Tom Emmi Interview Page 4

Smitty:  Isn’t that priceless?  You have really created something special for artists and for fans, I think, and to be there for each session, it’s got to be such a dream and it’s gotta be an experience that you can’t get anywhere else, and I’ve said over and over to different people that Studio Jams has one thing that you just can’t get anywhere else.  What you hear and what you see only happens once.  That’s once in a lifetime, so you have all of these great once in a lifetime sessions and perhaps once in a lifetime that you will see each one of these great musicians in the same room together.  You may never see that again because their diverse background and their travels.  I mean, it’s truly once in a lifetime.

TE:  Yeah, it is.  I do feel blessed to be kinda steering the ship, you know?  I’m not driving it, I’m just sort of steering it.  The musicians make it happen.  And one might think that you bring in all these musicians and oftentimes, well, actually over the years I’ve gotten to know a lotta these players in my travels, so a lotta times I feel like I’m working with friends or acquaintances, at least, when they come in, but sometimes I don’t know some of them from Adam, so there could be a train wreck.  You bring in these great musicians and you just wonder is the ego gonna get in the way or are they gonna have these creative differences, but personally, as a producer, my mindset is I don’t mind running that risk a little bit because that’s where I think the magic really happens. 

If I brought in an established band and brought them into the studio and said “Hey, why don’t you guys just jam?”  To me, it’s not that exciting because these guys all know each other and maybe the rhythm section is so locked into one another, they’ve been playing together for ten years and even though they may be playing a new song, still the vibe is the same and it’s fun and everything, but it’s nothing special, if you will.  So I don’t mind mixing it up and crossing my fingers and hoping there isn’t a train wreck.  And again, I don’t take huge, huge risks bringing in people who I know have huge, huge egos or whatever, but nevertheless, there’s always that risk and what I have found is the opposite.

Where I expect there could be friction and there never is, and the opposite happens more times than not, whereas they’ll show each other too much respect, like “Oh, you wanna take the solo?”  “No, why don’t you do it?”  “You take it.”  “No, I’ll take it.”  “No, no, no, you take it and then I’ll come in on the bridge.”  “Oh, okay, all right, then with the next song you can take it.”  “Oh, okay, great.”  And there’s this respect and sometimes I wanna go and say “Okay, you guys, quit being so nice to one another and let’s play,” you know?  (Both laugh.)  Yeah, the vibe is very, very good, very cool, as you well know.  You were there.

Smitty:  Yes, and I was totally blown away by the camaraderie, respect, musicianship, the fun atmosphere, and having seen most of them play at their own respective gigs many times over, this experience in your studio captured a side that was truly remarkable on all levels.

TE:  Thank you!

Smitty:  When you really think about what happens in each jam session, when the musicians leave and they go back to their respective environments of making music, do you think they take something away that improves or enhances their musicianship?

TE:  You know, I don’t know.  You’d have to probably ask them that because I think most of them view the session as an unexpected trip to Tahiti, you know?

Smitty:  (Laughs) Yeah.

TE:  But after the session, they get right back into playing their gig. And they probably look back on it and say something like “Yeah, I had fun last week at that Studio Jams session and opened my eyes in playing with those other cats that I can’t even remember half their names, but it sure was fun.”  But they’re back to doing their gigs—because I tape it when they pass through town with their tour.

Smitty:  Right.

TE:  When you were there with Althea, I mean, earlier that day I did a session with Kirk Whalum and that was because Guitars & Saxes was passing through Philadelphia.

Smitty:  Right, and Jeff Golub was there, too.

TE:  Right. But after the gig he’s playing Guitars & Saxes and the next night he’s playing Guitars & Saxes, so, now, does it change them?  I don’t know.  I do know that there have been a couple of hookups after the fact that I’ve been real happy to say.  I mean, Steve Oliver was on a session and he ended up working with the percussionist in the session that I had for a leg of his tour.  They had just met at the session and so they hit it off and they hooked up, and some of the musicians, they’re always—at the end of the sessions, which are kinda neat because the sessions, we tape them during the day and oftentimes a lot of the players have to get out of there to go to sound check or travel to their nighttime gig, but they’re all grabbing their Blackberries and their cell phones and “Hey, gimme your number.”  “Okay.”  “Gimme your e-mail.”  “Okay.  Well, I’ll get back to you.”  And it’s a sharing of information all with one another and it’s kind of neat to see them.  That’s how I know that they enjoy it because the drummer is saying “Man, I really enjoyed your guitar playing.  Gimme your info.”

Smitty:  Yeah.  The reason why I asked that question is I can see myself in that setting and I would say “I love the way Pat Martino went off on that and I wanna do something like that or I wanna see if I can get him on my next project.”  And perhaps musicians themselves may have explored a territory that they had never been in themselves while in that jam session and say “Whoo, you know, I like that whole thing or direction and I think I’m gonna try something like that on this song I’ve been working on for my next record” or whatever and I see that as an enhancement of their musicianship in that what they’ve experienced in one of the Studio Jams sessions is an inspirational thump for them.

TE:  Yeah, maybe.

Smitty:  So, yeah, and just the mere fact of wanting to connect with the musicians that they had never met before, exchanging information, like you mentioned…..

TE:  Mm-hmm.

Smitty:  …..Says that there was something there that they had not experienced before that has significant substance. And I just wanna say, man, if there was ever a time where you wondered if this is worth it or do people really like it or do they get it, man, I wanna tell you right now, we get it and I appreciate what you’re doing with Studio Jams because it gives us a whole new fantastic dimension of these great artists and how they create music and how they communicate with one another musically.

TE:  Oh, thank you, Smitty.  I’ll tell you, one of the things that I do think about from time to time is that, I mean, I wear many hats for the shows.  Sometimes I’m a fan, sometimes I’m a producer, sometimes I’m directing it, whatever it is, and I study television a lot.  I watch a lot of television, good and bad television, because I just need to know what the landscape is, and so I look at shows that are on the air, even the hit shows, and I look at them and I say “Hey, that’s a neat show but it has a steady cast of characters and the idea is eventually gonna get stale.”  And actually a musician friend pointed out, he said “Well, what’s really neat about Studio Jams, Tom, is it will never get stale with the approach that you’re doing,” and I believe he’s right because the world is full of musicians from all styles, and as you pointed out earlier in this conversation, I’m capturing this once in a lifetime moments and the world’s full of once in a lifetime moments, and ten years from now it might be totally different—I mean, every show is a different cast of characters and it’s not straight ahead, it’s not Smooth Jazz, every show has a totally different vibe and actually the players are writing the script when they lay it down, so it’s an unscripted show, so it’ll never get stale in my mind, you know?  So as long as people keep watching, I’ll keep producing.

Smitty:  Yep, that’s reality at its best, my friend.

TE:  Yeah.

Smitty:  Well, Tom, I can’t thank you enough for what you’re doing and I just want to mention again the DVD.  It is called Best of Studio Jams Volume 1.  You can get it on the Web site at www.studiojams.com.  Tom, thanks again, my friend, and best of everything with what you’re doing and I applaud you for it.

TE:  Thank you, Smitty.  It’s always a pleasure connecting with you.  I look forward to when we can get together face to face again.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

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