You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Getting To Know Cbabi Bayoc

Episode Date: November 14, 2022

In this episode, Peter and Adam talk with renown artist Cbabi Bayoc. Cbabi has worked with the likes of Prince and many others. Join them as they talk about art, self-discipline, and what it takes to make a living as a creative. Check out his work on "The Rainbow Children" here.Check out Cbabi's "365 Days With Dad" with this link.Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

What's up, everybody? Today, I'm so excited. We have a very special guest on the podcast, Mr. Kababi Bayak. Kababi is an amazing artist, a father, a husband, an entrepreneur, a muralist, and our neighbor right here across the street from Open Studio. His amazing studio is right there. So he's an inspiration visually for the neighborhood. He's the soul of the fine arts, the visual artistic community of St. Louis. And I think you're really going to enjoy our conversation. We talk about. improvising as an artist visually and in music we talk about his dedication his artistic fortitude coming out of his project 365 days with dad where he created an original piece of art every day for 365 days and so I think you're gonna get a lot out of this a lot of tips on how you can further advance your commitment to the artistic vision that you're looking for so let's get right into our conversation with Kababi Bayak what's going on

Kababhi, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. It's really a pleasure and an honor to have a great artist in the house and also in the neighborhood. One of the joys of us being here in the Grand Center neighborhood is getting to interface with other artists to draw on the inspiration. I walk by and see you doing your thing and just having your energy in the neighborhood is really an amazing thing. and I know that over the years you've had a lot of cross-pollinization with music. You're a visual artist, a painter, a muralist, and many other things, but you've collaborated with different musicians.

I don't want to drop any names, but Prince comes to mind, and we'll probably talk about that. But I'd love to hear your take, you know, kind of being fresh in the neighborhood, but being really a, you know, kind of like the soul of the artistic community, the visual artistic, the fine arts community of St. Louis at this point for your long association here. Your art is all over the city. It's in our schools. It's in our neighborhood. It's in your studio. It's in people's homes. It's on our building here. It's on our building. Yeah, exactly. We part. And just like, how does that feel at this point, mid-career, as we all are? Yeah, I like the mid-career part. The sole part was heavy. But yeah, I mean, it's been 27 years. 27 years, yeah, since I've been back here doing this.

And I just feel like getting in the flow of it now. It's really cool to be over here. I remember when Chris asked me or let me know that they would have a space and ask if I'd be interested. Just the thought of being over here by the Fox. And I found out y'all were over here and, you know, the Jazz Center right up the street. Yeah, I don't think I fully engulfed myself in an area. neighborhood yet. And more and more artists have shown up out of the people that are over on

Locust. So the idea of eventually this all tying together and what they could become, I mean, the sky's the limit. So I look forward to seeing just how this all develops. Yeah, yeah. It's amazing, man. You're so prolific. I'm wondering, where does that, where did that come from? Like, did you start out just like making a bunch of stuff always? Or is this so lowly snowballed into just like you have this ability? ability to make more and more and more. We talk about it with music all the time that you kind of get good at making stuff and you can kind of make better stuff and more stuff and better stuff.

It's a gift and a curse. Yeah. Because I literally had to stop myself painting. I like painted up to the minute I thought I could to come over here because I get inspired and I just want to go back in the studio. No matter if I owe anybody anything or whatever, get a new idea, I want to try it. Yeah, I just run on the tangent and then a wife who manages me has to pull me back. like we got 10 million things over here that need to be done.

And I just fly off passion. And yeah, it's just come from like, you know, practicing. I look at it all as practicing. So the more I do it, the more I can do things. And when a mural something shows up, I can get in, knock it out without compromising quality. And then I can go back to studio and just keep working. So it's all come from just, I just have a passion for creating, you know, seeing the finished product. Yeah.

So, you know, one of the things that you're known for, I mean, you're a lot of things, you're an entrepreneur, you're an artist, you're a teacher, but I think a lot of folks know about you from your 365 days with Dad project, which was like, that was like 10 years ago now? 2012, yeah. I mean, it feels like it was yesterday. I mean, it really does. But I think you came to a lot of folks' attention, certainly in St. Louis, but beyond with that project and your use of social. media in showing it. But what I'm really interested about in that is the impetus that you had, as you said, you know, you're a creator. But how did you make the decision to say, okay, I'm going to create something every day? Like it's one thing to feel like you have something creative in you,

but to make that commitment to like, I'm going to actually produce something into the world. Like, where did that come? Well, I wonder if we can give people a brief backstory of what that is, if you want to tell them what that project was. We can link to it as well. Yeah, so 365 days of dad. Yeah, I literally just thought how can I make money every day. It was that simple. Like, my art wasn't really generating income like I wanted to, so I was like, how can I use Facebook to just put something up every day

and have people buy it? And how could I make that where, I mean, like it would literally happen. And, of course, before coming up with 365 days of dad, and it would have been so much easier to do, have music as a theme. I mean, I could have just done that forever, like just musical images. But I think if I did that,

it wouldn't have set me up for the career to follow. But I literally had the thought I didn't think all the pros and cons out. I was just like, this is a good idea. I have a size, I have a price. This is jump in. And, yeah, it was extremely hard. So much good art.

made by not weighing out the pros of cons. I tell you what. But it was the best education I ever gave myself because I had to do it. Because people pre-bought dates in advance like almost immediately. Like within days, weeks, as it started getting attention,

people wanted to pre-bay for days. So people would prepay for a day, and then you would... They prepaid for a specific date. Yeah. Yeah. And then what happens? Then it would send me a photo.

And I would just have it logged in ready. So when I would just have it logged in ready, so when I got to the day, that's the one I would work on. And that's your day. So, yeah, which is great, you know, but I think two months in, even if I got two months in, I started getting a day behind. Yeah. And then a day turned and the seven.

Yeah. Next thing, you know, I was a month, two months, three months behind. Right. And it wound up, yeah, I wound up taking, I got 787 tattoo on my leg. Like, that's how many days it took. And so you get, like, really early on, somebody bought the last one. So I'm like, and she was really cool because I was like, I have no idea when I'm going to get to that. You know, but I kept doing it.

Oh, so she bought like, 365. Yeah, she was like, I want that's smart. That's a smart collector. I mean, yeah, so it was just like, and she didn't give me a photo. It was just whatever I wanted to do. But you said that that, like, set you up for what your career has become. I'm wondering if just like, because we talk about this, if you want to get good at something, just do it every day, right?

Just like commit for doing it every day. I mean, this is how this podcast got started. We're about to hit number 1,000 in almost four years that we've been doing this. Yeah. And it's because Peter walked into the studio. one day and he's like, we're starting a daily podcast. We're going to do a podcast every day. We're going to good at it and we're just going to keep going at it.

And that's what has happened. That might have been a little bit of the back of my head from 365 days. I think it was inspiration. I mean, there was other like, but you know, a lot of folks will be like, well, I'm going to do something for 30 days. Or, you know, like people will say, I'm going to do something for the whole week, but they only do Monday through Friday. Right.

You know what I mean? I'm like, you're going to do business days. Art just work on business days, you know. But I also think, too, super smart. and this can really apply to our musicians. It's mostly musicians who are listening to this and watching this. But like, you know, the idea of, okay, I mean, every musician understands, I got to get, I got to make money with this somehow.

Finding a way, where is my audience at? Where are the people? And how can I get my art to them so that they're going to pay for it? Like that's the smart idea behind that project. It's so good. So you should all steal that. But yeah, I mean, literally like, that's kind of how it is. as far as setting up.

So yeah, now I can do faces easily. My style, I didn't know whatever it was going to be is ingrained in me now because I was painting so fast. Yeah. And, you know, like anything, like me as an artist, like I look back at the project and just technically, I can't stand half of them. Yeah.

But for what it represented, it was great. But, you know, just me and how I know I can paint. I looked at someone, I'm like, oh my God, like. But it's just doing it every day. Like, yeah, it just brought so much to me. Like, and it just set me up. People looked at me differently. Yeah.

And so now people are calling me for different things. And now you're, you know, activist. Now you're thinking about serious projects. Can you come speak? And it led to 10 years later in murals and Good Night Racism book. Like these things, people are literally saying, we want you to do what we saw in 365 days a day. Like 10 years later, like, and it's just like.

Yeah. And now, in my mind, I've created really moved on. because now I'm trying to do more abstract and this, and the other, but folks are like, nope, really back. So there's this challenge of, yeah, so there's this challenge of what I want to do creatively versus, you know, back to what I got to do to make some ends, make money, take care of family.

And you know, you said, you look back on some of those and you can't really look at them. But that's part of the growth process for a lot of people, you know, how do you write a good song? You write a hundred terrible songs. And that's how you write a good song. Yeah, so I went about 300 of them. Exactly.

Exactly. That was some quality. I was following every day. And I was like, I remember I kind of told Kelly, I was like, you know, I mean, I'm a dad. I'm not the great. But you do. And she's like, I already talked to Kabobbi. He's really behind and he's got a bunch of people.

But he said maybe if he has time. So I didn't, you know, although later on, full disclosure, I have an amazing. One of the most things I cherish most in my home is the pain that you did of my family. I'm not going to say I cherish it more than the actual family, but it's like right there. Especially since the kids are gone now, I mean, the impact that's had, you know, when you have the intersection of family and fine art, it's a very rare thing that people have that kind of a privilege.

And so every day when I see that in my living room, it's like, it's a blessing for sure. So thank you for that. Absolutely. Yeah. But I was thinking about, you know, there's another angle, two angles I wanted to talk to you about your kind of reaction to,

and I know you moved on from three to 65 days, but something that you mentioned, and how it ended up taking. But to go right back to me. Well, yeah, no, because this is such a great lesson for all of us in the arts. And I always think about, like, painters. My grandmother was a painter.

Like, it was a big influence of my family. It was an abstract artist, you know, at a time when, like, women weren't even really supposed to be doing that. Right. You know, in North Carolina, the whole thing. But so it's always been close to my heart. But also, I feel like musicians and jazz music in particular in improvisation,

there's such an intersection for so many years and so much cross-pollinization and inspiration, you know, even more, sometimes I think the dance of different things, but it's all kind of related. But you mentioned how you tattooed the actual number of days it took you to do the 365. And I think that's such a wonderful example of artistic fortitude. It's like you didn't say, well, you know, I miss these, so I'm just going to move on or whatever. You finished the thing.

And you also didn't get frustrated to the point of not finishing by saying, well, I didn't make it when I said it was the 365. You saw that through. and I think as artists a lot of times, especially musicians coming up playing the piano where it's like you get into it and you're excited but then you realize how hard it is and say you're going to write a song every day. There's 12 keys I guess. It's very easy

to be like, oh, I fell off of my goals or whatever. But I wonder if you could just speak in general in your career because you also said that like that set you up for your style. I think a lot of your fans, myself included, saw you as a fully formed brilliant artist already at that time, but you maybe saw yourself differently. You know, because I just daily don't even think about that.

Like I just get up and draw and paint. Like I don't see what other people see, and I am to this day. Like it's very weird. And people know you when you're walking around, or they own something of yours, or they've been following you since they were in high school. That kind of stuff is strange, like,

because I daily only think about right now. I wake up and I think about this day. I think about the real stuff. Like, I don't know when anybody's gonna email. I don't have a set salary. Like, my brain is there. It's not on all the other stuff. But going back to the project, like,

And again, like you're telling your students, like even though I can't look at it creatively, if I think about how much I literally charged people and for what they got, you know, they were like even painted sketches. Like there's something good in all of them, even if I don't like the whole finished product, I definitely got something out of each piece.

But I still legitimately can still at this point start stuff and lose interest and just don't finish. Like I have a lot of those. There was something different about that. Like I think that was just out of my control, like it was just something that, I had I think the blessing was that she bought the last one so everybody in the middle Like there wasn't even an option not to do it because

I had commitments. Yeah, and I was literally getting emails from people some people were pissed off that I was behind Some people said I was ruining birthdays and no literally their wives were like right what the hell and I was like That's like just tell you tell your spouse that they're a part of the project and I got behind and right almost every time they would do that and they're like oh yeah, he's cool like I And I was like, of course he is. Like, it's always the gift giver who's harassing you. Right. The person receiving the gift is like, oh, I'm willing to wait. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, this isn't Amazon with guaranteed delivery? Right. But no, I just, yeah, those things help. Yeah, practicing every day is just crucial. But every day is not great. Even now, some days, art just doesn't work out. But I woke up at three in the morning last night and started drawing. And what things I couldn't work out were like, boom, they just happened.

Like, I mean, the failures in, The good days and bad days just come with it, right? Absolutely. Because y'all know the keys, but sometimes they don't know us. They don't know. We don't hit them all. We don't hit them all the time. It's just saying, you just don't know.

You just keep failing upwards, right? That's what they say. Just keep failing, keep failing. And then the ratio gets a little bit better, never gets 100%. Just keep coming back at it. Like you said, the important thing is the everyday thing, man. It's just like, you want to get good? Keep coming back every day.

Absolutely. And we're usually hard on ourselves about the things that we 100%. Because other people can't see the oopses. Right. You know, and we learned just as professionals, because in school, number one question, every child, no matter to age, you know, what do you do when you mess up? Right.

And they just tell them, you know, I'm messing up in front of you right now. You don't even know it because I'm not reacting. Yeah. Like, you just learn how to pivot faster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like, the hiccups come. But the more you practice, when something happens, she's like, oh, I've seen that before. We had a recognition.

And we talk about it. Before we came on air, you were talking about that Chris, McBride session that we've done here for Open Studio, one of the most defining moments for me watching that session was he did this two-minute thing where he's walking a blues and he's talking about what he's doing and talking about bass technique. And towards the end, and he's walking to B-flat Blues. Chris McBride, he's done this probably every day since he was, you know, 11. And he's just walking a B-flat blues and he hits a wrong note. And he just goes, whoops, and he keeps going. And so at the session, I was like, oh, we're going to probably do that one again, right?

And I remember you were like, are you good? And he's like, I'm cool, man. let's keep going. Yeah. And he was just like, that little whoops stays with me to this day of like, this is the best bass player in the world playing the easiest thing that he could play. He made a little thing. He said, whoops, he smiled. He moved on.

Like, I think the thing is, is like, you want the artist to, like, if you feel safe with their art, if they, if they're projecting that, that, hey, everything's going to be fine. Yeah. Because we watch y'all on stage, we don't know why y'all are smiling each other. Y'all could be smiling because, like, I saw what you just did. Yeah. Exactly. To us, it's just like, they're having a great time with that.

Like, we don't even catch it. Yeah. Yeah. But keeping it moving goes a long way towards audiences of all art, you know. I think it's part of our job, you know. Yeah. Okay, so there was a couple things sort of related to music. Well, first of all, let's get the Prince thing.

So Rainbow Children, you did the album cover art for Prince's album. And I always thought, I mean, it's a brilliant cover. We have a link to it below it. And folks have probably, a lot of folks have seen it and didn't realize it was you or what the connection was. but I think it's such an interesting record because I mean I've been a Prince fan for so long I especially like some of his lesser-known work like that

and that's kind of I mean he's always had a lot of jazz influence on it you know for kind of insider baseball stuff that we hear but to me that's always been the record that has the most obvious like jazz influences where he was really putting them out there I wonder was that anything that they communicated or he did to you or anything or do you have any kind of insider insight on that? See, I already painted the painting. He just bought it.

Okay. You know, so I didn't, luckily, I didn't do anything for him. Okay. So he bought the painting, and then they contacted it saying he wanted to use it for the album cover coming up. Okay. And it just happened to be, you know, yeah, looking back now, like, yeah, that's a perfect cover. Right, right. So he must have seen that or somebody that he had, right?

Yeah. I'm going to say every piece that he bought, because he had eight pieces, and I think almost every single one of them had a music theme to him. Besides, I mean, he had a character character of himself, but I really never really thought about it, but yeah, they were all music-related

pieces. But that one just worked out best. But no, never, no. I didn't talk to him until later on and just one brief conversation, but before that, it was just a matter of just purchasing and then wanted to use it, bought rights. That's a gist of our conversation. our relationship.

Wow. And do you know, did your work stay with his family? Yeah, the original is still on, like, when people tour the Paisley Park. Okay. It's the last room because he has his famous white piano right there. Yeah. And then the painting is right behind the piano. So when you come out, and I went on the tour like five times before COVID happened.

Yeah, just to come around the corner and boom. And it was named after my ex-wife. So her name is like Rain, Keese, Quintet is like right on the piano. So to see her name in Minnesota on that painting is like the bonkers. She's never seen that person, but yeah, I went a few times with another friend and it was just, it's crazy. You did the tour where you tell everybody, you all check that out. If you have any questions. At the time I got there, they knew who I was.

But before that, people on the tour would know of me and tell the tour guy because they just wouldn't even mention. They mentioned that that was the cover. But folks would be like, I'm from St. Louis. Blah, blah, blah. So eventually they started like literally asking. So whenever I was on before we got to the room, they would ask me like, are you cool talking to people? And like anything, they always think there's going to be a bunch of questions, but you get up there, you know, kind of like a dork. And folks are like, do you have questions?

And everybody's like, no. And then you're all uncomfortable like, yeah, you don't, I mean, I'm here. Like, I know the cover is cool. Like, move on. Right. Oh, that's great. So another thing I want to ask you about is. is your concept and on improvisation as an artist.

I know one time we got a chance where you did a painting of me. What a horrible subject. Sorry, that was a low point for your career that you had to cover me. But at a live performance at the Sheldon right around the corner where I was playing solo piano and you were painting during the concert, we did it together. And for me, it was such an inspiring thing. Because you were in my kind of line of sight, but of course I couldn't see what you were painting. I was painting, yeah.

Yeah, you know, I mean, I could see, like, you know, it was like the back of the canvas. But have you done much of that? And is there like a concept that you have in terms of, like, you have a time limit where you can't put it to the side where it sort of needs to be done at a certain point?

And how do you approach that differently as an artist? That's kind of how what led to me doing 365 days a day because I knew I could paint live. You know, because I've been doing wall ball or painting an event. And I was like, OK, I can do this three, four hours. I've done it.

So I can't do it every day. So that kind of led to my thinking that this wasn't going to be any big deal. I definitely improv a lot more now. And again, it just comes with constant practice. But often, I'll go in with an idea at an event. Because I think Javier Mendoza, I did something for him. Also, I painted a live piece while he was performing

at the Zach. Or when they were using it more as a concert room. right there over around the corner. And I've done it a few other places, but there have been times, yeah, I'd go in thinking I wanted to do one thing, and then when I get there, I'm totally uninterested in that design. But now there's a pressure like, okay, I feel like I'm performing, so. Yeah, yeah. Again, nobody knows what the finished product is going to look like.

Well, the one you did for Keon. That was sick. Was that live? Yeah, and I did that in one day. I mean, see, it's just like, I had no idea what the end product was going to look like, but you just go in there and you just start. Yeah. Again, that muscle memory, like, I know colors that work together, no the shade, dark to light.

Like, from working fast, I just know what to do. I mean, like, having worked so much, like, in your studio by yourself, how did you like having an audience kind of for you? Is that, are you aware of that? I am aware, yeah, and I constantly act like I don't know anybody's there. Even if they're talking about me, I just don't even turn around and acknowledge it. But I love the idea of playing live and performing in front of people. Right. My first gig was Six Flags, a caricature artist.

Oh, wow. It was a horrible experience, but I think having done it and doing it in front of people made it easier for now that I'm doing what I do. Even when it's not going well, maybe that's the memory going back to like they, folks are going to criticize. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what you're doing. You don't know what you're doing.

So just keep on going and just fake it until you make it, you know. Right. So it's just kind of. So like when you're doing the murals or, around St. Louis and beyond, are there, I'm sure people are kind of come up and say, what are you doing here? What is that? Or can I, like, you know, not a lot. In schools. In schools, right. But I purposely do it in school during the day. And you want that interaction. I do, because I want them to see it happening. Yeah. And that's funny. I, see, just as quick,

I forgot because I just did it. Canaan was a town a couple weeks ago for the annual. Yeah. Yeah. So I painted live. Well, I did start that one early. Okay. Because I was only going to be there for a couple hours. So that one, I, but still, even then. I didn't really love it when I got there. And it's just like, it's so crowded. Everybody's right on top of you. You're telling you how great it looks. And inside, I'm like, this is horrible.

And then were you completed by the end of the performance? I mean, was it finished? Yeah, I don't think I worked on it anymore. Because somebody had bid on it. I think you got a great deal. So I was like, I'm going to touch you. Right, right. But I like the finished product.

I legitimately liked it. What about when you were doing the, I mean, so much great work of yours around the city. I mean, like, you really, what I was saying, you're like the soul of the city artistically because your imprint, your vision, like your visuals from your mind are around the city when we move around it. It's a really deep thing physically, you know, to be around you, even when you're not there. But the Greyhound Bus Station, that is, like, I think, one of my favorites, just because of the scale of it, the location.

I always thought that was a cool building, and I have some memories as a child, too, going there. Me too. First of all, I was shocked that it was still there. I was like, I can't believe that. Well, that ain't the same, man. Yeah. There's some different stuff happening on the inside. Oh, yeah.

I'm sure, I'm sure. But that's what I was wondering. Like when you were doing that, was there, was it, I mean, I guess it was safe because you survived being around there. But were people kind of hovering around and stuff? So it's funny because I'll be at high noon Thursday and I'm going to show that because I've worked on those in my studio in Jefferson. And the panels, they're four of them per each of those paintings. And they're like four by eight foot. And I had to work on them sideways.

So I literally had the image. and I was spray painted that way. I hoping that when they went up in the window, they were gonna look right. So I did everything off-site, and then we installed it in two days. Okay. You know, me and another cat,

we just got up on the scaffold and just, me and Ben, he used to have a gallery on Cherokee, but yeah, he was geeked about helping me go over there and installs, so we did that, but that still was performing, because it was still, we're putting these things up, and there's an audience, and, you know, people were watching.

Yeah. What's it going to look like? Because we changed that landscape. It's still really rough over there, but at least the windows are up and, you know, nobody's messed with them. But it was really cool to work on, but luckily that was not on site at all. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I think it's even more, you know, dramatic and sort of persuasive when you're in an area

where there is some decay or just there's not a lot of humanity around, or at least that you can see when there's when there's arts springing forth. I mean, like here, this neighborhood's great because things are, you know, there's things happening all around. Yeah. And it's expected. Like, that's our responsibility. That's what we're here. But going into these different areas, it's like if you hear music in some bleak spot coming out, it's like, wow, there's humans here.

Right. It's humanity. And it's a really inspiring thing. Yeah, I'd love to go down on Broadway. Like, that area would be like a gold model. Oh, yeah. To me, that's probably, that's like what Winwood in Miami is like, nobody wants to be down on Broadway. Right.

It's a super sketch down there. Yeah, but some of the biggest walls we got in the city and the buildings aren't doing that, and like, that would be, yeah. There's some, there are some dope areas around the city. Yeah, yeah. I hope to be able to touch one day. Well, thank you for what you've done to bring them to life

and just for everything you're doing for this neighborhood, for the whole city, and, you know, proud to have you as a friend and a neighbor and an artistic partner and all the things that we're doing. So, and thanks for the conversation. This is Kababi Ba'i Ba'i. we have links to everything that you're doing. Where's the best place for people to find you online?

I know you have a great Instagram. And I've been hearing about your TikTok, but I'm not really on TikTok. Yeah, I got to get back on it. I haven't danced in a while. Well, I was like, yeah, because somebody told me, they're like, man, I know Kababia. I was like, man, I know Kabami. They're like, no, no, no, you need to see his TikTok.

I was like. Again, I'm by myself, man. But I thought, I was like, wait, is he putting some art or showing something that he's not? They're like, no, no, he's dancing on there. So you can check him out there. When the ease are. Oh, right, right, right, right.

All right, well, thank you, Kabab. Thank you, man. Great. Thank you, man. Great. Thank you, always. That's good. That's how we do it.

I'm in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, really. I'm in Indianapolis. Hey. How's it going, guys? Andrew. Hi. Because I feel inspired to play something else from your play. Okay, okay, that's right.

I think using the metronome is a great tool, but it's not the only tool. All of the answers are really in music. What does it mean to live in a move? No, Guru. Until next time, happy practicing.