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What have you been doing since the last tour ended? |
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Since the last tour ended, I've been pretty busy. I was mainly working on this new album. I also produced a funk music exhibit for Paul Allen's "Experience Music Project" museum in Seattle. The exhibit contains live performances by James Brown and his orginal band (Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley etc). It also features performances by Chaka Khan and Rufus, The Gap Band, Herbie Hancock (featuring David Sanborn and myself), Dr. John, and George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic. I composed the film scores for "The Ladies Man", "The Brothers", and "The Trumpet of the Swan" (an animated children's film). |
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What were your goals for the album this time around? |
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My goal on this album was to present music the way I hear it. I wanted to make a funk/jazz record that contains the history of jazz and also the future. |
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What's really new on the album? What will surprise people? |
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There are a bunch of surprises. We covered some tunes that you don't normally hear getting covered. Tunes like Talking Head's "Burning Down the House" and John Coltrane's "Lonnie's Lament". There are also some cool guest artists like Raphael Saddiq, Herbie Hancock and Chaka Khan. |
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What's the meaning behind the title of the new album? |
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M2 means a couple of things. It means MM, which are my initials. On this recording, I really tried to capture what's going on in my head. So it's kinda like me looking inside myself. My last album was a live album and it was really about looking out into an audience and vibing off of them. This time I was looking inside my own head - taking a stroll through my mind. Also M2 means "Music for the 2nd Millenium" |
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What's going to be different about this new album, compared with what you've done before? |
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I've been growing and changing as a musician and I think this album captures that. |
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You're excited about the release of the new album? |
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Yeah, I want to get it out to folks. |
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What's it like on the road for you? |
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The road is ok. I don't dig all the planes and hotels but I love playing for people. |
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It's been 4 years since the last album. Why so long? |
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I had just finished my third instrumental album (Live and More) and I decided it was time to change some things in my career and that took some time. Now we have a new label (3 Deuces Records), new people to support it, and some new music. So I'm looking forward to this next phase. |
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After the success of the last album, feeling the inevitable follow-up pressure? |
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I waited so long to do this album that the pressure faded. |
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Any side projects going on with you? |
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I'm working on some music for the amazing vocal group Take 6. |
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What was the first song that you decided was going to be on the new album? |
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The first song was John Coltrane's "Lonnie's Lament". It has a beautiful melody, a beautiful history, and we put a different groove to it that you can feel today. |
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Any ideas as to what may be your next single? |
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I like "Boomerang". It features Raphael Saddiq and myself on vocals. It's based on a piece of music I wrote for the Eddie Murphy movie, "Boomerang". It's the opening title music. I've been getting mail and calls about that cue since then. Folks want to know, "What is that called? Is it part of a real song? Where can I get it?" So I took the movie cue and developed it into a complete song. It came out sweet. |
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Any special guests on this album? |
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Yeah, there's a gang of 'em: Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws, Branford Marsalis, Raphael Saddiq, Chaka Khan, Maceo Parker, Fred Wesley, Djavan, James Carter, Kenny Garrett, Poogie Bell, Patches Stewart, Bernard Wright, Lenny White, Paul Jackson, Jr. and Scooter Taylor. |
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What are your future plans? |
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We're gonna hit the road starting in Japan, then Europe then the US. |
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This interview (taken by Johnny Lee) appeared as part of a special booklet that came with the limited collector's edition of the European (Dreyfus) release of 'M squared'. The rest of the booklet is based upon this website's FAQ section.
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