Speaker 1: I am so excited that Carmen Lundon has walked in
Speaker 1: this studio.
Speaker 2: I was just saying to her, seeing.
Speaker 1: Each other, We've done this a few times of the
Speaker 1: course of my career, and I considered it one of
Speaker 1: the signal honors of my career to have had the
Speaker 1: opportunity on multiple occasions to.
Speaker 2: Talk to Carmen Lunday. She's in studio right now.
Speaker 1: She was named this year as a National Endowment for
Speaker 1: the Art Jazz master.
Speaker 2: As we say, that's high cotton. That is high cotton.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna celebrate Carmen Lundy in this hour now
Speaker 1: that she's live in studio and discuss her new project
Speaker 1: called Notes from the Wine Seller. Speaking of which, tell
Speaker 1: me about this track, Carmen Lundy.
Speaker 3: This is thinking of You tune that was written, believe
Speaker 3: it or not. This comes out of the wine cellar.
Speaker 3: This was written back in the late seventies, early eighties,
Speaker 3: and I could not put these ideas together to form
Speaker 3: the kind of track that I could commit to. And
Speaker 3: it's tacond me. How many years ago was that? It
Speaker 3: second me all this time to feel good about it,
Speaker 3: and I was writing, rewriting. I mean, this thing was
Speaker 3: on the shelf for too long. So you know, this
Speaker 3: whole project has come into fruition. But it took a
Speaker 3: good three and a half four years to put these
Speaker 3: tracks together. And I'm not exaggerating. Some of them were
Speaker 3: written six months before we tracked, and some of them
Speaker 3: are written years decades ago. Then I'm really really feeling
Speaker 3: great about it.
Speaker 2: Turn it up, Mouse, turning this stuff, trying it up.
Speaker 4: Always, always, I'm gonna let this ride.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna let it ride.
Speaker 1: When we come forward, I'll start my my questions and
Speaker 1: I got questions, she's got ANSWER's gonna be great conversation.
Speaker 2: But let this ride. Mouse.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Carmen Lundy twenty six Any jazz master
Speaker 1: on Tavis.
Speaker 2: Spine to the Church on Top, it's Carmen Lunday.
Speaker 1: She is the twenty twenty sixth National Endowment for the
Speaker 1: Arts of Jazz Master, an iconic honor for an iconic career.
Speaker 1: I am honored to have Carmen Lundy join us live
Speaker 1: in studio. The new project is called Notes from the
Speaker 1: Wine selling You always get me when I hear a
Speaker 1: Hammond B three. I grew up on a Pentecostal Apostolic
Speaker 1: church we're gonna talk about that in your mama, we
Speaker 1: talk about that to say my dad, Yeah, your daddy,
Speaker 1: we gonna go there.
Speaker 2: You know I know that backstory, right, we're gonna talk
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 1: But let it ride mouse. When I hear B three,
Speaker 1: you put me in any way, and I love the
Speaker 1: way this guy is playing.
Speaker 2: But tell you about this track.
Speaker 3: This track was probably the last track to find its
Speaker 3: way onto this project. And you know, my dad lived
Speaker 3: and be ninety four years old.
Speaker 2: That' said blessed ninety four. That's a blessing.
Speaker 3: And while my mother made sure I got those piano
Speaker 3: lessons we were talking about, right, made sure that that
Speaker 3: you know, she made the clothes I said. When I
Speaker 3: started my career, when I was all was sixteen years old,
Speaker 3: my father was like, oh no, oh no, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: and no, and it ain't happening with me.
Speaker 2: So my father never never jumped on board.
Speaker 3: It just never. It was the devil's music. I was like, Dad,
Speaker 3: the devil doesn't have music, don't you know that? And
Speaker 3: it's like it was my entire career and I wanted
Speaker 3: my father's approval and let me know that he was
Speaker 3: proud of his young little girl baby girl, you know
Speaker 3: didn't happen. So here I am very close to getting this,
Speaker 3: this record into the studio finally, and I had to
Speaker 3: say goodby to him one last time, and I was
Speaker 3: sitting there going, well, they kind of named me a
Speaker 3: jazz master, dad, how does that feel?
Speaker 2: Nothing?
Speaker 3: So I needed to release I really I needed to
Speaker 3: release that sadness that that I don't know, if disapproval,
Speaker 3: I don't know what to call that sort of absolute
Speaker 3: sense of a need that's not fulfilled by the one
Speaker 3: person who's responsible, the two people the dad responsible for
Speaker 3: my getting me here really, so it's interesting. Conversely, it
Speaker 3: could be that the fact that he never came on
Speaker 3: board is the reason why I stuck with it. Never know,
Speaker 3: you see what I mean, you can just say what
Speaker 3: the heck, but in Land it for you and just,
Speaker 3: you know, just kind of drop out. But it worked
Speaker 3: in the reverse for me. It just made me want
Speaker 3: It just kind of gave me that other part of
Speaker 3: the motivation that you really don't invite. But it really
Speaker 3: did make a difference ultimately that I hung in there despite.
Speaker 1: That I didn't know we were going to go here.
Speaker 1: But since we're here, we're gonna stay here for a second.
Speaker 1: As we said in the Pentecostar church, we're gonna tarry
Speaker 1: here for a little bit. Let's just tear here for
Speaker 1: a bit. I wanted to ask you, and I'll get
Speaker 1: your father in a second. I wanted to ask about
Speaker 1: your mother anyway, because your mother sang with the Apostolic Singers.
Speaker 3: My mother was the lead singer and the Apostolic Singers
Speaker 3: of Parian, Florida. I'm originally from Miami, Florida, and as
Speaker 3: a little girl, they would rehearse in the living room
Speaker 3: of my home for the you know, the best, the
Speaker 3: best choir in the church always opened up. I think
Speaker 3: it was First Sundays. I think it was First Sundays. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that Apostolic and we would just wear it out. Okay,
Speaker 3: we'd be in church three hours behind those tunes.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But that group was modeled after the Caravans, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: and the Albertino Walkers and the Shirley Caesars.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So my mother was that So as a child I
Speaker 3: got to watch them rehearse if I behaved myself. And
Speaker 3: her younger sister was the penist accompaniment for that, and
Speaker 3: she's still she was up in church somewhere in Lakeland, Florida,
Speaker 3: Orlando last weekend. My aunt tells her she's still killing
Speaker 3: it and she was the B three. Okay, I'm many people. Okay,
Speaker 3: we're still in this church thing. How many people have
Speaker 3: you watched Saved Soul Saved behind this B three thing? Right?
Speaker 2: So more than I can count.
Speaker 3: So I'm really proud of that. Those are my earliest beginning.
Speaker 3: Those are my earliest memories. Okay, the whole thing of
Speaker 3: music lessons and studying and you know, going into formal education.
Speaker 3: I had that as my foundation.
Speaker 2: Okay, so my mother.
Speaker 3: Actually there's a film called Nothing But the Blood that
Speaker 3: I released and it won the Best Documentary Music Doctrinary
Speaker 3: for the La Jazz Film Festival Downtown, LA Film Festival
Speaker 3: three years ago.
Speaker 1: I gotta find this, yes, and the documentary Nothing but
Speaker 1: the Blood, is about specifically.
Speaker 3: It's it's about the history of the Apostolic singers. Because
Speaker 3: I looked up and I'm now maybe my second dated,
Speaker 3: second decade into my career, and I started asking questions,
Speaker 3: do you have film about and does anybody have a
Speaker 3: cassette of when you guys are ripping?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 2: Is any of their music online?
Speaker 3: No, that's what I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 1: I'm about to tell Miles to go find it right quick.
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear it, but the film I kept
Speaker 1: the film. The film is done, but I have not
Speaker 1: uploaded it.
Speaker 3: It's just a private link to my family on YouTube. Okay,
Speaker 3: so it's not for the public consumption at there's point,
Speaker 3: but I can share that with you, Tavis. We're live,
Speaker 3: and at some point, if we get the right distribution
Speaker 3: of the right interest, everybody will know this story. But
Speaker 3: it's just a story about the bond between all these
Speaker 3: fine these you know, mothers of seven, ten, nine children.
Speaker 3: How their story about how they got along and this
Speaker 3: racist American society as black women in the church.
Speaker 2: Up in the church.
Speaker 3: And it's a beautiful story. And they tell their own stories.
Speaker 3: It's a beautiful story.
Speaker 1: Now I'm curious, this is getting good and we only
Speaker 1: need twenty men saying I'm glad you here for the
Speaker 1: whole hour. I am curious, being a Pentecostal Apostotics church
Speaker 1: member myself, why highlt nothing but the blood.
Speaker 3: That was one of the songs I figured so that
Speaker 3: they were recording, but had all these other connotations, you know,
Speaker 3: the family and my grandparents own the family market and
Speaker 3: it's Brian Florida Matthew's Groceries. So I come from that
Speaker 3: family that was revered, you know, prominent. We fed the neighborhood.
Speaker 3: My grandfather and his brother built all the homes and
Speaker 3: all the businesses, and all of the siblings lived next
Speaker 3: door to each other and around the corner. They built
Speaker 3: the church three blocks down at the end. Reference church
Speaker 3: three blocks at the end of the same block that
Speaker 3: I you know. That's it. So all of that is
Speaker 3: in this little movie, and it's a story about the
Speaker 3: resilience really of the black community and how we can
Speaker 3: start with a seed and just roll into making a
Speaker 3: huge impact on our communities in our society. Any a
Speaker 3: jazz master, okay, but that starts from a little tiny
Speaker 3: place somewhere in the most the deepest part of the
Speaker 3: American South, which is Miami.
Speaker 1: Myles, there's a Fred Hammond has a blood song medley.
Speaker 1: It starts without know it was the blood find Out
Speaker 1: medley for me, Me and Karmen. Carmen and me, that
Speaker 1: should say me corammatically correct. Carmen and I I have
Speaker 1: this conversation about the apostolic prenecoltural tradition. Now I want
Speaker 1: to hear something. Tell me what you got it, Myles,
Speaker 1: I will just tell you got it. Give me something it,
Speaker 1: give me somebody that give it to me.
Speaker 5: Everybody listen, just in case you didn't know, here is
Speaker 5: the main ingredient.
Speaker 2: It really changed my life.
Speaker 5: A life would have been equity and they're.
Speaker 3: Already ply stayed.
Speaker 5: But I found my hope. That girl they going from
Speaker 5: the same day you had me. If I think it
Speaker 5: a work, tell you I don't think, because I know
Speaker 5: I know and say things like changing. Come with me
Speaker 5: and I tell you.
Speaker 1: That that's that's that's enough of it. That's that's that's
Speaker 1: Fridge version of it. Everybody does it their own way.
Speaker 1: But you got me thinking about the blood, Carmen, Uh,
Speaker 1: nothing but the blood. That's not how we sang it
Speaker 1: didn't in our school to church. But I just want
Speaker 1: to hear a little bit of that. So your father
Speaker 1: and I was struck by your story about your father.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you why, because I know something of
Speaker 1: your story. I resemble your story when it comes to
Speaker 1: being gifted in a particular way and the Apostolic Pentecostal
Speaker 1: tradition telling you that what you are gifted at.
Speaker 2: Is not what you ought to be doing.
Speaker 1: Yes, I was discouraged from going to Harvard Law School
Speaker 1: because I was told you can't be a lawyer and
Speaker 1: go to heaven.
Speaker 2: And I said, why not.
Speaker 6: It's because lawyers lie all the time, and if you lie, you.
Speaker 2: Can't go to heaven. That was beat into me that
Speaker 2: I could not be a lawyer.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: My career's worked out, okay, don't get me wrong. And
Speaker 1: I employed lawyers, a whole bunch of them, too many
Speaker 1: of them, in my pocket everything. But the point is,
Speaker 1: and I know others have these same stories of the
Speaker 1: ways in which that Apostolic Pentecostual tradition shut them down
Speaker 1: from getting on certain on ramps to to their life,
Speaker 1: to their future, to their career. But your story hit
Speaker 1: me because it says your daddy, it's your father telling
Speaker 1: you that, m you should not pursue this.
Speaker 6: And I heard the pain in your voice that your
Speaker 6: whole life you've been you've been processing this.
Speaker 1: Just tell me, tell me a bit more about that,
Speaker 1: about that journey of of now being a jazz master.
Speaker 2: But your daddy haven't told you a decades.
Speaker 3: I want to say that I have a memory of Uh,
Speaker 3: I'm the oldest of seven kids, so you know, you're
Speaker 3: kind of stuck with watching the kids too. But there
Speaker 3: was a piano in my home when I grew everybody
Speaker 3: in my family had a piano in the house.
Speaker 2: So what I would do is.
Speaker 3: Kind of hang and just be with the music, you know,
Speaker 3: the turntable and plucking out these songs and teaching myself
Speaker 3: all the songs of the of the day, everything from
Speaker 3: motown to Donnie Hadaway. So at some point there was
Speaker 3: this tune that was really popular by the young Hold Unlimited,
Speaker 3: and I plucked that melody out. So my father came
Speaker 3: in from work one day and heard me doing this,
Speaker 3: and he was really impressed with that. So from that
Speaker 3: point on, he would bring his pals over and say
Speaker 3: check it. You know, you send out and play that song.
Speaker 3: You'll show them what you're doing, you know. So I
Speaker 3: kind of loved it that he was encouraging me to,
Speaker 3: you know, to kind of show off my little talent, right,
Speaker 3: But I think what happened was that was all really okay.
Speaker 3: It was just that when I decided to pursue this
Speaker 3: and to really make this my you know, to make money,
Speaker 3: to like do this for you know, my living. That's
Speaker 3: when things got a little squirrelly. So this is not
Speaker 3: the kind of thing that you by then, let me
Speaker 3: just say this. I was already sure that this is
Speaker 3: what I was going to do with my life.
Speaker 2: Okay, so it was.
Speaker 3: It just became something that I really would have loved
Speaker 3: to have that reinforcement. But it but I have a
Speaker 3: mother who compensated for.
Speaker 6: That in ways that she leaned.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh. So for it just turns out that
Speaker 3: I had the right combination of ingredients. I had great teachers,
Speaker 3: and the opportunities presented themselves, and I was always and
Speaker 3: I was in love with the music.
Speaker 2: By then.
Speaker 3: There was nothing that was gonna take me away.
Speaker 1: But everybody calm and wants to make their especially black folk.
Speaker 1: We want to make our parents proud, yes, sir, make
Speaker 1: our mom and daddy prow yes.
Speaker 2: And to be pursuing, to be pursuing something for all
Speaker 2: those years that.
Speaker 3: Maybe I maybe he maybe he was proud. It just
Speaker 3: didn't know how to say, because saying it would mean
Speaker 3: he wouldn't make a to heavn or something. He actually
Speaker 3: told me that he actually said he wouldn't go to
Speaker 3: heaven okay. So I know that heaven is a beautiful place,
Speaker 3: whatever that is, okay, And some of that just might
Speaker 3: be somewhere in our space right now. Heaven could be
Speaker 3: you and I are sitting You're having this wonderful conversation
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: It is for me. It is for me.
Speaker 3: So with all that being said, I want to thank them.
Speaker 3: I want to thank my parents. I want to think
Speaker 3: the black community that nurtured me as a young person,
Speaker 3: and I want to thank all those teachers. You know,
Speaker 3: I went to. My elementary school was completely black. Okay.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying that there's a community here too. And
Speaker 3: my mother was the oldest of eleven, so that quote
Speaker 3: unquote village or whatever. There are so many other influences. Sometimes,
Speaker 3: even though your parents may be not so much of
Speaker 3: the encouragement that you would like, there are other people
Speaker 3: and other experiences that offset that. And I'm happy for
Speaker 3: that too.
Speaker 1: We were just talking the other day about the fact
Speaker 1: that we are who we are because somebody loved us.
Speaker 1: We are who we are because somebody loved us, and
Speaker 1: that somebody is a large community for many of us,
Speaker 1: even beyond our parents, or sometimes despite our parents, but
Speaker 1: we are who we are because somebody loved us, and
Speaker 1: I hear that loud and clear in the story that
Speaker 1: you are telling. Carmen Lundy is a twenty twenty six
Speaker 1: National Endowment for the.
Speaker 2: Arts Jazz Master.
Speaker 1: That's a high, high honor for a career that's been
Speaker 1: nothing short of amazing. Vocalist, composer, educator, visual artist. I
Speaker 1: am honored to have with one more game in my
Speaker 1: presence for an amazing conversation. You've just heard the first
Speaker 1: thirty minutes of it. If you missed any of it,
Speaker 1: just tuning in. Check out the podcast of this conversation
Speaker 1: when it's posted later tonight.
Speaker 2: But we got a half hour to go.
Speaker 1: I got more questions for Karmen Lundy're gonna play some
Speaker 1: more music from this new project called from the Wine Cellar.
Speaker 2: We are blessed to have in the studio right now.
Speaker 1: Carmen Lundy, he said, people tend to say that I'm
Speaker 1: black and I'm proud, and he says, I'm black and
Speaker 1: I can't help it. I'm black and I'm proudly said no,
Speaker 1: I'm black and I can't help it. I thought about
Speaker 1: that when I heard this track the first time with
Speaker 1: that lyric. If you were born another color.
Speaker 3: Born another color.
Speaker 7: At this track, we'll see we're living with, We're living with,
Speaker 7: We're in this cycle, citticism in the cycle that is
Speaker 7: being forced on us now out of.
Speaker 3: Everybody knows what I'm talking about. But the answer to
Speaker 3: this question, if you were born another color, what would
Speaker 3: it be the same? That's my ans I would choose
Speaker 3: the same.
Speaker 2: I would choose to say, all day, Lord.
Speaker 3: That's not that's not one I've heard some you know sometimes,
Speaker 3: and I think it was one of those tunes that
Speaker 3: I can't remember. I was working on another song and
Speaker 3: I got to the end of the track they had
Speaker 3: the you know, tape rolling, and it just came out
Speaker 3: of maybe the frustration of the moment, maybe the absolute
Speaker 3: disbelief that I could say, if you were born another gender,
Speaker 3: you know, I could do you know, you could do
Speaker 3: a lot of things with that. But I just don't
Speaker 3: quite want to grasp what this problem is. And I
Speaker 3: just wish somebody would answer the question why, why why
Speaker 3: this particular melon and content of the and Tony Marsha says,
Speaker 3: we're the human race. We are the human race, and
Speaker 3: everything else is a construct. So I'm addressing all of
Speaker 3: that in this tune.
Speaker 1: It's not like when God was passing our colors, people
Speaker 1: were volunteering for black. Nobody raised their hand to volunteer
Speaker 1: for radew.
Speaker 3: You know, what, can I say something? I think I
Speaker 3: would have raised my hand. I want that you give
Speaker 3: me that.
Speaker 2: There you go. I'm not I'm not sure I would
Speaker 2: have volunteered for it.
Speaker 1: But I tell you this, since I've been in this
Speaker 1: skin for all these years, I wouldn't want to be
Speaker 1: anything else, all all the struggles and turmoil and it
Speaker 1: comes along with it, is nothing else I'd rather be than.
Speaker 2: A black man.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, when you listen to the notes from
Speaker 3: the Wine Cellar as a collective project, it's not an
Speaker 3: album that's you know, a bunch of love songs. Okay,
Speaker 3: it's not an album. It's all about a political perspective.
Speaker 3: This is a rendering of an artist saying of my time.
Speaker 3: This is what is what I want to say about
Speaker 3: what life is like now, for this world we're in now.
Speaker 3: So I don't really have an interest in you know,
Speaker 3: it's jazz singer, jazzing er, jazz master. There the history
Speaker 3: is there, the the time, the knowledge, the study, the
Speaker 3: discipline of working at my craft. All of that's there, Okay,
Speaker 3: But do I really need to remind and do I
Speaker 3: really need to go back and dig up some old
Speaker 3: songs for y'all to prove that I'm a jazz singer
Speaker 3: start scatting on something. I don't really feel like that
Speaker 3: now as a jazz artist, I really want to want
Speaker 3: the audience to know that I'm here with you now,
Speaker 3: in this moment, and I'm not doing throwback. It's not
Speaker 3: interesting to me now. It might have been, you know,
Speaker 3: that first couple of three records or something like that,
Speaker 3: or maybe starting my career and feeling like it was
Speaker 3: a way to get into the game.
Speaker 2: But you're sixteen records in now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sixteen seventeen, Okay, so.
Speaker 1: There we jumped in so fast. The voice that you
Speaker 1: are hearing is common Lundy. We just played the song,
Speaker 1: went right into talking about it. It's common Lundy. She
Speaker 1: is the twenty twenty sixth Nash and Diamind for the
Speaker 1: Arts Jazz Master. Her new project is called Notes from
Speaker 1: the Wine Cellar. We've played three or four tracks, may
Speaker 1: get another one or two in between. Now on the
Speaker 1: top of the album, just giving you a taste of
Speaker 1: the beauty and the brilliance.
Speaker 2: Uh that is on this album. I was saying to
Speaker 2: Carmen her band, the band is tight. The band is.
Speaker 3: Bass players right here from from from from lem Park,
Speaker 3: from Crenshaw, Jermaine Crinch, Jermaine Crenshaw, Jermaine paul Is on drum,
Speaker 3: I'm on bass, okay. Julius Rodriguez. This young brother from
Speaker 3: New York, he's all Julius wald Regaez. Now that sounds
Speaker 3: like he's I don't think he speaks a word of Spanish,
Speaker 3: but he's a Haitian brother who is so gifted. Andrew
Speaker 3: Renfro from the South on guitar, and Terry on gully
Speaker 3: from East Saint Louis. I mean, this is like four players,
Speaker 3: and not not to exclude this young she's making a
Speaker 3: name for herself. Tantiana Tate Tum.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's really just the sixth of us bringing forth
Speaker 3: this project.
Speaker 2: Let me just go to this.
Speaker 1: Now we've said it three or four times, but I
Speaker 1: havn't had a chance to actually lean in to ask
Speaker 1: you how it felt.
Speaker 6: When you learned that you were being named a twenty
Speaker 6: twenty six jazz master.
Speaker 3: Wow. In the stream of the timing, of it was interesting.
Speaker 3: I had received the wonderful honor of being the inaugural
Speaker 3: class of the Jazz Foundation of America chor hoots, right.
Speaker 3: So this came out of the blue. And then I
Speaker 3: learned that these are things you don't apply for. It's
Speaker 3: somebody else paying attention. Here's the thing I felt, after
Speaker 3: all these years, and after all these records, and after
Speaker 3: all this touring and seeing the world and upholding the
Speaker 3: integrity of this great into the spectrum jazz music, that
Speaker 3: people were actually listening and they were actually aware of
Speaker 3: my contribution the whole time. It's an incredible honor. It's
Speaker 3: an incredible validation for the work, for having hung in there,
Speaker 3: for sticking with it, and for bringing other people along. Okay,
Speaker 3: because I don't go to the band stand up there,
Speaker 3: and I'm not up there by myself. All right, there
Speaker 3: are When my career began, these veterans, these the major
Speaker 3: major jazz artists, said come on. They reached out their
Speaker 3: hand and gave me a chance. So what do I
Speaker 3: look like not doing that for the generation behind me?
Speaker 3: So part of my journey is inclusive. It's including the players.
Speaker 3: I might add that I have a brother, great basis
Speaker 3: Curtis Lundy, who's eleven months to the day, my junior,
Speaker 3: and Curtis and I spend a lot of our time
Speaker 3: in Miami playing with bands and hooking up, you know,
Speaker 3: bringing new people in. He still does that. We both
Speaker 3: do that to this day. The Jazz Master the recognition.
Speaker 3: It takes place, by the way, September, we're doing a
Speaker 3: concert here in Los Angeles. I will be there September fifteenth.
Speaker 3: I think it's open to the public. Just get your
Speaker 3: tickets so you get the better seats. But it's open
Speaker 3: to the public September fifteenth. Where it's not just me,
Speaker 3: it's Rond the Hamilton, Aerto Morea, Patrice, Russian, myself. There's
Speaker 3: only four of us, and they'll they'll choose. They choose
Speaker 3: four every year. But to be part of this is
Speaker 3: the highest. They say, it's the highest, aren't honor? Give
Speaker 3: it by our country? And now I've got to uphold
Speaker 3: it and live up to it. Oh yeah, well let's
Speaker 3: see that.
Speaker 2: Now you've done that already. That's why we got it.
Speaker 2: So that the heart, the heart part's done. You've done that,
Speaker 2: which is right. You received the Jazz Master honor.
Speaker 1: Honorriffic in this particular year when we come forward, Carmen
Speaker 1: said's a moment ago that one there just unpacked for me.
Speaker 1: So here's the question and she'll address it on the
Speaker 1: other side. She said that telling her contribution that people
Speaker 1: were paying attention. Indeed, we have been paying attention to
Speaker 1: the contribution that you have made. But I want to
Speaker 1: know from you what do you hope or believe that
Speaker 1: contribution to be. So think about that for a second.
Speaker 1: I want to know what she thinks about, what she intended,
Speaker 1: what she's attempted, what she hopes and believes her contribution
Speaker 1: to all of it. I know what I take away
Speaker 1: from her great body at work. What does she think
Speaker 1: about the contribution, what she been trying to get us
Speaker 1: to tap into.
Speaker 2: That's the question.
Speaker 6: You're listening to Carmen Lundy, and I'm glad about it.
Speaker 2: On Tavis Smiles, your.
Speaker 1: Karmen Lunday would offend you if I say that this
Speaker 1: album to my ears is eclectic.
Speaker 3: It's very much. Yeah, that's very much what this is. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because that's what our experience is show eclectic. Yes, it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love to listening to her.
Speaker 6: Last night, I'm like, man, Karma's got a little bit
Speaker 6: of everything on this project.
Speaker 2: Our guests is Karmel Lundy six.
Speaker 1: Jazz Master is the highest honor that one can receive
Speaker 1: as a jazz artist in this country, and she has
Speaker 1: earned it. And I could not be more thrilled to
Speaker 1: have her in the studio and to know that she
Speaker 1: is now. She's always been a jazz master to me,
Speaker 1: but now they've said she's a jazz master. Her new
Speaker 1: project is called Notes from the Wine Cellar. I've been
Speaker 1: giving you a taste of this album over the course
Speaker 1: of this hour. My time is getting tied on me,
Speaker 1: but let me just let me just tee this art
Speaker 1: right quick. There's a lot of conversation here in La
Speaker 1: where we see this program, as you know, is heard
Speaker 1: all across the country. You've been heard right now in
Speaker 1: New York and Detroit and Chicago and Atlanta and everywhere.
Speaker 1: But we're based in LA and this La Jazz Festival
Speaker 1: that was supposed to happen this year, the inaugural La
Speaker 1: Jazz Festival, imploded and everybody is talking about it. The
Speaker 1: story has legs about why it cratered. The artists have been,
Speaker 1: you know, hurt that they don't get a chance to perform,
Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. My critique of this,
Speaker 1: and I have a critiqu. I'm gonna get into all
Speaker 1: the details of it, but my critique when I first
Speaker 1: saw this is that we are watering down the notion
Speaker 1: of what jazz is. When I saw the bill for
Speaker 1: all the folk on this inaugural Jazz Festival list, I'm like,
Speaker 1: that ain't jazz, and that ain't jazz, and that ain't jazz,
Speaker 1: and that ain't jazz, and that showed enough ain't jazz.
Speaker 1: I think we have gotten into a place now where
Speaker 1: people want to lean into.
Speaker 2: That word, but we've watered down what we.
Speaker 6: Say, what we mean when we use that term. That's
Speaker 6: my critique. I'm going to shut up. We just say
Speaker 6: a quick word about that before I get to this question.
Speaker 2: About your contribution. Oh and I only something.
Speaker 1: Am I wrong?
Speaker 2: If I'm wrong? To tell me I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: Well, this this music that we've been playing. Someone might argue,
Speaker 3: isn't it? But I would say this that you the experience.
Speaker 3: I said, jazz is church, y'all.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 3: Jazz is church.
Speaker 2: I like that. I like that.
Speaker 3: I like that, And there's that moment of being in
Speaker 3: this being in the space. But it's more than that.
Speaker 3: We have evolved of an art form that incorporates so
Speaker 3: many elements of what's the highest level of music. The
Speaker 3: possibilities are all in this music. When we talk about scales,
Speaker 3: when we talk about chords, when we talk about melody,
Speaker 3: we talk about rhythm, we talk about lyrics. We put
Speaker 3: this all together, we talk about life experience, and we
Speaker 3: talk about this element of that which isn't written down,
Speaker 3: that which is occurring in the moment, that conversation between
Speaker 3: the musicians and the audience. Okay, so a lot of
Speaker 3: what occurs, the variety. That's another thing, This experience of
Speaker 3: knowing what I mean when we talk about jazz. Maybe
Speaker 3: it has to do with the way we're introduced to
Speaker 3: the music in the first place. And right now, I mean,
Speaker 3: fortunately for you and I, Tavis, we have the option
Speaker 3: of studying music in school. Okay, I don't know if
Speaker 3: that's still the case anymore, not so much. And I'm
Speaker 3: not going to sit here and say what I know.
Speaker 3: Jazz is this Some people say it's America, America's classical music.
Speaker 3: I just want to say that the jazz artists deserve
Speaker 3: a bit more visibility and recognition for the craft itself.
Speaker 3: We're not in this necessarily for popularity or for the
Speaker 3: hit record or for the you know, the million million streams.
Speaker 3: I don't really think that's why we set out to
Speaker 3: do this. It's not for the glamour and the glitz.
Speaker 3: There's more to it than that. It's not enough for
Speaker 3: me to share this with you in this short time
Speaker 3: the tapus than I have together.
Speaker 2: But I will say this just.
Speaker 3: I hope that today, in my conversation with you, has
Speaker 3: made you a little more curious about it, that you
Speaker 3: really want to go on your own and start listening.
Speaker 3: A lot of this music that is jazz, has nothing
Speaker 3: to do with the voice. But I want to thank
Speaker 3: Louis Armstrong for dropping that paper that day and forgetting
Speaker 3: words start act.
Speaker 1: There you go, moments were common Lunday. When we come
Speaker 1: forward on to have a smidy I've got two minutes
Speaker 1: left in this conversation. We're gonna close every common Lundy,
Speaker 1: just as we opened this conversation an hour ago with
Speaker 1: Common Lundy. The new album once again is called Notes
Speaker 1: from the Wine Cellar. The word is eclectic. She agrees
Speaker 1: with that. She is a twenty twenty six National Dobbin
Speaker 1: for the arch Jazz Master. What a blessing, what an honor,
Speaker 1: what a delight, what a treat to have had you
Speaker 1: in studio. One more again, common Lunday, I've got two
Speaker 1: minutes left yielded to you.
Speaker 2: What have you hoped? What have you dreamt? What has
Speaker 2: been your end? And aim for us with regard to
Speaker 2: the next the bounty of your career.
Speaker 3: The next gig, all of la shows up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the goal, right.
Speaker 3: Everybody. Yeah, that's it. I'm a simple girl. I'm a
Speaker 3: simple lady, and that the world will follow. Guess you
Speaker 3: know everything there's a little nucleus vibe in it. You know,
Speaker 3: you can't resist it.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: So if you guys come along, then I know everything's good.
Speaker 3: Check Out this band that was Terry on Gully. So
Speaker 3: this tune, if you listen to the rhythm, it's Brazilian,
Speaker 3: which is also another component of this beautiful African diaspora. Okay,
Speaker 3: And that's really what my record is. It is all
Speaker 3: the components that make up the.
Speaker 1: African diasporaspectives so many ingredients and you you weave them
Speaker 1: all together and you cooking. You're cooking Carmen Carmen Lundy
Speaker 1: is cooking on this new project once Oh you know
Speaker 1: I love you, I love you. It's called Notes from
Speaker 1: the Wine Cellar from the twenty twenty six a.
Speaker 2: Jazz Master. It's about time. She has earned it.
Speaker 1: She deserves it, and I'm just thrilled. I love seeing
Speaker 1: my friends. Somebody said I'm rooting for everybody black. I'm
Speaker 1: rooting for everybody black, and I love seeing my friends
Speaker 1: get the respect and.
Speaker 2: The honor they deserve. Karmon Monday, you deserve it.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Good to see you just like that three hours ago
Speaker 1: on Tomorrow's Friday, which means that tomorrow is the best
Speaker 1: of Tabith Smiley on these stations across America until tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Tabith Smiley and as always, keep
Speaker 2: the faith