[theme music playing]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart, and this is Jazzmeia Horn.

Jazzmeia Horn: When I say stop

Stop on a dime

Know sometime

Just do what I say

It must be my way

Of a highway

When I say go

Don't miss a beat

Be grooving your feet

Hurry up and let's roll

You won't ever ever never like me

So I shouldn't have to beg and plea

You know everything I do

Makes you smile

Makes you frown

Makes you wild

Come on now

I'm not a child

Sometimes I'm trailing on me

And when I want

Give me your love

Give me your time

What's good is all mine

Alison Stewart: That's a live performance recorded in 2021 from KEXP. You can see Jazzmeia Horn live in New York City starting tomorrow when the Grammy-nominated and NAACP Image Award winner begins her residency at Smoke Jazz Club. Then next week on September 30th, she'll be at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center as part of a 100th birthday celebration for legendary vocalist, Sarah Vaughan. Since Jazzmeia last joined us in 2019 around the release of her album, Love and Liberation, a lot has happened.

She started her own indie record label, Empress Legacy Records, and in 2021, she arranged, produced, wrote, sang, and recorded her own big band album called Dear Love with her band, Noble Force. Let's listen to a song from the album. This is Lover Come Back To Me.

Jazzmeia Horn: Love came at last

It had its day

The day is past

You've gone away

This aching heart of mine is singing

Lover, come on back to me

I remember every little thing we used to do

I'm so lonely

Every road I walked alone

I walked alone with you

No wonder I am lonely

Alison Stewart: Jazzmeia Horn will be performing at Smoke Jazz Club starting tomorrow through September 24th, and then will be at NJPAC on September 30th. She joins me now to preview the shows. Hi, Jazzmeia.

Jazzmeia Horn: Hi, Alison.

Alison Stewart: Last time you joined us in 2019, around the release of your album, Love and Liberation, a very different time for all of us. How have the last four years been for you? It's a wide question, but-- [laughs]

Jazzmeia Horn: I guess they've been great. I've gotten to spend a lot more time with my children, which has been amazing. Prior to the pandemic, they would go on the road with me sometimes, but not as often. They're growing up and I feel that I've been able to catch a lot of the milestone moments that are happening in their life. Then I'm also creating a lot more. I've written a book and done a lot more touring for specifically education versus just having a lot of shows. I've been doing a lot of master classes and workshops and things of that nature. It's been good.

Alison Stewart: When you're doing your workshops and your classes, what is that people want guidance on? What do they want to know?

Jazzmeia Horn: Most of the people that actually know my music, they want to learn how to scat better. Those that don't necessarily know my music, they may see my name on the banner and say, "Oh, who is this person?" They may go straight to Google and try to find out who I am. They want to learn about success. They want to learn about how to build their own label or what do they need to get started for their career. A lot of the teaching ends up being business, business management, time management, and then improvisation. Those are like the two big hits for my master classes.

Alison Stewart: That's interesting that people want to know about the business part of it, that I guess it's that idea of like, you can have all the talent in the world, but if you don't know what to do or how to get out there, then what do you do with this talent?

Jazzmeia Horn: I see two different ways. You could be completely hands-on where you could go in and figure out who you want to represent you, if you want to have a distribution or a label represent you, or if you want to do everything on your own. Those are the two kind of categories that I utilize to teach. You can do everything on your own and be completely hands-on and have a small team of people who work behind you or work with you to organize things, kind of like what I have now, or you could decide you want a manager or a label or a distribution company or whatever you decide, but it's pretty simple.

Alison Stewart: In 2021, you released a big band album called Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force, Is it a 15-piece band? Is that right?

Jazzmeia Horn: Yes, that's right.

Alison Stewart: That's a lot of people. [chuckles] That's a lot of band. What do you get from having a lot of band?

Jazzmeia Horn: The feeling is, it's kind of indescribable. Having all of these musicians be around you at one time is almost like-- and especially if it's your own arrangement and your own compositions, it's almost like you have multiple voices. It's like, I have 16 voices because all of these sounds and arrangements are in my head and I can't sing it all at the same time. [laughs] Having a big band is like having all of these voices be the rest of the voices that kind of speak for me when I can only utilize one. That's kind of what I was going for. You don't hear the traditional drop to big band sound in my sound. It's very much open. Very much like how Monk was to the world, or like a Charles Mingus as opposed to Thad Jones.

Alison Stewart: Well, let's take a listen. Here's My Guy from Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force.

Jazzmeia Horn: He's my guy, I don't care what he does

'Cause he's my guy

I guess he always was

He's careless about me

I don't think he tries

But once in a while

He'll hug me and smile

Then I can see me in his eye

Oh, he's my guy

I know he'll always be

And I will try to keep him loving me

However he wants me, I'm his until I die

For nobody knows better than I

That he's my guy

[jazz instruments playing]

Alison Stewart: My guest Jazzmeia Horn. You arrange, on this album, you're arranging, producing, writing, singing, and recording a big band album. Of those, which is the one that's the most challenging to you? She's thinking.

Jazzmeia Horn: Producing.

Alison Stewart: Producing. Why is producing tough? It's not tough, but challenging.

Jazzmeia Horn: You have to have capital.

Alison Stewart: Yes. [laughs]

Jazzmeia Horn: You have to have capital. You have to be able to spend a lot of money to make a lot of money. It's not a thing that just-- And as an artist, you don't plan. You don't have a 501k. You have to make ends meet and you have to bring ends in. That was the most complicated thing for me was doing it all on my own. The writing, the arranging, the singing came naturally, but then being able to actually put it out there and deal with different companies like distribution, publishing, and radio, it was a lot.

Alison Stewart: I think as people can hear, you have a side of your personality, of your career where you're a business person. You founded your own record label, Empress Legacy Records. Why did you want to start your own label first?

Jazzmeia Horn: Well, it was my plan originally when I signed with Concord. It was always a part of my plan. I just didn't know what I was doing. I had to at least sit behind the label and see what the ins and outs were before I decided to do it on my own. I anticipated how difficult it would be in the beginning. I have a lot of respect for people who do it, others that do it as well, those who've come before me and those who have decided, "Look, I'm going to do it on my own." It is a lot of work.

I just decided I didn't want anyone to be in charge of anything. There's a specific type of sovereignty that I wanted to acquire, and I just wanted to see if it was possible. It is. It is, totally is. I just decided, "All right, cool. I'm going to try this. If it doesn't work, I still have talent." I could always go back to someone and say, "Hey, this didn't work for me." At this point in my life, I don't know if I'm going back.

[laughter]

The trouble is worth it. It's completely worth it. I've had the opportunity to have my music in a couple of different sitcoms and films and things like that. The licensing, it's great. I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. I don't want anyone to own my licensing, my publishing, my records, and my masters. No. I like where I sit now, so I'm very thankful.

Alison Stewart: What impact has it had on you creatively having your own label and being in charge?

Jazzmeia Horn: I've never had this much freedom. [laughs] I have to calm down because I have so many ideas and I'm like, "Okay, I can do this and I can do that, and the sky is the limit. Yes, let's go for it." Then my pockets are like, "Ah, not this time. Maybe next time." I have the range. I have this incredible range, not necessarily musically. I have a range musically too, but I'm really just talking about artistically. I have so many ideas and there's no restrictions, there's no barriers, there's no boxes, there's no borders, there's no lines.

Literally, the canvas, it's completely wide open, and it's worth it. Because of that, it's completely worth it.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Jazzmeia Horn. She would be playing at Smoke Jazz Club uptown starting tomorrow through September 24th, and then at NJPAC as part of their spotlight gala on September 30th in honor of Sarah Vaughan's 100th birthday. Let's talk about the Smoke Jazz Club residency starts tomorrow, who you'll be performing with?

Jazzmeia Horn: Same trio that I've been performing with for the past year-and-a-half. Victor Gould on piano and Jason Clotter on the bass and Michael Reed on drums. He's this really swinging drummer, young guy. All of them are young guys. Michael Reed is from Detroit. I met him through Terri Lyne Carrington, playing with her at one of the museums in Detroit, and he's incredible. I'm really excited. We're going to play some new music that hasn't been released yet. You might want to get tickets.

Alison Stewart: How do you approach a residency? How is that different for you than a gig where you move on and go to the next city and then move on?

Jazzmeia Horn: I really wish I could have residencies all over the world because you kind of get a feel for the specific audience. That's number one. I figure out what the people like. I love New York, so I know my New York audience very well. I'm hoping to obtain some new listeners and some new fans. They love the really nitty-gritty-nitty sound. I can be free to express myself in the music. It doesn't have to be as polished as what you might hear on the record. I love being able to do that.

Then also, there's two things. Because my body is my instrument, I have to make sure that I'm not stressing the instrument out. It is a residency. There will be some nights where we'll do three shows a night, and there will be some nights where we do two shows a night. Either way, I'm going to have to not necessarily pump the gas so hard. If I had one show in New York, I'd go 1,000% in, and I want to bring it back to about 800% versus 1,000%.

I'm still going to go hard because I love New York and I love my New York crowd. I'm still going to go hard, but if my voice says, "I don't have this range today," I'm going to figure out another way to be eclectic and fun and still have the funk and the agility, I guess, if you will, with what it is that I like to do with my artistry. Those are the things I'm not worried about, but I always have to-- Like when you read music, you have to read a couple of measures ahead. You have to plan for that.

You have to see how the first night goes and make sure you have a voice by the time you get through the entire residency. Sunday's going to be exciting.

Alison Stewart: You were one of the inaugural winners of NJPAC's Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2013. You'll be performing as part of the gala on September 30th with Newark's own, Sarah Vaughan. What does the voice of Sarah Vaughan mean to you?

Jazzmeia Horn: She's sassy. Everyone called her that. She's sassy. She's sweet. She played piano for herself so she was very much a musician and not just a singer. I can say that I learned from her to be able to be myself. She would speak and she had this, "Oh, hey, everyone. Hi, ladies," this really sweet and soft voice, but then when she sang, it was fierce. I aspire to be that way.

Alison Stewart: Jazzmeia Horn will start her residency at Smoke Jazz Club uptown starting tomorrow through September 24th. She'll be part of a gala at NJPAC as part of their spotlight gala on the 100th birthday of Sarah Vaughn. Jazzmeia, thank you for being with us. Take care of your instrument.

Jazzmeia Horn: Yay. Thank you for having me, Alison. Thank you so much.

Alison Stewart: Let's go out on some more music. This is Where's Freedom from Jazzmeia Horn?

Jazzmeia Horn: If you feel like movin'

Let your mind be free

You don’t need no preacher

You've got your history

So well are you free?

Where is freedom?

Freedoms in your mind

Let your mind be free

So well are you free?

Where is freedom?

Freedom's in your soul

Let your soul be free

Be yourself

Whatever that means to you

And just live your life

'Cause you shouldn’t have to fight to

And before you reach that battle

You gotta be in or out

You just keep on livin'

You will see what I'm talking about

So well are you free?

Alison Stewart: Coming up on tomorrow's show, some more music. Composer and bassist, Todd Sickafoose, he's the bass player for Ani DiFranco. He helped compose the musical, Hadestown, for which you won a Grammy and a Tony. It's taken him a little while to release an album of his own original music, but it's almost here. The album is called Bear Proof and it'll be released next week. Todd Sickafoose joins us for an All Of It listening party. I'm Alison Stewart, I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.

 

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