Smitty: Yep, that’s one of my favorites.
JL: It was really funny because one day Bobby came into the studio and I had this song and I said “Aw, man, you know, I’ve been working on this thing all day and I really thought I had something special, but it’s not really going anywhere. I don’t know what to do. I don’t think we can use this, but I’ll play it for you anyway.” And I played it for him and then he immediately came up with the idea for that B section, which is kinda like, it’s a little bit like “Naima” section. It’s sort of like the song has a real nice funky groove. It’s almost like a European kinda Acid Jazz groove and then it goes into this real nice jazzy descending harmonic chordal sequence.
Smitty: Yeah, nice description of that song.
JL: And so, yeah, Bobby kind of salvaged that one with that suggestion and then the thing that really brought it home was when we were in the studio. Abe Laboriel and Alex Al, they just locked into this incredible groove that really brought it alive. It was much better than what I had originally because I start everything out—I’d use drum machines and sequencers just to kinda demo stuff, and then Bobby actually was real involved, he plays drums, and he would do sorta demo drum parts, but when those guys came in, man, they just definitely kicked it up a huge notch with the groove that they found for the song, and so basically being in the studio writing music you just have to be open to accidents and just kinda always have your antennae up and always have your ears open to see if you run across something that could really make something work, and then when it does, sometimes that’s the best stuff of all.
Smitty: Yeah, man, I truly feel ya on that one. Well, you hit some serious chords here and I nailed my favorite song down to “Hudson” or “Super Fusion Unit.”
JL: Okay.
Smitty: Great tracks.
JL: “Super Fusion Unit” is a very unusual tune. Well, first of all, the title, just so you know, I went to Japan about six months ago with Rick Braun, Gary Meek, and Dave Weckl, and we got there and we found out they were calling our band The Super Fusion Unit, which we didn’t even know, so we just thought that was funny, and that’s how the song got its title. It was just kind of like a joke because here we are, we’re this band and we didn’t even know that we were. And it’s just kind of an interesting tune. It has sort of a real funky bass line with this sort of classical type of harmonic movement over the top of it, so it’s unusual as far as that goes.
Smitty: Yeah, and Alex Al, man, is he a great player or what?
JL: Yeah, he’s fantastic and we definitely gave him a few songs, like “Surreptitious” and “Super Fusion Unit” in particular are songs where the bass is really featured. I mean, you can really hear a bass player playing a very, very challenging and ambitious kind of bass line that you don’t normally hear.
Smitty: Yeah, I locked in on that right away. And I’ve gotta mention my boy Lenny Castro. Wow! Is he in a groove all by himself or what?
JL: You know, the thing about Lenny is that everything about him is great. He’s just an easy guy to get along with, he just kinda comes in, he brings his stuff, you turn on the tape, and whatever he does it sounds great, perfect, you know, like from the first, second to the last. It’s just a pleasure to just work with a guy like that. His time is perfect, the groove, the feel, and just him as a person to just hang out with. All of these great people, everybody that was involved on this record; they all have that joy of music. Everybody just loves being in the studio creating, to create in a situation where you’re playing music that challenges them and that inspires them, and I think that’s pretty much the way it was with everybody.
Smitty: That’s very cool. The title track, “He Had A Hat,” for those that may not know, talk a little bit about what that means. It’s kinda funny in a way, but just talk a little bit about why you decided to go with “He Had A Hat.”
JL: Well, it’s just really a joke. It’s the punch line to an old Borscht Belt joke, actually.
Smitty: Yeah.
JL: And we were just having so much fun in the studio, we were telling jokes and stuff, and it just kinda symbolizes the joy that we had of creating music and sharing music and just having fun in the studio, just hanging out, but anyway, the joke is about a grandmother that takes her grandson to the beach and a big wave comes and sweeps her grandson off the beach, and she’s distraught and she looks up and calls out into the sky like “God, please bring Mikey back. I’ll do anything, I’ll do good works, I’ll devote myself to feeding the poor, and just anything. Just please bring Mikey back.” And all of a sudden a big wave comes and puts the kid right on the beach, and she looks up in the sky and says “He had a hat!”
Smitty: (Laughs.)
JL: So it’s just a funny old joke, but it actually has another meaning too, which is….I wear a lot of different hats because sometimes I’m an engineer, I’m a piano player, I’m an arranger, songwriter, I mean, that’s kinda the way it is in this music business these days. You need to wear a lotta hats in order to survive because it’s kind of a tough competitive environment these days, but we just wanted to put out that vibe of fun and good humor that we had when we were making the record. That was pretty much it.
