All The Cutie Pies, They All Know, They Can Always L-A-Y On My Pillow.

[arts + entertainment]
RAPHAEL SAADIQ
By ISABELLE DAVIS


A venerable J Dilla of R&B, Raphael Saadiq has been shaping the contemporary soul movement for the last 20 years. Be it his role as a new jack swing pioneer in Tony! Toni! Toné!, his short-lived but sincerely missed Lucy Pearl (his email response to my wishful request for a reunion was "NO (wink)," so here's hoping), his "gospel-delic" solo work or his endless producer credits, the man has cemented himself in the annals of R&B history. With his latest record, The Way I See It, Saadiq takes several of Cholly Atkins' choreographed steps back to 1960s Detroit and gives us a record that could definitely pass Berry Gordy's "quality control" department.

His current tour includes snappy suits, sharp footwork and vocals reminiscent of David Ruffin, former member of Saadiq's favorite Motown act, The Temptations: "The harmony was so amazing and rich all the time. Then there were so many great lead vocal personalities to choose from. At any moment another voice would jump out and grab you."

And the nod to popular music's greatest musical stable was a natural choice. "I felt it was time for me to have the second wave of the sound that's been around me since I could remember. But with all original songs, this was really important for me, their songs were always too great for me to try and cover." But considering that he had Stevie Wonder and Funk Brother Jack Ashford on his record, I think it would be allowed if he tried.



[Raphael Saadiq. Thu 3.19.09. Paradise Rock Club, 987 Comm. Ave., Boston. 617.562.8800. 8pm/18+/$26.50. thedise.com]

music: Raphael Saadiq [Weekly Dig]

Break You Off.

The interview of my life.


[music]

?UESTLOVE
Ahmir Thompson on the phone from Seoul, South Korea
By ISABELLE DAVIS

Drummer, producer, DJ and music buff extraordinaire (he owns every episode of Soul Train and has a vinyl collection that rivals most), Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson has been the musical director and leader of the legendary Roots crew for over 20 years now. Here, we discuss Antibalas stalking, the musical Fela! and the Roots' new gig as Jimmy Fallon's house band.

HI. VERY, VERY NICE TO MEET YOU, AHMIR.

Oh, hey. What's up? How you doing?

HOW'S ASIA GOING?

Oh, it's wonderful. It's great, you know.

FIRST OF ALL, CONGRATULATIONS ON LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON. I THINK IT'S GREAT. HOW DID THIS COME ABOUT? WERE YOU GUYS JUST A NATURAL CHOICE?

Basically. I was the music supervisor for Chappelle's Show. So basically, Dave's partner, Neal Brennan, recommended me to both Jimmy and his producer. I think for a second Neal Brennan was going to be the producer of the Fallon show, but he declined because he has a movie development deal. But he still recommended that they hire me, to see if I was interested. You know, it was right up our alley. We've been doing this for 17 years and basically, you know, there's but so much you can see and travel in the world. From 1992 on, every year. And you know, we kinda wanted to slow down our schedule but not necessarily take a monetary dip. We tour to survive, so we can't just stay home or else, you know, we'd be in the poor house. This provides us the steady work and we get to stay home. And probably the best thing about it is, maybe for the first time in, like, eight years, I can finally devote a lot of hours to being in the studio. Which pretty much, after that 2000 run of Voodoo and Mama's Gun, and Common's two albums, you know, I pretty much stayed out of the studio unless it had anything to do with the Roots.

SINCE YOUR WEEKENDS WILL TECHNICALLY BE FREE, WHAT ARE SOME POTENTIAL PROJECTS?

We're going to keep the weekends open to do one-off gigs. I mean, we're retired from touring, but we'll still do as many weekend gigs as possible. Can't get totally
rusty.

ARE YOU GUYS WORKING ON ANY POTENTIAL NEW ALBUMS, SOLO PROJECTS?

We started our 11th, I'll say three weeks ago, before we came over here.

ARE YOU JUST GOING TO TAKE YOUR TIME WITH IT?

I think in a perfect world we're trying to have it ready for July.

I READ A WHILE BACK YOU WANTED TO DO YOUR GRACELAND ALBUM POTENTIALLY IN CUBA. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT WILL STILL HAPPEN?

Well, that album would have actually been Game Theory. And the place that we chose to do it ...we were prepared to move to New Orleans in May of 2005. But then Katrina happened and that sort of went out the window because we literally lost contact with the brass band that we adopted earlier that year. But actually, come to think of it, that's kinda how Tuba Gooding Jr. wound up in the group, our new tuba player. Even though we had lost a brass band, I still wanted to do a brass experiment.

AND BRASS HEAVEN WAS TOURING WITH YOU GUYS FOR A WHILE.

Yeah, they basically became our ... you know. I had no idea Philadelphia even had a New Orleans-esque brass band. So we did an augmented version of the original. I mean the original Brass Heaven's like, 13, 14 members. Out of those four cats, we kept Tuba.

ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO DO ANOTHER ROOTS PICNIC THIS SUMMER? I WENT TO THE FIRST ONE.

Yes, we are. And this time I promise it's gonna be an actual picnic. We're new at this festival-throwing thing, so we forgot to figure in fatigue of the audience and how to protect them from the sun.

IT WAS GREAT, BUT I'M NOT GOING TO LIE, ONE OF MY FRIENDS FAINTED. BUT SHE WAS NOT HYDRATING.

Yeah, we were throwing water out. We actually, we've confirmed two days of lineup.

CAN YOU SPILL ANY OF THE GOSSIP?

Absolutely not. But this lineup will kick ass. That's all I can say. This lineup will absolutely kick ass. I actually suggested we pull back a little bit because the lineup's so damn good that I don't know how we can top it next year. And plus it's spread out to two days. I'm not even worried about this year, I'm worried about the future. All I can say is we have a potential four great rock acts, two world acts, four hip-hop acts. I mean, these are tentative, they still have yet to confirm. It's gonna be a great mixture of the two.

I CHATTED WITH THE REVEREND AL GREEN A COUPLE MONTHS AGO AND I ASKED HIM IF HE WAS POTENTIALLY EVER GONNA DO ANOTHER ALBUM WITH YOU AND JAMES POYSER. AND HE ANSWERED WITH A VERY, VERY ENTHUSIASTIC "YES." IS THAT SOMETHING THAT COULD BE A POSSIBILITY FOR YOU DOWN THE LINE?

Yeah, you know, once you go Randy Watson, you can't go back.

AND SPEAKING OF WHICH, KUDOS ON THE GRAMMY NODS FOR THAT ALBUM.

Thank you. I promised him that he'd get one Grammy nomination, not four.

I THINK YOU WERE ROBBED FOR PRODUCER OF THE YEAR.

You know what? Actually believe it or not, I'm more happy that we got engineering. [Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical]

DO YOU MIND COMMENTING AT ALL ON THE RECENT BUZZ THAT [D'ANGELO'S] JAMES RIVER IS COMING OUT IN THE NEXT MONTHS?

He's not calling it James River and in a pleasant surprise, I'm one of the last elements to be added. Which basically means he's at least more than halfway done, which in D'Angelo speak is a miracle.

I'VE HEARD VARIOUS THINGS, LIKE, IT HAS A MORE ROCK ELEMENT, IT'S THIS, IT'S THAT. CAN YOU COMMENT AT ALL?

I can only go on, the material I've worked ... the last I touched this record was in 2004 and that was when he was going all the way rock. However, I am to believe at least in our conversations that he did 100 percent just actually a clean slate. I knew that Erykah's New Amerykah was real inspirational to him, so perhaps he's taken a more esoteric turn. But I'm actually not going to hear none of the material until I get to Los Angeles the day after tomorrow.

DO YOU MIND MY ASKING, SO YOU GUYS ARE COOL NOW?

Yeah, so under the bridge, we made up at Erykah's show earlier in March. It's history.

SO LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS SOUND CLASH. HAVE YOU GUYS EVER PLAYED WITH ANTIBALAS BEFORE?

I'm probably the world's biggest Antibalas stalker. I've always been a fan of theirs, but I didn't start my stalking mission probably until they became the house band for the Fela! musical. I still dream of that shit. That's probably the best entertainment ... I mean people ask me, "What's your favorite concert that you've been?" I'd probably have to say the seven or eight times I've seen that. Even now, like all the people that I meet, go and the people that I've bought tickets for, they're still speaking of it. To me, it's just perfect ... they're just so airtight. They do it with such ease and such quietness. The hardest thing in the world is to play quiet and be airtight. And the fact that they are just so studied without shaking is amazing to me.

WHAT WERE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2008?

Um, 2008, um. I definitely, definitely, definitely dug Erykah's ... I mean even though I was part of that record, I still consider my role so minor that I can listen to it as a fan. I hate to be those artists that they, you know, mention their product first.

IF IT'S GOOD, IT'S GOOD.

Yeah, I've really enjoyed just, you know, her work. Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It, was one of my favorite albums of the year. Probably the most surprising record, Q-Tip's The Renaissance. I would actually also say that this is probably the first time in a long time that a lot of singing albums made a registration in my list. I've really enjoyed and I'm very surprised and happy with Jazmine Sullivan's album, and who else? I also like Esperanza Spaulding's album. Santogold, her album was great. I'm also under the impression that TV on the Radio can do no wrong. We did a project with them this year that hopefully will come out in the first quarter. Our first collaborative effort is a gospel song. It's a duet between Tariq, Kyp and um, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Forgive me, I'm sorry. It's past midnight.

IS TARIQ EVER GONNA RELEASE THE SOLO WORK THAT'S BEEN FLOATING AROUND? IS HE MAYBE GONNA TAKE SOME TIME SINCE YOU GUYS WILL BE IN A MORE PERMANENT LOCATION TO DO THAT? WHAT'S THE REST OF THE BAND GOING TO DO?

I assume that all our studio activity will triple now that we are in one steady place. Not to mention, we actually convinced those guys to build us a studio in the dressing room.

ARE YOU GUYS GONNA BE IN ANY OF THE BITS? ARE YOU GONNA TRADE ZINGERS LIKE CONAN AND BAMBA DO?

Oh, yeah. I told Fallon instantly, like, anytime you come up with any "Year 2000"-esque skits, I'm singing that shit. I actually have my first meeting with them on the Monday after we do this Sound Clash.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO SPEAK WITH ME. AND AT THE RISK OF SOUNDING UNPROFESSIONAL AND TOTALLY STARSTRUCK, I'VE BEEN LISTENING TO YOU GUYS SINCE I WAS 10 OR 11, AND YOUR MUSIC HAS IMPACTED MY LIFE ... NOT JUST WITH THE ROOTS, BUT EVERYTHING. VOODOO MADE ME WANT TO BE A MUSIC JOURNALIST.

Alright! Thank you!

THE ROOTS VS. ANTIBALAS

THURSDAY 1.29.09

THE ROXY

279 TREMONT ST., BOSTON

617.338.7699

8PM/18+/$15

REDBULLSOUNDCLASH.COM

music: ?uestlove [Weekly Dig]

I try to jack off, he ask me who is you playin' wit? But I know he love you, he told me you was his favorite.

Peep my Q&A with John Legend in Boston's Weekly Dig:


[defend yourself]
JOHN LEGEND
By Isabelle Davis

He used to be a session musician for Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys and Kanye West. Now, he's like Liberace, only much more attractive and talented, with ladies simply losing their shit at his concerts. The man is currently on the first leg of a huge North American tour to promote Evolver, his first full-length studio album in two years.

WHAT'S IT LIKE TOURING WITH RAPHAEL SAADIQ? MUST BE A LOT OF LADIES IN THE CROWD.

[laughs] Well, it woulda been that way anyway, but we have a lot of couples more than anything. A lot of couples come to the shows.

AL GREEN SAID THAT YOU WERE ONE OF HIS TOP CHOICES AS A COLLABORATOR. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?

Well, I'm glad to know that, I never heard that before, I'm very glad to know that!

I LOVE THAT YOU GOT ANDRE 3000 ON A TRACK. IT'S A SPECIAL TREAT.

He's focused on a lot of different things, I think—his acting career and all that. But you know, he loved the song and he wanted to do it. He just got inspired and tried it when he heard the song and the beat. And felt like it was just something he wanted to be a part of.

IS THERE ANYBODY THAT YOU ARE DYING TO WORK WITH?

There's so many great artists out there and I've already worked with a vast majority of them. I haven't worked with Beyoncé; I haven't worked with Amy Winehouse yet; Feist maybe would be cool, too.

I SAW YOU A FEW YEARS AGO AND THERE WERE LOTS OF GIRLS GOING CRAZY; SCREAMING, CRYING AND FREAKING OUT. HAS ANYBODY THROWN PANTIES ONSTAGE OR ANYTHING?

[laughs] I don't think people do that panties thing anymore. You would think they would do it at my show if they still did it. I don't think it's the normal thing to do anymore.

[John Legend with Raphael Saadiq. Tue 12.2.08. Orpheum Theatre, One Hamilton Pl., Boston. 617.482.0650. 7:30pm/all ages/$46-$70.50. ticketmaster.com]

defend yourself: John Legend [Weekly Dig]

Simply Beautiful.

So this was originally published in Boston's Weekly Dig, my former stomping grounds, yesterday. But I wanted to wait until the extended interview was up and running online to post it on Two Day Old Shit. So here it is. Ladies and gentlemen, the most important professional moment of my life, the greatest opportunity I have ever been handed by any editor (thanks again, David Day) and the most personally satisfying and meaningful interview I have ever conducted. The legendary Reverend Al Green.

[defend yourself]
AL GREEN

By Isabelle Davis

Extended Interview: Web Exclusive

The greatest Southern soul singer of all time. The man responsible for many conceptions. The 62-year-old reverend with a flawless falsetto. The crusader of love and happiness. The legendary Al Green.


HI, HOW ARE YOU?

I don't know.

YOU DON'T KNOW?

No.

NO? WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?

Trying to get reregulated back to American time.

WHERE WERE YOU JUST AT?

Stockholm.

HOW WAS IT OVER THERE?

Sold out.

GOOD, GOOD! I'M GLAD. I JUST HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS.

OK. Number one.

I SAW YOU AT THE NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL IN 2007.

Good!

AND I SAW YOU THIS PAST SUMMER IN CHICAGO, I WENT WITH MY MOM.

Did you like it?

I'M ACTUALLY IN CHICAGO RIGHT NOW.

No, I mean did we do a good show?

EACH TIME I SAW YOU, IT WAS LIKE LISTENING TO ONE OF YOUR RECORDS. IT WAS JUST IMPECCABLE.

It was like this trance thing they was talking about overseas, "He goes into some type of trance or something performing these songs." But I mean, I don't mean to, but the songs themselves have a transcendental type of motion, of movement to them or something.

THEY DO, AND I WAS GOING TO TELL YOU, YOUR VOICE HAS NOT CHANGED A BIT. HOW DO YOU KEEP IT IN SUCH IMMACULATE CONDITION?

Well, those are nice words you're using now Ms. Davis, but I don't know, I don't do anything. I didn't give it to me, so I don't really know how to keep it. All these songs I didn't give it to me either, so I kinda, like, don't know. I know they were talking about me walking, prancing, back and forth, backstage, walking from end to end of the dressing room before you go on, I just get, it's not upset, I'm just nervous. I have a lot of emotion, I guess, pent up on the inside and I'm trying to just, while they're getting prepped, you know, ready to call you on, I'm trying to, I'm just a total wreck. And I'm trying to—and then when I get out there, then, slowly it goes away.

STILL, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, YOU GET STAGE FRIGHT?

Ohhh! See! I shoulda thought of that. See, stage fright, that's what it's called.

THERE YOU GO!

I mean, I guess I still've got it, because it just amazes me. I don't know, I don't call it that. I'm just nervous before, well, you know.

I WANT TO TALK A LITTLE ABOUT LAY IT DOWN. BEAUTIFUL ALBUM. AND I WANTED TO ASK YOU, I READ THAT WHEN YOU GUYS WERE GETTING READY TO MAKE THE ALBUM, YOU AND THE FELLOW PRODUCERS WANTED TO KEEP THE CAMEO LIST RELATIVELY SHORT. I HEARD YOU GUYS WERE GETTING, OBVIOUSLY, CALLS, YOU KNOW, OFF THE HOOK, PEOPLE WANTING TO CONTRIBUTE AND BE INVOLVED. HOW DID YOU GUYS CHOOSE CORINNE BAILEY RAE, JOHN LEGEND, ANTHONY HAMILTON? HOW DID YOU GUYS WEED OUT EVERYBODY THAT WANTED TO BE INVOLVED?

That's amazing because, we kinda like, didn't plan it. We planned to do a duet album. That was a plan. But who, was to do, who was Al gonna do the duets with? That we didn't plan. And the people that we had wrote down in the car on the way to the studio was either, well, one was Justin Timberlake—he was in Australia so he couldn't do it—there was other folks that we had—they were on tour in Canada or someplace so they couldn't do it. And the very people that we didn't think could do it, like John, just so happened to be in New York and heard about the album and came over to hear one of the tracks, John Legend, and he liked "Stay with Me (By the Sea)". And there you go, it's weird stuff, I mean, it's just kinda weird, we didn't plan it, Anthony Hamilton came to the studio, brought his wife, he heard the song "Lay It Down," he said, "Hey, man, lemme put some background vocals on it," and we already, me and Corinne, had already put background vocals on it, so we told him, "Go on and put 'em on there" and he put it on there and we used it, it turned out to be the background vocals for the song. I don't know. It's me and Anthony singing. I don't really know how this stuff came to be, but it's very miraculous how it did come out, you know, because we're all kinda amazed that it came out as well as it did. Free-for-fall, like free-for-fall, not planned it.

HOW DID WORKING WITH ?UESTLOVE AND JAMES POYSER DIFFER FROM WORKING WITH WILLIE MITCHELL? WHAT WAS ONE OF THE MAIN DIFFERENCES?

I don't know what the differences is because if you see the video on the quick clip—

YEAH, I'VE SEEN IT.

It's just, like, everybody's gathered around, Al's sittin' on the floor, with 10,000 papers scattered around everywhere, and everybody, the bass player you know, Adam Blackstone, all these people are gathered around, the organ player, all these people are gathered around him in the center of the floor, we were writing these songs.

IT WAS MORE OF A COMMUNAL EFFORT.

Yeah, it's like on an inspiration. You just do something on inspiration. I'm not planning it. [It's not like], "These eight songs we done had in the trunk for 50 years." I mean these songs we just wrote in February.

I KNOW, I MEAN, THE ALBUM SOUNDS VERY, VERY ORGANIC.

Yeah.

DID YOU GUYS HAVE SOME EDITING PROCESSES? YOU KNOW, MAYBE DO A SONG AND GO BACK AND BE LIKE, OK THIS WORKS, I STILL FEEL GOOD ABOUT IT. DID YOU HAVE A WAY TO KIND OF TRIM IT DOWN TO THE 11 CUTS THAT WOUND UP ON THE ALBUM?

No, I was on tour when they were doing that part [laughs], but I'm telling you the whole thing, I mean it's weird—when they did the mixing, I wasn't even up in New York, I was on tour, and you know, all the musicians were calling me telling how it was turning out and it was like, "Oh, OK fantastic, can you send me a cut of it?" They would send me maybe a cut. But I wasn't really there to tell them to take this out, put this in, trim this down. I wasn't there to do that, no.

WOULD YOU WORK WITH THEM AGAIN? WOULD YOU WORK WITH ?UESTLOVE?

Oh, I'd love to.

I WANTED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS LOVE, BECAUSE A LOT OF SOUL MUSIC IS MARRIED TO GOSPEL, AND MANY OF YOUR SONGS, YOUR OLDER SONGS AND ON THIS ALBUM, COULD BE TALKING ABOUT A LOVE FOR A HIGHER POWER, OR A PERSON. THESE RELIGIOUS CONNOTATIONS, ARE THEY A CONSCIOUS EFFORT WHEN YOU'RE SINGING? OR IS IT MORE AN OPEN-ENDED THING, LIKE YOU CAN TAKE WHAT YOU WANT FROM IT AS A LISTENER?

Oh, it's uh, it's uh, you can't just go into a studio that's costing you four or five thousand dollars a day, and you got all these musicians that you gotta pay, studio session costs, and you don't know what you wanna say [laughs]. No, you know what you wanna say and we wrote this, but the design is like, "Take me to the river, wash me down, cleanse my soul, and put my feet on the ground."

IT'S NOT ONLY FOR A PERSON, BUT IT COULD BE A LOVE FOR ANYBODY, A HIGHER POWER.

Right, it could. How could anybody say, for instance, if you use it metaphorically, "Take me to the river, wash me down," cleanse me, and then they said "cleanse my soul." Well how is a person gonna cleanse your soul and put my feet on the ground? That's like I'm talking to somebody that's gonna be higher than somebody who just simply says, "I love you and I'll see you after dinner." Of course the songs have a meaning. "Lay it down" means, a secular connotation, it means, you know, like what Al says on the stage, he say "lay it down," he say "lay your love down," it's intertwined like that because he has a design he wants to follow and he has a desire to follow a certain design and he's leaving himself space and room.

I KNOW YOUR DAUGHTER SINGS BACKUP. WHAT'S THAT LIKE, TOURING WITH HER? IS THAT FUN?

Yeah, I would like to hang her. [laughs] No, she's a sweetheart and she's got a beautiful voice and the girls, Valisa too, is a friend of hers, and they just do a great job and I'm real proud of them.

IS SHE JUST LIKE, "OH WHATEVER, YOU'RE JUST MY DAD, WHATEVER."

Yeah, I mean, that's Dad, and on the road I just, I kinda let her and Valisa handle a lot of things I don't have to do on the road. Because this is my daughter, and this is Valisa, and Valisa is a member of the church also, and my daughter is a member of the church also, and I'm the pastor of the church also, and therefore we on the road also, singing "Love and Happiness" also. So it's kinda like a trip, it's far out; I mean people are out here. I mean I don't know if He's trying to draw people to a certain idea. I'm trying to draw people to a certain lifestyle. A better lifestyle.

A LIFESTYLE OF LOVE AND POSITIVITY.

Guns and drugs and this and that and violence and shooting and killing and cutting—I'm trying to draw people to a "Love and Happiness," yeah, you know, right, right.

WHAT'S YOUR LIFE LIKE BEING A REVEREND IN MEMPHIS WHEN YOU'RE NOT TOURING? DO PEOPLE STILL COME UP TO YOU ALL THE TIME, STARSTRUCK?

Well, I live in Memphis. So living in Memphis, people give you your space. But [laughs] they'll follow you to a restaurant. They love you and [are like], "I don't wanna impose, but could you sign the back of my T-shirt?" And I'm like, "You got the T-shirt on!" And the lady says, "I don't care! Al, just sign it!" And I just laugh and hug her and sign it for her because I know it ain't about nothin' man, it ain't about no big thing, man. I mean, I been living here 26 years so I mean, everybody know me and they know me, but still, [they're like], "I don't want him to think I'm just starstruck, but still, I'm drawn to him and I love his music and I love the songs that he's made and he's still making." And it's kinda like that, yeah.

I KNOW YOU GET THIS ALL THE TIME, BUT YOUR MUSIC TRULY CHANGED MY LIFE, AND I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK WITH YOU.

Thank you, Ms. Davis, it was a pleasure talking to you.

[Al Green. Fri 11.21.08. Showcase Live, 23 Patriot Place, Foxborough. 781.461.1600. 8pm/all ages/$80-$175. ticketmaster.com]

defend yourself: Al Green [Weekly Dig]