Boney James, saxman extraordinaire and the funkiest guy out there, has been in the music business for well over 20 years now.  His sound is clearly identifiable and his shows continue to sell-out everywhere.  He is currently on tour promoting his latest CD, Send One Your Love, and in a brief moment of down time, we were able to catch up with him and get some insight into his new CD and song selection.

SmoothViews (SV):  How are you?
Boney James (BJ):  I’m really well, thanks!

SV:  Great show recently at the Birchmere (Alexandria, VA)!
BJ:   Well, thank you!  It was a really fun time there.

SV:  Let’s get right into talking about the new CD, Send One Your Love. You’ve said at concerts that you wanted to make the ultimate make out album.  But do you have a connection with these songs or the composers of these specific songs?
BJ:  Well, I would say some of these songs I just always loved, like “Touch” for instance.  John Klemmer was very influential on me.  He was a very popular fusion sax player in the mid-70s just when I was first getting into being a sax player.  I always loved that song and I wondered if I would ever try and take a stab at it.  And since it fit so nicely into the “concept” of the record, I thought it was a great opportunity to try and do that.  That one stands out in my life.  And like the Stevie Wonder song, I like just about everything he’s ever done, so that one is really special to me.  “Stop, Look, Listen” is another song that I have always really, really loved.

SV:  That’s truly my favorite on the CD! For me, it was such a stand out song.
BJ:  Oh, thank you…A lot of people felt that it just jumped out of the record right away, which is why it was the first single released.  I loved them all, but those few were ones that were maybe more special to me.  Of course, the original songs on the CD, I have a nice relationship with the composer of those!!  (laughs)

SV:  On a CD of several covers, you chose tunes out of the ordinary and normal cover realm.  They’re not the ones done over and over.  You made them sound fresh.  I’m curious about what process goes into rearranging a previously recorded song to make it your own?
BJ:  Well, you know, you’re hoping for some kind of inspiration, honestly.  It’s almost just like writing a new song, because you’re listening to the song and every now and then you get a flash or a thought.  I just call it inspiration.  I think there’s no other better word.  You start to hear it in your head with a little twist on it, you know?  And that’s what you’re hoping for.  And honestly, those are the only the ones I want to record were ones where I sort of got a new idea.  I didn’t want it to feel very typical.  A lot of people do covers and I didn’t want it to feel generic or typical because that’s not how I see myself as an artist.  I wanted it to be fresh and exciting and creative, and so I only did the songs where I felt like I had a new idea for it.  And so the process, honestly, it just to listen to it over and over again, and sit around and think about it, and hopefully something will float down out of the ether and you decide to try that!   And hopefully one idea will lead to another and after a while you say okay, I’m on a roll here and just gets faster and faster until it’s done.

SV:  I have to ask with a lot of artists doing cover CDs, were you worried that people were going to come back and say “yeah, it’s Boney, but not another cover CD?”
BJ:  That was probably part of the reason why I didn’t want it to be a total cover CD.  So to me it was more of a concept record rather than a cover record.  It had a theme, but wasn’t all covers.  I really wanted to do five originals and five covers and ended up having one extra song that I loved.  So, I said screw it at a certain point!  But I think it sounds great.  I did think about that and knew that there would be some resistance.  And I’m one of those people who think oh, another covers record, but I think I found a way around that to make it part original and part coves, and for the covers to be really, really cool.  I think that would be the best argument against anybody who said oh, no not another covers record.  They’re not just covers, they’re Boney James covers!!! (laughs)

SV:  To me, there’s only one other artist, who happens to be another sax player, that does covers but also not the typical covers, and that’s David Sanborn. When he picks them, they’re also out of the ordinary and fresh.
BJ:  Yeah…that’s the thing.  I would only do the ones that I really, really loved and that I felt that I could give it something original otherwise.  If it’s going to sound like the original, than it’s just a remake and I wouldn’t do it.

SV:  I wanted to ask you about the vocalists you use.  You've been using more vocals on your recent CDs and while most artists tend to use established names, you've been using a lot of up and coming singers, like Quinn, on the new CD. How do you find them?  And how do you figure that they are going to be perfect for a particular song?
BJ:  Well, with Quinn, it was really just luck.  I just put the word out on the street to friends of mine that are in the business like do you know a young singer that’s just amazing and deserves to be a star, but no one’s ever heard of yet.  That was one of the things I wanted to do on this records was to try and introduce a new artist.  And honestly I got an MP3, and thought, wow, he’s perfect.  I flew him out to L.A. like two days later.  It was really just that fast.  He was just fantastic.
SV:  So is he a star now?!  (both laughing)
BJ:  You know, I don’t know if he’s a star, but that song has been getting some play on some urban stations, which is always gratifying because I know they usually resist playing people that are thought of as “smooth.”  So, yeah, I’ve been getting some love on the R&B side of this and that’s always a great thing to try and expand the audience.

SV:  You mention R&B and smooth.  How do you define the Boney James sound?  Most people tend to put you in that R&B group.
BJ:  I don’t spend any real time thinking about it, honestly, Bonnie.  It’s just my music and I really don’t think about defining my sound.  A lot of other people want to talk about stuff like that, but it’s my music and you just need to listen to it to decide what it is.
SV:  And let everyone make up their own minds?
BJ:  Exactly!

SV:  You once said in an interview that you don’t see yourself doing more collaborations like the “Shake It Up” album with Rick Braun.  Do you still feel that way and why?
BJ:  Well, I don’t think I would ever say I would never do that.  But maybe when I did that interview I was really enjoying the autonomy that comes with doing my own thing.  Collaborating with another artist is kind of hard.  Maybe that’s why I’m lucky, too, that I haven’t done these package tours because I like having control.  That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be a solo artist.  I spent seven years as a sideman, doing what other people wanted me to do and when I because a solo artist, it really gave me that freedom…that creative freedom and I think that’s, well…maybe I just don’t work well with others!  (laughs).  I mean, it was great making that record with Rick, and I think we made incredible music together.  It sounds different from anything either one of us would have done alone, and that’s why I would never say no to that.  And honestly, look at all the collaborations I’ve done just as one-offs, like with George Benson, George Duke, or all the singers.  All that definitely brings your music to a new place, but to actually sit down and say I’m gonna take my vision and try to marry it to another artist for a whole record is a actually little daunting I think at this point in my life. I really just love the freedom of doing what I’m doing.

SV:  You seem to be one of the few solo artists that have not joined a package tour, and can still sell out venues, regardless of the size.  Why do you think that is?  I know you’re current tour has been going really well.
BJ:  Things are actually really great.  I was a little worried with the recession and everything about how it would go, but so far, so good.  You know, that’s another one that’s difficult for me to be objective about.  I’m just really grateful and all I do is try and make great music and put on the best show that I can.  The rest of it is just up to fate.  I am really grateful that I am still getting away with it.  I don’t know if you ever knew my original manager, Howard Lowell.  He was my manager that took me from being just a very small artist playing in clubs to getting onto Warner Bros. and having all the gold records.  He passed away during Body Language.  But he, honestly, when I was just starting out as an artist, he really steered me away from doing a lot of things like Guitars & Saxes, and stuff like that because he said, you know if you go and you do that, you find after a while that that’s all you can do.  You haven’t established yourself as a solo draw, so maybe I owe some of that to Howard.  I’ve always sort of steered away from it to keep established as a solo act.  Sort of a business decision in a way.

SV:  Well, the Birchmere was very appreciative of you being there and we want you back.
BJ:  I think I’m just booking a new gig in the DC area at the Carter Baron in August.  I can’t remember the exact date, but I think it’s in the middle of August.

SV:  I’ve seen you perform on several cruises over the last few years, and I know you are already booked on upcoming cruises.  Do you enjoy the experience?  And how does it differ for you from the typical concert venues?
BJ:  Well, you know what it’s like.  It’s very intense and very intensive.  We’re all sort of there in this big melting pot of the boat, and it’s a lot of fun.  I really enjoy it.  It amazes me that they have these theaters on these boats.

SV:  Had you been on any cruises before the jazz cruises?
BJ:  The first cruise I was on was a jazz cruise, but it was a long, long time ago.  It was a short one to Bermuda that the Philadelphia radio station was putting on.  This was before they became, like a thing!  I had never been on a boat for a cruise other than for a gig.  I don’t think I would do it for a vacation, but in terms of having a show with all the artists, it’s like a traveling jazz festival.  All the artists playing together and all the fans interacting all the time, all that question and answer stuff…I do enjoy it a lot.

SV:  That’s great because there have been other artists that have said they don’t want to do that; that they don’t want to be “confined” with all the fans for that long because it’s overwhelming.
BJ:  Well, it is a little overwhelming sometimes, but in a way, I enjoy that.  I’m just grateful that people care enough to come out.

SV:  When you were up and coming, which jazz saxophonists inspired you?
BJ:  Well, I’d have to say that Grover Washington, Jr. was the first one I fell crazy in love with.  Mister Magic had just come out and I really loved R&B music, but I was playing the saxophone in the school band and I wasn’t really into traditional jazz.  I listened to Charlie Parker and Coltrane and stuff because that’s what you had to listen to to study the saxophone, but I just didn’t love that music so much.  So when the fusion thing started to happen, and Ronnie Laws, the Crusaders, and Wilton Felder, was another one that I really loved.  Probably those three guys when I was first starting out were big influences on me.

SV:  When did you finally say “This is going to be my life?”
BJ:  I guess I was about 19 and had been in college for about a year.  I had always played in bands in high school.  It was really more of a hobby though and I had really decided that I wasn’t going to be a musician because I thought it was too hard a way to make a living.  But, there I was in college and I really wasn’t interested in what I was studying, I realized that the one thing that I really did love more than anything was music, so I thought I would just give it a shot.  And there it went…and here we are 20 some odd years later! 

SV:  Lastly, what album changed your life?
BJ:  Oh, that would be Mr. Magic and Earth, Wind and Fire’s Gratitude.  Those were two records that, in that period when I was about 14 or 15 and really getting interested in music.  They both came out around the same time and I listened to them nonstop.  I was thinking about the live Earth, Wind & Fire R&B thing with the jazzy chords and then Grover with the sort of sexy, improvisational thing…those were pretty influential records for me.

SV:  Well, it’s been great talking to you, Boney
BJ:  It’s been my pleasure talking to you.  I really appreciate it.