Smitty: Oh, that’s cool. How long did it take to put this project together?
RD: Well, we started working on this in the latter half of 1999 and I think we released the first CD in April of 2000. This last CD Back In The Day, which is our third commercial record, came out last summer. As soon as we get one out we start working on the next one.
Smitty: Back in the Day CD is very melodic, very harmonic; it’s got some very cool Latin rhythms. This is a dance record too.
RD: It’s a lot of fun. I was really honored that a couple of people who I’ve been a longtime fan of joined us on the record to do some singing. We did a cover of “Expressway to Your Heart,” which in the Philadelphia area is a landmark song, and it was the first number one, I think, for Gamble & Huff and was the first million seller and whatnot, and The Soul Survivors, I’ve been friends of the band since the inception, and they were kind enough to….well, we surprised them one day. We were playing at a venue and they came to support us and we said “We have a surprise for you” and called them up, and they said “What are you doing?” I said “We’re gonna have you sing your song our way.” They said “We don’t know how to do Latin.” I said “Just sing it like you sing it. It’ll fit.” So we put our rhythms behind it and they fell in love with it and they were happy to be included in the CD, and we went out and had them come on and sing the parts. So The Soul Survivors are doing that tune as well as another song they had put out many years ago (“Lover to Me”), so that was very nice.
Smitty: Wow! And you guys have had some pretty nice appearances on BET Jazz, ABC’s Puerto Rican Panorama, you’ve been on Emeril Live.
RD: Yeah, that was fun.
Smitty: Yeah, so how did you guys all fit on the set of Emeril Live?
RD: Well, unfortunately, we couldn’t bring everybody to that show. We had to leave most of the brass and a couple of singers home. I think we came with eight guys, but we just did a couple of more rhythmic things. He plays the show a lot. It’s a Christmas show, so he runs it a lot. And the food was good.
Smitty: Yeah, he’s a cool dude, isn’t he?
RD: Yeah, he really is. I really enjoyed that performance.
Smitty: Did you guys get some takeout for the band members that didn’t get to make it?
RD: Yeah. I’m not sure he gave us his own stuff, though. (Both laughing.) I will not swear to that in court.
Smitty: Yeah, he’s quite a guy and he loves the music too, you know?
RD: He did. He was very supportive and he gave us a lot of great plugs on that show. We’ve been fortunate to do some nice festivals too. We did the Bahamas Jazz Festival, we did St. Thomas, we were down in Florida, so those kind of things are good. We just came back from the West Coast. We did a couple things out there.
Smitty: Nice! What’s traveling like with all you guys? That’s got to be somewhat different.
RD: It’s interesting. (Both laughing.) I said to somebody the other day, I said “Man, if I do another record, I swear I’m gonna have a duo.” Keeping track of everybody is interesting.
Smitty: I can just imagine. Wow. But that’s pretty cool, though.
RD: You know what’s funny, you’ll be prepared to do a particular performance and to have everybody set to be at a certain place at a certain time, at the last minute one of the promoters or producers will call you and ask you “Can I make a little change and have you come here instead?” And you can’t imagine how your heart sinks when your guys have to make all those phone calls again.
Smitty: Yeah, to meet somewhere else, oh no!
RD: Exactly. Sounds like such a trivial thing, but with the members we have, it never is.
Smitty: It’s not easy, is it? Oh wow.
RD: No, it’s not, but it’s fun.
Smitty: Yes indeed. So, what’s going on now? What are you guys working on now?
RD: Well, we’re now trying to promote our CD and we just came back from doing the House of Blues in Atlantic City and we were up there in New York City this week. We’re trying to do as much as we can behind the CD, and then we’re slowing it down a little to work on some new tracks for our next CD.
Smitty: Next record, wow. Well, that’s cool. It seems like you guys really got it together and I think it’s a great mix of music. It’s a mixture of Latin, R&B, pop, jazz, Latin jazz, and some great salsa in there.
RD: We’re trying to bring back the term Latin soul a little bit.
Smitty: Yeah, I like that. It’s very cool. How can people get this CD?
