Jazz Monthly.com Interview with euge groove

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Euge Groove

Smitty: Well, if there is ever a groove, it is owned by this next cat that joins me here at www.jazzmonthly.com. He is fresh out of the studio with a great new record. He’s “livin’ large” with this fantastic new groove and it “just feels right.” If you love to groove, you will certainly love this next cat and his new record. It is called Born 2 Groove. Please welcome the amazing Narada / Blue Note recording artist, Mr. Euge Groove. Euge, how you doin’, man?

Euge Groove (EG): How can I follow that up, you know? I mean, I am truly out of the studio. I don’t know how fresh I am, though. I think I injured myself making this one.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Oh, man. I love this record and I love the title Born 2 Groove.

EG: Yeah, it’s kind of a fun thing and I think it’s kind of a take off like I did with Livin’ Large and a little bit of play on the name Euge ‘cause everybody mispronounces it “huge.”

Smitty: (Laughs.)

EG: So it’s kind of a little takeoff of that, but it was really about—I was trying to make a spiritual record and I think the music came out in sort of a spiritual sort of way, I should say, and this just seemed appropriate. I think that we’ve all been given gifts in our life and fortunately I’m able to use them, I guess.

Smitty: Yeah, well, that’s always good when we can use those gifts in such a beautiful way, man, because what jumped out at me right away when I first listened to the record was, man, it’s got this phat sound and then I found out later you recorded it in HD and it’s like, man, this is really cool.

EG: Yeah, it’s interesting and people ask me about the HD thing, what does it do, and especially since people are listening on iPods and whatnot, being these little compressed files, and it’s totally apparent. Basically what it’s doing is you’ve got this high definition recording much like you would on HDTV or the definition and the clarity, you know how dramatic that is. Even if you’re watching on a non-HD set, if you’re looking at an HD channel, it still looks so much better. The same thing with the music. Each individual instrument gets its own track. In other words, the kick drum, the snare drum, the high hat, each individual tom, the bass, the electric guitar, the piano—every instrument gets its own individual recorded track, and when you do it that way at such a high definition, when it’s mixed down, even if it’s shrunk down to a small file, each individual track still retains that clarity and that definition, and it’s pretty astounding.

I mean, I think it’s an absolutely beautiful sound. I love working in the HD. It certainly brought up a lot of issues because it revealed a lot of things that you don’t necessarily want revealed on a recording, just like in TV, and I tell people if they’re not really sure what HD’s supposed to sound like or what the difference is, play for example, my Livin’ Large disc that was recorded in the old school digital and then play this new cd, which was recorded in the HD, and it’s like astounding, the difference.

Smitty: So what gave you the idea to go with HD?

EG: I think I’m a techno geek anyway when it comes to recording stuff and I had never really been a fan of digital. I had done pretty much all of my albums in analog with the exception of—some form of analog, maybe analog hybrid—with pretty much of the exception of Livin’ Large, which I did in one of the first generation of ProTools systems, one of the earlier systems, but now the technology is there to be able to do HD on an entire project and these songs have 50, 60, 70 separate tracks to some of these songs and just up until a very short time ago it wasn’t available to do that many tracks in HD, and it’s really expensive to work this way and it was a major conversion for the studio that I work with, my pre-production studio, and then I had to go into a more expensive bigger studio to work in, so it was there and it was more expensive to do, but I felt that it was worth recording this way.

Smitty: Yeah, you talked about how it’s a challenge when you go into HD because so much is revealed with the sound, but talk about what a challenge that was. Just give me an example of what that’s like.

EG: Things that maybe had worked in the past for me, like the microphone placement on the saxophone or the type of microphones and pre-amps and rooms that we’d work in, didn’t necessarily work this time and we kinda had to rethink and go “Wow, that mic that we used to always use didn’t sound as good this time around. Let’s change around.” So it kinda mixed a few things up a little bit. For sax players, our thing is all about the saxophone reed, that little piece of wood that vibrates on the mouthpiece. They sound so infinitely different, but in the HD you can really hear the difference between a good and not so good reed, so things like that would have me spending a little bit extra time and pulling a few more hairs out than normal.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Yeah. Well, you’ve enjoyed a lot of success on the charts the past few years and when you’ve enjoyed success like that, what does that do for you going into the studio with the next record?

EG: Yeah, you know, it’s funny you say “enjoy success” because I haven’t really enjoyed any success. I mean, I think that I fortunately have been very successful at radio but I’ve never once sat back and sort of enjoyed that and take that in, and I think almost to a fault people would be like “Relax. You’ve got a number one single.” I’m going “Yeah, but which one are they gonna come out with next? I hope they come out with the next one and I hope people are gonna like that and I gotta finish this new record,” and it’s like it’s sort of never enough, you know what I mean? It’s like by the time that the single gets out and goes through all these steps to maybe reach number one, hopefully it’ll reach that point, there’s ten other things on my plate, and I’ve never really taken a breath to really kick back and sort of enjoy that, so it’s interesting that you would say that, but I try to, I try to relax.

Smitty: Yeah, you gotta do that, man. You gotta stop and smell the roses because we all work hard at what we do.

EG: Yes.

Smitty: If people only knew what goes into making a record and what goes into doing the things that we do, it would probably blow their minds, but after that is done, it’s so important to enjoy a little bit of it, you know? Because it’s kinda like waxing your car and then you kinda stand back and say “Mmm, it looks pretty good. I did a good job on it,” you know, whatever the case may be.

EG: (Laughs.)

Smitty: You know what I mean?

EG: Right, well, there are some moments of that where I can say I can be really proud of something and it’s generally not from a reward from outside. It’s more from a reward from inside where I can kick back and go “You know what? Even if people don’t get this, I’m really happy with it.” There are moments like that.

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.

Smitty: Yeah, man. Well, I get it. I totally get it, bro. (Laughs.) And, hey, you’ve got some vocalists on here kickin’ it.

EG: Yeah, some serious vocalists. It’s been a while since I’ve had a vocal tune on one of my albums and it’s not because I haven’t wanted to, I just haven’t kinda felt the right thing, and lo and behold, I sorta had two that crept up on one album, so the first one that comes on there is—I knew this from the beginning I wanted to remake this song “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,” which was made famous, I think, by Donny Hathaway. I mean, that’s the version that everyone knows. That’s the only version that I was even aware of until recently. But I knew I wanted to do that, I knew I couldn’t do it in the way that Donny did. I mean, that’s kinda hallowed ground doing anything that Donny Hathaway did.

Smitty: Yeah, man.

EG: And so the challenge was really trying to come up with something different, so we did kind of a neo soul, a little harder edged version, a little bit quicker version of the song, and then Ali Ollie Woodson from the Temptations came in and sang it and just knocked it out of the ballpark.

Smitty: Yeah, he’s got that Motown blues sound.

EG: I hear so many influences and stuff in his voice and it’s not like he’s emulating these guys. I mean, he’s been around long enough to be like the originator of a lot of these influences.

Smitty: True that.

EG: And it’s so amazing to hear these different influences all like merged into one soul. I mean, it’s just absolutely incredible. And it was really funny. After we had finished recording that, Paul Brown looked over at me and goes “Now, that’s something you’re not gonna hear on American Idol.” (Both laugh.) We had to laugh about that. I mean, it’s true. Sometimes we get sorta dumbed down with singers. You start expecting less because they start giving out less. But this guy, he puts out so much, you really see what a real singer’s all about.

Smitty: Oh, yeah, man, I mean, he makes you feel it.

EG: Yeah, well, knocked you off your seat, I guess.

Smitty: Yeah, he did. And “Baby If You Only Knew (What I Could Do).”

EG: Yeah, that was Jeffrey Osborne, and this was a song that I had written. I was originally gonna do it as an instrumental and I kept kinda hearing this other thing with it and it seemed like it lent itself to a vocal tune and Paul Brown was working with Jeffrey Osborne at the time and I said “Why don’t you see if you can get it to Jeffrey and see if he’s interested?” And Jeffrey wrote some words to it and knocked it out, so really that track is just the two of us. I played all of the instruments on it and he sang all of the voices on it.

Smitty: Oh, man, what a way to knock it out and to close out the record. You have got another great record. You’ve just done it again. And the first single, what, is the title track?

EG: First single’s the title track, “Born 2 Groove.” Yeah, that was a song that I didn’t necessarily think was gonna be the first single, to be honest, but it seemed like everyone just kinda jumped on board with it. I set out to write a song that was one chord. I tried to write a song that just had one chord to it, which is basically then the song becomes all about the groove and the parts that you put into it, so that’s why sort of the title “Born 2 Groove” made sense to that because it’s just one chord. There’s no changes to kinda get you through the different sections and you have to set up the sections by the band playing dynamically and the parts and the melody that may go with the groove, so it’s kinda stripped down into its basic form.

Smitty: Yeah, but it’s nice and tight. And I like “Café del Soul.” It’s got a sweet groove.

EG: I don’t know how to describe that. That was a kind of romantic little song, I guess.

Smitty: Yeah, I was chillin’ to that.

EG: Yeah.

Smitty: Man, you got a great mix of songs. It’s got all the elements of a hit record, I think.

EG: From your lips to God’s ears, as an old manager used to tell me. If all I can do is do something that is pleasing to me, I guess, and hopefully other people will find it that way. It’s an interesting thing making a record, especially dedicating six, seven, eight months to this record, at least a solid six months where I just didn’t do anything else but that. It’s so hard to remove myself from it, so I can never listen to the disc for the first time, you know what I mean?

Smitty: Yeah, I do.

EG: You were able to listen to it for the first time and get a first opinion. I can’t ever do that, so it’s always interesting to me to hear other people’s comments and it’s generally not my take on what the record is like, which probably means I’m really clueless, number one.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

EG: But it’s just really because you got a first impression, and I’ve heard from a lotta people that they think this album is very mellow. I don’t necessarily get that.

Smitty: Mellow?!

EG: On paper and tempo-wise and everything, it shouldn’t be, but that’s people’s first impressions with it, which I think is kind of interesting.

Smitty: Wow, well, I didn’t get the “mellow” out of it. I mean, I thought it just had this real nice uptempo groove.

EG: Yeah, you know, I don’t know. I think there could be some confusion there as well too with mellowness being described as the sound quality because I think something that has to do with the HD lending a lushness to the overall sound recording.

Smitty: Yeah. I mean, there’s a couple songs you can chill with but, I mean, for the most part this is a bust a move kind of thing, you know? (Both laugh.)

EG: I thought so, but I’ve just been hearing from people listening to it for the first time telling me otherwise.

Smitty: Yeah, well, we have such a variety among the masses.

EG: Yes, exactly.

Smitty: But the cool thing, the bottom line, is we love it, dude! And that’s the main thing. So let’s see, you talked about it a little bit on your Web site. I love your description of the new record on your Web site. Give me your Web site, first of all.

EG: www.eugegroove.com.

Smitty: Yeah, and on there it says that you’re the proud parent.

EG: Proud parent, yeah.

Smitty: (Laughs.) I like that, man.

EG: And when that came out, that was very much how I was feeling. I mean, there were definitely points in making this disc and making this CD that I never thought that I would be able to actually put a disc in the player and hit “play” and have the whole thing play the whole way through.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

EG: There were moments that I really had to talk myself through it, I mean, for various reasons, but the HD was kinda difficult to work with for the first time. It was a learning curve for me. I had very concrete ideas about how I wanted the songs to sound instrumentation-wise and sometimes they would start lending themselves to go into another direction, and in the past I used to kinda cave to that and then in the end I would be like “Oh, I wish I would’ve taken it the other way.” Well, this time I really stuck with it and drove some people, i.e., Paul Brown, up the wall a few times with really trying to stick by my guns and really have it come out a certain way, so it was a really difficult one for me to make. I got a bad ear infection in the middle of making the record, so I kinda had to chill from certain aspects of recording during that time. It was a joyous moment when I had it finally mastered.

Smitty: Yeah, well, this is the fun time, among other fun times of making a record, but this is truly the fun time. You’ve finished it, it’s coming out, the first single’s hit radio so, I mean, it’s a fun time to kinda really say “Hey, we did it,” you know?

EG: Well, that’s true. I mean, again, that’s like the birth of a child, you know? There are those moments where it’s really fun and then all of a sudden they become like teenagers.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

EG: Not really sure if they’re ready to go into the world.

Smitty: Yeah, true.

EG: And sometimes it’s easier and sometimes it’s not, and it’s kinda nerve-racking right now to see what the public’s response is gonna be and, again, in this business all it takes is like one bomb CD and you’ll never get to make another. You know, I always complete each CD going “Well, this could be the last one I ever get to make.”

Smitty: Yeah, somehow I doubt that, Euge, but one thing about it, man, you can always look back and say “I gave it everything I had and I gave it what I felt at the time,” you know?

EG: You’re absolutely right and my wife has always instilled that in me and I think going back to when I had to take out a mortgage on my house to pay for making my first record myself long before Warner Brothers came around, my wife said “If you don’t do it now, you’ll always look back and think Could I? Would I? Should I?” You know, that kind of stuff, so you always have to go into things with giving it your all and with no regrets, no regrets, that’s the key.

Smitty: Yeah, absolutely, man. Well, I want to congratulate you, man, on this great new record and thank you for doing what you do and keeping the groove alive.

EG: Oh, any time, Smitty. Man, you know, it’s always fun talking to you and seeing you and hanging out with you and chilling on a ship or something, you know?

Smitty: (Laughs.) Yeah, man, absolutely. It’s always a fun time to hang with you, man. Whenever I know you’re around, it’s like “Oh, Groove’s here!” I know we’re gonna have a good time.

EG: (Laughs.)

Smitty: That’s always very cool, man. Once again, congratulations and keep your flava strong, my friend.

EG: (Laughs.) I will. I’ll do my best.

Smitty: Absolutely. We’ve been talking with the fantastic and amazing Euge Groove. He’s has released another great new record. It’s called Born 2 Groove. It is a wonderful mix of great music and you know Euge, he’s all about the groove, so you gotta pick this one up. Euge, thanks again, my friend, and all the best in 2007 and beyond.

EG: Thank you, Smitty.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.eugegroove.com and www.myspace.com/eugegroove1 and www.bluenote.com and www.narada.com