Jazz Monthly.com Interview with doc gibbs

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Doc Gibbs

Smitty: I have the distinct pleasure of welcoming to Jazz Monthly for the very first time someone that I have admired for many years. He beats to the drum of a different groove and let me tell ya, he has got the groove. His latest record is called Servin’ It Up! Hot! And he knows how to serve it up strong. Please welcome the incredible and amazing Mr. Doc Gibbs. Doc, how ya doin’, my friend?

Doc Gibbs (DG): Yes sir, yes sir, doing well.

Smitty: All right. Man, it’s great to finally talk with you and, you know, I have always admired your music, your solo projects as well as some of the great artists that you have worked with over the years.

DG: Right.

Smitty: You’re from Philly, right?

DG: Born and raised in Philly and began playing some years ago with a local band. Actually, I started out playing in the junior high school and high school bands and eventually found my way to a local band and we worked around the city for a while, and at some point I decided it was time to make the move to New York in terms of just playing with artists on that level, so I started going to New York and sitting in with different groups and different artists, and one thing led to another and I was playing with George Benson, and I would only get called to do gigs with George if it was close to Philly, like Baltimore or New York. So I was playing with George at Carnegie Hall and Grover Washington [Jr.] was a guest artist on the set with us.

Smitty: Wow.

DG: And so I knew Grover was gonna be performing in Philly a few weeks after that, so I asked him if I could come and sit in with him in Philly, and he said “Yeah, come on down.” So I went down and sat in with Grover and he said “Man, if I get an opportunity to hire you, I’m gonna call you.” And about six months later, “Mr. Magic” became a hit and he called me and the rest is kinda like history.

Smitty: (Laughs.) That’s a very cool story because those two artists are always true to their word.

DG: Yep.

Smitty: Some artists today will say “Hey, I’ll call you, man. I’d like to hire you.”

DG: Oh yeah.

Smitty: And you never hear from them again.

DG: Right, right.

Smitty: But with Grover it was totally different.

DG: Yeah, I mean, and I had gotten that before. “I’ll call you” and I was like “Yeah, okay.”

Smitty: (Laughs.)

DG: And at the same time I was playing with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Big Band on Monday nights at the Village Vanguard. I ended up doing two records with them. And right when they wanted me to go on the road with them, they asked me if I wanted to go to Europe, they’d like to have me tour with them when they went to Europe. And I was thinking, I said “Man, there’s about twenty guys in this Big Band. I don’t think I’m gonna be making too much money, but I don’t have nothing else going.” And right at that moment it seemed like Grover called and asked me if I wanted to go out for a weekend with him, and we were gonna go to like maybe Chicago, Cincinnati and New Orleans. I said “I better go with Grover ‘cause I think it’s a better opportunity for me.” (Both laugh.)

Smitty: What a move.

DG: He did say he was gonna call me back.

Smitty: Yeah, but what a move that was, I mean, because you could’ve seen all of Europe on a tour.

DG: Right.

Smitty: And then there’s Grover. And, man, what a nice decision you made to go with Grover, you know?

DG: Oh yeah, well, I enjoyed playing with Thad and Mel because they gave me the opportunity to record, which was the very first time I recorded on a record, and that was around in ’73 or ’74, and around that time recordings were still being done with everybody in the studio at the same time. So it was great being able to experience that and experience the Big Band thing, but then the opportunity of going out with Grover was very intriguing also because it was a smaller group and I didn’t know just what to expect, but once I started working with Grover, because after that weekend he said to me “So how do you like the gig?” I said “Man, it was great.” And he said “Well, if you want this gig, it’s yours.” I was like “Man! You mean every time you go out, I go with you?” He said “That’s right, man.” (Both laugh.) So I was like floored because, like I said, with George it was only if he was in the area did he asked me to sit in so I wasn’t really fully in the band.

Smitty: Right.

DG: And before that I had worked with Freddie Hubbard and it was the same kind of situation. If he was in Philly or Connecticut or New York, then I did the gig with him, and I said “Man, this can’t be where it’s gonna end up with me just taking these kinda like part-time gigs.” So when Grover said to me “Well, man, the gig is yours,” I was like “Man, you mean it’s not part-time or it’s not just when we’re close to Philly?” So yeah, that’s where it started and so Grover was like a big mentor for me and playing in his band was a great opportunity because I learned a lot about the business from working with Grover.

Smitty: He was such a special guy.

DG: Oh, he was. Grover was very special. And his attitude was like “Man, I’m playing my heart out as if it’s the last time.”

Smitty: Wow.

DG: And that was always his thing. Just give it your all because you don’t know if it’s the last time or if you’ll get another chance to do it again.

Smitty: Yes.

DG: Ironically, that’s how he passed away.

Smitty: Right, and we still remember him for that.

DG: That’s right.

Smitty: So tell me, Doc. Not everybody is a percussionist. We’ve got a million sax players, I love ‘em dearly, but I’m just saying there are a lot. How did you wind up with—which is some of my favorite instruments—the percussion? How did you wind up with the percussion? Because kids coming up, they get a clarinet, they get a saxophone or they move them in front of the piano.

DG: Right.

Smitty: How did you find your way to the percussion, my friend?

DG: Well, it started probably when I was about 11 or 12. I took snare drum lessons at a high school on Saturdays and that kinda sparked my interest in drums, and then the other thing was in my neighborhood there used to be an organization called The Elks, and they used to have a parade right through my neighborhood every year and there would be marching and drumming and steppers and people in cars and convertible cars and whatnot, and I always remember sitting on the porch when I was little and I couldn’t even come off the porch, and I remember hearing the drums in the distance and they’d get closer and closer and a little louder, and then after a while you start to feel the bass drum in your stomach and it’s getting closer and then now you can see it up the street about a block and a half away and it’s louder, and next thing you know it’s coming down the street and, man, now it’s in front of you and then it’s going away. So those are my early memories of the drums and those were the first things that really influenced me in terms of pursuing the drum, and I always wanted to play the snare drum or the set drums.

Throughout junior high school and high school, I was in the band or the orchestra and when I first got in the orchestra in junior high school, thinking that I was gonna play the set or the snare drum or some drums with sticks, the musical director said “Look, we got enough drummers, but I need somebody to play the triangle, and this is a very important part and you’re not playing it throughout the whole song.” “You’re gonna have to count the measures and you’re only playing like maybe four measures or whatever, but you’re gonna stand up and you’re gonna play that and it’s gonna be very effective in terms of being a part of this music.” And so I didn’t wanna do it because I said “Man, my parents are gonna come and see me playing a triangle.”

Smitty: (Laughs.)

DG: And I’m telling them “Yeah, I’m the drummer, I got sticks.” So they talked me into doing it and I said “All right” and that was my first introduction into percussion because there’s a certain way you have to hold that triangle so that when you hit it it doesn’t spin around.

Smitty: Right.

DG: Especially if you gotta hit it and it’s gotta be in time and you gotta hit it like maybe two, three, four or five times. So there is a little technique into playing it and that was my early introduction. Once I graduated from high school, my parents couldn’t afford a set of drums, so I went out and bought a conga drum and I started just playing some congas and trying to just find whatever I could in terms of hand drums and try to latch onto that, and I guess after about a year or two, I started to realize that there were a lotta drummers that lived in my neighborhood, and also I realized that Philadelphia is like a hotbed for hand drummers.

Smitty: Wow.

DG: So I was able to connect with some of the masters, the older guys that lived in the city who put me down with playing certain instruments, not just the conga drums, but the shakeree and the pandero that comes from Brazil, and a few other instruments, and then I realized once I heard Aierto that I wanted to be a percussionist because I had played in a few bands before hearing Aierto and I was playing congas, but I still was kinda interested in some of this other percussion stuff but didn’t really know how I could fit it into the music I was playing. So once I heard Aierto and saw him playing with Miles [Davis], I said “Man, that’s what I gotta do.” So that might’ve been like around 1970-71, then I immediately started going to New York and going to a spot called the Drummer Percussion Center or something like that at 50th and 8th Avenue, and I would just go there and buy instruments even if I couldn’t play them. I would buy these percussion instruments and then go down to 42nd Street and go into the subway and buy the records ‘cause there was an international record store in the subway at 42nd and Broadway, and they sold music from Cuba, from Haiti, from Brazil, from different countries in Africa.

Smitty: Yeah, man.

DG: So I started buying those records and buying the instruments and then coming home and then just trying to work it out. And if somebody came in town who was a percussionist or played a particular instrument, then I would get with that person. Like I bought a berimbau, which is an instrument that comes from Brazil, and I bought the record and I could see how the guy was holding it and it’s a very difficult instrument to play ‘cause all the pressure for holding it is on the little finger because it’s like a bow and it has a gourd attached to it, so your one hand is holding the bow with the gourd attached to it and you gotta be able to move the gourd off and on your stomach to create a wah-wah-wah kind of sound.

Smitty: Yeah.

DG: And it’s definitely got some technique to it and I couldn’t figure it out from looking at the picture on the record and hearing it, and finally a guy came to Philadelphia. He was playing with a pianist from Brazil named Egberto Gismonti and he had a percussionist, a drummer, with him named Roberto Silva, and I had heard about him and so I took my berimbau down to see him at his hotel. He had his berimbau. I didn’t speak no Portuguese, he spoke no English, but we hung out. He showed me how to play the instrument.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Wow, music breaks down so many barriers on an international scale.

DG: True. So those are some of the kinds of things that I had to do because there were only a few people that I could look at or listen to and try to emulate in terms of developing my talent. I really loved Mongo Santamaria and he performed in Philly three or four times a year, so whenever he came to Philly I’d go see him.

Smitty: Yeah, Ralph McDonald.

DG: Ralph McDonald. I met Ralph through Grover. I used to hang out with Grover a lot and so he was going to Rudy Van Gelder’s studio to record an album with Bob James.

Smitty: Yup.

DG: And when we got there, once again everybody was there recording at the same time, and it was Eric Gale on guitar.

Smitty: Yeah, man!

DG: Bob James.

Smitty: Gary King.

DG: Hubert Laws, Gary King, I think Harvey Mason, and Ralph McDonald and maybe Richard Tee might’ve been there also.

Smitty: Hey.

DG: And they recorded “Westchester Lady.”

Smitty: Oh! That was my first ever jazz song.

DG: Really?

Smitty: Yeah, first ever. In fact, I didn’t know what jazz was until a friend gave me a Bob James album, and the first cut I heard on that album back in the vinyl days—

DG: Right.

Smitty: Yeah, was “Westchester Lady” and I just fell back in a chair and said “Where has this music been all my life?” (Both laugh.)

DG: Yeah, well, I went on that session—that was when I met Ralph, and Ralph took me over to Latin percussion and got me an endorsement and sorta took me under his wing, and he had a studio in Manhattan and he said “Man, you can come visit any time.”

Smitty: Oh, wow, how cool.

DG: So I would go and hang out at the studio and just watch him record people and watch him recording with people, and then he was really hot back in the 70s with jingles and commercials and whatnot, so he would take me on some of his record dates and I would just sit and watch how he did it, so I was getting all of this education on how to really be a percussionist because back then there were no universities or colleges teaching percussion and the closest thing to that was ethnomusicology, and even with studying that, that didn’t really teach you how to play instruments, so learning how to play percussion—this was back in the 70s—I had to kinda go to see the masters who played in the streets, and so that’s where I got my graduate studies.

Smitty: Yes sir. (Laughs.)

DG: On the streets.

Smitty: Yeah, man. Along with Ralph McDonald and Mongo Santamaria, you’ve also worked with other legendary musicians and artists, and I can think of Nancy Wilson, who is just such a classy, talented lady.

DG: Right.

Smitty: And Al Jarreau.

DG: Right.

Smitty: One of the best in the business.

DG: Oh yeah.

Smitty: Talk about taking all of that experience of you being with these great people in their studio and then going out and doing a date(s) with them. What’s that like?

DG: Oh, well, it’s an incredible experience because, number one, back in the 70s and 80s they used to have a thing that if you recorded—there were studio musicians and there were musicians who were great live, and if you played live, then they used to say “Well, you can’t be that good in the studio because what you do in the studio, you gotta be able to hold it back and not play so much, and live people aren’t really zeroing in on whether or not you’re playing too much. They’re being affected by what you’re playing.”

So I was fortunate being able to sit under Ralph and understand how to really manipulate percussion in the studio because around that time was when they started doing multi-tracking and doing overdubs, so a lotta times the artist isn’t even there and the rest of the band isn’t even there when you go in to record. You’re just recording your tracks for the tracks that are already there. So I used to watch Ralph because there would be limited tracks and I would watch to see how he would have to use two or three different instruments in one track. And so I learned a lot in terms of playing in the studio. And then playing with Grover and some of the other folks early on, I got a great opportunity with how to play live, and so I’ve had the best of both worlds-being able to play in the studio and record for people and to go out and play live.

Smitty: Yes.

DG: I mean, I’ve had an incredible career in the music business ‘cause I never really worked a 9 to 5 once I started doing this thing, and it’s been an adventure every step of the way ‘cause contrary to what people may think, it’s up and down.

Smitty: Right, right.

DG: And so I’ve been very fortunate and blessed that I’ve been able to stay up in it and still be active.

Smitty: Well, you’ve always been the artist that as soon as someone sees you play, they want you. (Both laugh.) There’s just something about when you hear the Doc Gibbs sound.

DG: Yeah, well, I always tell people I like to listen to a song and then figure out what instruments I think will work great in that song. So I might have a basement full of instruments, but I sure can’t bring everything ‘cause everything ain’t gonna fit on one or two songs. I bring what I need.

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.

Smitty: Oh, several styles.

DG: So these other people, the earlier folks, they always kept it in the Cajun mode even if he was cooking Chinese. (Both laugh.) So they said “Well, we wanna try some other musicians,” so once again our friend came back and she mentioned to my wife, she said “I gotta look for some other musicians and I don’t know what instrumentation.” She said “Well, why don’t you try Doc?” And she said “Well, what does Doc do?” (Both laugh.) “He plays percussion. What do you think?” So she said “Well, all right, we’ll give him a try. Have him come up.” And so I got a piano player and we went up and I think we taped three shows, because at that time they were doing three shows, and they sorta liked what I did and they said “Well, we want you to come back next month.”

I went back the second month and played again, and by this time Emeril’s like “Hey, Doc, Randy, are you here tomorrow?” I said “Nah, they just got me in for one day.” So that went on for about six months and they taped every other month, I think, and so at the end of the six months, my friend, she got a Cable Ace Award for the show and then she left the show, and then a new producer came in and she wanted to see all the musicians, so they did a show with all of the musicians who had been on the show previously. They were all in one show. And by then he was calling me by name and making reference to me and saying “Hey, what do you think about that, Doc?” I mean, even though there were seven or eight other musicians there, I was the only one that he was referring to. And so after that show, that executive producer said “I think you’re the one for this gig ‘cause he knows you and you’re playing different sounds” and so that’s how it started back in 1998.

Smitty: You know what? You just got the vibe, man.

DG: Well, you know how it is, sometimes it’s about being in the right place at the right time?

Smitty: Yeah.

DG: So all the stars were lined up right and everything was in the right place and my blessing came through.

Smitty: And I think that executive producer was right because, man, I love the culinary arts to start with.

DG: Right.

Smitty: And I really think Emeril had the number one show, not for any one reason; it’s a combination of things. The man is so funny and he feels the vibe. I’ve watched it. He feels what you’re doing in connection with what he’s doing.

DG: Right.

Smitty: And he incorporates that into what he’s doing.

DG: Mm-hmm.

Smitty: And I think that’s a perfect fit and the music just totally complements the cooking.

DG: Right. Well, food and music go together anyway.

Smitty: Yes indeed.

DG: A lot of musicians cook, a lot of musicians like to cook and have music going, and a lot of chefs like to cook and have music going too.

Smitty: Yeah, and their fans too..

DG: It’s a nice marriage and with us connecting like that, I think that’s what made the show so special, and that was the fact that you had a guy who cooks and talks like the guy next door but he cooks incredibly, incredibly well, and then you add music to that.

Smitty: Well, it’s like when we barbecue and we take the radio outside with us, you know?

DG: Yeah, that’s right, that’s right, that’s right. As they say, it’s a great pairing.

Smitty: Yes indeed. Well, I love what you do. The other thing is you create so much happiness on that show because whenever the camera cuts to you, Doc’s smiling and jamming, you know what I’m saying?

DG: Yeah. I like to have a good time and I definitely like people to see that I’m having fun. I used to look at some musicians playing on stage and they would look like they were angry or they weren’t that interested in being there but, man, I like to connect with people when I’m playing. Because I want you to look at what I’m doing and what’s happening musically and hear what’s going on and how the musicians are interacting and how we’re adding spice to the music. And I want people to be affected by the percussion and realize that this is a great instrument that cannot disappear because we’ve had other instruments that were played in jazz that you don’t hear anymore like the trombone. You very rarely hear anybody playing a trombone unless you get into some really deep heavy jazz.

Smitty: Yeah, that’s a sweet instrument. Well, Doc, I want to first of all congratulate you on just an incredible career.

DG: Thank you.

Smitty: Yes indeed. And for what you’re doing now and I would say, brotha, keep doing your thing, keep your flava strong, and just keep doing what you do because you’re touching a lot of people and sometimes you don’t even know it.

DG: Right, it’s the truth ‘cause being on TV, I have no idea how many people I reach each night that turn on that show and who are affected by the music and the whole ambience and vibe of the show ‘cause the show goes out to I don’t even know how many countries and countries that have access to the Internet, I mean, to the cable. If they carry the Food Network, then they’re getting us, and so I’ve been told that we’ve been seen in Guam, we’re seen in New Zealand, we’re seen throughout the Caribbean. So I don’t know how many people we reach a night and I don’t even know how many people I’m affecting, but I’m just glad to know that we’re reaching people and so the next move now is to be able to go to these places with my band and actually do some performing so people can come and experience it live and in living color.

Smitty: Right, and I hope you do and I wanna be there.

DG: Yeah, we gotta go there too. That sounds good. We’ll come during basketball season so we can go for the three games while we’re there.

Smitty: That’s what I’m talking about. Doc, man, I wanna thank you so much for spending so much time with me and having such a great conversation about your career, your music, and all the other wonderful things you’re doing to help people to really enjoy life and really have a wonderful time with this great music.

DG: Great. Thank you.

Smitty: All right. Give me your website.

DG: That’s www.docgibbstv.com and you can go to the My Space page also. I have a My Space Doc Gibbs and a My Space Doc Gibbs and Picante, which is the band that was on the Emeril Live show, and I’m in the process, actually, of putting a new band together and that band is called Infusion.

Smitty: Oh, cool.

DG: And you’ll be hearing some stuff about us. We’re gonna be hopefully going into the studio soon and recording some music and that’ll be up on the My Space page in a little bit.

Smitty: Very nice.

DG: So I’m just moving it forward to a more Latin jazz oriented vibe and we’re going for it.

Smitty: All right, well, hey, hopefully when that music gets out there you’ll come back and tell us a little bit about it.

DG: Sounds good.

Smitty: All right, my friend.

DG: All right, Smitty. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.docgibbstv.com and www.myspace.com/docgibbs