This band has been evolving over the past few years. How did this iteration come about?

This band really evolved over the course of time. Brice has been playing with me for a number of years. Kendrick is the second-longest running member in the group. First we had Aaron Parks and then Fabian came on board. Then Joshua Crumbly is the latest member. I’m always looking for someone who is open and willing to learn, but also someone who is willing to contribute and who isn’t scared to contribute. We need people who truly act upon what they feel.

Did having each musician bring in an original composition become a difficult task on the record?

One of the things we try to encourage is for people to create and write. It sparked this whole movement of young, talented writers. Sometimes the guys are a little apprehensive about writing music for the group, but once they get into it and past that nervousness, they start to learn. Joshua Crumbly is a case where he was a little nervous about writing for the band, but I think he wrote a very beautiful tune. Once Fabian started writing for the band, he was a little nervous, but look at him now—he’s a great composer. The same thing goes for Kendrick and Brice.

It’s not hard to implement. It’s just a matter of giving these guys room and making sure that they have a safe place to create without fear. We are all beneficiaries because of it. They all brought something really great to the project.

Were each of these compositions written specifically for this record?

I think everyone wrote something specifically for the album. The way these guys work, they’re constantly performing and constantly working, so I don’t think any of these compositions were sitting around. A lot of the guys are sparked by being in the moment, so I think these are all brand new.

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You’ve composed so much music yourself and it sounds to me like you are very skilled in telling a story with your music. Is that an important skill for composers?

Definitely. That’s what music is supposed to do. It’s supposed to tell a story. If it’s not telling a story, it’s not doing its job. Music is supposed to help us deal with the day-to-day life as Art Blakey used to say. It’s supposed to help us heal, reflect, rejoice, and help us get over times of sorrow. All of those things have to do with telling a story. It helps us deal with our own issues. That’s the goal. If music is just created for the sake of creating music itself, then what’s the need for it?

Do you think your ideology for having these young musicians compose traces back to your days with Art Blakey?

It could be. I’ve never thought of it like that though. Who’s to say, really? That’s the culture that I grew up in, so it probably does have an effect. The thing that I knew about Art is that he always used to say that the way you find yourself is through your writing. So it probably does go back to Art. The more and more I think about it, definitely. He knew that would be the way for us to solidify our particular musical identities.

In addition to the core group, you have Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, and Lionel Loueke as special guests on the album. Why those musicians in specific?

Again it kind of evolved over the course of time. I knew I wanted to record with Ravi Coltrane because I knew he had something different to offer. I really fell in love with his last CD—I listen to it like every day.  Then Lionel has been recording with me for many years. He’s almost a mainstay in the group even though he’s not in the group anymore.

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With Ron Carter, the last couple of times I would come to New York, he would be after me to come out and have dinner and hang out. I’ve always been really nervous about calling him. I ran into him at International Jazz Day and he says, “Stop running from me man! Don’t run now.” That’s why I wrote the tune “Don’t Run,” paying homage to him.

What do you see as special about Ron Carter as a musician?

What’s not special? He’s a legend. He’s a walking legend. He’s one of those guys where you just want to watch everything he does. You want to watch the way he unzips the case for the bass. It’s like, “Oh shit, I never thought about unzipping it that way.” He’s changed the course of music and the growth of the bass. The way he started walking lines with Herbie and everybody he was playing with made people rethink the function of the bass in the jazz ensemble.

You recorded Magnetic at Avatar Studios. Is that somewhere you like to record at?

Oh yeah man! It’s one of those places that they pay attention to getting great sound. There’s a lot of great gear and a lot of great mics. It’s always a joy to work there.

This record also marks a return to Blue Note Records for you. Do you think Blue Note has the potential to become the powerhouse in jazz it once was?

That’s hard to say. I would like to hope that they would. I think that they have the potential to. Look at who they have on the roster. When you have Don Was running the label and this rich history with Bruce Lundvall—they’re poised to be who they are. You have to take your hat off to these guys because they’re not approaching it with a cookie-cutter format. They’re going out and looking at what’s happening on the scene and trying to find some of the most uniquely talented guys in the business.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for young musicians coming up in jazz?

The biggest challenge is finding a label and marketing your product. The days are gone when being on Blue Note, Columbia, or Warner Brothers could really establish a career for a young person. The internet has changed all of that. How do you market you product to a large number of people? It’s something that is still trying to flush itself out. It’s still evolving and it’s still growing. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. The way I look at it now—the Internet has its great sides and its horrible sides. The great side is that you get everybody access to everything. The horrible side is that there is one central mass place where people will go to check out certain things. I view all of this as still being in its infancy.

With two different projects—your record Magnetic and your jazz-inspired opera Champion—coming out this summer, what’s next?

The opera is dropping June 15 and the album comes out May 28. We want to start performing and touring with it right after the last performance of the opera, which is June 30. Before that though we do have our album release show at the Jazz Standard in New York City. We’ll be performing a week there. The opera has six performances starting June 15 in St. Louis. Then I just got another commission to write a piece that celebrates the end of the Civil War. It’s for the 150^th anniversary of the end of the war. The piece will be for a string quartet with a 500-piece choir.

When you’re doing an album release like you are in New York with a week of performances, what changes from performance to performance?

It just depends on how we feel. I know that’s kind of a cop-out answer, but it’s true. The guys will kind of shape things based on what’s going on with them that day. It can run the gamut. Sometimes it can happen where a guy is hearing something on the way to the show or talking about something and the next thing you know it starts to influence what we do rhythmically, melodically, or harmonically. That’s the joy of doing what we do. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same every night. We can bring our own daily experiences to it to help motivate everybody else.

Interview by Eric Sandler (@ericsandler)

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The post 5/29-6/2: Terence Blanchard at the Jazz Standard for ‘Magnetic’ Release appeared first on The Revivalist.

Date: Monday 5/20/13
Time: 10pm
Venue: Rockwood Music Hall

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Read Part 1

Did you start to see any sort of decline in Sly after Woodstock?

Not right after. We went a while before the drugs kicked in. One of the things we were conscious of in the band was that it was a very big threat that he decided to move to Los Angeles. We were all based out of the Bay Area and he told us he was going to move to LA. It was definitely after Woodstock. I can remember just having the conscious thought, “This is the beginning of the end.” Unfortunately it turned out to be true. You’ve got a person who is a genius and really sensitive like that. How they respond to just the stimulus of life is something that you have to be careful with. We just lost control of that camaraderie that we had.

With that camaraderie, did you guys in the band feel any responsibility to try and keep Sly out of too much trouble or to “save” him so-to-speak?

Oh yeah. Freddie went down there and lived with him for a while, but then he got sucked into the black hole as well and became a victim too.

What are you going to do though? It was so intense and so fast-paced. You can only hope that someone is able to maintain a balance in their life. He was intelligent enough and all of that, but I guess the drugs won—like with so many others.

We see a similar dynamic today with artists like Questlove and D’Angelo. Questlove felt as D’Angelo’s musical partner and friend, it was his responsibility to keep him away from his demons.

Yeah, you can’t do everything though. I actually met Questlove once and went to see a concert where he was the musical director with D’Angelo and Pino Palladino. I saw some parallels there. There was a little meltdown on stage and I knew exactly what he was going through.

So after the trouble with Sly you actually went on to record Betty Davis’ first record with some of the same musicians. Tell me about that.

Michael Carabello, the conga player with Santana, was dating her while we were doing a project together actually. He kept saying, “Betty wants to come in and meet you.” So one day we’re in the studio at CBS in San Francisco and he brought her by. She had just been recently divorced from Miles and she was a very interesting person. She had just been signed and was preparing to do a record. She knew exactly what she wanted to do and just went right for it. “Would you produce it for me?” she goes. “I want you to be involved in it.” So I said, “Sure, let’s talk about it. Tell me about what you’re doing.” So by the end of the day we had established the idea. Luckily at that time, the musical family that existed in the Bay Area was phenomenal. You had Tower of Power, the Pointer Sisters, Santana, and all of this diversity. We were all in the same neighborhood.

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So I started seeing what she wanted to do and I began casting it. I got Larry, Neal Schon, Merl Saunders, the Tower of Power horns, the Pointer Sisters singing backgrounds. Betty had all of her lyrics, but for the music she would just sit down and hum a line. I put together some rehearsals so that we could put these ideas together before we went into the studio. So we had some ideas and then we would go into the studio where it would develop further. It fell together pretty nice and it’s just amazing because it was raw, unadulterated funk. It wasn’t the most commercially viable thing, but there is such underground love for it. Over the years it would get bootlegged in different parts of the world and I would start getting calls from people in those places asking questions about it. It would be years later and they’d ask like, “Where’s Betty? We’d like to do a movie,” and stuff like that. She withdrew and hid out though. But that was a fun record man.

Do you see the influence of your style and your work on music today?

Yeah I do. There was a time where I had stopped playing for a while and before I realized people were sampling, I would listen to something and go, “You know, that sounds so much like me.” I didn’t even question it or put two-and-two together. I just went about my business and later came to find out that it was me. I was being sampled hundreds and hundreds of times. So I realized my influence now through media technology, visibility online, and that type of stuff.

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Drummers in particular are much more subject to sampling than any other instrumentalist; everyone wants the drum breaks. Have you sought to recoup any of the royalties?

The rhythm is the foundation of music. Without the foundation, you ain’t building a house. At the end of the day though I’m just honored that people find what I’ve done to still be a tool of communication or some sort of inspiration or even that it still lives. I’ve learned to not connect money and music. I’m comfortable monetarily and I have what I need to have. To still be able to be here playing—it’s all good. If one day I resolve those issues, great. If not, I don’t feel that I’ve missed anything.

Interview by Eric Sandler (@ericsandler)

The post Greg Errico: The Backbone to Sly & the Family Stone Pt. 2 appeared first on The Revivalist.

Porter’s Water (Motéma Music) earned a GRAMMY nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. His sophomore album Be Good (Motéma Music) followed in 2012 and earned him his second GRAMMY nomination for Best Traditional R&B Performance. Needless to say, his next record is sure to bring the heat and we can’t wait!

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Photo by Jati Lindsay

Stevens ignited the set with a slow and thoughtful solo to introduce “Unrest,” which is also the opening track to Conflict of a Man. Williams soon followed, delicately rubbing his mallets across his kit as Archer and King (on Fender Rhodes) textured things with soft strokes. The group wasn’t playing a song as much as they were painting a canvas. They way they segued from “Unrest” to King original “Angela” to “This Song, This Night” was seamless and haunting, going from frustration to relaxed to ferocious; almost a modern response to Bitches Brew. What makes this cryptic, multi-hued soundscape live are the contrasting energies of each member: Williams played the part of the purposeful madman behind the skins; Stevens played his axe like a frustrated scientist; Archer seemed to be possessed by some tranquil spirit; King, particularly on Rhodes, appeared aloof and wandering.

Photo by Jati Lindsay

The presence of special guest vocalist Alan Hampton brought a more structured, disciplined approached to the two songs he joined them on, the title track of Conflict of a Man and “Choosing Sides.” Hampton cooing, dutiful vocals gave to the two heavy compositions a sense of understanding, different from the LP’s vocalist Chris Turner’s more keening, albeit wonderfully affective, approach. Hampton’s syncopated chops on electric guitar complemented Steven’s with funky results, but maintained both songs’ voyeuristic vibe.

Once Hampton exited the stage, ERIMAJ promptly returned to its ghostly instrumentation on their standout track “Plants,” after which they treated the sold-out hall to two brand new compositions, hopefully being featured on their next album. First was the contemplative ballad “Who Does She Hope To Be,” finding King showcasing why he may be the best trombonist on Earth today with incredible dexterity and poise. Stevens’ guitar work, which is usually used as an accessory, has never been more melodic and monolithic. Then there was the mountainous anthem “Reverence,” composed by Williams, certainly the grandest, most striking piece of the set.

Photo by Jati Lindsay

The evening ended with a shocker; album track “Social Life” featuring King on vocals! Having already showed off his prowess as a trombonist and keyboardist, King sang the song with anguish and soul. That just goes to show how unpredictable ERIMAJ can be, which is the cornerstone of their greatness.

Set List

Unrest (Journey To The Land of Milk & Honey)
Angel
This Song, This Night
Conflict of A Man (Featuring Alan Hampton)
Choosing Sides (Featuring Alan Hampton)
Plants
Who Does She Hope To Be
Reverence
Social Life

Words by Matthew Allen (@headphoneadditct)

The post ERIMAJ Runs Their Voodoo Down at Harlem Stage appeared first on The Revivalist.

How did you first get started in music?

Both of my parents are jazz musicians, so I kind of grew up traveling with them as they did residencies for the endowments of the arts all the way through the ‘80s and early-‘90s. So I grew up traveling with them and carrying equipment. Growing up around it, I didn’t actually want to necessarily play music because it was what my parents did. But eventually around my junior year in high school, I transferred schools and they had an audition for the drum chair. A few of my friends were interested in it. Eventually I would say I really got into it through the social elements. I started playing drums and all of this stuff started to come out of me pretty quickly because I had so much in my ears from my parents. I had to practice a lot to catch up with the technique so I could do what my ears were hearing.

What type of music were you listening to back then?

I pretty much grew up listening to hip-hop. That was what I listened to before I even began to play drums. Albums like Guru’s Jazzmatazz that was fusing jazz and hip-hop of course. That really began to open my ears to hear some new directions. My parents also exposed me to all different kinds of music. My preference was definitely hip-hop growing up though. When I started playing jazz I got into people like Art Blakey, Dennis Chambers, Tony Williams, and people like that.

Transcendence has a lot of different influences within the music. What was the spark for creating this record?

I would say the musical side of Transcendence came from things I was already experimenting with. I was very interested in digging into the earliest spirituals that I could find—like the earliest American blues. I did my thesis at Rutgers on how the black church affected jazz. So I was digging and researching to find some of these early spirituals and I came across some sung by the Gee’s Bend community in Alabama. Their music became a huge influence on this project.

At that same time I’m also researching history and I’m researching the social atmosphere in which the music was created, which had a huge impact on the music itself. Also at that time I was studying Tablas.  There are certain elements of East Indian music and classical music as a whole that I was already thinking about and experimenting with. There is something within the elements of the cry from the spirituals in Alabama and the cry from singers that I heard from Indian singers that became a common denominator. It is humans crying out in the midst of struggle. That was a huge denominator for all of the music on the project. It wasn’t the type of situation where I’m thinking, “Okay, how am I going to merge these elements together musically?” It more came from a natural byproduct of things that I was already experimenting with. I think that’s what gave the record a sense of cohesion.

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As you researched the social climate that influenced the early spirituals, did you draw any parallels to the social climate today?

In my experience, the purpose of those spirituals were to really build up a community, to encourage through difficult times, and worship as well. For me, I needed to have something that was a little bit deeper within my own expression of music. In this society and in this music the focus is usually that you play music so that you can become a performer. Thus the function of music to perform. Yet, socially, that’s not really what this music came out of. It wasn’t coming out of a performance-based mentality. So the philosophy of that really shaped where I wanted to go spiritually and musically. So strategically in making this record I made decisions such as who played on the record, including my own family who played on it—my mother, father, sister, and daughter all have cameos.

You also have Chris Sholar and JD Allen on the record. Why did you pick them for this specific project?

Chris is one of the first people I met when I came to the East Coast. He became a close friend back then about 15 years ago. What I really think that he brings to the table that is very special is his both his understanding of jazz and the blues, and his experience as a Grammy-nominated producer. I really wanted to see him in a function more as a live producer instead of just playing guitar on stage. I wanted him to use some of these other gifts that he has. I think that we innovated a cool role for him within the group around his strengths. I write music around the characters within the music, something that Duke Ellington did as well.

JD and I were actually neighbors, so we were working on a lot of ideas together already. His love for the blues also linked him into the project and made it strangely unique. He’s amazingly creative and open-minded, especially in experimenting with form. He brings a lot to the table. Both of these guys are my friends as well, so I think that chemistry comes through in the music. The unity of the group is what can speak the loudest in terms of what people hear.

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What are you most excited about in releasing this record?

I’m most excited that I can tell a story that needs to be told about the history of this country that hasn’t really been told very clearly. As I researched the black church and how it affected jazz music, it was very hard because it was so under-documented. Trying to dig up that information was really difficult because it was really a lost story. I’m still deeply devolved in investigating that story. I think it’s a beautiful story in that out of so much darkness came something that was so bright. To be in a position where I can help tell that story, to express the importance of community, to express the value of the black church within the music, and also not compromise my own artistic goals as a musician in New York City in 2013—that’s what excites me.

Interview by Eric Sandler (@ericsandler)

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Revive Music & Motema Music Present: Jaimeo Brown ‘Transcendence’ Album Release Concert

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Greg Errico (1967)

What were you listening to growing up that influenced the development of your own style as a drummer?

Growing up in San Francisco—it being an international city—we were exposed to a lot of music here between the radio and of course my folks loved music. So I listened to everything from Dave Brubeck to Xavier Cugat to James Brown and Wilson Pickett and Buddy Rich. I loved it all. I love good music and I gravitated to every genre. So when I started playing, I would explore all of those records and try to conquer them. I didn’t actually start playing until I was 14 and I was self-taught as well. I had a lot of drummer friends that would come home from school, hit the books, and hit the pads for a couple hours. I used to drive them crazy because I wouldn’t do that.

When we started Sly and the Family Stone I was 17-and-a-half, so it was only three years after I started playing. I wouldn’t know how to recreate that nowadays. Those opportunities came to me and that was my path in the beginning.

As the story goes—you met up with the musicians who would become Sly and the Family Stone and rehearse for seven nights straight. What type of music were you playing at that time in the absence of originals?

We didn’t even play the first night; we talked about what we were going to do. I had actually showed up that first night for rehearsal for another band because Sly’s brother Freddie and I had a band called the Stone Souls. So I was going to the house for the rehearsal for that band, but when I got there, Freddie and Sly told me we were going to do something new. I knew that Sly had made a couple attempts at starting bands that he wasn’t happy with, so he scrapped them.

So it was Sly that had worked on inviting everybody that night that were in the original band. Everyone showed up and met each other and we talked about what we were going to do. It’s December of 1966, so here we’re putting the band together with elements that had not really been explored or tested before, especially in the pop world. Being mixed—black and white, male and female, and all of these things—it was all very unusual. Sly was a great deejay and at that time had a very popular radio show. So he had visibility and he was a record producer already as well. It was very exciting and we just had the feeling that what we were doing was unique.

So that night we talked about what we were going to do. We were going to do our own material eventually, but if we wanted to start gigging we had to start out with some Top 40. At the same time, if we did that, we had to make them our own. We took these songs and rearranged them and just owned them. We approached it with that attitude. So those six other nights we took all these songs and reworked them and started playing them the week after. It looked, smelled, tasted unique, but when we got together and played, it was definitely something different going on. We didn’t realize the scope of what we would be doing until much later. Even as it was happening, we were just having fun and doing our thing. We were committed to it and we had each other’s backs. It was real cool.

Sly & the Family Stone (1967)

What was it like working with Larry Graham and locking in all of the rhythms for the group?

We never really talked a lot about what we were doing. We didn’t have lengthy or even short discussions about our approach. There was chemistry there. Everybody was sensitive to each other and considerate. We were doing something that on a lot of levels was also a social experiment. It was very challenging at that time. There were race riots going on outside and here we are black and white together. The music was the common denominator and the strength that bound us together. It wiped all of that other stuff neutral. It was a very powerful thing, and we never had to grapple with it. No one questioned it. Things were happening for us so easily that other people were having a really hard time with. We were definitely conscious of that.

But yeah the chemistry was really good amongst all of us. We didn’t have any intellectual discussions about templates and rules and what needed to be done. I was very musical as a drummer and conscious of the flavors of the chords and arrangements and lyrics. I always had an image in my mind when I played. And in playing with great players like Larry, and with Sly being a visionary in his songwriting, I was just a kid in a candy store.

Did you have a lot of creative freedom?

Totally. Sly and I would sometimes clash and argue if one of us felt strongly about something. Sometimes I would lose and sometimes he would lose [laughs]. Therein lies the honesty of the music. This music still lives today because that honesty is so strong. It was very different at the time and it was way over people’s heads. A Whole New Thing is just now today being realized in a lot of ways. Some of those songs have been sampled more times than I can count. I think it really has to do with the honesty that was present when we created the music.

When you were recording these tracks, was it mostly recorded live or did you do a lot of overdubs?

That’s a good question. All of the songs would start out as just ideas or jams and we would develop them. There was no one way we would write songs. But there were definitely overdubs because we played basic tracks with a skeleton vocal and maybe even a horn mic, but Sly—being the great producer that he was—would lay something down and then would get inspired by something someone else did. That was kind of the mindset of the day with music that was coming out of San Francisco with that freedom and the creativity. You’re trying different things and experimenting with all this stuff.

But fundamentally with most of this stuff we’d lay down the ideas and they’d get developed and these songs would morph. What would end up happening actually on all those hits though is that I would go back in and do the drums over as the very last thing before mixing. I did that because the songs would morph into different animals. They would take on new directions and new feels. So I’d go back in and we’d just hone in on that. There were no click tracks or drum machines in those days, so you just had to put the cans on, crank it up, take out the drum track, and go for it. I would listen to everything and respond to it. I would have an arrangement in my head. I wouldn’t spend days on this stuff either. It would be maybe a couple hours and I would just nail it.

Was the lack of a click track what made your style so loose and funky?

I don’t know man. It was what it was. There were metronomes at that time and some people used them. In fact I remember trying it on one or two songs, but for the most part we left it out because threw up barriers. Sometimes it compromised the feel having that machine in there. It took something away. You just had to sense when it did and when it didn’t. If it was there we knew it right away. We were very conscious of feel.

That element that is hard to put your hand on that’s in a recording is the magic. Sometimes it could even be a variation of time, which is something you really don’t want to do when you’re recording. That clock has got to be there man, but on the other hand there is a place where it’s not. We had a name for it; we called it “heartbeat.” When you listen to a heartbeat it’s got a time, but sometimes it goes up a little and sometimes it goes down a little. It’s an interesting thing because as a rule the tempo has to be there. You listen to the records today and that clock is there. With most of our stuff the time was there as well and it was solid, but there were places where there is this variation of feel that doesn’t have a sophisticated and intellectual explanation. It’s never been challenged because if the meter isn’t there, what are you going to call it? Bad meter! “You slowed down, you sped up. Get out of here man.” But there was a place where it lived to where it was a dominant thing and it was important. I don’t know what else I can say about it. That’s what we did.

The Stand! record really catapulted the band to huge stardom. Did any of you know that these recordings would take you to that next level?

I remember with “Sing A Simple Song” for instance that the track was laid so down to the bone and we all knew it was. You could feel it. Me and Larry especially would say, “When that shit comes down, that’s going to be it.” I mean, we didn’t have any idea as to where it would all end up or to the scope of how it touched music and the big picture. We just knew it was some cool shit and couldn’t wait for everybody to hear it. There was no way to anticipate what our music ended up doing. I think if we had that prevalent on our minds, it would have gotten in the way of what we were doing. We were just digging it, doing it, and creating it.

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Shortly after that record you have Woodstock. What was the lead-up to Woodstock like and what were you thinking going into it?

In the beginning when it was first presented to us, Woodstock was just another muddy outdoor festival that you really didn’t want to do [laughs]. You knew it would be dusty and hot or it would be raining and you’d get electrocuted. It was like, “Oh no, not another one of these!” A lot of people didn’t want to do it and even bowed out. But our manager at the time talked us into it. Of course we had no idea of the scope of what was about to happen up until about the day-of. It was a three-day festival, so we kind of got an idea, but you really couldn’t comprehend the heaviness of what was about to take place until you got there. You’d hear a couple days beforehand about this big traffic jam going to this concert out in the woods of upstate New York. Then they shut down the highway. As the hours went on you just kept hearing this thing develop.

Not until flying over the cusp of the hill in the helicopter and seeing this fog in the valley fade into this mass of people did we really see it. Then landing and smelling the pot and vibe of these people—it was really incredible.

We were scheduled to go on at 8pm of that Saturday night, which was a couple days into the event. Sunday was the last day. So naturally it was behind schedule and things kept getting changed. I remember we were ready to go on at 8pm and Michael Lang came back saying we were being pushed back another hour. Then at 10pm it happened again and again until it was 3 in the morning. Going on at 3 in the morning is one thing, but then considering if you’re conscious and you’re able to think still especially because there was a lot of acid going around and all that stuff. We were very much conscious of the fact that these people had been sitting out there being rained on, being sunned on, 110dB sound levels and all that for three days now. It was raining and it’s three in the morning and you have to go out and perform. They’re all in their sleeping bags hunkered down to protect themselves from the rain and probably going, “Who cares anymore. Fuck you, lets leave.”

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There is also this toll of your adrenaline levels getting pumped up to go on and then you don’t all the way until 3am. So we just looked at each other, grabbed each other’s hands, and said, “Let’s just go do our thing and do it the best we can.” That’s all we could do. Fortunately by about the third song, we got everybody to come out of their bags and tents. By the third or fourth song there was unbelievable energy being transferred between the stage and the audience. When you watch the movie you can feel it. It’s funny looking back and knowing it was 4am three days into the festival.

After that experience, what changed for you as a band?

Woodstock was a significant event of the day. It got a lot of press and a lot of presence worldwide on TV and in the news. I would say there were two major things—Woodstock and a primetime television show spot with Ed Sullivan. In those days there were three networks; there wasn’t 500 cable channels or the Internet or anything like that. So when you did one of the networks at primetime, it changed your life. The next day everything changes. It’s like, “Why all the attention? I was doing the same thing yesterday and nobody noticed.” It was a very powerful thing and I think that was a part of making the magic. It made Elvis Presley, it made The Beatles, it made that element happen. It made that magic, but it will never happen again. There will be stars, but not like that. It was a moment in time when the stars lined up. That is gone now. There is and there will be something else, but that is gone.

Read Part 2 here!

Words by Eric Sandler (@ericsandler)

The post Greg Errico: The Backbone to Sly & the Family Stone Pt. 1 appeared first on The Revivalist.

Full List of Musicians: Hilton Jefferson, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Wilbur Ware, Art Blakey, Chubby Jackson, Johnny Griffin, Dickie Wells, Buck Clayton, Taft Jordan, Zutty Singleton, Red Allen, Tyree Glenn, Miff Molo, Sonny Greer, Jay C. Higginbotham, Jimmy Jones, Charles Mingus, Jo Jones, Gene Krupa, Max Kaminsky, George Wettling, Bud Freeman, Pee Wee Russell, Ernie Wilkins, Buster Bailey, Osie Johnson, Gigi Gryce, Hank Jones, Eddie Locke, Horace Silver, Luckey Roberts, Maxine Sullivan, Jimmy Rushing, Joe Thomas, Scoville Browne, Stuff Smith, Bill Crump, Coleman Hawkins, Rudy Powell, Oscar Pettiford, Sahib Shihab , Marian McPartland, Sonny Rollins, Lawrence Brown, Mary Lou Williams, Emmett Berry, Thelonius Monk, Vic Dickenson, Milt Hinton, Lester Young, Rex Stewart, J.C. Heard, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldgridge, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie

Click here to view the embedded video.

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The Infamous Jazz Shrines of Harlem
A Great Day in Harlem: The Piano Virtuosos
A Great Day In Harlem (Part 2): The Distinguished Saxophonists

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Harlem Jazz Shrines Festival

The post Watch: A Great Day In Harlem (1994) appeared first on The Revivalist.