Smitty: Yeah, and sometimes, too, along with getting taken away from everything, they’re inspired to make some great decisions and to make a difference in their life and in the lives of others too with music like this.
MA: You never know. That’s a hopeful thought: if people can hear music and then make decisions in their life. I never think that deeply about it, but you’re right and I hope that happens! (Both laugh.) I really like that. (Both laugh.)
Smitty: Oh, absolutely. Here’s a thought: being introduced as Mindi Abair the Vocalist. Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?
MA: It does. It’s interesting to ask different people how they know me. I had a couple come up to me at my Christmas show—I do a Christmas tour with Peter White and Rick Braun every year and we recorded a CD this year, kind of showing what our Christmas show is—and a couple came up to me and they said “Well, we saw your name for a Christmas tour and we know your Christmas song ‘I Can’t Wait for Christmas’ and we love your Christmas song.” It’s a vocal song and they play it on a lot of pop radio stations. Actually, the jazz stations really haven’t embraced it until this past year a little bit. And they said “We didn’t know you played sax. It was such a surprise for us.” (Both laugh.)
Smitty: Oh, how cool is that?
MA: So I just stood back and laughed and just thought, that’s great. I mean, I’ve built my career in the jazz world mostly as a saxophonist and if you listen to contemporary jazz radio, you really mostly only know my saxophone, but it’s funny. The first two records I put out as a solo artist were only vocal and I played sax on two songs on the record.
Smitty: Yeah.
MA: It was all vocals, so different times in my life I’ve kinda felt different things. When I first made my vocal records—I’ve played sax since I was a kid—but when I made my first two solo CDs that were vocals, I just was feeling bored.
Smitty: (Laughs.)
MA: I was really bored with what was going on with jazz and as a sax player I was just kinda bored, and I really thought that pop music was pushing the boundaries in more ways than jazz was at the time and that’s kinda how I was feeling like expressing myself, so I kind of wrote these quirky songs and used guitar and used some weird drum sounds and loops and did all this stuff and that was making me happy at the time and fulfilling what I wanted to hear, and I finally came around to the point where it was sax and vocals, and kind of mixed it in and that’s become who I’ve been known for, is sax and vocals, but it’s interesting. Right now I kind of feel the same way. The pop world is really pushing the boundaries and doing some crazy stuff and people are being experimental and they’re using different arrangements and I think it’s really, really fun and it’s an inspiring place to be, and I hope that the jazz world kinda takes note because there are so many individualists right now in pop that are, oh, this person Feist, she uses cool little horn section stuff and really broken down arrangements with piano, kinda plunking out these things or guitar kind of sparsely in there. Wow, how cool. That’s totally breaking the rules of what’s acceptable. That John Mayer doing a trio album with total musicians’ musicians, Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan. What a cool thing.
Smitty: Yeah.
MA: And that wouldn’t be what’s expected of the super pop guy John Mayer, so I think you can kinda break the rules a little bit, do what you feel like, and that’s the key that I’m going for.
Smitty: Yeah, and I think people—and I’ve said this so many times—that people want something different. We all love variety and I think we get bored, like you mentioned, with the same old thing and it’s important that especially with music, whatever anyone’s doing with music, as promoters, musicians, radio programmers, writers, publicists, keep it fresh and always mix it up, but never do the same thing over and over, because we as fans will eventually check out. It’s just a normal human thing when it comes to music. We love variety.
MA: Yeah.
Smitty: Yeah, and I think you hit it on the head. You’re spot on, yeah.
MA: Yeah, I’m constantly on the lookout for new music and my friends and I go back and forth all the time. “Oh, check out this new band and check out this new band.” I just bought on iTunes Yael Naim’s new record and it’s amazing.
Smitty: Yeah.
MA: Just amazing. She’s the girl who did the MacBook Air, I guess it’s called.
Smitty: Mm-hmm, yes.
MA: And I just loved the song so I’m kinda surfin’ around the Web. Who did that? Who did that?
Smitty: (Laughs.)
MA: Her record’s incredible and just really odd arrangements. She did this kind of moody piano arrangement of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and I’m just thinking, what a weird song and then all of a sudden I thought, oh my Gosh, that’s “Toxic” by Britney Spears. You’ve gotta be kidding me. (Both laugh.) And here’s this great singer-songwriter doing it just all messed up. And I just love new music, I love seeing what’s out there, so as a fan that’s what I go towards and as an artist, gosh, I’d get bored with myself if I made the same record over and over and over, so I hope the fans of my records will feel the same way and enjoy all the new stuff.
Smitty: I really think so and you’re in such a perfect position with your own radio show. You get to hear and play all kinds of great stuff, you know?
MA: Yeah.
Smitty: What a cool thing, what a cool gig. (Laughs.)
MA: I’m in a very cool position being the host of Chill With Mindi Abair because I do get a lot of really cutting edge music sent to me and we program some great stuff for the show, and for me I’m always kinda scouring around for different artists and different sounds, and I think it’s fun to be able to host a show that I can introduce these new artists to people and introduce them to new music and new kind of ways of thinking about songs and stuff. You know, these great remixers we have on the show, Fever Incorporation and Motion Worker and all these bands. They just really do something different. I mean, who gets to take Billie Holiday’s original tracks and put them to cool dance tracks or mix all these new elements with old elements? I think it’s a great way to bring jazz to a new generation.
Smitty: Yes.
MA: And as an instrumentalist, I mean, that’s definitely what I’m out there doing. You bring your own brand of jazz to people. That’s what I do as a radio host too. It’s kinda fun.
Smitty: Yes, it is. Well, tell me, when does the record drop?
MA: The record comes out officially May 6th.
Smitty: May 6th.
MA: But it’s available for pre-order at www.mindiabair.com and we’re gonna start to play some new music from it in the upcoming shows, but we’re kinda saving most of the music for this very cool online concert that we’re doing.
Smitty: Hey! Talk to me, girl.
MA: Yeah, I’ve never done anything like this and I actually don’t know anyone else who has, but I love technology, I love the fact that we can be a community. You know, like you said earlier, my MySpace blog and www.mindiabair.com I do my diary. I love the online experience. I think it’s cool because anyone in the world can tune in.
