Smitty: (Laughs.) Absolutely. So you must really be excited because, I tell ya, listening to your prior projects and there’s always that continuance, but then you can feel the elevation of your musicianship with this one as well.
JG: Well, thank you. I do try to make every record a little bit different. I don’t see much reason to, like, remake the same thing. I always have to change it a little bit. There are certain things that’ll always be inherent in my style and what I like in music will always be a part of it, but like the last record, Temptation, which I did with Paul Brown producing, had a quite a different approach to it than this record, and that’s not to say it’s better or worse. I just wanted to really get back to an organic approach, which is what I think I do the best. I think that’s to get in the studio with a group of musicians that I really respect and I dig them and their input, and just throw the ideas out there and see what they throw back, not like dictate to people what to play, but see where we go as a unit as opposed to what my vision is.
Sometimes it’s got nothing to do with what I thought the song would sound like when I wrote it, once I get everybody’s input, and I love that. I mean, that’s part of what jazz is, in my opinion. I don’t have a whole lot of criteria as to what makes jazz, but the only thing is that I do think there needs to be some improvisation and what I like about jazz personally is the interaction between the musicians, and I like a group improvisation. I don’t really like to have it be just the band setting me up to solo.
Because you can hear if I play something, the guys pick up on it and we go off in another direction or if somebody else plays something, that’s what I like. I like to have the band really hypersensitive to listening to each other and taking it to different places and new heights and just musical places that weren’t planned on.
Smitty: Yeah, and that’s the beauty of a sweet jam session in the studio, you know?
JG: Exactly, yeah.
Smitty: How cool was it to do the title track (“Grand Central”)? I could just feel you having a great time, the band was having a great time. That was such a fitting title track because it’s just got such a groove.
JG: Well, great. Thank you. Yes, most of this record and that track were cut pretty much live in the studio here in New York. We went in the studio and it was very much a jam. We added percussion and horns on top of the original thing, but that track in particular, if you listen like to the vamp out on that, everybody’s going for it. It’s not just me and a track. Shaun Pelton is playing drums, he’s playing some really exciting stuff, and the bass, and it is just a group jam. I mean, I just write the songs and set ‘em up and see where they go, and those days that we cut this record we really caught it, I thought. It felt like we were all there together and we really caught it all….we were all so synergistic!
JG: Yes. And actually the song on here that for me is the essence of what I wanted to get out of this record is the Sly Stone track cover “If You Want Me To Stay.”
Smitty: Oh yeah.
JG: Only because what happened is we went in the studio and cut for a couple of days and everything was going great, and that doesn’t always happen, but we were really making great progress and we were in synch and we accomplished everything that I had written. (Both laugh.) And everybody was still kinda up for playing, everybody was still in a good mood and not beat, we weren’t worn out, so without any arrangement at all, I said “You guys know this tune?” (Both laugh.) And I came up with a bridge. I said “Well, let’s go to the fore chorus to the bridge” and I didn’t have any arrangement written out, anything down, I just said “Okay, I’ll just lift up my hand when it’s time to go to the bridge or time to go to these different sections. Just follow me.” And we did it all by visual cues of an arrangement that didn’t exist, and that really is the second take. The first take, I don’t know, that first take was good, we could’ve kept that, but this was the second time we played through that song, period.
Smitty: Wow. That’s when you know that you’ve got something special.
JG: That, to me, had the real loose improvised vibe that I wanted to capture.
Smitty: Yeah, that collaborative spirit.
JG: Yeah, the only prerequisite that was there when I asked the band if they were up for hanging around and playing another track was that the drummer, Shaun Pelton, asked if they could deliver Irish whiskey to the studio, then we would be recording another track. (Both laugh.) I said “Heck yeah, we can deliver it.” So that’s definitely just a late night hang and jam on that one.
Smitty: Oh, man, that’s so cool to hang like that and then kinda sit back and enjoy the night.
JG: Yeah.
Smitty: Yeah, that’s too cool.
JG: Yeah, when you’ve accomplished everything you’ve set out to and then anything after that is just gravy, that’s a nice thing.
Smitty: Yeah, and Irish whiskey’s cool.
JG: Yeah, that helps the vibe.
Smitty: (Laughs.) Great incentive. All right, and track nine, “Ain’t No Woman Like the One I Got.” Man, I was all in that song.
