Recording with EOL

May 28th

Yesterday’s Session with EOL was kinda…

AMAZING!

Some of you who follow me know I’ve been working with Louie Vega on several projects. I’m a producer, musician, writer, singer-songwriter, engineer, and co-owner of Honeycomb Music. So when Louie calls, there’s no telling what I will be doing. I like that he has a very good understanding of what I do musically. Most people know me for one thing: singing. Ha!!! 

It feels good to be seen. 

It’s also feeling good to be working, and working with people I enjoyed coming up listening to. I’ll explain what I mean in a bit. 

I enjoyed yesterday’s session so much that I wanted to share my thoughts on the whole experience with you….

Louie likes to book really cool studios when we do vocals and band members perform their parts. It makes for great content and footage. 

The studio is in New York City. I have to take a one and a half hour bus ride there. 

As soon as I stepped foot off the bus, the New York energy hit my nervous system. It's immediate—the pace, the vibe, the feeling. It’s electric. Anything can happen in NYC—ANYTHING! 

When I watch the news from home, it’s always ABCNY. I think it’s best to watch your local news stations, however, I grew up watching ABCNY and still do. Don’t judge me.

Every day, something crazy happens in NYC. Anything from the super-talented train performers, to the lady that was set on fire and died, the dude that randomly pushed a guy in the train, the young man who took a selfie while hanging on the very tip of the spire atop the Empire State Building, everyday something absolutely unimaginable happens in NY. 

The thing is, I was born here. Brooklyn to be precise. 

I feel the NYC ground when I step on it. Feels like home to me. I get the energy of the people and the many different cultures. 

There are smells here. Everything from pig feet to piss. Egyptian Musk to Egyptian Must. It’s all here. The homelessness has increased big time. That part is always sad to me. There’s so many good people out there. Anyways, I’m feeling amped. 

In the Studio: (L to R) Ramona Dunlap, Lisa Fischer, Lea Lórien, Rahsaan Patterson, & I

Louie asked a few singers to come and do some background and group vocals on a couple of songs we did for EOL (Elements Of Life). He told me Rahsaan Patterson, Ramona Dunlap, Cindy Mizelle, and Lea Lórien would be there. Lisa Fischer is coming in later to do a vocal on a jam. Dawn Tallman is in Germany working as one-half of “The Weather Girls.” 

I’ve met and worked with all of the above, yet, as super chill as I was acting, I was skipping like a little girl in my heart. 

Everybody in the room has a career to be reckoned with. I mean, Lisa is a Grammy-award-winning artist. I sang “How Can I Ease the Pain” years before earning my first music business dollar!

I was browsing through Tower Records when I first heard Rahsaan’s music. I bought the CD and knew every song on the entire album, and here I am, doing vocals with the man. 

Lea Lórien recently joined EOL, and together with Ramona Dunlap, they have been making my heart happy. Ramona sings most of the high notes with ease. She can also do riffs up there. I see her as a closeted jazzer with an R&B influence. LOL. Think, if Phyllis Hyman were a soprano. 

Lea’s voice has the perfect blend of warmth that the group needed. I like it when vocalists can hear themselves and match the others in a group. It shows vocal maturity, experience, and professionalism. In fairness, she’s been around the business of music since birth. Her parents are legends in the industry, so she can’t help but know how to do it. 

Cindy Mizelle’s career is legendary. Most “cats” in the business know Cindy Mizelle. She travels in circles most vocalists dream of traveling around in. You can catch Cindy singing on the stages of musical icons. Not just stars. Respectfully, Louie Vega is a star. I’m talking about ICONS like Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand! Cindy knows these people on a first-name basis, and then there’s me. LOL!!!!!!

So you all can see, I’m feeling kinda excited and super grateful in my heart to be a part of this. 

Louie is a smart guy. He’s always thinking beyond the moment, thinking about the next thing before we’ve finished the first thing with this guy. 

This time, he did something super brilliant: He invited the next generation of DJs/producers to the session. 

DJ Ameer is a 20-year-old DJ who loves soulful house as well as other styles of music. 

I’m 55 years old and would absolutely love to know that my music stands a chance with younger people who will carry the vibes forward and take the music higher than we did. That’s a beautiful thought. Ameer is a young guy doing it in a way that people respect. Not a trend. The guy is about this music. Louie must have seen something in him to invite him over. I’m glad he came. He represents hope for the music. 

Once we got started, everything fell into place. No egos, just a bunch of musicians putting the puzzle pieces together. 

Louie knows who to put together. He has foresight. This group nailed their parts today. 

We did this 5-part harmony section in real time. I would have certainly recorded each note one at a time. Louie wanted us to nail the harmony like the groups Take 6 and The Manhattan Transfer, and we did it!!!! Who knew?!?!? Don’t get me wrong, these people are the real deal, but when was the last time anybody sang 5-part harmony???? 

Well, maybe they do all the time. I work alone or with Louie. I sing alone or with Dawn. Even when Dawn is at the studio, I mostly engineer. 

We were nailing the parts and nearly done when in walked LISA FISCHER. DUNT DUNT DUNT DAAAAAHHHHH. 

We’re already super excited because we're doing vocals on Lisa’s song. We’re listening to her do her thing on the recording. Once she settled in and we were all still singing together with the harmony, Lisa was feeling it! She even started to give us vocal ideas and suggestions. 

Now. These “ideas” she was coming up with were feeling very Lutheresque [Luther Vandross]. Very colorful with lots of parts. She has that thing so naturally, it wasn’t even funny. There’s a stank there that one doesn’t learn easily. An artist takes years to develop that certain talent. Some artists start to develop it, but then they lose focus, and it doesn’t fully develop. They can still wow a crowd, but the all-the-wayness ain’t there. Lisa is all the way talented. She can sing any genre and really well! She is at this moment teaching us an idea of hers. 

Y’all know I’m about to faint, right?

With Rahsaan Patterson

There was this one moment when Rahsaan and I were doing a part together. Louie said, “Can you both give me a different tone?” That’s when it happened. Rahsaan sang something that sounded JUST LIKE THE RAHSAAN on his albums. Right in front of me!! I’m literally standing next to the dude. I don’t think I gave myself away, but I’m starting to fan out with everyone here. 

Louie has JR, who tends to our every need. At any time, JR is there to lend a hand, whether it's coffee, a quick store run, or whatever. JR is super sweet, too. He tends to ask before I can think of it, “Hey man, do you need some tea?”  

Yas is the engineer. He’s been engineering Louie’s sessions for many, many years. Longer than I’ve been collaborating with Louie. Yas is like a young Japanese sage. When it comes to engineering a recording session, Yas is super scientific. His brain works like a computer. He does all these complex setups. No easy recording sessions for this guy; Yas likes to do it the most complex way on earth. LOL. Louie uses the best in his scope. I love that part. When I work with Louie, I feel spoiled because of that. 

That said, the studio where we recorded yesterday has a guy named Rich who runs the place on site. 

When I record at a professional studio away from home, somewhere that has to get paid by the hour, it has to have a killer vibe. Rich is going to make sure we have that vibe. Not to mention, he’s super knowledgeable of the equipment. That alone, money can’t buy. 

One thing I can say about doing music full-time is that I have some awesome coworkers. 

This album is really something.

We’re performing songs from it on June 7th at Sony Music Hall. I’m pretty sure rehearsal will start soon, so it’s back to NYC every day. 

Hope you can join us on June 7th!

LOVE Y’ALL.