Jazz Monthly.com Interview with Gladys Knight

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Gladys Knight

Smitty: When you talk about the greatest singers or entertainers of all time, you must include my next guest. She sings in high volume, high intensity and high definition. She has enough awards to fill every venue where she has performed. She is certainly nonpareil and her voice is as fresh and vibrant as 1961. Case in point, her great new project: it’s called Before Me. Please give a thunderous welcome for the lovely and so talented Ms. Gladys Knight. Gladys, how you doin’?

Gladys Knight (GK): Hi, how are you?

Smitty: I’m wonderful.

GK: What a beautiful introduction.

Smitty: Well…I’m so honored to talk with you.

GK: Oh, and I am not worthy, but I thank you for it. (Both laughing.) I hope everything is going well with you.

Smitty: Everything’s going great. How about yourself?

GK: I am so excited about my life, I really am. I have been so blessed over these decades that I have been living and I just find myself in awe most of the time because I don’t feel worthy of all these wonderful things that happened to my life. The ups and the downs, you know?

Smitty: Oh yes.

GK: And this is such an exciting time in my life right now.

Smitty: Yes, and rightly so because when I first heard this project, I had so many reflections of all the wonderful things you’ve done over the years.

GK: (Laughs.) Well, thank you. I’m glad I could take you back.

Smitty: Yes indeed, and you did just that, it is just wonderful. But, you know, just briefly about this project.

GK: Yes?

Smitty: Besides the beautiful music, what a wonderful gesture to do this music.

GK: Oh, well, I am so honored to be able to do it, when I look at how blessed I’ve been to still be here.

Smitty: Yes.

GK: And when I look at my young counterparts that’s out there today, or quite a few of them that I have had an opportunity and a wonderful gift to be able to meet and they ask me certain things because they want to know. And we from the school of yesterday and who are blessed enough to be here today, we need to tell them when they ask those questions about where we came from, what we do, how was it and all of those things. So I felt compelled, in a way, to say, hey, let me introduce you to these wonderful people that stepped before me.

These are great, great, great ladies of song, and I have also had the wonderful opportunity and the honor and blessing of meeting all of them except one, and that was Billie Holiday.

Smitty: Yes a wonderful entertainer.

GK: But I felt like I knew her because I was fortunate enough to have her best friend in the industry during that time to be our musical mentor as we first came on the musical scene. People like Maurice King and Charlie Atkins and Margaret Mays and so many, many others that touched their lives in a true sense, not just what you read in the paper. So it’s been a wonderful, wonderful journey and I wanted to let them know about these awesome people.

Smitty: Yes indeed, and what a beautiful way to do it. I mean, you couldn’t have done it better than with this project. It’s just unbelievable. It’s fantastic.

GK: Well, thank you so much.

Smitty: Yes. So, now, just talk about for the new fans that we’re introducing you to today around the world, how did you discover this magnificent voice of yours?

GK: (Laughs.) Well, it was really not my doing. I’ve been singing since I was four and, of course, as you know, at four we don’t have an idea or a vision of nothing. They’d be playing and making some meatballs and some mud pies and that kind of stuff. (Both laughing.) I was introduced to music through my parents and we were members of the church since I can remember. I can remember back when I was two and we’ve always had that spiritual environment in our family, in my life So we were just obedient to that and my mom and dad had gone to our pastor, Reverend Smith, and talked about me doing a recital for the church. He had inquired of them that he wanted to do that for me, and we ended up doing that and that was the beginning of my public life with music. After that I started to travel and then when I was seven years old my mom and my Aunt Ann had written a letter to Ted Mack, who at that time had a talent show on national television similar to (American) Idol and Star Search and all of those shows that are on today. The original was the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour. And they got me on right away and I performed and I ended up winning that particular contest, and when I came back home I was….it took a long time to do television then.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

GK: It did. It did. I mean, they had live commercials and everything, you know, the Old Gold Girls was really Old Gold Girls. (Both laughing.)

Smitty: Oh yes.

GK: I mean, it was quite an experience for me. I’ll have to do a little part about Ted Mack sometime, you know.

Smitty: Yeah.

GK: But at any rate, I came home and I learned….I’m from Atlanta, I lived in Atlanta, Georgia, and they were always in a wonderful spirit of embracing their own, so they gave parades for me and they gave all of these wonderful welcome home kinds of things for me and they were very pleased with the success that I had accomplished. Also, during that time, on the celebratory thing, that was the first time I met Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole.

Smitty: Oh really.

GK: I was eight years old.

Smitty: Wow!

GK: Yeah, I’d just come off television, and I had been invited to be at a concert that they were giving at the city auditorium in Atlanta. So my mom, my grandmother and I, we all went down to the concert and I was supposed to meet them after the concert, and I remember Sarah (both laughing), she was quite kinda busy that night, so she just kinda ignored me. My feelings were hurt a little bit, you know, but Mr. Nat King Cole, he was such an awesome human being.

Smitty: Oh yeah.

GK: I mean, he just….he hugged me and he told me he had been watching me and he was so proud of me, and that was the first I had heard of Natalie.

Smitty: Wow!

GK: He said, “I’ve got a little girl too, and maybe one day she’ll be singing.”

Smitty: And look at her now.

GK: Is that amazing or what?

Smitty: That is amazing!

GK: Now, I’ve got some stories to tell you, you know?

Smitty: I know, girl, we could be here for a while….I know we won’t be able to do all of them for the show but I hope someday to just sit down with you anywhere and just talk.

GK: Matter of fact, I got a picture with he and I in the hall at the auditorium after we were sitting in his dressing room talking. He was the one that took me by my hand and took me around to meet everybody.

Smitty: What a thrill.

GK: You know what I mean? Mr. Nat King Cole.

Smitty: How cool is that, huh?

GK: How cool is that, you know? But I met Sarah again later on, Sarah Vaughan and I was more grown up then and she was less busy, and so we got to know each other.

Smitty: That’s so cool.

GK: And I had always admired her skill….her technique, her talent. And over the years I watched her grow too because I guess that was an infinite….that was the infancy part of her career probably.

Smitty: Yes.

GK: And I finally met Mrs. (Lena) Horne. She was just as beautiful as people always said she was.

Smitty: Yes.

GK: And my baby, Ella Fitzgerald, oh…

Smitty: You must tell me a little bit about her.

GK: Whoo! I should call her Ms. Fitzgerald because that’s how much I cared, respected and loved that lady. She was so….you haven’t met a person more down to earth than her.

Smitty: How ‘bout that?

GK: With all of her talent….with all of her skills.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

GK: I’m not kidding you, and she was just “Did I do that right?” And she meant it. She wasn’t puttin’ on, you know? She would come by your room. You didn’t have to go to her room; she would come to your room.

Smitty: Wow!

GK: “I just wanted to say hi.” This is Ella Fitzgerald I’m talking about here. I was so in awe of her.

Smitty: You just gotta love real people like that.

GK: I’m telling you. And I would look up and I would see her in my audience. Ella Fitzgerald come to see me?!

Smitty: Wow.

GK: Come on, now.

Smitty: Well, you know, Gladys, you’re in that elite group, so she recognized great talent. That’s why she was there.

GK: Well, I’ve never felt like that, but I appreciate the thought and the feeling that people would feel like that, on occasion about me, and I just try to do it so you guys can be proud because you know what? Whatever you do represents me and whatever I do hopefully will be done in a way where you can be proud for me to represent you.

Smitty: Absolutely, my friend! I’m very proud of you. That’s so beautiful.

GK: You know?

Smitty: Yes. Now, tell me a little bit about those three guys you had dancing behind you. How did they come along?

GK: Yeah, my Pips! (Both laughing.) Well, they were all my family. I had one brother, Bubba. Well, his name was Merald, but nobody called him that. His name was Merald Knight, Jr. I had a cousin, William Guest, who was another one of the Pips, and I had a cousin, Edward Patten, who was another one of the Pips.

Smitty: Who came up with the idea to do this whole style of the group and the dancing and the singing? Who came up with that?

GK: Well, we did, actually. I was just kinda fresh off of Ted Mack’s and I kinda didn’t do anything for about a year, almost a year, and my mom said to me one day, “You look like you’re getting bored.” She believed in keeping her children busy, not just saying “I wanna raise entertainers.” It wasn’t about that. It’s whatever you enjoy doing. “What do you enjoy doing? Do you enjoy skating? Let’s get more into that. Do you enjoy playing ball? Let’s get more into that. You wanna sing? Let’s get more into that.” That’s how my mom and dad were. They just believed in keeping you busy.

Bubba was having a birthday, and me and some of my friends was up on the playground that day and I said “Oh, today’s Bubba’s birthday,” so at the last minute we said “Let’s have a party.” We used to do stuff like that. They were the best parties that were just impromptu.

So all of the girls….it was about five of us….we left the playground, left the boys up there playing ball, and we went down to the corner grocery store and we all pitched in our little pennies, our little nickels and stuff, and we bought some bologna, some bread, some mayo, some Kool-Aid, and some potato chips. (Both laughing.) And we came back and we made these sandwiches. We must’ve cut them sandwiches up in a thousand pieces because you know we didn’t have many of them. And we couldn’t use much of my mom’s sugar. Because sugar was expensive back then.

GK: So anyway, we made our little party stuff and when big Bubba and the boys came home from the playground, we called them inside. There was about seven or eight of them, and so they came in and so we said “Surprise!” And we started having a little party. And I had borrowed a record player from one of Bubba’s friends around the corner, his name was Garfield, never forget it. So anyway, we went out in the backyard and we strung a little extension cord to the bedroom so we could play some records and we started dancing and having fun. And then Garfield said “Well, I don’t wanna hear that record!” So we said “Well, we do!” So he said “Okay, I’ll take my record player home.” So we said “Go ahead.” So anyway, we said “Okay, we don’t have any music now, so let’s have a talent show.” So everybody said “Yeah, that’ll be fun.” See how kids used to use their imagination?

Smitty: Exactly, I was just thinking that.

GK: There was no computers, wasn’t no this or that. We’re just outside playing, having fun and enjoying each other using our imagination.

Smitty: Yes indeed.

GK: So we came up with doing this talent show, so we said “Everybody just pick what they wanna do,” so me, Bubba, my sister Brenda and Eleanor, which was the original group, by the way….

Smitty: Really?

GK: William, Bubba and me. There was five of us. We all went to the same church and we sang in the choir together, so we said “Okay, we ought to just sing something together.” So we got over there and started singing a little bit, and some people told jokes, some people did a little dance, and it started getting dark, so we went on the inside the fence, and of course back in those days your parents went with you.

Smitty: Oh yes.

GK: So they were in the dining room, we were in the living room, and everybody started doing their thing, so when it came time for us to sing, we got up to sing and everybody just got quiet, and when we finished singing, everybody said “Yeah, that was great! That was good!” After the party that night, our parents came in and said “We heard you guys singing, and you really sound great.” And my mom said “Is that something you guys would like to do for fun?” And we said “Yeah!” So that’s how we got started.

Smitty: That’s an amazing story.

GK: Then we started to rehearse and we used to call ourselves the Little Knight Group, even though my cousins’ names were Guest. So it was my mom that started the group. So we did a Little Knight Group.

Smitty: The Knight Group. (Laugh.)

GK: So we started rehearsing, songs and stuff like that, and we didn’t have anywhere to perform them, so my mom came in one day. She said, “Well, I asked Pip,” who was her nephew and our cousin, “I asked Pip if he would find you guys some engagements to do.” And he said, “I don’t wanna be bothered with them children.” (Both laughing.) So he loved the idea. I mean, Pip knew everybody in town, that was his life, he worked all day and he would get dressed up at night and just go to the clubs. And my mom knew that, so she felt like he would know the people to introduce us to.

So he came in one day, and we weren’t called the Pips yet, we were just the Little Knight Group, and so he came in one day, he said “I got you an engagement.” He said “You’re gonna perform at a tea down at the YWCA.”

Smitty: The YWCA? (Laughing)

GK: And they’re gonna pay ya’ll ten dollars. (Both laughing.)

Smitty: That was the best ten dollars, wasn’t it?

GK: We went down there and thanked them so much and they paid us ten dollars. That was the beginning. And as time went by, to make a long story short….the girls left, they left me! Eleanor and Brenda left me, they said “We don’t wanna do this,” said “We wanna go to school and we’re gonna get married and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.” I wasn’t thinking about none of that stuff. I was going to school but, you know, I was more of a tomboy. So they left me with the guys, and that’s when my other cousin Edward and this guy named Langston George joined the group to replace the two ladies, and eventually Langston left and it became the group that you see today. With just the three guys and me.

Smitty: What an incredible story, though. It came from such simple and humble beginnings, but it was a creative beginning.

GK: Yeah. And they started rehearsing. This is too funny. You asked me about the image awhile ago?

Smitty: Yes.

GK: Back in those days they had groups like the Midnighters and the Cadillacs. Now, the Cadillacs were very athletic in their performance. They would tumble and do the splits and then do all that kind of stuff. Well, we wanted to be an exciting group, right? But our house was kinda built like in an “I” where you go from the living room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom. Straight back, right?

Smitty: Yup.

GK: So we got to rehearsing one day and our folks were at work. So there was nobody home but us and we said “We’re gonna try to do the things that the Cadillacs do,” so the guys would get a running start (both laughing) and they’d run from the living room all the way to the back bedroom and try to hit a split. We had sprained thumbs, sprained ankles, sprained everything (laughing), so that day, they said “You know what? That’s not the image for us. We’re not supposed to do that.” So we decided at that time that we were gonna become interpretive with our moves. The Pips were gonna interpret what I sing through their moves, you know? And that’s how we got our look, our style. That’s how we came up with it.

Smitty: What a great creative concept, though.

GK: Yeah.

Smitty: Okay. So let’s jump to the record.

GK: Okay.

Smitty: This great record is such an expression of your love for these great entertainers that are mentioned here, the songs that you covered.

GK: Absolutely. I just want to honor them and let the world know what a contribution they made and how many doors they opened with this pure music and with their gifts and talent for the rest of us.

Smitty: That’s beautiful.

GK: You know, because they went through a lot.

Smitty: Yes, they did.

GK: Just dealing with their craft during those days and they were awesome in their talent.

Smitty: Yes indeed.

GK: They really, really were and I have so much love and respect for them. As a matter of fact, this music helped me to help my mom feed our family during my high school years, and that’s how actually I got introduced to it. It’s not something I just came up with. I mean, it’s been a part of my life, and when I was in high school, Lloyd Terry….was the musical band director at my high school, Samuel Archer High School, and he asked my mom if I could be the vocalist for his band, and after they talked for a bunch of times she finally consented for me to do that, but he wouldn’t let me sing until I studied these people. He gave me a whole big ol’ stack of records and said “Okay, study these people,” and I had to do that before I could sing. So it was Ella and Sarah and Dinah Washington and Oscar Peterson, Cannonball Adderley, and Miles Davis…all those people. I didn’t know of them in that way then.

I was introduced to them by Lloyd and then I started doing their music, and he used to tell me after years went by, if he could he would come to our concerts. “You should be recording that music you used to do. You should be singing ‘Round About Midnight,’ you should be doing this and doing that,” and we tried to get it done at one time and it kinda fizzled out and then he got cancer and he passed away, what, two years ago now?

Smitty: Oh, I’m so sorry.

GK: Thank you. Also, my ex-manager, Ron Wiseman, he came to me about three years ago and said “I got an idea for this great project called ‘Great Ladies of Song.’ You would do great doing that,” and I said “Oh, that sounds exciting.” I said “Ron, you may not know this but I’m familiar with that music.” He said “Really?” “I’m gonna see what I can do” and that fizzled out and then we readdressed it about a year ago and Verve came to the table and that’s the rest of the story.

Smitty: Yes. And my hat’s off to Verve, Tommy LiPuma….

GK: Yes!

Smitty: Phil Ramone, Ron Weisner, Al Schmitt, Frank Filipetti, J’ai St. Laurent Smyth, all of them.

GK: Yes!

Smitty: What a great job with this project. And the musicians….I know I can’t name them all, we don’t have the time, but….Russell Malone, Roy Hargrove….

GK: Yes!

Smitty: David “Fathead” Newman.

GK: I mean, I had the best.

Smitty: Yes, you did.

GK: When I walked into the studio that day and I saw David “Fathead” Newman getting ready to play on a song I was gonna do, I almost fell over. (Both laughing) I’m not kidding. I mean, I’ve been hearing about this man all my life….

Smitty: Yes, yes.

GK: David “Fathead” Newman, and here comes Roy Hargrove, Jr.

Smitty: You were in a once in a lifetime experience!

GK: You know? And then Chris Botti comes in.

Smitty: Yeah.

GK: I said “Oh my goodness!” I mean, I’m just so elated, I am so blessed.

Smitty: And the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, wow.

GK: Yes!

Smitty: Unbelievable.

GK: John Clayton and Billy Child? Come on, now.

Smitty: Yes indeed. I highly recommend this project for any lover of music, period.

GK: Oh, thank you so much!

Smitty: Yes indeed. This is a magnificent project. It really is, yes.

GK: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Smitty: You’re so welcome. And I hope that we get to talk some more because….

GK: I do!

Smitty: ….this is fun.

GK: I’m sorry I took up so much of your time. You just really took me back that time.

Smitty: Oh, no! Glady’s, it has been such an honor! This is my love. (Both laughing.)

GK: But I do hope that they enjoy this music and I just wanted to bring it to the fore and let people know what a great contribution these wonderful artists made to this industry and dealing with just pure music, and that’s what I consider this music to be. Just pure music.

Smitty: Well, I think I can speak for millions around the world in thanking you for doing this magnificent project.

GK: Thank you. It’s been my pleasure and I really do hope to see you real soon.

Smitty: Ahh, thank you. I hope so too. We’ve been talking with the incomparable Ms. Gladys Knight. You must check out this great new project and the magnificent DVD. It’s called Before Me and it is all of that. Gladys, thanks again and best of everything with this great project, your tour, and everything you’re doing in 2006.

GK: Thank you so much, and I’ll see you soon.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information visit http://www.vervemusicgroup.com