on DRUMS, with John Simeone
This is a local Long Island Podcast given by a veteran drummer on the Long Island music scene. We have a variety of local professional musicians as participants. We joke, give insights and share stories about our over 4 decades of experience in the music profession.
on DRUMS, with John Simeone
Kevin Martin's Soundtrack: A Lifelong Love Affair with Music
Okay, this is episode 23 of On Drums. This is John Simeone. I have my friend here today, kevin Martin. Hey, john, hey, that's Kevin's here, and Kevin is my first vocalist that I've interviewed. You are my first yeah, that's right, man, You're my first vocalist man. I'm trying to avoid vocalists because I don't really. I have a lot of gripes with vocalists. We can't be diva-ish. Actually, chick vocalists are the oh.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's a whole other. Let's talk about that. Supreme divas, supreme divas, yeah.
Speaker 1:So Kevin and I met weird thing, because normally people I have here I've known for like 30 years, whatever you know, and so you and I really sort of just met in regard, I mean you know, in our lives, right, yeah, yeah, and we met in um uppercut yes, right and um, but you do a million bands. You're like in every other band that there is right.
Speaker 1:You're like you're like very busy guy and uh. But but before we get to that, yeah, just start me with like what? How did you start it off? Like, would you?
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't mind, by the way, to the listeners out there. This is really a lot of fun doing this with John.
Speaker 1:Even though it took you like two months to get it. Yeah, even more than two months it took me forever to get it.
Speaker 2:I felt up until this point I didn't really have much to say.
Speaker 1:You always had a lot to say.
Speaker 2:I think. But at this point in my life I think it's time for me to open my mouth. So listen. So it started for me back in the 60s in Springfield Gardens, jamaica, queens, new York, as a kid. There was a barbecue that was happening on my block and I rode my bicycle toward the sound because there was a live band playing in their backyard. I didn't know these people you were, so you were a kid. I was kid, 12, 13 years old. I rode my bicycle and I dumped it in their front yard like I lived there and I just marched to the backyard to this huge barbecue with all these people and there was this band playing and they have like four or five guys playing. They all look older than me, they all had hair on their face.
Speaker 1:I didn't have any hair on my face.
Speaker 2:I barely had hair on my private parts at that time. You know to be honest with you, so I'm looking at these guys. One guy had a cigarette dangling from his mouth so cool 60s yeah, I'm like, I'm so impressed.
Speaker 2:so when they finished playing I said to the guy I says can I join your band? And the guy says what instrument do you play? I looked around at what they had and I saw that they did not have a keyboard player. So I said I play organ, which was the featured keyboard of the day, that's the sixth.
Speaker 1:Okay so, but you did you play organ? No, no.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't Okay, so don't even ask me why. I said that Well, no, that was smart though yeah, but I'm looking around, they don't have an organ. I play organ. The guy says do you have one? I was honest. I said no, but I'll get one. And they laughed at me. These gentlemen Joe us a call.
Speaker 1:Wow, that was really nice of them, man, I'm like all right.
Speaker 2:So I ran, I got back on my bicycle, I ride back down the block. My father's having a beer on the porch it was the summertime and I look at my father God rest his soul and I says Dad, I know what I want for my birthday. And he says what's that? I said I want an organ. He looked at me like man. You must be out of your effing mind. I got seven kids and a nagging wife and you want me to go out and buy an organ. I got a mortgage to pay and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:So right away I started to cry and my mother was sitting there with my father and she says Alan, god bless our soul. She says Alan, he's a straight-A student. You know. You said that if he did good in school you'd try. So I ended up picking up my bicycle. I rode away. This was in August of like 1968. In October of 1968, on my birthday, I woke up that morning to go to school and my father intercepted me. He said you're not going to school today. I'm like well, where are we going?
Speaker 1:We're going to go to the music store.
Speaker 2:He took me to the Sand Mash that no longer exists in West Hempstead, over near the White Castle. I remember that one. That's right, steve Jordan was the manager there. He had a bunch of bands. Didn't know him then, but he was my sales. Wait, steve Jordan. Steve Jordan, he played bass. He played for 757, 747.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking Steve Jordan the drummer. No, no, this guy was Steve Jordan. He was a bassist, nice guy Ended up becoming friends with him down the road. So my father buys the organ and get ready folks, the organ was $250. And my father this was like 1968. That's a lot. My father got that on time through GE financing $13 a month. All right, but can I just stop you there?
Speaker 1:Those are good parents, man, because in the 60s most parents were like no get out of my face. Don't even ask that again. That's right, right, I mean. So that's very cool.
Speaker 2:Yes, I held my father, you know, I called his bluff straight A's Yep and he came through. I'm just saying, even so, they could have said no. Yeah, even with that he could have said no because maybe he just couldn't afford it. He's got a mortgage, right. So you know, we're getting ready to go and Steve Jordan goes.
Speaker 2:What about an amplifier? I'm so naive I just thought I can take the organ home and much is the amplifier. That's another 175, oh yeah, oh, you should have seen the look on my father's face. But he bought the amplify. He put it on the, on the revolving credit credit card, right, so I get home. Oh, interesting part of the story. We get in the car, my father packs the stuff in the trunk just before he puts his key in the ignition. And my father was from the Caribbean so he had a little bit of an accent like that. So he said to me he said, young man, I got something I want to tell you and I'm like, yeah, daddy, what is it? He said if this keyboard I buy you is collecting dust, in six months, he said I'm going to bust your ass.
Speaker 2:And you can't blame him, right? No, no, he, I'm going to bust your ass. And you can't blame him. No, right, yeah, he said, if this turns into a hat rack. He said, dude, I'm coming for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And my father was a no-nonsense, no-joke type of a dude, right, I knew he meant it. I had four of the brothers. I saw them run afoul of my father and what that meant. I wasn't trying to double-cross dad. So we got the keyboard home, I took it in the basement, I turned on the radio, I plugged it in and, john, just like that, you started playing. I can't even explain it to this day. It gives me goose pimples. Yeah, I put the radio on, I walked up to the keyboard and I played a song that was playing on the radio and I said to myself, well, why is everybody saying this is so hard? I don't understand. I put on another record, I began to play that and I was like this is not that bad. So I call that number and I says, hey man, remember the little guy from the summer? Oh, the band.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, the name of the band was called the Pomoja Brothers, out of Jamaica Queens. My first band, the Famoja Brothers, that meant in.
Speaker 2:African or Swahili. That meant unity, yeah, okay. So I call them up and I'm like hey, man, I got a keyboard. They're like you, do you want to come down and practice? I'm like yeah, he gives me the address. I get off from school one day, my father packs the stuff in the car, takes me over to the house, drops me off. I get into the basement. It's all set up like a band, All new shit, Right, and I start to rehearse. They said do you know this song? I'm like no. They said do you know this song? I'm like no. By the time we got to the third song, I said you know what? Do me a favor, Just start playing.
Speaker 1:Start playing, yeah.
Speaker 2:Just start playing. And I said and I, because they were all older than me, they chuckled. They were like, ok, man, all right. So they started playing and lo and behold, just like it happened in my basement. Whatever the song was, I can't even remember what the first song was I started to play. Yeah, they liked it. They went to another song. I started to play again by the time we got to the third song this is a. Do you want to be in the band? And I said yes, and that began my musical journey. And here I am, at 69 years old, still fooling around.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I have a lot of questions here. So you started as a keyboard player. I thought you were just, I thought that was second, I thought you were vocalist first.
Speaker 2:So how did?
Speaker 1:you know you could sing.
Speaker 2:Because when I? All right, I have a brother who died in the Vietnam War and he was a singer. So he was that consummate big brother taught me how to brush my hair, tie my shoes, polish my shoes, what colors to wear. He was that guy, but he was also a singer. So I looked up to my brother like he was like God. I idolized him and I remember as a little boy he would have a girlfriend over on a date at my house. They might be watching TV in the basement and he would call me over and he would tell the girl my little brother can sing. And so she goes oh yes, sing for me. And even at that tender age of like eight or nine years old, I would say to the woman or the girl that was with my brother I'll sing for you if I can get a kiss on the cheek.
Speaker 2:So you were a player back then, even at eight years old I was like yo.
Speaker 1:I'll sing for you, but you got to give me a kiss.
Speaker 2:So they would kiss me on the cheek and I would sing for them and my brother would look at the girl, say see, I told you, yeah. So here I am now I'm in this band and I'm playing a keyboard and None of the guys in the band really saying you know, they all played.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's just a can instrumental band.
Speaker 2:I mean they sang a little bit, but they just weren't that good at it. They were better at their instruments than they were at the vocals. Yeah was an opening for me. So at the rehearsal I just began to open my mouth and sing, and to their delight, they're like oh my God, he can sing too, and he can sing. And this thing about singing and playing at the same time.
Speaker 1:That's tough.
Speaker 2:Again. For me it just happened, Matter of fact, many, many years later, well into my 40s, I finally separated myself from the keyboard to sing standalone. How that occurred was during my career. I was in a teenage band called Midtown TNT out of Jamaica, queens. We did some great things. We played at Madison Square Garden, we did Europe, we did a tour of the South, you know, north Carolina, South Carolina, miami, new Orleans all of this in my teenage years.
Speaker 2:So we ended up hooking up with Anthony Gordine from Little Anthony and the Imperials. He had a contractual dispute with them. He was no longer with them but he had gigs on the books that he could get litigated for if he didn't satisfy them. He knew our manager. His name was Vic Matera. A mafia wannabe guy out of Bay Ridge, brooklyn was managing the band and he knew Anthony. Anthony called him and says listen, I'm in trouble, I got this big date coming up. Do you know of a band or a singing group that could back me up? And he says, well, I got this big date coming up. Do you know of a band or a singing group that could back me up? And he says, well, I got this teenage band. Let me ask them if they know your music.
Speaker 1:And so he came to us and he said you know the Imperials and we're like shimmy shimmy cocoa bat going out of my head outside looking in and he's like, yeah, so he went back to Anthony's. No, so this is different. You were in a different band, yes, so now.
Speaker 2:I've graduated to another band called Midtown, and so now Wait how old, are you now? I'm 15.
Speaker 1:Okay, 16. Yeah, teenager Okay 17,.
Speaker 2:About 17. High school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm high school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or just out you know, chronologically Forgive me, I'm a little off or just out of high school, but young nonetheless. So Anthony agreed to give us the gig. He flew in the night before the job and we rehearsed to the wee hours of the morning and we had to be at the garden at 10 o'clock the next morning. The garden, madison Square Garden, was our first job with him. It was a big show with Leslie Gore, fats Domino, wow, chuck Berry, johnny Maestro, jay Black, yep, you know, a big, holy show. And that was our beginning of our journey with Anthony.
Speaker 2:One of the things we used to do after the Garden gig we went on the road with Anthony. So we used to open up for him. We'd do three or four songs and then he would come out and we would do all of his hits and that would be the show for the night. Maybe sometimes we'd do two shows. So we're down in Miami and we're doing our opening and I sang All Is Fair and Love by Stevie Wonder and when I hit the last note and I held it and the song was finished, I opened my eyes and people were standing on their feet. So Anthony called me to the room after the show and just said to me that you know my destiny was really singing. He thought I was an okay keyboard player, but okay, you're an okay keyboard player but he felt as though piano players were a dime, a dozen.
Speaker 2:He didn't feel like singers. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, he didn't feel like it was. You know, playing piano was great, but he just from a show career point of view he really felt that me standing in front of the audience and singing was really the better path for me and I didn't really understand that or respect that until 20 years later. I had been out of the music business for a while. There was a period in my life where I suffered from substance abuse.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you didn't play, for you were out for 20 years.
Speaker 2:No, I stopped for about 10 years of my life, about a decade, because of my substance abuse I had gotten away from music. I found my way back and when I found my way back, anthony's words were ringing in my ears yeah, so I joined a progressive gospel choir after being away from music for a long time, and joining that gospel choir relit that spark in me for music. I invited my family to a performance with this church choir and after the performance my family wanted to know when are you going to start your own band again?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was into my 40s by then and I never had thought about starting another band. I really felt like it was kind of over for me and they planted the seed and a couple of months later I was holding auditions. I had a basement like yours and it was unfinished, perfect. We can come down here and make a mess, it's no problem. So we started to do that, and it was then that I decided that I was going to hire another keyboard player. I would play sparingly, but my attention was towards vocals and being the leader of a band and being a good leader of the band, an understanding leader of the band, a compassionate leader of the band, a creative leader of the band.
Speaker 2:Unlike any other leader, I've ever worked for Correct I know what I want in a Correct, I know what I want in a leader, I know what I want in a band. And I tried to do that and we had some success. And then my journey took me out to Long Island, got over the substance abuse, got my life together.
Speaker 1:So where were you living before this?
Speaker 2:Before I came to Long Island, I was living in Jamaica, queens. Oh, okay, right, I was a Queens guy.
Speaker 1:You know my wife's from Jamaica Ozone Park.
Speaker 2:Ozone Park, yeah, oh, the south side yeah the south side.
Speaker 1:A lot of good cats came from the south side.
Speaker 2:A lot of good musicians came from southeast, but my passion for music was reignited and I moved out to Long Island and the band that I had broke up, which was devastating for me, to be honest with you. I cried. We put five years in and it was my band. Right, I started it from scratch.
Speaker 1:It's amazing how personal it becomes right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I cried.
Speaker 1:I mean it's like a family, right. I mean you spend so much time and you spend time with people who have the same like kind of hangering that you have, you know for the art and then and then it's like losing part of your family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I cried for days. My wife didn't even know how to console me. Yeah, you know the last guy that came to get his stuff out of my basement. Man, I was a mess.
Speaker 1:You know the last guy that came to get his stuff out of my basement man, I was a mess. It's funny because I feel like my friendships with I have a lot of friends who are not musicians, they're teachers, because that's what I did also and I'm closer friends with musicians.
Speaker 2:It's like we have a thing you know, it's a thing, yeah, and it's a bond that's inexplicable, yeah, and it's because of our love and our passion right for the music. So you know, I got out here to long island and I, um, I was so distraught. There was a guy that I work with at verizon. His name is sandy santana. He had heard the band on a few occasions. When he heard that the band broke up, I would come to work in the morning and for months he would be like, when are you going to start another band? And I'm like sandy, leave me alone. You know like I'm still broken hearted, yeah, like I don't want nothing to. Every monday morning I come into work. You know we had to be to work at 7 am. There's sandy sitting in the corner. When are you gonna start it's like losing a puppy, yeah.
Speaker 2:When you're gonna get another puppy, yeah I'm like, leave me alone. Yeah, so one morning he comes into work and he has a check for 500 and a crisp 100 bill and he puts it on the table and I'm like what's that? He said that's the money I made at a gig this weekend. He he said $500 for the gig and $100 tip. Whoa. And he says I'm a goddamn guitar player.
Speaker 2:He said you're a singer. He said you know what kind of demand you are in. And I'm like really, I said it's that bad. He said it's that bad.
Speaker 1:Right. And for people listening right now who don't get that, what you just said, there's a hierarchy of how musicians are paid and or treated. Yes, right, and singers are at the top of the heap. Yes, yes, they are and they still are. Yes, they still are At the front of the line, right, and the drummers are in the back.
Speaker 2:The drummers are in the back. Who gives a?
Speaker 1:shit about them. They don't care if they joke.
Speaker 2:Guitar players get a little shine. If you can really play, the singers really shine.
Speaker 1:Exactly, people who come to hear bands generally go because they like the singers, yes, and they don't really understand how the other shit happens around. The singer Right, right Generally, but they understand vocals Right, correct.
Speaker 2:That's why I hate singers. Sorry, but it was. I lost my train of thought. Oh sorry, I lost. What train of thought?
Speaker 1:oh sorry, I lost what you said. We're too old we're talking about Jamaica. Queens, jamaica Queens your friend made $500 in a check.
Speaker 2:Talking about Sandy, so I say to Sandy you got me.
Speaker 1:Did you even know? This guy was a musician who even knew? Yeah, I knew Sandy played. Oh, he was okay, yeah and I knew Sandy played.
Speaker 2:He played with a couple other bands. I seen him in action. I did some things with him. Matter of fact, he wanted into the band. So I said, okay, first thing I want you to do is I want you to open up a page on MySpace When's the last time you heard that.
Speaker 1:Nobody Open up a page on MySpace. You have to explain that Now. Who nobody knows what MySpace is?
Speaker 2:MySpace was Facebook before Facebook Right.
Speaker 1:The first social media.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, and then after that came like Craigslist was kind of on the tail end of MySpace Craigslist was buying stuff. Right, MySpace was yes, but you could also advertise yourself as a singer. Oh, okay, you know you could put yourself out there that way. So he said I want you to get some business cards and I want you to go on MySpace and make a page and I want you to go on Craigslist and find some auditions. He said and what I want you to do.
Speaker 1:Find bands to audition for yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he said, but what I want you to do? He says these bands don't recognize who you are or what you are. He said they don't recognize that they're auditioning for you, right. You're not auditioning for them. He said you keep going on audition until you find what you like.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I did that and I found out here in Corham, suffolk County. Here in Corham, suffolk County, I found a high-tech group named Studio G. Studio G used computers and compressors and all sorts of things in their live performance. There was only five of us, so we had a guitar player, a keyboard player, a drummer and me and another singer, but we had all the violin parts. We had all the horns. We had everything we needed because we had these tracks backing us. We had all the horns. We had everything we needed because we had these tracks backing us, right. The great thing about that is the lush music. The negative to that is that if you're an old head like me, you want to groove Right.
Speaker 1:You can't really groove to a track. There's no interaction with that. Yeah, there's no.
Speaker 2:I can't groove because we're under constriction. You know we're tied to the track.
Speaker 1:It's amazing how many people who are musicians don't get what you just said. Like they're very happy to go out and play with tracks. You know what I mean. They don't get. They're void of the part of music that is the interaction. You know what I mean the emotional part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the spontaneous.
Speaker 1:The spontaneous part right, and I've worked with a bunch of guys who, like it, doesn't kind of churning out this, you know.
Speaker 2:Quality sound.
Speaker 1:Or you know, replica of what the original was Right and just because people want to dance to that or whatever. You know there's a lot of that right.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's a lot of that and we had some success and I really enjoyed. I was with the band for 13 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I really enjoyed it. The problem Not a problem but when I used to talk to the band leader my concern was you have all of this technology, you know how to work it. I think there should be a better balance between live and tech. I felt like we were too heavy tech and I felt that there were opportunities to breathe live music into this tech. Right, but that takes time and care and I just don't think that he had the patience to do that. So we kind of went normal From Studio G. When Studio G kind of slowed down and split up a bit, I started to search around and in my searching around I ran into Uppercut.
Speaker 2:Because of my now girlfriend Ann. She was a big fan of Uppercut and Dennis Grimaldi Right. She used to like going to see them play.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't know that. So she led you to Uppercut. Yes, ann was the one that brought me to Uppercut.
Speaker 2:So you guys, you weren't with the band, frank Blucci was still with them. I go to hear them live at a Beach gig Jones Beach, they did Jones Beach. Yeah, not one of the big venues, it was a smaller venue.
Speaker 1:But it was on Jones Beach All right and I liked what I heard.
Speaker 2:But you know most musicians and singers like me that have a competitive bone in their body. I'm listening to Dennis and I'm listening to the band and saying I could do better than that.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying to myself.
Speaker 2:I enjoyed it but I'm saying I could best this guy Right and I left it at that. So then a year later, unfortunately God rest his soul Dennis got himself in some trouble with the law. Yes, we all know about that and I'm not even going to speak on that Right. He got himself in trouble. So what I did was I called John Pandolfo and I told him I understand that you got gigs and that you got a problem, and I've heard you two or three times, I think I can help you. And so he said that they had a gig that weekend at the Homestead in Oyster Bay and he would like for me to come to that gig. I came to that gig and before I could even get my coat off, he was introducing me to the audience. I took off my jacket.
Speaker 1:So wait, was Dennis on the gig no.
Speaker 2:Oh, dennis was already gone. Oh, he was already gone he had some other dude Is that when they were.
Speaker 1:Bed, bath Beyond or Horns?
Speaker 2:No, no, they were still uppercut because the thing of Dennis hadn't fully hit.
Speaker 1:Oh, it hadn't exploded, it hadn't exploded yet.
Speaker 2:So they were still uppercut and I went up on stage. I sang one song, I sang two songs, I sang three songs. Then, when they went on break, john pulled me to the side. He says take out your phone. I took out my phone. He says are you available for this, this, this, this? And that's how I ended up being with Uppercut.
Speaker 1:So what year was that? What was that around?
Speaker 2:It had to be about four years ago.
Speaker 1:Was it four.
Speaker 2:About 2021?
Speaker 1:Oh alright, so okay, Right, I didn't really see. I don't have the timeline of the band down really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, listen, I'm getting old, so a lot of times my chronological thing is a little jacked up yeah yeah, yeah, it was from that, from Uppercut.
Speaker 2:Frank Bellucci and some other people started an Earth Wind, fire tribute band called Shining Star. The bass player was a female that I knew from Jamaica. Queens Liz Chisholm they call her Double Z Was involved in this band as well. So, frank, who knew me from Uppercut they were losing a member in Shining Star, so Frank calls me from Uppercut. They were losing a member in Shining Stars, so Frank calls me hey, you want a piece of this Earth Wind, fire thing? To which I said yes, and when I got there it was so good I asked myself how did I?
Speaker 1:how did I?
Speaker 2:end up with these guys Kevin Morris and Earthly West Jr.
Speaker 1:Was Terry in that band too, terry Negrelli.
Speaker 2:Wayne Schuster oh, wayne was doing it too. Yeah, phil Gray, you know. Greg Schleich, mike Jewell all heavy Roy DeJesus on bass all accomplished musicians, and you know we had a run. Matter of fact, we have a gig April 2025 at the Suffolk Theater the Earth, wind, fire band. We don't work that often, but when when we do work, the gigs are usually premium Right, and at this gig in April we're supposed to be having a big-time booking agent come to meet us, a gentleman by the name of Ben Carrizzo. I want to speak a moment about Ben. Ben worked 15 years, 18 years for the William Morris Agency.
Speaker 1:Oh, so he's in it.
Speaker 2:And then he left the William Morris Agency and began his own agency, and in August of 2024, they celebrated 30 years in business. He has booked everybody from Kevin Hart, Jerry Seinfeld, Hootie and the Blowfish, Darius Rucker and 15 years.
Speaker 1:I love Darius.
Speaker 2:Rucker, me too. He's great Booked average white band all over the globe for 15 years.
Speaker 1:He's a guy.
Speaker 2:He's a guy and he's in his 60s like me, so this is not some hot shot kid trying to make a name for himself. He has a name for himself and, as God would have it, him and his wife are the biggest earth one and five fans in the world right so when I told them what I was offering, he bit and the only thing he needs to do right now is see us live.
Speaker 2:And I told my said Ben, therein lies the problem. We don't have any work for you to come see so he hasn't, did he see, you have? Seen clips. We've had three-way calls and he's calling us now, which tells me one thing he's interested in what we have to offer, you know he's not doing this out of kindness of his heart.
Speaker 2:He feels that there's a product here that not only can benefit him but benefit us as well. So I'm excited about what can happen in April. But at the same token, I've really evolved as a person. All my passion now has gone to writing, which is why I, but didn't you. You didn't write, you wrote before. I wrote before, but to me, but.
Speaker 1:But everything like kind of life gets in the way with the writing.
Speaker 2:Yes, and also to your life in general. When I listen back to things that I recorded in the 70s, when I was a teenager trying to record, I still have some of that work.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I listened to something the other night and it says, when I listen to it, if I'm honest with my spirit, what I'm hearing is somebody trying to sound like somebody.
Speaker 1:Right, so you weren't, you no?
Speaker 2:No, I was not me. It was a real cool attempt at a young guy, not knowing what they're about, trying to find a voice some kind of way.
Speaker 1:But that makes sense.
Speaker 2:It does make sense to me now, yeah, at the ripe age of 69 years old.
Speaker 1:You sure you're 69?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm 69. I'm going to be 70 in October. I'm going to have to see a birth certificate or something. Yes, 55. 70 years old.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're the first singer and you're the oldest.
Speaker 2:I'm the oldest cat, I'm the oldest dude, the oldest cat, and so this young me versus this old me is a different me. Well, we're all. That's, all of us, right? That's everybody.
Speaker 1:It's a very different me.
Speaker 2:Now I just want to tell our audience there's a couple of things that I've learned during my new journey. Is that if I've been spending my adult life listening to Cameo, to Graham Central Station, to Earth Wind Fire, to Chicago, to Steely Dan, to Luther Vandross, to Prince, to Michael Jackson, and on and on and on, if I sit down to compose music, doesn't it stand to reason that, if I've been consuming this all of my life, that it's going to manifest itself?
Speaker 1:in my writing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, when I was young I used to push back against that notion that somehow I had to be different. So in my young mind I'm trying to find this elusive difference.
Speaker 1:Well, right, you know what? I think? This is a combination, a good, like a successful writer, I think, has got a combination to that. So it's a little different. It's something we haven't heard before, but it's got an influence. Everything's got an influence. Man, you can't help that. I'm not reinventing the wheel, yeah right.
Speaker 2:Stop telling yourself that you're reinvent different, that you're going to rearrange the 88 keys on a piano to make something that nobody's ever heard before which is bullshit. You know what I'm saying, so, but I had to come to grips with that, with the fact that if you've been consuming this all your life, it stands to reason that these influences will manifest itself. And, kevin, that's okay.
Speaker 1:Right, because that's what speaks to you.
Speaker 2:Kevin, that's okay, right, because that's what speaks to you. Yes, so I've learned that the difference that I seek is you sound like a preacher right now. You know what? My grandson said that to me, grandpa, you should have been a preacher, you should have been a preacher, so the difference that I seek? I was looking for my authentic self.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So what I've learned in my present journey is that these songs that I'm writing and I've had a huge writing spurt over the last four or five months is that there is a commonality that exists in the songs that I write.
Speaker 2:I'm starting to see in the songs that I write that there are characteristics that are shared from song to song, and I don't care whether it's up tempo, medium tempo or slow tempo, and there's a reason for that, because it's me, and I am a self-taught musician. Nobody told me how to play, so I don't know whether I'm playing right or whether I'm playing wrong. All I know is I play the way I play Right and that I play well enough to simply get my message across. Right, I'm not Oscar Peterson, I'm not McCoy Tyner, I'm not Herbie Hancock. I can't do the things that these guys do. I can only do me, and up until a point in my life I wasn't satisfied with that, you know. Now I'm satisfied with that, I'm satisfied with who I am, I'm satisfied with how I play. I'm satisfied with what I have to say.
Speaker 1:You know what you bring up. A point I want to make here Because that's an interesting thing You're talking about. When you're talking about Oscar Peterson and other keyboard players. You're talking about people with technical ability, right See? Now I think that gets in the way of a lot of cats. I play with man. They concentrate and focus on technical ability and they forget the stuff that should become before technical ability, because the stuff that really speaks to me as far, even good keyboard players, it's not what they're playing technically, but it's how they are able to interact with the music that they're playing and that they make that instrument speak. That's what gets me. And same thing with drummers. I mean, what good is it if you can play fast, if you can't groove with the rhythm section right? And there's a lot of cats who start with playing fast first and then concentrate on grooves, and that's backwards world to me. It is. I mean, do you agree with that?
Speaker 2:I do agree with that. I do believe, john, and I've said this to Frank and I've said this to other musician friends of mine through the years. It's easy to play fast.
Speaker 1:To me.
Speaker 2:It's through the years. It's easy to play fast. To me and why I say that I mean this is that you can get away with more murder going fast when you go slow. It is a greater discipline to play slow because we, as human beings, we have adrenaline, we have emotion and if you're playing a song at a medium tempo and your adrenaline kicks in, you have a tendency to speed up. So I think it's a greater discipline. It's a greater discipline to play at a slower pace and do that correctly, I'm speaking more about Feel Feel.
Speaker 2:We're talking about feel. I'm talking about feel right.
Speaker 1:We're talking about feel and there's plenty of guys who have zero feel as far as I'm concerned, zero groove and can play fast, and they can play shit I could never play. But when the A section of the song comes around, there's nothing happening there. Do you know what I'm saying? I do because guys like that. And not just drummers.
Speaker 2:Guys like that to me are they're giving a lot of attention to playing the right notes. They haven't gotten to the point to where it's all about the feeling.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying, Like forget the notes.
Speaker 2:You know the notes, are the notes? Yeah, can you feel the notes? Or are you just struggling to just play the right ones? And to me, that really speaks to experience. It speaks to the type of environment that you've existed in your music life. Right, and because I'm a player who was never really taught how to play, primarily a lot of my playing is based on feel, feel.
Speaker 1:That's what it should be. I'm sorry, but that's what Do you ever hear? I mean, look, I listen to like a BB Winans thing, right, and he's got a drum machine happening and minimal stuff behind him in the first verse of the song and he is making that shit happen, right, I mean, that's what I'm talking about. That's the stuff that gets me the other stuff where it's like whoa, did you see how fast this guy does double bass drum? It does.
Speaker 2:Play Teen Town by Jocko Basile. It does by Jocko. Yeah, that is genius, it is.
Speaker 1:But Jocko could groove too. I mean, what I'm saying is I think one should happen before the other. I think you Aesthetically pleasing to the band you're playing with whatever you play, Right and then go the other way with how fast can you play it during your solo? That's what I think I think yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I play with guitar players who solo from beginning to end of the song. Nobody plays like Chris Carberry, right right, except Chris Carberry, right Right. I mean he, chris, can give you the full gambit, the full menu. Chris makes you want to play. Yeah, I mean, those are the guys I like to play with, you know, and I did a gig, I don't know, about a month ago, I forget, like a sub-gig. I didn't know any of the guys and I sat down and I started to play and it's like, wow, this just feels right. And then I've done gigs I'm not making it happen, right, right, you know, and because that's what's going on around me and I like I interact with what's going on around me, and that goes for singers too. Man, yes, you know. Yes, I mean, you know, I, I was like, I think I was like five or something, my grandfather played piano and I was sleeping.
Speaker 1:I remember I was sleeping, I guess I was at his house, whatever, and he was playing, and I woke up to the piano and I was just laying there and I started to cry Because I mean, and I didn't know why, you know, and I think that's kind of when I knew there's something going on here. It happened to my son, john, too. We were at Ocean Beach one day and he started to cry in the middle of a restaurant, and it was because there was something playing. You know what I mean. So that's like it's innate, right? I mean it's in you. So if I'm not being moved that way, in some respect I can't make it happen, and I think a really great drummer could make it happen. That's why I don't consider myself a great drummer.
Speaker 2:I never big myself up too much. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's like a really great drummer could play with anything and make it sound good and I can't. I'm like no, I'm sorry, I've got to have somebody play.
Speaker 2:But you know, part of the growth of our lives, John, is also recognizing what we are, who we are and what our limitations are, and surviving within that environment. You just reminded me of an early story in my life. I couldn't have been and I honestly folks, I really remember this, I'm not making this up Four, five, six years old. I used to live in the projects underneath the 59th Street Bridge until 1962. We moved from there at the age of seven, 62., 62. And I remember crying to my mother because they had an old radio in the kitchen, the kind with the tubes in the back Tubes, Orange tubes. There were holes in the back of the radio.
Speaker 1:You could look through the holes Again. Folks, for those of you born in this century, tubes were in radios yes Tubes were in radios. And televisions too, and televisions.
Speaker 2:And so the music is playing on the radio and I'm crying and my mother's asking me why am I crying? And I said because I can't find the people in the back of the radio True story. And my mother looked at me. She said you foolish little boy, there's nobody back there.
Speaker 1:So you have that disease, man From a little kid. Yeah, yeah, Right, it's definitely in there. And I've experienced people who don't have that in them that still play. You know what I mean they still. I went to school with a couple that really wanted to be a drummer and it just was not happening. It just wasn't in his body. I mean, I've witnessed this where it's almost like an afterthought being a musician. That's your phone.
Speaker 2:I didn't know, I had it oh it's Najee.
Speaker 1:Oh cool, Pick it up.
Speaker 2:Hey Naj's Najee, oh, come on, pick it up. Hey Naj Naj. What's up Cam? What's up baby? Listen, I'm going to call you back when I finish. I'm in the studio doing a podcast right now, but I wanted to talk to you and it's definitely musical, brother. I got to have this conversation with you All right, not a problem. Just musical brother, I gotta have this conversation with you, okay, all right, you got it. You got it, my brother. Peace and blessings okay.
Speaker 1:All right, so that proves, see that family. Yes, that was just Najee. That proves Kevin.
Speaker 2:Durst Najee on the phone calling me back. I called him the other day and he's returning my call. Najee is somebody that I grew up with in the 60s. He's a couple of years younger than me. He used to come to my band rehearsals when I was a teenager, wanted to join the band and, believe it or not, we rehearsals when I was a teenager, wanted to join the band and, believe it or not, we didn't have any room for him. Wow. But what I would say about Najee is this His Christian name is Jerome. I knew him as Jerome.
Speaker 1:Wait, how do you know him?
Speaker 2:He lived in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you've known him for a long time.
Speaker 2:I've known Najee since the 60s, since we were kids. Yeah, yeah, and he used to to rehearsal and the thing I love about him and I did a concert with him this past summer uh, in Jamaica, queens, 5,000 people. Uh, the Earth Wind Fire band opened up for him and I hadn't seen him in 40 years. Man, we, when we finished gotten hugging and kissing each other. My girlfriend was like why don't you guys get a room? You know it was. It was really really bad. But um, he's a guy that, um he, everywhere we went when we were kids he carried his horn.
Speaker 1:Really, I swear we could go play. So he's another one who has the disease. Yes, he has the disease from a kid.
Speaker 2:Listen, we could go play basketball at a local park and Najee takes his horn and puts it to the side and plays basketball. Yeah, yeah, this is somebody him, marcus Miller, omar Hakeem. It's a disease, it's like having herpes. All of these gentlemen come from Jamaica Queens in the 60s and let me tell you I mean, this conversation is going in so many different directions and I'm loving it, but let me tell you something Jamaica Queens in the 60s was a hotbed.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:A hotbed for bands and musicians. Listen, if you wanted to be with the girls back then, either you were a jock or a singer. I'm 5'8", there's your answer. Okay, so I went the music route. And all of these. There were so many bands. I'm going to give some honorable mentions to some of the bands that existed when I was a kid, like the Firebolts, creative Funk, tempo, which just became Juice. The trumpet player for tempo was Billy Cobham's brother. Wayne Cobham plays trumpet and flugelhorn in that band. We had Midtown TNT, the Pomodoro Brothers, five Carat Soul. Barry Johnson from the 70s band was a bass player in Five Carat Soul. When I was a kid, the only band that I lost to in a battle of the bands was Barry Johnson from Five Carat Soul.
Speaker 2:They were the only band that beat us, and so many more. Uh, the system. Uh, mcmurphy, uh, was in system, you're in my system. These are all guys that came from the jamaica queens area. Uh, liz chisholm, jack sass I can go on and on and on. Jamaica queens in the 60s was nuts yeah for bands. If you weren't in a band you weren't happy, but you better play basketball or something, pal.
Speaker 2:Because, if you wasn't doing one of the two, you wasn't getting no nookie, it was over for you. And you were getting beat up, pal. Yeah, you were getting beat up too. It was over for you, man. But those you know listen. This music thing, I can't say enough about it. I'm it. I'm approaching my 70th birthday. When did you say your birthday? October? So I got nine months. You got it, yeah, nine months before I hit 70. And I'm going to tell you, my enthusiasm and my love for music is probably at the, at its zenith right now. At 69 years old, you would think that at some point, the enthusiasm, the, the rejection, the uh, the breakup, the ins and outs of bands and everything would dampen some of that passion. And I'm telling you people, whoever's listening to the sound of my voice right now, my passion has increased over the years.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you something. You got good genetics or something. Why do you look like this?
Speaker 2:My mom and dad are from the Caribbean, so what? They have good genetics. What does the Caribbean have to do with?
Speaker 1:it. My mother lived. Dad are from the Caribbean, so what? They have good genetics. What does the Caribbean have to do with it?
Speaker 2:My mother lived till 90.
Speaker 1:Oh, there you go, you got good genetics.
Speaker 2:My father died at 72, which is kind of young.
Speaker 1:So you got your mother's genetics, I got my mother's genetics.
Speaker 2:And I got a sister who's 78. And my girlfriend tells me my sister doesn't look a day over 70. And honestly, to the people listening, and to you too, John, I do think, in my own humble opinion, I think that the music has a whole lot to do with what I look like right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it keeps you young.
Speaker 2:You know, it's just.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does. It's funny. That's funny you make that point, because that's what's weird about music. Right, it's a job, it's a thing that never leaves you, right, if you are an accountant, eventually you retire and you don't account anymore, right, but music it goes till you die, right, it just does and nobody gets that. You know, nobody gets that.
Speaker 2:Till the day, god I mean not nobody, but non-musicians don't get it and I won't check out. There were times when I had the conversation with myself about quote-unquote retiring from this. I don't think that musicians retire from anything. You slow down, I think.
Speaker 1:Don't forget you're a singer, so you don't have to cart shit around. Again, I hate singers because they walk in with a microphone and they walk in late. I have to load drums in a loading dock in the rain.
Speaker 2:That's not fair, it's a lot.
Speaker 1:That's not fair. It's a lot.
Speaker 2:And for me, I'm at a stage in my life now where, writing and composing, I wouldn't mind having another artist sing the song who's in their 20s and 30s Again, my ego has been checked by my long time on earth that I'm not trying to be a recording artist at 69 years old just to let the family listening audience know. I'm trying to be a composer and a writer. Somebody asked me the other day am I seeking a recording contract?
Speaker 1:and I'm like no, not really. Maybe part of your legacy. You want to leave stuff behind, correct?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'm not trying to. I mean, listen, who really wants to see me at 69 years? I'm not trying to sign with at yeah but you could pass for not 16.
Speaker 1:I could probably get over. Yeah, you could get over, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I have this one song that I wrote Me and John Pandolfo recorded it yesterday, called Smooth Lover, and John turned the lights down in the studio for me a little bit.
Speaker 1:He didn't try anything, did he? No, he didn't try to get nasty, he tried to get sexy with me.
Speaker 2:But you know, we did a couple of takes of the song and when I finished, john turns to me.
Speaker 1:And kissed you.
Speaker 2:No, he stuck his tongue out, squeezed my ass and told me that the song was freaking romantic.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:You turned John on. Yeah, he said, there will be people making babies off of this song.
Speaker 1:Wow, I'm not sure if that's a good thing. So me as a fledgling I don't want to hear the song, just so you know, because I'm trying to get rid of kids. I'm trying to get rid of kids.
Speaker 2:So me, as a fledgling writer, you know, having a compliment like that from somebody whose musical ability and ear I respect is certainly a good feeling.
Speaker 1:Of course, and it just lets me know, yeah.
Speaker 2:No ego involved. It just tells me that I'm on the right path.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm on the right path.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm doing something right that a fellow musician of mine can tell me.
Speaker 1:Thumbs up, right, good job, let's keep going Right, and that's what we do this for. Right I mean it's. You know, I have plenty of friends who make zero. They'll make a lot of money, but they keep playing because they just can't you know can't do anything else. It's weird, it's like a disease, it really. Is it really?
Speaker 2:I can't shake it. Yeah, even my 10 years with dealing Substance abuse Right and, by the way, I was messing around with cocaine and had my life screwed up.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's why you look so young. Maybe you just preserved yourself. I froze myself. For 10 years yeah, For 10 years I was in mom.
Speaker 2:You froze yourself. I say that joke to people how did you do it? I said I wouldn't try the shit that I tried. But you know it's true.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you is just, it won't. It won't ever, it's never going to quit me. Yeah, man, that's why I do this podcast, because I'm trying to get the word out. You know it's hard, though it's like. You know, we're preaching to the choir, right?
Speaker 1:now but you know, other people are like you don't get it. I mean, they just don't get it, you know. I wanted to just ask you one other thing, and now I can't think of what it was. What's your take on music now? Because you're talking about your stuff. We grew up in the same era. I mean, music was different in the 70s, whatever, even in the 80s. Now it's like what is it? I don't even know.
Speaker 2:I am not happy with the music scene today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean nothing's turning me on. I remember you used to be the turn of radio and I'd go wow, that's a good song.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 1:And now not so much.
Speaker 2:We're spoiled guys of our age, because you know what I mean. Listen, I grew up with Steely Dan, bro. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:See now, people wouldn't get Steely Dan today. I grew up with the Eagles, I grew up with Hotel California.
Speaker 2:I grew up with Earth, wind, fire. I grew up with Sly and the Family Stone. I remember when Prince first came on the scene with his androgynous dress and everything like that, and we didn't know what to make of him. The thing I make of artists like that is that you were doing something, your personality, mr Prince. It's not that you changed the 88 keys on the keyboard they're still the same. It's just that your personality. That's what was new. You were new. The notes that you're playing are not new. The way you arranged them may have been in some form or another, but the music today lacks originality. It's a copycat industry. Now All of the singers sing the same.
Speaker 1:The same yeah.
Speaker 2:And I can't tell the difference from one to the other. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I never mistook the Four Tops for the Temptations.
Speaker 1:I knew it was the Four Tops Right Right now you don't know who's who.
Speaker 2:I never mistook Chicago for Earth Wind Fire. I knew Earth Wind Fire was Earth Wind Fire. Earth Wind Fire was Earth Wind Fire. Chicago was Chicago. Everybody had an identity. Today, no one has an identity. Now I'm going to speak briefly about Bruno Mars and about the music that I'm writing, versus what I hear him doing.
Speaker 1:Okay, why Bruno Mars? Is it similar?
Speaker 2:I feel like Bruno Mars is doing music from our era. Oh, it's repackaged.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And presented to the public in a real polished manner. But what I hear is the essence from the 70s in his music. When you talk about ballads and slow songs, which we don't get a whole lot of those these days, when I was a kid growing up- there was the. Delphonics and the Stylistics and all these, oh baby, la, la, la, la, la la.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's an interesting point. Nobody does that anymore.
Speaker 2:You know. So here comes Bruno Mars with keep the door open and I'm like, wow, that's from the 70s. But the way he packaged it, today's market consumed it only because he has a track record.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If he didn't have a track record if I wrote that song, would I get the grace that he got? I don't know, maybe.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think once you get past Bruno Mars popularity you can really do anything. People can listen to it because you're Bruno Mars, Right. There's a part of it and maybe some guys do that.
Speaker 2:They get their stuff out there to to get known and then they really do their stuff right then I'm going to really give you the real me right um yeah and so I feel as though, um the writing today, other than that guy you know, uh, other than bruno, I just feel like, um the artists today, they're just copying off of each other too much.
Speaker 2:At least Bruno. His style is reminiscent of the greats of the 70s. I mean all of these elements that he put in there. So again, as I compose and I write, I don't let the error that I'm comfortable with impede my writing. In other words, I'm not trying to write because I'm doing a song with 808s in the bottom, 808s. That doesn't mean anything to an old-timer like me. I'm into melody, I'm into beautiful chords. My Achilles heel is lyrics. But during this writing spurt that I've been involved in.
Speaker 1:I think your Achilles heel is joke telling. I've heard a couple of those and I think that's your. You should probably brush up on that shit, because that's not happening.
Speaker 2:I'm going to brush up on that. I'm going to try to keep that going, but it's all good Again, I'm just trying to leave my mark. I'm comfortable in my own skin right now.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what counts, right? Yes?
Speaker 2:Because up until this point, I've been so critical of what I've written in a not so good way, but now I really am comfortable with who I am, what I've written in a not so good way, but now I really am comfortable with who I am, what I'm writing. If you like it, you like it, yeah. If you don't, you don't Right, because I remember being told that Prince was about to quit the tour when he came out and he was touring with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:He goes to open up for them and they're throwing eggs, tomatoes beer bottles at him. So they weren't accepting what they were seeing or hearing. So that is an indication to me that, no matter how great you are, not everyone is going to like your stuff. So there's going to be certain people that are going to like what I do and certain people that are not. And guess what? I'm good.
Speaker 1:That's the way it is, man. That's the way it is All right. So we got to wrap this up, man. Yeah, look, kevin, that was great. I'm glad you came and did this man. You had a lot of good stuff to say. It was awesome that you did this man. Thank you, I'm glad you came. All right, cool, all right, kevin. Do you mind now? Well,
