So when he got signed, he started meeting a lot of people, doing that, doing that. We became best friends from that day, you know what I mean? We were always together. 'Cause when I first moved to New York, Bilal was the first cat I met at the New School - we both went to college together. RG: Actually, I met him when I was with Bilal as well. PJ: You work with Q-Tip now too: how'd you come to be working with him? Even at 12 - you know, I had just started playing the piano, so when I heard stuff that had piano in it, I was like, "Yo, what's that?" I couldn't identify with too much of what they were talking about, but the music element I really liked. So Tribe Called Quest was the first group that really, I listened to and I gravitated to and I actually bought some of their stuff, like, "Yo, what's this?" You know, because it had some elements I like, which is, a lot of jazz influence. So those were the kind of things that really grabbed me first. Because what I gravitated to most was hip-hop with chord changes, that was really melodic, that had instruments. PJ: Did it hit you that, you know, this was my sort of thing? A Tribe Called Quest, "Bonita Applebum" from People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm (1990). ![]() So I've been around them and their families. I've known her for years, and my little cousin LeToya was in Destiny's Child, and that whole thing. A bunch of my friends are in her band too, and that whole thing, you know what I mean? Yea, I see her like once a year, randomly somewhere. PJ: I read somewhere that you went to high school with Beyonce. He just has so much respect, first of all, and love from people. And when he took that hoodie off, I've never been in the presence of something that major, where the applause, and screaming was like - it was ridiculous. And the lights came on, but he still had the hoodie on. They were like, "Do y'all know this song?" And we were like, "Yea, we know, we know it." So he just walked on stage with this hoodie, and turned around, and the lights were off. I was playing Radio City Music Hall - on and off, I play with The Roots for special occasions or whatever - and Jay-Z just came through. I've never seen that much love for somebody on stage at one time. It was like, "Aw, man!" I liked hip-hop in high school, but I didn't really get into it and be, like, "Aw, man, I want to do this!" until I got here and got to meet the cats and really get in the vibe. I wasn't a hard hip-hop fan, really, until I got up here and I started meeting these people and seeing it actually live. So I wasn't a hardcore Jay-Z fan or nothin'. But I'm actually from Houston, so I didn't get up here until '97. So I didn't even get into - me and my lady always have these disputes, 'cause she's Brooklyn hardcore, she's straight hip-hop like, born in the Bronx, so we always have these little things. RG: Actually, no, because I'm from Houston, Texas. I know you often work with so-called "conscious" hip-hop artists, fair or not, whatever that term is. PJ: As we speak, this tune is sort of the track of New York City right now. Jay-Z, "Empire State Of Mind" from The Blueprint 3 (2009). RG: Actually, I called everybody in my phone that I know to be in this band, you know? Pretty much everybody's a jazz musician, but they're jazz musicians that are open, that can play other things and get it, you know what I mean? Everybody doesn't get it, but everybody in this band gets it, so it works out.ΔΆ. PJ: And some of your fellow jazz musicians are in this too. So it's like a big band, but open to whatever. Because he loves all types of music, and everybody in the band loves all types of music. I mean we've done so many random, from Radiohead to any genre of music that comes to mind. We do from Ghostface to Bell Biv DeVoe to Neil Diamond - not Neil Diamond - well, I wouldn't doubt Mos would do Neil Diamond. Like, we rearrange stuff - we've done Ghostface, stuff like that. ![]() We do a mixture of old jazz classics, but we also do modern-day hip-hop stuff. ![]() But we do not-traditional big band jazz music, if you will. RG: It's a big band in the sense of - we have saxophones, a few trumpets, a few trombones, bass, piano, drums - the normal setup of a big band.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |