On Prince, my all-time favorite…I’ve always admired this multi-talented icon since I heard his first album when he wrote, produced, arranged, composed, played all the instruments, and sang all his backgrounds. That inspired me so much that I just had to find a way to express my musical talents by any means possible. The mere fact that the Purple man made awesome, diverse musical creations playing multiple instruments such as drums, piano, lead guitar, horns, bass guitar, etc. fluently and then singing with dynamic range & expressions moved me when I actually saw him in person at various concerts that I attended. His controversial way of presenting music with no limits, not caring what another person thought was the way I felt at the time living in Memphis. I knew then that I had to find a way to express my music…
On Marvin Gaye…the soul man, I grew up feeling that deep melancholy that he sang about in “What’s Going On” and “Trouble Man” during what seemed to be nothing but trouble all around me at the time, and when he sang romantic songs, he just took you there, away from all of the trouble and dark sides of the urban world to make you think about love in songs like “Let’s Get It On”, “Sexual Healing” and “Distant Lover”. This crooner was a major influence as to what I love about real music with substance and world peace at heart….
On Stevie Wonder…what can you not love about this musical genius who made you dance, think of peace, love, and just good sounding music altogether. I could remember when I was a little fellow, not much to live on, watching my mom struggle to make ends meet for me and my brother with barely enough to make it, no extras, however, like the Evans on the sitcom “Good Times”, no matter how bad things seemed to be, there was always love from my mom to us. I could remember just hearing Stevie singing the songs from the album, “Songs in the Key of Life” and I felt like he was singing just for my cause, even though it was a universal, like cosmic, feeling. Pretty much you could say Stevie influenced the title to my latest released CD, “Cosmosis: Simply Said Part 2”. I would like to personify my sounds like his echoed out to the world…
On Curtis Mayfield…Oh man, Superfly, this dude, this maestro of cool, ghetto fabulous, as a kid, being an urban kid you had to have heard the musical soundtrack or seen the movie or you just weren’t cool. “Freddie’s Dead”, “Superfly”, or “Pusher Man”, echoed the scenery of the time. I loved that falsetto harmony over melodic drums, bongos, and bass-lines …that’s real to my era.
On Bar-Kays and Al Green…that Memphis sounds at Stax Records, located right down the street from my childhood church in the hood, near Lemoyne-Owen college and Lemoyne Gardens projects. They literally put Memphis on the map.
The Bar-Kays use to rehearse in one of my older cousin’s house right across from the junior high school that I attended, and because I had band practice after school, I would have to go over to his house until my mother got off work and came to pick me up, so I got to watch them work on performing and listen to them rehearse.
Al Green…it was odd how I became such an Al Green fan, my mother got married to his bus driver during the early part of his career, so I was privileged to free albums, an opportunity to go to his studio where I met Isaac Hayes and some of his other label mates, and go to free concerts at a young age at a time when Soul Train was the new and extremely hot medium for musical artist to get television exposure. He had even come to my home to meet my mom who was a serious fan of his, therefore, I got a chance to meet him, so how could I not like him. As to his music, the man just brings it ever time he grabs a microphone.
On Timbaland…having a drumming background makes me love the eclectic beats from one of the hottest producers around, since day one those beats he drop are awesome. I’ve always wanted to be the kind of producer he is, so to speak being in the background making tracks that everyone can feel and patent a sound that people automatically know when they here something new. He doesn’t limit himself to one style or genre and no one can imitate his offbeat killer drum sounds, cause when you hear them, you say “That’s Timbo dropping that!”
And I must not forget Quincy Jones the dude…working with everyone from young to old, new artist to legend greats, and knowing his art. This man has seen many great years doing what he loves, starting at a young age and still kicking it. He appreciates artists, producers, writers, and composers, whether jazz, big band, hip-hop, pop, r & b, country, classical, basically whatever that is clever from artists and musicians. He has many credits to this day for movie soundtracks and various other avenues; he is a master pioneer of music for all generations of his time. He has worked with major greats such as Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, and many others that I have not mentioned, but still has the respect of the modern day rappers and r & b singers, such as Ludacris, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, and many others. I have great admiration for this musical genius and he is one of my idols that if I had to wish how I could have my musical career go, it would be just like his…