.............32..............
Flashmag November 2018 www.flashmag.net
difficult to tell children, you know, you get to go to school first, and learn this before you can do that. Some people don’t want to hear that. I think for young peoples who want to have a long-lasting career in music, it’s important to learn the fundamentals. I may not have hundreds of thousands listening to me all the time, but I know that the music I do is sincere, because I have mastered it, and it is affecting people in a positive way in their life and I think that is what matters.
There is a crisis in the black music some believe it’s losing its soul . Some believe black musicians in the mainstream have influenced the perception of black peoples worldwide, not always on the positive way. About you is it too late to correct this idea of gangsters and bitches, that seem to stick in people mind?
That is a tuff one, there is always going to be a negative and a positive, and unfortunately it’s the negative that seem to be the eyes catcher. I think to correct it medias, producers, and the public as well have to do their duty towards what seems negative. Provocation has always been part of Contemporary music. Unfortunately, even bad buzz seems to sell. Negative portrayal of people, like negative news, is always more popular. Some of us who have a positive message, we just have to keep doing what we are doing.
In my opinion right now in the black scene very few decision makers are musicians, so it’s difficult for them to understand were to take music. selling good doesn’t mean selling what is good. In 2017, you released another solo work with an album produced under Okeh Records, Ella: Accentuate the Positive. Among other the album is featuring Fitzgerald's former pianist and musical director Mike Wofford, and guest appearances from bassist Ben Williams, vocalist Charenee Wade, and your old friend vocalist Carla Cook how long it took to realize this album? And why did you think it was important to make an album focused on the work of Ella Fitzgerald?
I have always been a huge fan of Ella Fitzgerald, I hear Ella as a child and I have always been attracted to her music. It always makes me feel love, uplifted. In almost every single record I did, I always had a tune or 2 of Ella. And last year was the hundred year of her Birthday, and I wanted to do a tribute album. I figured out many musicians would have think about her most famed songs, but I chose to focus on her b Side records which are not well known, it took me about 2 years of listening and sampling. It was not easy because sometimes, I will pick a song play it with the band and find out that it doesn’t blend properly with my instrument. So, it was a process where we had to make a lot of arrangements changing and correcting all the time. In the beginning I didn’t want to have any vocal on the album. Finally , I decided to have my friend Carla to sing on Undecided, and Miche Braden of Straight Ahead to sing on Accentuate the positive. I think it was appropriate to celebrate Ella, and have two of my old friends from Detroit to join me in this tribute album
You are touring right now. A tour you have titled simply Ella. So far how has been the reception of this album?
The reception is very well. Peoples seem more and more to get out ant feed themselves with something positive, especially with what is going on around the world and specially here in our country. People love Ella, so we have a pretty good response while performing. I’m touring now with Ella but as well with the quartet and we play also music from the previous albums.
Jazz music has crossed the boundaries so far that, it doesn’t belong no more to its founding fathers the Caribbean and Creoles from Louisiana and its famed forefathers like Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong. How do you see the future of this music ?
Well you cannot deny the history of this music, if you are going to play it, and understand it. You have to know its origins. I know like everywhere, people try to wipe out history, but with Jazz if you don’t know its