Jazz Monthly.com Interview with rhonda smith

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Rhonda Smith

Smitty: If you love volcanic, explosive grooves, cutting edge melodies, and a style of music that makes you get your groove on, then you will fall in love with my next guest. Of the several hundred bass players that I’m aware of, only a handful of them can break you off a piece. My next guest falls squarely among this elite group. She’s convincingly the best dressed bass player that I know of. This young lady knows how to get her four-string on. Case in point is her latest CD, RS2. She’s living life in the jazz lane and I just adore her vibe. Please welcome the incredible and amazing Ms. Rhonda Smith. Rhonda, how are you, my friend?

Rhonda Smith (RS): I am excellent, my friend. Thank you for having me. What a pleasure.

Smitty: Yes indeed, my pleasure as well and I’m loving this record and just love what you do with the bass, and I just gotta ask you. When your brother introduced you to the bass, wow, what did he say to you to make you do what you’re doing today?

RS: Well, here’s the thing. He didn’t do it voluntarily, so that was the great thing about it. He brought a bass home one day when he was about 13, 14 and he told me not to touch it, so that was my introduction. (Both laugh.) I waited for him to leave and I touched all over it.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Oh, you know, when they say don’t do it, you know they’re gonna do it.

RS: Oh, you know it, you know it.

Smitty: So talk about that whole experience. I know it was a young age, but sometimes when we do things at that age, it is such a “who knew” moment of what happens later on in life. Talk about what that experience was like for you just to get in there and play with it and touch it and just make sounds with it. Talk about that experience.

RS: It was wonderful. It was as if it filled a void for me. It became my imaginary friend and my best friend at the same time. I love wood. I’ve always loved wood. I’m a lover of wood like in my home—ash wood, dark woods, light woods—and I just love this thing to death. I really got obsessed with it quite ridiculously at a young age and that’s all I wanted to do. Even I remember when I was in elementary school when everyone was taking music class and they were playing ukeleles, for instance. I talked my music teacher into letting me bring my bass in because it had the same amount of strings and they were tuned the same way that the ukulele was so, I mean, why couldn’t I bring my bass?

So she let me do it and I used to haul around my little amp with me, and I remember in high school, I shouldn’t say this, but I used to carve right into my desk with a little ink pen my pictures of guitars. I just loved them. We had garage bands. That’s what I used to do after school, did the high school bands, high school orchestras and jazz bands. I really think it saved me. I know it saved a lot of kids. Music is a wonderful thing. It allowed me to be creative and whether I came up with great stuff or if we really sucked, that was beyond the point.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: No, the point was that we were creating, we weren’t hurting anybody. We were letting our minds go, I wasn’t sitting in front of the TV, and I never did it because I thought, you know, what I would do later in life or maybe what—I thought that I might get out of it or who I might work with or where I might go. It had nothing to do with that. It was just something that I absolutely truly loved to do and still do now, and it’s just been really kind to me and I’ve been really kind to it, and it’s still the same thing for me now. I can only go so long because we get older, and I’m not saying I’m old, but we get older and we get other interests, you know?

Smitty: True that, yeah.

RS: And it’s never changed for me. I can only go so long without having that void again that needs to be filled by it, so I’m really happy to know that it’s a genuine friend. I love music and I love the bass. I never regretted it for a moment, and I’m so grateful and I’m so happy still for the journeys and the stories and the people that the bass allows me to enjoy. It’s really great, great life.

Smitty: Yeah, absolutely, I know, because I know you’ve had quite a career and you’ve had a lot of fun.

RS: (Both laugh.) Who knew? I never would’ve imagined.

Smitty: Yeah, you’ve really had a great career and I just love what you do with the bass, and I think sometimes when you’re on stage you’re somewhat of a sneak attack because I think sometimes people are not ready for what you’re about to give them or they’re not aware of what you can bring until they actually witness it for themselves and it’s mind blowing. I remember just this past summer in Rotterdam. I noticed the reaction of that huge crowd when you did a solo and people were going nuts, and I still remember Marcus Miller back there fanning with a towel. Marcus has been at the top of his game from day one! (Both laugh.)

RS: I love Marcus.

Smitty: Yeah, he’s a great cat, but he has so much respect for what you do with the four-string, you know?

RS: And he’s such a great guy too, a great teacher and a great role model too, and it’s also a lesson that with every other artist that I’ve played with or had the opportunity to be in bands, it’s always been a different type of role, so that’s why it’s kind of fun to surprise people all the time because not in every situation that we’re in all the time do we get an opportunity even to get a solo sometimes. Or to be up front, so sometimes when you have those extra guns and you pull them out, it’s really fun to get a crowd reaction like that. That’s priceless.

Smitty: Yes it is. Your solos are so strong.

RS: Oh, thank you.

Smitty: They’re so profound and they’re totally different and distinctive from any other bass player, and I think that’s the beautiful thing and I think that’s what people love so much about your musicianship. Now, you mentioned that, in the beginning, at an early age, you were just having fun and playing, and you still do, but at what point did it hit you that “I can make a career of this and I can go out and actually tour and have some fun and play in front of larger crowds than the people lined up in the driveway,” you know? (Both laugh.)

RS: I started in an all-girls group when I decided to go to college as a jazz major, because I really, always loved jazz, even though that’s unfortunately not one of the main things that I’ve been able to make a career out of playing, but I grew up with jazz in my family with my mother. That was the music that she always played in the house. I loved (Charles) Mingus, Ron Carter, I mean, all of those guys, and (Eddie) Gomez. I used to listen to them all the time, but where I came from it really wasn’t something that was financially pleasing. It was just really hard to make a living in Canada at the time where I was from, Montreal and I ended up starting to play R&B even though I was trying to be a jazz major because I still loved the acoustic bass and loved to play it, and I found at a very—still at a young age that we were able to go out in these clubs—and I had an all-girls band, I was the youngest—and people really loved what we were doing and at that time and because I was getting a weekly salary which wasn’t great, but it was a start.

Smitty: Yeah, I feel ya.

RS: And I realized at that point in time that I didn’t want to further my education because I probably did not want to teach, for me personally….Later on go the academic route, and my brother has done that, he does that, he is a professor of jazz composition, actually, very well known, very talented guy, actually a bass trombone player and he plays a lot of other instruments, but he’s a great writer, orchestrator. He does tons of things, but I realized for me that that was probably not where I wanted to go. I wanted to go more into performance and I had to make a decision at that time that it was more valuable for me to have the practical experience rather than needing the plaque on the wall. So at that point, that’s when I made the choice.

I knew it was probably gonna upset my parents a little bit but, again, that was the great thing about them, because they have always and still do support me in whatever decisions I’ve made and that makes it so much easier and, of course, I’m very proud of them and they’re very proud of me and I’m proud of all my brothers and sisters, and it’s been an easier journey because of that because not everybody wants their little girl to go on the road with this person and that person (laughs) and be in a club at night and hauling gear around. So they were supportive but they pretty much knew I was gonna be responsible about it, and that’s about the time when I made that decision and I don’t regret it but, I mean, I wouldn’t advise it for everybody, you know? It’s a personal decision. Some people make great teachers, some people want it. Probably if I was in an orchestra playing acoustic or classical music my whole life in an acoustic bass chair, I might have been very happy with that, you know?

Smitty: Yeah. Well, I think you could’ve excelled and had fun at anything. You have that vibe to where you adjust and transition and adapt and have fun, you know? And I think that’s a beautiful thing. Not everyone can do that.

RS: Well, I think that’s what it is too and I always loved music, any kind. It’s just that when I took that journey, it took me down a different place, and when I first started funk and R&B and Prince and all that stuff was not really something that I did all the time, so once I got to America, I really had to learn that stuff and really quick. I had to get up on what was happening because there were a lot of people who were way more advanced and who had played that all the time, so I’m the last one he’s gonna want. I didn’t wanna be the dullest knife on the cutting board. So I had to pull my britches up and get it together. I think I did.

Smitty: Yeah. (Both laugh.) Well, I think you did too. (Both laugh.) And then some.

RS: Oh, thank you.

Smitty: Yes. Well, talk to me about how different it was coming from Canada. I know you mentioned that you had to really jump in and pull your britches up, but was there anything distinctive about growing up in Canada and then coming to the lower U.S. and doing your thing here that was so distinctively different?

RS: Yeah, I think so and I can definitely say stylistically, especially when I was younger and I was looking for things to play, R&B, all of that, urban or soul music was really not even played on the radio that much, unless it was maybe Motown or something classic. You didn’t find bands like that unless they were U.S. guys coming in to play. So you had to really look for that stuff. You had to find somebody over the border who was bringing in those records. That’s the way I found it. It was more of a surplus of jazz or fusion where I grew up. I spent twenty years in Montreal and in that town fusion was a big thing. The group Yusef, Alain Caron, I mean, I knew this guy when I was like twelve years old and my brother bought me a Yusef record when I was twelve. I used to listen to him and Stanley Clarke and a lot of other guys because that was really what was popular there. If you didn’t play fretless—and that was a big difference too—if you didn’t play fretless if you were doing jazz or fusion, well, you weren’t doing anything.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: When I came to the States, that was more of a rarity than a normality.

Smitty: Mm, yeah.

RS: And guys playing slap and all that—and I don’t even know if you call it slap anymore. I don’t. It sounds like such an old word.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: But thumb technique, all of that stuff, top bottom. That’s not something that people did. That’s not something that people did around me. That was a rarity and generally when I saw it when it was somebody who was from Canada, it wasn’t done very well. Or it’s not even a question of the technique; it was more a question of the feel. I didn’t feel like a lotta cats were really feeling it and I still see some cats that I question, although there are certainly a lot more. Because of the Internet, a lot of things have changed. Music is everywhere now, music is universal. You don’t have to go and buy physical records anymore, try to listen on the radio or get a tape of something.

All of that stuff is old. You can just go to iTunes or you can just go on the Web and find anybody’s music from around the world, so that’s a wonderful thing. It’s opened up things but stylistically it was completely different and technique-wise, so when I came to the U.S. at first, I was more adapted to jazz fusion, fretless, that type of stuff, and that’s what shifted for me when I got here, and I think that is a really great thing in someone’s life because when you are artistic, I think it is a blessing if you can be put in a situation where you have to strive to bring a quality about yourself that maybe isn’t as good as something else that you do and so you’re able to raise that up to where the other stuff is, and I think that was great for me as opposed to just sticking with the styles or doing the things that I was more familiar with and advancing with that I was more put into a situation, God willing, to have no choice but to work on the things that were my weaknesses.

Smitty: Yeah. So then you decided to do Intellipop. Talk a little bit about that record and why you were inspired to do that record.

RS: I always loved to write, Smitty, always, and music for me is the same thing. It’s like art. I just wanna stick it out there. If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, you don’t. But it’s gonna get an expression out of you, but it was just songs that I liked. I liked that particular style. That’s me. It’s a little different and that’s fine to me. That’s just a little different than some things I wanted to say and I wanted to start my first footstep coming out a little bit like that and trying to put bass up front. I was always taken back and definitely always in awe of pioneer dudes like Stanley Clarke, who put the bass up front. I mean, he’s like awesome to me. And Stanley, that was so deep what that guy did. It was just amazing.

Smitty: Yeah, and it’s still deep, you know?

RS: It’s amazing and there’s just not a lotta musical situations that you can find to put bass up front. You gotta make it right because it doesn’t fit everywhere, and sometimes I hear bass records from other people that some are okay but some I don’t really like because after a while, after a couple tunes, I’m like eh. I can’t take a whole album of this or a bunch of overplaying. I know you can play, I know you got chops, but I don’t wanna sit at the house and hear the same thing over and over for like an hour.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: Like I’m in a music store, you know? I mean, gee.

Smitty: Exactly. So when you talk about the bass up front—because I often wonder about this because there are some instruments that have been traditionally sort of in the rear or the rhythm section and it’s just not up front, and the bass being one of those traditionally for years, and now you see it just busting up front and some of it is pretty good and some people are doing some pretty wild things, as you mentioned, but in your case, was that something that you had to just really push in front of people or was it something that you said, like you mentioned, “I’m putting this out here, this is how I feel, this is my heart, take it or leave it, here it is”?

RS: I’d say yeah to the latter pretty much. Here it is and I’m gonna build on it. Hopefully down the line’s gonna be a second record with some more exploration, some more growth. Maybe down the line’s gonna be a third one. I definitely wanna make a statement and a sound, you know, that after a collection of things is a sound that people can recognize. That’s the other thing, too, that is very compelling for a lot of players. It’s really hard as a bass player to come out doing records and people can hear you and go “Oh, that’s blah-blah-blah,” even though they might not know the name of the song, but they know the sound. Guys like Marcus and Stanley, I mean, hats off to them. That is an accomplishment in a world of billions of people where you can pick up an instrument that’s the same as everyone else’s.

Smitty: Yes.

RS: But your finger and your mind give you a different sound. That’s important to me too, to try to have my own sound. I think that’s really, really cool, and try to use all of what I have as an instrument. Voice, too, is an instrument, you know?

Smitty: Yes, and you have a great voice.

RS: Oh, thank you.

Smitty: You’re so welcome. And you feature that so well on your latest record, which is a nice segue to RS2. (Both laugh.) I love this record because you mixed it up so well with your voice, with the bass, and with the great players that you have with you, and I know one of your favorites is Mr. Joey Sommerville, which is a cat that I know.

RS: If you didn’t say his name, I was gonna have to say it, so that’s my boy.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: I love Joey Sommerville. He has a vision, he’s been such a great friend of mine over the years and always, always saw my vision and always encouraged me to do it. He’s a wonderful producer, wonderful writer, just a wonderful guy. A great trumpet player too.

Smitty: Yeah, I was gonna say. A monster trumpet player, yeah.

RS: He’s a monster.

Smitty: Yeah, man, I tell ya, on stage, I often say that Joey doesn’t need a microphone because he can blow that horn into the next county. (Laughs.)

RS: I’m sure there’s been at least one occasion where he’s gone up there and the mic hasn’t been on and he just said “Whatever,” knocked it over and just started playing, because that’s how Joey is.

Smitty: Yeah, well, you know, it’s funny you say that. I was in Atlanta on one occasion when that actually happened. (Laughs.)

RS: Wow, I’m not surprised.

Smitty: And, you know, he did not miss it and the crowd didn’t miss it. I mean, he said “All right, forget that. If you can’t get it to work, watch this.” And let me tell ya, he blew that crowd away. I mean, it was just incredible what he did with that horn, yeah.

RS: He’s great and his record’s great. That’s another amazing musician that people need to support. He’s got a great record out. He’s always had great records out. I’m a big fan of Joey Sommerville.

Smitty: Yeah, he’s a great guy. You know what else like? This record is so stylish to start with and you know you’re gonna hear something great just looking at this album, and I gotta tell ya, Track 9 is just my favorite.

RS: Awe.

Smitty: Man, I could just groove to that all night long.

RS: (Laughs.)

Smitty: That is so cool and I often hit repeat when I’m listening because it’s like “I gotta hear that again, I gotta hear that again.” (Both laugh.) I love this entire record and I love your voice on here because I think it’s an incredible mix with your bass playing and the rest of the band, but talk to me a little bit about RS2 because it was quite a leap from your past record in coming to this one. So you were thinking, you know, here’s the next level of Rhonda Smith.

RS: Totally, and you know what? I had just finished the Musicology tour, which was a big year for us with Prince. We went all over the place. It was a really successful tour. And I felt like I had some things that I wanted to say personally and he has always supported me wonderfully too and actually he’s on this record too, which was just a great gift.

Smitty: Indeed.

RS: And going back to No. 9, that’s an interesting thing that you would say that because that song is called “127 Walton Street” or “127” and that is also one of my favorites, but the story behind that song is that’s a childhood home that I grew up with and that music is the reminder of that house and that era, the six years that we lived in that house, so that’s a very special song to me.

Smitty: How ‘bout that?

RS: It’s always kinda magical in the story that it says because I see that red brick house and it’s about a house. It really is. That’s an address and that’s where I grew up. Interesting that you would say No. 9. That’s one of my favorites, but I like a lotta different stuff. I like a lotta fretless too, which is another thing that’s kind of difficult but I love the instrument and I wanted to use a lot more fretless in this record because a lotta people don’t know that I play fretless also. The other thing about the instrument is that every fretless player has a different sound unless they’re trying to clone someone else. I don’t think in particular that I sound like anybody. I think I sound like me.

Smitty: No doubt, yes.

RS: There’s a lotta things with fretless. There’s no frets, so there’s no boundaries. It’s open, it’s all about your emotions, and I always had a feeling that when they got a particular woman out there who was gonna put her emotions into it and her vibrato into it, it would be quite interesting and I was glad that I was able to do a couple of things and have a different fretless sound out there so that hopefully when people hear my fretless too, they’ll go “Oh, that’s Rhonda because she doesn’t sound like Alain, she doesn’t sound like Jaco, she doesn’t sound like Marcus. She’s got a different sound.” I don’t sound like [John] Patitucci. It’s a little different. And all those guys are bad to the bone, but we’re just all different.

Smitty: Right.

RS: Different sounds.

Smitty: Yeah, and a great example of that is “The Hypnotic.” Oh, man, what a track. For people that haven’t heard this, they’re missing something. I’ll just sum it up that way. They are missing something when they don’t hear this record because there is some fantastic music here that I think the whole world should hear because this is a magnificent album, it really is.

RS: I agree, Smitty, but I think that sometimes when you don’t fit into a box, I think we’re in the middle of a change musically, obviously, and we’re in the middle of a change business-wise as far as the record companies are concerned. No disrespect, but I’m not the type of artist—because I don’t make records because I have to; I make records because I want to. I like to play with different artists in my life and play bass because for me, variety is the spice of my life. Musically too. I don’t wanna play one style all the time, I don’t wanna play with the same person all the time.

Even in my own band, I don’t wanna play the same music all the time, but I think that stylistically and marketing-wise, if you’re not doing pop or something, they want you to do the same thing, they want an entire record of the same thing all the time, so it makes it easier for possibly them to sell or market your stuff, but for me as a consumer, that doesn’t necessarily make that a record that I want to buy. Chances are I’m probably bored with it a little bit earlier than the other, but they seem to have a slot easier to put it into or a bin, and I always find that in several groups that I’m in that this is a problem, even with what we do live. Most of the groups that I’ve played with, even live, our show is not one style. We don’t play one style of music consistently where everything is in this genre.

Smitty: And isn’t it amazing that the fans love it?

RS: Smitty, well, that’s the greatest thing about it and it really is a great time right now where I think the number one rule you just have to have, you have to be real and, come on, be able to play, be able to throw down. Now, if you can play and throw down, you’ve pretty much got carte blanche, and if you’ve got some records too, it’s like Donky Kong, come on.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: People just wanna hear good music and they want you to be real and they wanna see that you have confidence in yourself and that you love what you do, and they’re on board after that. I don’t think you have to play the same, you know, have a record of the same type of style or the same type of sound, and it’s, eh, that’s boring. I know what music’s supposed to be about, but I’m not judging everybody else. That’s why I do what I do because it makes me happy.

Smitty: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I wanna go back to something because I wanna ask you about your experience of touring with Prince and Chaka Khan.

RS: Right, and all my idols. That was a trip meeting Larry Graham. Oh my Gosh. When I was a lot younger and I was living in Canada before I came up, I used to date this guy and he had all the old Graham Central Station records that I had never heard before, so I had them on tape back then and, man, I used to like learn “Pow” and all that stuff and play it over and over and over until the tape would just get jumbled up in the machine and broken and I had to take it out with a pen and try to put it back together so that I could play it again, because I couldn’t find half of those records. And then when I got the opportunity to meet this guy and play with him, I was like wow!

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: But those were the moments when I really had to get all this fandom out of you because there’s no time for that. You know, Prince don’t play that. If you can’t hang, you will be hung.

Smitty: (Laughs.) I like that.

RS: It’s true. Much respect, much respect. He’s the consummate performer, just amazing and just diehard standards. It’s like comparatively—mind you, I’ve never been in the service before, but it’s probably like the Special Forces, you know, where it’s just that elite team.

Smitty: Yeah. Well, I think having toured with him and having that kind of respect to tour with Prince and Larry Graham and these cats that have it locked into such a great standard to where the musicianship has gotta be up there, that speaks volumes of your musicianship, you know? When you really think about it, and this is why I say that you are among that elite group of musicians that know how to bring it and I love you for it.

RS: Ha-ha, thank you so much. I look back on it and I’m like geez, he could’ve picked a million different people to do that, but he picked this little girl from Canada out of the snow pile.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: And brought me to snowier Minneapolis, where I had to like learn 300 songs in only two weeks.

Smitty: Mm-hmm.

RS: And play it right too.

Smitty: Yeah, man, and the same thing with Chaka. I mean, you don’t just crawl in there in that band and wing it, you know?

RS: No, no, man, and I got to play on her record, which was really, really great. Again, I did a fretless tune for her. I think it was called “I Remember U” if I remember correctly, but I mean, just amazing. Chaka Khan to me when I first met her, we toured together for probably about a year and a half, which was just a gas. We had like a triple threat with Prince and the New Power Generation. Either Chaka Khan would open or Larry Graham would open.

Smitty: Oh!

RS: Can you imagine that?

Smitty: That’s just slammin’ it!

RS: Can you imagine that? (Laughs.) Yeah, so I mean, that was just amazing.

Smitty: Well, like I said at the beginning of our discussion, I said you’ve had an amazing career and I’m just so happy to introduce you to those that do not know and to reintroduce you to those who do know because you have done some amazing things, and when it comes to music and great people, I get excited to just let everybody know about it. It’s just like, you know, it’s just your favorite thing that you wanna tell people about. So I just applaud you for what you’ve done and I’m just incredibly excited about your fantastic career and this great record, RS2. I mean, it’s just an incredible record that I think, if people haven’t picked it up, they really need to go get it, because they’re missing something from their music library.

RS: I think so, and you know what, Smitty? If they miss it, I’m not mad. I’ve got a great band this year. Starting out in 2008 we have a great show. I have some really strong musicians and a fun show. We are gonna take it around Europe. We’ve got dates in Europe already, we’re gonna start hitting the U.S. We’re gonna bring it to ‘em. We’re doing songs off of Intellipop and mostly RS2, so we’re ready to bring it.

Smitty: Oh, cool. I’ll be there.

RS: And I’m having so much fun. It is such a musical challenge for me. It is musically and physically the hardest show I have ever played in my life. It’s great because I get to play a little bit of everything. I’m really stretching between actually piccolo bass and regular bass. So it is quite cool. And I have another bass player in the band, you know?

Smitty: Nice, nice!

RS: And when I’m doing piccolo, it’s more like, you know, it’s kinda like a tenor bass, between guitar and bass, so it’s more of a lead instrument.

Smitty: Sounds like a very hot show!

RS: Oh, man, am I ever blessed. I’m so blessed.

Smitty: Yes you are. And you are going to put the tour dates on your Web site and your My Space, of course?

RS: Oh, yes. We’re gonna put the dates on there definitely. I have some dates in the fall, but I also have some dates with another artist, so we’re at the point of trying to decide what is the best place, but definitely—and this is all European stuff—but we’ll probably be doing Europe in the summer also. We’re right now just in the process of getting some U.S. dates to start the year off and, of course, we’re in a little thought process because it is the holidays right now, so you know how it is.

Smitty: Yeah, yeah, I do.

RS: Everybody’s—and including us—we’re like “Well, we’ll get back with you in January and let you know.”

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: Because we’re like it is just holiday and eggnog time right now.

Smitty: (Laughs.) So give me your Web site so everybody will know where you are and where you’re located on the Web.

RS: Definitely. I have two that have always worked for me and it’s, of course, www.rhondasmith.com and you can also catch me on www.myspace.com/rhondasmith.

Smitty: Yes, and you gotta go look at those great pictures on My Space. (Both laugh.)

RS: I got more, Smitty.

Smitty: Oh my goodness, yes. Well, I wanna get out to some of that great live music, so I can’t wait to go on your My Space page and check out your tour schedule and catch up to ya and have some fun and get to hear some great music and hear some of that new stuff you’re playing. Wow. So, now, tell me. We left out one person that I just cannot forget to talk about here and that’s our great friend, Ms. Candy Dulfer.

RS: Yeah.

Smitty: You toured with Candy and that must have been a serious thrill because she’s a great person and she has a serious funky vibe, just talk a little bit about your experience of touring with Candy.

RS: Oh my gosh, Candy is fantastic. I first met Candy, of course, working with Prince, where there’s basically two ladies that I knew who had a longer relationship than I have had, which has been ten years with him, which is, of course, Sheila E, who goes back way longer than I do, and Candy, who goes back longer than I do. And I first met Candy, I don’t even know what tour it is because I can’t even remember one tour from the other anymore.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: But I first met Candy when she was touring with us and great girl, great sax player, and the last thing we did together before she asked me to come and do some dates with her was Musicology and we had a great time on that tour. And I did a couple of dates with Candy and one of the really fun things we did—and I spent probably three different trips, if not three months in Europe this year—we did a summer tour with Candy Dulfer & Friends and it was really a lot of fun, but we started the year off earlier with another group that I have, called C.O.E.D, which is an all-girls group with Sheila E on drums, myself, Kat Dyson, and Cassandra O’Neal, and we added Candy as a special guest on sax and we did a month in Europe in February and we went out and toured and it was a ball, man.

We did Paradiso and we played in Paris and we just had such a great time, so we started off 2007 with that so, I mean, Candy’s been a big part of my year. Yeah, always. She’s a great friend, I love her family, I love her Moms, I love her Pops, I mean, we’re just a big family, and I love her music and I always support what she does. She’s always been really great with me. And it’s just a lot of fun. I’m actually going to go with Candy to—I’ve never been to South Africa before, believe it or not, so we’re going to do the Capetown Jazz Festival in March 08.

Smitty: Wow, very cool.

RS: Yeah, that’s gonna be a lotta fun.

Smitty: Oh, I wanna go! (Laughs.)

RS: Yeah, I know, and I’m gonna miss you and, of course, with the super great Althea Rene.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: That was just so much fun for that concert that Amy Winehouse didn’t show up at, you remember?

Smitty: Oh, I remember.

RS: She was a no-show.

RS: And we got to see Marcus, so that was great. No disrespect to Amy, but I love Marcus, so what can I say?

Smitty: Yeah, that was so cool.

RS: And we got to see Sly too.

Smitty: We got to see Sly.

RS: And the Family Stone, which was, I mean, and now here’s the other thing, you know, from going about with Graham I got to see Cynthia, who I hadn’t seen forever because she used to tour with us with Larry Graham, because when we first ran into Larry Graham in like 1997, he had Cynthia playing trumpet with him and Jerry and all those guys in his band, so I hadn’t seen Cynthia in probably eight years.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

RS: So it was a trip to see her. He brought her down. Man, it was great. She was back with Sly so, I mean, I was like oh my gosh, Cynthia. How wonderful.

Smitty: That was like a reunion, you know?

RS: It was great.

Smitty: It was really cool and I loved that Dutch vibe, man. I just loved those people there.

RS: I love it every time I go back. I’m a little slow with some things, you know, like over time Japan’s taken me several years and many trips to really start to love it, but now I really love Japan. I’m not saying I wanna move there, but I really enjoy myself much, much more. Same thing with Amsterdam. I’ve had the opportunity obviously with Candy to spend a lot more time there and it’s really, really a great place.

Smitty: Yeah. So you’ve got all these great things coming up in 2008 and are you thinking about doing another record?

RS: I am but I probably won’t do it this year. I wanna get this band out on the road. We wanna play. We’re also gonna do some dates in the U.K. We wanna spend a lotta time in Europe. I’d love to go also to Japan with this band, but I wanna do a lot of hits in the U.S. too because it’s a hard rocking, hard hitting band, so I’m really more concerned with—and it’s hard—you don’t usually hear girls say that, but I’m ready to hit the road.

Smitty: Yeah, girl! Well, I love it when you say that.

RS: Yeah.

Smitty: Well, I just wanna say to all the fans out there, when you find out where Rhonda’s coming close to you, I can guarantee you that you will not be disappointed if you book this show and do it because it is a great experience and you just gotta be there to appreciate what I’m saying. Rhonda, thank you so much for spending so much time with me and having so much fun. It’s great to see that you’re doing so many great things and all the best to you in 2008, and we love you for what you do and who you are and what you are.

RS: Smitty, thank you so much, and what a wonderful and blessed way to end a great year, with you.

Smitty: Ahh, how cool of you. I wouldn’t have it any other way. (Laughs.)

RS: Thank you so much.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.rhondasmith.com and www.myspace.com/rhondasmith.