Jazz Monthly:  Yeah.  And it’s just great, and then the great Nathan East.

ML:  I know, yeah.  You know what?  All I can tell you is that it is very, very nice to have very talented friends.  (Laughs.)

Jazz Monthly: Yes, I feel ya.

ML:  Because the music industry is challenged at times and the budgets are definitely being contained in order to survive, and so it’s important that we all look out for each other and I tell you, they all made it possible because I couldn’t pay them what they possibly deserved, but you know what?  They didn’t care and they were just so graceful to me that they just came and did it.  So it’s just a pleasure having such great friends, it really is.  I’m almost speechless because it’s like what I asked them to do was just so way beyond their call of duty and they did it because everybody was in and they wanted still to make great music, and the fact that I went into the studio and recorded things live with great musicians, and everybody sits and records their albums at their house now.  I didn’t want to do that.  I wanted to sort of continue elevating and I think that they realized and saw that, but I’ll tell you what did help is having Greg Phillinganes attached to the project certainly helped.

Jazz Monthly:  Oh, he’s a master, yeah.  Well, Michael, going back to something that I kept thinking about over and over as I listened to this new record is your writing and the way you demonstrated that, it’s poetic when I hear you play, and each artist featured or each song is a different poem that I think just rolls off so cool that I just know the audience, the fans, are gonna just love this record.

ML:  Well, what can I tell you?  I appreciate that very much coming from you.  I just write, you know?  And I know what I like and I know when I like something that I did and I wrote a lot more songs for this album than for any other album I’ve ever done.  I probably wrote 25, 30 songs and I think eight of my songs ended up on the album.  So I feel that I kinda narrowed it down to the songs that really blend well together and also each song has something to say, I think, you know?

Jazz Monthly:  Yeah, absolutely.

ML:  And if you look at them as poems, I’m just happy.  It makes me feel that I did my job.

Jazz Monthly:  Absolutely, man.  It has such a great feel, and I’ve said this so many times, but when you can feel the music in connection to hearing it, then you know it’s a great song and you know that it’s a song with substance and it’s something that you truly enjoy opposed to just listening to a song, because we all can do that, but it goes to another level when you feel the song and it moves you and it makes you think and it makes you ponder and it makes you smile, all of those things.

ML:  Right.

Jazz Monthly:  And all of those elements are here with this great record.

ML:  One of the directions that I was giving when we were recording this album was I told the musicians, I said “This is gonna be an album where we’re all just gonna let loose, obviously in a controlled way, but there’s gonna be no restrictions musically.  I want everybody to do what they do best,” and the same thing with me.  I almost treated this recording process as if I were on stage and performing for a live audience.  So I tried not to think of any restrictions because just to think of that experience that people have when they hear something that moves them.  And that’s kind of the approach I took and also the approach that I told everybody. 

I said “You know, I don’t want to make an album for just musicians.  I want to make an album that everybody understands but I want these songs to have substance, musicianship, and even people that aren’t technically inclined, that they still can feel that there is something there.  That the musician has fun doing this.”  They did what they did.  They weren’t being contained.  They were just doing what they were good at.  That was the whole approach with the album.  That’s why we recorded the whole album live in the studio.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, man, and you can feel that synergy and the fun that everyone had doing it.  It was sort of like a reunion kind of thing.

ML:  Yeah.

Jazz Monthly: This is a strong record, Michael, I’m telling ya.

ML:  Oh, thanks, man.  I appreciate it.

Jazz Monthly: Yes indeed, and I tell ya, brace yourself for some wonderful reviews with this record because I think this is your best work to date.

ML:  Oh, wow, thank you.

Jazz Monthly: Yes, and it really puts a stamp on you as a world class performer, really.  I’m totally digging this one, man.  And I’ve always enjoyed your records.  You know that.

ML:  Right, I do, but when you make these records it’s hard to—you’re in it in a different way, you know?  All I could tell is this whole thing has felt really good and now that the record is finished and it’s in the process of being sort of premiered and set up and all of that stuff, I can feel a lot of interesting things going on. Like every day, some new developments and it just feels like—it’s hard to explain, but there’s a buzz, there really is.  It feels that way.

Jazz Monthly: Yeah, nice vibe.  Yeah, man.  That’s when you know you’ve really hit it and you know you nailed it the way you really intended to.  The vision is being realized.  So what’s the release date?  September 2nd?

ML:  Yeah, September 2nd, yeah.

Jazz Monthly:  Wow, man, that’ll be here before we know it.

ML:  Yeah, exactly.  And we’ll have a really great opportunity that just came about or actually it was just confirmed yesterday and on September 1st Ace Young and myself are going to perform “Baker Street” on the Jerry Lewis Telethon, which is a huge bonanza basically.

Jazz Monthly:  Wow!

ML:  And the day before the release, I mean, again, it was just the timing is the thing that just really came together well.  It’s aired worldwide so that’s a big deal for us.

Jazz Monthly: That’s exciting.  Yeah, wow.

ML:  Yeah.

Jazz Monthly: That is really cool.  Will you be sporting a cigar any time soon?  Talk to me a little bit about, you know, when I first heard about this—and we’ve  talked about this, I think, the last time when you were just launching the whole cigar venture and I said we would talk about it again next time we talked—where has it gone so far?  How’s it doing?

ML:  You know, starting a new business is never easy and there’s a lot of figuring out to do, and what I really enjoy the most, to be honest with you, is the creative part of the process, like coming up with new blends and new flavors and a new design for the boxes and labels, you know?  (Both laugh.)  Go figure.  I’ve never cared so much about the business part of things.  I like the creative part of things.

Jazz Monthly: The fun stuff.

ML:  Yeah, well, it depends who you are.  Some people love the business end much more and you associate yourself with people that do what they do best, but it’s doing really cool.  There are some very interesting things that have happened.  We have now created a second line.  The first line was called Classic and the new line is called Connoisseur and it’s a whole ‘nother cigar.  The first one was a milder, lighter cigar.  The second one is like a medium.  It’s a dark cigar and it’s basically a Cuban seed tobacco that is grown in Ecuador and manufactured in Ecuador, so it’s basically in so many ways a legal Cuban, and it’s not terribly strong, but it’s a medium strength and it’s just doing really, really well and it’s getting really good reviews.  And an interesting thing that happened, last year I performed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and after our show we were invited to a little event where actually I was really taken by this, but the admiral and the general of the base had flown a flag, American flag, on top of their headquarters that morning and they folded it and put it into a beautiful case and presented me with this flag that had flown over Guantanamo Bay on that day in a little ceremony that night, and then so after that we shared a couple of cigars and I happened to bring some of my cigars and we sat smoking and they said “We gotta have your cigars here.”