Smitty: Right, yeah.
KF: So it’s been great to be able to meet certain people and then at these different festivals. I mean, oh my gosh. (Both laugh.) I mean, all the different artists that I’ve met that I’ve been fans of for such a long time.
Smitty: Very cool.
KF: I’m trying to even think back to when I—oh, I know when it was. It was the [Tom] Joyner Cruise that Najee and I really hit it off and started working together and made a pact that “Okay, we’re lifelong friends.” We ended up performing together on the cruise ship and then when I did my smooth jazz spoken word album, he was the first person to say “Yes, I’ll do a piece on there with you,” and it’s been great, and now I’m doing a thing with Kirk Whalum on his new CD (Roundtrip). I mean, it’s just, you know, wow!
Smitty: Yeah. Are you having fun or what?
KF: I’m having a ball, believe me, I am absolutely having a ball. I’m loving the ability to express myself in this way and marry two of my passions in different ways. I love that I’m able to marry my passion for directing and producing with my passion for music and especially jazz, and then to be able to marry my love for poetry and spoken word.
Smitty: Yes.
KF: Smooth jazz and with straight ahead jazz, then like I said, I’m loving living in the moment.
Smitty: Yes. Did you ever play an instrument when you were young? I mean, much younger? (Both laugh.)
KF: Bless your heart, bless your heart. I’ve tried. I don’t have, unfortunately, the patience to practice.
Smitty: Yeah.
KF: And I know that’s part of why I have such reverence for musicians and athletes because there’s a certain discipline that comes with that, you know?
Smitty: Yes, I know.
KF: I’m one of those people where I want to know how to do it right away.
Smitty: I totally understand that.
KF: So I’ve taken piano lessons, I’ve taken guitar lessons, I’ve taken drum lessons, and I can’t play anything, which is why I was so excited when the computer companies started making software where you can arrange and produce music without ever picking up an instrument.
Smitty: Yeah.
KF: Oh, baby, that is my thing.
Smitty: (Laughs.)
KF: I am loving that because I’m able to arrange—because I do have a bit of an ear and I can arrange, but I don’t play.
Smitty: Yeah, but that love and appreciation, like you said, is there because sometimes as a fan you truly enjoy the music but you really don’t fully grasp what incredible musicians these guys and girls are until you try to do it yourself.
KF: Absolutely. That’s right, that’s right.
Smitty: I can’t sing. I’ve tried to sing some of Luther’s songs and it’s like forget it! (Both laugh.) You know?
KF: Uh-huh, I do.
Smitty: I can truly appreciate that, yeah. So what about music videos? Ever thought about doing one of those any time in the future?
KF: Absolutely. I mean, doing the piece, the short bit with T. S. for the black history month campaign, I mean, that was exciting. Of course, we all know that the marketplace isn’t really there for jazz and smooth jazz music videos. Like they were, let’s say, in the eighties or something like that. Najee and I have talked a couple of times and thought “Oh, this would be a great video. We can do this, that and the other,” and then it’s like either there’s no budget for it or there’s no outlet for it.
Smitty: Right.
KF: So, again, I think the work that I end up doing on a network like BETJ, I’m able to do some of that when I was directing the concerts where the artists are performing. Najee and I did do a lot of that kind of music video stuff with the South Africa project that I created with him. We plan on releasing “Najee: Sax in South Africa”. We plan on releasing that eventually as a DVD and doing it as a series, so the next time he goes out of the country to some place that would be very interesting from a visual standpoint and a travel standpoint, not solely in terms of Najee, his concert live, that kind of thing. We plan on doing a series of those.
Smitty: Yeah, he’s an incredible player. And you also did something that I talked to Najee about. It was his liner notes on his latest CD.
KF: (Laughs.) Well, actually, the last three, but yes.
Smitty: Talk about how you two got into doing that.
KF: Well, basically he and Fareed, his brother, who’s also his manager, we would pow- wow quite a bit about just expanding a lot of what he does into more of taking advantage of the multimedia opportunities because nowadays, and especially for cats like me and Najee and some people that have been in the game for a long time, you’ve gotta know how to reinvent yourself.
Smitty: Absolutely, thank you.
KF: You absolutely have to reinvent yourself and part of that is not just about your look or your sound and the projects but also the outlets that you choose to keep putting yourself in and discovering new outlets.
Smitty: Yes.
KF: And so that being said, they kept saying “Kim, we have a great respect for you with what you do in television” and the little bit that I’ve started to do on the Internet, DVD’s, you know, I thought it was almost blasphemous that here you had an artist like Najee who had not had a DVD.
Smitty: Thank you.
KF: Twenty years in the business. Are you kidding me? I thought I’d hit the roof when I found that out, you know?
Smitty: (Laughs.)
KF: That he had not done a live recording anywhere. I’m like “Dude, just do live from your garage.” So the three of us were pow-wowing about, “Okay, in the name of reinventing ourselves, how do we service the fans that we’re blessed to have, keep getting the new fans, take advantage of the different mediums that are out there,” and so that’s how the working relationship came about. That’s how his South Africa project came up. My doing his art direction on the last few album covers is because I said “Listen, you always give your audience something new and wonderful with your sound, but now take that and expand that concept to your image, to the concept of your visual image.”
Smitty: Yes.
KF: “So that it’s not just about when you’re performing in concert but also the visual.” So the whole idea of being able to take that concept of how do I not only reinvent myself but keep it fresh, keep it interesting, because he has that, like any artist does in regards to whatever they’re known for. For him it’s his sound and his music, and for people it might be their movies, for some people it may be their writing and their books, but the main thing is “Okay, let’s go ahead and make that happen.”
Smitty: And I think you both together accomplished that with this project.
KF: Thank you. I love how all of this came about (this interview) because you were looking at the liner notes on Najee’s new CD and saw my name and went “Nah.”
Smitty: I know. (Both laugh.) I said “Nah, it can’t be.”
KF: Mm-hmm, exactly, and thank you for approving of my choice to shoot his whole artistic vibe for this new CD in black and white.
Smitty: It’s so cool.
KF: Thank you for giving that concept the okay.
Smitty: You are so welcome. I was so captivated by it. I thought that was a wonderful concept.
KF: Thank you very much. I was excited when he said yes to it and the whole idea of giving him a little bit of an edge, and sometimes with smooth jazz we get so used to feeling more like, kinda soft. I wanted to be able to give him a little bit of an edge and because he was doing some different things, again, with his sound that I think the fans are gonna really, really enjoy it.
