Smoothviews (SV): This is going to be your 4th time interviewing with Smoothviews.  We’ve been happy to follow your career all these years.  We hope to keep doing that in the future.  You’ve been touring with Michael Bolton and promoting your latest CD, Pure.  How’s that going?
Michael Lington (ML:) I’m actually promoting the new record in his show.   I’m playing my music in the middle of Michael’s show.  I’m more of a special guest.   I’m selling merch at his show as well, stuff like that.  But, we’ve been out doing this type of set-up for two years.  Then in between it all, and times off, I recorded this new album and have been out doing my own shows.  I’m still doing this in between his tour.

SV: How do his audiences like your new music?
ML:  It appears that it goes over well.  A part of why I was really happy about this particular opportunity was because I wanted to expand my audience.  I think all artists want to expand their audience.  I felt that by me associating myself with an artist from a different format like Michael’s, I would get the opportunity to do that.  Most people don’t know, obviously, but when they go to see his show, it’s kind of like a surprise or a bonus, if you want.  All of a sudden an instrumental artist comes on and plays music.  It has been going over really well, and the fact that we’re selling CD’s at the show is a huge thing.  Obviously the CD’s sells, but also the fact that new audiences are leaving with my music.  It’s really great.

SV: I think that’s a very smart move because they’re finding their way to your music.  They may not have found their way on their own, but they are finding their way to it nonetheless.  And that’s a good thing, and a very smart move.
ML: Obviously I can see the reach, and this has been all over the world, which has been amazing.  Now that we have social media everything is a little more interactive with direct contact with audiences and fans all over.  You can see instantly the effect something has.  Six years ago, where it was just my website, it was kind of a one sided thing, where you would post stuff, but you didn’t get the same kind of instant feedback and dialogue.  People would maybe send an e-mail once in awhile saying, “Hey, we saw your show.”  [That was] great, but not that sort of instant communication where you can see a post and say, “I’m going to be there.”  People are responding to that.  I think it has been effective.  And also, doing my own shows, a lot of the fans from the Michael Bolton tour have shown up.  I think it’s a good thing.

SV: Yes, it is.  So you are active in social media, Facebook, Twitter, and all of that?
ML: Yes, I think you have to be.  I think it’s an important part.  It’s actually fun to have these dialogues with your audience.  I think it’s healthy.  It’s good.  They’ll tell you the good things, but they’ll also tell you the bad.  I just think it’s a great dialogue. 

SV: It is, definitely.  So, Pure is the name of your latest CD, which was released in February.  It’s your 7th studio CD.  You’ve been at this now for 15 years.
ML: Has it been 15 years?  Yeah, I guess it has.  Wow!  As an artist, you don’t really think about how long it’s been.  You’re always looking ahead to what’s the next thing.  You don’t really take inventory of how many records you’ve made, when you started.

SV: That’s for people like us to do, I guess. (Laugh)
ML: Unless you get asked, you’ll have to take a look at it.  Is it a good or a bad thing?  It just is.  This is my story.  Maybe I could have made more records, I don’t know.  That’s just my story – 15 years and seven records. 

SV: I think that’s great.  They’ve all been very good, very different, and very individual.  They’re not repetitive CD’s.  You bring something different to each one, which we like.  That’s what we like about your music.
ML: That’s good.  It’s an interesting thing because that’s the way I thought would keep things interesting, not only for myself, but for the audiences as well.  You know, that can be debated.  Sometimes people just say you should be known for one thing and stick to that, so I don’t know.  But again, that’s what my choices have been.  I think variety is an interesting thing.  It also keeps me on my toes.  It challenges me.  It goes with new writers, always new musicians and producers.  I love to collaborate.  I love to find new talent, and new ideas and stuff.  That inspires me.

SV: We reviewed Pure in our February issue of Smoothviews.  The first single, “Roadtrip,” has been doing very well, still in rotation on the charts and on the radios.  You’ve got Lee Ritenour on this one.  Had you worked with Lee before?  How did you come about collaborating with him?  And, how was it working with him?
ML: That’s actually a very interesting story.  I met Lee in Copenhagen when I was 17 years old.  I went to see a show of his he did with GRP All Stars.  It was him, Tom Scott, and Dave Grusin.  I just went to see that show.  I was 17 and I’d just started playing the saxophone.  There was a matinee show and an evening show.  I went to the matinee show.  Somehow, the guy that was supposed to drive them to lunch after the matinee show didn’t show up.  Since I knew the owner of the venue, I and my buddy get asked if we could drive Lee Ritenour and Tom Scott to lunch.  We just had to drive them over to the restaurant.  My friend is a guitar player and he has Lee Ritenour in his car, and I’ve got Tom Scott in my car.  We’re 17 years old.  We were freaking out of our minds.  That’s actually the first time I met Lee.  We talked a little bit back then.  I told him that I played the saxophone and someday I’d love to come and live in America.  After that encounter, I was really so focused on coming over to America, and I did, in 1991, four years later.

The first time I saw Lee after that encounter was in 1994, when I had first started touring with Bobby Caldwell.  Lee and Larry Carlton had just done a record.  We were playing at the same jazz festival.  I walked up to him saying, ‘I don’t know if you remember me.’  This would have been seven or eight years after that first meeting, and he remembered!  We talked about how crazy that was, that now we were playing the same jazz festival.  Then we would periodically run into each other after that.  I opened for Lee on quite a few shows, but we never really worked together until this track came around.  As soon as I started writing it, I had this idea that Lee would be fantastic on it.  I thought it was his vibe, his thing, so I got in touch with him.  He said, “Send the track over.”  He answered right away and said, “I love it.  Let’s do it.”  And it became number one on the charts.  Just think about that.  Imagine if I had told him in 1987; ‘You know, one day Lee, you’re going to play on my record.  We’re going to have a number one song in the country.’  He would have told me I was out of my mind.  It’s so funny with life, how that works.  So, it’s kind of an interesting story.

SV: Wow, that’s something.  In addition to Lee Ritenour, you’ve got Jeff Golub, Ray Parker, Jr., Paul Jackson, Jr., and Jonathan Butler.  This is a guitar lover’s dream.  Was that planned, having all of this great guitar action in here?
ML: I don’t want to say that it was planned, exactly.  I don’t want to say I set out and planned it that way that almost every song is going to feature a guitarist.  I did want to have a lot of guests on the album.  When it came around to looking at the different sections of the songs, I thought it would be nice to have a guitar solo.  It just turned out that way.  As it turned out, it ended up being all guitar players.  And also, it ended up working out as far as the people I spoke to, and the ones I had relationships with.  It just ended up being that way.  But Lee’s idea, as far as the guitar thing, was the first one that I wanted to be on the record.  I always wanted to do something with [Jeff] Golub.  I had just played on Jonathan Butler’s record, so I asked him to play on my record.  Paul Jackson, Jr. and I have had a long relationship.  We’ve done work together for many years, so he did something.  So yeah, it just kind of worked out that way.

SV: Since you’ve been working with Michael Bolton, it’s not unusual that he would appear on your CD.  You recorded a rendition of “Shotgun,” which is pretty good.  It’s well suited for his voice.
ML: Actually, it is unusual.  He doesn’t do a lot of guest appearances, so it wasn’t necessarily an easy task.  You would think, but the thing is, through our relationship of working together, I thought it would be really cool, but I knew it had to be a particular track that would fit him.  Originally, when I mentioned the idea to him, he was cool with it.  He said, “Yeah, but I actually would like to do a song that would fit on both of our records.”  So we tried to come up with a song that would fit both of our records, and we couldn’t because we were making two different kinds of records.  I remember at one point I thought of “Shotgun” initially for him.  He said, “You know, I used to sing that in the clubs in Connecticut where I grew up.”  I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t that be a perfect song for you then?’  And he agreed.  So, I ended up playing on his record, but it was a different song, two songs actually.  We ended up playing on each other’s records, but we did it as a trade.  It was very nice of him, very nice of him, typically because he doesn’t do a lot of these types of things on other people’s records.
You would think that when you start working with a vocalist, it was an automatic.  I did it with Bobby Caldwell.  I did it with Randi Crawford.  It’s not automatic.  You still have to come up with the right song, the right idea, the right concept.  I think we did.  I think we picked something that worked well for his voice, and also worked well for the energy of the record.

SV: Speaking of musical relationships, you’ve got a long one with Brian Culbertson.  You’ve collaborated with him on this one, and several of your other CD’s.  The song you did, “Like Old Times,” is that a nod to your musical relationship?
ML: That’s interesting that you should say that.  It wasn’t, but it’s actually appropriate, isn’t it?  We have worked together for a long time, in many different capacities.  When we were working on this song, we both said, “Let’s just come up with song titles right now because otherwise, we’ll procrastinate, and then we’ll be mixing and mastering, and we’ll go song #1, song #2, etc.  Let’s just get it over with right now.  When we were listening to it, it felt kind of like old times.  So, there you go, “Like Old Times.”  That’s how that one came out.  It fits well.

SV: It does.  Now, in one of your previous Smoothviews interviews, you were asked about one of your CD’s.  In response, this is what you said: “Every CD represents a time in my life where whatever I was doing at the time, I was doing it the best I could.”  Having said that, what does Pure represent to you?
ML: That statement actually still fits very much how I feel.  Not only does it represent a time in my life where I did the best that I could, but it also represents a time in my life.  We all have different experiences, and different times.  When you listen to that music, it takes me back to what was going on professionally and personally at the time.
SV: I see you’re on the Dave Koz cruise this fall.  That should be exciting.
ML: That’s going to be a good time.  We have Bolton on that cruise too.

SV: I have one more question.  I’ve taken care of all of the music questions.  How is the cigar business going?
ML: It’s good.  It’s still an interesting thing that I’m learning a lot about.  We just re-launched.  Because I’ve been on the road so much, for the last couple of years, it’s been hard for me to attend to it, but we just re-launched it.  We’re setting up.  We’ve got new product from a new manufacturer in Honduras, so we’re just setting up all the logistics, the website, and the product shops.  Actually, all the tobacco, all of the cigars are already in.  I’ve got beautiful new packaging and boxes.  The flavors are amazing.  It’s cool.  It’s a pet project.  It’s just something I get to work on when I don’t work on music.  It’s interesting.

SV: Well thank you so much for your time Michael. 
ML: You’re welcome.  Thank you so much.  Always a pleasure.