Category Archives: All Interviews

It is an honor for me to be able to bring to you a conversation with Mr. Marcus Miller, as he just released a special album entitled “Marcus“. Winner of the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album of 2001, spent a few years as a top call New York studio musician, working with Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Grover Washington Jr., Bob James and David Sanborn, among others. He has appeared as a bassist on over 400 records including recordings by artists as diverse as Joe Sample, McCoy Tyner, Mariah Carey, Bill Withers, Elton John, Bryan Ferry, Frank Sinatra, and LL Cool J. In 1981, he joined his boyhood idol Miles Davis and spent two years on the road with the fabled jazzman, in 1986, he collaborated again with Miles Davis, producing the landmark Tutu album, the first of three Davis albums he would produce. He has also produced Al Jarreau, the Crusaders, Wayne Shorter, Take 6, Chaka Khan, and Kenny Garrett among others, and Luther Vandross. The list of credits goes on for miles (couldn’t resist), but the man behind the music is as bona-fide as the music itself. Please take a moment a listen to us discuss the new album, some moments with Mr. Miles Davis as well as some information on a rare track I happened to find myself in possession of.

Check out my conversation with Mr. Marcus Miller here.

I had a chance to speak with Stan Harrison about his new album, the Optimist as well as where he has been able to draw his inspirations, and even a quick word about his work with They Might be Giants. Stan has performed with and/or appeared on albums by some of music’s most respected bands/singers (including David Bowie, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Duran Duran, Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble and many more…) But it’s with ‘The Optimist‘ that we get more of a sense of who Stan Harrison has become. I am glad to bring this conversation to some of you not familiar with the man and his music and invite you to kick back and enjoy.

Click to listen to my conversation w/Stan Here.

So I was just sitting there minding my own business….yeah right!!! We had a special guest phone in live on the program this week….DJ LOGIC. He was in town playing a nearby festival and greenarrowradio was the beneficiary of a moment of his free time. We make time to talk about several new projects including the John Popper Project feat. Logic, as well as the new work being accomplished with Kyle Hollindsworth of String Cheese and Speech from Arrested Development being called Soleside. We even get a moment to discuss the new Billie Holiday remix he had the honor of working on. So, like I said….I was just sitting there minding my mind, making thirsty ear holes fill up and Waaa-BAM!!…I was LOGIC-I-FIED…and now it’s your turn too.

Here the LOGIC right here.

thanks to Diane at DP public relations for all her work!

Positive Vibrations abound with a beat to keep you on your dancing feet, while Pato Baton delivers a message that is food for the mind and soul. Many have considered his charismatic performance as live theatre where no show is alike and the audience members become participants in the experience. Pato communicates with the crowd on a range of topics including current day events and spiritual freedom while keeping the vibes upbeat and fun! The direction of the concert is totally based on the feedback he receives from the audience as there is no fixed set list. Many have said that the positivity generated from the stage has changed their lives forever. I had the opportunity to welcome Pato to New England as he heads up this way. We have a chat about his latest release titled “Positive Vibrations” (Jan 07), also a couple of interesting bits about what is in store for the near future….new record/collaborations….when I called, he was just finishing the last 20 seconds or so of a brand new tune….and it wouldn’t be right not to ask the opinion of something current to our one world, one love.

Enjoy the conversation with Pato Banton here.

Buddy Wakefield is the two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion featured on NPR, the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, and most recently a moment with MisterG & greenarrowradio. In 2004 he won the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals thanks to the support of anthropologist and producer Norman Lear then successfully defended that title at the International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, Netherlands against the national champions of seven European countries with works translated into Dutch. n the spring of 2001 Buddy left his position as the executive assistant at a biomedical firm in Gig Harbor, WA, sold or gave away everything he owned, moved to the small town of Honda Civic and set out to live for a living, touring North American poetry venues through 2003. He still tours full time while co-managing The Bullhorn Collective (a talent agency founded by Wakefield, made up of 30+ of the most accomplished performance poets alive), and considers his recent tours with Ani DiFranco the highlight of his career thus far.

Buddy is known for delivering raw, rounded, high vibration performances of humor and heart.

I invite you to listen here as Buddy & I share words.

BURNT SUGAR is a territory band, a neo-tribal thang, a community hang, a society music guild aspiring to the condition of all that is molten, glacial, racial, spacial, oceanic, mythic, antiphonal and telepathic. BURNT SUGAR, THE ARKESTRA CHAMBER is the creation of writer/guitarist/producer GregTate. Employing Conduction, an interpretative system for improvisers developed by Lawrence“ Butch” Morris, Tate guides the band through improvisations on each of its song forms. As a result, each performance is an original mutation in tune with the collective personality of the audience as well as the individual character and talents of the players. In addition to founding and conducting Burnt Sugar, Greg Tate is writer whos work has appeared in publications including The Village Voice, The NewYork Times, Rolling Stone, and Vibe and is the author of the books; Flyboy In The Buttermilk (Simon and Shuster), Everything But The Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture (Broadway/Random House) and Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience (Acapella). Burnt Sugar performs regularly at the usual hotbed venues in New York, including; Joe’s Pub, Tonic, Symphony Space, The Blue Note, Makor, The Knitting Factory, Galapagos, CBGBs, BAM Café, Aaron Davis Hall, Lotus and The Cutting Room. On July 21st here in Hartford CT at REAL ART WAYS, Greg will bring this electric eclectic groove arkestra into our neighborhood for open minds, dancing souls and thirsty earholes can collaborate in a good listen.

LISTEN HERE TO GREG AND I DISCUSSING THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS SOUND PAINTING.

Forro in the Dark is not quite that type of traditional forro band, instead they are bringing an updated style of the music to the hipsters and club-goers of NYC, but the sweaty, excitable vibe is still undeniable.
Supplementing the traditional instrumentation with electric guitars, an array of flutes, modern percussion and other contemporary instruments, along with the help of David Byrne, Bebel Gilberto and Miho Hatori, Forro in the Dark capture the immediate, pleasure-craving core of forro for modern audiences to relieve their stress on the dance floor just like the Brazilian workers of the early 1900s. I reached out to Mauro like so many people do these days and was received openly and before I knew it I was spinning my own copy of bonfires of sao joao, Forro’s latest release. Like the album, Mauro was a delight to speak with and we entertained each others opinions and ideas and really openly talk about this album, the people behind it and hopefully shared an organically cosmic moment via the phone waves.
I invite you to listen to our conversation here.

From August 9th – August 12 at Seaside Park in Bridgeport Connecticut, the 12th annual Gathering of the Vibes will take form and fill your souls with good feelings. The list of bands for this years event is killer to say the least….just to name a few: Bob Weir & Ratdog, Mickey Hart Band, Mr. Buddy Guy, George Clinton & P Funk, Keller Williams, the Wailers, John Brown’s Body, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dickey Betts & Great Southern and many more. I recently had the chance to talk with Ken Hays, the organizer and founder of this colorful sound scape of music and events. We learn how this event got started, some solid information about the Seaside Park area and Ken gives us a tasty nugget of unannounced news.

Listen to Ken and I gather our vibes here.

I want you all to be sure to open your minds and check out some true genre bending sonic sounds that will work its way into your heartbeat sometime during its spin. Underground Communication by Bassnectar is freeform project that merges music, art, new media, social involvement, and community values; dedicated to a constantly-evolving ethos of collaborative creation, self-reinvention, and boundary-pushing experimentation…now doesn’t that fit like a g-love for greenarrowradio..hmmmmm?
It is unjust for me to drop my feeling about this album or to point you in a direction of any one song…it is one you need to dissect and digest for your self.

For starters, spend a moment in the huh with Bassnectar and MisterG here.