How can a musician with a career that spans nearly three decades keep current and interesting to listeners? Equally as important, how can a musician playing the nearly lost genre of boogaloo continue to keep himself excited about the music?
“For us, the best part of it is when it’s fun. And we’ve kind of grown into a place where it’s fun,” says legendary jazz-funk saxophonist Karl Denson of his current band, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. Denson, 56, stays incredibly active on social media outlets and blogs and is constantly thinking of new projects and collaborators to keep the music fun and exciting for everyone.
Denson has embarked on a Ray Charles tribute tour entitled The Soul Spectacular Tour: Ray Charles Boogaloo Dance Party with special guest Zach Deputy to honor the music of the late jazz great and to hopefully bring new light to the music of the 50’s and 60’s. The following conversation touches on that as well as his upcoming studio record and the origins of his sound.
Okay, so really, the big news right now is your Ray Charles tribute tour: The Soul Spectacular. What made you decide to put this together?
You know, we’ve been…me and my manager Erik [Newson] have been talking about different things to do to kinda tantalize the crowd for the last couple years. You know, we did the Beastie Boys thing and the Sticky Fingers with Anders [Osborne]. And it just happened that, a couple years ago, I sat in with Zach Deputy when he was in San Diego. He called me to come down and play, and I came down and he started his show off with this whole Ray Charles shtick. And it was insane and I was like, Dude, I didn’t know you could sing like Ray Charles.” And Ray Charles has always been one of my very favorite male voices, you know? So it just kind of made sense to put it together, and I recommended Zach Deputy and my management tried to dissuade me and…but I prevailed and it was crushing.
He’s a very talented instrumentalist; I mean he’s playing a lot of things at once, which is a really exciting thing to see.
And that was the cool thing. Because even more than his vocals was his guitar playing. His guitar playing is amazing so, you know, I had him sit in with Tiny Universe and it was just like, you know, like “I wanna have this guy in my band.” So it’s gonna be really fun, we’re gonna have a good time.
I’ve been watching a bunch of videos and listening to some clips of when you did Sticky Fingers tour and when you did The Beastie Boys and it was all very exciting. I’m a big fan of Anders Osborne actually, and now it’s actually because of you that I’m getting into Zach Deputy more, which is awesome because I’m really enjoying it. So do you think you’ll be introducing a lot of people to him and his sound?
I’m hoping so, you know. That’s kind of the big picture.
I had been thinking, “Why would you pick Zach Deputy?” And then actually listening to him, he is really funky and he’s got a lot of soul to his voice. I think it makes perfect sense.
Yeah, you know, he’s one of those guys – he’s kind of like my guitar player that I have now, D.J. Williams – he’s one of those guys that every time he sat in with me or I played with him, I felt like we belonged together. You know?
So that just clicked when you guys got together?
We’ve been playing together…I met him probably four or five years ago at Bear Creek. And he was like the side stage guy for us. And you know when I was setting up I was just like, “Who is this guy?” So I went over and met him and then we kind of…you know every time we’re in the same vicinity we find time to hang out.
*I was watching what you did with him at Jam Cruise in 2011 as well and I thought that was just spectacular; that was great. *
I was gonna say that I definitely hit him up – you know, whenever we’re around – I hit him up to come and do whatever I’m doing because he’s so creative. I can leave him alone and kind of rely on the fact that he’s got solid ideas that have structure and that will go on somewhere.
In the past when you did the Stones tribute and the Beastie Boys tribute, they were kind of shorter sprints and this one seems to be a little bit longer; a little more like a full length tour. What was the inspiration behind that? Why are you taking this one out further than you took the others?
Well you know, I think it was the restriction of, you know…Anders only wanted to do, you know, a little bit of that Stones thing. He didn’t want to do it too much. And it was kind of the same thing with the Beastie Boys. You know, after Adam [“MCA” Yauch] died it kind of made it – because you know, we came up with the idea and did a couple of shows and then MCA died – and so it kind of made it a little bit more somber. So we didn’t want to do too much of that, you know it kind of put a little damper on it. This one the cool thing is that we’re gonna be able to do it for a couple of months and improve on it and kind of really take our time on it which is gonna be awesome.
I think that’s great because Ray Charles has such a vast catalog of music that you can really work with as well.
You know, his dance music…you normally don’t hear enough about it. People think of the ballads and things like that that he did. You know, we’re kind of looking to get people to the whole boogaloo side of Ray Charles.
What are you most excited to play of his? If you had to pick something, what are you really excited to dig into?
I mean I think for me it’s the whole catalog because it’s so much of where I’m from in terms of, like, the whole Greyboy album sort of thing. That’s the whole boogaloo idea so it’s very simple. Harmonically it’s really simple and then you listen to the Ray Charles recordings and you hear those amazing solos of David Newman. So I’m just looking forward to getting things tight enough where we can have fun soloing over it you know, and really expanding on that.
Do you plan on really opening up some space for improvisation within all of that? I mean, you have some incredible players you’re working with.
We’re gonna try to make it just like if you were back in the 50’s and 60’s in a little club dancing your ass off. We’re gonna try and put a little spin on things. We already have this cool version of “Hit the Road Jack” that we do that I’m gonna eventually turn into an original because we did kind of a cool thing with it. So, you know, it’s gonna be a nice fun experiment.
Speaking of that, I’ve heard that you’re going back to the studio soon.
My record is being mixed right now, the record is done. Twelve tracks are done and I’ll probably actually be going back into the studio in November-December when I get home because I’m so hyped on my new drummer that, you know, tunes are falling out of my butt right now (laughs).
When you go back in, in November-December when you get the chance to do that, are you planning on doing all originals? You know, you mentioned “Hit the Road Jack.” How is that going to fit into the mix? How have you tweaked that?
I mean, the thing about it is if we can find a way to do it where it’s original enough, then we’ll definitely lay that down. That’s gonna be the trick, is making it our own. The new record we have now is probably 50-50, originals to covers and, you know, even though only a couple of the covers – a few of them – people will actually know. So the next record I want to be completely original and really kind of showcase what we’re learning as a unit.
Are you the sole songwriter when you go into this process or is it more of a democracy within the band as far as how parts get written out and how they get performed on the record?
That’s something we’ve really been working on. We’ve been writing together a lot more this year and these last couple years. So on the record there’s a couple of my tunes, there’s a couple of D.J. Williams’ – well there’s one D.J. Williams tune and one he kind of inspired that we wrote together with Chris Stillwell, the bass player. We’re trying to really get to that “band” sound and settle into that.
Do you feel like you have a little more freedom than you did maybe in past bands with, like, Greyboy Allstars or when you played with Slightly Stoopid or is it kind of the same atmosphere?
Well yeah, of course, it’s my band so I can call the shots. That’s been the trick. The trick is to figure out how to allow everybody to have the freedom to express themselves and to want to express themselves inside of our little thing.
I know you have a lot of touring going on and now you’re going back into the studio so you obviously have a lot on your plate. So one thing I was really impressed with about you is that you’re so active in the social media scene right now as far as being active on Twitter and your blog on your website and everything like that. How do you find time to engage yourself in that?
That’s another part where we’re really collaborative. A lot of what gets out there is me and a lot of what gets out there is my band, because they take pictures and they tweet and they Facebook and stuff like that, just because it’s fun.
And it turns on a whole new audience to you. That’s why I was really impressed with it; that you take the time to do something so personal to connect with fans and maybe to connect with people who aren’t necessarily fans yet. But this is a good way for them to be introduced to your music because they’re all over social media sites and they’re tweeting and re-tweeting things. So this is a good way for them to find out about Tiny Universe and Karl Denson and everything that you guys are doing.
Right. You know, for us, the best part of it is when it’s fun. And we’ve kind of grown into a place where it’s fun. You know, like I’ll Facebook or blog about what movies I like. You know, things that are actually interesting to me. So that’s what makes it cool, when you’re not just doing it to let people know what’s going on but also to let them know what you like and what you’re up to.
I think that’s great. So how do you think that affects the industry right now, that you’re able to tweet things like tour dates, or where you’re gonna be, or when you’re going into the studio directly to fans? Now fans kind of have an inside view of that as opposed to, say, fifteen years ago when you were recording with Lenny Kravitz and you really couldn’t do that very personal interaction with fans. How do you think that affects what you do now, as far as people getting into your music and being able to follow you?
Well I think an artist like myself, doing the kind of odd mixed music that I do…There’s no way that I could have made an impact like I’m making twenty years ago without the internet. So it’s kind of great for me in terms of how I feel about that. It’s an awesome tool.
You mentioned the kind of music that you play being definitely an eclectic mix. And it’s definitely an older sound but you’ve got such a new twist on it that I feel like especially nowadays when we’re in such a revivalist period where everyone is listening to these older records, do you feel like you’re kind of bringing this boogaloo back? That people can really start to get into this more now?
For sure. I mean that was kind of the idea behind the Greyboy Allstars, you know, twenty-something years ago. You know, the boogaloo idea; the boogaloo revival. And it goes in waves and I think the fact that we’ve been able to survive speaks to the quality of what we’re doing. And we’re just kind of trying to continue on with everything else that’s going on around us, you know, to pick up influences as we go and just be aware of what’s going on in the world musically and reflect that in a new way.
I definitely look forward to hearing new things out of that. I also wanted to ask you, as far as that goes…I obviously hear a lot of New Orleans funk and brass in what you guys are doing and what you’ve always done, really. And I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about how you really first got into that style of music. You know, from the outside, not being raised in New Orleans but just being able to hear that music. Was that always something that was playing in your house? You know, boogaloo and jazz and brass music?
Being a jazz guy and playing saxophone I grew up listening to those artists like Betty Harris and Yusef Lateef and John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. You know, like Horace Silver and all that kind of jazzy stuff and I never was…I didn’t get the smooth jazz thing. So you know, I kind of waited my turn until I heard it come back around. You know in the early 90’s when bands like De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest and stuff like that – and Wu Tang Clan hit the band waves – I was aware of the stuff that they were sampling. So it was like, “Okay, this could be my time to do this.”And then meeting DJ Greyboy who kind of was doing the same thing was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and being aware of what time it was.
So just to ask a few more questions…when do you think this new album will be out? Do you have a release date yet?
We have a release date…I’m not really sure exactly when it is but it’s in January, though. And it’s coming out on Stoopid Records.
Do you have any guests on that record or is it all Tiny Universe?
You know what, man, we just sent a track off to Nicki Bluhm yesterday and she’s gonna do a little duet with me. And then the great Mike Dillon is all over it. And I’ve got Anthony Smith – a good friend of mine – playing vibes on a track. DeLa from Slightly Stoopid is playing bari on the record…
Alright well thanks for the time and I hope you have a spectacular time on the Soul Spectacular Tour.
Thanks brother, I’ll see you out there on the road.
