ContemporaryJazz.com - Interview
with Michael O'Neill
Jeff Charney
is the producer and host for the long-running, top-rated
Sunday Jazz Brunch on KPRS 103.3FM in Kansas City. His Charney's
Corner appears regularly on ContemporaryJazz.com.
Contact Jeff at jeffrey@tfs.net
"JC: After
all these years as a side man, what took you so long to come
out with a solo CD?
MO: I've been
busy backing up a lot of great people over they years and
kind of enjoying that whole process and education. Seeing the
world,
learning different music and never really had enough time to branch
out.
Up until recently it kind of hit me that I've been working on
songs and
finally decided to go ahead and give it a whirl.
JC: Where do
find time to work on songs, on the road or when you take a
break from your travels?
MO: A little
of each. I did start to make sure that I had at least an
acoustic guitar in my hotel room on some of the tours so that
I could
use the inspiration of a lot of the locations where we were traveling,
Europe and different foreign countries, it
gives you ideas.
JC: Tell about
working with George Benson. How did you get the gig?
MO: I was working
with his musical director, piano player Randy Waldman,
at the time doing recording sessions and George's backup guitar
player at
the time, the great Phil Upchurch, had left. Randy Waldman basically
told
George that you got to check me out and played him some tracks
we worked
on and there it was - he hired me. That was in 1981. Pretty much
from 81- 1990
and then I was gone doing other things for about four years, so
from 1994
until right now I've been working with George. I have to tell
you, it's like
the greatest university you can find for jazz guitar.
JC: What does
Benson bring to the table that you learned from him?
MO: I view George
as a hall of fame complete package. He brings great
vocal power, incredible background of the jazz guitar, the lyrical
quality
even when he is not singing, the instrumental part of his guitar
thing has the
force of a voice in it. That's what separates George from the
bunch and why he has
become the icon that he is and the mold for a lot of us that are
inspiring to do that..
JC: Another
artist that would seem to be a great learning experience is
Chick Corea. What's it like playing with him?
MO: Oh wow!
You bring up something really funny for me. It was so many
years ago, early 80's I worked with Chick on a record for his
bass
player at the time Bunny Brunel. A record called Ivonhoe. I was
set to
play on a song with back to back solos with Chick (laughing) so
needless
to say I was in pretty much in awe at the time earlier in my career.
I
was real impressed with how Chick went about doing his solo. He
looked
at the chord chart and was kind of slowly working his ideas through
it
till he felt 'Hey I'm ready now." I was real impressed with
how he did that.
JC: I'm also
real impressed with Corea's compositions. Different than
most musicians' pop-oriented flavor, he is definitely on another
plane.
MO: Absolutely.
What he bring to the table is definitely classical. There is a
lot
of bar talk for instance of classical composition in his music.
Of course his ethnicity,
too. The Spanish side of the whole thing comes through as well.
JC: Yes, that
one album that he did back in 1976 called My Spanish Heart.
What an album. I played that one to death. Let's talk about your
brand new CD called
Never Too Late. How's it doing? Getting lots of airplay and sales?
MO: Well, (early
Sept.. 2000) it just got released and we are just gearing it up
right now and the
radio campaigning is just starting to heat up as well. That process
takes some time, but we are
just starting to get some good radio play across the country.
I'm getting my band together and
starting to play more live dates.
JC: Is the radio
process a surprise to you in what is now involved compared to
what it used to be?
MO: Fortunately
for me I have a lot of friends in the business and so I was pretty
much informed
what was involved. That really helps me to be patient.
JC: A fabulous
artist on your new CD that writes beautiful songs is all
over your CD, Gregg Karukas. What did Gregg bring to the project?
MO: I've been
playing in Gregg's band for the last five or six years. I
appear on two of his CDs, You'll Know It's Me and Blue Touch as
well as
on his new CD Nightshift. Gregg has become a real good friend
and he
brings so much to the table because of the compositional strength
and
his production strength. He has his own studio which he happens
to
operate really well. It's rare when you find a musician that has
the
technical know-how to run their own studio to the degree that
Gregg
Karukas does. When you worked with Gregg you get it all, you get
the
whole package.
JC: He did a
lot of good work for you not only on the single, "Never Too
Late," but also on a track called "Echoes of Seville."
Why was "Never
Too Late" the first song out of the box?
MO: Both myself
and the person working the single to radio feel that it
was the most timely as far as like the smooth jazz genre bares
today.
Stylistically, the R&B grooves and the urban flavor seems
to be what is
working a lot in the genre today. The Boney James, Kirk Whalum,
Rick
Braun, Norman Brown. It's all R&B based. We think it fits
into that.
JC: OK, but
"Echoes Of Seville," a real pretty song, another one
that
you wrote with Gregg is different from that.
MO: Interesting
piece. The way it was conceived originally was that we
originally wrote this for George Benson. Submitted it for one
of his
records. George loves Spanish Flamingo music. Just loves it and
so Greg
and I got together and wrote this song originally, submitted it
to
George, but it didn't fit into the record that he was doing at
the time.
JC: Absolute
Benson or Standing Together?
MO: Absolute
Benson.
JC: He recorded
a Spanish piece for that CD.
MO: Yes, Marc
Antoine was involved in that. Nonetheless I'm happy it
worked out the way it did because I love "Echoes" for
my own statement. That is
the one that on all my live gigs people are the most impressed
with.
JC: It's that
Spanish flavor.
MO: It cuts
though to the heart.
JC: "I
Ain't Lying" a pretty hip, uptempo piece that features Chris
Ho,
who plays with all sorts of people including Smokey Robisnon and
Walt Fowler
of the Fowler Brothers. It was different with those horn arrangements,
don't you think?
MO: Yes and
it was fun, a nice departure from the rest of it. It was great
to
utilize the talent of Walt Fowler. I've worked with the Fowler
Brothers
quite a bit over the years. Walt is such a great talent. He wrote
the
arrangement for it and played all the parts.
JC: You did
a couple of cover tunes. Stevie Wonder's "Visions" beautiful
job on that, a real nice slow piece also "Yesterday"
old
Lennon/McCartney tune, what's the deal? Why cover songs?
MO: Doing cover
songs allows an artist to sort of some ways show who
they are more clearly because when we do our own music, it's a
full
package of who we are in the full statement, but I think that
when you
play a rendition of a cover song it is quite apparent what it
is you
bring to it. What is it different about any other version of a
song that
the artist brings to it. I think it's valuable to do a cover now
and
again for that reason.
JC: And you
had some great players on that like Carl Anderson, Alphonso
Johnson, and Freddie Ravel. Is it easy to get these
guys to come into the studio to work for you?
MO: I'm blessed
with the fact that they are all my friends and that I
worked with them. In our business out here in L.A., being a good
strong
center for music, we all cross paths and work with each other.
We try to
be supportive of each other so when any of them needs something
I'm
going to make it smooth an easy for them to work with me and they
do the
same. So it worked well for all of us supporting each other.
JC: You've worked
with so many big name people. We've already mentioned
Benson, Boney, and Corea. Others included Santana, Stevie Wonder,
Manhattan
Transfer, Jonathan Butler, Peter White, George Duke, Crusaders...
the list is
just tremendous of who you've played with. I mentioned Santana
and what he's
done with his career. Did he do anything for you?
MO: I was never
a member of his band. I was on tour with Benson at a big
festival in Valencia, Spain and we were billed with Santana. We
are hanging backstage and
Carlos is a real interesting kind of guy. He just invited me out
to play with him. It was
'hey come on up and play with me'.
JC: Did you
play the whole set or just a couple of tunes?
MO: I played
a few songs with him.
JC: The big
ones like "Black Magic Woman"?
MO: I'm forgetting
which songs they were, but all I know it was such a
great rush, he had an unbelievable band. He had Patrice Rushen
on one
keyboard, Chester Thompson from the old Tower of Power on the
other. He
had Ndugu on drums and Alphonso Johnson on bass, Wayne Shorter
on sax.
It was during the period Santana was doing the project with Shorter.
Hey, it was a rush! Plus getting in the presence of somebody,
real
close to them and feeling their force and their spirit a lot of
times
gives you a more clear picture what they are about. I was impressed
with Carlos' energy. He really, really committed himself to every
note
played and that impressed me. That I carry with me when I feel
this from
what I people I consider to be masters of what they do.
JC: Do you still
take guitar lessons?
MO: I do in
the sense that I'm always looking for something new from
whomever I'm around. Formally right now, I'm not taking lessons,
but
keyboard players, and piano players in particular, fascinate me
because
they have the way the instrument is laid out is different from
the
guitar and so the capabilities are different. Knowing something
about
how they think allows me to expand what my approach to the guitar,
so
I'm always having my ears open. I'm chiefly self taught and so
I still
listen to a lot of product and try to take the influence from
it.
JC: So if you'd
go a store today what would you buy?
MO: Oh my, it
could be a combination of a lot of things. I'm still
fascinated with guys like Wes Montgomery. To me the whole sound
and feel
that he brought to the table you can spend a life time trying
to really
get it. It just cuts though and I think it was just able to hit
everybody. I also have a big background in the blues. Anything
that B.B.
King would come out with I'm interested in still.
JC: Have you
checked out the B.B. King/Eric Clapton new CD?
MO: Yes, I think
there is some nice stuff on it. It works for the market
that it is going for. I'm partial to the earlier live works of
B.B.
King, Live At The Regal and Live And Well. I just feel the raw
energy of
that is real powerful to me."
© Copyright 1997-2003 The Michael P. O'Neill
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