Interviewed by Harvey Cline
November 16th, 2007

Smooth Views (SV): We want to welcome Eric Marienthal to Smoothviews.com. Your new disc is called Just Around The Corner which is a ten song set of all original material. Tell us a little bit about it.
Eric Marienthal (EM): My fourth record for Peak which is a fantastic subsidiary label of Concord music that Russ Freeman started quiet a few years ago. With this particular record I knew that I wanted to go in more of a contemporary direction. By the time I was putting the idea of the record together I found myself on a plane playing on a short tour with Brian Culbertson. Kind of on a lark I looked at Brian (who was sitting next to me) and I said “Brian, would you consider producing my next record?” He looked at me and said “Yeah, I’d love to. Let’s get together when we get back and do some writing and see how it goes.” We did, and one thing led to another and it all fell into place. Lo and behold it was produced by Brian and I’m really excited about it.

SV: Well it seems like it’s doing really well. You bring a great cast with you this time out. There’s Paul Brown, Jeff Lorber, Brian Culbertson and Ray Parker, Jr. Tell us what they bring to the mix.
EM: Well it’s funny; each one has his own story. Jeff Lorber and I go way back. In fact we just came back from a tour in Europe. We’re going back to Europe in about a month and a half. He’s been involved in almost everyone of my records to one extent or another. He produced several. He and I have been writing together for a long time. So we decided to get together and do some writing for this record as well. He wrote two tunes. You know that when you write with Jeff you get a lot more than a composition partner. He played the keyboards of course, he played guitars, he played bass. He even played some percussion. He’s such a talented guy. Paul Brown ended up mixing. It was the first time that I had worked with Paul. When he would mix a track, he’d say “You know right here I hear a little acoustic guitar” and he’d play a few things and say “yeah, perfect.” He’d add a few percussion things here and there. His reputation precedes him. It was a real thrill to get to a chance to work with Paul for the first time.

SV: Well tell us what it was like to work with Brian Culbertson.
EM: It was great. I had worked with Brian on some of his records and live. I really didn’t know what to expect. You know a lot of producers get involved in a record and they’re somewhat into it, but Brian took on this record as if it were his own. He was very into every detail with me from the writing stand point. Once you write a song you can produce it a lot of different ways. (how thick you want it produced, the different elements instrumentally and so forth). He really took such good care of it. Behind his house he has one of the most beautiful studios in L.A. It was really a pleasure to work with him in his studio. I can’t say enough. He’s a very talented guy. He really took it on wholeheartedly. I’m very thankful for his attitude towards the record and the great job that he did.

SV: Well the first single is called “Blue Water” and is a song we’re hearing on the radio right now. Tell us a little bit about that one and the background there.
EM: Well that was the first song that we wrote together. As I mentioned, Jeff Lorber and I had been writing for fifteen years. We have kind of a way of approaching getting together and writing a song. With Brian, neither of us had written together. Needless to say he’s an incredibly successful writer and musician in general. You never know how the chemistry between two people is going to work getting together and writing a song. That was the first one we wrote (Blue Water), and it really just flowed. We had very similar ideas in terms of melody and harmony and how we wanted the grooves to be. So that was a lot of fun. That particular song was like a painting. We added little things here and there but the basic tune went together right away.

SV: “Open Road” is another one of those driving songs that has a lot of punch to it that you and Brian worked out together. How did that one come about?  
EM: That was another one that he and I wrote together. It’s funny, we wrote that track and it was coming together pretty well and we got to a point where we said it’s pretty good and Brian actually had the idea of wondering what it would sound like faster. Originally it was a medium sort of tempo. So we notched it up and suddenly the tune came to life. That was the spark that it needed. Then Ray Parker Jr. played guitar on that track. He wasn’t the original idea. I don’t Ray, but I know of him but Brian does. Ray is Brian’s neighbor. So the original guitar player that was going to be on the track called on his way to the session and said he couldn’t make it. That was our day to do it and Brian said “Why don’t we call Ray Parker Jr., he lives right around the corner?” Sure enough we called him and he said “You know what? I’m just sitting around tonight not doing anything and I’ll be right over.” Literally ten minutes later showed up at the studio door with guitar in one hand and amp in the other. We sat down, played him the track and said “Let’s go for it.” What you hear on the record is what he played. It was the perfect call and was so cool to have him on the track and he just played so great.

SV: One of my favorites is “I Believe in You.” It’s one of the more soulful tracks on the disc. Where did the inspiration for that one come from?
EM: Well the original inspiration can from a friend of Brian’s who was introduced to me by Brian who became heavily involved with this record named Steve Lu. He’s a great young composer and producer here in Los Angles. He actually had the seed of that track to begin with. He started that song. Brian and I actually got together with Steve and created that song. I wrote the melody and we came up with some little parts here and there. You know sometimes you here a certain idea. Usually the way it works is that I have my horn and we’re around different keyboards. One person will play something that will hopefully inspire another direction for someone else. The beauty of writing with somebody else in that case is three of us together and sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes you get too many cooks right?  In that case we all contributed ideas that the rest of us liked a lot. It came together very nicely. It’s one of those emotional power ballads that I’ve never really done on any of my records before. It’s the kind of song that easily cold have lyrics put to it and become a pop vocal tune sort of. It was a lot of fun to record. It’s one of those songs where you start at the beginning and go. It’s not the type of thing where you’re punching back and forth. You can either play it or you can’t. It was a lot of fun to play. It helps to be one who wrote the melody. I’m so saxophone oriented. You’re writing because you hear a melody. Of course you hear the melody as it were being played from a saxophone. It’s not incredibly foreign. It’s not like a cello player wrote it and suddenly you’re playing for them it would feel foreign on a sax. So it felt very natural to play.

SV: I’ve really enjoyed the title track and can see that as a single later on. Can you tell us a little bit about that one?
EM: Well thanks, that’s “Just Around the Corner.” Steve Lu and I wrote that together. The story behind that tune is that we starting writing a tune with Steve and we got to a certain point and we stated falling in love with it and I thought “wait a second.” It’s almost identical to “Blue Water” which Brian and I had written. There were so many elements that were similar that we couldn’t use it obviously because we could use both songs on the same record. So we started with a completely different idea which was the hook of just around the corner. We thought “wait, let’s just leave it.” It’s one of those tunes that although there’s several parts to it, it came together really super great. We almost wrote that tune as fast as we could play it. That’s one of my favorite tracks on the record. I didn’t mind that being the title track although I knew that would be the first single or anything. It was one of the first tracks on the record where we decided to use multi layered saxophones. It turned out that became sort of the theme of this record or theme in terms of producing. You get a lot of multi layered saxophone. If you don’t like saxophone, then this is not the record for you. (laughing) You get the full complement of soprano, alto and tenor all the way through it.    

SV: Well let’s switch gears for just a moment. You toured and recorded with the Rippingtons for a few years. Tell us about that experience with Russ Freeman and the gang.
EM: Fantastic. Incredible. Stupendous. You know the Ripps are such a great band. Russ is one of the most talented guys I’ve ever been around. It’s amazing how he works. He’s an early morning kind of guy. He’ll get up in the morning. You see these Army commercial where they do all this stuff before eight a.m. He’s like that. He’ll write and play so much of what he does in the wee hours of the morning. He’s one of these guys too when he plays, he doesn’t play his parts over and over again. He nails it. He’s got an amazing command of his instrument. That plus his composition (look at all of the songs he has written) he’s unbelievable. It’s funny with the Ripps he’ll say “Why don’t we work up this song?” It will be some song from a record fifteen years ago.  It will be some killer song and I wonder why we haven’t been playing this all along. The answer is that you can only play so many songs in an hour and a half concert. He’s written so many hits. My favorite thing about the Rippingtons is that he really knows how to write for the sax. The lead parts just fit. It’s like he took saxophone lessons as a kid or something but he didn’t. He just knows the sweet spots or the range of the horn. 

SV: You’ve been touring quiet a bit in the past year. In October you were in Taiwan, Sweden and the Netherlands and Hungry. Tell us a little bit about your world traveling.  
EM: I think a lot that comes from playing with Chick Corea. That band has been together for like22 years. Chick Corea is one of those legends of music (jazz in particular). As famous as he is in the U.S. he’s even more so overseas. I think with my association with Chick over the years, I get ask to play in a lot of countries all the time. The only bummer about it is having to sit on airplanes for a long time. It’s fun. I get a chance a lot to play with musicians from other countries. You mentioned Taiwan, they play my music and I play with different musicians. I play Italy a lot, South America a lot and all over the world playing with musicians from the countries that I get to go to. It really is a thrill. I play with this one band from Italy where only the leader speaks English. They’re able to communicate through the music. It’s really quiet a trip. The same thing in Poland and I’m going to Russia. It’s really a lot fun. It’s an honor.  

SV: I see that you’re out on the road with Chick in December.
EM: That’s right. We’re out for about three weeks.

SV: Then you go back out again in the spring with a Stan Getz tribute featuring Chuck Loeb, Peter Irskine and Will Lee. Tell us a little bit about that.
EM: Well I don’t know much about it yet. Chuck and I actually played this past summer and the summer before that in Europe in a project he’s put together called Reunion. We had a fantastic tour both years actually. Right now, Chuck and I are playing together to promote both of our records and just came back from the east coast a few days ago and we have some California gigs coming up  next week. He just called me about that Stan Getz project and I’m really excited about it. It’s in the spring like you mentioned. Wow, what a band with Peter Irskine and Will Lee and Chuck. I’m really thrilled about it. His wife Carmen will be with us. So yeah, a couple dates on the east coast in the spring.

SV: Will there be any touring with the new record?
EM: Well yes, right now as a matter of fact. I have some of these dates on my own and a couple with Chuck Loeb. So we’re in New York and Boston and Miami, San Diego coming up L.A. and other dates being added. As a matter of fact, you can find out about all those dates on my website which is ericmarienthal.com. (laughing)

SV: Well as we close here for the holidays, are there any special Christmas memories you want to tell us about being on the road?
EM: Well in all my years of traveling, I’ve never missed a Christmas. I’ve missed my share of Thanksgivings and things. I’ve been lucky in that all the bands I’ve ever played with have been people who enjoy each other personally. On those occasions where we’ve been gone over a holiday or important date it’s nice to make your music with friends. It would be a bummer to be in a situation where you’re playing with people you don’t like. Not only would it be a bummer it would be impossible. I don’t guess it would be impossible, but it wouldn’t be much fun. I know of situations like that. You know a band is like a family. You’re out there on the road and you’re playing some but you’re mostly traveling and putting up with tough days. A true family would be the Chick Corea band for sure. Our shows are in December like you mentioned before, but we’re not playing on Christmas Day. In fact the day after Christmas thru New Year’s we’re playing at the Blue Note in New York and I’m going to have my whole family come out for that. That’s going to be so much fun. I can’t wait.   

SV: Well with that in mind, do you have any plans for the new year?
EM: A lot of plans actually. I’ll continue to promote this new record of mine (Just Around The Corner), a lot of playing and all kinds of things. I’m in the middle of a new record with Brian Culbertson now. He’s recording his new record. I’m doing some writing for that and so forth, all kinds of stuff.

SV: It sounds like you’re going to be a busy young man!
EM: Well with both of my kids in college now, so I’ve got to be a busy young man. (laughing)

SV: Well Eric is there anything you want to tell your fans this evening as we close?
EM: Hey I just hope you enjoy my new record. I hope you enjoy it enough to go out and buy it. (laughing) It’s always great to get out and play for people. I definitely couldn’t do this if people didn’t support music and support live performances. So speaking for myself and the other musicians, we thank you very much for supporting us. 

SV: Well we will continue to, and we really appreciate having you here with us on Smoothviews.
EM: Thank you.