Smitty: Ah, now that’s feeling it, you know? That’s feeling the music.
PB: Yeah, and when you see the cover, you’ll see that it just goes with that song perfectly.
Smitty: Oh man, that’s too cool.
PB: And if you look at him online you’ll see his artwork. It’s incredible.
Smitty: I’ll do that. You know what else I like about this record….the progressive order of the songs; the first two tracks just blow you away and then you bring in Al [Jarreau], like you haven’t heard everything, you know.
PB: (Laughs.)
Smitty: And what a voice. You know, Al is just….
PB: Talk about distinctive.
Smitty: Yeah, he’s just so one for the ages, you know?
PB: As soon as he starts singing, you know, it’s just like yeah, that’s Al Jarreau.
Smitty: True, and that’s my boy!
PB: One word.
Smitty: Exactly. There’s no two Al Jarreaus.
PB: Right.
Smitty: And when I was listening to “Ol’ Skoolin’,” the Boney track, I call it.
PB: “Ol’ Skoolin’,” yeah.
Smitty: It was so reminiscent of some of the work you cats have done in the past, you know? It was like this should be….
PB: More like my song “24/7.” That’s what I was kind of aiming for.
Smitty: Yeah, yeah.
PB: And, well, yeah, it does sound like some of the old school Boney stuff that we did, yeah. It’s kind of a good time party kind of vibe, which is my favorite Boney stuff.
Smitty: Right, and it’s kinda cool to sort of reminisce with that and I said “You know? It’s so fitting that this track should be here, given your great history together.”
PB: Yeah.
Smitty: And I just wanna say something about Lina and Jessy as well. Thank you for including some up and coming fresh new….
PB: Right.
Smitty: .…voices and sounds because most musician will tell you that somewhere they got a break.
PB: Yeah.
Smitty: .…somewhere they got an opportunity, and it’s so cool when you can give something back like that, so thanks for lookin’ out.
PB: Well, they’re both really, really good and Lina….it was funny because I had heard her actually on Smooth Jazz. They were playing one of her songs a couple of years ago and I was like, man, I really like that voice. It’s got Billie Holiday old school type of sound.
Smitty: Yeah.
PB: And I was working with this DJ at my house and I was actually doing a remix of “24/7” and we were messing around and I mentioned to him that I really like this chick Lina. He said “Oh man, she’s a friend of mine. I’ll call her right now. She’d love to work with you.” I’m like “All right.” So he called her right on the spot, I got on the phone with her, and she’s like “Yeah, I wanna sing on your record.” So that track “Say A Little Prayer,” I really wanted to have this sort of Brazilian-y Smooth Jazz track but with that old school jazz flavor on top, so she was just perfect.
Smitty: Oh man, that’s so cool. That really mixes it up, you know?
PB: Right.
Smitty: It just diversifies the whole vibe. I like that.
PB: Vacation.
Smitty: Yeah man, you gotta have it. And you gotta talk to me about working with Lee Hershberg. That had to be a treat for ya to do this record.
PB: Well, he gave me my start in the business and he was actually married to my sister at the time that we were talking….30 years ago. He gave me my start as a kid in the studio and when he was married to my sister, I was in this band….he used to bring my band in the studio. I’m talking about when I was like 14, 15 years old.
Smitty: Yeah.
PB: And so that was my kinda introduction to recording, you know, as an artist and he was just such a great guy, and then when I got married….at the time, I was a drummer, and in that band I was a drummer as well….and when I got married, I was making my living as a professional drummer and he called me and he said “Man, how are you gonna support your wife?”
Smitty: (Laughs.)
PB: “Drumming. How else?” He goes “Forget it. Get down to the studio tomorrow.” And I started second engineering for him and then that was really my start in the studio and I just started bringing bands in, producing them and doing all that, so he really, really gave me my start, and he also introduced me to golf.
