Smitty: Yeah, absolutely.
DG: So it’s been an adventure and like with Erykah Badu, I wanted to work with her once I heard her music. And I knew some people who were associated with her ‘cause she used to come to Philly a lot, and I don’t remember how—I think I ended up working with a guy who was producing a couple of songs on her record. Once she heard me playing and saw the instruments that I brought, she said “I gotta take you on the road with me.” And I said “Well, okay,” and that was in ’02, and so I went out on the road with her for a couple of months. I just couldn’t continue doing it because the road was so different from what I knew it to be, and the last time I was on the road was in 1995, when I toured with Anita Baker.
Smitty: Yes.
DG: So from ’95 to ’02, I hadn’t been on the road and a lot had changed in that time.
Smitty: Plus you were working with a new album at that time too, right?
DG: Well, actually, I had started working on my record around ’02 and I think it may have come out in ’03 or ’04, something like that, but during that time I was already doing the Emeril Live show.
Smitty: Yes, and that’s what pulled me into that show initially. We will talk more about that in a minute.
DG: Oh yeah, I know you’ll be swinging around to that in a moment, right?
Smitty: Oh yeah, you know we must talk about that. Now, I know this story, but for your fans and new fans out there, please tell the story of how you got the name Doc.
DG: Oh, okay. Well, rumor has it (both laugh), actually, we were working on a record with Grover called Live at the Bijou.
Smitty: Yes sir, great record!
DG: And the first night we went down there to start working on it and recording, and Grover was real sick, and he was so sick that he could only get up on the stage and play the heads of the song and then he didn’t even feel like soloing; he let everybody else solo. So, of course, that didn’t make for a good recording night and I told Grover, I said “Man, I’m into herbal teas and using natural remedies to cure problems with your health. I’m gonna make you up a concoction of different herbal teas and see if it helps.” And I said “Man, drink it every four hours.” I said “It’s gonna be nasty, man, but this is expected.” I told his wife to mix it up, what to do, and so the next day I went by his house to pick him up and he was like “Man, I’m like it’s like a new day. Man, that tea was nasty but, man, it helped me out. Man, you’re the Doctor!”
So that night on the stage in the recording, he’s introducing the band and he said “In Philly we have two doctors: Dr. J and Dr. Gibbs.” And that’s how that name came about and that stuck with me ever since, and so people used to come to the shows with Grover and they used to say “Man, you gotta check out the Doctor. Watch him. He’s operating with all those different instruments.” So, man, I would take it out. Sometimes I’d wear a stethoscope around my neck or I’d wear some scrubs. Man, I took it out after that. (Both laugh.)
Smitty: That was pretty slick, though.
DG: Yeah, and then I always had all these different percussion instruments and so even today when I’m performing, people have to watch to see, well, what am I gonna pull out next ‘cause I’m not using the same thing all the time. You might hear some strange sound and it’s me.
Smitty: Like a skilled surgeon, huh?
DG: Yup.
Smitty: That is so cool. Now, are you still a member of NARAS?
DG: Yup.
Smitty: One of the things that I want to point out here, you just told this great story about how you got the name Doc, but I think that it speaks highly of the person you are and that you wanna help people.
DG: Oh yeah.
Smitty: And just volunteering to help. You see a man in need and you say “Hey, I got some herbal teas here.”
DG: Right, right, right. Well, as a percussionist and a hand drummer, we have to be very personable people because centuries ago the drum was the main source of communication.
Smitty: Yes.
DG: So even today we have to be communicators of positive information and positive energy.
Smitty: Yes, I agree.
DG: And so I’m always thinking in terms of where I present my percussion or my music, that there’s also—we can also talk about culture and we can also talk about where the instruments are from, and there’s a history with the instruments. I like to tell people that the drum is our vehicle to our culture because there’s no other instrument that you can play that’ll take you back to Africa.
Smitty: That’s right.
DG: Unless it’s Coltrane playing something, you know? But most instruments don’t make you go into your cultures. They don’t take you back into having to know a little something about your culture, because all drums are different.
Smitty: That’s true.
DG: The Conga drum comes from Cuba, the Djembe comes from Guinea, and they’re both played differently and there’s different rhythms that are played on each drum. So I gotta be able to talk about that if I’m gonna play this drum. I can’t just sit down and start playing and you come up and say “Man, what kind of drum is that?” and I don’t know the name of the drum. “Well, man, it’s just a drum.” “Well, dude, can you give me a little bit more?”
So along with learning the instruments, I had to learn the culture, and I do a lot of assembly programs and workshops and residencies with students educating and demonstrating just the importance of the drum and percussion instruments, especially in the music today, and now with the addition of electronics and everybody having access to electronic sounds, percussionists have become like a dinosaur in today’s music. Most people don’t even think of having a percussionist, the necessity of having to have a percussionist and what we can add to the music, and people just tend to think, well, if the money’s tight, the first one to go is the percussionist.
Smitty: Yeah, but you know what, Doc? When those few artists do include the percussionist in the band, it’s a beautiful thing, man.
DG: Oh yeah, it takes the music to another level, especially if the percussionist knows what he’s doing and understands the concept of percussion. And there’s only a few cats out there that are really doing it and it’s only a few of us that are working, so we’re keeping it alive and we’re spreading the word. The other good thing in terms of the way the music business is making a shift is now there are more independent bands and a lot of those independent bands are coming through with different percussionists and hand drummers, and so it’s necessary to let them in the door again. So we’re on a mission to spread the word.
Smitty: Yes, and please keep doing it, my friend.
DG: Yes sir, yes sir, yes sir.
Smitty: So now, speaking of getting in the door, I’m assuming that Emeril Lagasse just spotted you playing somewhere and said “Hey, man, you got to come on the set and we got to cook and make some sounds.” (Both laugh.)
DG: Not quite, not quite. Actually, a good friend of my wife, she was the original executive producer on that show, and she was telling us about this show that she was gonna start doing ‘cause she’s from L.A., and she said “I wanna add music to this cooking show,” and she asked me if I knew any guitar players, so I gave her a couple of guitars and the show started taping, and I never really watched it and never really talked to her about it, and I saw it a few times just flipping the channels, but after about six months—‘cause she had gotten a guitar player and a bass player and a fiddle player—but after about six months they realized that the music wasn’t really—it wasn’t indicative of his cooking. The music was more Cajun sounding. Although he cooked Cajun, he also cooked other styles.
