that. So I was trying to figure
out like what songs were yours and what songs were Yeah,
he was getting called and sometimes it's it's a little
unfair because the way they listed they just they would

(01:21:55):
have base and they have three names, you know, so
you wouldn't really know who played what and that you
were very familiar with their their style. But speaking of
James Jamison at that very studio that that we used
to record at Motown, Um, one day somebody asked me
to replace the Jamison park and um, that's the only
time I've ever refused to play a part because I

(01:22:16):
Am not going to replace James Jamison. Right, Please, are
you the type of can you shape shift yours your sound?
So if I say, like, okay, I wanna go for
something more pastoric sounding, and you know, I know exactly
how to proximate that sound, and it's like, you know,

(01:22:40):
it's like draw bars on the Hammond. You know, you
can go from church too to jazz, you know, and
and everything in between. You know, But but on the
base if I want to go for the jackal sound,
I go for the back pickup, you know, which is
what he used to do. And then of course I
have offender jazz basis Yamaha, I mean I have I
have a lot of bases we can just get different

(01:23:01):
sounds on. So yeah, that's and that's one of the
fun things to do. You know, you listen to the
song figured out you know what what does this song
call for? Oh? I was gonna ask who was some
of your favorite players? Like who were the guys that
you learned from and that you learned from as you know,
when you were younger, and some of the guys that
you still pick up stuff from now. Yeah, I mean
the guys I mentioned and early on it was like

(01:23:21):
Verdine White from earth Wind, you know, Rocco from Tower
of Power, James Jammerson, Chuck Rainey, Ron Carter, Charlie Mingus.
I mean it was like the best sons, only the best,
so many great guys, Anthony Jackson, Marcus you know, Jocko

(01:23:41):
of course, So excluding excluding your four play guys, who
would you pick in your you're starting five lineup? Like
career retrospective, Who's on drums, Well, who's on drums? And
you played with the best dead or alive? Yeah, dead

(01:24:05):
or alive? Who who did you jell with the like
what drummer brought brought the best out of you? I'll
tell you. I have to say, Jeffrey picarl Um. If
you listen to a song called Lady Loved Me by
George Benson, um a Reef Martin produced it. Um, I

(01:24:29):
think so another song. Yes, listen to the fade and
and what you hear in me and jeff It sounds
like two kids playing in sandboxing, you know, I mean
it was like it was and and he was just
every time we walked in the studio and saw each other,
we just started smiling when we did. We did everything

(01:24:50):
from Maurice White's solo album b G S, Barbara Streisan
uh um, we did Randy Newman, I Love l A
all that kind of dude. Okay, I was gonna ask
you next doing and doing? Why do I feel like
you're more or less early too? What's her name's video?

(01:25:11):
That as opposed to the actual song? Right? Right? No? Uh,
Chris Jenner made up you're allergic to that name? Original
a right? But I'm only asking because that's one of
my favorite Randy Newman albums ever. And Real Emotional Girl

(01:25:35):
is like one of my all time favorite songs. Uh
that's not David the original I'm gonna idiot. Yeah, now people, Randy,
Randy was first. Um, but yeah, what were your memories
of doing that? The Randy Newman album, you know, the
memories was basically that was that was the entire total band.

(01:25:57):
You know, Page, Luca th Um, Lenny Castro was playing cushion. Uh,
Steve Carl, you know what I mean, it was like
Jeff Carl, it was. It was literally and and those
guys were the go to guys for for everybody. You know,
when when Eric Clapton came to record his first you
know when of his album it's called Behind the Sun

(01:26:18):
in l A. The Warner Brothers guys, Okay, use our
guys and there you go again, Jeff Carl, Feeling Gaines,
Luca th Michael o'marty and I mean it was like
the the the session aces of that time. So that
was the Randy Newman record was just amazing because he
would sit around the piano and he showed the tunes
and then we just start go cutting. There's there's two

(01:26:43):
guys that I often see their names on credits, but
they're not in the total circle because of course the
page the page cats. But um, did you work a
lot with uh, like Bill Wolfer or Michael Back, Michael
Body Bodeka, Yes at all, Yeah, absolutely, Yeah. And Michael
Bicker was another one of those names you look at

(01:27:04):
on all these records and there's Michael Boticker, George Benson,
give me the Night, there's Michael Bocker, you know, like
all these records to Night. And I did uh several
several things with him, including the Academy Awards. Yeah, he was.
We were down underneath the stage. Wait a minute, guys,
I knew, I know there's going to be an episode.

(01:27:26):
We always have like a coorsemote post mortem thing where
we finished an episode and then we start getting mad
because we forgot. I forgot to ask, We forgot to ask.
That's gonna happend. I believe I was trying to sit
here and figure out, like, what is the ultimate signature

(01:27:49):
bass performance you've given on a record. I'm praying this
is you. Are you playing bass on Dennis Edwards? Don't
look any further. Yes there, Yes, indeed, I can't believe
that's the one thing I did. That's the one thing

(01:28:10):
I need to do my homework. I was just like,
get paid in full without that song. Wow, dude, I
totally forgot. I was like, I know, he has a
signature song that is like a tattoo that's we're forgetting about.
You know, that is such you know, that is just
incredible to me a musicologist there. But but it's it's

(01:28:33):
such an iconic baseline that did you write that baseline
or was it just like like it's such a base
lead thing. Did you get write as credit for it
or did they tell you this is what you're playing.
The baseline is the hook of that song. It's a
combination and that's one of my favorite lines. It's a
combination of what was already It was basically already there,

(01:28:55):
and so I was I was the executioner of that line.
And so did you how many times did you work
with because you mentioned Dennis Lambert, did you work with
him and all after that or yeah? Lots? Yeah, and
uh Dennis Souther, I mean, you know it was it
was a very fertile period. I mean we're talking, you know,
I'm just thankful that we were born at a time

(01:29:18):
like the seventies, eighties, nineties where music was just it
was so fertile. I mean, there was so much music now.
I had somebody sent me a picture of a piano
with two keys on it the other day, and then
the game used to write, you're right ato now and
like you almost get penalized for having too many chords.

(01:29:40):
Now you know where this You had lines, baselines, you
had chords, you you had melodies, and and so uh
you know what another one of those baselines that it
was the el the barge woo doo doo doo doo
doo doo doo. That's what I'm saying, the dream Okay,
that is you okay, good do do do do do
do do right, but all of these do do do

(01:30:02):
do do do do do do do? I mean, and
I'll never forget, you know, being in the studio that
day now and that you know this one is special,
very special. Okay. I was gonna ask you win all right,
good Steve asked the question, hit it, it's your question.
He never answered it. The dream lineup. We only got
to the drummer. We didn't get to the other way

(01:30:23):
to go. Yeah, great, feeling games. Okay, that's your keyboard player,
that's your keyboard players. Who's your guitarist? We got guitarist,
I have to say, and this is You're gonna You're gonna.
You may you may laugh at this one, but Pat
Matheny is my favorite guitar player. Yes, yes, I'm wait

(01:30:47):
a minute, uh springs it here? Not even how many
how many Matheni albums are you on? None? You're not? Okay,
I'm not going a single Mathenia. That's that's my bucket list. Yeah,
wow story really yeah, we uh, we played we played

(01:31:09):
a concert for we we had this thing at at
Dodger Stadium. It was Elton John and Eric Clapton and
Matheny came and Steve and I quoted one of the
songs that Steve's playing on it's in seven four and
Steve and we started playing that during a solo and
Pat went crazy. You know, it was like, you know,
fifty thousand people out there. We saw Pat given his
wife a high five when we played this tune. You know,

(01:31:32):
But you know, Pat, he's he's just he's just a
consummate musician. And I've always he's always been one of
the guys on my bucket list to play with, you know,
to record with. We've played together kind of jammed up
at this place on the Upper West Side, but I've
never had the pleasure of being on one of his records.
Of course, Georgia Manson, I mean and and then you know,
as bands go, you know, if you look at you know,

(01:31:55):
we lost four play lost Chuck Lobe, who's um, the
guy could do no wrong by me. He could play funk, jazz,
rock and uh and on top of all that, he
was the Swedish guy. So you know, check I think
about him every day. When did he pass? When did
Chuck pass? They think? Can I ask what musicians or music?

(01:32:19):
You and Noah talk about? What is what does he
put you onto? Since he is like an amazing musician, Well,
you know he's amazing. Well of course everybody's you know,
on onto Jacob Cayer, so he's like, he's like phenom
of phenoms. But we you know, we we go with
Herbie and uh. He I look at his you know,
because he goes to the not only does he go

(01:32:41):
to University of California bat Berkeley, but he goes to
YouTube University. Yeah there, and he studies you know, Billy
Preston go and uh people like uh Billy and and
uh Herbie. Uh. You know. He he's kind of all
over the map, you know, with with everything, and he

(01:33:03):
loved we we do one of our favorite songs to play,
Sunny Side of the Street, you know, which is a
sixth year old song that that Louis Armstrong sang back
in the day. So he he knows everything. But then
we we love algar Row and you know, kind of
kind of a diz. I mean, he's just a musical
musical guy. Yeah by the looks of YouTube, but like

(01:33:24):
you had a baby music genius. You know, he has
perfect pitch and he not only does he's not one
of these guys that like, if you look, you're gonna
hear a million Olympic chops, you know. But he's got
heart and soul. And it's the choices, you know, it's
the it's the it's what you don't play. It's a
space you leave that makes makes it specially, you know.

(01:33:47):
And that's what I'd like to see a lot of
the younger guys, uh kind of understanding, because you know,
now I just start scrolling, it's like you just hear
everything every a z in the first bar. Right, Uh, Steve,
do you want to ask the question? Should I go? Well? Actually,
I'm curious about you said you played it live in Philly.

(01:34:07):
Um was that with Phil Collins? Was with Kenny Loggins?
With Kenny Loggins, Yeah, you're also very well known for
playing with tem N and Kenny Loan said at uh
in Elliot Live A yeah, U yeah, but you're I

(01:34:31):
guess you're you're um applying my obsession with Easy Lover
and your association with with Phil how many Phil Collins? Um?
That was the Philip Bailey album that that song was on,
yet you know it was Philip it and and my
relationship with Philip is what got me on the gig
phil Phil Collins. He was going to be the producer

(01:34:53):
and Philip said, hey, I want to bring I want
to bring an eight eight East over to London with
me and so yeah, you know, so we we went
to London recorded that in Um. Yeah, we wrote that song.
It was the last song that we recorded. It was
like after two weeks of recording and Philip said, man,
we still didn't need like an undeniable single, and we

(01:35:15):
went to went over the piano and twenty minutes later
that came out. Wow, just twenty minutes later. Yeah, And
and what it was was we kind of like had
the we had all the parts, and um, we said,
let's make a demo over the track and then tomorrow
will listen to the demo and come back. And so
we made the demo. The next morning we put it

(01:35:35):
up and George Massenburg was the engineer. He recorded, Um,
we played it, and everybody, hey, and I like it.
What's wrong with that? But let's go with that? And
then I heard Philip Collins kind of singing these choosy
lover was the name, you know it was? It was
the lyric he was singing. But as he was singing, um,
I said managed voice sounds and said, man, why don't

(01:35:56):
you guys just do it as a duet? Okay? Really yeah, Nathan,
everyone it was it was a Phil Bailey record, you know.
But then you could hear like Phil's Boys, And at
that particular week, the song Against All Odds was number one,
Phil's first number one, and it was like number one
on the charts. So it was like, this is a
no brainer. The two of them is a do it

(01:36:18):
and man, you to hear it on like three radio
stations at once. It's still one of the greatest. So
that was that was that that allowed me to kind
of solidify my my standing with the folks. I bought
my house and finally they said, you know, because you know,
your parents were saying yeah, but you said, have something

(01:36:39):
fall back on. Yeah, your dad had a whole job.
I still can't repeat arrows something. So I knew that
he was in the space business, that design engineer. Yeah,
you designed the f F sixteen swept wings and the
C five a tail, you know, and East always bring
these rocket uh pictures homes of these rockets and silos.

(01:37:02):
So that's where we got our kind of We have
four pilots in the family. I fly, my brother's flies.
My dad was a rocket scientist. Is there um, Is
there a session or a song that you had to
pass on that wound up becoming like like did you

(01:37:24):
get the call first for like we are the World
or something like that and you had to pass on
it because you were already doing a gig somewhere. Well,
Fortunately I can't tell that story because because no is
one of the words that I have not been able
to say. And I don't turn down anything, but my collar.
No no, no, no, no talk about it. So I
should take all the gigs, all right, thank you? You

(01:37:47):
know what I mean? I learned early on, like my
accountant said, nobody's following you around with a pension plant,
and we gotta, you know, the career, well, studio musicians
careers four years, We got to figure out what to
do with your money. And he told me that in
nineteen eight. You know, wow, So you know you're always thinking,
you know, is this is this it a man the peak?

(01:38:09):
And is it gonna Am I going to be on
the other side? You know? They say that the four
stages of a musician's careers. Uh, who's Nathan East getting me?
Get me Nathan East? Get me a young Nathan East?
Whose Nathan got that? One more time? Say it again?

(01:38:31):
Whose Nathan East? Get me? Nathan Ease? Get me a
young Nathan Ee? Who's Nathan Eas? I hate that. David
Foster told me that that hurt. I read that one
of my voice over books of that has kept me
going for forty years now. I've never heard it put

(01:38:56):
that way, And now that that totally don't don't you
start feeling in other part and the other part they say.
The only other part I've heard of that same saying.
Only other variation I've heard is the additional stage of
get me Nathan East at any price. So like that's
kind of before. I mean, like that to this day,
my brothers called me and they always go as soon

(01:39:17):
as they answered, to get me a young Nathan East.
You know, they always you know, but but it's good
to kind of have a little bit of that fear
because especially back in the day, there was always the
new guy, you know, like in the eighties, you know,
like especially young guitar you know that you had you
had like Larry Carlton, and then you had Lee written
Hour and on these guys coming in and Luca Third

(01:39:37):
and so there was always like this this heavy hitter
waiting in the wings, you know, to be the next guy,
you know. So not now I think we can we
can rest a little easier because there's not a million
studios and a million gigs going on like they were
back then. Well, who who in your in your eyes

(01:39:59):
was uh kind of who who do you admire of
the Well, I guess like young lions to you are
now established musicians. But I mean, if I'm talking to
mid nineties, Nathan, He's like, who who were the musicians
that were coming up that you were like, Okay, I

(01:40:20):
messed with them, or you know, like who do you
feel that the future is safe with? Yeah, I mean
when because I remember, you know, first here and s
Brown's and Spalding and she was one of these like
she was young, new newcomer, and then next thing, you know,
she had Album of the Year, you know, the Grammys,

(01:40:40):
and then um again there's people like Jacob Cayer and
and Justin Lee Schultz now that are that I think
are very very promising that I feel comfortable leaving them
with the with the torch, you know, because they they
seem to be putting in some serious time and then
they're they're they're quite a few. And and I'm I'm

(01:41:00):
excited by my son Noah too, because I think he's
he's becoming a student of of music and really like
a sponge, you know, just absorbing um everybody from Keith
Jarrett to Bill Levins to you know, Herbie and uh
everybody in between. He's playing now, he's playing Hammond Oregon

(01:41:20):
B three and so he's listening to a lot of
the lot of the cats that Jimmy Smith, Joey Deep,
It's crazy all right, before we wind up, I just
I'm still thinking of the postmortem talk. It's nah, I
just okay, um are you I know you played with

(01:41:42):
the Point of Sisters. Are you on? I'm so excited.
I'm on, I'm so excited. Jesus, I played the point
of Sisters and my cousins by marriage. So we actually, uh,
we actually re recorded all the hits and they asked
me to produce it because a lot of times, you know,

(01:42:04):
like Pepsi will say hey, we want to use I'm
so excited, and the record labels say, okay, give us something,
give us some and so they they hired me to
produce it. So it was so easy because then I
just called Greg and John Barnes and all the guys
that played on the original and we went and rere
recreated all those songs and use them on You know,

(01:42:25):
now when you see him on a Pepsi commercial, those
are the ones and they're they're benefiting from it, which
is great. And that's what Prince did you know? Yeah
you can re record you yeah, yeah, because you you know,
the label onto the Masters and you know that's been
Prince put slave on his right and he just went
in and recut him. But sometimes it backfires, like you

(01:42:47):
know before. Thank thank you Sylvia Room for finally releasing
the heat Wave discography for streaming, because I don't know
if I could have taken another like Boogie Nights. You know,
some acts like re recording it not really quite nailing
it the way that you know, some cases it doesn't work,

(01:43:09):
but in this case it does work. Another dance classic
of yours is that your base work on Woolmack and
Woolma's Baby I'm Scared of You. I'm on Walmac and Woolmack,
and I'd have to I'd have to look and remember
if I could the particular tune. So let me look
that up and I'll get back to you on that one.
That's a great problem to have, accept it, except start

(01:43:32):
stacking about, you know after after a thousand tunes. It's
just it's crazy. He's on another iconic hip hop bass sample.
So you you're, you're, you're playing on uh Flack and
Bryson's Born to Love album. Correct, They're they're, they're, they're

(01:43:54):
do wet right. Yeah, Second Childhood Primo Bam Boom boom boat. Yeah,
you know, you're reminded me of stuff that I that
I completed. And you know this happens in Japan because
they pay attention to everything, and sometimes I'm walking down
the street they'll come up with a big armful of

(01:44:14):
vinyl records that you completely forgot that you played on.
You went to the side and everything. But see, that's
and that's what I I wish that you know, the
powers that be and and the Red Tape the red
Tape people and the lawyers and whatnot, um would realize

(01:44:36):
that the beauty of sampling is that cats like us,
we'll see what gets sampled, and now not only will
we purchase the the ROBERTA. Flack and People Bryson album,
but then we're gonna read the credits and see who
played on it, and then purchase everything that they played

(01:44:57):
on and still on and further down the rabbit p s.
I would like to tell the masses who are listening
to this, there's an app for that, and it's called Deeper.
Just saying black owned go get it deeper. It's an
app called Deeper. Like if you find a song you like,
the bass player, you touched the basse player's name and
you can see everything that the basse player did. Wow, Okay,
I'm gonna deeper and well, you know, it's it's it's

(01:45:21):
like um, Aaron Schwartz did with Reddit. He he wanted
to make available legal documents that usually people that are
in m I. T. Studying they have to pay thirty
five bucks to get a legal thing. So so he
kind of he started making those things available and that's
where he got in trouble. He got sued by the government.

(01:45:42):
But it's it's one of those things where you are
we gonna are we gonna keep it going moving forward
so that people can know what what happened before, you know,
because we don't want them to forget about Natalie Cole
and you know, Ella Fitzgerald, and you just don't want

(01:46:02):
you know, Billy Holiday and and you do you want
our our youth to really have access to that. You know,
So if if we put too many restrictions and and again,
you know, they'll they'll figure out a way to monetize
and and get it. But I think too to kind
of put so many restrictions on everything, it's just it's
just rough, you know, Okay, warmer thing, Okay, give me

(01:46:26):
a free more because there's too many, man, because I'd
be remiss and I would hate trying to remember because
it was a two parter. I'm gonna have this. I'm
gonna this in the whole. But you've also worked with
narda Michael Walden of course, doing his magic streak with

(01:46:49):
Aretha and Whitney and whatnot. That's you on saving all
my love for you, dude? That okay, what kind of
base are young on on saving all my love for you?
Because that white bass right but it's this white bass
right behind me. It's a B B three thousand yamaha basse.

(01:47:11):
It's uh, Gene Page wrote, listen, he Gene Page wrote
all those those notes too. Michael Master was producing. We
were in Devonshire studios. We you know that the greatest
love of all right behind me. But my my question
about saving all my love for you though? And is

(01:47:32):
that a five string base? It's five string basse. Okay.
That explains everything, because the thing is is that even
though I didn't, I didn't when when when I came out,
I was I was fourteen years old, but it was
in the eighties and so for me though, when you
get to the last bridge because the night is the

(01:47:54):
night I'm dealing there, all right. You played in such
a low register that I was like, there's no, there's
no base that can actually pay like he's playing below
uh an e right, you were, And I never heard that,
Like normally someone would would go to the upper register

(01:48:17):
to play it, but you went low with it. And okay,
you played on a five string, and I was I
was actually shocked that because that was the first kind
of some of the first five string records I was
playing on. And and I was kind of saying, as
it is, it's really gonna be cool, and am I
gonna get away with this? You know, because it was
it was at risk. It was unusual to hear because

(01:48:39):
I just never heard a base go that low before. Yeah,
and okay, you know I have to say. And and
by the way, congratulations you did an amazing job as
musical director for the Oscars and I appreciate that you have.
You know, to me, you brought the show into into

(01:49:01):
the current state something beyond uh no. But I'm gonna
tell you it seemed like on paper, it just seems easy,
like oh, quest love DJ did. But man, the only
reason why I know those three letters, A f M. Yes,
of course we have an a FM here at the
tonight show, and we deal with the rig of of whatever.

(01:49:25):
But yo, they do not play in Los Angeles, and
I thought everything was gonna be gravy. And then the
a FM rep came and was like he wanted to
know every song I was playing, and I guess the
deal they made was like basically, um, if if these
are a FM uh orchestra members, then you have to

(01:49:48):
pay a certain rate for this and that. So it's
it's the night before I had to redo and clear
a whole bunch of songs because you know, I plan
on just playing like movie themes and Williams scores and
like do the normal thing. And then the FM guy
was like, nope, there are FM union members. We got
to pay them all, like we were trying to find

(01:50:10):
our way to safety in a pandemic. And then like
the last minute, the guys like, no, you must play.
You must pay all seventy members of the people who
played the theme the Rocky in order for you to
play the song. I was like, no, We're not doing that.
So I had to get super super creative and was
just like okay, I'm just gonna play regular songs. Are
most young musicians in the Union, well, those those particular

(01:50:35):
things that you mentioned are gonna be a lot of
the strength players that you know had had recorded those, right.
That's why I was thinking, a lot of them aren't
even living. They know the money goes to the FM. Ye,
But but it's it's great that if if it's possible
for it to get to the people that deal. But

(01:50:56):
but they they will, they will come and and and
check on you. Now, and you had access to the tracks, right,
I mean you yeah, well for uh for as um
as was great. By the way, I took a risk
and I was just like what I hit up? Stevie
was just like can I can I get the master please?

(01:51:17):
And you know I had to explain like what I
wanted to do and all that stuff. And when he
heard it one, I didn't know that Dean Parks was
playing um acoustic guitar on that, and it was even funnier.
Was you think you're bad? Stevie didn't know that, and
so he was sort of like, you know, how did
you make this? It's it's like a country song. And
I was like, no, that's that's just dem Parks, I

(01:51:40):
just left you and Dean Parks singing alone. He's he
felt like we redid and did a whole another arrangement
to it. And I'm like, no, I just I took
what was there and just accented some things and that
sort of thing. But that's literally you know, some songs
and people really and it was really a beautiful, uh persion.
And how great is it that you can get the

(01:52:00):
original master from Stevie and and be able to do that.
You know, That's that's impressive. That's that's the that's the
perk of the job. I enjoyed that. And I was
with Dean Parks over the weekend and uh, it's we
we were playing. Um we went to a club and
sat in and I said, man, it's not every day
we get to hear Dean Park stretch out like this,
you know what I mean? He was he brought it
and uh, here he is, you know, still doing it

(01:52:22):
after all these years. But he's a dream guest of mine. Yeah,
he's I got to meet him two years ago at
the Oscars and it's such a such a cool cat,
very cool and uh but yeah, the the original hoping
I'm going wait a second, I think A Mayor got
the track. Oh this is incredible Flix. Yeah, yeah, I

(01:52:46):
got lucky walk about working your magic now. It was
really great. Thank you, thank you. You know, I know
there's like forty nine other songs that I I could
nerd out on and albums that you've played on. But
you know, the whole thing is that you. You You're
the You're the magic touch and and I really appreciate

(01:53:06):
you for coming on the show and talk to us.
I was so excited that last night I kept looking
at my watching Man, Okay, it's on a twelve more hours.
I'm so excited to come up because listen, I mean,
you've You've had everybody come on, Michelle Obama, Man, Michelle Obama.
Now Nathan, I'm excited about Wait now, now that you

(01:53:28):
mentioned it, Yo, you should really because when I'm closing
my eyes, I thought I was talking to Donnie Simpson
for half a second. You you really have you you
have a future in voice over work, but really have
a future like that should be your your your your pivot, Brent.
But it's a lot of fun. You know. I was

(01:53:49):
friends with Don la Fontaine, who was the guest who
was the guy yes, family and I are still very
dear and very close. But he he's so you have
great pipes, you know, he had the voice of God,
you know. Yeah, Well, I thank you very much for
doing the show, and thank you guys, and thanks man.

(01:54:12):
Thank you for the music. On what you're doing. It's
it's very relevant. It's not every relevant very much, so
thank you very much. Thanks for everything you do, and
congratulations on everything Disney collaboration and you know, thank you everything.
We're looking forward to the next generation to East shot. Okay,

(01:54:32):
now right, yeah, well listen, it's been a joy, pleasure
and an honor and uh let's uh, let's keep it going. Well,
you heard it from the horse's mouth, lads and gentlemen.
That was Nathan East and on behalf of Fontillo like
and Schipstein. My name is quest Love and this is
Love Supreme and we'll see you on the next go

(01:54:53):
round for the next episode of us Love Supreme. All right, yo,
what's up? This is Fonte. Make sure you keep up
with us on Instagram at QLs and let us know
what you think and who should be next to sit
down with us. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. Hi, Peace,
m h M. What's Love Supreme is a production on

(01:55:18):
my heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.

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Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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