Smitty: Yeah, I love that, man, absolutely and that’s so important.
EG: It’s not really so much the reward of like did it go to number one or not, not that that’s not really nice to have happen. (Both laugh.) I’m not a fool to think that I don’t really enjoy that and that kind of stuff, but you know what I mean. It is very hard work and I think especially over the last several years how the Internet and downloading and file swapping and all these lost revenues to the music business, it really keeps an artist on their toes to really not rest on their laurels.
Smitty: You got that right.
EG: You really have to dig deep and dig deeper each time, and I think that the listeners, the public, the people that are still buying CD’s, are demanding that, so that’s a real pressure.
Smitty: Yeah, well, let me add to that, your pressure, and take a little off at the same time.
EG: (Laughs.)
Smitty: I think you’re giving them what they’re asking for.
EG: Oh, I appreciate that. I hope so. I do try to listen and not stay in a bubble, and hopefully anticipate where people’s moods are. I think that was one of the things, again, you asked why HD, I think that was one of the reasons why. We do live in 2007 right now. It’s something that’s happening right now with all the HD and the nice stereos and things that people are getting, and televisions or whatever, and it just made sense to do something that was more current.
Smitty: Yeah, well, that’s a very cool thing, man, I tell ya. Well, you worked again with your buddy Paul Brown, the producer, and talk a little bit about the experience of working with Paul because Paul is an incredible producer and I think somewhere he’s got “Grammy” tattooed on him, you know? (Both laugh.)
EG: Actually, I started this project without Paul. I went in and cut the basic tracks, put together the rhythm section, spent a lotta time putting together the rhythm section to play the songs that I had written, and we went in and cut the tracks and I was getting ready to actually cut my saxophone, do the overdubs after the basic tracks were done, and I was cutting it myself and it just didn’t feel right with him not being there, and so I actually went to Paul after we had most of the basic tracks done to this and I just wanted to be with him for doing the sax, and I think there’s no one better at producing that and, of course, he gets his hands involved with the arrangements and all that stuff as well too but, I mean, I think as far as making the sax sound good, there’s no one else like him.
Smitty: Yeah.
EG: He’s a guitar player, so go figure that stuff.
Smitty: I know. (Laughs.) But he’s got it goin’ on, you know?
EG: Yeah.
Smitty: Yeah. Now talk about the band, man. You’ve got some great players on this record.
EG: Yeah, this was kind of another twist-up instead of trying to stick with the tried and true, and the last record, Just Feels Right, I kinda went back to the old school players and guys that were submerged in the R&B world back in the mid-seventies. This time it was a much younger group of players and these guys actually come out of church. They all have that modern church, and we’ll even define it as more of a West Coast church sound that they’re playing, and I wanted to hear what that treatment would be like to the songs that I write, so I sat down with my musical director and bass player from the live gig, Corny [Cornelius] Mims, who’s played with people like Mary Mary and on the gospel side and he does regular Sunday church gigs out here in L.A., and we sat together and put together a rhythm section to do this.
Smitty: Well, you chose some great musicians because they complement you so well on this record.
EG: It’s great. It was really nice to have that influence thrown in on these songs and hear that language that the church musicians attempt to speak to each other. It’s just a different vocabulary than what I’m used to or what’s in the jazz world. Even though a lot of the jazz music has always traditionally been based around church playing, it’s just different. When you get guys that really play that, that’s what they do all the time, it’s a different language, it’s a different approach.
Smitty: Yeah. Well, I like the title track, man, “Born 2 Groove.”
EG: Yeah, it’s a fun one.
Smitty: Yeah, that’s a fun track. And tell me about “Geez Spot,” man. What’s that all about? (Both laugh.)
EG: You know, everybody keeps talking about that title and actually until after I put that title down, I didn’t really realize that there was like maybe another connotation taken with that thing?
Smitty: (Laughs.) Yeah, right!
EG: It was supposed to be for “Groove,” you see. I have another song that I called “Mr. Groove” and “G” was supposed to be for “Groove” and “Geez Spot,” it was kinda like “Chillaxin” when you’re all kinda chilled out and you’re relaxed at home, you know, that’s your spot, and so this song was about being comfortable so as in “Geez Spot,” do you understand?
Smitty: Yeah, I get it now. (Laughs.)
EG: Yeah, but once it was in print, I went “That doesn’t look quite like the way I think I thought I meant to think.”
Smitty: Well, if it had been “G’s Spot,” I would’ve gotten that. (Both laugh.)
EG: “Joint” maybe. I should’ve called it “Geez Joint.”
Smitty: Yeah, you know? But it’s okay. “G” can have a spot, you know?
EG: Yeah. We’re lampin’ it. You know what “lampin’ it” is?
Smitty: No.
EG: That’s when you’re chillin’ at home.
Smitty: Oh, okay. I call that “Hats Down”. When a man puts his hat down, he’s chillin’.
EG: That’s what it’s about, when you’re lampin’ it.
