Jazz Monthly.com Interview with Jeff golub

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Jeff Golub

Smitty: Hanging out with me at Jazz Monthly.Com is a cat with a whole lotta cool. He’s a musician with prevailing excellence. He’s about to release a fantastic new album. It’s called Grand Central. He is a unanimous fan favorite. Here to talk about this great record and the upcoming fantastic year for his career, please welcome the incredible and amazing Mr. Jeff Golub. Jeff, how ya doin’, my friend?

Jeff Golub (JG): All right! I don’t know what to say after an intro like that. Thank you.

Smitty: You’re so welcome, man. Well, I tell you, man, I’m loving this record and you’re stacking up some records now. Let’s see, this is, what, number ten?

JG: You know what? I actually do lose count and I have to add them up every time somebody asks that, but I think it’s nine because I would remember ten. (Both laugh.) So I think it is nine.

Smitty: Yeah, well, you nailed it on this one.

JG: Well, thanks. I’m really happy with the way it turned out and all around I’m excited about getting it out there and having people hear it.

Smitty: You really got back in the studio. You love that studio, don’t you?

JG: Well, I just love playing all around. I mean, I love performing live and I love recording new stuff. It’s all good. Actually, any time I have a guitar in my hands, it’s all good.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Yeah.

JG: I mean, at least for me it is. I don’t know about anybody else, but I would just play all the time and so if I’m not touring, yeah, I’m working on songs and trying to get something like this happening and getting in the studio and playing.

Smitty: Yeah, and this new record has got that signature bluesy kind of feel and the guitar just really sings on this one.

JG: Well, thank you. That was the one thing that I wanted to accomplish, like the one pre-set in my mind, is that I wanted to accentuate the aspects of my guitar playing that might be a little different from other Smooth Jazz artists as opposed to, like, not embracing them. I wanted to make more out of the fact that I like to bend strings, I like to use vibrato, I like to approach the guitar in more of a vocal aspect rather than the instrumental aspect, in a sense more of a blues approach to the guitar as opposed to kind of the jazzier Wes Montgomery approach. This is really much more of an Albert King approach.

Smitty: Yeah, man, and you used every inch of that neck this time, huh?

JG: (Laughs.) You got it! And this is a technical question only guitar players will probably get, but I played the Fender Stratocaster, which is what I usually play live, on this record, which does make me approach the guitar a little differently. The sound and the feel of it makes me dig in a little more.

Smitty: Yeah, well, you could feel that whole exploration-type feel to it and just really getting in there and letting the guitar do its thing too.

JG: Oh, that’s right. The guitar on its own really does have a lot to do with it. (Both laugh.) So that it kind of runs me, as I said, and that is the truth. The guitar kinda dictates how I’m gonna play whatever instrument is in my hands. Once it’s there, I don’t feel I have that much to do with it. It just kinda happens.

Smitty: Oh, yeah, but trust me, man, it’s like a photographer and his camera. A lotta times it’s the photographer behind the camera, but the camera sure does make a difference.

JG: Yes.

Smitty: Yeah, and you kicked out the first track with “Hello Betty.” Man, what a nice way to open that. I mean, it’s just got that uptempo vibe and then it just kinda slides into that bluesy thing. It’s got a lot of elements.

JG: Cool, yeah. I like that track. I mean, I might be prejudiced because I co-wrote it. (Both laugh.) Rick Braun and I wrote that track and I think it’s sort of classic to the style that people have become accustomed to hearing from me. It is like a funky upbeat tune with a lotta horns. You know, the horn arrangement has a lot to do with it, with the whole final product of the music.

Smitty: Yeah, and that’s the first track to radio, right?

JG: Yes, that’s the first single.

Smitty: Yeah, now, this one comes out, what, the first week of March?

JG: March 6.

Smitty: Yeah, man, that’ll be here before we know it, you know?

JG: Yes, yes, that’s why I’m glad we’re talking now.

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.

JG: All right. Well, no kidding. So you’re a Four Tops fan.

Smitty: Yeah, man. And didn’t Richard (Elliot) sound good?

JG: Yeah, Richard’s so great, you know, and as soon as he agreed to play that as a duet with me, I said “Yeah, we’re on.” (Both laugh.) Yeah, he’s got a sound I totally recognize.…

Smitty: Anywhere.

JG: Anywhere.

Smitty: Yeah, he’s really cool. And “Shockwave,” man, track six.

JG: Okay!

Smitty: Wow!

JG: That’s a different sound, I think, for me. That’s one of the few cases where I’ve played harmony with myself. I overdubbed another guitar playing the melody in harmony and that’s just something I don’t do typically. I don’t overdub typically. I just play what happens on the take with the guys and then leave it at that. I don’t like to put layered parts on there. But that melody, I thought, really sounded good as a two-guitar line and, see, that’s definitely some wild Latin funk craziness on that.

Smitty: Yeah, I was able to bust a move on that one.

JG: All right, good.

Smitty: Talk about the title of the project, and I know you’re a New Yorker and I know there’s a vibe there, but just talk about what moved you to use that title.

JG: Well, I mean, the song “Grand Central” was already titled before the album, and that song I called that ‘cause it’s exciting, it’s bustling, it’s like Grand Central Station. It’s like New York itself. New York’s an exciting place and always on the move. And when it came time to name the record, that just seemed like a logical choice because it was cut mostly in New York and it’s mostly this vibe of the guys that play here….the guys I know here that I play with and that are on this record are guys that are all about the music….in fact, everybody on this record, no matter where they live, they’re guys who are all about the music and nobody asked about the money before we started the project, nobody asked how long we’d be working on it, nobody asked anything. We just kind of, in order to keep this loose feel, everybody was just kind of, “Yeah, let’s make some music and we’ll see where that goes.” And that’s why that ends up happening in New York, that’s why I stay in New York, because there is a scene that happens here with musicians going out at night and sitting in at clubs ‘cause there’s so many clubs with music and everybody’s so close together here. There’s a lotta busman holiday things going on where people just go out and jam at night, and every musician I know in New York has that head. They’re not about asking for money. I walked into a club a couple weeks ago on the Lower East Side and Norah Jones was playing. She was setting up her own keyboard and doing an unannounced gig.

Smitty: Wow!

JG: Yeah, you know, eight million records later, she still does that. That’s just part of what New York is about, is that it’s not about the celebrity or the size of the venue or whatever it is. It’s about just getting out with your friends and making some music in an environment that’s fun, and I wanted to capture that spirit on this record, which I think I did, so I just thought Grand Central was a way of saying that without taking up two paragraphs that I just took up now.

Smitty: (Laughs.) No, I think you said it well and I think you captured it well on the record as well, man, ‘cause it’s a really kickin’ record. And there are bonus tracks on here?

JG: Well, the bonus tracks are somehow going to be available over the Internet.

Smitty: Cool.

JG: Something new. I mean, I don’t know what the marketing plan is with this, but I cut more material than I needed for this record and I really like all of it. I mean, it was tough to decide what would just be the Internet tracks. The ones that are on the Internet are very different for me. I encourage anyone to check that out ‘cause these were on the acoustic guitar, which I did a couple of tracks on the CD where I play acoustic guitar, but the ones on the Internet are probably even more so. In fact, the cover of “Let’s Stay Together,” the Al Green tune, is just I’m playing acoustic guitar, Lincoln Goines playing upright bass, Steve Ferrone on drums, and Roger Squitero on percussion. There’s no keyboards, there’s no overdubs, it’s really an intimate sounding thing, and that’s on purpose. I wanted it to be as small and intimate as possible and so I do encourage anyone who has the access to these tracks to check ‘em out.

Smitty: Very cool. You’ve got some other great players on here, Mr. Kirk Whalum and Mitch Foreman.

JG: Yes, I’m gonna be touring with Kirk this year.

Smitty: That’s right.

JG: ‘Cause the Guitars & Saxes tour is going to be Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, and Tim Bowman, and myself.

Smitty: Wow. That sounds like a great show.

JG: Yes, I’m really excited to see where this goes ‘cause these are all guys that can stand tall on their own, and I mean, we’ll set up a format for the show so that it’s there and it’s working, but I know there’ll be a lot of improvisation every night. I know it’ll be exciting to see where everybody takes it night after night and that’s what makes me excited about music, so I’m just really into this.

Smitty: Yeah, so you’ve got a busy year ahead of you with your solo album and Guitars & Saxes. You’ve gotta tighten the belt and get ready, you know?

JG: Yeah, yeah, it’s time to dig in, but that’s all right. I’m excited about doing it. It’s all good stuff, so I’m excited about it.

Smitty: All right. Jeff, this is a fantastic record. I really think that the public is going to enjoy, once again, a Jeff Golub project and I certainly wish you well with it. I’m diggin’ the record and having a good time playing it.

JG: Well, I’m really glad to hear that. Thank you. As I said, it’s a very personal record to me and I just love it when somebody else feels it too.

Smitty: Oh, yeah. Yeah, you will get a lot of noise with this one, that’s for sure, so you’re to be congratulated, man, on another successful project and thanks so much for making this one, and keep making great music, my friend.

JG: All right, well, please keep doing your thing with your great Web site and getting the word out there. I appreciate it, Smitty.

Smitty: Thank you! We’ll definitely keep doing it, my friend. All right, we’ve been talking with Narada Jazz recording artist, the electrifying Mr. Jeff Golub. He’s about to release his incredible new project. It is called Grand Central. It is eleven tracks of some fantastic grooves and melodies. You’ve got to check this one out. It is in stores March 6. Once again, Jeff, thanks and enjoy the year of 2007, my friend.

JG: All right, same to you.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.jeffgolub.com and www.narada.com and www.bluenote.com.