Jazz Monthly.com Interview with Matthew Hager

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Matthew Hager

Smitty: I’m seriously honored to welcome my next guest to Jazz Monthly.com. He’s one of the most prolific producers in the business. You know him from the work that he’s done with the fantastic Mindi Abair, but trust me, he has a whole, whole lot more in his bag of accomplishments. Please welcome someone that I truly admire a great producer and musician, Mr. Matthew Hager. Matthew, how you doin’?

Matthew Hager (MH): I’m doing great, Smitty. How are you, man?

Smitty: Man, it’s great to talk to ya.

MH: Yeah, you too, you too. I’m a big fan of what you’re doing, so I’m happy to talk to you, happy to be here.

Smitty: Thank you. Now, let’s see, you’re in a relaxed mode now. You’ve just finished this fantastic project with Mindi Abair, Life Less Ordinary…..

MH: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I think relaxed mode, recovery mode, whatever you wanna call it. (Both laughing.) We spent a lotta time on this one, so I’m just taking it easy these days. Just recuperating.

Smitty: You’re an accomplished musician yourself. But what came first, the chicken or the egg? Was it your musicianship as a player or, you know, did you get into producing back door? How did that work?

MH: Well, you know, it’s funny. I’ve been playing music since I was probably four years old, and I started playing piano and my parents started noticing that I could play. We had a piano downstairs and I just started picking things up by ear basically, and so my mom started sending me to piano lessons and stuff. Then I started singing, and when I was about ten......eight or ten I can’t remember but I joined this choir, this boys choir called the Singing Boys of Houston, which was actually a big thing where I’m from, and we would travel around The States and I ended up…..I think I was ten when we traveled to Europe and I had a chance to sing with the Vienna Boys Choir for a couple weeks. So I was always around music. My father’s actually a really good jazz musician, really good jazz pianist, even though he’s a Presbyterian minister by trade [laughing].

Smitty: Really!

MH: He’s a fantastic musician, and there was always music going around in our house, and I was always writing songs and joining bands and singing, and I always wanted to be a rock star. That was my goal [both laughing], you know, so I was in rock bands growing up and some funk bands, and ended up getting a scholarship to Berklee College of Music and went out there and wanted to study piano and voice so I could be a rock star. I actually wanted to be Billy Joel at the time.

Smitty: Oh wow.

MH: Yeah, somewhere between Billy Joel and Peter Gabriel.

Smitty: Ho, ho, ho. Lofty ambitions!

MH: Yeah, I was really into that at the time. So I went to Berklee and met some great people and studied and came out to L.A. and wanted to make it big and played at a ton of clubs, and that was my goal. I just wanted to be a singer/songwriter, and when I was about 24 I got kinda bored with piano. I had a band, I’d hire people to do my own stuff, and the guitarist in my band kept quitting and then he’d come back and then he’d quit and he’d come back, and I’d get so frustrated that finally I said “Well, I’m just gonna learn how to play the guitar.” So I didn’t even play guitar until I was about 24 years old.

Smitty: Wow.

MH: And yeah, so I was playing around and I was playing clubs like The Troubadour and Whiskey-A-Go-Go, and I got some attention from some different labels and some different producers, and I ended up signing a production deal with some producers for about a year, and it wasn’t a good contract. They were actually really good producers, but they weren’t necessarily right for me, and we tried and we tried and we tried, and it just didn’t do much and it didn’t go anywhere and it wasn’t a good fit, and I got really frustrated.

That was kind of the turning point where I went from an aspiring singer/songwriter to actually more of a collaborator and a producer. While I was in this contract, I wasn’t really allowed to play out live, so I was just bored pretty much doing nothing, and so I would get calls from local artists, you know, people that were coming up with me, and they’d ask me if I’d be interested in writing with them or if I’d help them record a demo or something, and I started doing that…not because I wanted to, but mainly because I was just bored.

What I realized is that I actually really liked it. I was feeling kind of negative about my own production deal and I started finding out that I was really passionate about helping artists discover what makes them unique, and it was almost like I took the negative from what I was going through in my own career and then I turned it into a positive with other people, and I really started helping people develop their own sound. And I was adamant about helping people, helping them sound unique, find that inner voice in them that no one else has and amplifying it.

Smitty: You didn’t miss your calling.

MH: Well, thank you. And so I started doing that, and once I started working with other people, it just sort of like organically evolved. I can’t quite explain it. It’s not like I ever put down the guitar and said “I’m never gonna be a singer/songwriter again.” It’s just that it felt so much better to work with other people and help their careers evolve, and people just kept calling me and asking me to work with them and asking me to help them out, and I felt like it was something I was good at, so I just, you know, I kept doing it and eventually I started doing a few artists…..started getting a little bit of success. At one point I was asked to be musical director for Mandy Moore and that was a really exciting time ‘cause I’d never worked with a platinum artist before and I’d never really put together a band or done anything like that, but I figured, sure, you know, I’ll do it, so I hired a band and started doing arrangements live and the next thing I know I was playing the Tonight Show and then next thing I know I was producing her records and writing with her, and it’s been an incredible ride. I’m a very, very lucky person.

Smitty: Man, yes you are, and that’s quite a ride, as you said. But along the way, when you really started to discover this desire to help musicians to discover their inner voice, their own sound, talk about some of the artists, without even naming them, just talk about some of their reactions to your quest to help them to reach that pinnacle of their career.

MH: Well, it’s been my experience that the thing that the artist is most afraid of and the artist is most insecure about is usually the thing that separates them from everyone else. And it’s usually the thing that if they hone in on it and they start to understand it, and you build a musical landscape around that and get them comfortable with it. That’s when it happens, that’s when the magic happens, and, you know, it’s a very….it’s a very scary….how do I put this? It’s a scary road to take for artists because, and I can speak from my own experience, you study your instrument, you study your craft, you hone your craft, maybe you go to college or maybe you just play on the streets or whatever you do, and you always think you’re good enough. You have to. There’s that blind faith you have in yourself. If as artists we didn’t have that blind faith, we’d, you know, we’d be crippled.

Smitty: Yeah, you’d stay home. (Laughs.)

MH: Yeah, we’d stay home. So you always think you’re good enough and being an unsuccessful artist is so freeing because you can always turn on the radio and think you can do better than that person, and why are they signed and I’m not, but there’s actually a lot of freedom there if you don’t let the animosity eat you alive. And everything’s open, you know? You aren’t worried about making it on the radio, you aren’t worried about getting approval from your label or getting the right management, you’re just trying to please yourself. So there comes this point where you feel like you’re ready, and then you get to that point where you sit down with a producer or whoever it is and they start, you know, kinda scrutinizing it. Whether it’s tearing apart your songs and showing you where some of your weaknesses are or explaining to you that you’re singing a lot in your low end but actually the strength in your voice is up in your high end.

Smitty: Yes.

MH: And you haven’t written any songs to exploit that, so let’s try and write some songs that are exploiting that part of your range. Whatever it is, all of a sudden you’re going from this thing where you, like, you’ve had this baby, you know? And now it’s like asking you to look at it differently. So I think that there’s a lot of responsibility on the producer’s end to be aware of that and to understand that it’s a very scary time for artists….to get the record deal.

Smitty: Do you think that your….the process that you take an artist through, do you think that that’s sort of a discovery or a taking them out of a comfort zone or is it just bringing out what they’ve had all the time?

MH: I think it’s bringing out what they’ve had all the time. I think it’s that simple. I’m one of those people that I believe everybody could write the great American novel. I think everybody has it in them. And I don’t think that I’m anymore special than anybody else. It’s just how you choose to express yourself creatively. For people who are lucky enough to be musicians, I understand a little bit about that language. I can be helpful creating a musical environment in which their uniqueness can shine through.

Smitty: I’m always so curious about the producer’s role in music because, you know, we get the CD, we sit down, we listen to it, we love it, or we think it’s “Oh, it’s okay,” and, you know, me personally I’m such a deep thinker when it comes to music….I love to get to the deepest part of the music….but I often wonder how does that work in the studio? How does that work as a producer? Are you in control when the artists come to you with songs or you have songs for the artists? Who says “I think this is a great song, I think this song fits you, let’s arrange this a little different, let’s think about it differently.” Who makes those calls when you’re discussing that with the artists?

MH: Well, that’s the funny thing. “Producer” can mean many things. A producer in music could be simply the guy who’s in charge of the money, who’s paying the musicians, keeping an eye on the budget, renting / authorizing the studio space, the rehearsal space, whatever it is. It could really be that simple, although it’s not too much these days. And it can go as far as that’s just a small part of the responsibility and you’re also…...a producer’s also the guy that chooses the material and, you know, creates the sound for an artist or with an artist or is in charge of how this album is going to sound, how this artist is going to be presented, and usually those things, between the artist and the label and the producer, depending on who all these people are, they usually share a lot of those responsibilities. I’ve been pretty fortunate. A lot of the work that I do has been exclusively with the artists. I don’t really answer to the labels too much which has been really helpful.

Smitty: Thank God. (laughs.)

MH: Yeah, I know. I can say that, you know, as far as Mindi [Abair] goes, she has an A&R guy, Bud Harner who I think is fantastic and who is someone I will really listen to.

Smitty: He’s one of the best.

MH: Yeah, ‘cause I know he’s a fan of mine, he’s a fan of Mindi’s, and if he says something about a song his response is usually positive. And if he says “Man, I like this one song, but I just don’t understand this section”, I’ll spend a lotta time thinking about, okay, well, what is he hearing that I’m not? Which is the type of respect that I’ll give anybody I work with because there’s always the chance that I’m not hearing it or that the point I’m trying to convey in a certain section I haven’t worked hard enough on to make it clear. For me, we were talking about producers and there are some amazing producers. I mean, I look up to Quincy Jones….I look up to Phil Ramone, I look up to Rick Rubin, and I look up to Brian Eno , there are a lot of fantastic producers and they all do things very differently. I never consider myself a producer; I consider myself a songwriter, and I consider myself someone who understands arrangements. I think, you know, there have been a couple of things that have really influenced my production style and usually those are things like just arrangements, you know, like what Gil Evans did with Miles Davis.

Smitty: Yeah, baby!

MH: I mean, I don’t think Gil Evans was considered the producer; I think he was given the arrangement credit, but to me that was production. I mean, he made the song beautiful, he made the songs work, you know?

Smitty: Yes I can dig it.

MH: So I definitely approach it from an arrangement standpoint. And sometimes it’s just as simple as, like, well, the song’s pretty much there, who should we hire to play it? Or who should play what? And what should it sound like? And let’s make it happen, you know?

Smitty: I think it takes a lot of skill, a great ear, and a great heart especially, to recognize that. To say that this song is ready or it needs a touch of this or just a change here and a change there, because one change can completely alter the whole song.

MH: Yeah, and I really appreciate what you said about a great heart. My job is to keep my ego out of it. My job is to make sure that this isn’t the Matthew Hager Project. When I work with Mindi Abair, this is Mindi Abair’s sound. I don’t care if I played every instrument on it or if I played nothing. What I’m going for is Mindi Abair’s sound, and the way we came across the sound was through writing, was through me understanding where she was at musically and what her strengths and, possibly, weaknesses were, you know?

Smitty: Yeah, I totally agree.

MH: And with Mindi specifically I’ve had the luxury of knowing her since college, so I feel uniquely qualified to be her collaborator, you know?

Smitty: That’s cool. I like that.

MH: I consider production to be a collaboration.

Smitty: Yeah, exactly, So is it easier to work with a cocky artist or one who is humble and says “Hey,” you know, “I want you to feel me here”?

MH: Well, “cocky’s” cool if they’re backing it up.

Smitty: Yeah. (Laughing.)

MH: It’s one thing, you know, if I was just sitting in my house blowing myself away all the time, then it doesn’t matter. If what I do blows someone else away, that matters. So if an artist is cocky and they’re bringing me stuff that is just blowing my mind, then that’s great. I mean, at that point, I just wanna do better. There’s an energy about people who are really confident and who are so good that they make you better.

Smitty: Yeah, there’s a pushing effect there, yeah, musical kinetics.

MH: Yeah, and sometimes, when an artist says, “Hey, I’ve got this idea for this song, but I’m completely lost. What should we do?” I’m very comfortable working in that scenario too. Again, it’s just about it not becoming the Matthew Hager Show. I know a lot of producers that are more interested about carrying on their name and their lineage, rather than actually listening to the artist and making sure that they’re giving the artist the best snapshot of who that artist is at that moment.

Smitty: You know what I love about your work, Matthew, is that we don’t hear your sound, but we can feel your heart. And I think that will “automatically” carry on your name or profound lineage.

MH: Oh, thanks, man.

Smitty: Because not only are you working in Smooth Jazz / contemporary jazz with artists…I mean, you’ve crossed many lines and genres with your work, and you can feel the “heart” of Matthew Hager in any of those projects, and I think….

MH: Well, I appreciate that. I mean, if that’s true, I mean, that’s my goal, you know?

Smitty: Yeah, man. And that’s a cool thing because then you know that you have put the artists where they really should be and wanna be, and I think that’s a beautiful combination.

MH: Well, you know, it’s funny. As a human being I’m a sensitive guy, I’m an emotional guy, I’ve had a relationship with music my whole life and as with most musicians and most writers, it’s always been a form of escape and when we start becoming adults and we go out there and we have to play ball with the big boys, and we have to walk into business meetings and explain to people why this track should be on the record and all that kind of foolishness, and we have to become businessmen all of a sudden, it’s like, I could see why it would be very easy to buy into that, the notion that this is a business, but to me, every time I write a song and every time I do a production, it’s really about closing my eyes and feeling it.

I don’t think about money when I’m working with artists. As a matter of fact, I kinda have a policy where I don’t discuss money until I’ve worked a few times with an artist. I’ll have artists come over and we’ll write a song or we’ll sit back and….I remember working with Peter White. Peter’s manager called and asked if I’d be interested in writing with him, so I was like “Yeah, Peter, come over,” you know? And Peter called and he came over to my house and we sat for….I think we sat for like four hours before we even picked up a guitar.

Smitty: There you go. Very cool.

MH: It was incredible. We just talked about all of our influences, and we had so much more in common than I ever thought we would’ve had and, you know, that was right after Mindi’s first record so I hadn’t had much experience in Contemporary Jazz. I call it Contemporary Jazz. I don’t call it Smooth Jazz, but I hadn’t had a lot of experience so I didn’t know what to expect. I kind of expected….I guess I kind of expected someone to come in and either want to replicate Mindi’s sound or just kinda do the stuff that I had heard a little bit on The WAVE, and I just didn’t know. And just sit back and all of a sudden we were talking about Led Zeppelin and Emerson, Lake & Palmer and just….really obscure….and Pat Metheny and just like so obscure, you know, and I was just like “Man, I like this guy,” and so he came over for, I mean, probably a month before we even discussed working together, before the manager called my lawyer or anything like that. It was just like “When do you wanna come over again?” (Both laughing.)

Smitty: Yeah, I like Pete, he’s a bad boy. I think that’s a great way to do it. You establish some common ground, a good rapport, and you understand the artist more. You understand their heart, you know, what means most to them, you know, all of that.

MH: That’s what I wanna know, you know? If an artist comes over and their heart….the extent of the depth of their personality is that they want to be a star, then I’m probably the wrong guy for ‘em. (Both laughing) I would love to think that what we could do could possibly make ‘em a star or sustain their stardom or whatever it is. But I’m really into just kinda closing my eyes and writing some music and just kinda getting to know each other and see where it comes.

Smitty: Yeah. I think it’s a great approach, a great process, because….and it really is a process….and I think your approach to it, well, the results speak for themselves. I mean, think about it: Mindi’s had a fantastic career up to this point. In fact, I told her if she wrote her memoirs today, it would make a lotta people sit back and just, you know, make their heads spin.

MH: Yeah, I’d buy it. You know, I was there for most of it and I’m still blown away by it. I’m a big fan of Mindi as a human being.

Smitty: Yeah, man, exactly. And it doesn’t stop there with you, there’s John Taylor…

MH: Yeah, and speaking of another great guy. I actually just had lunch with him today.

Smitty: Really?

MH: Yeah, he’s another one of my good friends. That’s another thing, man. I’ve been able to make some friends in this business, which is hard to do. You know, even though John’s busy with the Duran Duran stuff, and they’re actually in England right now working on their next record. But, you know, he has family in town and he was in town for a few days and so, you know, he came over to the house the other night and we played a little bit of music and we went to lunch today and, you know, it’s a gift.

Smitty: Yes indeed.

MH: There are some good people in this business.

Smitty: Yeah. And then there’s Mandy Moore, wow! (Both laughing.)

MH: Mandy is exciting. I kinda feel like….it’s a funny thing I kinda feel like I grew up with Mandy Moore. Even though I had worked with John Taylor on a couple of records before Mandy, I had written for people before Mandy, Mandy was the first big current pop star that I had worked with and I had a chance to tour the world a couple times. You know, I had played MTV so much in one year that I knew where all the bathrooms were in their New York office…

Smitty: (Laughing.)

MH: ….and where, you know, where they hide the Diet Cokes in the fridge. I knew all that stuff. It was just a very surreal year. And I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about what I was capable of. ‘Cause everything was just going by so fast, and I have a philosophy that if anyone asks me to do something, I say “yes” and I worry about it later. And Mandy was a great example of that. Like I wasn’t sure if I could pull off what I pulled off with her, but I said “yes” and I ended up, you know, doing it….I’m very proud of the work that we all did together and, you know, Mandy became a friend after that as well. But it was funny….let me see, how do I put this? Once I finished up working with Mandy and I started doing some other projects and Mindi came my way, I started getting back in touch with that part of me that is a musician….that actually loves music.

Smitty: I can appreciate that.

MH: And I started realizing that although it’s great to be on MTV and it’s certainly a huge gift to work with current pop stars, you know, my love of music, it just gets stronger every day, and to be able to work on records like Mindi’s has just reminded me of why I’m here.

Smitty: Yeah, very cool. Well, let’s switch gears, man. Here’s a name: Julie Rogers. [Both laughing.]

MH: Julie Rogers is an old friend of mine from high school. We met when we were, gosh, I think 14 or 15 years old. She was an incredible violinist even then. She was going to a school called High School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, where I’m from.

Smitty: Yeah, baby!

MH: Yeah! God, I miss the food in Houston.

Smitty: It’s just gets better here!

MH: But that’s a whole other story. (Both laughing.) So she was going to HSPVA and I wanted to go to HSPVA, but my parents were afraid that I might get caught up in the wrong crowd, so I ended up going to a school that wasn’t full of artists. So I had met Julie….I forget….I think I met her at some party or something, and we kept in touch ‘cause I really respected her as a violinist and as a woman who seemed to be taking her instrument so seriously. I was young so I hadn’t seen that before. So she immediately gained my respect, and we kinda lost touch for probably about ten years and then Mindi was actually working on a movie and she called me when she was coming home from the set of this movie, and she goes “Oh my God, there’s this girl, you gotta meet her, I think you two would totally hit it off, she’s cute, she’s blonde, she’s a violinist,” and I was like “Julie Rogers.” Mindi was like “What? You’re kidding me! How did you know this girl’s name?” I’m like “’Cause it’s the only blonde cute violinist I’ve ever met. It’s gotta be her.”

Smitty: (Laughing out of control.)

MH: So it turns out it was. It was just random coincidence. So we all became friends again. And now she’s really close friends with Mindi and, here, Julie and I rekindled our friendship and I’ve hired her to work on every string section I’ve ever done, and I do string arrangements with her, I hire her as my first violinist on everything. I did stuff with Mandy Moore with her, I even brought her on tour, on this acoustic promotional tour we did. She did the string arrangement for the song “Far Away” on Mindi’s new record.

Smitty: Yeah that’s right!

MH: And we worked on a song called “Cyan” on the last record and, yeah, I’m just a big fan. And I love….she’s from Houston too, so it’s like, you know, I’m going to her wedding next month, it’s just….it’s great, it’s great.

Smitty: Yeah. Well, you know, there’s a lotta talent that’s come out of Houston, and maybe it’s the food, I don’t know. (Laughs.)

MH: Oh, it’s gotta be man, and it’s so hot.

Smitty: Yeah.

MH: Like I’m one of those people that believe that, like art tends to come from uncomfortable situations. Like the best art that came out of New York was always when New York was in a recession, and Houston’s hot, man, the summers are mean.

Smitty: Yes they are.

MH: You need an escape. And guys like, oh, who’s from Houston? Joe Sample and….I mean, there are some amazing people from Houston.

Smitty: The Laws Brothers, Hubert and Ronnie Laws, ZZ Top, and Archie Bell and the Drells!

MH: Oh yeah, and Lyle Lovett, who’s one of my favorites. It just….between Houston and Austin, it’s just like a who’s who of quality music and musicianship.

Smitty: Oh yeah, unbelievable stuff. Yeah, you’re right.

MH: Yeah.

Smitty: Tell me a little bit about 76 Steps.

MH: (Both laughing.) 76 Steps Music is the name of my production company and it’s the name of my publishing company, and the way that came about was I was living in Silver Lake at the time, which is a neighborhood in Los Angeles and (laughs.) I was renting the bottom floor of this house on top of this hill, and the house had no driveway, so literally there were 76 steps that you had to take to walk up to my house, and it was brutal. I mean, I’d be carrying amplifiers, you know, I’d be having people come over with drums and keyboards, and it was just awful. I remember Stan Sargent would come over once in a while and play bass on some stuff and he’d….by the time he got to the top he’d be sweating and like just drop his bass outside and sit on the porch and just be like “Oh my God,” you know? And I think it was Stevo Theard, who plays with Mindi and who actually co-wrote one of the songs on her latest record, but he’s also done like Terence Trent Darby and Dave Koz, great drummer, great drummer.

Smitty: Absolutely.

MH: He came up to the house carrying, you know, about six drums and percussion and stuff, and he was just like “Man, I counted. You have 76 steps and that should be the name of your publishing company.” I was like “That’s a great idea,” you know, and I took his advice.

Smitty: How about that? Oh, that’s a great story. I knew there had to be a great story behind that. I said “There’s something to this 76 Steps.”

MH: Yeah, well, what’s funny is like the first time I heard it, I thought that was hilarious. But then it was like, I had been in L.A. at that point probably ten years, I hadn’t made much money at all in music, I was still working a day job, you know, it was hard, man, I didn’t have any money. And I just thought, you know, 76 Steps, that’s about how….I would imagine that there are that many steps to success, you know?

Smitty: Yeah, yeah.

MH: So it just made sense to me. www.76steps.com

Smitty: Can people contact you there?

MH: Yeah absolutely. I live in a different house now, so they don’t have to walk as high. They don’t have to climb to my studio anymore.

Smitty: Talk about you guys’ hangout at Lucy’s.

MH: Oh yeah. Well, Lucy’s El Adobe is a really famous Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles and the owner, whose name is Lucy, is just this wonderful like matriarchal type woman. I just love her to death. And we had been going to Lucy’s for, I don’t know, 10 years, and when we first started going, we didn’t know it was famous, we didn’t pay attention, we didn’t know that everyone else knew about it. We thought it was just this quiet Mexican place that had great margaritas and, you know? It just became our little secret, we thought, and one day we were writing for Mindi’s first album and we decided to name one of the songs on that album “Lucy’s,” so we figured we’d introduce ourselves to the owner and say “Hey,” you know, “we wrote a song, it’s called ‘Lucy’s,’ it’s on an album that’ll be out in six months or whatever it was,” and she was so blown away that she would sit with us and she would talk to us about the history of the restaurant, and she would talk about all the different musicians that have been there over the, you know, 20, 25-year period, and about her husband, who unfortunately has passed away, and the impact he had on those musicians and how he would feed some of these people for free, you know, when they were coming up. And we discussed politics. Lucy’s is extremely involved in politics in the Latino community, both on a local level and even a national level. I mean, this place is amazing. I mean, Robert Kennedy came into Lucy’s right before he got shot. I mean, there’s….yeah, there’s just some really, really powerful stories and, you know, we didn’t even know the significance of it, but we would go there and we’d talk about politics and we would talk about life and talk about art, and art and commerce, you know? We would just talk about everything and what was bugging us and what we were happy about. It’s a great little place.

Smitty: It’s a great song and you can feel that there’s some serious history and emotions there with the place. To name a song after the place, there had to be a definite love and a definite feel for something that you enjoy.

MH: Yeah, I think Lucy’s just kind of symbolized a place where we kinda met every week and we kinda grew up together, you know, we sorta became adults at Lucy’s.

Smitty: Yeah, yeah. Very cool.

MH: Yeah, it’s great.

Smitty: So what’s next for Matthew Hager?

MH: Well, to be honest, right now I’m very excited about Mindi’s album coming out. (April 18 th) I’m kinda helping her put some live stuff together for her tour coming up. And I’m writing for some other people right now. I’m just kinda taking it easy and seeing what comes next. I don’t have anything too major on the table. I just keep writing and see where it takes me. That seems to be the way it works the best for me.

Smitty: Very cool. Well, I must say, my friend, it is a pleasure and an honor to talk with you. I certainly admire your work and certainly wish you all the success in the world.

MH: Aw, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you as well.

Smitty: Thank you.

MH: I always enjoy reading your articles and reading your reviews, and I think you’re “spot on” and I think that the jazz community could definitely use more people like you, so thank you for doing a great job.

Smitty: Well, thank you so much. That’s quite a compliment coming from you, my friend. [Both laughing.] Hey, and hurry back to Houston for a visit, man. We’ll do a hang. How’s that?

MH: Oh, I’m there. The next time I come in….I have three new nephews; One is two months old, one is a year old, and one is two years old, and I come back down and visit them at least two or three times a year, so the next time I come, we’ll definitely go have some good food.

Smitty: Yeah, you know we’ve got it here.

MH: Yeah, I know, man, I know. It’s so funny too, I played a show in Dallas about a year ago, I forget what for, but I went down and I played a show. I was so excited to get some real Southern food. And the record label ended up taking us out that night. So they took us to a California cuisine restaurant, thinking that that’s what we’d, you know, like….

Smitty: [Laughing.]

MH: ….which was really sweet and I was like “Oh, man, I need some ribs!”

Smitty: [Laughing.]

MH: If I wanted a salad, I’d stay home. [Both laughing.]

Smitty: I totally feel that.

MH: But that happens all the time. You’ll go to Tokyo or something and they’ll find like a….they’ll find a place that serves American food.

Smitty: I think we all tend to lean that direction, thinking we’re pleasing someone.

MH: Yeah.

Smitty: Well, that’s cool. Matthew, it has been such a pleasure. We could probably talk for another four hours.

MH: Yeah, I know, man. I really like talking to you. Thank you so much.

Smitty: Yes, same here, and we will certainly chat some more, I know. I know our circles will always bump into each other.

MH: Absolutely.

Smitty: We’ve been visiting with one of the most versatile producers in the business, he’s just finished collaborating on Mindi Abair’s great new project (Life Less Ordinary). Matthew, congratulations and the very best to you in 2006 my friend.

MH: Thank you Smitty and all the best to you.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

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