Jazz Monthly.com Interview with bob baldwin

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Bob Baldwin

Smitty: One of the most prolific keyboard players join me here at JazzMonthly.com. He’s one of my boys in the business. He’s a musician with a rare groove! His great new record is called NewUrbanJazz.com and there are some serious, serious funky tracks on this great new record. He has been a mainstay on the jazz scene for many years, he’s got so many things happening in his life, and I’m so excited for this cat. Please welcome NuGroove recording artist, the one and only Bob Baldwin. How you doing, Bob?

Bob Baldwin (BB): Saying all that stuff about me, man?

Smitty: (Laughs.)

BB: Holy cow. I didn’t know I did all that.

Smitty: Yeah, you’ve done a lot, man, and that was just the tip of the iceberg for you.

BB: (Laughs.) Always a pleasure, man.

Smitty: Yeah, it’s a pleasure to talk with you, man. I’m also happy to let people know that you are the “Baldwin” with all of the talents.

BB: They tell me they dragged us over from Europe somewhere like England, I think. I think I have a little England root in there or Irish or something.

Smitty: Oh, you got a little Irish in there?

BB: I think so, man.

Smitty: Oh, okay. I’m feelin’ it, I’m feelin’ it. (Both laugh.) Well, we can tell people now, I’m Baldwin Smith and you are Bob Baldwin because I get mistaken for you so many times when I’m out on the road.

BB: Oh really?

Smitty: Yeah, man. “Are you Bob Baldwin? Are you the keyboard player?” (Laughs.)

BB: That is funny. I’d never heard that one. That’s cool.

Smitty: Yeah, man, so I haven’t perpetrated yet.

BB: I hope you’re saying nice things in the process.

Smitty: Oh yeah. It’s tempting to be Bob Baldwin sometimes, you know? (Both laugh.)

BB: I feel good now.

Smitty: Yeah, man. Well, hey, I’m totally excited about this record, man. I’m loving this New Urban Jazz groove.

BB: Thanks, man. The record—it took a long time to put together because I went through a few deals, if you will, so by the time it started and by the time it finished, it was like a whole new record, but the concept is basically funky jazz, push the kick up, push the bass up, add some vocals. I kinda go back to my older sound. I’ve always had a funky vibe anyway.

Smitty: Yeah, man, absolutely, and you were destined to be a musician because your dad is an incredible musician. Talk about your relationship of putting that all together watching your dad and then now doing your thing.

BB: He was pretty incredible, man, because he taught me how to play when I was about four years old. I had no idea what kind of talent I had and he just tapped into it. He’s a fantastic piano player. He had the opportunity, before he got sick, to work with Keter Betts, who was the former bass player for Ella Fitzgerald before she died. I think Keter and Ella were actually married for a while and he lived up in Yonkers, New York, which is the next town over from where my dad lived. And dad also worked with Art Davis, who was the last bass player in the John Coltrane band.

So both of these cats played upright, so my father came from more of a traditional route, so at the age of four and five and in kindergarten, I’m sitting up here listening to Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. (Both laugh.) Barely know my alphabet. I’m sitting here listening to some “Night in Tunisia” and stuff like that, all blues and stuff, so I had a really interesting background, childhood. Then my sister, who was a little older than me, had a lot of funk records in her catalog and so here comes the Ohio Players and Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye and Aretha [Franklin], Chicago, and so in growing up I had the best of both worlds, so here I am a few years older just trying to fuse it all together and the end result is NewUrbanJazz.com.

Smitty: Yeah, man. But at that age you could have tuned out everything you were hearing, you could have done something totally different. What kept you interested in this great music?

BB: Probably the same thing that keeps me interested now, which is when you’re young and you’ve got a certain kind of passion for what you do, you don’t look at the financial piece of it. When you’re four years old, five years old, you’re not thinking about money. You just want to have fun. And the feeling that music gave me when I was a youngster still gives me that same thrill when here I am so many years later, so that’s pretty much—it’s just a passion that I have for music. It’s just something that’s just completely inside my body and my spirit, you know?

Smitty: Yeah, so what’s the driving force of New Urban Jazz? What started this whole project?

BB: The original project title was Jeep Jazz, which is the first song on the album.

Smitty: And it’s kickin’ too.

BB: Yeah, thank you, man. So I wanted to come up with a record that had some jazz influence but also had the hip hop bottom, something that the kids could put in their SUVs and turn the bass up and just walk down the street listening to some deep grooves but also hearing something slick and sophisticated up top, kind of like modern day Quincy Jones, right? I grew up listening to Quincy a lot and his whole harmonic and orchestral sound just really took me to that place.

So that was the original vibe, Jeep Jazz, and then it just evolved and eventually someone ended using that title for something else, so I just moved it over to New Urban Jazz and it’s funny. The week I released the record, the following week, I think CD101 went off the air in New York and then we lost stations in Houston and Washington, D.C., Denver, and eventually Jacksonville, so I thought it was quite ironic that here I’m trying to fuse a new sound into the format and the stations that are in place now were not succeeding.

Smitty: What was your feeling when you heard all of this happening at the time of your release of this record?

BB: Well, at the end of the day it’s about the music getting to the people, so I wanted to make sure that there was something there for Smooth, but my music includes pop, includes gospel, includes urban, and it includes contemporary jazz, so I just felt that the record spoke to those people who buy my records and at the end of the day that’s the most important thing. As long as we can get it to them, then we’re okay, so if it means that radio will not be there, then you have to rely on going out here and doing some dates, which you know I have no problem doing.

Smitty: Yeah, well, you’ve also gotten your feet wet in the radio business as well, haven’t you?

BB: Yes, I started in ’81. I interned in New York at WBLS, which was at the time the number one FM station in New York City, and that was the home of Frankie Crocker. I had a chance to intern under him and that’s where I developed some really, really key relationships moving into the 90s and the year 2000. Pat Prescott is somebody who I met at that time and so Pat was very instrumental in playing a lot of my stuff early in my career before she moved out to Los Angeles at The Wave. She landed a job in 1988 at CD101. Did a little news over there for a while and then I worked at 1010WINS, which was a Westinghouse/Infinity station, and then I got into the music for a number of years and then came back to radio. I always had this thing about radio.

I wrote the jingle for CD101 which ran for about seven years straight before they flipped their format to what they call New York Chill in ’05. In ’04 I did some music consultant work in Jacksonville at a Smooth Jazz station there and then I helped open up a Smooth Jazz station down in Bermuda in ’06. I did that for about six or seven months of going back and forth there and just developing instrumental music in that market and worked my way back up to Atlanta, where I was doing some consulting work for WCLK in Atlanta, which is Clark Atlanta University, and so now I’m at WJZZ, which is a Radio One station, so I’ve made my rounds, man.

Smitty: Yes you have.

BB: But it’s been a fun little journey so far.

Smitty: Yeah, man, and you gotta be having a great time with it.

BB: Oh, absolutely. It’s just nice—I mean, there’s a few cats out here that are musicians that also do radio. Of course, Dave Koz comes to mind, Chris Botti was doing it for a while, Boney James, Mindi Abair is doing it now, Ramsey [Lewis] is doing it.

Smitty: Yeah, Norman Brown.

BB: So yeah, it’s nice to be in good company.

Smitty: Yeah.

BB: Alexander Zonjic over in Detroit.

Smitty: I think Gerald Veasley’s doing radio in Philadelphia, isn’t he?

BB: Right, right, so I think it’s a really cool way for musicians to protect their craft, protect their art form, and really bring something special to the genre, and it gives some credibility and some personality to it.

Smitty: True that.

BB: Not to say that the ones, the people in place aren’t personable, but when you’re living and breathing the genre and now you’re on the radio talking about it, you have some personal experiences you can share with people and I think people appreciate that.

Smitty: Absolutely. I have to applaud you for that because as a listener, when I hear a song, I want to hear some interesting tidbits about it.

BB: Mm-hmm.

Smitty: I love those tidbits, you know? I miss that in radio and I talk to people across the country that tell me they miss that. People used to tell me how they were listening in their car and after that song is over, if they didn’t know what that song was, they’d pull over and pull out their pen and paper that they had in the glove box especially for that reason and write it down song and album and then go buy it.

BB: Exactly, right, right, that’s right. I think the people who are listening to this music that are really into it, they’re passionate just like that, like you said. They will pull the car over to the side of the highway and get your pencil and write it down because, I mean, I’ve done that myself.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Absolutely, I remember those days.

BB: And I think the format misses that. It misses that personal connection that the jocks had with people and maybe they’ve over canned it so much where it’s kinda lost some of that heartbeat and I think it needs to come back to that.

Smitty: I totally agree. So keep doing your thing, brotha, because you’re definitely on the right track of attracting the listeners and giving them what they want. Isn’t that why we have radio? To give them what they want?

BB: Yes, absolutely, and give them a variety and, like you said, tell the little stories behind the music.

Smitty: Right on!

BB: Yeah, I’m on WJZZ, which is Atlanta 107.5, and you can also listen online at 1075WJZZ.com.

Smitty: Oh, cool.

BB: Saturdays from 6 to 10.

Smitty: They have some great guys down there too. You cats are doing your thing. Love what you’re doing.

BB: Yeah, thank you, bro.

Smitty: Yeah, so now talk to me about Bermuda, man. How did you get hooked up with Bermuda?

BB: You know, believe it or not, there’s a young guy down there named Terence who works a day job at a phone company and he wanted to start a radio station, so he rented out some space at the phone company where he worked and took some equipment and wanted to start a Smooth Jazz station. So he started surfing the net and then located me and found out I was doing some radio through the stuff I was doing down in Jacksonville, so it was basically through I guess a Google search of me and we just hooked up. He originally wanted some jingles and then when he found out that I did more than just jingles and I told him that I could help him with programming some of the station, we just had a nice little connection. He’s a young guy and just was really ambitious and passionate about putting the music out there, so that worked out really nice for a while, man. We did about five or six concerts down there since then just to kinda help promote jazz music in Bermuda because up until then there really wasn’t a whole lot going on, so it was kinda cool to be involved in it, so I was glad to be a part of that pioneering.

Smitty: Yeah, well, you’ve always been a pioneer in music, period. You’ve done so many new things, for example, this new record. Talk to me about the difference of this record and, say, music of the past. Why is this new for the listener?

BB: What I’ve learned over the years is that funk music is played on all continents and you’ve got Jocelyn Brown out there in the U.K., you’ve got Tyrone who lives in Bermuda, you’ve got Frank McComb out on the West Coast, you’ve got Najee in Florida by way of New York, and I just wanted to basically just add a little bit more urban to the record and add a little more vocals. I think most of the Smooth Jazz guys, they’ve kinda shied away from doing anything with vocals, but I wanted to broaden the horizons and just add hip hop drums from a New York point of view and just create a different fusion of jazz. You have guys out here who do the Smooth Jazz thing, but I wanted to be a little more risqué with the low end.

Smitty: Yeah, man, and you did a great job with it. And thank you for including some local talent there in Atlanta with my boy Joey Sommerville.

BB: Yeah. My man is blowin’ up, dude. He’s got a record coming out nationwide in May. I forget which label he’s gonna be on. So he’s been hitting it hard every Thursday from like September on and doing really well, bringing special guests like Marion [Meadows] and Phil Perry, and he’s brought in Peabo Bryson and Jeff Lorber, so his lineup has been really, really hot every Thursday, and then not too long ago he spent some time down at the Seabreeze Jazz Fest in Florida and did an outstanding job down there, so he’s knockin’ ‘em off one at a time.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Yeah, I love his vibe…

BB: He had Toni Redd. I didn’t get a chance to do a full song with her, but I wanted to include her on it because I did some work on her most previous record, so we were just showing a little appreciation of each other’s talents.

Smitty: Exactly.

BB: And you have Ragan Whiteside from New York who I worked with for many years. I just want to help develop people’s talents, man.

Smitty: Absolutely, man. I love that. We all should in some way give back and reach out because there’s so much great talent out there. That statement has become a cliché more than ever before.

BB: Mm-hmm.

Smitty: And if we all just grab some of those pieces and introduce them to new audiences…

BB: Right, exactly.

Smitty: I think that’s a beautiful thing. And you can say hello to my girl Toni Redd. I’ve been knowing her for years. I remember her when she…

BB: Oh really?

Smitty: Oh my Gosh, yeah. I remember Toni when she lived in Dallas. In fact, I didn’t know her until I met her in Hawaii many years ago.

BB: Yeah?

Smitty: Yeah, and just fell in love with her voice and we stayed in touch. We would lose touch and then we’d find each other again.

BB: Mm-hmm, real nice lady. She was out in California there for a while too in San Diego.

Smitty: Yeah, absolutely. She was down there with Fattburger.

BB: With Fattburger, right.

Smitty: Yeah, she’s a great girl, I tell ya.

BB: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Smitty: And you featured her on “Flying High” on your new project.

BB: Yeah, along with Frank McComb.

Smitty: Yeah, and Frank is a bad boy.

BB: He’s a madman. He’s like a little scientist.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

BB: That is my man right there, Frank McComb.

Smitty: Yeah, and a cool dude, you know?

BB: Brilliant talent, man.

Smitty: So you just pulled out so much great stuff with this record and I want to particularly talk too about Track 13, “Joe Zawinul.” What a nice thing to do.

BB: Mm, that one was inspired by actually Ike Stubblefield, who is an older cat, organ player who actually has got a real nice song out in Europe. He was in Atlanta and he gave me this track for his record and I gave it a listen. It didn’t have any melody or anything like that, so he basically played the track for me without any kind of melody and he said “Man, I’d like for you to write something on top of this.” So we were just sitting around the room and talking about great musicians and then the topic of Zawinul came up and he was talking about his experiences with Zawinul personally from a musical standpoint, so that conversation just evolved to just doing that particular song and that’s what came out, “Joe Zawinul.”

Smitty: Wow, well, Zawinul evoked music in a lot of people.

BB: Yup, yup, and I love the funky organ that Ike is playing on that.

Smitty: Yeah, man, I love that organ. We need more of that organ sound out there.

BB: Exactly, exactly. That’s an authentic B3. And then he added some horns, so we wanted to really keep it special, something years from now people would be like “Who is Zawinul?”

Smitty: Yeah.

BB: Exactly.

Smitty: And you caught up with my boy Marion Meadows.

BB: Oh yeah, oh yeah. I’ve known Marion, ’84 we met in St. Croix. I was hired to do a gig with Norman Connors and that’s how we met. We’ve been brothers ever since. He’s played on about seven of my records, I’ve played on about four or five of his.

Smitty: Yeah, he’s a great cat, yeah.

BB: Nice guy.

Smitty: So the record is out and people can get it everywhere.

BB: Yes.

Smitty: And I tell ya, I highly recommend this record, man. I mean, you have my full endorsement on this one because it is a fresh new sound and just some fantastic melodies. And love your work with it, man. I mean, it’s just kickin’ on all levels, you know?

BB: Oh, thank you, man. I’m hoping to do a sequel to it at some point.

Smitty: Yeah, man, you should. I mean, if this is the new wave, then there’s gotta be a lotta sequels.

BB: Yeah, how ‘bout that? How ‘bout that? Yeah, I got a couple of tricks up my sleeve, but I gotta finish off my Brazil Chill 2 first.

Smitty: Yeah, man. And speaking of Brazil, when are you gonna take me with you?

BB: (Both laugh.) When you’re ready, man.

Smitty: I’m ready, brotha. I want to go with the great Bob Baldwin.

BB: Oh, okay, all right, all right.

Smitty: Because I know you know the spots.

BB: Yeah, that’s true. I know a couple of the spots. You’re absolutely right. And there’s some great music down there. Gosh, man, some great music.

Smitty: Yeah, so when you get ready to go again, you let me know because I want to hang with Big B in Brazil.

BB: Okay, that sounds good, that sounds good.

Smitty: And you know what? You’re gonna have to let me borrow one of your hats, brotha.

BB: Ah, no problem, man, no problem.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

BB: One of my funky lids, huh?

Smitty: Yeah, because I want to look cool too, you know? (Both laugh.)

BB: That won’t be a problem.

Smitty: You did a deal with NuGroove. How you lovin’ that?

BB: So far it’s been great, man. We were together on 215 [Records] but yeah, here we are, David Chackler and I again at NuGroove. So far it’s working out really great and the record debuted No. 7 on Billboard Contemporary Jazz and we’re getting some nice airplay around the country with our first single “Third Wind,” so yeah, everything’s rockin’ and rollin’, man.

Smitty: Yeah, man, I’m lovin’ it. I’m happy for you, brotha, and tell “The Chack” I said hello when you see him again or when you talk to him again.

BB: I most definitely will, man, and thank you so much for your support all the time, brotha.

Smitty: Yes indeed, man, it’s my pleasure. All right, we’ve been talking with the incredible and amazing Mr. Bob Baldwin. His great new record is called NewUrbanJazz.com. Check him out at his Web site, check him out on radio, he is doing his thing across the country and beyond. Bob, thanks again, my friend, and all the best in 2008 and beyond, my friend.

BB: And right back to you, my man.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.bobbaldwin.com and www.thenugroove.com