The renowned jazz player on working with Stevie Wonder, crashing a party to meet Quincy Jones, and making his latest album, Come On Home.

The Song "Come On Home"

I just love how bluesy and soulful it is and how it speaks to his life experience and his truths, and I wanted to create something that's influenced by it, but speaks to my truths and my life experience as well.

It was really interesting how it came about. I'm sitting here in my studio today and behind me back there is my piano. I was sitting at that piano and I just started playing this chord progression, and while I was playing the chord progression, the lyrics just poured out based on my life and what I had been going through.

It was a really interesting experience writing that particular song because it came about very differently from other songs that I've written in the past where I didn't actually write it down for months and I just kept workshopping this idea, and this chord progression had solidified. It just stuck in my memory and all the lyrics sort of stuck. Then it just kept building and building and building. Before I knew it, I had a song.

I had this great band that recorded with me in the studio for this record, but we also travelled around and we tour a lot. So we started workshopping the song and playing it live, and it got a wonderful reception. Performing it for people helped to build the song even more and it helped take it to another level, and take my performance of it to another level, and also just the overall form and the shape of the music and the build and all of the contrast and nuance. I'm really excited about it.

Preparing for a Live Show

Preparing for a live show is easy. I live for those moments. That's my opportunity to be connected with people, and it just gives me so much joy and inspiration being up there.

When I'm performing for people, I'm performing for everybody, but I'm also doing it for myself. We all go through a lot of stuff in life and sometimes those moments are what shape us, good and bad. I try to put all of that energy into my music and the outcome of my music, the sound of my music, when I'm in a live performance. It's all there - it all comes out.

Working with Michael Bublé and Harry Connick Jr.

It's been so amazing. It's been like a doctoral degree in being a professional musician and an artist. I've stolen so many things from the artists that I've worked with across the board.

It's been an incredible experience to learn from them and to see their process up close and take certain elements of it and figure out how I could use it for myself, use it in my own art and my own creativity in the way that I want to present my music.

How Music Saved his Life

When I was a kid, there was a lot of domestic violence in my home. It was a really hard time when I was growing up, especially from the ages of around 5 or so until I was about 12. In that process, I found music... or music found me. The trumpet became my only friend, the only place that I saw positive feedback from anything in life at that point.

It really was a tough time and a lot of those wounds have taken a long time to get through. Some of them I'm still working through. That's just the way life is sometimes.

But music brought me out of that and showed me that there's a world of possibilities. It took me all over the world and it also opened up so many doors. I got the opportunity to study with some amazing musicians and inspiring people, and they helped to lift me out of this trauma that I was in.

You know, a lot of people don't have the opportunity to find their way out of that hole, but from what I've read, it only takes one person to really connect with that young person who's struggling with those things, and if that connection truly happens, then they can make it out too. But so often we find that people who grow up with these really challenging situations, it ends up influencing their entire life and they have a hard time functioning in society and being OK. I just feel so grateful that for me, music has always been there. It's something that I've really relied on through the years for my expression and to share what's going on inside of me with the world.

Crashing A Party To Meet Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones, the first time I met him was at the Four Seasons in Dublin, Ireland. I was in college and there for a summit by the International Academy of Achievement - I guess they get together with several of the world's leaders every so often, and they bring in a bunch of kids who are showing promise. I was studying at Juilliard at that time, and I got the opportunity to go.

The very first night there was a party for all the students. We were all hanging out, and I noticed that none of the panelists were there, none of the heavyweights. When I was in high school, I got really good at sneaking backstage and meeting my heroes, so once I noticed that none of them were there, I figured if they're having a party for us, they must be having a party for them too, so I started walking around the hotel. I had my little credential and I just walked into the party where all of these amazing people were. And next thing I know, I was with Quincy Jones.

When I was growing up, I studied trumpet with a trumpet player who was in his band when they got stuck in Europe on tour - Quincy and his band got stuck over there for a while. I guess they were old friends. So I told him right away, "I studied with Floyd Standifer." And he was like, "What? You studied with Floyd?" And immediately he took me under his wing.

Then next thing I know, we're sitting there hanging out and having drinks together. And then he's like, "Hey, Bill, come over here, I want you to meet somebody," and he introduced me to Bill Clinton. It was insane. It was like being in another world. Music has been like that.

Stevie Wonder

I played with Stevie - got to play the Grammys with him, which was really cool. We had a rehearsal set for almost an entire week for this Grammy performance. We came in and we played the music a couple of times and he was like, "Oh yeah, cool, you guys wanna jam on some songs?" Then we just started playing other songs and hanging out - that was incredible.

I got to play with him on three or four different occasions, and it was an amazing experience. Then at the end of one of my performances in New York he showed up and he was hanging out in the club. After I finished my set, Stevie Wonder gets up on the piano and they close the place down, and it's like an after hours session with Stevie Wonder there. We're hanging out until the late hours, early into the morning, and he's playing and doing his thing. Then at the end he starts to walk out of the club and he walks by me, and just as he's walking out, he stops and he turns to me. His head was down at first, and then he puts his head up, looks me dead in the eye and he says hi to me. I was just so starstruck I didn't know what to say. Stevie's talking to me. What do I do?

Stevie Wonder Songs that Influenced Jumaane

Innervisions has always been my go-to album. That one's really spoken to me. But all of his albums from that era are very powerful. I actually wrote a song influenced by Stevie on my new record. It's called "Above The Clouds," and that's my ode to Stevie in my way.

I wanted to capture something that has Stevie's jazz harmony influence and great American songbook influence, and the depth of harmonic movement and the range and everything. I think we did a good job of putting the pieces together.

That song started as an instrumental. I was going to record it that way and I wrote the melody first. I came to the lyrics when I was on an airplane taking off. It's called "Above The Clouds" and it's the story of going through ups and downs and then landing on your feet. "We can all get through" is essentially the essence of the piece. You stick through it and you'll end up on the other side, kind of like that song "That's Life" - we all have our ups and downs, but we end up on the other side. I tried to put the lyrics together in a very poetic way, similar to how Stevie might have approached it, but in my own way.

Jumaane's 2014 album I Only Have Eyes For You

My inspiration for that was making a lush, romantic album that you could put on and have a glass of wine and relax. Spend some time with your partner and just be in that moment. I think we accomplished it.

We had a full orchestra. I worked with some great arrangers and producers on that record and we worked in some great studios with some of the top musicians in the world. It was an incredible experience. I had some great special guests on there as well. That was my first record, and I learned so much just from doing that album and doing it in that way. That was like my postgraduate degree really, before my doctoral degree of performing with all these people and getting to learn from them up close.

The Creative Process

It all starts with a blank canvas, and from that canvas I decide what colors I want to use and what style of picture I want to paint. So, for my second album, I wanted to dig into the legacy of Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima and Louis Jordan. I wanted to see if I could do something modern but paying homage to their legacy in a way that really brings out my artistry as well versus trying to be a replica of them. So, setting up those parameters and those rules or guidelines helped me to focus on what it would be.

This new album, my goal was to have it be an original album that really speaks to my personal life story and the things that I've been through and all of my influences in one. It's like my homecoming in a way. This is me coming out as an original artist. I do three cover songs, but the primary thing on the album is the originals. So it's been a really exciting and rewarding process because I wrote the entire album, arranged it and produced it. On my last album, I did all the arranging and producing but I didn't write the album, so it's been a cool progression as an artist. Each project that I do, I learned so much. It allows me to grow as a musician, substantially. It's been a really, really rewarding process.

The Best Song Jumaane Has Written That Not Everyone Knows About

The best songs that I've written are the ones that really speak to the listener. When they hear it, it connects with them and it helps them. It helps shed light on either what they're going through or what their life is, or what their experience is. Or it helps to take them away from whatever's going on. It's the soundtrack to their life. Those are the best songs that I've written.

It's hard for me as an artist to say apples are better than oranges or whatever. I just try to put the music out there and let other people be the judge of it, and hopefully they like it and hopefully they can appreciate my authenticity.

Composing For Film

Oh, I love doing it. It's a lot of fun to put music to film because it gives you those parameters to work with - you already have the visual scene of what you're composing for, so when you have that element all worked out, then figuring out the backdrop, the music, the sonics for it is very simple to put together. It's almost like it writes itself. It sort of passes through me.

Sometimes you can make a decision and take it one way and it will affect the scene completely different than if you take it a different direction. That's part of the power of music, because you can have the same visual and set it up with the music in completely different ways, and it'll mean completely different things because the music can be so emotional. Yeah, I love doing it and I would love to do it a lot more.

Finding New Inspirations

The evolution of me as an artist is speaking my truths and my life experience. And as my life evolves, my music evolves as well. That, and realizing that art is a craft and there is no ceiling to it. So the longer I do it, the more that I study, my music changes and it grows. I just try my best to stay true to myself and the art that I want to produce and be authentic in my process and in what I put out there. As long as I'm doing that, then I'm doing the music justice.

Songwriting

Each song is different. A lot of times I will start just by sitting at the piano and improvising for a while, and try to clear my mind. It's almost like a meditation. I'll just sit there for a while and see what comes to mind. And then, if an idea sticks or if there's an aha moment, I'll roll with it and see what it turns into. I try to keep myself from being judgmental in those moments, which is always a challenge. I always want to edit myself while I'm in the process of brainstorming ideas, but I find that if I let the ideas flow freely and then come back to it afterwards and make my edits and refine them, that I can be more authentic and true to the essence of what it originally was supposed to be.

Advice For Younger Musicians

I would say, learn as much as you can and keep learning, keep growing. It's never been an easier time to connect with people. Now we have social media and you can connect directly with your fans all over the world. Put your art out there and keep growing, keep studying, and make music for everybody to absorb and to get. Make it from the heart and be authentic about what you do. Tell your story. Don't try to be somebody else because they're already there, so it's not going to work. Be yourself!

Upcoming Projects

I'm really excited to hit the road with this record. We're going to travel all over the place and I'm really excited about my band. We've got a brilliant live show going and it's just so much fun.

As far as new projects, I haven't really got that far down the road yet. I still am in it with this project and we'll see what the next cycle holds. But this one, it's been an incredible ride so far, and I just hope that everybody loves it as much as I do, and everybody can get something out of it.

August 22, 2024

Subscribe to the Songfacts podcast, part of the Pantheon Network

Get tour dates at jumaanesmith.com

Also check out our talk with Samara Joy

---

More Songfacts Podcast