Smitty: Oh, yes you did, and I’m sure if James has heard it, I’m sure he’s proud of what you did with that song. He’s such a gracious man and a great person, and at his age he is still out there doing his thing and doing it strong.
Najee: He sure is. As a matter of fact, at that time when I was talking to him, he said “Yeah, I’m on my way to Japan.” I was like “Okay, man.” (Both laugh.) You know? He’s still hitting the trail, you know?
Smitty: Yeah, and that’s love from the heart for the music when you’re doing that.
Najee: Oh yes.
Smitty: Yeah. Well, that was so cool that you did that song. And “Child at Heart,” now is that part of the secret, man, to your youthfulness?
Najee: (Laughs.) Well, I don’t know. To be honest with you, I wrote that song a couple of years ago and it was one of those songs that just sat in the can that I didn’t know what to do with, and I brought it back and decided that it needed to be a little more harmonically elevated. So I brought in Phil Davis to help me, who’s a great piano player, and then we decided to just keep it a simple song and that’s what we did. Acoustic bass, drums, and myself and Phil on piano, and that was it. We just kept it as a very organic track. The only electric thing on there was some of the electronic strings, but everything else was just us playing together.
Smitty: Yeah, that’s a beautiful song, man.
Najee: Thank you.
Smitty: Yeah, I’m glad you pulled that one out of the can, brotha.
Najee: Oh yeah. (Both laugh.)
Smitty: And one of my favorites is “Still in Love.” That one should go to radio first, by the way.
Najee: You know, I sent it. I think they chose something else. I think they chose “Come What May,” the one that I wrote with James.
Smitty: Yeah, which is nice, too.
Najee: Yeah, but generally Heads Up, they send like four songs to radio and then they make their recommendations as to what they would like, you know?
Smitty: Right. Well, I love “Come What May,” but “Still in Love” kinda grabs me differently and it’s just a beautiful song.
Najee: Yeah.
Smitty: And you gotta talk to me about Chris “Big Dog” Davis. He’s a bad boy, isn’t he?
Najee: He really is, man. He’s one of those underutilized producers and artists that I think, you know, his time is coming, but he’s beginning to work with a lot of different people. He’s produced Maysa, he’s produced Kim Waters, I believe Marion Meadows is going to work with him.
Smitty: Yeah, cool.
Najee: Yeah, he’s one of those guys…he worked with Will Downing for many years and Brian McKnight as a keyboard player. Yeah, so he’s one of those great guys.
Smitty: He’s got some serious talent.
Najee: Oh yes, oh yes.
Smitty: And then you got my East St. Louis homeboy Phil Perry on here. (Both laugh.)
Najee: Oh yes. You know what? I gotta tell you, man, that was a total fluke because I had called Chris Davis “Big Dog” up in Connecticut and I said “Listen, man, I need one more song, just one,” that’s a little classic type thing that I do. He said “Man, I’ll take care of you,” and I didn’t know what he was gonna come up with. I just went up to his house and he began playing a song and here’s Phil’s voice on there. I was totally surprised! And it just so happened that Phil had been up there working with him and came up with that track and they both wrote that together. I was like “Man, that’s…man, what a blessing,” you know?
Smitty: How cool is that?
Najee: Yeah.
Smitty: Oh, you know, there are so many surprises and beautiful things that happen when you’re out there making great music like that. You have beautiful people around you and so many wonderful things like that happen and, I tell ya, I love this track. Phil threw it down on this one.
Najee: Oh, he sure did. He went to that old school thing, man. I was like you gotta be at least in your forties to understand it, you know? (Both laugh.)
Smitty: Absolutely, absolutely. Let’s not give away too much here.
Najee: Hey, you know?
Smitty: Yeah. And something else, man, that I really love is as we’re talking about the record….your live performances are just incredible and I notice audiences just gravitate to the point of almost just wanting to get on the stage with you when you’re playing, and that’s a beautiful thing when you can reach people that way with your music.
Najee: Oh, thank you so much, man. Yeah, well, to me it’s about the people, you know? That’s always been my philosophy. Maybe it’s because I played in the show bands when I was a kid. And it was always about making the people wanting to come and see you, and so that tradition of that is really—I used to hate when I was younger. You’d go to a jazz concert and you’d hear a great player, but the people walked away not remembering anything. Nothing memorable that made them talk about the concert other than the people who understood the music and appreciated that point of it, but generally I used to sometimes watch shows and people just wouldn’t walk away remembering anything about the artist that made them say “You know what? I’m coming back to see this guy.”
Smitty: Yeah.
Najee: I mean, over the years now that’s changed and that’s always been my thing is to bring a show where people would want to come back, and over the years I’ve seen a lot of audiences now get better at that.
Smitty: Absolutely.
Najee: Now you’ll go to shows and you’ll see artists dancing and playing the horns and doing what they do now, but…
Smitty: Yeah.
Najee: And the game has changed so much.
Smitty: Yes it has and that’s a beautiful thing to see, you know, artists interacting more with the audience and just pulling them into the whole event.
Najee: Yeah, I agree. I think that’s the key.
Smitty: Yes, absolutely. Talk to me about one more song here.
Najee: Sure.
Smitty: And that’s “Smooth Sailing.” I mean, you’ve got one of the longstanding great guitarists, Ron Lawrence.
Najee: Yeah.
