The Questlove Show - Questlove Supreme: Bob James

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and Questlove Supreme sits down with a genre legend. Bob James recalls his incredible journey and working with Sarah Vaughan, Creed Taylor, Idris Muhammad, and others. Bob speaks about becoming a beacon for Hip Hop and samplers, and how he has gone from a source to a collaborator with artist like RZA, Talib Kweli, and soon...Questlove. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media.

Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clivert Show on the I-Hard Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else.

If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I'm Daniel Alarcon, and this is my friend. This is much more famous than I am. I wouldn't go that far. But I'm John Green, co-host of the podcast The Away End with my old friend Daniel on our podcast The Away End. We'll share with you the magic of international football.

leading up to the 2026 World Cup. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to the away end with Daniel Auerkone and John Green on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Sino Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon, Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second change. chances. The entire season two is now available to Bench, featuring powerful conversation with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic. Without this group, I'm going to die. Listen to the Cino show on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHR Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights. sites from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this seasonal math and magic, CEO of Liquid Death, Mike Cessario. People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments that happen when you're in the shower. Where it's really like a stone sculpture,

you're constantly just chipping away and refining. Take-2 interactive CEO, Strauss Selnick, and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Listen to Math and Magic on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Questlove Supreme is a production of IHeart, radio. Wait a minute.

Is that a DX7? That is a gino chorus patch on my montage. Okay. We got it. Nice.

Nice. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Westlove Supreme. I don't know Steve and why we might need

another superlative. You know, like James Brown has the famous flames. I think we should should be like the legendary supreme or, you know, something, something even more excited.

Yeah, you know, because I feel like every episode is yet another kind of bucket list that we didn't know that we wanted to check off. Steve, I feel like this is going to be the- Yeah, this is the Steve MVP episode, not to put any pressure on you. I've handled some episodes. I think I had one of the top five episodes of last year, if you want to check the numbers. No, I'm just saying. Like, this is sort of like, you know,

we had expectations for LeBron to be the guy back when the high school. All right. Well, I want you to do your intro, but yeah, I was just telling, honestly, before we started the show, was telling Bob and Sonny that I do have a radio show on WKCR, Columbia University's radio station. And we,

the show that we do is about jazz labels. And each episode we cover a different label. And quite recently, a couple months ago, we did a three-hour episode about Tappinsey Records, which is Bob's label under Columbia in the late 70s and 80s and into the 90s, I believe, well, as part of Warner, but Tappin-Z went on for a bit, and I'm dying to talk directly to the man who started the label

and it was such an influential label. and it's getting a little lost. So I want to refresh our listeners with some albums. Like the most even said in like 20 episodes. I know. This is amazing. This is amazing. I might just skip the intro.

Anyway, Fonte, Laya, you guys cool? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we good. I'm living the dream. What's going on, man?

What's happening? So I will basically say that our guest today, of course, is a legendary jazz musician, but I don't think we could just reduce him to jazz. Yeah, his music is smooth, but we dare not call him smooth jazz. His music

is hip hop, but you know, we can't call him hip hop, but I think probably the most unique character trait of our guest today is probably my, or not my, our inability

to pinpoint what is he exactly? Is he an avant-garde artist? Is he a musical provocateur? is either Godfather smooth jazz. I don't know. I will say that probably when the smoke clears and we start taking a toll of the artists that fall under the jazz umbrella,

and there's many categories under that, I will say that as far as the scope of hip-hop, and yes, like, we kind of come from a hip-hop scope because of our age and whatnot. We get to know a lot of these artists through the power of sampling. I will say that our guess is probably at the top of the time. the list. Like I think hands down he's one, he's the king of textures, which is something that you don't necessarily hear someone describe another musician, but listening under a hip-hop context,

texture means everything. I also think that our guess is probably one of the kings of the perfect four-bar capture, the ability to transform your new creation into something else. That's just how adventures, he is cut to cut to cut to cut from album the album. And I will say that probably one of the best engineered artists under the contemporary jazz umbrella, just as sound speaks to probably everyone in my generation and beyond, because of course, a lot of his music is the foundation for some of the best hip-hop that I've ever known, that we've ever known. And you, the listener, heard his music, whether you knew it or not. He is, you know, multi-nominated, underappreciated, loved worship, always in demand, an absolute legend.

This is the Bob James episode of Questlove Supreme, finally. Man. Yes. Yes. I hope that was recorded so I can put a memory. I cut it in half, like, because I could really do this for 18 minutes. You mentioned best engineered. Did you mean engineered, or did you mean, like, him engineering a concept?

I mean, I'm trying to bring up the name Joe Jorgensen, who was the- No, George, Jordan and Rudy. Like, for me, just, it's the perfect texture of compression and natural sounds to me that I think is what attracts. my generation to his music. Because, you know, like, there's two ways to take him music. You know, we come from a generation where you go digging, you take the records home. And, I mean, with the notable exception of Primo and Dilla,

I don't know many hip-hop producers that actually listen and absorb the records, like listen to it over and over and over again until they actually absorb it. And, you know, because a lot of us just skip. Put it on 45. Nope, nope, nope, no. Oh, that's something. You know, and you skip around, but to me is one of the, some of the best engineered music for the purpose of sampling.

But, you know, again, it's like you can listen to his music under different scopes, not just like, oh, from a sampling perspective. But that's the thing. You can't categorize it. One more thing before maybe we let the guests speak. Right. Well, let's have a whole episode where he just doesn't talk. Good thing you brought your keyboard, Bob. I'm smiling. I'll just sit here and listen.

So I think the word that you were missing in your intro and why it's so hard to describe what he did and what he does is fusion. I think that what he did was basically just another version of fusion jazz. But I feel like any description for jazz artist is almost like a four-letter word. But fusion, you know, includes obviously whatever many different things that are being fused. Well, let's ask him, Bob James. Welcome to the show, finally. 19 minutes later. You know that's how we do it.

If all is said and done and without sort of, you know, oftentimes artists will, and I'm guilty of it, like, sort of ducking and dodge in the accolades. Like, what would you like us to know you as in describing your artistry? I don't know that I'd probably be the right person because so busy doing it, I never could stay in one category for very long. Maybe I was just too restless or something. But at one point earlier in my career, my wife advised me that we were having a conversation about I thought I was spreading myself too thin and I should focus more on one thing. and make up my mind whether I want to be an arranger or pianist

and in what genre, classical jazz or whatever. And she said, stop worrying about it, just do what you do. And that may be what sets you apart or makes you different from another artist is that you do a lot of stuff. And so I've kind of stayed with that and not attempted to categorize myself or go too far to one direction because I love the variety and the challenge of it. Right now, I'm trying to meet hip hop head on rather than have it happen off to the side

where they take a chunk of me while I'm not there in the room to be able to defend myself. It might be good to get in there and say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, before you chop me up, let's see if we could go from beginning to end, ever now yet. Okay, so Bob James, he does a lot of stuff. The reason why I said fusion, though, Bob, is because I feel like Tappan Z records and a lot of what you've done in your career was not only fusing different types of music together, but also really incorporating the place and the time period into your music, like New York City in the late 70s and early 80s. And, you know, the city and the time period, did that play a lot into the music? I absolutely always have thought that one of the things about jazz, since it's improvised, you're giving your feeling right at that moment on that day, in that city, wherever you are,

that it definitely does represent the time period or what's going on. It should, anyway, if we're being honest, we're reflecting our time. And that changes. So I've resisted when people try to make a definition of what jazz is. is because it changes. It changes along with everything else that's going on around it. Bob, what was your first musical memory?

Getting fired from being pianist at a tap dance class in my hometown. I think I was 12 or something like that, and I couldn't keep the beat. So the tap dancers were tripping, and finally the... Well, actually, the reason why I got hired in the first place is I think I was the only pianist

in the town. that they could use to play for this tap dance class. I guess it's my earliest memory of trying to learn what keeping the beat met. Who would have the gumption to fire a 12-year-old? Yeah, that was pretty cold. And I don't exactly remember that. I may have defined that too harshly. They may have just nicely told me to go home to my mom.

Passive aggressive firing, okay. couldn't keep up. Was it with a simple kickball change of it all? Is it one of those kind of classes of beginners? I was just curious. Damn, why you're with the 10 terms? I just, I mean, come on, you know, I'm a hinds girl. Was there music around your house growing up? Not a whole lot. My father was a lawyer, and I lived in a small town of Missouri where what I did here was mostly country music. And my parents didn't really have that many records that came close to jazz either. I started hearing a little bit and getting intrigued, high school maybe, and I remember kind of liking that feeling that it was improvised as opposed to what I perceived classical music being too much practicing. And jazz represented at that time escape from practicing because you could just make it up, anything that came into your head.

and it's only been in more recent years that I decided that practicing even somewhere in relationship to jazz was a good thing and not a bad thing. So around what year was that when you discovered jazz? It was in the 1950s, mid-1950s. And I do remember that that was pretty much the highlight of the West Coast jazz, because I do remember, Ted Baker, Jerry Mulligan, Dave Brubach, those names formed, or the style of it, the West Coast style, was intriguing to me.

Only in college did I kind of get more, tried to get more deep. I know there's this famous story of, was it a talent show or something, some kind of competition where the bands were being judged by Henry Mancini and Quincy, Jones? How about that for a panel to be judging?

Yeah, it was a very pivotal time in my life. I was at that time, I just graduated from the University of Michigan, and there was a kind of big avant-garde group of musicians that I became associated with because they needed performers who were willing to be really daring and do. crazy things that the avant-garde world was really out at that time. And so I was incorporating some of those avant-garde things into my jazz trio. And I decided to take the trio down to Notre Dame where this jazz festival was being held. And it was very conventional. We were expected to play bebop. And I kind of deliberately went up against that and started playing some crazy stuff,

along with some bebop. And they caught Quincy's here especially. I kind of don't remember whether Henry Mancini was into what we did. But Quincy definitely buzzed and they put a smile on his face, gave me a chance to meet him. And we kind of prevailed at that, in the winter circle at the festival, and Quincy signed me to Record Deal. So it gave me confidence to move to New York and go into the Jazz.

Did you finish school? Yeah, I got a master's degree in composition, mostly classical training. My jazz training was extracurricular. I'd go into Detroit from Ann Arbor, look around for a place to sit in. Yeah. And so Quincy signed you to, was it Mercury? Yes, and we recorded the album in Chicago. He was living there, I think, at that time.

That's where he was, the mercury was based in Chicago. And so this is like the early 60s, right? Yes, 63, 62, 63. And so I know that at the end of this small part of the conversation, Quincy eventually recommends you or lead you to Creed Taylor and that gets you to CTI. But what happens in between there in the mid-Cid? 60s. Another big pivotal time was when I got the job with Sarah Vaughn, her music director of pianist,

1965. I had learned that her pianist Ronnell Bright had left, and she was looking around, and indirectly, Quincy was involved in that too, because where I learned that that Sarah was looking for pianist was at this music copy service in Manhattan, where I used to hang out and watch all the arrangers come in with their charts that music needed to be copied. This was before the computer era where the copyists were still copying out the parts for the musicians in ink. So anyway, yeah, I learned about this possible job, and I had actually met Sarah very briefly once when I was playing with Maynard Ferguson's band. at Birdland in New York. And Sarah came in to the club and made her ask her to come up

to sing. And of course, she didn't have any arrangements with her, so she couldn't do anything with the big band. And that's when my nerves kicked in, because the pianist always kind of gets the responsibility to have to play. The chorus. And once she calls out a song, you better know it.

Because she wouldn't have come in with any music, for the pianist. And I got really, really lucky that night because she said, do you know the sweetest sounds? And I was able to say fairly quickly, yeah, what key? This, in the jargon of that time,

lets the person who asks you about it know that you're prepared. And at that time, there was a Broadway musical that had just opened up, and the sweetest sounds was one of the songs in that musical. It was a brand new song by Richard Rogers. But anyway, I was kind of a fan of musical theater, and it's just a complete coincidence that I knew this song.

It just barely shoot. Sarah was one of the first cover artists to sing it out of the Broadway show. And so it made an impression on her, And it was at least a year or two after that that I responded when she was looking for a pianist. And she remembered that night. And I got to John. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. Now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft.

And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galko, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects, from hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fault and Our Stars. and now, I guess also as the co-host of The Away End, a brand new world soccer podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcon, a writer and journalist, and John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86.

I was nine years old. I watched every game, and I fell in love. On our new podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer... Football is a story we've shared for over 30 years since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team.

Very debatable. And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, its heartbreak, and above all, it's beauty. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to the away end with Daniel Auer Kohn and John Green on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast, Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, I sit down with Tiffany the budgetista Aliche to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money.

What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth, starting with the mindset shifts. Too many of us were never, ever taught. Financial education is not always about, like, I'm going to get rich. That's great. It's about creating an atmosphere for you to be able to take care of yourself

and leave a strong financial legacy for your family. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John O'Brien from the Black Effect Network on the I'd Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. American Soccer is about to explain. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on to Ernie Stewart the chip.

I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Boe. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic. I'm not worried about Balligan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions.

If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tab Ramos on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. I have to ask a real amateur jazz question. Now, you know, my tenure in school was like in the 80s and 90s.

So of course, I'm in a generation that grew up with having access to what they would call a fake book. Was there any sort of cheat-cheety fake books of that level back in? Well, you know, those songs were also being written in real time. But how does a musician learn these repertoires? Like, you would just have to go to the store and just buy all the sheet music to everything? Or were there fake books out back then? Yeah, in my memory there were fake books. That kept getting bigger as a tool.

Now we have it in our phone. We could look up any song. Similar kind of a fake book thing that we could do. But at that time, I'm reasonably sure that this song was so new that it wouldn't have been in a fake book anyway. Because it would have come out. And in Maynard's band, the only thing I would have had on the piano was his charts that I was playing with him.

So when she came in, unannounced and was surprised that if I hadn't known that song, might have changed my life, and I probably wouldn't have gotten the gig later. I see. Now, every time we have a jazz artist on the show, the first thing they want to do is sort of dispel, not only dispel the myth, but sort of dispel it in a kind of a stick to a pinata way. now in general if you're moving to new york city looking to make a living playing uh this music jazz in particular you pretty much have to be a wizard at reading music correct i wouldn't say you have to oh my god what's that what you're all well you know there were two different approaches to it in my case

i i think i was pretty clearly thinking that the more trend you had the better. And that just increased your odds of getting a gig. And some of the gigs were not necessarily going to be a jazz gig. You might get a gig playing for wedding or whatever. And certain kind of gigs, if you couldn't read, you wouldn't get that gig. But certain jazz gigs, it didn't make any difference whether you read or not. Because we all know that the greats that were not readers. And that's just a particular. particular way. And I felt also to happen for me with Greed Taylor, he was a very much, his style with his label had a lot of production values. And he was adding strings and woodwinds and various things to start out with a basic jazz group and then give it the same kind of production details that pop artists had. So he needed arranger to do that. And it turned out that he learned that I was qualified to do it after having been introduced to him by Quincy.

No. So I got that job because of my training. And it helped me get the job. All right. Let's take Valley of the Shadows, which maybe our audience might know that as group homes, the realness. Now, Valley to Shadows, which has so much like, stop on a dime, you know, just like all this arrangement stuff. So I'm not to believe like Steve Gad or Idrich's Mohammed were given these charts and knew exactly when the, like, the

starts and stops were, because I'm imagining that you guys can't live in a studio. Like, I come from a place where, like, I've written complete albums inside the studio, whereas, like, I'm assuming that jazz musicians have to have this stuff prepared ahead of time. You just go to studio and you knock it out real quick you don't waste time doing 15 takes 20 takes or whatnot so like do they just study the music or do you give them a cassette of the arrangement ahead of time and they just committed to memory it was all variations of that over many years uh you may mentioned the idris bahama in my memory of working with idris that's been a long time but Idris may have been able to read a simple chart, but he was not what we would call

reader. And so I was going to hire Idris, I wouldn't put a big complicated chart in front of him, because even if he did, it would change his approach to playing. And what I wanted from him was his own loose, non-obedient reading a chart kind of style. So in some cases, we were deliberately trying to move away from a kind of written approach to the rhythm section, the basic tracks, because we had started during that era of overdubbing and not having everybody in the room at the same time. So for the most part, most of those CTI records, we would record the rhythm section first, and the production part of it would come afterwards.

So I could work with two different kind of musicians. I could go in on the rhythm section date and do it very loose with minimum kind of chart. And then once I had that basic track, I'd take that home and score the more complex stuff or the stuff for the larger orchestra. And so I guess we did it both ways. And for a piece like Valley of the Shadows or Night on Mall Mountain, some of those things that were adaptations of classical music, it definitely required a chart and a musician that could read.

I hired them on the basis of that, and it wasn't categorical because the next day I might want to do something that was totally loose and place of blues or whatever. And then reading would take that music in the wrong direction. In developing your initial sound, who were you idolizing? Yeah, I wasn't too different from most other aspiring jazz pianists in that I listened a lot to Oscar Peterson and Bill Eppens, maybe the two that I listen to the most. Of course, I tried to listen to everybody, Erro Garner and Artatim and on and on.

But I usually came down to thinking that three of those pianists, influenced me the most when I was trying to break into the field. And I would add Count Basie to Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson. Count Basie just because his minimalism of playing only a couple of notes every eight measures, but he knew exactly when played them. And I love that economy of not playing too much. he was sort of the opposite of Oscar Peterson. And Oscar Peterson had so much chops that I could,

I knew I could never do that anywhere close to the way he did it. So I better try to find some other approach. Is Bill the, is he partly responsible for why the Finder Roads became your signature sound or was just? No. As a matter of fact, I didn't like the way either Bill Evans or Oscar Peter. and played the Fender Rose. And they only played it occasionally, and it always seemed to me to sound like they either

had to do it or experimented with it and ended up not liking it. If you look at their overall recorded repertoire, you won't find very many Fender Rhodes tracks from Bill Evans or Oscar Peterson. And when I heard them play it, both of them, I hope I'm not being sacrilegious, they hit it too hard.

They hit the keys too hard. They wouldn't change their technique. They played it like it was an acoustic piano. Yeah, you can't play that instrument that way because the acoustic piano has so much more dynamic range. And I, I don't know, it formed my style at that time because I was asked to do it. I hadn't gone out and found Fenner Rhodes on my own.

Rudy Van Gelder had one in his studio. and I started being asked to play it. And to my ear, I had to change my technique to make it sound good. Was it, like now it's so commonplace, but in the early 60s when they're developing this instrument, like, was it foreign? Was it like, I mean, the way that we look at probably, the way that we're looking at AI technology right now,

like was it sort of a thing to marble or something to mess? master? Like, what were your feelings on it? It was a gig. I wasn't even really, I was playing it because I had to, that was my assignment on that particular gig, because they wanted to. When my heart was still with the acoustic piano, until I began to realize that I was getting identified with it. and that I had some kind of approach that people were hearing that almost forced me to take it more seriously when my album, the first solo album that I made for CTI had Feel Like Making Love on it. And there was a sound that I had used Fender Rose on Roberta Flex because I played piano for her on her version too.

So that sound became very much identified. that was what 1974 I guess in some ways I felt limited by it because it just had the matter what you did there was only one way that I could make it sound authentic or good okay so I kind of want to start in your discography the the period in between the first album the Bull Conception that Quincy produced. And your second album, Explosions, which really doesn't get discussed enough.

And it doesn't because if it got discussed too much, I might not have a career. The night and day of those two records, I mean, in 1965, like, I know by, you know, I know by like 59, 60, like there was, there was avant-garde jazz and whatnot, but your version of it is way beyond like, you know, Coltrane's thing was more spirituality and then, you know, like the stuff of the shape of jazz to come and all those things like,

which I think they're being avant-garde with notes, but, you know, you're kind of taken, at least listening to those records. I mean, if I could be bold to say, and, you know, notwithstanding the, the, the, the early, like, electronic records of the 60s, which were more like demonstration records or that sort of thing. But, like, dare I say, like, that might have been one of the very first electronica records, like just in terms of you using different frequencies and whatnot.

Like, what made you go from night and day, from, like, bold conceptions to explosions? Well, it actually, in my memory, was not totally night and day because they were kind of all related, and there were some elements in the Explosions album that I had already been experimenting around and that had gotten Quincy's attention. The two classical avant-garde composers that participated in the Explosions album were Robert Ashley and Gordon Muma, and they were both exploring different versions of what at that time was called electronic music. But it was a combination of what was called music concret,

and that was taking just natural sounds like a train engine or birds or whatever, and then manipulating them with tape machines. There was no personal computer digital way we look at electronic music now didn't exist at that time. There was a lot of tape manipulation, and they did have oscillators. So there were some very, very primitive, what we now call synthesizers, that were just beginning to be put together. And what I tried to do with explosions is, I guess you could say it was similar to the way artists use backing tract more recently. So the this electronic tape of or sampling or sampling

wink or something yes so that's the sample plays or the the backing track plays and then we would improvise over the top of it in a more conventional jazz way and so the two different elements would clash with each other and that created the conflict or the about gardenists or and it was it was all seemed to be all about pushing boundaries what are the limits of what could be called music uh as a sound organized sound chaos and different people use the different approach sometimes it was anger and uh thumbing their nose at the audience the idea of making an audience happy in the conventional sense or making them fall in love, they wanted to do the opposite. They wanted to make them so angry that they'd walk out of the

theater. And with the, so there was all variations of that and debate about it and what's meaningful or what isn't. So you had the people that loved it, but you had as many or more people that hated it and thought it was noise. And so we, in my youth, I was fascinated by it. I actually loved it sometimes. And I always felt during that time that I had the power to change it. Because I could play conventional jazz, I liked to surprise my audience. Just when they thought we were just playing some conventional bebop,

all of a sudden, electronic sounds would come in. And then we were suddenly in a completely different world where I'd be. stroking the strings with my hand or getting a mallet and playing, beating on the side of the piano. And we were part of the time seducing the audience and part of the time confronting them with surprise and making them deal with it. At that point, were you familiar with like artists of the time, like a Raymond Scott or the Tonto guys or just any of those? experimental synthesizer records? Yes, I was. Those two names I don't remember. But I was more influenced by the people in the classical avant-garde world,

like John Cage and Stockhausen and those people that were... It was a different kind of experimentation. In the jazz world, Don Ellis, the trumpet player, was also very involved in avant-garde music at that time. time and there were the Moog guys the when the Moog synthesizer came up came into being a little bit later actually by that time I was sort of losing interest frankly the idea of making the audience hate me it started to be so severe that I thought well I'll never be able to make a living if I make my idea you're saying that you were going for more of like a Stravinsky make the audience hate me thing or just?

No, because Schernberg might be a better example. Better example. Okay. Because Stravinsky's music, people realized fairly quickly that it was just great. And it was...

They also rioted, you know. And it had melody, it had all of the things, and it's survived as a real classic, even though the dissonance shocked people a little bit. at the time but it was cinematic it it uh i never never viewed him as avargar but it was more um we say about it's a provocateur musical provocateur he had come out of the impressionist era when when the romantic era of the 19th centuries the gradually they began to get tired of

of tonal music and the tonal and conventional dissonance. And so the Impressionist era of Revelle and W.C., it was a blur and where's the tonic? So by Stravinsky's time, he was going further in that direction and more dissonance and less conventional tonality, but still making the at times. attempt to, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think he wanted his audience to hate him like we

were sort of doing at that time. It was fun and a temporary interest for me just trying to learn what were the limits. And I learned just for myself that the limits that I wanted to go back to were far more conventional. And I wasn't really getting the, it wasn't reaching my heart. The avant-garde side of it was curiosity from my brain, but I more and more started to like the romantic side. And probably those four years I spent with Saravon, she certainly wouldn't have let me play in the avant-garde camera.

Right. Yeah, I was trying to imagine that. Yeah, I had to really play all the, learn the standards. and not only learned, I learned the great voicing and everything so I could inspire her. And that became my life. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for Raw, Underfoot. filtered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest

moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the player. flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fault and Our Stars, and now I guess also as the co-host of the away end, a brand new world soccer podcast.

I'm Daniel Alarcon, writer and journalist, and John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game, and I fell in love. On our new podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer, football, is a story we've shared for over 30 years since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team. Very debatable. And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love that. this game. I love its history,

its hope, its heartbreak, and above all, it's beauty. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to the away end with Daniel Alarcon and John Green on the Iheart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast, Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, I sit down with Tiffany the budgetista Aliche to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money. What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth, starting with the mindset shifts.

Too many of us were never, ever taught. Financial education is not always about, like, I'm going to get rich. That's great. It's about creating an atmosphere for you to be able to take care of yourself and leave a strong financial legacy for your family. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John O'Brien from the Black Effect Network on the I'd Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, earners, what's up? Look, money is something we all deal with, but financial literacy is what helps turn income into real wealth.

On each episode of the podcast, Earn Your Leisure, we break down the conversations you need to understand money, investing and entrepreneurship. From stocks and real estate to credit, business, and generational wealth, we translate complex financial topics into real conversations everyone can understand. Because the truth is, most people will never taught how money really works. But once you understand the system, you can start to build within it. That means ownership, smarter investing, and creating opportunities not just for yourself, but for the next generation.

If you want to learn how to build wealth, understand the markets, and think like an owner, Earn your leisure is the podcast for you. Listen to Earn Your Leisure on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So why did it take almost a decade for you to get to your third album, your run of your period, which for most collectors believe that one is your, they seem to think that's your first record, even though it's not. But just as the Bob James, as we know, why did it take you to the 19th,

to start your you're part of the story from the after explosions and after i kind of was thinking that it was a dead end for me it was immediately after that that i got the job with sarah long that was a four-year thing and by that time i had given up any notion of being a leader when i first came to new york i i sort of came as the bob james trio i thought of myself as a jazz pianist and was thinking about trying to make a solo career. But I really liked a job with Sarah, being an accompanist. And I started getting arranging jobs as a result of it, and I liked that.

It provided a steadier income in New York, and I was starting to get arranging jobs. And by the time I got to 1970, when I got the job to play on Quincy's album Walking in Space, which was my introduction to Creed Taylor, that gave me the opportunity for Creed Taylor to see what I could do, that I could write for large ensembles. And still, by that time, I was not thinking of myself as a solo artist,

and I didn't even think I was going to pursue it. How musical was Creed Taylor? Well, he definitely wasn't one going out and playing an instrument or conducting or arranging. He did have some training that I, heard about only by reputation. I never saw him do it. I think you could describe him as a visionary. He had a definite idea of how to make... He wanted his label to have a style, a sound, and a look, even his packaging and his choice of covers and everything about it, he had a very strong producer vision.

And so his style of the one element of it that he talked to me a lot because he wanted me to be one of the ones helping him realize his vision. He was a very, very passionate fan of the music. And he had his favorites. He had his

paste. And that formed his choices that he made throughout those years. But does he allow you to really have say? Like I know, that you started producing after the four out, like by yourself, but are you allowed to have say in these first war records?

Definitely did. I had a lot of say. And you mentioned Valley of the Shadows right off the bat, which was completely me going as almost as of our guard as I would have a project of his where he was a producer. But he gave me a lot of leeway and the arrangements.

The basic thing that gave me that job early on working with him was that one of his stylistic things was to take a classical theme that he thought that people would recognize and then converted into having jazz performers reinterpreted. And that became such a trademark for him almost. And when he saw that I was able to work with classical music and rearrange it and all that.

That's led me down that path with him. Okay, so take something like Night on Bald Mountain, which, you know, if you're a Disney fan, you know that from Fantasia. I'll admit that I met Night on Ball Mountain because it was on side three of Saturday Night Fever. You know, I was also like seven years old when it came out. But when you're doing these interpolations of classical,

music into jazz. One, are you doing all the arranging, and how many man hours does it take for you to write each part? Because you're, you know, I'm assuming that you're doing these arrangements for your brass section,

your string section, like, for one song, how many man hours does it take for you to write these arrangements out? A lot. I was fast, and you kind of had to be. I grew up watching the great arrangers and Quincy had told me about that music copying service that I mentioned about earlier.

And I would go in there and watch how they would work. And there were people like Billy Byers and the people that got a lot of the jobs. And I saw how they did their scores and how they set up the scores so they would make it easier for the copyists to copy the parts and well organized and everything. because very often there were deadlines, and we had to deliver half a dozen charts overnight for the session the next day. So I learned to be fast, and I definitely wasn't the fastest, but I could put something together pretty quickly,

and I had studied in college. So the part of that whole process was getting to know the range of the instruments and the kind of ways that you could write for an instrument that would make that player sound better. if you kept it in the right range. You know, lots and lots of stuff like that. And I was the fact that I could do it

allowed pre-Taylor to give me directions, depending upon what classical piece he wanted me to reinterpret. He'd give me some ideas about it, but then he'd leave me on my own to execute it. And the Night on Bowen Mountain chart that I did, and Steve Gad played the drum part. It was all about featuring him at that time. I just kind of know him,

and I knew he could read whatever I put in front of him, but keep it in the spirit of free-flowing jazz playing. And even with that arrangement, we went in first with the rhythm section and recorded that, and I refined my score after that, somewhat based upon the fills that Steve would play. I used to like to do the reverse. Rather than give Steve all the notes with all those hits on it, you know, the syncopation

things, he would just play loose. And I would have... And you build around him? Yeah. And when he would hit those fills, I would make that the brass, you know, notes. And it would make it sound like he was answering the brass arrangement when actually, and some of that stuff, he wrote it. and it was tight in version,

an end version because the way he was playing it was loose. You know what I mean? I knew Steve Gad was a monster, but in my mind, okay, now it makes total sense that you do your rhythm section first, and then you build around what your rhythm section does and then... Yeah.

In order to do that arrangement that way, there had to be a pretty specific chart, too, because it wasn't just a... simple lead sheet for Steve and the bass player Gary King, all that. I had on that particular piece, it was a lot was written out. But within that, since we didn't have the whole brass section in the studio, there was a kind of flexibility that we could use to get the groove happening and to make it so that it wasn't too tight and too conservative in the way we played it.

So my memory of what we were trying to do was have both, have it be a very specific chart, but also the feel of a loose, improvised jazz performance. Your personnel, you know, reads like a just a, reads like a who's who of just monsters. Of course, you know, they're monster musicians now, but back then I'm assuming that they were just, you know, dudes that played music.

How did you go about gathering the personnel's for your record? Because, like, it's... The cast, it's just... And leading it to Tapin Z. It's just... Yes. It's so much about who's around you. So, yeah, ask your question, please.

Sorry. Yes. So how did you come across, like, the Ralph McDonald's of the world, the Grover Washington Juniors of the world, the Wayne, Andre... Yeah. Steve Garrett, Gary King. Yeah. I don't think it's any different from what your world is.

New York is a great place. And that's where maybe not quite as dominant as it was in the 1970s when I was doing my thing. But everybody comes to New York and that's where most of the gigs were. And by word of mouth, you start to learn who are the best people. Once I got onto Breed Taylor's list, he had his favorite. but the everybody was available to you. You could get George Benson to play guitar on your day. You could get Ray Brown to play bass,

and you could get whoever you want, because it was New York. And then it just became a matter of casting. And I loved that whole aspect all through my life. I love the conversations about who's the new guy, and or gal, and who, who, who, and who's going to inspire you. And so you keep searching.

And every month we would find some new name that got in the door and you'd want to use them. And the best of them became the people that we're talking about now as a result of that. Did you and David Matthews ever collaborate at any time? No. The other David Matthews, there's the... That doomed, David Matthews. David Matthews bad, but the arranger Dave Matthews, it was one of those things like Don Sebeski, I rarely was around him. If he got the job, I didn't.

And if I got the job, he didn't. So there was usually only one of us on any particular project. I did get hired as a pianist for some of Don Sebeske's stuff, so I got to know him. but the other arrangers, Robert Friedman, I remember, and some of these other people that I knew them by reputation, but rarely had a chance to be working on the same project. All right, just the sequencing of your first album is this off the chain.

And I got to know, whose idea was it to make such a radical version of In the Garden? because, you know, when I hear in the garden, it's either used for wedding purposes. You know, it's always the pre-song that's played right before here comes the bride or whatever. So I totally wasn't expecting. It's almost like three things in one. Like, you know, it's part rockabilious bluegrass, but it's also jazzy and it's avant-garde. like can you just tell us the genesis of that or was it just like roll the tape i got an idea well thank you for describing it that way and even thank you for remembering it because i do

sort of remember the day that i came into creed taylor's office and talked about wanting to do it uh to do that uh composition and we had already discussed a lot about his basic theory that if a jazz artist took a classical theme, they would turn it into something else. And that was part of his stylistic thing. So the real classical name, which is also drawing blank on it now, that I ended up calling in the garden, came from a very well-known classical piece. And at that time, I was using Hume Cracken a lot, the really great studio guitarist, but who, had a... He did dueling banjos, right? Yes.

Yeah. From deliverance, yeah. Deliverance, yeah. So he played banjo, guitar, and he was very authentic in those styles. So I knew that I could get a kind of raw, almost country kind of sound out of him and make that piece eclectic. We didn't know exactly where we were going with a lot of experimentation in the studio, and Cree Taylor gave me the flexibility to experiment with that and to come up with something unique. It's almost like, you know, that in particular, if a jazz artist had a public enemy, like, that's the thing,

like you're so hip-hop without, the only one person I could describe that way was Prince. Like, before Prince purposely started rapping, everything about Prince was hip-hop in terms of, like drum programming and all that stuff. But, I mean, just the fact that you're mixing all these genres in one before it actually gets a home or some sort of identity is, you know, is kind of mind-blowing. I mean, at the time, were you nervous or worried about what critics were going to receive

this as? Your downbeats, your, you know, whatever the gods of critics, of jazz critics. were like if you're not following a certain mold of what is deemed acceptable status quo, are you nervous about this or was the shield of CTI enough to protect you to? I think I can safely say that I was not nervous about it. If anything, I was not reluctant to be confrontational and to not give critics any easy thing to talk about. And I guess I always had a little bit love, hate relationship with them.

And I got more hate than I did love. Times and so I ended up saying, who cares? And it's my job to do it and their job to say what they think about it. And I was not concerned about that at that time. Even forget about critics. I was not that concern about retailer. he was my boss but i wanted to confront him too and not necessarily come in with exactly what he expected of bravery i guess was has always been something that i feel like you have to have

stay with your vision no matter whether people will agree with it or not and on the one album we were talking about i was not thinking at that time as that as a solo career album from my myself. I didn't think I would have one. And Creed said it was time because I'd done so many projects for him with Grover Washington and various other artists. I felt my identity at CTI was arranger. And by doing a whole bunch of different, eclectic kind of stuff, I was hoping to use that as like an audition to get more arranging jobs. And the more of a variety that I could show as an orchestrator, I could present it to other clients. And it was my good fortune that I had some commercial success with it,

that I was almost forced into considering a sole career after that. Can I share with you a little bit about Nautilus on that same album? Yeah, it was next. Talking so many people about it and actually confronting with Wu-Tang Clan guys and various people about why. I kept to ask the question, why did Nautilus get sampled by so many people? What was it? And I was able to share the story on that same one album.

You asked about sequencing. Nautilus was the last cut on Side B kind of deliberately because it was almost a throwaway. And Reed Taylor knew that the other cuts would get the attention at that time. So traditionally with the LP, you always made, but your weakest cuts on the center or the last cut on the side of an album because the grooves were narrower. You know, you got your best bass sound on the outside cuts. So nobody paid attention to Nautilus. And then operended 10 or 15 years later, I started hearing back that the hip-hop producers were graphing. on to it and I could not.

I knew it had a good baseline and Idris Muhammad playing drums, the groove was there. So I got that, but it just seemed like there had to be something else about it that made it just keep showing up over and over. And it still does, even to this day. So in a conversation with Riza on an interview that he was doing, suddenly something clicked in for me that I had kind of not been paying attention to it at all, but it wasn't just a simple rhythm section groove that Idris and Gary King were laying down. I had written a pretty elaborate string arrangement for fun. Read, let me do it. There was enough budget that I could hire a string section and write the arrangement. And there was this kind of mysterious,

ethereal kind of sound that permeated that track. And if anything, I would have thought it would have made it less commercial because it didn't fit in with the other standard funk type of a string arrangement that I might have written. But as I've recently talked to the people in the hip-hop community that keep talking about that as being one of the... essential tracks that have been sampled the most, I think it might be a combination of that groove

and this almost classical blurry orchestration that's over the top of it. Texture. Yeah, texture, thank you. That's what I say. You're the king of textures. And I can't describe it, but it's, you know, somehow you manage, like, I know you don't intentionally

say, okay, let me create a song that somehow in six years will hit another generation. Like, no one thinks that. Like, maybe a musician like me now will think that, like, okay, what I do now, maybe 20 years from now, it'll be invoked. But, you know, I think at the end of the day, you caught a compelling performance with musicians that just were tightly locked. and the fact that you didn't plan it even makes it better because some of the best success stories in music

all come from people that aren't calculating here's lightning in a bottle you know like Michael Jackson trying to follow up thriller like I'm going to sell 100 million albums like you can't you can't capture lightning in the bottle that way it just happens or it doesn't happen so you know I totally believe it and that's why I've always

tried to just enjoy the process of doing it and let well whatever comes out of that happen. If you're passionate and if you're trying your best to get the best people, write the best arrangement, play the best solo, just do your best and keep trying to make the level higher in that way, then you're still enjoying that even if it isn't successful. You've had that pleasure and privilege to make music and go through that process. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the same. scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life,

mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft, and we've got a special guest.

The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fault and Our Stars.

And now, I guess also is the co-host of the away end, a brand new world soccer podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcon, a writer and journalist. And John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game. and I fell in love. On our new podcast, the away end,

we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer, football, is a story we've shared for over 30 years since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team. Very debatable.

And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, it's heartbreak, and above all, it's beauty. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important.

Listen to the away end with Daniel Alarcon and John Green on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast, Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, I sit down with Tiffany the budgetista Aliche to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money. What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here. We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth,

starting with the mindset shifts. Too many of us were never, ever taught. Financial education is not always about, like, I'm going to get rich. That's great. It's about creating an atmosphere for you to be able to take care of yourself and leave a strong financial legacy for your family. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you.

to hear more. Listen to money and wealth with John O'Brien from the Black Effect Network on the I'd Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. American Soccer is about to explode.

The World Cup is coming. Ramers sending on to Ernie Stewart the chip. I'm Ty Bramos. I'm Tom Boe. On our podcast, inside American soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic. I'm not worried about balligan.

I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals.

The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. wherever you get your podcast. You know, around 87, when, you know, Peter Piper is coming out the gate, which, you know, I'll probably, I mean, you would say Fonte, that's probably one of the first out the gate, uh, Bob James samples. Peter Piper, right? Peter Piper, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so. 80s, yeah, 86, 87. Yeah, so when, when this is coming out in 86, 87 and whatnot. What is your immediate thought of what's happening? I believe my first memory was Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. And they... Touch a Jazz. Oh, touch a jazz.

You're right. And they took my song Westchester Lady and the way they did it at that time because I wasn't following what was going on in hip-hop at all. But I found out about it after the fact and I listened to it. And yes, I was shocked. What the heck? you know, because it was just my record that played. It wasn't even a loop or a chunk. And you could hear my melody, my composition,

and suddenly I look at this album and it has a new title. They made it into a new song, and they called it something else. And I'm thinking, wait a minute, you know, this is not right. What's going on here? And one of the first things back then that came into my mind is, hey, if they can do that, if Jesse Jeff and, and Will Smith could just rap over the top of my record. Well, I'll go out and get myself a Frank Sinatra record,

and I'll play some piano over the top of it. And I'll change the time on it from, you know, from I left my heart in San Francisco. I'll call it Bob James, something or other, whatever. And I knew you could. Ghostface does that, by the way. Times have changed. But that was my first reaction. And also...

But in your mind, you didn't think, like, some 14-year-old or 15-year-old is hearing that, and now looking at their parents' record collection, like, wait, I have that. And then now you have new fans? Not yet. Okay.

Eventually, you know, there's a lot of conversation about it. And if it had been just a fluke, I would have considered it more. as a legal matter. And because throughout my sort of music business knowledge career, I have felt that copyrights and the protection of them are our most powerful weapon against big business. The copyright itself, the ownership of it, the control of it, so that you have some control your destiny was a very big deal for me. I fought for it and all of my contracts. And the only

way that you can protect it is by going to bat for it and not let people plagiarize or fraudulently steal it. So that was really basic before I even was aware of what was going on in the hip-hop world. Okay. And the whole structure of the legal thing hadn't happened yet where you where you could figure out a reasonable fair way to license and all those it was the wild west so so yeah exactly so you hear that happening and i owned my recording of westchester lady and i and the compositions so uh i had to fight for and i did and that sort of started me off in this world that at that time i thought it was a one-off thing and that I would just have to try to do my best to be compensated properly and then go on

about my business. But it proved that that wasn't an isolated thing. And not only did the field get bigger and bigger, but the sampling of my music kept happening. So I had to make a decision about how to handle that. And eventually, yes, it became a very, very, amazing deal that my own music got heard a lot more as a result of my name being associated in the hip-hop community. So I ended up being very grateful for it, but always mixed feelings. Did you notice an immediate paradigm shift and reaction? Whereas, like, if you start the intro to Nautilus back in 1974, it probably wouldn't elicit the screams of, oh, shit, like, that I'm not a lot. certain that happened that blue note last week when you played there yes and as drastic change has

happened i have so much uh appreciation and new respect new desire to confront this whole phenomenon of uh i want as as a copyright holder and as a composer who has fought hard to keep the rights to my music, I want to be one of the people in the music community that educates young people to learn about that, to learn about the business, to learn that these creations need to be protected. They need to be identified in the right way and entered into the legal part of the music business in a legitimate way. So I've kept fighting for that. But as I have learned more about the sample usage, I confronted Riza. And I actually confronted DJ Jesse Jeff, too.

And there was a new cut on my album that would be coming out in the spring that is a collaboration with DJJJJJJF, where it's like let bygones be bygones. Not only fans were in bed together with the track. You know, we collaborated. I'm very happy that we're able to do that. It demonstrates that we're all in the music business together. But in attempting to actually confront this issue for me, which is when they took Nautilus or take me to the Mardi Gras and redid it or used it, It was my creativity that was in this chunk or in this recording, and I was not in the studio to defend myself artistically.

And as I began to hear my music being sample, more and more, the chunks of it were taken in all kinds of different ways, manipulated more drastically, tempo change, speed, sped up, slowed down, distorted. Kind of like explosion. And I didn't have any control over the creativity. Right, right. I'm not there, so they do whatever they want. So I began to think if I could be in the same room doing my thing while they did their thing, a different result could come out of it where I would actually be at least be able to say, well, wait a minute, don't change this or something like that.

So for five days, two weeks ago, I was in RISA student. and we did pretty much exactly that. Wow. He did his thing and I did my thing. And a couple of times I would do a kind of conventional jazz melodic thing or a bass line thing or something like that. And he would hear some very small chunk of it and he would ask his engineer, stop right there and take just these two beats and suddenly my conventional melody had become, Some completely new rhythm that I wouldn't have thought of in a million years.

And now we're confronting each other. Either I have to be strong enough to say, you know, stay away from that or go along with it. Yeah. Fonte, are you thinking about the guitar center beat right now? Oh, man. I hope it's not that. I think it's not going to be that. But yeah, big guitar sitter beat.

That's a whole other thing. For me, for me, a person who takes that and makes, I feel like someone's going to flip it, like either vitamin D or something. You make it hard. It's a long inside joke. It's one of Riz's most like unorthodox creations I've ever heard of my life. So when I heard you two were collaborating, the first thing I thought about was, okay, the guitar set a beat.

Bob, do you remember the reasons why he cleared Daytona 500, but you didn't clear the Flowers record for Ghostface? Do you remember the reason for that? I do remember in those days, we were trying to create a kind of formula, which almost never worked, because every new creation is different and every circumstance is different. But I tried to identify it in the amount of my actual recording that was used. And if it was just a little chunk that only occupied 10%, I tried to base the licensing fee on the prominence of my music and the track. And if my baseline or my melody was prominent all the way through the track,

It's essentially my composition that I own and that I own that copyright. And they're using it from beginning to end. I always was pretty firm and rigid about, no, I'm not giving that up. And I don't think any composer who's proud of the ownership of their creation would ever want to give that up. I mean, you say not giving it up, you mean not giving up any. publishing on it or just not letting them use it period? Well, either version, yes. Not letting them use a period unless they license it properly.

If they license it and to get a license to change my music, when they use it from beginning to end, that why? I mean, why would I, why would any of you agree to do that? So here you've got this song that you understand. Yeah, I think, yeah, well, you asked the question, why would any buzz agree do that? I think definitely it has to be, you know, you have to be compensated and the business has to be worked out. I just know for me as a hip-hop fan,

there are so many records that I never would have listened to if it were not for hip-hop. Like I never would have went and listened to, you know, your first four, well, not first four, but your albums, one, two, three, and four. You know what I'm saying? Like, I never would have went back to those records had I not heard them in this context now. You know what I mean?

So for me now, I look at it as just, you know, kind of just planting that seed and putting it in a context that we may not understand, but the generation after us, they may hear it. And, you know, it goes, you know, it's pretty much, I look at what sampling was back for us back then. It's like what meme culture is now in the internet. You know what I'm saying? And, like, my son, you know, he, you know, watched the wire. And all because the gift, there's a gift of Webe that's like being used as a meme a million times. Right. But to him, it was just, oh, my God, so that's where that came from.

Like, you know, this is a 17-year-old-year-old-year-old. Oh, that's right. That is the new sampling. Yeah. It's like, that is crazy. You know, I would say, in defense of the way this thing started to come together in the legitimatizing of licensing and all of that. Many of the biggest samples of my music, such as Peter Piper,

I didn't find out about until even two, three, four years later. After the fact. It was too late. And I suffered, even if I wanted to confront the statute of limitations, prevented me from really being able to do what I wanted to do in some of the cases to protect my copyright, couldn't do it. Questlove to call it the Wild West. And yes, it was during that time you fend for yourself

and you don't know the history of how it's going to turn out. If I had known that I would have had so much respect from the whole hip-hop community and they treat me with so much dignity, it makes me so happy and proud that I'm a part of it, and I know that I have gotten a lot from the fact that it historically happened. But when it was the Wild West, when all that stuff was going on, I had no idea, and I was fighting for my own image as a jazz artist and have hard enough time with that, let alone have a hard time holding on to my own composition. I understand.

Are there certain songs that you favor, like, of your usage? Like, for me, I feel like DJ premiere is probably the most ideal person. to have utilized your work where it's not just straight-up jacking it, but it's like the way he does it is amazing. But like for you, do you have favorites of like, oh, that was clever or that sort of thing? A little bit. By the way, I really love meeting him last week. He had come a year ago, but finally had a chance to meet him and talk with him a little bit last week at the blue note. Yeah. Such a cool guy. and I am embarrassed in some ways to admit that I still don't listen to that much hip-hop music.

Guess what? Neither do we. I'm not well-versed to talk about it. Okay. But because of the opportunity to be up on stage with Talib Khali and his other guest, finally I got some very great insight into the performance of. of rap and hip-hop and the way it feels like jazz

when I'm up on the stage and the skill and the spirit of it that I had not paid attention to and listening to the recordings, but being there with them was fantastic. Let me explain to our listeners. So basically,

Mr. James did a residency, a three-night residency at the Blue Note in New York City with Talib Kuali, Black Thought was there. Raqim. Was there?

DMC. Yeah, like, just basically, you know, is this the first time that you finally had a meeting of the minds between yourself and hip-hop emcees and a band that knew how to make this happen? I did the same thing with Talib last year. Okay. That was the only other time. And I really liked that in a way of,

getting to know in real time. The music's happening. The tune starts and I'm playing right along with him. And when Raqim was playing his version where he had sampled my piece Shambuzi, and it made me smile because I remember percussion player that I used to work with all the time, Doc Gibbs, And Doc Gibbs had given me the title, Shambuzi, which was kind of part of his vocabulary.

And it just brought back a whole bunch of memories. And this, again, this, this, that was just an intro for me, the melody or the main part of that song. Rakeem didn't use it at all. There's just those chords of the intro. Nevertheless, I love the way he performed on stage with such confidence and charisma. and it made me proud, happy, and smiling that he had chosen my, you know, as something to create a new piece out of it. What were your thoughts on everyday people, people every day by arrested development? Because I thought that was just a genius, like taking that little piece.

Like, to me, that was genius. What were your thoughts on it? Very, very complicated from the business end of it. And actually even from, it was another example of something that I was not paying attention to, know that my sample had even been used until way after the fact. Oh, wow. Way after it had become a big hit. So it came to me late in the game.

And what had happened was people every day had been released as the single without my sample on it. The first release of it was didn't have my recording on it. on it and kind of didn't go anywhere. And they kept working with it, did a new mix, which ended up being called a metamorphosis mix, did add my sample, and that became a big hit. And so quite clearly, I knew that my sample had made a difference in that record.

But what we did not know at the time and until it got litigious and kind of got a little bit ugly, shall we say. Serious. Right. And this may or may not have had anything to do with their management, but more of the record company's management. When the royalties came in,

they somehow or other got channeled into the other version of, it did not have my sample in it. So the royalties did not come my way. And after a long period of time, And it was a very significant difference. So that's why they had to identify the metamorphosis remix every time I see it used in public. Yeah, but even though they did,

some unbeknownst to me and the final analysis couldn't prove it anyway, it got channeled wrong and it took us a long time before we ever figured out. Well, why is this statement for the other version so huge? and the statement for metamorphosis makes nothing. Because no one wants to write metamorphosis mix. I assure you, yeah, I assure you 90% of the, 99% of the time, if someone's playing that song, they're definitely playing your version.

And that's it. And all the cheap appearances and everything else, that was the version that became a hit. But I probably shouldn't even be talking about details of this because there was a settlement that we finally reached and it was not particularly good but so i don't have good memories about that let's put it that way you have good memories about taxi that angela think yeah angel's thing well uh because that's all good news for me you know kind of i could have never anticipated how that would become such a signature piece for me and i thank the producers

of that series which is still in syndication but the the most weird, but it turns out to be very celebratory. Sample usage of it turned out to be Cilo Green when he used it on a tune called Sign of the Times recently. And he just kind of sang over it, redid it, added a lyric to it. And first it was a little bit shocking when I first found out about it because they hadn't come to me in advance about it either. But when I first heard it, I loved it so much that I just couldn't be anything but happy about it.

And we ended up with a really fair and nice licensing arrangement. And it has led to me being able to meet him in person in a similar way that I confronted Rizzo recently, but Selew and I did some stuff together. And we wrote a song together that's going to be on the same new album. Album. If you haven't heard The Sign of the Times by Seelow, it's my taxi piece reinterpreted by him. Wow.

Okay. Well, wait, you mean the sign of the times that Rod Timberton worked on? That piece? Oh, that's my sign of the Times. So the Times, right, that Rod Tempert did work on us on my album. The Sealo version. which he called Sign of the Times has his lyric that has Sign of the

times in the lyric. I see. So you have another version, another song called Sign of the Times that's not related to the Timberton version. There's several Sign of the Times songs, but his Sign of the Times has my

taxi melody and a very, very cool but very specific reinterpretation of it that it was a great opportunity for me to meet him and collaborate. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversation, with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger.

So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the player

flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode. Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12

and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fultonar Stars, and now I guess also is the co-host of the away end, a brand new world soccer podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcon,

writer and journalist, and John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game, and I fell in love. On our new podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer, football, is a story we've shared for over 30 years since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team. Very debatable. And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love that. I love the star player. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, its heartbreak, and above

all, it's beauty. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to the away end with Daniel Alarcon and John Green on the Iheart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a

recent episode of the podcast, Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, I sit down with Tiffany the budgetista Aliche to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money. What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth, starting with the mindset shifts. Too many of us were never, ever taught.

Financial education is not always about, like, I'm going to get rich. That's great. It's about creating an atmosphere for you to be able to take care of yourself and leave a strong financial legacy for your family. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John O'Brien from the Black Effect Network on the I'd Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

American Soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramers sending on to Ernie Stewart for Chip. I'm Tab Ramos. I'm Tom Boe. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real. storylines.

I'm not worried about Policicic, I'm not worried about Balligan, I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us.

us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogan and Tabramos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. I want to ask about your gear. I know that as a creator who, you know, since the explosion record, like you've been experimenting with like electronic sonics and whatnot, but I do know like a lot of those early synthesizers that were available in the 70s were monophonic, which kind of makes it limiting for you to play chords or anything. Like you've got to play. play one note, but I know like around 7677, when they're making polyphonic synthesizers, which allows you to make chords, are sort of manufacturers, the Yamaha's of the day or the electronic makers of the day, are they courting you? Are you getting endorsements?

Are you sort of in that Stevie Wonderway where, you know, they go to him and Herbie Hancock with all this new gadgetry and like here, like use our stuff. And more specifically in the 70s, early 80s, not now where, of course now, you know, we use that every day. But in the late 70s and 80s, like what was the courting system like with keyboard makers and you? I don't remember exactly when I got endorsement from Yamaha, but I've been affiliated with them for many, many years now.

Specifically the disc laver, the acoustic piano that has MIDI capability that I use all the time. I love it. And I have a montage and motif, whatever. I use a lot of Yamaha gear, and I am affiliated with them. Most of the rest of my gear throughout has been, I pay for it. I go to the music store and buy it, whatever. Oh, okay. You were talking about the polyphonic synthesizers.

I can remember the early stages of that when it was very primitive by today's standards. And Oberheim was the company that I remember that had the polyphonic synthesizer that had separate oscillators for each sound. So the Oberheim 8 voice was the one I used a lot that you could play polyphonically on it. But each note and the chord was going to it through a different oscillator and manipulated. very differently than the way the more recent polyphonic synthesizers are. So that gave it a character. Each oscillator you could kind of tweak it, and there was a thickness about it that they gave that Oberheim eight voice where I made a lot of records using that.

And I remember that they were also funky in a sense that, yes, you could play four, six, eight note chords, but it was, the synthesizer was trying to catch up. If you try to do anything too fancy or too fast, changing, it didn't behave like a, yeah, I don't know. So if you held the notes down, you could do a string pad or something like that, but if you tried to do something really, really technically fast with it, it was clumsy. I was just going to ask, I wanted to make sure we got in questions about foreplay. I used to do my homework to those records in school in high school.

So I specifically just want just the Between the Sheets album and Elixir, like those, like I played those records like, you know, back and forth. I wanted to ask one, how did all you guys come together and specifically if you have any memories of recording, why can't it wait till morning or Phil Collins? what that session was like. That's my shit. Many, many, many great memories from those years. In 1991, I think it was, I was headed out to Los Angeles working on an album of mine. That album ended up being called Grand Piano Canyon. And I had brought Harvey Mason to New York many, many times to play with me

because most of my sessions were being done in New York at that time. But I had also, Lee Rittenauer had used me on a project of his, and we were dealing with wanting to do reciprocal. So if I do something for you, play for you, I want you to play on my album, whatever. Thank you, more favorite. Lee owed me a reciprocal, and since he was L.A. based, I thought it might be more interesting for me to go to L.A. and use both Lee Wittenauer and Harvey Mason on my album. So I planned it and didn't know who to hire on bass. Wasn't that familiar with the LA scene.

So I asked both Lee and Harvey who should I use on base. And separately, both came up at the same answer, Nathan East, who I had not met, never had worked with him before. And I found myself in the studio with those three other guys, Nathan, Harvey, and Lee, and something clicked. And all four of us could just feel it wasn't like a regular recording session. There are combinations of our backgrounds, our things that we had worked on different projects, whatever.

It just felt really special. And on a break, we had a conversation about the idea of how do groups get formed, how did weather report get formed, how did the modern, Judge Cortez-Catget for him. When did they decide, put a name on it and be a group rather than an individual? And one thing led to another. I had an A&R job at Warner Brothers Records, and I was able to go to a meeting there and say, will you give us a budget to experiment and do a project? Never thinking about it becoming a full-time, long thing. It was at that time maybe

just one project was all we were thinking about. But the first song of restoration, my composition on my album was what we remember as being

kind of like the first idea of a foreplay sound. Okay, so speaking of Warners, I always wanted to know this. I'm not asking this because you're categorized in a certain type of jazz, but I always wanted to know. You know, in 1977, when Tommy Lapluna and George Benson create the Brezin record, which was such a breakthrough album in terms of the multiple nominations that it got for Grammys and whatnot, you know, people were pretty much ready to dismiss George Benson. and not dismiss him, but even he said, like, well, I'm at the end of my room. Let me make this last record real quick and then retire.

And then suddenly, Breezen blows up. But did you see the embracing of that album as a victory for the type of jazz that you were doing, the type of instrumental music that you were doing, the fact that that album was somewhat embraced by the. mainstream community and given all those accolades, all those Grammy nominations and whatnot. Yes. I was experiencing it from a distance, having done some collaborating with George when he was at CTI, and I was a little bit familiar with the complicated exit from CTI and when he went over to Warner Brothers and the sort of transition from just being a guitar player to a singer and watched what was in George's mind

and what he really wanted to do. And somewhat later after he went to Warner Brothers, I also got the job of producing one of his records. And at that time, big bosses of Warner Brothers gave me the assignment of wanting him play more guitar. But as I started to work with him, his heart was in singing more. And I could see that it has always been a conflict. And a lot of people, jazz fans just are aware of the genius that comes out of his fingers when he plays guitar that nobody else can do it. But his whole other part of his personality felt that talent that he had as a singer too.

And in the Breazin album, both were happening. Both, of course, masquerade. And every time I hear Breazins that tune, the same thing happens to me. There's no bridge, which was, for us at that time, it's unusual. It's just the same key, and it just keeps repeating. It was eight bar. and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

And it's just simple. You never goes away from it. And some of us who have all these things we think about, stay with the hook. You know, don't go away from the hook. Don't get too cute. Don't get too complicated. Because the fans want to hear that melody.

And the way that record was produced was so clearly on the, on the money in terms of drive home that hook, drive home uniqueness, it just made me want to go back to the drawing boards. I want to try to do that. I want to try to do something similar. But then you realize it's not easy to find that magic. I think a lot of our fan base might not know that Breazin

was written by Bobby Wormack. It's actually a Bobby Womack cover, which I did know. I just recently found the Bobby Wormack original. And, you know, I tend to forget that Bob Womack was actually a good guitar player. So, you know, that was an instrumental in one of his records in 1971. And I'm getting to know Questlove as a musicologist, too. We're just music nerds, man. I should be taking notes.

Because I knew that sort of in my desk. of memory, but I don't think I ever heard Bobby Womack's version. Yeah. No, it's damn near the same song. Just with a harder, well, when we say harder, more like a hip hoppers should jump on it. Like, it's actually amazing. The drums are more cracking on the Womack version. What are you going to ask, Steve? Well, we kind of breezed right over it at the time period that I wanted to talk about

I mean, Bob James had the coolest, one of the most iconic jazz labels of all the time with Tapancy Records. And I'm a little curious about the timetable because you were A&Ring at Columbia. Was that during the CTI years when you were arranging and also playing on CTI records? I kind of had reached the end of my CTI. after my four solo albums, that ended up around 1977. And there were some problems with CTI in the business world, too, and then the lack of payment of royalties, etc., which necessitated me litigating there. I'm beginning to make it sound like a...

Litigious James. Which I hope I wasn't in the long version of that. But there have been times when I've had to protect. And in this case, I've got I did because I ended up with the ownership of my four records, which made it possible for me to make many, many things happen. So I left in 1977, negotiated with Columbia and signed there where Bruce Lundval was the president. And he did give me the opportunity to start a small custom label with the idea. that I could do a continuation of sort of the CTI approach in which I had done enough in this role of a ranger conductor for Greed Taylor that my intention was to not do exactly what Greed Taylor did, but my version of it and tried to develop my own style but influenced by him.

And very early tonight, you mentioned Joe Jorgensen, but many, many memories. I wanted Joe Jorgensen to be my Rudy Van Gelder, because Rudy Van Gelder was a very unique engineer for Cree Taylor, and his style of engineering, the sound of those records, were very different from anything else who was out there. And in my experience of doing studio work in New York, Joe was the guy that I thought had the most interesting ears

that the two of us could collaborate on trying to come up with our own sound. Would Rudy pre-mix this stuff or like would you guys track first, then mix afterwards? That's a very good, funny question, because Rudy was extremely secretive about any of his techniques. And he did not like sharing. He did not like anybody asking him any questions. about it. You knew what my next question was. I was like, share the secrets.

So I got the job of writing these arrangements where we'd have basic tracks, and all Rudy would be willing to give me was this rough of two track from the basic sessions, and I would take that home and listen to that to make my arrangements. And the mix on those roughs that he sent me with the worst, most crude, no-reverb, no ambious, nothing because he didn't want to let anything out of his studio that could even possibly be released. And so that memory of his mixing is so completely different from the way anybody else work. Wait, do you have a dry, rudy, flat mix in your possession? Well, I have many real to me close if I could find a real to real player that would play him. I'm begging you to make

a compilation of just dry, because the thing is, is until, like, Steve really got me into, like, listening to Steve's obsession with CDI, like, and I'm sorry for really carjack in this interview, Steve. Like, Steve is the CTIologist. So the thing is, is that when I started studying Rudy's mixing thing, I never was a fan of compression because I never liked being squeezed. But somehow on your, on your records, on Grover's records, like certain CTI product, there's kind of a, I don't know, I can't, I don't have the proper eloquence to say the right words that describe Rudy's texture and his relationship with reverb and compression. But, like, yeah, that's, that's the secret sauce that I'm dying.

Because I feel like that is the apex of. 70s production that I can't master just yet. Go to his studio. It's still open. Let's go record there. And still unscathed and still. Yeah. It's exactly the same.

I'm in the same boat as you. Even though I spent, it was almost like a full-time job being there every day in that studio for five or six years. And I never learned much about the details of it either because he wouldn't talk about it. He wouldn't share anything. every one of his all of his gear

like his equalizers or compressive anything like that he had he had taped over the manufacturers the names of them so he didn't want

you to know what they were that's hip hop see that's hip hop that's hiding the labels like y'all you don't even know that you all

following a cycle a win is a win a win a win I don't care which I'm saying yep that's me Clipper Taylor the 4 You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health. purpose and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told,

and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.

This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft. and we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects.

From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make to the players flying under the radar, this is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode.

Listen to the Sports Slice podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I'm John Green. You may know me as the author of The Fault and our stars. And now, I guess also as the co-host of The Away End, a brand new world soccer podcast. I'm Daniel Alarcon, a writer and journalist.

And John and I have known each other since we were kids. My first World Cup was Mexico 86. I was nine years old. I watched every game and I fell in love. On our new podcast, The Away End, we'll share with you the magic of international football. all leading up to the 2026 World Cup. For us, soccer, football, is a story we've shared for over 30 years

since Daniel was the star player on our high school soccer team. Very debatable. And I was their most loyal and sometimes only fan. I love this game. I love its history, its hope, its heartbreak, and above all, it's beauty. Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important.

Listen to The Away End with Daniel Alarcon and John Green on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On a recent episode of the podcast, Money and Wealth with John Hobriant, I sit down with Tiffany the budgetista Aliche to talk about what it really takes to take control of your money. What would that look like in our families if everyone was able to pass on wealth to the people when they're no longer here? We break down budgeting, financial discipline, and how to build real wealth starting with. with the mindset shifts, too many of us were never, ever taught. Financial education is not always about, like, I'm going to get rich. That's great. It's about creating an atmosphere for you to be able to take care of yourself

and leave a strong financial legacy for your family. If you've ever felt you didn't get the memo on money, this conversation is for you to hear more. Listen to Money and Wealth with John O'Brien from the Black Effect Network, on the I'd Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up? I'm Miles Turner. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast, Game Recognized Game has never been done before.

Two active players giving you a real look at our lives and what we actually think, on and off the court. Nothing's off limits. We talk trade requests. What's the vibe of that when it's like your star player is like, well, I want to leave? And then actually now I'm going to stay. We talk tanking. I mean, honestly, like, I might get in trouble for this answer, but I think it's, like, definitely happening in the WBA.

And yeah, we talk about our mistakes, too. They pulled me to the side and was like, hey, man, we got a call last night, man, you can't be rolling around the city like this tonight before games, no, you know, doing this, doing whatever. And of course, family stories. And we'll be like, mommy, why did you miss that? Mommy, do you play basketball? Check out game recognized game with Stuie and N. Miles on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So yeah, hey guys, Bob James had one of the most iconic jazz labels of all time called Tap and Z records.

And yeah, I just wanted to, I found it really interesting what artists you chose to have leader albums on Tap and Z. Obviously, you had so many of your own records on that label as well. But I want to just run some names by you that might not necessarily be household names for our listeners or for or for us and if maybe you could just give us just a brief you know blurb about them because i'd be interested wilbert longmeyer yeah yeah i found out about wilbert through george benson actually he and george benson were friends and george had heard him and yeah he sang and and played guitar and to get a recommendation of george benson is about as good as you could hope for so that's the main reason why i signed wilbur and it was at a time when i was

very much in the heat of wanting to be a good follow-up to the c t i sound but my own version of it wow and that's that that was the end result of it okay um joan brackeen very very original pianist amazing. She could not be produced in any kind of a way like some of the other artisan artists that I had a chance to work with. She was completely her own person. So my role with her in some ways was to try to be like what I would want a producer to be with me if I just had complete authority to do whatever I wanted to do. And I knew that that it would be a kind of simple production because she just wanted to play jazz

with a great rhythm section. And make sure we have the best engineer for her, get the right sounds for her, and let her do her own thing. That was pretty much my goal with Joanne. There was an artist named Mark Colby that did a couple of records on Tappan Z. Yeah, he toured with me a lot,

played my band, and I've always loved power in his playing, and I could treat him similarly to the way I tried to treat Grover Washington, for example, another sex-form player for that label. Very fond memories of those records. And Richard T., the piano player, did a leader album or two on Tavern Z as well. Yeah, well, Richard, being a member. of that stuff rhythm section that had Eric Gale on guitar and Gordon Edwards bass and Ralph McDonald percussion. They were a kind of quintessential top top of the line R&B based rhythm

section and Richard T's unique kind of heavily church influenced combination organ and sometimes Fender Rhodes. I just loved everything about him. I was trying to emulate some of his feel because I was alongside him on many sessions where some of Quincy Jones dates and a lot of New York studio dates, Richard would be on organ and I would be on piano or sometimes trade off or whatever. So getting to know him that way and realizing what a uniquely great artist he was, of course he was an obvious one for me to try to sign. And Steve Kahn, the guitar player, I think that was the first Tappancy record? Might have been.

Steve was very determined that he wanted the Columbia identity on his album also. So he found me a logo on it. But you wanted the red label, not the blue. Kind of like that. You didn't have enough prestige that he needed the big name on there too. He and I were friends. So being a small and smaller budgets, I was somewhat limited to sign the people that were within my sphere, that I either knew or that I knew that they were available.

Just a couple more. Mongo Santa Maria. Well, yes, and he came through the bigger label as well. A particular kind of sound, the Latin American sound that I wasn't doing with anybody else, made it possible for us to make some pretty cool records with him. And where did you come across Alan Harris? Came to me through Columbia, through just the most unusual Tapancy project. guess.

The one that I had the least influence over, I don't remember doing anything musically on it other than making it possible for him to do his thing and trying to treat him the way I would have wanted to be treated as a producer, make it possible for him to create his music. Okay. The last one, and the one I wanted to know the most about it, seemed to be kind of your partner at the label, which was Jay Chatterway. Can you tell us a little bit about him?

I think I had maybe originally found out about him through Maynard Ferguson because he had done a lot of arranging from Maynard, and I was in need of somebody that had the same kind of arranging background as me because I was not able to keep up with the request that I was getting to do arrangements. So I started working with him in that way. I got to know him a little bit. And we hit it off. And I knew he had a similar approach to sound production.

And, yeah, we had some really very good years and have remained friends. I just, he's a big sailor fan. He and his wife live on a boat a lot of times of the year. And they take their boat to various places and just take up residence. For a long time, he moved after he, after Tapazee stopped, he moved to Elwood. and I had a very successful career as a movie composer, and he was very involved in the Star Trek series. Very, very talented guy.

Let me just wrap up the Tap and Z thing, Amir. You did such an incredible job with that label. Really, the best thing that a label can do, which is create this whole world unto itself with all the beautiful continuity with the album covers, a beautiful gatefold album covers, and really you really knocked it out of the park with the with tap and z it was i mean you're welcome for all the rabbit holes uh folks out there with all those names but all those tap and z records are

great just a little short end maybe not the alan harris record well i wasn't going to say that you said it now short thing since you mentioned joe jarginson i more and more think that there just aren't really any total coincidences in life, that some things just happen for a reason. Recently, I was contacted by Joe's son, Michael Jorgensen, who's interested in doing a biography on me, and he works with a video production company, and I've been starting up a project in which he's going to do a biographical thing. he's a member of the group Wilco. Yeah, yeah. That's what he grew up.

But when he grew up, he was, I don't know, 10 or 12 years old, his father, Joe, would invite him into the studio where we were making all those records during that period of time. And he formed his taste and everything else based upon listening to all those records. And so many, many years later, after he's gone into business as a keyboard player and has a lot of success with Wilco. Now we're meeting again, and it gives me a chance to pay my respects

and have such fond memories of all those great records that Joe did with. Yeah, you hear that. Amar, stay on good terms with your engineer. It could pay off. Yes, whatever, Steve. Very important. But your very first production was on another Creed

Taylor label called Salvation with Gabor Zabo, the Hungarian guitar player. What was that like your first production? and what was Gabor Zabu like? Yeah. The unique aspect of that for me was it was the only time that I was able to actually produce and do something without Cree Taylor being there. It was his label, but he gave me the flexibility to just do that project on my own.

And I went out to LA and did it. And he was, Gabor was definitely a gypsy and he had his own style of a little. approach, which I tried to keep that gypsy aspect, but to try to bring some of my own style into it. I wish I could have done more with him because he's kind of like an ideal artist for an arranger to produce because I want to have the tapestry surrounding him, but I want him to be able to stay within his own style. And that's what I was trying to do. Well, Gary McFarland worked a lot with him in that regard. Yes, definitely.

I love Gary McFarland's work. In fact, I was very influenced, but I used to study his records to try to figure out how he made his choices. Yeah. The sign of the Times record. Now, I get the feeling I'm about to answer my own question, say Quincy Jones, but I'll ask you, how did you get involved with Rod Timberton working on that album? Quincy introduced me to Rod and he was in the studio on a couple of the records that I was involved with with Quincy and I was a big fan admirer and Quincy put us together because he thought that we might hit it off and even though Rod specifically with his talent was not a classical music. I didn't think that much of an influence.

But as I was working with him, he just had a whole cinematic, classical way of talking to me. And we hit it off. And I was trying to learn from him. I don't think Thriller had to have. I can't remember where he was. He just finished out the wall and thrillers about to come the next year.

Yeah, so big. In other words, kind of out of my league, and I was kind of shocked that he was even willing to spend some time with me. But at least I had a chance to work in studio with him. He had his own complete language of how he talked and how he put together his vocals. And they were totally different from anything that I was aware of. So it was very much a learning process. and the difference, I guess the main difference in the success there was that when he worked with me, he had Bob James and when he worked with Michael Jackson, he had Michael Jackson.

So that kind of says it all. That makes the difference in the success level. I guess you co-scored one of my all-time favorite films. and I didn't realize it until maybe a year and a half ago during the pandemic that you created the King of Comedy score. So can you talk about working with Scorsese and... Well, you're crazy. Where do you get all these details?

How do you know more information than I did? The pandemic happens and trust me, the pandemic happens, you read all the fine print to keep yourself busy. Gosh, I mean, I should have done a lot of homework before I did this with you, Questlo. You know so much. And I got to say, my memories of working on that were so vague in my mind now. I'm not sure that I even remember how to talk about it very much. You just threw it together and just gave it to them?

Well, no, I mean, I know that I was treating it very seriously at the time. time, but I haven't listened back to it. It's been 25 years ago or at least. 40. And when you reach my age, you know how hard it is to keep retaining a lot of those memories. I don't have much of a memory other than the way you described it as a weird film, made it a weird assignment for me to make music for it. That's kind of about all I'd be able to say.

at this point. But I'll do another Zoom. I'll do some homework and listen to it again. And maybe I'll have something more intelligent to say. No, I watch it like maybe five times a year. So for me, like I like when dark films have light music scores because it makes it even darker. So it contributes to the power, I think. Rather than everything be dark, it's too obvious.

Right. You're right. This is sort of on the same level. but um so i used to work in a record store back in high school and this is right when you and david samborn started your collaboration process i think this was maybe this is the double vision album but i just got to know this you guys fade you guys fade algero's voice right when he's about to start scatting like a madman on since I fell for you. And every time I hear it, like I'm now a collector of pro tools and what, you know, like I like hearing the original

versions in its dry state and see what happens after the fade. But how long, do you have any memory of how long that song goes on after the fade? Because right when the fade goes down, That's when Algerald just starts scatting out of his mind and I always wanted to know what happens after that fade. Well, I can say that I was probably not there in the mix and the choice. I don't remember being there. I didn't produce it. I mean, it was my albums, my name on it.

Right. But that fade usually I would have been very involved and very specifically with the last thing that you want people to hear and you want it to be hot. You want it to be. And I think the fade works just in the way you described it because it left you wanting more and it left it when it said it's most hot.

What I would say about that record to you is that I'm very proud of the pre-production arranging and scoring that I did. which is would have been a conventional string orchestra and brass and whatever but I chose to do it with my home studio equipment and it's it's all the strings all the horns everything else are me synthesizers and I and many people give me credit that when they hear it it sounds like a full large orchestra of production but I I had an Otari 8-track, and this was in the era when you had the multi-track studer or whatever in the studio, and then you had to bounce down in order to do the overdub. So I took Bill Schnee, I guess it was, made a pre-mixed bouncing down, and all of the basic tracks were on.

He gave me four tracks or something like that to work with. And I created the woodwinds, the French horns and strings and all that were. synthesized and the part that I love the most was in that exact section you're talking about where he he goes something like that and I scored it for the horns going in the French horns echo that line and because I had the rough mix that I with it from from that had his vocal already on it when I was working on my scoring I was able to actually write the orchestration after the fact to make it sound like Al was responding to the orchestra.

Right, okay. But those French horns were not there when he sang it. So I added the French horns before, so it would make it sound like he was ad-libbing to my orchestration. And if I do... Sort of like Steve Gad drumming. See, now I realize the... Same exact approach, yeah.

The power of post-production. Now, that's the lesson I learned today. No, that was at the time when I was working, at that record store, I think Moonlighting Bruce Willis and Sybil Shepard's show, very popular show on ABC, had just started using that song.

So suddenly a whole, that was back of the day when like a show like that could feature a song and then suddenly everybody's coming in and requesting it. And yeah, when that came out, just the whole world just started asking for since I, you know, fell for you that covers.

So always want to do that. Can I turn the tables and ask you one question? Yeah, absolutely. Since I have the opportunity. Yeah. This is hypothetical only. So since you nor I are kind of session players these days, but if we were in New York session players.

Yes, let's do it. And there's a trio date that we were called upon to do. and you had me at a low looking for a bass player who would you recommend

to do a trio date with with you on piano and me on drums I mean the opposite or we could do that we I would actually

let's see who Derek Hodge I would say either Hage or I would actually go with Pino

Pino of course yeah I would go with Pino Derek Hage we can go with Christian McBride but Pino's you know I like the idea Pino I've worked with Pino a little bit

many years ago and Christian McBride I did an album with so that could be that but the Pino is more on you and since you've worked with them let's go with that are you committed to a label right now tap and Z I'm we'll do it all that

Z I got to say I'm sorry this is the I have to cut in here because I have my own jazz label here as well. Thanks partially to my love for Tap and Z. And we can go co-on-that if you're interested.

But I was only joking about Tapazzi. It's kind of dormant. Let's bring it back, man. Let's bring it back. J.M. I was going to see. I'm signed the JMI for all my jazz stuff, so I got to ask my label president right here. I think we're good for we're good for a Bob James Pino Quest out.

Yes, we'll sign on for that. We are absolutely going to do that. And I'm not doing that like fake. You heard it here first, people. No, we're making it. I'm telling you, I got so much envy when I saw that clip at Blumenote. And, you know, I was working all week. So, but, no, you're a favorite of mine.

And, you know, I thank you for letting us nerd out on you for two hours. Yes, we will make this happen. Yay, yay. Okay, I hope that was recorded. Yes, it's absolutely recorded. You can sue me if I renege on this audio contract. Let's do it soon because of the age factor. So we don't know.

Yes, I don't know if I have much time left. So yes, I will do it. You will be here forever. Trust me. Steve, I'll leave you with the last question. Then I'm sign out. Yeah, last question. Whose idea was it to name the first four Bob James albums,

one, two, three, four? because we're modeling Ray Angry's catalog after that on our label. But was that preconceived or did you just do that as it went along? Definitely Cree Taylor's idea and the way he explained it to me at that time because we were very aware of Chicago, the group Chicago had done. Oh, wow. Okay. I'm talking about it a lot. And the way I remember Creed thinking about it strategically was that, and this was nice that he was thinking that I might have longevity.

but if you name it that way, you get to your album five and the people are fans, they know that they got four that they have to collect. So the more records you make, and I did have it happen to me that after I got up to 10 or whatever, that the avid fans know what they have to look for, that, ooh, I don't have eight or I don't have, and I heard him talking about that,

but that was what was in his mind. Oh my gosh. Thank you. Thank you for your time. There you have it. Do we have time for me to tell you one more little thing? Because you and I encountered each other when I came in the middle of your back and forth thing that you had going with Bismarkeek about the bells. Damn, I forgot about the bells. Now that he's no longer with us, can you just release a copy of Peter Piper without the bells? Well, here's what I wanted to tell you.

I did a little round table at the blue node with some. hip-up guys and we had a surprise for them because my engineer David, we had gone out to Iron Mountain to check out my master recordings, the multi-tracks. And so I got the multi-tracks from those sessions for that album, Take Me to the Mardi Gras. And we have an outtake of a different take of Take Me to the Mardi Gras that David made a rough mix and played it for these guys at the round table that nobody had heard before. And it's got the bells on there, but I have the multi-tracks, and I could do whatever I want. When I went to Iron Mountain to check them out to make sure that the multi-tracks were still

in good shape, I was able to sit at the console and push a solo button and hear boom-blum-blum-b-bum-bub. Wow. And it's a different, a little bit different groove. and played the melody differently, different keyboard solo in the middle, and of course it doesn't have any of the other production, any of the strings, all that other stuff because it was out.

I do have a question. Just a bonus question. You have a tendency to use a lot of sound effects on your, what's the purpose of that? Because even with, take me to the Montegra, and even with Alley of the Shadows, like,

what was the purpose in using those, like, sound effect records on top of the music. Cinematic. I don't know that we were even that specific about it, but the atmosphere, with taking to Montegro, we were trying to create the party, New Orleans, kind of an atmosphere. So that was, that one was pretty clear. With animal sounds? No, I don't know.

It's like a bunch of sheep in the background or something, but I. It sounds like they were just having fun, is what it sounds like. lot on tap and z they use a lot of sound effects on tap and z and it's just you know you can tell they're just having a blast yeah we're gonna have new sound effects that we'll be able to do let's make it happen we're all analog though so bring your analog thoughts yes we'll do this so on behalf of uh sugar steve liea fontigolo and unpaid bill this is questlove talking to the great immortal bob james my future collaborator. And we're going to do this project and up your Grammy count.

I'm calling it right now. This is Quest Love Supreme. Dude, this is Nerd's Paradise right now. And I'm happy. And I'll see you guys on the next go round. Quest Love Supreme. See you all. Quest Love Supreme is a production of Iheart Radio. For more podcasts from IHart Radio, visit the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

A win is a win. win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

This is a place for raw, unfills of conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Cliford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, Follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This week on the Sports Slice podcast, it's all about the NFL draft.

And we've got a special guest. The director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, Eric Galco, joins the Sports Slice podcast to break down what really matters when evaluating draft prospects. From hidden traits teams look for to the biggest mistakes franchises make, to the players flying under the radar. This is the insight you won't hear anywhere else. If you want to understand the draft like an insider, you don't want to miss this episode.

Listen to the Sports Slice Podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, for wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slice of Life 12 and TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. I'm Daniel Alarcon, and this is my friend is much more famous than I am.

I wouldn't go that far. But I'm John Green, co-hosted the podcast The Away End with my old friend Daniel on our podcast The Away End. We'll share with you the magic of international football, all leading up to the 2026 World Cup.

Together, we'll find out why, of all the unimportant things, football, soccer, is the most important. Listen to the away end with Daniel Auerkone and John Green on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Ceno Show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon, Danny Trail to talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. the entire season two is now available to bench, featuring powerful conversation with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcoholic.

Without this group, I'm going to die. Listen to the Encino show on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of IHard Media, and I'm kicking off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes

of the biggest businesses and industries while sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this seasonal math and magic, CEO of Liquid Death Mike Sessario. People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb moments that happen when you're in the shower. It's really like a stone sculpture. You're constantly just chipping away and refining.

Take-2 interactive CEO, Strauss Selnick, and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffey. Listen to Math and Magic on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.