November 2005
Interview by: Harvey Cline
 Between cruising the ocean’s blue,
releasing new material and launching a record label, saxophonist
Warren Hill took time recently to chat with Smooth Views:
Smooth Views (SV): The new disc
has been out for a few weeks now, and was reviewed in our October
edition of Smooth Views. How has it been received by the fans
and media so far?
Warren Hill (WH): Very well. You know I’m
always taking chances with my records and try to stretch myself
beyond being complacent. People are really digging the songs.
The thing about the record is that everyone has different favorite
songs on there. So to me that’s a good sign, and that
I did something right. There’s nothing worse than people
liking one song on your record. We had so much fun making this
record and the whole process, and so far so good. Maybe people
just don’t give me the bad reviews.
SV: I’ve noticed that here
is a mix of cover songs as well as new material. How tough
was it to keep the balance and decide what to put on the new
disc?
WH: Well it’s interesting. There’s
a couple of these songs, in fact three of the covers out of
four, that have been part of my live show, some for a longer
period than others. “Come Together” is actually
something that I started covering back in the early nineties.
I played it in some shows, and a couple of tours. Then I stopped
playing it for a long time and slowly brought it back. I said
to myself , “I gotta once and for all record this darn
thing” because I’ve been playing it so much. “Play
That Funky Music” is the same thing. It’s been
part of my show for the last year and a half. “Low Rider” as
well, because it’s one of those tunes that pops in and
out whenever you’re finished doing gigs. It’s one
of those ones that everybody knows. So if you’re running
out of material or people want to hear more or you get another
encore you say “hey, lets do “Low Rider” and
you go out there and jam on the thing. That one’s been
around for a while. “Back At One” is the only one
that I’ve actually never performed live. It’s such
a brand new recording. I’m a huge Brian McKnight fan.
I think he writes beautiful melodies and songs. Of course my
wife is a big fan too. So that one’s kind of for her
as well.
SV: You kick it off with a funky
little tune named after your home town of Toronto. How did
this one get chosen for the opener, and what was the inspiration
for it?
WH: I named it Toronto because I was in Toronto
when I wrote it. I was staying at my parents’ place.
I think I had a gig of some sort and I remember practicing
my saxophone in the living room and this melody came to mind
and I started jamming on it as I was practicing, and I always
carry a little Dictaphone around with me, and just sort of
threw it down on the Dictaphone. When I am composing it’s
odd where I come up with these ideas. It may be skiing on a
mountain and sitting on a chair lift. I remember writing one
song doing that. So I always say where I am when I come up
with a song and of course here I am, sitting in my parent’s
living room and here is a song idea. So then when I go back
and compile a record and finish writing I go through these
tapes and sort of weed out all the stuff that I think I must
have been on some sort of hallucinogenic when I came up with
it. And somewhere in there, there is actually some good material
so this is one of them. Toronto is a very exciting city. I
think it’s one of the top cities in North America. I
did grow up there and I am still a Canadian citizen. So there
is a certain amount of paying some homage to my home town.
SV: So, how did it become the
opener?
WH: On the CD there is no particular song
that is called pop jazz and I think that "Toronto,"
if you are thinking of Toronto, symbolizes that terminology
the best. And when you first put the record on it lets you
know the shape of things that are coming on the record. For
me overall it is a funkier up beat record. There are a couple
of ballads: “Still in Love,” “Back at One,” a
couple of mellow songs, but for the most part I would say from
looking at my past CDs this one is a little more high
energy.
 SV: I think so too. I go walking
a lot and I always take the disk with me and I kick it off
with “Toronto” and I am really into the walk when
that one is finished. A great one to open with by the way.
WH: Very cool.
SV: You mentioned “Still
in Love” that is one of my favorites on the disk. There
is a lot of emotion and I understand it is also your first
single. Can you tell us a little bit more about this one?
WH: This was written for my wife to celebrate
our 10th anniversary. I have written many songs for her in
the past that usually have some sort of significance. I wrote “Our
First Dance” way back in the second CD after we were
engaged. It was the first song at our wedding. I wrote a song
called “Tamara” for her on my third that played
as she walked down the aisle. Then I have written songs for
my daughter and so on and so forth. But with this one, when
I am composing she sometimes is walking by the studio and will
poke her head in and give a thumbs up or thumbs down on some
things. This is one where she poked it in and said, “that
one is for me.”
SV: She knows how to pick the good ones.
WH: It was funny because she really didn’t have to say
it cause I had already intended on it being that. I guess when you are working
and living under the same roof it kind of hard to keep any secrets.
SV: I know what you mean. There
is a part where you do a modulation down about ¾ of
the way through you know where I am talking about. It goes
da, da, da, da. It sounds like you ought to go up another fifth
or so.
WH: You mean where the saxophone breaks?
SV: Yeah. I want
to try that. I keep following that down and go oops he didn’t
go up. You mentioned “Play That Funky Music,” and
I know you got Brian Culbertson and Jeff Golub on that one.
Did you record that live? If you did, how much fun was that
for you?
WH: Sorry to take out the mystique. I guess
it would be nice to make up some story.
SV: Yeah I could just see the
three of you jamming on this one.
WH: Yeah, we will probably have to do that
on my cruise because we will all be together on there. In fact,
this record was made very piece meal because the co-producer,
Andre Berry, lives in Los Angeles. l live in Boulder and I
don’t know if you noticed but of course Golub lived in
New York, and the Harris brothers are in New York. Most of
the other guests are in L.A. Basically when I fly out to L.A
for some shows I would get with Andre and we would do some
recording then and I recorded a lot of my own parts just here
in my studio here in Boulder. Jeff recorded his own parts on
this one from his studio in New York and Culby was actually
on the road with Andre on the college tour here in Chicago
and he ran into a studio in Chicago that had a B-3 and recorded
on that tune.
SV: I am surprised he didn’t have one in
his hotel room that night or something.
WH: A lot of the stuff was done in hotel rooms as well. Surprisingly,
with Ron Reinhardt all of his parts were recorded in Palms Springs in a hotel
room. It is amazing what you can do now with technology.
SV: I just talked
with Earl Klugh last month and he told me that they would record
parts and email to the other artist and email them back and
then play them. It has completely changed. It is
unbelievable what it is now.
WH: I would never email a final part but when
Andre, and I would be working on songs he would send me rough
mixes of things for me to play my sax to, and he would just
email those over, and as I would be working on my parts he
would want to hear updated versions of what I was doing so
so I just sent him stuff. But when it got time to actual compiling
all the master parts and everything we don’t use email
for that. We definitely stick them in the mail and on
a CD or we hand deliver it to each other and do it that way.
There is a certain point where you just can’t trust
technology.
SV: On “Virgin Gorda” I keep hearing
a noise or like two beats in the left speaker. What is going on there?
WH: That is just ambient noise. It is intentional.
SV: I figured it was after about
the fifth time I heard that.
WH: Yeah, with chill music and that sort of
thing you get a lot of that stuff which is not necessarily
musical but is just creates a certain vibe. We wanted to do
something because it is a very simple of melody and the vibe
of the song is Virgin Gorda, obviously named after the island
in the Caribbean, but if you listen closely there is a whole
bunch of stuff in there.
SV: Yeah, I took the headphones
off the first time and we were sitting on the deck listening
to it Sunday night and I said listen to this and it freaked
my daughter out and it just kept coming on and on and I said
listen again. At first they thought it was me but after a while
you know it was the CD. Do you have a favorite tune yet on
the CD?
WH: One that stands out to me is, I really
like the horn stuff that the Harris brothers did. So the songs
that they are on really stand out to me. In particular “Funky
Music” and “Come Together.” I think
they did some incredibly cool stuff on there and then the way
it was complemented with what I did on my sax. I am a
big fan of “Still In Love” obviously because I
did write it for my wife and I play it live at my shows and
we really stretch it out and open up the solo and I do a big
improvisation on there. The one that I do like a lot
and I think it is because it was more of a challenge for me
is “Bridge
in the Gap,” the
last tune on the CD. For any jazz buffs out there they
recognize that we go into the cord changes of “Giant
Steps” in
the middle of a song. So it is basically this sort of
acid groove, kind of funky groove going on, and suddenly we
just take a left turn and go into “Giant Steps.” I
like the way that one came out. It is very modern yet it sort
of pays homage to Coltrane, who I was definitely studying quite
a bit of. I don’t play like that now but I certainly
studied much of that music and I just was really excited about
taking the challenge to sort of throw giant steps on to a “smooth
or pop jazz record.”
SV: Well, that one holds it’s
own very well and could have even started off the whole disk
I think. It was that strong.
WH: Yeah, I remember you said that in your
review. That was really cool. Actually there was a company
that I endorsed that has a compilation of a CD for their
artists. When I sent them the CD that was the song that
they picked out for the compilation. So I think sax players
can really respond to that tune.
SV: So let’s
talk about the new label for a few minutes. Tell us about
the new concept behind the new record label that you and your
wife have launched.
WH: Initially it is your normal type of independent label. We
have distributed it through Native Language records out of California
so we are in all the normal retail stores and we are doing the
normal route of printing CDs and shipping them out and doing
all that. The second phase of the label though; is my vision
really where I think music or the distribution is heading and
I am working on formulating a membership site. We have
popjazz.com right now where you can buy individual downloads
of the songs or mail order the CD that sort of thing but I am
trying to morph that into something that is more of an experience
for people. I do believe it can almost be a real time experience,
especially if you get into simulcast and things like that. But
it is a place where the membership portal is just to service
my biggest fans so to speak. It is not necessarily a fan
club. It is more of a place where people that dig the music
that I am doing and want to know more about that, and want
to hear things like live recordings and out takes from the studio.
There are all kinds of that stuff that just sort of stays
in a vault somewhere.
SV: That would be things they
could purchase.
WH: Behind the scenes videos, access to the
best seating at my concerts. There is sort of a wealth
of things you can do with the power of the internet. It
is an amazing thing and you can really get in touch a lot closer
to your fans. Not just on here, but globally because it is
the kind of thing that really has no physical boundaries. So
that is what we are working on. It is really easy to
describe the concept, it is another thing to get it accomplished.
It is a heck of a lot of work so we are still in the
formulating stage of that now.
SV: Just doing the framework and
knowing what you need to do and go after it.
WH: Yeah, we have a lot of framework in place.
To launch something like this, the user friendly aspect
of it is the highest of importance because I know not all my
fans are as tech savvy as we think they might be. I think a
lot of us take the internet and the whole computer digital experience
for granted. For those of us that have been doing it
for so long, when you run into someone that really isn’t
well versed on a computer you kind of scratch your head and
how can you not know about a computer. But it is true
there are a lot of people that don’t. They would
rather read a book than surf the net. Read a book and listen
to a Warren Hill CD. So the important thing is to make
sure that I am not forgetting them. I am trying to create an
experience for people that are into this kind of stuff, and
at the same time I have to also respect that there are people
that just want to buy my CDs and listen to the music.
SV: And go to the shows.
WH: It is a balance and it has been a lot of work but it really
is a labor of love because I do like to create music but I also like to create
on other levels as well. To me this is just another way to express creativity.
SV: Will you be signing people
to your label or will it be a label per-se.
WH: I would like to sign people eventually.
When the word first leaked out I got flooded with CDs,
calls and what not. I kind of had to tell everyone it’s
a new concept and I need to guinea pig it first. I will be
the one who gets it going, gets it up and running and humming.
Once I get to that point then I will be able to take on more.
Ultimately I see us having a good collection of artists.
It would be a better place for an artist because it is
self servicing. We basically provide the framework for
an artist to just come and plug their stuff in. Then they would
be responsible for updating things on a daily, weekly basis and
servicing their own fans. That is the idea behind the whole
membership site.
SV: So there would be jazz and
non-jazz type artists?
WH: Well it is popjazz.com so anything that
falls under that umbrella. Which I think is a big spectrum.
I kind of see it from straight ahead to smooth jazz to
fusion to even vocalists that have jazz flavor to what they
do.
SV: I am going to ask you the same thing
I asked Rick Braun a couple of months ago as he launched his
new label. You got
this one coming up, and Rick started ARTizen, and Koz is involved
with Rendezvous. Do you see more of the mainstay artists today
leaving the traditional places and going with these type of
companies?
WH: Well it depends. There are some artists
that like the security of being signed to a label. The labels
that are still doing this music that are still committed to
it have been reduced in numbers and I don’t know how
that trend is going to continue. It may come to a point
where artist don’t have a choice. There are just
not record deals to be had. I think what we
are dealing with right now, probably the biggest problem, is
the development of new talent especially in our format of music.
I think that new comers have a completely different set of
rules in front of them than for someone like me I was shopping
a record deal when Kenny G had a number 1 Top 40 song with “Song
Bird.” So back then everyone was looking
to sign a sax player. Now
it’s like I said just new artists, I think they sort
of come out of the wood work on their own there not exactly
signed to labels and the labels invest money in them and those
days are long gone.
SV: Yeah, it is
not every year we get a new Mindi Abair or anybody else like
that.
WH: Yeah, and I remember in the early 90s
when I started out there were just new guys popping up nightly
and some of them stuck around and some of them didn’t
but there was a lot of stuff there, there was a lot of music
and a lot of creativity going on. Now it is all still there
it’s just that no one is investing the money in it.
SV: Because you
know they are coming out of the colleges, they are coming out
of Eastman and Berklee. They are just as talented as
anybody else it is just giving the correct chance to get out
there and get signed to a label and get a tour and then maybe
get up with somebody that will promote them and get them into
the limelight.
WH: Yeah I think that is you know it is hard
to say what the internet is going to do for music and creativity. I
mean I hope that people can reduce the song swapping and I
see that as beneficial to artists to a certain extent. I know
that on pop jazz one thing I am going to do for promotion reasons,
I think that it is good to put songs out there for free but
the artists and song writers have to actually agree to it first.
I don’t usually have
these have these conversations with younger kids in their twenties
who sort of have grown up essentially stealing music on the internet,
but at the same time they will always say that it is because
I swapped that song and downloaded for free that I became a fan
of that artist. I wouldn’t have heard them otherwise.
SV: And bought ten of his disks.
WH: Yeah exactly, and now you go see them in
concert, and I always enlighten them. I say, "Well you
have to realize one thing, the artist didn’t put it there
to be taken for free nor did the songwriter. Actually the only
way songwriters make money is from the sale of the music that
they write and what if good songwriters have no incentive to
write songs from a financial standpoint. They always have
incentive just from being creative but if there is no reason
for them to actually get their music to the artist that can perform
it and bring it to the masses, pretty soon you are going to notice
that the songs that are coming out really suck. What is
the point in having a career as a songwriter?"
SV: Exactly, and
you know this leads me to another question I wanted to ask
you tonight. What do you contribute to the high numbers
of cover songs that are coming out in the industry right now?
WH: In our industry in smooth jazz?
SV: Yes.
WH: You know I used to say on my early records
that I would l never do a cover song. My feeling was
that the only cover songs that are worth doing are classic
songs, and why would you touch it when you know if you can’t
do anything better you might end up butchering it. And
then on my second CD we did “Tears in Heaven,” and
we did a completely different spin on it. It was essentially
bass guitar and saxophone. Vail Johnson did this amazing
thing he sort of multi-tracked a bunch of bass stuff, and that’s
when I started to feel like you can do them if you do your
own thing to it. What I don’t like is when I hear
cover songs that basically sound like the original.
SV: Yeah, it’s like they read the sheet
music and went with it.
WH: Yeah, it’s the exact same. I do hear a lot
of that kind of stuff and I feel like, "OK you took the same drum groove, almost
the same sound, bass line and everything and just put your instrument on it."
SV: I think that Steely Dan tribute
disc that came out a couple of years ago was a lot like that.
WH: I think I was even on that.
SV: I think everybody was mailed
sheet music and told to record it and send it back in.
WH: Yeah, in fact I was asked to produce a
couple of songs on that. The ones they wanted me to play
on they wanted me to produce as well, and I sent them a proposal.
I said here is what I would do and of course it was way
beyond their budget. What I was going to do was say, "You
can’t
redo a Steely Dan song, you have to create something different
from the ground up and make a statement with it. But
they wanted to just redo it, and I ended up just playing on
it instead of producing it, because it was just one of those
things. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is the almighty dollar
that stifles things.
SV: Do you see any reason why
so many are coming out right now especially in the later part
of this year and first of next year to strictly cover albums
and cover songs?
WH: Is that true?
SV: Yeah, I think it is beginning to be a general trend
right now.
WH: I don’t know if part of it is that
radio tends to pick up those songs because of the familiarity
concept. I also see people that are doing jazz
standards. It seems that the records that are hitting
the big numbers in the traditional jazz world are too.
.
SV: Like Marie Perioux a couple of years ago.
WH: Yeah, or lets redo a bunch of jazz standards
or what not.
I mean those are classic songs and they became standards
because everybody did them. The other thing too that I noticed
is that in live shows the audience really responds when you do
a cover tune. It is the familiarity thing, and when I do “Funky
Music” and “Come Together” it really gets people
going. There’s no question about that.
SV: Speaking of
which the first time I ever saw you and I just read the liner
notes this evening on another story on the same song “Roxanne.” You
were at Capital Jazz Fest and played a little spot in woods
there off to the stage somewhere and you came out of nowhere,
you were like in the back of the crowd playing “Roxanne,” and
there was this "Wow," and every time I hear “Roxanne” I
think about you now. To me that was one of the best moments.
WH: I think that is one of the things I do
too. Typically people cover old R&B classics and
what not in this format, but I like to go left a little bit
and sort of shock people and do songs that aren’t as
predictable.
SV: That one hit you in the face
just a little bit.
WH: “Tears in Heaven” I think
was an odd choice and “Come Together,” and of course “Play
That Funky Music White Boy.” I remember people
looking at me funny when I said I was going to do that one.
SV: Let’s
talk about the cruise for a few minutes. You know you
already done one. How did you get into this?
WH: We’ve done two actually. Just
a little crazy idea, basically. Norwegian Cruise Lines
used to do the jazz cruises. I think the last one they
done was in 2001. I was on one in 2000, and it was such
a miserable experience as a musician. I was there with my band,
and it was great because you could sort of see the potential.
SV: You were like the house band?
WH: No, no there were a bunch of artists on
there myself, Jonathan Butler, Marion Meadows, Patti Austin,
and it was a great sense of camaraderie and all that. Craig
Chaquico was there too. But it was set up so wrong in
my eyes, and I am kind of an analytical person so, of course,
my mind started churning while I was on there just thinking
to myself, “OK
I would do this different I would do that." It just
sort of percolated for a couple of years and I hooked up with
a travel agent that you kind of need to do something like this
and put it in motion and the first was in January of 2004.
We started to work on it the later part of 2002, so it
was a good 14-15 months of solid work to make it happen.
SV: Does this take away from your
normal activities?
WH: It sure did. This record was already half-way
done towards the end of 2002, and I had to put it on a shelf,
because once I started the cruise thing there was really no
turning back. I had to finish it. I saw suddenly
it was going to be successful, and that I had struck a nerve
with it but the only way to carry it through was to put the
time into it. Of course I was still touring and doing
all of that but I didn’t
have the proper amount of time to finish the record properly,
to put 100% into it. So once we did finish the first
cruise in 2004 and got things rolling for 2005 cruise I was
finally able to get back to the studio and finish the record
the right way.
SV: How much hands-on
are you actually doing with the cruise itself?
WH: Well, I was the first year and then I
backed off a little bit the second year, and now that we definitely
know what we’re doing, I can delegate responsibilities.
I have a really good partner out of St. Louis and a new
partner who puts on several cruises now. They do the Koz
cruise, and they do the jazz cruise which is the only straight
ahead full-charter cruise. So it is in very good hands, and
I just kind of oversee stuff. It’s an amazing thing
cause you never would think it could be so incredible until
you actually experience it. I mean, the thing about this
music is that the type of people that enjoy this music are,
it’s
a certain type of person, that they all get along really well
with each other and the friendships that happen.
SV: Yeah, all over the country
I know what you’re saying.
WH: Yeah, all over the country and all different
walks of life and professions. They have a real, real,
real passion for music. They can’t get enough of
the music, and it’s like a jazz festival every day because
you’ve
got all these artists on board and they’re not going
anywhere. They’re there for a vacation too, and
it’s
a musical vacation for them. Most of the artists don’t
usually get the opportunity to say, “Hey I’m
a huge fan of Acoustic Alchemy. I ‘m just going
to go jump on stage with these guys and jam with them,” or
at 2 in the morning Peter White walks into the jam session
and just starts playing and stays up until 3. These things
would never happen anywhere else, and it’s because we
kind of create our own little world for the week. It’s
1800 people and the bands and the artists and everything. It’s
amazing because at the end of the week people are just coming
up to you giving you bear hugs and saying “that was the
best vacation of my life.”
SV: What are the dates and maybe
some of the artists on board this year?
WH: We are going out of Fort Lauderdale. We
leave January the 21st, and we are gone a full week and get
back on the 28th. During that week we are going to go
to San Juan, Puerto Rico, were gonna go to St. Marks, and were
gonna go to the Bahamas to a private island where we have a
day at the beach. Throughout the whole week were going to be
listing to Acoustic Alchemy, Bobby Caldwell. We’ve got
Richard Elliot, Brian Culbertson, Jeff Golub, Euge Groove.
We have Triple Threat which is Everett Harp, Paul Jackson
Jr., Bobby Lyle. We’ve got the Sax Pack with Kim
Waters, Mary Meadows and Jeff Kashiwa. We’ve got
a guy named Warren Hill. We’ve got Brenda Russell.
We have Wayman Tisdale and I think if that’s 14
that is it.
SV: There has always been such
intensity in your playing and it comes across in your concerts
and on your disks. Where do you, basically, get this from?
WH: It must vented up or something because
I’m a Canadian boy and we are always usually kind of
passive people, very low key and I am a pretty low key guy
I think. When I was young I had dreams of being a rock star
I guess. I played a guitar and I sang and of course I was the
guy who put the first band together in our class and taught
everyone how to play their instruments. I just love music and
I love performing. I found myself fronting a rock band and
playing clubs when I was 13-14 years old so I think maybe that
intensity comes from that sort of rock and roll upbringing.
But at the same time I was a good kid, I wasn’t getting
into trouble. I was very studious. I was a very good student
in school and got really good grades and did all of my homework.
I was probably the rock and roll nerd. Maybe it all just kind
of stems from that because I got such a high when I was a kid
being on stage and playing battles with bands and playing clubs.
I would sing Led Zeppelin and Rush and the Stones and all those
real hard rock songs. I guess that never leaves you. The reason
I switched from guitar to saxophone was hearing David Sanborn.
I had never heard anything like that before. I was playing
the sax in the school band it was kind of a mandatory thing
I really wasn’t into it. I just figured the sax was something
that gets played at a marching band, but then a friend of mine
brought me this tape and it had Grover Washington on it, it
had David Sanborn and had Michael Brecker and I heard it and
just flipped out because I didn’t know you could make
the saxophone do that. So that’s when I put the guitar
away. So I guess a lot of that real bluesy rock guitar and
the rock singing and everything really transferred.
SV: It all comes full circle with Pop
Jazz. How has your music developed for the most
part since your first release back in ’91?
WH: I’m not so sure. I know I’m a better player.
I don’t know if I’m a better composer. Composing
is something that evolves that you have no control over it I
think. If you listen to the first CD, Kiss
Under The Moon, it’s got so much stuff on
it. It is so different. There is what we would call smooth jazz
stuff on there but then on the last song I sing kind of a Don
Henley rock ballad thing. And then there are pop power ballads
on there and just all kinds of different things. I think that
my CDs have always kind of had that an eclectic mix of music
but the core of it is that the melodies are always very strong.
With the arrangement supporting those melodies I always try to
make sure that they are just not complacent that they are something
to listen to. I don’t like to make CDs to be background
music. It can work that way if your driving in or your chilling
around the house or having a party whatever it might be, entertaining
people, but the flip side of it is that I want to make music
that when you actually listen to the music and there is a lot
of substance that you can really sink your teeth into. In that
respect I don’t know if it’s really changed that
much. I always feel like I’m trying to push myself but
when I listen back.
SV: It really hasn’t changed
that much?
WH: Well I listen to Pop Jazz and
I am proud of it and I don’t usually listen to my stuff.
When I finish a record I download it into my computer, it’s
in my iTunes list but I don’t sit there and listen to
it because I’ve already heard it about a million times.
But it’s weird because sometimes I’ll just be sitting
on a plane or whatever listening to some music and I
will have it on shuffle and so and something will come that
was from an old record and I will listen and think “wow
that’s some cool stuff” and then I’ll listen
to something else and that was cool too. But then again I don’t
sit and gloat over what I do, I do the best I can and then
you let it go. You have to be done. I know there’s a
lot of people out there that listen back to their stuff and
they can’t listen to their music because it still could’ve
been better. I’m not that kind of perfectionist. I work
it and work it and at some point you just got to say “you
know what that’s it it’s done”.
SV: Your Christmas disk came out
just a couple of years ago and I’ve noticed as soon as
I put it in that a lot of traditional type music at the beginning
of it, the first half of it and that traditional sound and
you get into more of a contemporary sound toward the end of
it. This interview will probably be coming out about Christmas
time. Tell us a little bit about your Christmas disk maybe
for those that have not heard that.
WH: Well first of all, I have to say that
the idea of doing a Christmas CD is you sort of begrudge it
a little bit because you have to do it in the middle of summer
and it makes zero sense. To me it’s like I’m already
hearing Christmas songs at the Mall I can’t handle it.
It’s too early. So having to deal with it in the middle
of summer is hard enough. In spite of that, even though
the prep work was tough it was actually the most fun I’ve
had making a CD ever. Why? Because we made it in about two
days for the most part. We literally went in, we rehearsed
and then I took some rehearsal tapes away and sort of spent
a couple of days reworking some stuff. Then we went right in
the studio. We had two days and we cut everything as a band,
and then after the fact I went back and did some overdubs and
fixed some things up. It is always hard to produce and play
your horn in the session so I usually have to go back and concentrate
a little more and fix a lot of my horn stuff. There are usually
quite a few mistakes because I’m listening to whether
or not the guys are playing the right chord instead of concentrating
on my own thing. But I think the integrity of what happened
there is that you can feel that we had a ton of fun making
it. It was my touring band so there was already a ton of cohesion
going on there. I really think that that came through and we
did things like you said on the CD. I mean there are a couple
of tracks on there that are straight ahead.
SV: Yeah, “Frosty” comes
as bum, bum, bum.
WH: That was an ode to “My Baby Don’t
Care For Me” by Nina Simone. That was the total vibe
we were going after and we I think we nailed that.
SV: My favorite has to be “Happy
Christmas”. Is it in 6/8 time?
WH: Yeah.
SV: It just comes across and you
just see people bump, bump, bump, bump. I love that.
WH: We cut that with live percussion and everything
was great. We got the total vibe there. I am a huge John Lennon
fan and that has always been one of my favorite songs.
SV: But you add a lot of soul
to that one. You really do and that is one of my favorite Christmas
songs. I got a few from the jazz era but that is one of my
favorite ones.
WH: Well cool. I appreciate that. We did a
small tour with that and it was a lot of fun to go out and
perform those songs. “Oh Holy Night” is one
of my Mom's favorite Christmas carols. That one is for Mom.
In fact I am thinking about coming out with another Christmas
CD. Doing the same thing just going in and cutting it
live.
SV: Well Warren is there anything
that you would like to tell your fans out there this evening
as we close tonight?
WH: Oh, I don’t know, tell all your
friends about Pop Jazz and go out
and buy two copies of it. Cause it’s my own label and
baby needs a new pair of shoes.
SV: Thanks so
much Warren, and best of luck with the cruise, the new label,
and the new disc.
For more information, visit Warren's website
at: www.popjazz.com
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