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Interview
Q. I know it is a cliché' type question, but when a person encounters an artist such as yourself who is versatile at so many different disciplines many people would like to know who influenced you in your early development and who inspires you today.
A. Wow! That's a mouthful. I guess you could say that my biggest influence and inspiration was my Father, (Apollo Jones), who was a very skilled musician. In the 1950's he worked with some notable musicians like Phineas Newborn, Bernard Hermann and Andre' Previn. He was an awesome saxophonist, who also played piano. He had a very eclectic palette and saw to it early on that I was exposed to a lot of different music as a child. Jazz, Classical, Blues, Rock and Roll and just about everything else that you can think of. He had a very extensive record collection at the time and owned this great Philips Hi-Fi system that he got from Andre Previn. Stereo wasn't around at that time but this thing had these flat Mylar type speakers which to this day I haven't seen or heard anything like them. He would invite his friends over to listen to music on this really great system and I would sit behind the sofa and listen to them drink and tell stories with this really great music in the background. I remember, as a child, this guy came over very late one evening to visit and hang out with my Dad. I was half asleep, but heard sounds that really intrigued me so I sneaked out bed, sat on the stairs and listened. I heard my Grandfather who was also an exceptional blues guitarist, play as little child but this time what I heard was quite different. I had never heard a guitar sound like that. It so full and so relaxing. The next morning I asked my Dad if he would buy me a guitar. I found out later on that the visiting guitarist was Wes Montgomery.
Christmas of 1965, my Dad bought me my first guitar. It was this really cheap kid sized acoustic guitar with nylon strings, but you would have thought he'd bought me the Hope Diamond. I banged around on that thing daily and drove my parents nuts, but my Mom and Dad always encouraged me to keep going. The rest of that story would take too long for me to tell, but needless to say my desire to become a musician was planted in me pretty early in life. By the time I was 10 or 11 I could play pretty well so my Dad started teaching me some basic chord theory. My parents also encouraged me to take music in elementary school. I started out on Cello in the 4th grade but by High School my interest shifted to saxophone. I got into a “disagreement” with my band teacher and was kicked out of the band department. Mr. Raymond Brandes, The music department head, however, took a special interest in me because he discovered that I had perfect pitch, and offered to allow me stay in the music department under his direct tutelage. I studied with him for the next three years and learned music theory, history, arranging and composition. I was a pretty fortunate high school student, learning college level stuff at 15 years old. By the time I graduated, I could write and arrange for string and wind ensembles, as well as program synths. I was an academic disaster in most of the rest of my subjects and since I didn't have the performance credits, my chances for a music scholarship were pretty much shot. So my choice to remain in music was purely out of passion for there on.
My Dad and I had a strained relationship from the time I'd become a teenager until his death in 1982, but I'm still indebted to him for the gift that he passed on to me.
Next to my Dad, and Granddad, Jimi Hendrix was probably my biggest influence…even more so than Wes Montgomery. It seemed as though Jimi was melted to his guitar. To hear his lines integrate with his vocal phrasing and chord rhythms to this day still show an unparalleled “right brain-left brain” connection to his instrument. Even though there are a lot great musical technicians out there, the sheer artistic magic that flowed from Hendrix has, in my opinion, never been duplicated.
My current influences on guitar are pretty limited. I have a tendency to listen to horn players more than guitarists because what inspires musically is often more melodic than harmonic. I tend to like a lot of artists for a lot of different reasons. Herbie Hancock is still my favorite overall musician on the planet. He's complete. His compositions are impeccable as well as his performances. Next to him, Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Scott Henderson and Allan Holdsworth rank pretty high on my list of influences also. Nadia Salerno Sonnenberg did some work with the Assad Brothers that has really caught my attention lately.
Q. You have pretty impressive chops as a programmer. Where did these skills come from?
A. I studied electrical engineering after graduation from High School in 1979. It was all discreet component level stuff, so I have a pretty good handle on the basics of audio electronics from that. I had already learned how to program analog synthesizers by then (I started out on the Moog 15 modular at age 16 so I was pretty familiar with analog synth programming by 1984 when I joined the military. While I was in the military (1984 to 1988) I was fortunate to meet some talented musicians from all over the country. Kevin Casteel, Eduardo Santos, George Scott, Roland Guererro, Billy Townes, Patrick Moss and Grant Tokiwa, Hank Santaella, Andre Casillias, Ricky Malachi, to name a few. I also performed a lot with an all military R&B group I started in 1985.We were given a special duty exemption for a couple of years and played a lot of military and civilian gigs. The U.S. Government has tons of money to spend to keep the troops entertained so we always had state of the art stuff to play around with. I had a Yamaha DX 7, and a Korg Poly Six issued to me when the technology was fairly new. Kevin is a fabulous keyboardist and a mathematical genius so I learned a lot about FM synth programming from him. When I wasn't performing, I was a communications specialist in the Army and we had the opportunity to work with personal computers back when they were still using Z80 and 8088 processors.
After military service I went to work for the Indianapolis Police Department as a communications tech and expanded my knowledge of computers there. Everything else, you can say, I've acquired pretty much by diving in and learning on my own. Trial and error are the best two teachers that I know. My sequencing and drum programming chops came more out of necessity than anything else. There weren't as many musicians available in my hometown at the time that I started producing, who could play my charts the way I wanted them to. I always begin my compositions rhythmically so my drum sequences always get the most attention. Rayford Griffin was (and still is) one of my favorite drummers and I remember watching him play a lot as a teenager. He has this incredible sense of melody that many drummers lack, but he also has a way of creating a very "groovable" pulse with his kick that make even odd meters accessible. I try to re-create this concept when I program drum sequences. Being a multi-instrumentalist helps me to understand how samples and virtual instruments should be performed in order to sound natural.
Q. How do you describe the music on Wake up running?
A. I wouldn't necessarily call it Jazz, although for lack of better terminology that's what it is. It's very a-typical of a guy who grew up in the streets of Indianapolis. People often expect my music to be very elementary because I'm a very simplistic kind of person. I have very little formal music education outside of high school. I consider that to be somewhat of a blessing because I didn't learn all the “rules” that seem to confine the creativity of a lot of musicians. However, I believe I've learned enough music over the years to be able to communicate my ideas and creativity to others, and that's what music is all about. Some of the pieces on it are derived from some very classical ideas. Punch & Judy, for example is kind of based on Jesu Joy of My Desiring but with a very Brazilian twist. Bach meets Tania Maria! Some of the other tunes are funk and rock oriented... all of the styles which shaped my musical identity.
Q. What are your favorite compositions on the CD?
A. Wow! That's a tough one. I guess that if I had to pick one that I feel the best about; it would be Bhopal ,( Listen Here ) which oddly enough is the most recent of my compositions. It's a very simple tune, with a simple musical message. I wrote it to musically convey my emotions about what happened over there. I wasn't going to include on this project, but I have been moved for over 20 years to write something that speaks to that awful tragedy that happened over there. I feel like my best playing and writing come when I can pour all of my emotions and passion into a subject. Next I would have to say that Kevin's (Casteel) tune Isla Morada . Kevin came to my home over Thanksgiving of 03, and played some improvisational piano stuff and this tune, along with several others, just poured out of him. All I did was add some pads and strings to it and "voila"!
Q. What gear do you currently use?
A. My main guitars are Parkers . I own two of them, (a Fly Deluxe and a P-40. They're like the Swiss army knives of guitars. I can get just about every sound I need from those two guitars. I also have an Ovation Nylon Legend 1863, (the same one that Pat Metheny uses on the "We Live Here" tour. What a great axe ! I've got one of the rare earlier series that featured a spruce top and ebony fret board. My other guitar is a Kramer American Series Strat. I've had it for about 20 years and it's been about 10 years since I've had a fret job on it, but it's a shredders dream axe. It has the most stable body structure, which makes it perfect for synth tracking so I've attached my Roland pickup to it. My synth lines would be really kind of lame if it weren't for the breath controller, which helps add expression to the synth lines I play on the recording. My main keyboard is an M-Audio Keystation Pro 88. I'm not nearly as proficient a keyboardist as I would like to be, so the semi-weighted have an action that is perfect for me. I also have a Korg MS 2000 "aka" the poor man's Mini Moog. My outboard synth rack has a loaded Roland JV 1080, Yamaha Motif Rack with VL 70 Card, 2 Proteus modules, Korg M3R, Alesis S4 and an old Yamaha TX 81Z. In the studio I'm using my soft synth plug-ins almost exclusively these days. I've got the Miroslav Philharmonik which, for the money, has some pretty spectacular orchestral samples. I also have the Native Instruments stuff (B4, Pro 53, and Absynth), which are really hip!
Q. Do you have any advice for up and coming musicians?
A. Remain true to your passions. The true essence and purpose of art is to convey, not only the ideas, but also the emotions of the artist. Don't try to look for your audience. If what you do is pure and passionate, your audience will find you.
Secondly, I can say that music and life are about learning and growing. I try to never spend a single day of my life without learning something new. The cool thing about living in this country is that, if you are motivated, you can accomplish just about whatever you choose to. It may not be easy, but all things are possible if you have the faith and drive to overcome your obstacles.
Lastly, there are many good players out there who could become exceptional players if they are willing to dedicate the energy to practice and learning. Unfortunately, our culture is degenerating into one that is concerned more with raising self esteem by celebrating mediocrity, rather than the pursuit of excellence. The majority of people in our culture choose the path of least resistance, which almost always leads to mediocrity. When I was growing up, for example, I had a really bad speech impediment...I was a stutterer. In fact, I stuttered so badly that I hardly talked to people, which gave some the perception that I was either learning disabled or anti-social. The introverted nature of that whole milieu pushed me deeper into the arts, but also limited my friendships. There was this girl, named Margo that I really wanted to ask to the prom, but I was too shy to approach her. By the time I got up enough nerve to ask, someone else had beat me to the punch. So that next year, I decided that enough was enough and took a public speaking class to learn to overcome my stuttering.
My point is, face your weaknesses! Only you really know what your limitations are and it is up to you to overcome them, but anything is possible if you choose to meet them head on with a conquering attitude. How this also applies to music...is like this. If your weakness is tempo, then practice with a metronome. If your weakness is soloing, then build a vocabulary of scales and phrases. If your weakness is reading music then practice reading music. If your weakness is theory, then go to the library and find some material to study. With all of the information that is available today via the Internet, videos and other places there's a ton of help available, that wasn't available when I was younger.
