Smitty: I just hope that everyone gets to hear, not just this song, but the entire project, but that one stands out for me because, once again, I have fond memories of listening to this music too as I was growing up and to hear it again and to hear it with such great arrangements is just a beautiful thing for me.
PW: Thank you very much. That makes me feel really good.
Smitty: Oh, you’re so welcome.
PW: (Laughs.)
Smitty: But I also noticed too that you did some beautiful things with the arrangements in that you allowed the saxophone to talk and to accompany the music in such great fashion. It’s like the sax has a voice all its own and the music is sort of like the background singers, and I think that’s a remarkable thing to capture when you’re doing a project like this.
PW: Yeah, and we often speak of that song as just like we’re having a conversation. And even the guitar player, you know, it’s like we’re all having a conversation because in the beginning I come in and then Precious comes in with her vocal and the lyrics, I’ve always loved the lyrics. The lyrics are classic.
Smitty: Yes.
PW: And classic lyrics of a heartbreak, right?
Smitty: Yes indeed.
PW: And then it changes back to a funky groove where the saxophone almost sounds angry when I come in. (Laughs.)
Smitty: Yeah, yeah.
PW: And then the guitar, you know, me and the guitar player, it’s like we’re having a conversation, and then Precious is singing the lyrics and she’s all heartbroken. (Laughs.)
Smitty: Yeah, see, and that’s that bang-up interplay that I’m talking about, you know?
PW: Oh yeah.
Smitty: And I really think that this song in particular could walk down any street. I mean, I really think it could cross over in so many ways.
PW: Yeah, I hope that it does. I hope that it finds its way to urban radio stations somehow.
Smitty: It really should.
PW: Even on the jazz stations, I hope if they stretch out a little bit—more of the independent stations tend to, when they like something they’ll just play it.
Smitty: Exactly!
PW: Even if it has an R&B flavor to it. I mean, it would be nice if they did pick that track.
Smitty: Yeah, I really think so because I think that will really help the audiences to really capture what is really happening with this entire great project, yeah.
PW: Thank you.
Smitty: You’re so welcome. And you produced this project, right?
PW: Yeah.
Smitty: Now, talk to me about that because you really got your feet wet with this one.
PW: Yep, as I’ve been working on my CDs since—I guess my second CD [Eight Days of Ecstasy] I started to get into the production side of my projects and I just felt that growing up, like you said, you have a great ear for listening to a lot of different music. I mean, I spent a lot of my time as a child, even before I knew how to play an instrument, I spent a lot of time really listening to music and not just listening to what the person who was out front singing or playing an instrument.
Smitty: Right.
PW: Just dissecting everything on the track. I mean, I was paying attention to what the cymbals were doing and what the drums were doing and what the bass player was playing. And for me that’s being a total listener when every nuance of the song, your ear picks it up, and I think that by doing that it helped me become a really good listener and it developed my ear as a producer because when it was time for me to work on my own material, I just remembered how I could just hear what certain instruments are supposed to sound like, and so on my second CD I started thinking “Yeah, I think this is an area that I’m really gonna develop and I know that I can do this.”
And the president of my label was a little nervous about it. It was my second project and he was like “Well, producing is a whole ‘nother ballgame. It’s not just coming to the studio with your saxophone and playing on top of something that somebody else has produced. It’s a whole ‘nother ballgame,” and I’m like, well, I’m up to the challenge. I mean, I know what things are supposed to sound like and it’s also about what feels good to me in the studio.
Smitty: Absolutely.
PW: Yeah, and people would ask “Well, how do you do that? How do you put a song together?” I’m like “I just go by what feels good to me. If it feels good to me while I’m in the studio, I think that it’s gonna go over well. I’m hoping that it goes over well.” So by the time I did my third CD, I did a lot of the production on Evolution and then when I did The Perfect Love, I was signed to Shanachie Records and right from the onset of my contract with them I had to write it into my contract that I got to produce at least four of the songs, and then on my following CD [Sweet Saxations] I got to produce at least half of the record. So by the time Elixir happened, which is my sixth project, I produced seven of the tracks, so with this one I produced everything except two of the tracks.
Smitty: Yeah, that’s true progression.
PW: It was quite a challenge and it was a lot of work, it was a lot of work, but it was enjoyable work. I enjoyed working on these songs. I had to listen to them over and over and over and over again. I’m sure everybody around here got tired of listening to them, but it was a lot of work but pleasurable work.
Smitty: Yeah, well, I’ve seen you in your studio and I could see the enthusiasm and the excitement, but talk about what you mentioned about how when the project was coming together and how it felt good. Sort of elaborate on and describe that feeling when you really see things starting to come together and it’s what you’ve dreamed of and it’s what you had envisioned and hoped for. Talk about that.
PW: Well, like I mentioned earlier that I had been wanting to do this Burt Bacharach project for about ten years and the very first track that I started working on about, oh about eight years ago, maybe seven years ago, was “Walk On By,” and I remembered I started working on the music and then I lost the track, you know, so many things have changed digitally and electronically that I think I had the arrangement on some old sequencer that doesn’t even exist anymore, so I had no reference except what I remember like from the bass line that I had come up with and it was in my head. I was laughing because it was still in my head. I was like, “Okay, when it’s time for me to sit down and start working on this project, I hope I remember this arrangement for ‘Walk On By’ because I remembered that I really liked it.”
But the one thing that made me pull it back together was the bass line, and once I remembered what the bass line was, everything else kinda flowed and I loved the way it felt once it was done and then I said, okay, now that I’ve gotten that—I already knew what I was gonna do for that particular song, but what will I do with “You’ll Never Get To Heaven If You Break My Heart”? What should I do? Because Burt Bacharach really listens. He uses a lot of samba in his arrangements and so I was like, well, I wanna kinda keep that feel, but I wanna make it more R&B-ish and little bit more modern, so I just had to just get in front of the keyboard and just mess around with some different drum tracks. And once I did that, if the groove felt right, then I’d add the bass line on top of it and if it felt good. Now, one of the challenging songs for me was “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”
