Smitty:  Yeah, absolutely. You know how to pick ‘em, man!  (Both laughing)

RF:  Been lucky.

Smitty: Well, speaking of great musicians, you’ve had such a mainstay with one of my great friends in this business, and I mean a great friend, and that’s Kim Stone.

RF:  Oh yeah. He’s been with us almost since the beginning, for about 18 years.

Smitty:  Yeah, he came in around, what, Curves Ahead?

RF:  Yeah.

Smitty:  Yeah, and he has just been such a great bass player and a great guy, like you mentioned.

RF:  You know, it’s funny because I think people really equate him most with the Jazz Cat. He’s the coolest cat, kind of a beatnik, you know.  (Both laughing)  He’s got the lifestyle.

Smitty:  Yeah, you know, I think he’s one of the top 5 bass players on the scene, he’s so cool and he’s always got it goin’ on, and it’s always a great hang with him. You mentioned the Jazz Cat and I’ve always been intrigued by Bill Mayer as I have been with Charles Schulz with the whole Charlie Brown series because I think there are certain people that have such magnificent talent that we see the talent but we don’t really know the person. We know that one clear fact, that they are just phenomenally talented. Talk to me about your impression of meeting Bill and talking to him and the kind of guy he is.

RF:  Well, no doubt he’s an outstanding talent and very, very nice guy, super nice guy.  I made the mistake of introducing him to our fans in Atlanta one time. You know, he had come to see the show, and I was effusive in my praise of our great Jazz Cat artist and that’s the last I ever saw of him at any show. (Both laughing)  I don’t think he liked the recognition. I think he likes being more anonymous.

Smitty:  Yeah, and I can understand that, and I wanna say this now, that we have enjoyed his artistry and creativity with the Jazz Cat because he’s created such a great mix of those over the years for the band.

RF:  Genius, absolute genius.

Smitty:  Yeah, and that was such a pull, I think, of the fans to that Jazz Cat, I really do.

RF:  Sure, absolutely.

Smitty: Let’s talk about this record a little bit more, man. 

RF:  What’s your favorite song?

Smitty:  My favorite song?

RF:  Mm-hmm.

Smitty:  Oh ho ho…”Kiss Under the Moonlight.”

RF:  You liked that?

Smitty:  I love that track. That’s a great track.

RF:  Great job by Koz on that, huh?

Smitty:  Yes.

RF:  And that’s a performance top to bottom on his part. We didn’t have to edit him and, you know how it is, sometimes you have to comp and you have a bunch of takes. That was the real thing.

Smitty:  Wow!

RF:  Yeah, he’s a wonderful player.

Smitty:  Oh, man, is he ever. I also liked “Six Four.”

RF:  Yeah, that’s just featuring Steve Reid and Dave Karasony.

Smitty:  Yeah, and once again it goes back to those great rhythm sections, man, absolutely. Well, now, let me ask you:  you’ve been a part of this, you’ve been right there in the middle of all of this, if anyone could talk about some of the peaks of this whole 20 years, talk to me about your top two or three peaks or highlights of things that happened along the way, be it the music, encounters with the fans, a significant turning point, or just any of those things that really strike you along the way.

RF:  Well, okay. One of the early ones was going to Puerto Rico. I’ll never forget. We really started touring through the Caribbean countries and that opened my eyes totally to the whole different kinds of music, and I really started getting into the whole Latin music thing and I credit all the fans in the Caribbean countries for that. That was one peak. And, of course, when we had number one records, that was a wonderful experience. Our first one was Welcome to the St. James Club. Another peak for me was Black Diamond.  That was really kind of a reinvention of my songwriting and just the way I was approaching music.

Smitty:  Yes.

RF:  That was a really good time and, another big one for us was Life in the Tropics.

Smitty:  Oh yeah, one of my favorites all time.