I am so excited that Carmen Lundon has walked in this studio. I was just saying to her, seeing. Each other, We've done this a few times of the course of my career, and I considered it one of the signal honors of my career to have had the opportunity on multiple occasions to. Talk to Carmen Lunday. She's in studio right now. She was named this year as a National Endowment for the Art Jazz master. As we say, that's high cotton. That is high cotton. So we're gonna celebrate Carmen Lundy in this hour now that she's live in studio and discuss her new project called Notes from the Wine Seller. Speaking of which, tell me about this track, Carmen Lundy. This is thinking of You tune that was written, believe it or not. This comes out of the wine cellar. This was written back in the late seventies, early eighties, and I could not put these ideas together to form the kind of track that I could commit to. And it's tacond me. How many years ago was that? It second me all this time to feel good about it, and I was writing, rewriting. I mean, this thing was on the shelf for too long. So you know, this whole project has come into fruition. But it took a good three and a half four years to put these tracks together. And I'm not exaggerating. Some of them were written six months before we tracked, and some of them are written years decades ago. Then I'm really really feeling great about it. Turn it up, Mouse, turning this stuff, trying it up. Always, always, I'm gonna let this ride. I'm gonna let it ride. When we come forward, I'll start my my questions and I got questions, she's got ANSWER's gonna be great conversation. But let this ride. Mouse. You're listening to Carmen Lundy twenty six Any jazz master on Tavis. Spine to the Church on Top, it's Carmen Lunday. She is the twenty twenty sixth National Endowment for the Arts of Jazz Master, an iconic honor for an iconic career. I am honored to have Carmen Lundy join us live in studio. The new project is called Notes from the Wine selling You always get me when I hear a Hammond B three. I grew up on a Pentecostal Apostolic church we're gonna talk about that in your mama, we talk about that to say my dad, Yeah, your daddy, we gonna go there. You know I know that backstory, right, we're gonna talk about that. But let it ride mouse. When I hear B three, you put me in any way, and I love the way this guy is playing. But tell you about this track. This track was probably the last track to find its way onto this project. And you know, my dad lived and be ninety four years old. That' said blessed ninety four. That's a blessing. And while my mother made sure I got those piano lessons we were talking about, right, made sure that that you know, she made the clothes I said. When I started my career, when I was all was sixteen years old, my father was like, oh no, oh no, no, no, no, and no, and it ain't happening with me. So my father never never jumped on board. It just never. It was the devil's music. I was like, Dad, the devil doesn't have music, don't you know that? And it's like it was my entire career and I wanted my father's approval and let me know that he was proud of his young little girl baby girl, you know didn't happen. So here I am very close to getting this, this record into the studio finally, and I had to say goodby to him one last time, and I was sitting there going, well, they kind of named me a jazz master, dad, how does that feel? Nothing? So I needed to release I really I needed to release that sadness that that I don't know, if disapproval, I don't know what to call that sort of absolute sense of a need that's not fulfilled by the one person who's responsible, the two people the dad responsible for my getting me here really, so it's interesting. Conversely, it could be that the fact that he never came on board is the reason why I stuck with it. Never know, you see what I mean, you can just say what the heck, but in Land it for you and just, you know, just kind of drop out. But it worked in the reverse for me. It just made me want It just kind of gave me that other part of the motivation that you really don't invite. But it really did make a difference ultimately that I hung in there despite. That I didn't know we were going to go here. But since we're here, we're gonna stay here for a second. As we said in the Pentecostar church, we're gonna tarry here for a little bit. Let's just tear here for a bit. I wanted to ask you, and I'll get your father in a second. I wanted to ask about your mother anyway, because your mother sang with the Apostolic Singers. My mother was the lead singer and the Apostolic Singers of Parian, Florida. I'm originally from Miami, Florida, and as a little girl, they would rehearse in the living room of my home for the you know, the best, the best choir in the church always opened up. I think it was First Sundays. I think it was First Sundays. Yeah, that Apostolic and we would just wear it out. Okay, we'd be in church three hours behind those tunes. Right. But that group was modeled after the Caravans, oh yeah, and the Albertino Walkers and the Shirley Caesars. Right. So my mother was that So as a child I got to watch them rehearse if I behaved myself. And her younger sister was the penist accompaniment for that, and she's still she was up in church somewhere in Lakeland, Florida, Orlando last weekend. My aunt tells her she's still killing it and she was the B three. Okay, I'm many people. Okay, we're still in this church thing. How many people have you watched Saved Soul Saved behind this B three thing? Right? So more than I can count. So I'm really proud of that. Those are my earliest beginning. Those are my earliest memories. Okay, the whole thing of music lessons and studying and you know, going into formal education. I had that as my foundation. Okay, so my mother. Actually there's a film called Nothing But the Blood that I released and it won the Best Documentary Music Doctrinary for the La Jazz Film Festival Downtown, LA Film Festival three years ago. I gotta find this, yes, and the documentary Nothing but the Blood, is about specifically. It's it's about the history of the Apostolic singers. Because I looked up and I'm now maybe my second dated, second decade into my career, and I started asking questions, do you have film about and does anybody have a cassette of when you guys are ripping? It? Is any of their music online? No, that's what I'm trying to tell you. I'm about to tell Miles to go find it right quick. I wanted to hear it, but the film I kept the film. The film is done, but I have not uploaded it. It's just a private link to my family on YouTube. Okay, so it's not for the public consumption at there's point, but I can share that with you, Tavis. We're live, and at some point, if we get the right distribution of the right interest, everybody will know this story. But it's just a story about the bond between all these fine these you know, mothers of seven, ten, nine children. How their story about how they got along and this racist American society as black women in the church. Up in the church. And it's a beautiful story. And they tell their own stories. It's a beautiful story. Now I'm curious, this is getting good and we only need twenty men saying I'm glad you here for the whole hour. I am curious, being a Pentecostal Apostotics church member myself, why highlt nothing but the blood. That was one of the songs I figured so that they were recording, but had all these other connotations, you know, the family and my grandparents own the family market and it's Brian Florida Matthew's Groceries. So I come from that family that was revered, you know, prominent. We fed the neighborhood. My grandfather and his brother built all the homes and all the businesses, and all of the siblings lived next door to each other and around the corner. They built the church three blocks down at the end. Reference church three blocks at the end of the same block that I you know. That's it. So all of that is in this little movie, and it's a story about the resilience really of the black community and how we can start with a seed and just roll into making a huge impact on our communities in our society. Any a jazz master, okay, but that starts from a little tiny place somewhere in the most the deepest part of the American South, which is Miami. Myles, there's a Fred Hammond has a blood song medley. It starts without know it was the blood find Out medley for me, Me and Karmen. Carmen and me, that should say me corammatically correct. Carmen and I I have this conversation about the apostolic prenecoltural tradition. Now I want to hear something. Tell me what you got it, Myles, I will just tell you got it. Give me something it, give me somebody that give it to me. Everybody listen, just in case you didn't know, here is the main ingredient. It really changed my life. A life would have been equity and they're. Already ply stayed. But I found my hope. That girl they going from the same day you had me. If I think it a work, tell you I don't think, because I know I know and say things like changing. Come with me and I tell you. That that's that's that's enough of it. That's that's that's Fridge version of it. Everybody does it their own way. But you got me thinking about the blood, Carmen, Uh, nothing but the blood. That's not how we sang it didn't in our school to church. But I just want to hear a little bit of that. So your father and I was struck by your story about your father. Let me tell you why, because I know something of your story. I resemble your story when it comes to being gifted in a particular way and the Apostolic Pentecostal tradition telling you that what you are gifted at. Is not what you ought to be doing. Yes, I was discouraged from going to Harvard Law School because I was told you can't be a lawyer and go to heaven. And I said, why not. It's because lawyers lie all the time, and if you lie, you. Can't go to heaven. That was beat into me that I could not be a lawyer. I'm sorry. My career's worked out, okay, don't get me wrong. And I employed lawyers, a whole bunch of them, too many of them, in my pocket everything. But the point is, and I know others have these same stories of the ways in which that Apostolic Pentecostual tradition shut them down from getting on certain on ramps to to their life, to their future, to their career. But your story hit me because it says your daddy, it's your father telling you that, m you should not pursue this. And I heard the pain in your voice that your whole life you've been you've been processing this. Just tell me, tell me a bit more about that, about that journey of of now being a jazz master. But your daddy haven't told you a decades. I want to say that I have a memory of Uh, I'm the oldest of seven kids, so you know, you're kind of stuck with watching the kids too. But there was a piano in my home when I grew everybody in my family had a piano in the house. So what I would do is. Kind of hang and just be with the music, you know, the turntable and plucking out these songs and teaching myself all the songs of the of the day, everything from motown to Donnie Hadaway. So at some point there was this tune that was really popular by the young Hold Unlimited, and I plucked that melody out. So my father came in from work one day and heard me doing this, and he was really impressed with that. So from that point on, he would bring his pals over and say check it. You know, you send out and play that song. You'll show them what you're doing, you know. So I kind of loved it that he was encouraging me to, you know, to kind of show off my little talent, right, But I think what happened was that was all really okay. It was just that when I decided to pursue this and to really make this my you know, to make money, to like do this for you know, my living. That's when things got a little squirrelly. So this is not the kind of thing that you by then, let me just say this. I was already sure that this is what I was going to do with my life. Okay, so it was. It just became something that I really would have loved to have that reinforcement. But it but I have a mother who compensated for. That in ways that she leaned. Oh my gosh. So for it just turns out that I had the right combination of ingredients. I had great teachers, and the opportunities presented themselves, and I was always and I was in love with the music. By then. There was nothing that was gonna take me away. But everybody calm and wants to make their especially black folk. We want to make our parents proud, yes, sir, make our mom and daddy prow yes. And to be pursuing, to be pursuing something for all those years that. Maybe I maybe he maybe he was proud. It just didn't know how to say, because saying it would mean he wouldn't make a to heavn or something. He actually told me that he actually said he wouldn't go to heaven okay. So I know that heaven is a beautiful place, whatever that is, okay, And some of that just might be somewhere in our space right now. Heaven could be you and I are sitting You're having this wonderful conversation about it. It is for me. It is for me. So with all that being said, I want to thank them. I want to thank my parents. I want to think the black community that nurtured me as a young person, and I want to thank all those teachers. You know, I went to. My elementary school was completely black. Okay. I'm just saying that there's a community here too. And my mother was the oldest of eleven, so that quote unquote village or whatever. There are so many other influences. Sometimes, even though your parents may be not so much of the encouragement that you would like, there are other people and other experiences that offset that. And I'm happy for that too. We were just talking the other day about the fact that we are who we are because somebody loved us. We are who we are because somebody loved us, and that somebody is a large community for many of us, even beyond our parents, or sometimes despite our parents, but we are who we are because somebody loved us, and I hear that loud and clear in the story that you are telling. Carmen Lundy is a twenty twenty six National Endowment for the. Arts Jazz Master. That's a high, high honor for a career that's been nothing short of amazing. Vocalist, composer, educator, visual artist. I am honored to have with one more game in my presence for an amazing conversation. You've just heard the first thirty minutes of it. If you missed any of it, just tuning in. Check out the podcast of this conversation when it's posted later tonight. But we got a half hour to go. I got more questions for Karmen Lundy're gonna play some more music from this new project called from the Wine Cellar. We are blessed to have in the studio right now. Carmen Lundy, he said, people tend to say that I'm black and I'm proud, and he says, I'm black and I can't help it. I'm black and I'm proudly said no, I'm black and I can't help it. I thought about that when I heard this track the first time with that lyric. If you were born another color. Born another color. At this track, we'll see we're living with, We're living with, We're in this cycle, citticism in the cycle that is being forced on us now out of. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. But the answer to this question, if you were born another color, what would it be the same? That's my ans I would choose the same. I would choose to say, all day, Lord. That's not that's not one I've heard some you know sometimes, and I think it was one of those tunes that I can't remember. I was working on another song and I got to the end of the track they had the you know, tape rolling, and it just came out of maybe the frustration of the moment, maybe the absolute disbelief that I could say, if you were born another gender, you know, I could do you know, you could do a lot of things with that. But I just don't quite want to grasp what this problem is. And I just wish somebody would answer the question why, why why this particular melon and content of the and Tony Marsha says, we're the human race. We are the human race, and everything else is a construct. So I'm addressing all of that in this tune. It's not like when God was passing our colors, people were volunteering for black. Nobody raised their hand to volunteer for radew. You know, what, can I say something? I think I would have raised my hand. I want that you give me that. There you go. I'm not I'm not sure I would have volunteered for it. But I tell you this, since I've been in this skin for all these years, I wouldn't want to be anything else, all all the struggles and turmoil and it comes along with it, is nothing else I'd rather be than. A black man. Well, you know, when you listen to the notes from the Wine Cellar as a collective project, it's not an album that's you know, a bunch of love songs. Okay, it's not an album. It's all about a political perspective. This is a rendering of an artist saying of my time. This is what is what I want to say about what life is like now, for this world we're in now. So I don't really have an interest in you know, it's jazz singer, jazzing er, jazz master. There the history is there, the the time, the knowledge, the study, the discipline of working at my craft. All of that's there, Okay, But do I really need to remind and do I really need to go back and dig up some old songs for y'all to prove that I'm a jazz singer start scatting on something. I don't really feel like that now as a jazz artist, I really want to want the audience to know that I'm here with you now, in this moment, and I'm not doing throwback. It's not interesting to me now. It might have been, you know, that first couple of three records or something like that, or maybe starting my career and feeling like it was a way to get into the game. But you're sixteen records in now. Yeah, sixteen seventeen, Okay, so. There we jumped in so fast. The voice that you are hearing is common Lundy. We just played the song, went right into talking about it. It's common Lundy. She is the twenty twenty sixth Nash and Diamind for the Arts Jazz Master. Her new project is called Notes from the Wine Cellar. We've played three or four tracks, may get another one or two in between. Now on the top of the album, just giving you a taste of the beauty and the brilliance. Uh that is on this album. I was saying to Carmen her band, the band is tight. The band is. Bass players right here from from from from lem Park, from Crenshaw, Jermaine Crinch, Jermaine Crenshaw, Jermaine paul Is on drum, I'm on bass, okay. Julius Rodriguez. This young brother from New York, he's all Julius wald Regaez. Now that sounds like he's I don't think he speaks a word of Spanish, but he's a Haitian brother who is so gifted. Andrew Renfro from the South on guitar, and Terry on gully from East Saint Louis. I mean, this is like four players, and not not to exclude this young she's making a name for herself. Tantiana Tate Tum. Yeah. So it's really just the sixth of us bringing forth this project. Let me just go to this. Now we've said it three or four times, but I havn't had a chance to actually lean in to ask you how it felt. When you learned that you were being named a twenty twenty six jazz master. Wow. In the stream of the timing, of it was interesting. I had received the wonderful honor of being the inaugural class of the Jazz Foundation of America chor hoots, right. So this came out of the blue. And then I learned that these are things you don't apply for. It's somebody else paying attention. Here's the thing I felt, after all these years, and after all these records, and after all this touring and seeing the world and upholding the integrity of this great into the spectrum jazz music, that people were actually listening and they were actually aware of my contribution the whole time. It's an incredible honor. It's an incredible validation for the work, for having hung in there, for sticking with it, and for bringing other people along. Okay, because I don't go to the band stand up there, and I'm not up there by myself. All right, there are When my career began, these veterans, these the major major jazz artists, said come on. They reached out their hand and gave me a chance. So what do I look like not doing that for the generation behind me? So part of my journey is inclusive. It's including the players. I might add that I have a brother, great basis Curtis Lundy, who's eleven months to the day, my junior, and Curtis and I spend a lot of our time in Miami playing with bands and hooking up, you know, bringing new people in. He still does that. We both do that to this day. The Jazz Master the recognition. It takes place, by the way, September, we're doing a concert here in Los Angeles. I will be there September fifteenth. I think it's open to the public. Just get your tickets so you get the better seats. But it's open to the public September fifteenth. Where it's not just me, it's Rond the Hamilton, Aerto Morea, Patrice, Russian, myself. There's only four of us, and they'll they'll choose. They choose four every year. But to be part of this is the highest. They say, it's the highest, aren't honor? Give it by our country? And now I've got to uphold it and live up to it. Oh yeah, well let's see that. Now you've done that already. That's why we got it. So that the heart, the heart part's done. You've done that, which is right. You received the Jazz Master honor. Honorriffic in this particular year when we come forward, Carmen said's a moment ago that one there just unpacked for me. So here's the question and she'll address it on the other side. She said that telling her contribution that people were paying attention. Indeed, we have been paying attention to the contribution that you have made. But I want to know from you what do you hope or believe that contribution to be. So think about that for a second. I want to know what she thinks about, what she intended, what she's attempted, what she hopes and believes her contribution to all of it. I know what I take away from her great body at work. What does she think about the contribution, what she been trying to get us to tap into. That's the question. You're listening to Carmen Lundy, and I'm glad about it. On Tavis Smiles, your. Karmen Lunday would offend you if I say that this album to my ears is eclectic. It's very much. Yeah, that's very much what this is. Yeah, because that's what our experience is show eclectic. Yes, it is. Yeah. I love to listening to her. Last night, I'm like, man, Karma's got a little bit of everything on this project. Our guests is Karmel Lundy six. Jazz Master is the highest honor that one can receive as a jazz artist in this country, and she has earned it. And I could not be more thrilled to have her in the studio and to know that she is now. She's always been a jazz master to me, but now they've said she's a jazz master. Her new project is called Notes from the Wine Cellar. I've been giving you a taste of this album over the course of this hour. My time is getting tied on me, but let me just let me just tee this art right quick. There's a lot of conversation here in La where we see this program, as you know, is heard all across the country. You've been heard right now in New York and Detroit and Chicago and Atlanta and everywhere. But we're based in LA and this La Jazz Festival that was supposed to happen this year, the inaugural La Jazz Festival, imploded and everybody is talking about it. The story has legs about why it cratered. The artists have been, you know, hurt that they don't get a chance to perform, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. My critique of this, and I have a critiqu. I'm gonna get into all the details of it, but my critique when I first saw this is that we are watering down the notion of what jazz is. When I saw the bill for all the folk on this inaugural Jazz Festival list, I'm like, that ain't jazz, and that ain't jazz, and that ain't jazz, and that ain't jazz, and that showed enough ain't jazz. I think we have gotten into a place now where people want to lean into. That word, but we've watered down what we. Say, what we mean when we use that term. That's my critique. I'm going to shut up. We just say a quick word about that before I get to this question. About your contribution. Oh and I only something. Am I wrong? If I'm wrong? To tell me I'm wrong. Well, this this music that we've been playing. Someone might argue, isn't it? But I would say this that you the experience. I said, jazz is church, y'all. I like that. Jazz is church. I like that. I like that. I like that, And there's that moment of being in this being in the space. But it's more than that. We have evolved of an art form that incorporates so many elements of what's the highest level of music. The possibilities are all in this music. When we talk about scales, when we talk about chords, when we talk about melody, we talk about rhythm, we talk about lyrics. We put this all together, we talk about life experience, and we talk about this element of that which isn't written down, that which is occurring in the moment, that conversation between the musicians and the audience. Okay, so a lot of what occurs, the variety. That's another thing, This experience of knowing what I mean when we talk about jazz. Maybe it has to do with the way we're introduced to the music in the first place. And right now, I mean, fortunately for you and I, Tavis, we have the option of studying music in school. Okay, I don't know if that's still the case anymore, not so much. And I'm not going to sit here and say what I know. Jazz is this Some people say it's America, America's classical music. I just want to say that the jazz artists deserve a bit more visibility and recognition for the craft itself. We're not in this necessarily for popularity or for the hit record or for the you know, the million million streams. I don't really think that's why we set out to do this. It's not for the glamour and the glitz. There's more to it than that. It's not enough for me to share this with you in this short time the tapus than I have together. But I will say this just. I hope that today, in my conversation with you, has made you a little more curious about it, that you really want to go on your own and start listening. A lot of this music that is jazz, has nothing to do with the voice. But I want to thank Louis Armstrong for dropping that paper that day and forgetting words start act. There you go, moments were common Lunday. When we come forward on to have a smidy I've got two minutes left in this conversation. We're gonna close every common Lundy, just as we opened this conversation an hour ago with Common Lundy. The new album once again is called Notes from the Wine Cellar. The word is eclectic. She agrees with that. She is a twenty twenty six National Dobbin for the arch Jazz Master. What a blessing, what an honor, what a delight, what a treat to have had you in studio. One more again, common Lunday, I've got two minutes left yielded to you. What have you hoped? What have you dreamt? What has been your end? And aim for us with regard to the next the bounty of your career. The next gig, all of la shows up. Yeah, that's the goal, right. Everybody. Yeah, that's it. I'm a simple girl. I'm a simple lady, and that the world will follow. Guess you know everything there's a little nucleus vibe in it. You know, you can't resist it. That's it. So if you guys come along, then I know everything's good. Check Out this band that was Terry on Gully. So this tune, if you listen to the rhythm, it's Brazilian, which is also another component of this beautiful African diaspora. Okay, And that's really what my record is. It is all the components that make up the. African diasporaspectives so many ingredients and you you weave them all together and you cooking. You're cooking Carmen Carmen Lundy is cooking on this new project once Oh you know I love you, I love you. It's called Notes from the Wine Cellar from the twenty twenty six a. Jazz Master. It's about time. She has earned it. She deserves it, and I'm just thrilled. I love seeing my friends. Somebody said I'm rooting for everybody black. I'm rooting for everybody black, and I love seeing my friends get the respect and. The honor they deserve. Karmon Monday, you deserve it. Thank you. Good to see you just like that three hours ago on Tomorrow's Friday, which means that tomorrow is the best of Tabith Smiley on these stations across America until tomorrow. Thanks for listening to Tabith Smiley and as always, keep the faith