DB: One thing I like about the new disc is your selection of covers. You can’t do wrong by including Charlie Christian or Wes Montgomery. My hope is that maybe some people will seek out the original versions as well.

F: I saw this as an opportunity to spread some more cool music to people who might not hear it. That’s half of the purpose of Deep Banana Blackout: here’s some funk and soul classics that you may not have heard before. That Charlie Parker song on the disc {“Bloomdido”] is one of my favorites, even though it’s not a popular one. Also, with my arrangements I was trying to do something of a departure from normal jazz. We funked it up a bit. We were not trying to make it sound like the original. We were listening back to “Four On Six“and we were wondering if Wes Montgomery would like this or if he is rolling over in his grave right now, especially with Logic’s scratching.

There are a lot of great musicians out there that people might not know, that people who are into jam bands would definitely like. I can remember going to see Herbie Hancock at the Jazz Fest Jazz tent and I couldn’t believe how many hippie kids were in there. I was wondering how do they know about Herbie Hancock and I started to realize that there is starting to be this large crossover with a band like Medeski Martin Wood. That group says we’re a jazz band but we go out there and get kooky and funk it up and create some acid jams. Still, they are a jazz bands and they do standards, they’re on Blue Note, and they work with other jazz musicians. But they’re a bridge.

DB: Let’s jump back to Deep Banana. Warren Haynes joined you a few weeks back. What was that like?

F: One of the highlights of the trip was having him come out and play with us. We did “Ain’t Doing Too Bad“by James Cotton. He took some solos in it, and at the end where we usually just ride it out and I take the solos, we busted out into a guitar duel. I like doing that- I try to go head to head with anyone I get out on stage. It’s not a competitive thing, that’s just the way I feel I can lock in with what they’re doing and communicate musically. When we go lick for lick we’re really talking, I’m not just playing chords behind you- we’re playing off each other’s ideas. I think it’s a stronger way to bond and experience the musician on stage. That night with Warren Haynes it went well. We built it up, and he’s such an amazing guitar player, it just sounded so good.

DB: One more quick one, does that Mr. Hankey on your guitar ever impede your playing?

F:Every so often I start to think that it’s in my way and I wonder if it’s a good thing or a hindrance. But I still think it’s cool. It’s become its own thing too. We had a Halloween party and I dressed up as Toilettubby, and the concept was a Teletubby hat with a toilet seat around my neck. At a couple of gigs I was Elton Porta-John and I did “Toilet Man’ instead of “Rocket man”. Originally, I threw it on there for kicks. It was a Christmas gift last year. Now when we go into a new market some people will see it and call out “Mr. Hankey!“So even if it starts to bother me a little, all in all it’s worth it I think.

DB: Moving to your release party, who’s going to play with you that night?

F: I am going to try to get everybody who was on the disc. There are definitely going to be some special guests but I don’t know who’s coming yet and I don’t know if they want to be advertised. Some of the newer friends that DBB has established over the past year will be called for an invite.

DB: How about New Years Eve at Wetlands? Do you have anything special in the works?

F: We’ve been talking about a few things. For instance, we might do an all brass band set where we’ll do a few brass band interpretations of our tunes and some cover tunes. We were talking about paying tribute to the ten most influential artists of the century, some of which we already do: Duke Ellington and Hendrix and then maybe some new things like Zappa. Another idea would be to do a tribute to a particular musician and then possibly get actual important members of the group. Like for instance if we did a tribute to James Brown and got Fred Wesley or Maceo Parker to come, or a tribute to P-Funk and got Bernie Worrell to come. That’s a long shot obviously but we’d like to try something like that. Also, we know a lot of songs and we’re talking about trying to do every one of them, pull some out we haven’t played for a while. We’re going to cook up a few more special things. We haven’t had a full-out meeting, I’ve just been talking to different members of the group here and there.

DB: How late do you think you’ll play on New Year’s Eve?

F: It’s going to be another one of those marathon nights. Until the sun comes up I guess. So everyone should be prepared, and get their rest the week before, and don’t plan anything for the day leading up to the show.

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