Jazz Monthly.com Interview with maysa

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Maysa
Interview by Baldwin "Smitty" Smith

Jazz Monthly: With a groove that will grip you like a vise and a variety of hooks that will pull you in and not let go, my next guest has solidified her place in the Funky Groove Hall of Fame. Her live performances is like no other. Every time out she gives it 120% and if you can’t get your groove on with this young lady, there is something wrong with you. Her latest record is called Metamorphosis and it is case in point of the wonderful performer that she truly is. It merely adds another row of track lights on her already amazing career. Please welcome the incomparable Maysa Leak. How you doin’, Maysa?

Maysa: I’m fine. How are you?

Jazz Monthly: I’m wonderful. I am really digging Metamorphosis.

Maysa: Oh, that’s good.

Jazz Monthly: This is just fantastic. Man, I mean, every song has just got such a hook, a groove. I mean, it just grabs you and don’t let go.

Maysa: That’s good. I hope so.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and I think it’s sort of like this beautiful blend of 1960s jazz with 2008 jazz. It’s got some Ella Fitzgerald, it’s got some Nancy Wilson and it’s got Maysa all over it. I mean, it is funky, girl!

Maysa: Oh, that’s good. Thank you.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed. And you’ve got to take me back because there are a couple of things I found out about you recently. I thought I knew my girl Maysa, and I gotta say this and I don’t think I’ve ever said this before and I’m gonna try to be as professional as possible, as I usually am, but I just gotta say I love me some Maysa! (Both laugh.)

Maysa: That is so nice. That’s so cool.

Jazz Monthly: I mean, no matter where I am, when I hear you, it’s like, oh, stop, everybody.

Maysa: That is so cool. This is great.

Jazz Monthly: Oh, that’s the real. I’m feeling it every time out. And I know I’m speaking for thousands of people when I say that.

Maysa: Oh, thank you. This is great.

Jazz Monthly: I have seen your audiences so captivated and in such a groove when you’re on stage and so I know I’m speaking for thousands out there when I say that.

Maysa: Aw, that’s good. And it’s a blessing, really, when I’m standing up there. That makes me feel so good because I’ve been working for 17 years and through working with Stevie [Wonder] and Incognito, all that kind of stuff, to be able to reach people, that’s just my whole goal. That’s what it’s all about for me and it’s all about the people who buy my music and what I can help them through, whatever they’re going through, or if I can help them have a good time. That’s what my whole life is about, making the right music for people.

Jazz Monthly: And you have done that. And I love your unmatched eloquence, your passion and your strength for delivering every time out because you have accomplished that, and I think you have really done that on the level of those that you’ve worked with like Stevie. We know how Stevie can move people from the stage.

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: we know how Bluey can do that, and you have absolutely nailed it. You have.

Maysa: Aw, thanks, Smitty.

Jazz Monthly: You’re welcome. Now I was watching Baisden After Dark a few weeks ago and lo and behold, my girl shows up, and it’s Maysa on Baisden After Dark, so automatically I’m excited.

Maysa: Aw.

Jazz Monthly: And I’m so thankful that he asked you this question about your humble beginnings, and I did not know that you had aspired to be an opera singer in the beginning.

Maysa: Yeah, this was what I degreed in from Morgan State University. I spent seven years on the Morgan Choir and training in classical voice techniques with my voice teacher for such a long time, but the jazz music and jazz funk was calling me so hard, I really couldn’t dedicate my life to singing opera, but of course all the training and everything I’ve had I incorporated into what I do so that I keep my voice going for longevity.

Jazz Monthly: So you were at Morgan State and you were in the Morgan Choir?

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: Wow. Now I saw you totally off the cuff sitting on a barstool on Baisden After Dark. He asked you to just do a little something in opera and, girl, I’m sitting there like I can’t believe this. It was incredible. You just ripped off a line like you were opening at Carnegie Hall. It’s like look at her! I said you wait til I see her again, you know? All this time. (Both Laugh)

Maysa: I usually—I was doing it in my shows. On my second solo CD, All My Life, one of the songs—the title song “All My Life”—I wrote an excerpt from an aria and so instead of, you know, I just sang it in Italian and all it says is that “I’ve been loving you all my life” in Italian and I did it in the aria form so that people would see what I learned in school basically, and it’s singing Italian on the album. That’s kind of fun.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, man, but I just never put two and two together until I actually heard you say that, and I’m like wow, and you could just have this dual career in funk jazz and opera.

Maysa: So yeah, so yeah, I mean, and it’s awesome when I can show what I was learning and it was so diverse at Morgan as far as my vocal technique. They taught us to try to do more than one thing and because I love jazz so much and Dr. Nathan Carter really recognized that, and my teachers at Betty Ridgeway, they would tell me that I really could at any time just go straight and be an opera singer if I wanted to.

Jazz Monthly: Wow, that is so sweet. Your voice has such strength and such stamina, and it’s the kind of voice that people readily identify with and it’s a voice that you can just mesmerize people with because it fills the room like nobody’s business.

Maysa: Oh, awesome.

Jazz Monthly: I’ve seen you do a show to tracks.

Maysa: Yeah.

Jazz Monthly: And it’s like sometimes some artists can really pull that off, and it’s great, but your performance, it’s like you forget it, you just forget all about—

Maysa: Oh, good.

Jazz Monthly: You forget all about the fact that there’s no one else up there but you because you just take over.

Maysa: Yes, I do. Because I have to make up for the fact that I don’t have musicians because I absolutely love trading spiritual things musically, trading off with musicians, because that’s what it’s really about. It’s a conversation. And to not have the actual musicians up there where I can look them in the eye, we can laugh or joke or wink at each other or actually play off of each other, it’s really difficult to do, but when I have to do tracks, I just try to make it come alive as much as usual because it’s hard on everybody, really, because a lot of people don’t like tracks. A lot of the audience people don’t like it either.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, but you really have mastered that to the best degree when the actual musicians are not there with you, and it’s just a testament to your style and what you bring to the stage, which is just gorgeous. So tell me now, I want to back up to Stevie Wonder because that had to be an incredible experience.

Maysa: Oh yeah.

Jazz Monthly: Just talk about the beginning of hooking up with Stevie and doing such a great year of performing.

Maysa: Yeah, well, what I did, I started off when I was in the last year at Morgan, I’m a senior, and he came to Baltimore and my best friend happened to be singing with him already. She had gone on a year before and she was walking down the street and going to a rehearsal studio and some guy asked her did she want to sing background for Stevie Wonder and she thought he was joking, but actually turned out to be a real audition and so it was really weird how it happened because she got the audition and she passed it.

She sang with him about a year and then she said that he was looking for a voice like mine, like a deeper alto voice, and she wanted to know did I want to audition. I’m like “Do I want to? Are you crazy?” And so I got to audition for him. He came to Baltimore to do a Martin Luther King celebration and I auditioned. He said I did a great job, but I asked him could I finish school first before I came to California and would he mind if I waited, and he had thought that was great. He was like “Wow.” I said “Well, my parents have sacrificed so much for me to be able to go to school, I want to know if I could just finish and get my degree and then I’ll come and start doing what I want to do in life,” you know?

Jazz Monthly: Yeah.

Maysa: What happened was it turned out to be the right place at the right time because that’s when he was doing the Jungle Fever album. Once I graduated from Morgan and I moved there in February ’91, he was just beginning that record, so I got to sing background on that album.

Jazz Monthly: Wow. Absolutely fantastic. Man, so you must have just been floating on a cloud.

Maysa: I know. I’m telling you, I always tell people that the humbleness that’s in my heart will never go away because I remember sitting my parents’ basement, saying to myself, okay, how am I gonna get from here to there? And I didn’t know how. I didn’t know how it was gonna happen. I remember talking to God about it so much, that “God, I really wanna be a singer.” Melba Moore is the reason why I started singing anyway. When I was six years old my parents took me to see her and to see Purlie, and when she came out on stage and opened her mouth, I was done. I remember that feeling in my heart, like I just have to do this. So as a teenager growing up and listening to all that great music from the 70s, and I stayed at my parents’ basement floor, and my mother would come down there and I would be asleep with all those albums around me and stuff, and I just listened to music so much and I think that’s how I stayed out of trouble.

I mean, I wasn’t interested in peer pressure and all that kind of stuff. I just stayed home learning music my whole childhood basically, so to be able to sing today and do what I do what I do and be recognized for what I’m doing and go around the world and sing to people, that’s the most—the ultimate, most beautiful gift that God has put into my life besides my beautiful parents and my son. That’s the best gift God has given me and I’m forever grateful for it and I’ll never take it for granted, not one second of the day.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, that’s so cool. Just talk a little about some of the places you’ve been that have just been amazing to you because your music has taken you around the world, which is very—

Maysa: Oh yeah, oh definitely. Like for instance, I’ve gone to Morocco, I’ve gone to Budapest, I’ve gone to Kazakhstan, where I don’t think—they didn’t understand anything I was saying, but I was with Incognito and they were singing every word to every song, you know? So it’s like amazing. I’ve been to Russia a few times. I’ve been everywhere in the world except for India and Egypt. Those are the two places I wanna go and I’m gonna try to go there. If I ever go on a vacation in my life, those will be the places I would go.

Jazz Monthly: Wow.

Maysa: But for right now, I mean, it’s just an amazing experience because when we go, especially to foreign countries, and you think, oh, what’s the reaction gonna be? I mean, with Incognito it was different. I knew that we had sold a lot of records around the world, but when you go and do solo stuff in different countries and I go on stage and people are singing “Can We Change the World,” that’s just insane. (Both laugh.) That’s why I don’t get high. I never did drugs. I get high every time I sing.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, I love that.

Maysa: Or every time people ask me what I do for fun and I’m having fun all the time.

Jazz Monthly: How cool is that, man? Wow.

Maysa: Yeah, it’s great.

Jazz Monthly: Let’s move to the new record because—

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: Speaking of Bluey, you did a song on there, right, that recognizes Bluey.

Maysa: Yeah, it’s called “Let’s Figure it Out: A Song for Bluey.” It’s an instrumental song that I wrote. Everything you hear on the track, I wrote it, and basically how I did that is I sang every part to my producer Chris Davis. I sang every part to him. I sang the drums, the bass, the two different melody lines, strings, everything, I sang to him, and I said “This is how I want this to go” and then I would sing it, the melody, or sing the song or I would tell him how I want the drum beat to go or the bass line. And so he did, he just put it down for me and the keyboards and then we called Nick Colionne to come play the solo for us, and it just turned out great because it’s like it shows that I can write instrumental music. I don’t just have to write lyrics songs, and also that I wanted to do something for Bluey because he’s written me so much great music over the years. I wanted to show him that I’ve been listening to him and I’ve been watching and paying attention to what he’s doing as a producer and that I get it. I mean, that’s all I want him to know, that I get it and I wanted to write something really nice for him.

Jazz Monthly: Man, that’s really sweet. It really is. And I love that song and I love Nick’s guitar playing on that track too.

Maysa: Yeah, it’s beautiful. I love it.

Jazz Monthly: He’s a bad boy.

Maysa: Yeah, he is.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, in fact, he mentioned to me how much he really enjoyed the music and doing the music on it.

Maysa: He did?

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, he had a lot of beautiful things to say about you, that’s for sure.

Maysa: Aw, that’s cool. Yeah, he’s so sweet.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and I gotta tell you, one of my other favorites on this project is “My Destiny.”

Maysa: Oh, nice!

Jazz Monthly: Man, that’s my goose bump song!

Maysa: Oh, that’s good.

Jazz Monthly: I love to play that one over and over because it’s just got something that makes you wanna move, you know?

Maysa: Uh-huh, that’s good.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and I think sometimes we take for granted the flow of music.

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: As we get into it, but when you sit back and just listen to the flow of the music and the lyrics, it’s an amazing thing.

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: And that’s really something that really makes us move when we think about it.

Maysa: Yeah.

Jazz Monthly: Because we have the flow and rhythm, because I really think that the majority of things that happen on this earth is based upon rhythm.

Maysa: Oh yeah, I believe that too. Time and rhythm.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, you know? And when I get into “My Destiny,” the song has such a flow of rhythm with a voice that the two start to intertwine to where you can’t help but just get into that flow. It’s almost like it pulls you in and you become part of the flow of the music.

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: And that’s a beautiful thing because music is designed to actually make you a part of it when we think about it.

Maysa: Yeah.

Jazz Monthly: And when that is accomplished sort of automatically without effort, it’s a cool thing.

Maysa: Oh yeah.

Jazz Monthly: It’s almost hard to describe.

Maysa: Yeah, and when I wrote the lyrics for that, I was in this space of mind where it’s like I just know something great is gonna happen from this record, but after you work for 17 years and you’re on this kinda like the same level, I mean, I’ve been building up and building up, and I haven’t been afforded the kind of successful marketing and publicity that other singers have had that made them go on to have bigger careers, so I often wonder if it’s because I don’t have the right management or because I don’t have the right, you know, everything in place, or at one time I was all focused on my weight and all that kind of stuff and all those things came and when I turned 40 years old, that stuff stopped being important to me, and what I decided and what I know and when I would talk to ministers and when I talked with people, counselors or people who really are in tune with what the reality of the world is, is that I can make my destiny and whatever I focused on.

I know this is so true because it happened so many times in my life—what I focus on the most is what I’m gonna get and it’s because we’re all—the universe is such a beautiful, wonderful place. God has put this universe here with everything. There’s so much of an abundance of everything on this earth that you can attract whatever you want to you so what is negative or positive by your frame of mind and by how you talk and your speech and your frame of mind, basically. So “My Destiny” means to me, that song is just—it’s like people are tired, people are scared, people are frustrated, and I’m just trying to encourage people like the book The Secret, and to me I was going through, before The Secret came out, it’s called The Law of Attraction, so all those things are incorporated to—they’re all here. I think that’s what Jesus teaching, to be honest. It’s like everything is here. You just have to know how to access it. And that way, I think it’s about being positive and working hard and have a good work ethic and being true to yourself, you know?

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, I agree.

Maysa: That’s what I’ve been. All these years I’ve been true to myself from Day One. I never tried to starve myself so I could get into a size one outfit so they think it’ll sell some records. I never compromised my morals, I never slept with anybody in the business to try to get something happening, I never did drugs with anybody to try to get somebody to like me. I mean, all these things, I know that’s the right way to go and that’s what I want to teach these kids that are coming up now, that you don’t have to compromise anything. You just have to think, you have to talk and speak and walk the walk. Whatever you want to do, it will come to you. You just have to really focus on it.

Jazz Monthly: Right, and do the right thing, like you said, yeah.

Maysa: Yup, and do the right thing.

Jazz Monthly: Absolutely. Well, I can tell you, anyone listening this record will feel that vibe and the realism of it.

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: And I really think that you’ve really scored with this one because it has all of those elements, it really does.

Maysa: Yeah.

Jazz Monthly: And I wanna talk about Track No. 1.

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: When most people see the title “I Need A Man.”

Maysa: Uh-huh.

Jazz Monthly: They’re could gravitate to many thoughts. But let’s talk about that song and what it really means.

Maysa: What it really means is that I believe that we need to return to the core value of the family. I think a lot of the reason why the world has gone haywire, why people are going haywire, why people are going crazy and not thinking straight is basically due to a low self-esteem. I think people who don’t love themselves—I used to hate when people said “Oh, Maysa, you don’t love yourself enough.” I was like “No, I love myself a lot. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But when you have a high self-esteem, you don’t wanna to hurt anybody.

Jazz Monthly: Right.

Maysa: You wanna help people, you wanna love people when you have a high self-esteem—and that truly to me comes from being brought up with a strong family unit. And I know some people didn’t grow up like that and still turned out great. There are people who did it because at some point we do make a choice on what your character’s gonna be. You do make choices at some point.

Jazz Monthly: Right.

Maysa: But I grew up with my mother and father in the household and my father was a strong man who worked hard and he showed me how to work hard. He had a strong work ethic. He was good to us, he loved us, and he took care of us. And my mom was his partner. She was like his ace, you know, and she took care of the household and when he got sick she went to work, and these things, they just had a team, they had a system going, and it made me and my brothers realize that’s why we’re all still close to this day because we all watched my father and mother and how they interacted.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, that’s so true.

Maysa: And I think we all—none of us were on drugs and all that kind of stuff. That’s like we all kind of got it together because I think we grew up like that. And I’m not saying that people who grow up in single family homes don’t have those values, but what I’m saying is that I think we need to return to that more, to kind of not just talk about yeah, no, he’s sorry, he ain’t paying his child support, he ain’t no good. I mean, I think we need to encourage men that this is the right thing to do. It’s not so cool to watch men walk away from their kids, it’s not so cool to not worry about whether you’re responsible for your children, but I don’t wanna brow beat men with that. I want them to learn, I want them to know, I want them to feel, I want them to think it’s a great thing to do your best for your kids as much as you can even though you may have to deal with a mother who’s not stable. I mean, you still do what you can for your kids and all that kind of stuff. And relationships are hard, so my song basically is saying—I’m telling people what I want.

Jazz Monthly: Yes.

Maysa: Because I need a man, I want a man who’s strong and who walks tall and who’s a decent and caring person and who knows his responsibility and does the best he can to take care of that responsibility, and won’t walk away when he’s just kinda frustrated or something like that. And it’s all relative because people may choose the wrong person or that kind of stuff, but my whole thing is to get the family values back together where people eat dinner together again, go sit down and have a meal together, even just once a week they all get together. Every night would be ideal, that kids and parents eat together and see their parents are together, that everybody eats dinner together…I just think that’s a beautiful thing.

Jazz Monthly: Yes it is.

Maysa: And I just hope—I always want that kind of thing back. So I know the controversy will be like “Oh, Maysa, she’s just begging for a man.” That’s not it. I’m asking God for a man who has those values, who’s ready to love me, because I’m not gonna share nobody husband because I’ve never been that kind of woman. I have faith in myself so much in my life because I refuse to compromise, I refuse to share other people’s men. You know, that’s ridiculous to me.

Jazz Monthly: Yes it is.

Maysa: And, you know, I would rather just stay alone.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, and I love that because what I feel in that song as well as every track on this project is that it’s the epitome of the freedom of expression through music and it’s a revelation of your heart and soul.

Maysa: Mm-hmm.

Jazz Monthly: And I think that’s so beautiful and that you articulated that through music not in a controversial way but in a way of expressing it not only from your heart but capturing the hearts of others.

Maysa: Right, right.

Jazz Monthly: It’s a beautiful way of doing it and I think you really did it so well. And I gotta tell ya, the band of support that you have, these cats can burn. You have some great musicians around you. Just talk a little bit about some of the musicians that you’re working with right now that support you so well.

Maysa: I’ve worked with great musicians in my life as far as like my bands for Baltimore or D.C. area, but I have a great new band out of Philly with Charles Baldwin, the bass player. He played bass on Emeril Live and was in the show. Walt Brock, music director, plays with Najee. I mean, everybody. He plays with so many musicians. But he’s got him a whole band out of Philly just about now and they are just—these musicians love me. They take care of me, they care of me musically and they watch out for me off stage too.

Jazz Monthly: That’s so cool.

Maysa: I feel very protected all the way around, you know?

Jazz Monthly: Oh yeah.

Maysa: Very safe. Yeah, I’ve been working with—the stars, the celebrities, the people I’ve been working with—Nick Colionne and Najee and Incognito and so many great musicians who have taught me so much about the music and being a singer, the business of music, and about, honestly, when I watch Nick Colionne play, he is Nick Colionne. There’s nobody like him.

Jazz Monthly: That’s right.

Maysa: You know? There’s absolutely—there’s nobody that sounds like him, that looks like him, that has the personality on stage like him, and I love that because that’s just so real and he’s not trying to be nobody else, he’s being himself, and I always wish for him—he’s just such a star, man. I’m so in awe of him. Him and Najee—and Najee’s just been playing with us for so long, he’s such a consummate musician, and it’s like I’m so blessed when I get these people who are kinda like friends. And Mike Phillips just called me to play with him on a concert. It’s like it is unbelievable that people are calling me now and things are coming to fruition where I’ve just been blessed with so many great musicians to be surrounded by and to be looked after by.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed. Well, they appreciate the real person you are and the great artist that you are, so that’s confirmation basically when you think about it.

Maysa: It’s earth moving.

Jazz Monthly: So now talk to me about the record. How can people get it? When does it drop?

Maysa: It drops Tuesday, October 14th. It’s gonna be available, of course, online and at Best Buy and Circuit City and I’m sure some of the mom and pop shops around town, and I’m really excited about it. I just feel in my heart this is my best record ever and I just hope that people really embrace it and I hope it does what it’s gonna do. I just hope God really blesses it.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and I think you should carry a couple in your purse because I think wherever you go people are gonna be asking you can they get that record. (Both laugh.)

Maysa: Yeah, you know, I think I will.

Jazz Monthly: Well, Maysa, you know how much I love you and love what you do.

Maysa: Thanks, Smitty.

Jazz Monthly: And I’m just so ecstatic that you’ve got this great record coming out and I wish you all the best with it as well, and please keep doing what you do, girl, because you are well respected, well loved.

Maysa: Aw.

Jazz Monthly: And I can’t wait to see the next live show myself.

Maysa: Oh, it’s gonna be great. I’m doing everything in my power to get to Houston or get to Texas a lot, so it’ll be soon.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed, my friend. Well, all right, so we look forward to seeing you out on the road and thanks again for making this great record for so many people around the world and big ups to you, and I’m just so happy for you.

Maysa: Oh, thank you, Smitty. I really appreciate it.

Jazz Monthly: We have been talking to the incredible, the eloquent, the effervescent Ms. Maysa Leak. Her great new record is called Metamorphosis, it hits the stores October 14th, and I’m gonna give you a piece of advice: if you really love the groove and you really love the fantastic vocals of music, you have to have this record. Maysa, thanks again. All the best to you in 2008 and beyond, my friend.

Maysa: Oh, thank you, sweetheart.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.maysa.com and www.myspace.com/mleak