It
had been about eighteen
months or so, since I last had an opportunity to catch up
with the talented saxophonist, songwriter and producer Mindi
Abair, when she was performing at Seattle, Washington’s Jazz
Alley and the release of her new album
In Hi-Fi Stereo,
afforded the perfect opportunity to congratulate her, on her
election to the board of governors for the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammy Foundation). Our
converstation also took place just prior to the PBS broadcast
(June) of a special tribute concert to Grammy Award winner and
Academy Award nominated songwriter Diane Warren, in which Mindi
Abair took part. An announcement had just been released that she
would also be appearing in an Adam Sandler movie. On the eve of
celebrating her fifth wedding anniversary with hubby Jason
Steele, Mindi Abair took time to sit down and talk to me about
her recent album.
“I love to make music with my friends and I always thought if you choose
something that you like to do in life you will like to get up in the morning and
do it and I think that goes hand in hand with; do something that you love and do
it with people that you love. In my
life the people who I have come up the ranks with playing music, I’ve held onto
them and I feel like it is a really special thing to have musical friendships.
For me, musical life and personal life are very much the same for me. Even when
writing music, I will call up all of my friends, Ty Stevens who has written on
all of my CDs or Matthew Hager. I will just say, ‘Hey what are you doing for
lunch? Do you want to grab some food and write a song?’ They are usually up for
it. We have our little spots that
we go to and we talk about life. We (are able) to write and to play together,
because of that. We are not trying
to impress each other and we are not trying to one-up each other.
We know each other and that friendship really comes through the music. It
is the same with Wayne Rodrigues. We have known each other for so many years
that it is nice, because we can bring different things to the music, because of
that. I am always open for new relationships, as it is always fun to open new
doors. If you can make music and go to work, and I use the term work, loosely,
and go to work everyday with your friends, I very much respect that and I love
that we can be a part of each other’s careers. We can carry each other on to
bigger and better things, which is the best,” says Abair.
Four years ago, the always innovative, pretty and petite blond redefined Jazz
once again, with the release of her album
Life Less Ordinary which sported two scintillating songs, “The Joint,” and
“Bloom,” which she dubbed Stadium Jazz. With her new album
In Hi-Fi Stereo, in a similar fashion
to how English guitarist / singer / songwriter James Hunter reached back to the
fifties and sixties and then put his own twist on rock ‘n’ roll music that was
heavily influenced by Doo Wop and groups like The Five Satins, Mindi Abair’s
inspiration for her original songs on In
Hi-Fi Stereo was also inspired by artists from another era, yet her music
still evidences the creative and unique vibes that music fans have come to
expect from Abair.
“On this new record I really reached for the
sounds of the sixties and seventies in Jazz, that old, funky music that you can
dance to. I wanted to capture that. I didn’t want a thoughtful, meaningful
record per se (she laughs lightly). I just wanted a record where people thought
they were in the studio with us, and they just wanted to smile and they wanted
to dance. That’s what I wanted to do. I figured I should make the record that I
wanted to make,” she says.
With the opening track “Any Way
You Wanna,” Mindi Abair sets the mood early on
In Hi-Fi Stereo, with fat saxophone
notes and deep grooves that invite the listener to move their feet and shake
their booty. Keyboardist Rex Rideout, guitarist Randy Jacobs (Was Not Was,
Bonnie Raitt) and bassist Reggie McBride (Aretha Franklin, Keb’ Mo’) are
stellar.
Abair says that even in her
choosing of song titles such as “Get Right,” and “Girl’s Night Out,” she wanted
to capture the fun and the essence of this record. “It is definitely a throwback
to those vintage records that I loved, old Ramsey Lewis and (his record)
The In Crowd or Archie Bell and the
Drells or Junior Walker. I felt like the best way to describe that and to title
the record was to really put a nod to that vintage sound. So many of those
records that I love, they had that stamp on them
In Hi-Fi Stereo. In listening back
now from our ears that are used to digital cleanness and this pristine quality,
they had that record noise and you kind of felt like you were in the room with
the band and because they only had a few mics up you felt like you were right
there. That is what we strove for on this record. I wanted someone to feel like
they were in the club with us, because that is the way that I grew up playing. I
played six nights a week from