- 3 months ago
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00:00It's 105.1 The Bounce.
00:02I am Chorus M. Leesha B. from the All New Morning Rollout.
00:04And today I have the honor and privilege of talking to the man, the myth, the legend,
00:09the man who is all about social music, Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe winner,
00:14John Baptista. How you doing, John?
00:17Ooh, I'm good, Leesha B. What's good with you?
00:20What up, though? I heard that you talking about some big money, huh?
00:25Yes, indeed. We got the tour.
00:27We in Detroit tonight at the Fox State.
00:29I'm so grateful to be here.
00:31I am so grateful that you are here, and I'm so grateful to talk to you about this
00:34because I have been listening to you for a minute now, and this album, man,
00:39we've got so much to talk about.
00:40So I want to talk about first the actual title track, Big Money,
00:45because you repeat a line, might as well live for something you can feel.
00:50And I want to know, is that advice that you got from your grandmother
00:52or your mother, as you say in the lyrics?
00:55And if so, what do you actually live for that you can feel?
00:58I live for faith.
01:01I live for family.
01:02I live for the artistry and the beautiful cultural inheritance of this music.
01:07And, you know, over the stage at the tour, when you see the show, it says,
01:13this is under our tent, there's revival and joy.
01:17And I really believe in that.
01:20That power is greater than any monetary value.
01:23It's greater than anything that has come to us from the darkness of extreme capitalism
01:30and all of the things that I'm talking about on the Big Money record,
01:34about never selling your soul for silver and gold.
01:37Right.
01:37I feel like especially right now in this climate that we're in, this song,
01:42but specifically the album is so necessary right now.
01:46And I was so shocked to hear that you recorded this with no ID in two weeks.
01:51Is that true?
01:52Yes, no ID.
01:54And we had a great, great conversation that lasted about three years before we even made music.
02:00And then it led to us going to the studio and we said, you know,
02:04let's make something that feels like it's going back to the essence of recorded music,
02:09just a band in a room and everybody just breathing the same air,
02:14playing instruments, creating, singing, dancing together,
02:17and talk about real authentic topics, authentic situations,
02:21things that look like they can be universal over time, timeless,
02:25but also really relate to the time we're in right now.
02:28Exactly.
02:28This album gave me the vibes of like Bill Withers and the Sam Cooke's,
02:34but like also big band, but also insular in a way,
02:37because in this album I feel like you're leaning more with how people should feel
02:44more than, and like spontaneity of it all,
02:48especially with the fact that a lot of this recording,
02:51and you can correct me if I'm wrong, that they are one takes.
02:55So how important was it for you,
02:58during this process to capture the moment rather than like perfection?
03:02Well, I mean, just thinking about the beauty of that recording style,
03:09when you hear those records from Motown,
03:12or you hear Aretha Franklin, Amazing Grace,
03:15or you hear Bill Withers, or if you hear Nina Simone,
03:18if you hear, you know, all of those records were capturing that lightning in a bottle of a moment,
03:23of a performance, and I really feel like doing that today is such a beautiful expression.
03:30You know, there's a lot of great things I love in music and producing and all of that is amazing,
03:35and I have all the kind of records that are like that,
03:38but I feel like right now I just wanted to get back to that core,
03:42that root truth in the ancestors.
03:45They really created a blueprint for that,
03:48so I just wanted to check in with that.
03:50It feels like the ancestors were real tapped in with you in this album,
03:54bringing all of the juju and good vibes to you as you were writing this.
03:58So I also want to know about Lonely Avenue,
04:00because as a Ray Charles fan,
04:02I got very excited about this song.
04:05And I want to know your experience of taking something that has been done before,
04:11I don't want to say old, because Ray Charles is timeless,
04:14but turning it into your own,
04:16and also collaborating with a legend, Randy Newman.
04:20So how do you bring something who's already had its own touch,
04:23but add your own flair to it with Randy?
04:27Yeah, I love that you said that it's, you know,
04:30I believe we time travel with music.
04:33It's not old or new, it's, you're taking the spirit that's always existed,
04:39all creativity comes from this divine stream of super consciousness.
04:45It's our consciousness of one that all of us can tap into,
04:48and artists bring it down and make it into things,
04:51make it into songs, make it into albums,
04:53make it into things that can be shared.
04:57So I feel like we were just continuing what Ray started when he recorded it,
05:01and Randy and I both, you know, Randy Newman,
05:03we have a lot of connections.
05:06He has a connection, family to Louisiana.
05:08I'm from New Orleans.
05:10He's also someone who studied and loves Ray Charles as much as I do.
05:14Right.
05:14And it was a natural connection to say,
05:17let's continue the lineage of this,
05:19and the energy of the song is so powerful that I feel like it is timeless.
05:24It's not an old song when we play it.
05:26It's like it's a brand new thing because it's fresh,
05:29and it's always going to have that life force in it.
05:32Exactly.
05:33And I feel like with the way that you have captivated and curated this album,
05:38I feel like it sits in a pocket where any certain person,
05:42no matter the age, demographic, or where they are in their life,
05:46they're going to be able to hit on something because there's heritage in this music.
05:50So why was it so important to you to go back to the roots
05:53and get into that heritage, especially right now in 2025?
05:59Oh, we're in a time where a lot of the definitions of things
06:03and the history of things are being recontextualized,
06:07a lot of cultural repatriation and a lot of understanding of the past
06:11and a lot of redefining the things that were wrongly attributed to our past.
06:18And the music is a real cleansing force.
06:21It's a powerful force to really let us know who we are.
06:25And our cultural heritage in America is something that a lot of us are not fortunate
06:31to have grown up in places like New Orleans or Detroit,
06:34where it's present in the air, and they don't know it.
06:38So we have to be representatives of it and create music and create art
06:43that points to the truth of it.
06:45So it's really just like, you know, we want to put the truth on wax.
06:49Right.
06:50And that's what we really want to do all the time, especially now.
06:54And you have done just that.
06:55I'm telling you, when I first play on this album,
06:58I knew it was going to be fantastic because, come on, it's John.
07:01But I didn't realize what it was going to, I guess, unlock for me.
07:07Personally, yes, I am in Detroit,
07:09but my family's actually originally from South Carolina.
07:11So a lot of what you were speaking about,
07:14I remember my grandparents and great-grandparents really talking and diving into.
07:19So for you, when you were creating this project,
07:21what was unlocked for you during this process?
07:26Wow.
07:26I was just thinking about all of the experiences that I had growing up.
07:32You know, I've played in a lot of incredible experiential environments,
07:38like the Super Bowl or, you know, playing in the Grammys or the Oscars
07:45and all these different things.
07:46But it brought me back to my roots playing in small rooms
07:51and in ballrooms when I was 14 or playing in clubs and playing in churches
07:58and playing in community centers, playing in gymnasiums.
08:02And that feeling that you get when you're not playing for money or attention,
08:07you're just playing because there's a fire that's lit in you
08:10and you're inspired in you with your friends and family,
08:13and you could just play the same groove for four hours.
08:16And everybody is just so locked in.
08:20Right.
08:20That magic, how do we capture that energy on an album?
08:25And how do we capture it, even though I'm in this phase of my life
08:28and career right now?
08:29Right.
08:29And I'm blessed to be able to share it, and the platform is there.
08:32But how do we tap into that first love energy?
08:36I feel like you definitely did that because this feels freeing.
08:41I don't know if that is the way that you interpret it,
08:44but it feels like you are able to let go and let that magic be real
08:48and be very authentically yourself, not only you,
08:52but also the artists who are featured on this project.
08:54I just feel like everyone was able to just be authentically themselves
08:58as they were recording this.
08:59Thank you for saying that.
09:02I really feel anything that I do is not about me.
09:06It's never just a focus on me.
09:09I think about it like it's a lineage, and we're part of the continuum.
09:13And I also think about it becoming this place where everybody in the band
09:18and all the special guests, anybody who's collaborating as a part of the album,
09:23the project, the show, whatever I'm doing, it's a safe space.
09:26And you come in, and you're able to fully bring your full self to it,
09:30and you can express music.
09:32Like, you know, because I'm known, obviously, as someone who is going through genres,
09:37but I don't even think about it like genres.
09:38I just think about it like the human spirit is so vast,
09:44and there's so much expression that one person, any one person has within,
09:49that it can't be limited.
09:51And I like to create an environment where there's limitless potential
09:54for the people who are part of it to just be able to express at any moment
09:59what they feel and connect to the source.
10:01I love that, and I love how intentional you are about that.
10:05And speaking of intention, I do have to pick your brain about this.
10:08I know how incredibly musically gifted and just thought-provoking you are.
10:14What do you do to, like, keep your skills up?
10:16Because, like, I know that you've done so much in your life,
10:19so how do you stay up to date?
10:21How do you stay challenged for yourself every day?
10:25I learn from, as we talk about the elders and the lineage,
10:29and that's a big part of it.
10:30But then I'll go in the other direction and learn from the ones who are coming up.
10:37And even just looking at the band that I have on the road right now,
10:40we've been touring since the end of August, and it's been an amazing journey.
10:44But I've been learning from my band.
10:46You know, there are people in my band 20, 21, 23.
10:51You know, half of the band is from the next generation.
10:56And, you know, now me, in this age, you know,
10:58I'm used to being the youngest person on the bandstand for the last several years of my career.
11:04Now I'm not.
11:05Right.
11:05I'm now able to learn, you know, from those who are 10 years my junior and their masters in training.
11:15And they have viewpoints that I hadn't thought of or things that they're doing that I'd never heard before.
11:20And they're coming from different cultural contexts,
11:23and they're bringing their cultural lens to the music.
11:27So I'm learning from every generation as much as possible.
11:32And that's how I'll stay really up to date and stay fresh.
11:35Well, I love that.
11:36I'm very, very excited to see the show,
11:39because I feel like this album, while I loved listening to it in my headphones, playing it in the car,
11:44I feel like it's going to hit different when I'm actually in the venue with you.
11:48So what were you intentional about when it came to the show experience of creating this album?
11:53I'm always thinking about the live experience, because at the heart of what I do, I'm a musician.
12:02So we play, and we play live, and we play for people.
12:06And that's different than someone whose artistry is more rooted in the idea of a popular artist
12:16or someone who is more recreating the record in the live show.
12:22Right.
12:22I'm not doing that.
12:23The record is one version, and then the live show, when you come to see it every time, it's different.
12:29It's one-on-one, and it's based on the energy that the people are giving us in the audience.
12:35It's the venue.
12:36It's whatever the band is really checking out collectively.
12:40What I'm interested in at that time, all of those things factor into the show.
12:44A lot of times when you watch the show, you're watching the next album being created in real time.
12:52You're hearing the music from the album that we're playing on the road, and you're seeing the next album come together in real time.
13:02Wow.
13:03I never thought of it like that.
13:04That makes so much sense, not only for you, but other artists that I've seen, where you can kind of get a sneak peek of what era they're in currently.
13:12Because I can only assume that this project had been years or at least months in the making.
13:17So you're probably not technically in the same space as you were.
13:20So that does make a lot of sense, the way that you explain that.
13:24Oh, yeah.
13:24You know how the process of it has been over a year before we record it.
13:31And then when we recorded that two weeks, no idea how we recorded over two weeks.
13:36It was a year in the making.
13:37Wow.
13:38And by the time we finished recording it, as an artist, I'm in a different place.
13:43Right.
13:43But the music has all of this power that comes from all of that preparation and thought and energy.
13:48So you're seeing that meeting where I am now.
13:53So it's this expression of something that is of the record, but it's also of where I am today.
13:59And it's pointing to the future of where we're going.
14:02So it's really the live show is such a window into where it's going, why you also get the same power of the music from the album.
14:09Well, I'm so excited to see the past and the present when we see the show.
14:14I have one final question for you, John, and you can take a second just in case you need it.
14:18If you could sit down with anyone at the piano, one of your ancestors, known or unknown, who would it be?
14:25And what song would you play together?
14:29Wow.
14:30Wow.
14:32Tough.
14:35Okay.
14:36I think...
14:38Wow, that's tough.
14:42I know.
14:43You can name multiple.
14:46Piano.
14:48I mean, we talked about Ray Charles.
14:50I would play some blues with Ray Charles or I would play definitely Ray Charles would be on the top of the list.
15:00Duke Ellington.
15:01Ooh.
15:02You and Duke would do something crazy.
15:05Duke Ellington and I playing and really just connecting through the music.
15:10Like, that would be profound.
15:12I would be...
15:14Yeah, that would be one.
15:15That would have to be a live show for sure because I would need to be in the building for that.
15:20Yeah.
15:21Yes.
15:22Yes.
15:23Well, thank you so much for your time, John.
15:25I'm so excited for the show tonight at Fox Theater.
15:28Is there any last words that you want to share with the community about your album, Big Money, that is out right now?
15:34I love you even if I don't know you.
15:36And I'm so glad you exist.
15:38Thank you for your energy, peoples.
15:41And I hope to connect with you sometime.
15:44Thank you so much, John, for your time.
15:47Yes, indeed.
15:48Much love to you.
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