Gino’s interview with the Michigan Chronicle in May 2005, meant to promote his appearance at the Music Hall in Detroit on May 21st of that year. With thanks to Kathleen Marcaccio for preserving and transcribing this.
May 18-24, 2005
The Michigan Chronicle
Entertainment, Page D-3
Jazz in Review
“A candid conversation with Gino Vannelli”
by David G. Watkins
Song stylist Gino Vannelli, one of the most innovative and intriguing artists of our time, is a perfectionist, breaking all the rules to journey to the heart and soul of musical inspiration. Part philosopher, part musician, part composer, and part poet, he continues to bring these talents together in his music.
I had an opportunity to speak with this amazing artist. (Editor’s note: Vannelli is best known by Michigan Chronicle readers for his Top 30 R&B;/Top 10 pop hit “I Just Wanna Stop.”)
D.W.: How would you classify your style of music?
Vannelli: Well, it depends on the album. The last album I did made a classical type statement, (with) a full orchestra. This new album that I’m working on is an all-out pop album. My taste tends to run from jazz to pop and from R&B; to classical. I sort of like to mix-and-match.
D.W.: I understand that Herb Alpert discovered you. Let’s talk a little about that.
Vannelli: Yes, that was a long time ago. That was when I signed with A&M; records. I grabbed him by the shirt collar and told him I wanted him to sign me! (Laughing). So we became friends after that, and he produced the first album. (“Crazy Life,” in 1973.) D.W.: What was the inspiration behind the 1978 hit “Brother to Brother”? Vannelli: I had written a classical piece for the Royal Philharmonic, and it was recorded in London (England). The album did well, but not so well, so my brothers (Joe and Ross) and I sat down and decided that we needed a more successful album that was a little more mainstream. There was a song that came around that I actually wanted to record with a symphony orchestra called “Brother to Brother” and it was in a little bit of a different form, so I changed the form to more a jazz-fusion, R&B; kinda groove. It worked so well that I decided to call the album that.
D.W.: You were one of the first artists to work with keyboard synthesizers, what impact did that form of musical technology have on the jazz industry at that time?
Vannelli: I think it had an impact in the sense that Joe (Vannelli) and I were the first to employ keyboard synthesizers in which you could only play one note at a time. So what Joe and I would do is stack up one-note-at-a-time synthesizers into either a string section or a brass section and tell people that when it was recorded. When companies like Korg, Moog, and a few others saw that we were two of the guys using it, they approached us and asked if we would like to endorse the new polyphonic technology. If it hadn’t been Joe and I, it would have been someone else. But we were right there.
D.W.: A lot of artists do a lot of creative things in the studio that they cannot do in a live performance. How do you feel about that?
Vannelli: Maybe you can’t reproduce exactly what you have in the studio. I mean, you have your twenty vocal stacks or whatever it is to create that sound, but you can certainly create something live that has the full impact, and in some ways, it can be different or better because you have the spontaneity of the live performance.
When I sing in the studio, I go through a period of getting to know the song, so I’ll go through take upon take upon take until I really understand the song, and then I’ll just sleep on it and record it in two or three takes and that’s it. That’s the way I like to work.
D.W.: Your dad was a professional singer. How much of an influence was he on you and your brothers?
Vannelli: He was a tremendous influence. The main part of his influence was what he had introduced us to. He was not only a classical buff, he was also a big band and a jazz buff. He also really liked Brazilian, Latino and salsa music. He opened up a lot of doors.
D.W.: What new projects are in the works?
Vannelli: The project that I’m working on now is an album for Universal Records and it’s going to be eight or ten hits from the past along with four, maybe five brand new songs. It’s been a real challenge to go back to the mainstream and make the statement that I really want to make.
D.W.: I’m going to throw out a term and you tell me the first thing that pops into your head.
Vannelli: OK.
D.W.: Smooth jazz.
Vannelli: (Laughing) Shall we pick some lilies for the graveyard? Really, it’s a much overused term. A much better term is “cool jazz.” I never really did like the fact that it bumps jazz into this one sound where the sax player and a funk beat had to play together and that was it.
The “birth of cool,” as Miles Davis had rigged it up, should be broad, wide, and it should be an attitude. When something is cool or smooth, it’s more than an instrument, it’s more than a sound, its [sic] more than a look that makes them cool or smooth. I think it’s more than one sound or more than one recording technique.
D.W.: It’s like they (the recording industry) took some kind of poll or something and found out that the saxophone was an appealing instrument.
Vannelli: It is, but what happens is people hear that sound on the radio and want to copy it. Basically it’s regurgitated music and that’s why the same music is being played over and over again. That’s why it (smooth jazz) has lost a tremendous amount of popularity.
D.W.: Is Detroit one of your favorite places to play?
Vannelli:The last concert I played in Detroit was probably in 1979. I have a really interesting band coming. It’s a 60s band, my old band that I travel with plus a string section, so we’re going to have about eleven people on stage. Quite an entourage and we’re really looking forward to playing in Detroit.
David G. Watkins can be reached at The Michigan Chronicle/Michigan FrontPAGE, 479 Ledyard St., Detroit, MI 48201.
