Jazz Monthly.com Interview with Jeff Lorber

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Jeff Lorber

Smitty: My next guest really needs no introduction. However, I’m not letting him off that easy [Laughs]. When it comes to making great music he’s always switched on! He has just released an extraordinary new record, it is called He Had A Hat, and he’s the only guy in this genre that I call the Schiznick! Please welcome Mr. Super Fusion himself, Jeff Lorber. Jeff, how ya doin’, my man?

Jeff Lorber (JL): Great. Thank you. Thanks for having me on your show. It’s great.

Smitty: Thank you! It’s always great to talk with you and we haven’t talked in a little while, so I was certainly looking forward to this. When I listen to this new record it just reminds me of this great improv session where everybody gets to strut their stuff and stretch out a little bit, and everybody has some room to really show what they have, and it’s just a great mix of music. Man, I’m totally diggin’ this record.

JL: Thank you. I mean, that’s what it was like making the record. It was just kinda one of those things where everybody that came to the studio to play, there was a real good feeling, that everybody felt like they were a part of something special. None of the recording sessions that we did were in any way labored at all. It all kinda came together real fast where everybody was just having a good time, everybody brought their “A” game, we got some incredible cats on the record. I got to play with some people that I’ve never had a chance to play with before like Randy Brecker, Abraham Laboriel Jr., who’s an incredible drummer that I actually tried hard to get him to play on my last album, but I think he was too busy being on the road with Paul McCartney and Sting at that point. And Dave Weckl, who I’ve had the pleasure of playing with a bit live lately, and, I mean, he’s just so fantastic, that guy. He’s really just like from another planet the way he plays the drums. And then some of my favorite people that I have worked with before like Hubert Laws, Alex Al, Paul Jackson Jr., and, of course, Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum, having a chance to work with Randy Brecker. We actually grew up in the same little suburb of Philadelphia, so it was really a pleasure to get to know him and get to work with him.

Smitty: Yeah, that’s a very impressive group of cats.

JL: Basically the whole thing was a lot of fun. The real center of the record was working with Bobby Colomby, who’s the original leader of Blood, Sweat & Tears, and he produced Chris Botti’s last couple of records, which I’ve done a little work on. That’s how we got to meet each other, through Chris. And I’ve always kinda been a fan, especially of the Jaco Pastorius record, his first solo album called Jaco, which I just felt was an incredible album, and that was sort of our model, to do something real creative, real eclectic and real varied stylistically like that album.

Smitty: Jeff, you hit your target right on because this is a great eclectic mix of music. And you mentioned Dave Weckl. I can’t say enough about this cat’s musicianship. Unbelievable drum work. And I noticed you’ve got some other great drummers, so you were making sure you had that whole groove thing working.

JL: Yeah, it’s funny because there’s a lot of great musicians in L.A. just in general, but as far as drummers, there’s just so many great drummers, and Vinnie Colaiuta is playing on all the jazzy stuff, we got Dave, we got Abraham. I mean, there’s other drummers that I’d love to work with but we didn’t even get a chance to get into that. Like Michael White is a guy that I love. [Lil’] John Roberts too, I used a lot on my last few records. I mean, he doesn’t live in L.A., but he’s here often, and so I think that’s one area that if you come to the Los Angeles area and you need a drummer, you definitely came to the right place.

Smitty: Yeah, and I notice you have Ada Rovatti on there. Man, I saw her at an Italian Women of Jazz show in New York last year. Man, she’s great.

JL: Yeah, the song “Surreptitious,” there’s a lot of people that really contributed to make it. When you listen to it, you probably think that somebody just arranged it and played it, but it really wasn’t like that. That song kinda came together in a bunch of different sort of stages and it always had a sound that we thought would be great for a Brecker Brothers kind of sound, and so we basically asked Randy and Ada to kinda help us out with that Brecker Brothers vibe, which they definitely put on it, and then on top of that, we got the Blood, Sweat & Tears horn section.

They came in to do a bunch of work and they actually on the spot arranged that song. It was at the end of a 12-hour day. They stuck around the studio for another couple hours and added even more great horn stuff on that, so that was just one of those real lucky songs that had a lot of contributions from a lot of different people, and it’s definitely….I mean, live it’s incredible. It’s so much fun to play. I think a lot of musicians are really kind of paying attention to that one.

Smitty: Yeah, I hope everyone gets an opportunity to hear this music live because this is an incredible treat. It’s sort of like a celebration of a lot of different styles. This record….it’s loaded. I know you are excited about this record.

JL: I am. I mean, this is sort of like my White Album, like when the Beatles made that White Album they kinda put everything they had into it, it was a double album, it was all over the place stylistically, and that’s kinda how we approached this. We didn’t hold back anything. We actually wrote 20 songs for the record that we picked. We didn’t finish 20, but we spent quite a bit of time on most of them in terms of developing them, and then eventually kinda whittled it down to the 13 that are on the record. There’s actually one other song that we did finish that may come out as some kind of bonus track for iTunes or something, I’m not sure what, but yeah, it was just kinda like one of those situations of where it was just very inspired. Bobby Colomby, he’s got so much passion for what he does, and he was like a coach. He was there the whole time to sort of like cheer me on and to inspire me and to give me different ideas of different things to try, and I would bring him songs. One of my favorite songs on the record is a song called “Hudson.”

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.

Smitty: Yeah, now, is that you with the fishing pole in the liner notes?

JL: That is me.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

JL: I thought that was great. Blue Note is so famous for their artwork. Gordon Gee, who’s head of their art department there, he came up with this great idea, which was to go out to the Santa Monica Pier, and the photograph that’s on the cover is me walking underneath the Pier.

Smitty: Oh cool.

JL: And it looks like trees or it looks like—you don’t quite know what it is because it’s a little out of focus. But that’s what that is and then he got this really cool beanie hat and this old vintage fishing pole and took a bunch of shots of me kinda fishing the hat out of the bay there.

Smitty: Yeah, that’s pretty slick.

JL: I just thought that was a very clever and very funny approach and visually it’s pretty interesting too.

Smitty: Yes, very creative. Jeff, this is a great project you’ve got and there were names we didn’t even mention like Russell Malone.

JL: Yeah.

Smitty: These are legends.

JL: That’s funny ‘cause I saw Russell play with Diana Krall, I don’t know, like 10 or 15 years ago at this jazz festival in Europe and I’ve always been a huge fan, and we knew we needed somebody great on “Burn Brightly” and we wanted a guitar because we had a lot of saxophone and trumpet on the record. We wanted to kind of mix it up a little bit and somehow Russell Malone’s name came up and we were just very fortunate to have him and he just plays a burning solo on that track.

Smitty: Yes he does. What a way to close out the record, you know? Wow.

JL: Supposedly, he liked that tune so much that he’s already playing that tune in his own sets.

Smitty: Wow! That’s fantastic!

JL: After we sent it to him, he showed up at the studio and he really didn’t need the music or anything and he really knew the song really well already.

Smitty: Yeah, he’s an incredible musician. I love his latest project too. So, let’s see, the record dropped when?

JL: April 3rd.

Smitty: April 3rd, wow. That’s exciting.

JL: Definitely, you know, it’s a challenging time for all of us in the music business these days, but we hope people will actually go out and buy one of those plastic discs known as a compact disc. (Both laugh.)

Smitty: I totally understand.

JL: Well, if they do, I’m pretty sure they won’t be disappointed.

Smitty: I totally agree, man, and I was about to say if they pick this one up, then it’ll be well worth the trip to the store and well worth the dollars to put it in the changer, man. This is a great record with some incredible musicians and I’m not gonna let you slide. Man, we’ve been talking about all of the other musicians on this record but you threw down some incredible solos on this record yourself. Man!

JL: Well, you know, it was funny ‘cause the last few records we were more focused on writing and style and, I mean, playing kinda came into it eventually, but working with Steve Dubin, he’s sort of a nerd like me and he kinda loves to like stare at his computer and play with stuff inside the computer and move things around and come up with real imaginative like unusual sounds and stuff like that, and I love those records. I mean, the last one got a Grammy nomination, so I can’t be mad at that. You know, the last time that happened to me was 20 years before that.

Smitty: Yeah.

JL: So but this record, the way I describe it is like sort of the action got off the computer screen and into the room of live musicians playing and the action was not inside the computer, it was in the studio, and I think that’s why, because it was just more of a player’s record, more playing going on, and that freed me up to really be inspired and really kind of excel in that area, I hope.

Smitty: Yeah, I would say so, man, because there’s that overriding voice of your keyboard playing on here that’s just incredible.

JL: Thank you.

Smitty: Yeah, man. Well, I must say that this is one that everyone should pick up because it’s just a great record and it has all of the elements of just a great improv gig. It’s almost like having a live record, you know?

JL: I mean, that’s very much the way it is. Everything on the record is pretty much organic, there’s almost nothing synthetic anywhere except for a little bit of some synthesized strings here and there. That’s kinda the main synthetic element. Everything else is real: the real horns and real piano and Rhodes and bass, and when it comes to instrumental music, sometimes it’s like the real instruments have so much more depth to it and more like when you listen to it over and over again you hear little variations about how things were played, like every snare drum sounds different when you use a real drummer, and also real drummers, you know, they bring so much emotion to the song, and that’s really what we were going after.

Smitty: Yes, and the great pleasure that everyone has the opportunity to experience is to get out and hear this great record live because, I mean, after picking up this record on the 3rd of April, then comes this great tour that you have lined up.

JL: Yup.

Smitty: And, man, you’ve got some great cities and some great gigs lined up, and I would tell everyone to go to your Web site.

JL: Yeah, go to www.lorber.com and check it out. We’re trying to get more so, I mean, I’m basically going everywhere I can and doing everything I can do to let people know about this, so….I’m not saying no to anything at this point. (Both laugh.)

Smitty: Well, that’s cool. And you’re gonna be at the Smooth Jazz Awards Show in Canada too, right?

JL: Yeah, my first time doing that. It’s funny because they used to have the Smooth Jazz Awards in the U.S. for a few years and I was the MD of that a number of times, and I guess we don’t have that anymore, but they’ve had it up in Canada for a few years, so I’m glad to have a chance to check that out. I have a good buddy up there, this guy Alexander Zonjic, that’s a flute player. He’s sort of the Mac Daddy of the Detroit jazz scene. He promotes shows and he’s in a lot and he’s got the morning show on the radio station up there, and so he’s basically my sponsor when it comes to things Canadian.

Smitty: Yeah, and he emcees that show, the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards Show.

JL: Right.

Smitty: He does a great job with it too. Well, I will tell you this: you’re in for a treat at that show because it’s a gala. They do it right in Canada, let me tell ya, so you’re in for a good time.

JL: I’m looking forward to it.

Smitty: Yeah.

JL: And Toronto’s a great city. Honestly, I haven’t had a chance to really spend a whole lotta time there, so maybe I’ll get a chance to really drive around a little bit and see a little bit of that town ‘cause I’ve heard good things about it.

Smitty: Oh yeah.

JL: I know they’re making all our TV shows up there, right?

Smitty: Yes indeed. (Both laugh.) And you’re still doing the radio show?

JL: A little radio show on Sunday nights on Sirius and I’m glad they let me do that. They let me kind of play an eclectic mix and actually in the month of April we’re gonna have a few live performances in the studio. Jeff Golub, Kyle Eastwood and Rick Braun are all gonna be featured, so we don’t do that very often, but we’re gonna be doing that the month of April.

Smitty: That’s a nice lineup. Jeff, thanks again for this great record, and keep doing your thing, we love what you’re doing, it’s always highly anticipated when you do a record, so once again, my hat’s off to you for another great project.

JL: Thanks very much.

Smitty: All right, we’ve been talking with Blue Note recording artist Mr. Jeff Lorber. He has released a fantastic new record that dropped on April 3rd. You have got to check out this record. It is called “He Had A Hat.” Jeff, it’s been a pleasure, my friend, and best of everything in 2007.

JL: Thanks so much. I appreciate it a lot.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.lorber.com and www.bluenote.com