CM – Paul, I really appreciate you taking the time out of a busy schedule which I know is pretty much dictated by the work you do on the ‘American Idol’ TV show.  That really is some gig isn’t it?

 PJJ – It turned out to be a serious blessing because I get to play lots of different kinds of music, lots of different guitars.  Last episode I played acoustic, I played electric sitar.  A lot of fun things.

And then the visibility standpoint, it’s a really great place to be.

CM – The first week (of season 8) was the Michael Jackson week and I wondered if they told people ‘the guy who’s playing guitar on ‘Beat It’ and ‘P.Y.T.’ is the guy who played guitar on the original records’…

 PJJ – It’s funny.  I don’t think anybody mentioned it and I didn’t mention it.  I thought I’d let it go – I’m not big on tooting my own horn.

CM – Well, a guy 5000 miles away realized it Paul.

PJJ – I appreciate that.

CM – I’m a fan Paul but I don’t know how much of a fan I am.  Out of the 900 CD’s I’m looking at right now, I don’t know how many you are on. 

PJJ – I know in my life I’ve recorded on in excess of 1000 pieces of recorded music.  I’m just not sure how much or what…

CM – I want to congratulate you, Paul, on this fantastic new CD 'Lay it Back’.  I’ve been playing it like crazy.  This is the first solo album to come out on your own record label, Branch Records.  How scary is that?? 

PJJ – Well, it wasn’t really scary; the only thing is it took longer than I thought because I really wanted to do it right.  I wanted to set up a situation where all the musicians and songwriters and producers could be paid correctly and everything could be accounted for, and to make sure that everyone was paid right up front.  There were contracts for all the singers and all the musicians.

CM – Will the label ultimately release music by other artists Paul? 

PJJ – Ultimately it will release music from a few select artists – music that I believe in and can do justice to in terms of promotion and publicity in terms of exposing it to people.  It’s one thing to make a great record but you want to make sure that people can hear it and go and buy it.  If there’s a situation where I feel I can facilitate that for someone then I’ll definitely do it.

I’m using myself as the guinea pig.  When I figure out how to get it exactly right, then I can open it up to some more artists.

CM – On the CD, the tracks ‘The Workout’ and ‘Lucy the Cat’ are collaborations with Jeff Lorber aren’t they? 

PJJ – Yes they are.

CM – His producer stamp is really all over those two recordings isn’t it? 

PJJ – Yes, I’ve been working with Jeff a long time and he’s got a very distinctive style, not just in his playing but in his production.  We had fun doing those songs.

CM – Rhythmically it’s a very crisp sound – even if I didn’t know Jeff was involved I could probably have worked it out… 

PJJ – Absolutely, I agree 100%.

CM – I thought on ‘Hit It’, which features your son, the guitar floating over the top of that hip-hop backbeat worked absolutely brilliantly!

 PJJ – Thank you.  I just wanted to do something fun with him and, beat-wise, something that was somewhat relevant and integrate the guitar in it.  So we just got into that for fun and I think it worked out pretty well the way we planned it.

CM – Are you going to be working with your son more Paul?

PJJ – Both my son and my daughter.  In fact my daughter is singing background on about four songs on the record.

CM – Two of my favourite songs are the one with Bobby Lyle ‘Two for Ten Thousand’ and then the closing song ‘Fourteen ‘Til’.

 PJJ – Yeah (laughing).

CM - On that last track, the guitar’s absolutely burning.  When I listened to it, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up!  Did you have any strong blues influences when you were writing that track?  Who are your favourite blues guitar players? 

PJJ – It’s funny.  Probably it would have to be B.B. King.  I’m not a serious blues aficionado and probably I need to be a lot more serious.  But B.B. King, I’ve recorded with him a few times, I’ve worked with him live.  At the Montreux Jazz festival and also at the Hollywood Bowl.  So I’m a big B.B. fan. 

My quest is to be a better and better guitarist, period.  What happened with that track is that Dave Delhomme, who’s in the Rickey Minor Band, and I were rehearsing and he started playing that song.  I said ‘Dave, what is that?’  ‘Oh it’s a song I wrote called ‘Fourteen ‘Til’.  I said ‘I’m gonna record that’. 

And so the keyboard player who’s playing Rhodes and organ is Dave Delhomme, the composer of the song, so natural, playing the melody over those great chords and when you get to the middle, just play the blues.  We just had a blast.

CM – Could you tell me what the title refers to?

PJJ – Well, because it’s a blues song, when you have the blues, you kind of watch every minute on the clock.  So it’s not fifteen minutes until midnight – it’s fourteen minutes until midnight, fourteen minutes until your lover leaves you, until…

CM - …until the bar closes…

PJJ – Right exactly, so that’s why it’s called ‘Fourteen ‘Till’.

CM – What about the title of ‘Two for Ten Thousand’?

PJJ – Very interesting.  The song’s a duet, as you say, between myself and Bobby Lyle.  There’s a scripture in the Old Testament that says ‘one can put a thousand to flight, but two can put ten thousand to flight’ and because it’s a duet I said ‘OK Bobby, there’s two of us and we’re going to put ten thousand to flight’.  And that’s where title comes from.

CM – I can see that the work you did with Luther Vandross was very important.  ‘Ballad for Uncle Ronnie’ has elements of ‘House is Not a Home’ and ‘So Amazing’.  It’s very clever. 

PJJ – Uncle Ronnie was the name of his publishing company.  His middle name was Ronzoni and all of his nieces and nephews called him Uncle Ronnie, so when I wrote ‘Ballad for Uncle Ronnie’, all true Luther Vandross fans would know what I was talking about.

CM – I know that one of the many people you’ve played with is George Duke.  I heard ‘Swing It’ on your CD and thought of him – I couldn’t stop laughing. 

PJJ – It was funny, you know we played it for George and he said ‘oh, that sounds good!’  We took ‘Reach for It’ and teased it around a little bit.  I didn’t think George would get too mad and he didn’t – he loved it.  So it’s a kind of ‘big up’ to George Duke on that one  – I wanted a party song.  You go to a contemporary jazz show and on the last number they say ‘can you do an encore?’ so you do a party song where everybody can get involved and that was the impetus for ‘Swing It’.

CM – Because last year George really took a detour back down funk alley…

PJJ – On ‘Dukey Treats’ (laughing).

CM – You covered ‘Don’t you Worry ‘Bout a Thing’ and ‘Easy’.  Apart from them being great songs, was there a reason for choosing those two for the album?

PJJ – Mainly because I try to pick songs that I think I would sound good playing.  That’s the first thing for me.  Usually I test them – I play them with my band or Rickey’s band or something to see how I think it’ll come out.  We kind of did test playing – sometimes I’d play it live and see how people like them.

CM – I read your biography and maybe, because you were born in Los Angeles, we wouldn’t have Paul Jackson Jr. the musician; maybe we’d have a movie actor…

PJJ – I don’t know.  That was never really a big option.  Actually, you probably would have got Paul Jackson Jr. the aerospace electrical engineer, with a part-time actor and part-time musician.

From the time I was seven to the time I was fifteen, I got one part a year on television.  It was really a part-time thing and I was really going into electrical engineering.  I figured I’d do electrical engineering and then maybe do some acting for fun. 

When I was fifteen I had an epiphany, a paradigm shift from everything I was doing in maths/science.  In retrospect I realised it was the hand of God redirecting me into another situation.  The Lord really blessed it so I know I listened and did the right thing.

CM – It also seems like your geographical proximity to Patrice Rushen played an important part…

PJJ – Absolutely.  She lived down the street from me and she introduced me to Lee Ritenour and Harvey Mason and people like Al McKay from Earth, Wind & Fire, tons of people and just kind of took me under her wing.  And then I ended up playing in her band when I graduated from high school and I’ve been working with her ever since.  That’s why I always call her my boss.

CM – Like lots of fans, I always hope for new music.  Do you think we’ll see something soon?

 PJJ – I do.  In fact, we’re talking about doing a neighbourhood record because in my neighbourhood was not only Patrice but Gerald Albright, Ndugu Leon Chancler and a lot of the guys from the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section – so we’re talking about doing a neighbourhood record.

CM – It that widely known?

PJJ – It’s kind of a secret.  I need to talk to Patrice about it.  We’ve been talking about it for a while so we need to hurry up and get it done. 

A lot of great musicians grew up in the neighbourhood.

CM– Is Gerald Albright part of Rickey Minor’s band on American Idol also?

PJJ – When we have horns we need to bring in a horn section so every now and then, according to his schedule, Gerald will come in and play in the horn section.  So for the Michael Jackson week, Gerald was playing.

CM – So could we expect the neighbourhood record this year? 

PJJ – Absolutely.

CM – Does your schedule allow for touring with your new record ‘Lay It Back’?

PJJ – Absolutely in fact I’m playing the Berks Jazz Festival April 2nd and 3rd and I’m doing some other dates.  In fact I just talked to Chuck Loeb yesterday.  We’re actually trying to come to Europe.  We had done a tribute to Wes Montgomery last year at Berks and we’re trying to take it to Europe and do the same thing so there are a number of things.  Plus, ‘Idol’ will be over in May, which allows me to do a whole lot more things.

I do a lot of worship conferences and things with Abe Laboriel, Sheila E and Kirk Whalum, so a lot of things in the works.

CM – This is funny because I interviewed Chuck Loeb this week and he mentioned that Berks is his favourite jazz festival.

PJJ – It’s a lot of fun.  It’s spread over a number of locations and it’s interesting, the way it’s set up.

CM – You mentioned Wes Montgomery, who has influenced many of the guitar players I listen to.  In all my CD’s I don’t own one by him.  Where do I start? 

PJJ – He did a CD which was like the smooth jazz or contemporary jazz of the day where he covered songs like ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ and things like that.  It was one of the CTI records with Don Sebesky and Creed Taylor producing so I would start there.

CM – I’m going to do that.  I’ve done enough research where he was mentioned – I need to go to the store and buy a record with his name on. 

PJJ – Exactly!

CM– Paul, I’ve got to ask you this: did you get any more of your guitars back yet?  Paul had three guitars stolen a few months before we spoke and one had already been recovered. 

PJJ – I got one more back – so that was a good thing.  Two back and still missing the classical.  Still kinda looking around…

CM – I felt for you when I read about that. 

PJJ – Well, I’ve got more guitars to play and they can take guitars but they can’t kill my spirit you know.

CM – Out of the 1000 plus sessions that we spoke about earlier, are there any that stick out in your mind? 

PJJ – A few.  When I was 19, I did a record with Ella Fitzgerald, that was pretty amazing, and one of the people on the record was Joe Pass so that was really amazing. 

Everything I did with The Crusaders, everything I did with Whitney Houston.  Probably working with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones.  Working on a song with Michael and Quincy where you know it’s going to be a hit.  We didn’t know it was going to be the biggest-selling album of all time. 

Doing a record in ’82, that came out in ’84 by a group called Scritti Politti – that was pretty amazing.  Working on a movie with Lalo Schifrin, Stan Getz and Stanley Clarke…  Oh, I can tell you one that was pretty memorable – working a song with George Duke called ‘Bus Tour’.

CM – Yes – from the ‘Snapshot’ album!

PJJ – Yeah.  That is probably singly the hardest piece of music I’ve ever had to play.

CM – Very technical and not funky in the accepted sense…

PJJ – Those are the ones that immediately come to mind.  That and the inauguration, in the new millennium, getting to shake President Clinton’s hand – that was pretty amazing.  Going to South Africa with Whitney Houston. 

There have been a number of things in my career.  I tell people I’m blessed in the Lord in spite of myself.  God’s been good to me; I’ve been able to see a lot of things, do a lot of things and meet a lot of great people so I’m enjoying the time.

CM – It’s a career with so many different facets.  I even read about some work that you’d done with Chicago, which I knew nothing about. 

PJJ – I did a record called ‘Chicago 17’.  I think it was a double platinum album.  That was years ago when David Foster was producing.  It’s a really, really great record.

CM – Paul – absolutely every question I had written here, you’ve answered for me! 

PJJ – That’s a good thing!

CM – It’s a fantastic thing!  And I want to wish you success with the remaining live shows in season 8 of ‘American Idol’.  I also wish you the greatest success with ‘Lay It Back’ and the future of Branch Records, which sounds like a very exciting venture for you, and with your live commitments this year. 

I’d love to hear you, either fronting a band or with other musicians, playing in the UK. 

PJJ – Lord willing, man, I’ll do both.  I’d love to get back there.

CM – Paul, thanks so much for this half-hour of your time. 

PJJ – Well I appreciate you calling me.  Thank you man.