#425 Marc Anthony Percussion Section: Eric Velez, Jessie Caraballo, Marcos Lopez & Alberto Reyes!

What's going on everyone, this is episode 425 of The Discussions and Processure Podcast and I am your host, Damien Grant thank you for joining me, it is still Black History Month, I hope that you are still celebrating. On the podcast this week I have an entire percussion sections, the first time I've had a percussion section and it is the Mark Anthony percussion section featuring previous guests Eric Vallez, Marcos Lopez, Jesse Caraballo and Newcomer to the podcast Alberto Cucito Reyes, so we talk a lot about, you know, their influences, how they compose and orchestrate stuff based on the studio recording versus a live performance, their influences, all kinds of great stuff, so stay tuned for that in a little bit, first I'm going to knock out these segments and the first one up is Happy Birthday to some friends of the show, Happy Birthday to Brandon Estes who was episode 155, he was part of the sports drumline roundtable so you can go check that out, Clayton Cameron was episode 195 and Sarah Hagen was episode 17, if you know them, give them a Happy Birthday shout, if you don't go back to check out their episodes and get to know them better, alright let's move over to gig alerts. First up for gig alerts, the Roots picnic is happening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 31st and June 1st, it's going to feature artists like D'Angelo, The Roots, Meek Mill, Lenny Cravitz, Gorilla, GZ, Music Soul Child, Trap Karaoke, that looks interesting, Adam Blackstone, Funk, Felix, Funk Master Flexnite, hard to get a ticket. So if you're interested in that go get tickets at RootsPickness.com, the link will be in the show notes and have fun and fill it. The Sips and Sounds Festival is happening in Austin, Texas, March 7th through 8th, which features Halsey, Khalid, Benson Boone, AJR, many more. You can get tickets to that and you can stay because also starting on March 7th, but continuing till the 15th is South by Southwest which is always a fun experience to be part of because it expands beyond music, it goes into comedy and filmmaking and all kinds of stuff. So if you want to go hang out in Austin, Texas for a while, go check out that Sips and Sounds Festival and South by Southwest. Next Tuesday is Marty Grah and also known as Fat Tuesday and there's all kind of parade events happening in New Orleans which will be linked in the show notes, but also the club Tipotinas has its own music lineup week of stuff with Galactic and Frieda Grahs with Big Frieda, Dumps to Funk, Preservation Hall, Jazz Band and many more. So if you're going to be down in New Orleans for Marty Grah, Sliner over to Tipotinas and then if you leave New Orleans, you can go back April 24th to May 4th because there is Jazz Fest happening and they have announced that lineup which has a bunch of acts like Pearl Jam, Dave Matthew, Santana, John Fogarty, Luke Holmes, Ledy Kravitz again, Casey Musgraves, Hame, Trombone Shorty, Branford, Marcellus, Kamasi, Washington, Diana Crawl, The Whalers, Harry Connick Jr, PJ Morton and many many many more. So you can also head over to Tipotinas that same time frame for the 3rd annual Zilgen Jam which is going to feature Doug Ballot, Adam Ditch, Nikki Glaspy, AJ Hall, Friend of the Show, Taku Rondo, Jason Marcellus, Stanton Moore, Hurlin, Riley, Friend of the Show, Pedro Segundo and Moore. That's going to be on April 29th. So yeah, get your calendar all lined up and check out all those events. Let's move over to the educational spotlight for the week. The Educational Spotlight is some upcoming day of percussion events hosted by different PAS because of our society chapters. I missed the one last Saturday in Homewood, Alabama for the Alabama chapter day of percussion. But coming up Thursday March 6th and the Philippines, they're having their chapter day of percussion, Sunday March 9th, Mexico City in Mexico, Saturday March 15th in River tin Utah, their day of percussion, Saturday March 22nd, the Murphy's Barrow Tennessee chapter day of percussion, also the 22nd Lexington South Carolina, Sunday March 23rd is Connecticut's day of percussion in Bethel, Connecticut at Nagata High School, also the 23rd New York New York is having their chapter day of percussion, Friday March 28th and Saturday March 29th. Oklahoma is having their days of percussion in Ada, Oklahoma, also the 29th Glendale, Arizona is having their spring day of percussion and surprise, surprise, also on the 29th at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, their chapter day of percussion, Saturday March 29th is a popular day because you guessed it, Meridian Idaho is also having their day of percussion, Saturday April 26th, the Magnolia State percussion festival is happening in Purvis, Mississippi, the festival of steel is happening in Conway South Carolina on Saturday April 26th and Saturday May 3rd in Mississauga, Canada, which is near Toronto, the Ontario chapter day of percussion is happening and yeah, that's all, yeah, I will probably reiterate all of those in future podcasts, but yeah, I'll mark them down in the show notes, show notes located discussions in percussion.com if I didn't mention that already. Okay, the icon of recording is usually where I go right here and I give a song that was picked out by the guest, but all four of the guests picked out songs, so I'm just going to say, listen, later on the podcast, they're going to announce all the songs that they mentioned and I will make sure they're all linked in the show notes, so I'm not going to put all of them right here, but there were some good ones and I encourage you to go follow up and check them out in the show notes. All right, one last segment before we get to the interview and that would be, wow, I have one thing for music news this week and that is an article I saw on NPR and that is if you are a jazz legend and you are over 62 years old, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is honoring you and there's a fellowship where these jazz legends can receive $100,000. No questions asked, which I think is awesome for all the blood, sweat and tears that they've had to deal with and it is achievement just to be able to create music for at least 62 years, so shout out to them and I believe there's a full list in the show notes as to who gets it and there's more information about future awards and who's on the panel of luminaries to help come up with this list. This is awesome, shout out to these people and shout out to the foundation. All right, that's all I have for music news, that's all I have for the segments, stay tuned for the interview with Eric, Jesse, Marcos and Alberto and I'll talk to you when we're all done. [Music] Welcome, I have with me the entire Mark and the percussion section. This is the first time I've had an entire percussion section, so I'm really excited. Welcome, Eric, Marcos and Alberto. Hello, hello. What is going on? So I'm going to jump right into it. I have some percussion section specific questions and feel free to jump in but the first one is for the listeners that may not know a traditional rat and percussion section includes Kongos, Timballes, Bongo's and other percussion and as that is evolved it has included things like a Timball kit or a drum set and other things from around the world. How do you guys decide what songs you're going to do as a traditional ensemble and then how do you decide what instruments and when to bring in other things? Well, senior, start. It starts, what are we going to say? It starts with our boss. That's how it started. Basically, he just wanted, and Jesse correct me if I'm wrong, you know, he just wanted it more elements. You know, hitting things that were in the song like, you know, if they put in time, if they put in a triangle, we don't maraca, he always wants to hear that. And you know, certain songs from certain albums had a jimbe and they had this and that. So I guess he wanted to hear those elements. I think that's how it came to be. Do you have the liberty to kind of explore, like do you have the freedom to kind of try some stuff? Yeah. I feel like, I feel like we have, I feel like we have complete, I feel like, I feel like when you start learning the song, I think in our experience, right, when you start learning the song, you play the record. You know, what's in the record, you know, here, what's in the record, especially him and, you know, whatever it is that the record has. After you have that, that we recorded the, the, you know, the rehearsal is there. Once you go, once you go live, you know, obviously you start adding your, you know, we know each other. So, so, you know, sometimes Eric's going to do something that I loved and I'm like, okay, then we just look at each other in the next gig. I come in on him and then my keepo comes in and little by little you kind of start adding your own element to it, but for the main source, well, you start learning the record and then you kind of go off script, you know. Yeah, we usually, we usually go off the grid because a lot of the, for the past few albums, you know, everything's been just record simple, you know. So, I guess we have that freedom, like since it was recorded simple, we have that freedom to add stuff on it. Like, there's certain little parts that I'll invent something like a pattern, then Jesse will look at me like, yo, you know, that's dope. And then Marcos would be like, cool, boom, it's, we interact with each other. We're just looking at each other and talking and laughing and a lot of listening. Yeah, a lot, a lot of listening, a lot of interact like, Marquito will do something. I'd be like, yo, what was that? Anyway, don't forget, all right, tomorrow I'm gonna follow you. And then sometimes a lot of times, it's just, yo, we just, it just happens. That would be like, we look at each other like, yo, what happened there? Like, the chemistry's there. That's for them. And I feel like each one of us has like each reference book. Like, we understand each other references. Yeah. So when somebody's playing something certain vocabulary, like Eric plays Milton, Milton vocabulary, we're not, we like, we adjust and we go, we go that route. Yeah. Because we heard, we know where he's coming from. Or we know where Jesse's coming from. So it's like, I understand, I understand that midst of things of, of like references and trusting and listening and, and, and, and just knowing their music through a level of work. And I'm comfortable. Yeah. We're, we're comfortable. The only time that it'll be like, no, is when our feelings and our wonderful musical director, Angie Fernandez, or tell us, that's a little bit too much. Or he'll just tell us, don't try to do, you know, but it's very rare that he tell, you know, he tells us that, you know, and it's very rare that Mark will be like, tell us anything. It's like, if he does, he'll be like, just keep your simple guys. So then we like, okay. But the Sunday takes it. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I was thinking about, you guys have been together for years now. James Brown, with his band, over, if you listen to over the years, you know, like there's the original recordings that the band has and that over the years, the, the grooves get faster or they get busier or it's a different rhythm section and they do things differently. So by the time you hear that same song, 10, 15 years down the road, it could be almost completely different. And I'm wondering, if that happens with you, do you feel like, all right, well, this one needs a little more energy or, you know, that kind of stuff. It evolves, I guess. Like from me as a fan, like growing up, seeing them, like listening to the band as a live version, like seeing them every year, each version, like, it gets better. They get adding stuff, taking stuff out, evolving it. So, I don't. He could, yeah. Makito and Kukito, Kukido, a boy, a burdo. They can say that because, you know, since me and Jesse's been there for so many years, it's like, we don't even notice. But since they've seen it throughout the years, they know, you know, when you're like, me and Jesse's right there, we don't even notice. The only time we'll probably notice it, we sit down and we look at some old stuff. That's the only time. But besides that, when you're like in that driver's seat, you don't even notice. Yeah. We're in the moment. To me, it's been very challenging because, you know, they're very seasoned. Like Eric said, you know, he's been there for almost 30 years. Jesse for 20. I think Makito, you've been there for seven years, right? Five, five. Still, he's seasoned in with them. I just came in last year. So, it's been a challenge to understand what they got going on and to not to play on top of them, you know what I mean? Just to become one, especially my position that has so many instruments, you know what I mean? We incorporated, I believe, Dominic and Guida this year, last year. I don't think that you guys were using that ever, you know, there's some, what is it? Cumbia parts and Bayonato parts that certain songs that Mark has or we incorporated that. And it sounds beautiful. We incorporate some castenettes in one of the songs, you know, like little things like that, but not overpowering, what they already have, you know, with so many years of playing these songs, you know, their songs 30 years old, you know, you have to respect that, you know, so, you know, it's been, it's been a great experience. Do you, do you feel that the driver's seat shifts based on who's playing what? Because I know in a quote-unquote traditional Latin percussion section, the Timberley player is the one giving a lot of the cues. So when the bongo player goes to the bell, it kind of gives freedom to open up for more tones and colors. Do you feel that like, oh yeah, most of the time, so and so is kind of driving the bus. But then when we do these things, it switches to this person or whatever, do you feel that that shift happened? I, I, me personally, I don't feel it, man, I feel like like everybody, everybody has a voice, you know what I mean? Yeah. And, and given the fact that given the fact of the chemistry that we have, I don't feel that in that section, we need a designated driver, you know what I mean? So if, to, to me, it feels like everyone has a voice from, from Kukito to, to Marquito and Eric and myself. There's a voice in everyone that, and it just, it just feels like, since the chemistry is there, we don't really have to talk much. And everything is basically there. So there's, and there's no, there's, there's nobody slacking. So, so when there's nobody slacking and everybody knows their part and everybody knows where they got to go, I don't, I don't feel like that. Yeah, it's, there's a need for a designated driver. But the only ones are directors, right? You tell us, you tell us where to go, but as far as a production leader, I don't, I don't feel like that. No, I think we all like, you know, like Star Wars, you know, Chibaka sat down, Han Solo sat down, they all sat down, and everybody had their, everybody had their part. You know, like for me, I, I feel comfortable. Like, I know like I don't got to worry about, I don't got to worry about none. I don't worry about shit. Because day, day, you know, my boys, they hold on their own. So I could just close my eyes, be like playing, not worry about Jack, you know. This is a question that each one of you gets the answer. And that's, do you have a favorite percussion section that really stuck with you like as far as the groove or the vocabulary? Is there one in history that you kind of like gravitate to? Like, oh yeah, I really, I really dig so-and-so's percussion ensemble. Yeah. That's hard. Let's start with, let's start with the guy that's been the least here. Well, believe it or not, you know, it's one of the most respects that I've had. It was Eric Jesse and, oh my god. Curtis. Curtis. Curtis. They're, you know, their structure, their rhythm, their respect towards the music that they're playing, you know. This is not just any traditional salsa. You know, there's, you know, Mark Anthony's Mark Anthony, you know, and he's gotten to that level and you got to respect that. And they've done for so many years, they did that, you know, and I've always respected them. That's, you know, I have so many, but the first one I came to my head are my boys, you know, because for the years that they played together, you know, they just put it all at the top. You know who's next? My boys. He's smiling. So we're talking? Is this a hard question for any band? Because that's hard, bro. Yeah. It's like choosing like your grandma's favorite food. Yeah, it is all right. Capurias. Oh, because you know, I grew up in the 90s, so you know my answer. Yeah, we already know. So it's like Mark Bobby and Ray. That's, that's my, but yeah, this could be a whole conversation for Dave, because we're talking about some cool stuff. Yeah. So yeah, that's it. That's my answer. You know, it's funny, because Malquito's answer is also my answer. It's crazy. It's the same thing. I feel like, I feel like since we were, you know, all born in different eras, you know what I mean? We can go so on and so on, but I think they had a great structure. And also, and also going back apart from them to the, to the, to the mark days, to the mark Anthony's day, where it was Eric Bobby and Curtis. That was, that was crazy for me, bro. It was like when that HBO thing came out, man, and even before I was like, yo, I had that bro, like, that's not a repeat for everybody. So, you know, it's no motion. There's a lot, bro. There's too many to mention, man. But it's a, that's a whole different thing, man. So many great people with chemistry that really got it, man. So, I could, I could break them down. And I break them down by, by, by, by, by, by generous, you know, by generation. You know, for me, like, the 60s, like that chemistry for me was like Tommy Lopez and Manuel Kendall, which that was very odd because they kind of didn't, like, personally, I heard they kind of didn't really get along, but plain-wise, you could just, you hear it. And then in the 70s, it was, you know, it was between Montalvo and Nikki and Rzuena when they were with Fania. Then, you know, you had, you know, they were, my other ones were like Grahales, Nikki and Johnny Rodriguez with Típica. And, you know, then, you know, in the 80s, you, you had, while in the 80s, I saw like great combos, man, you know, like, Jesus, you can't, even in the 70s, you can't forget Burrero Vlato and Johnny Rodriguez. So, you know, then in the 80s, you had a lot, man, it's, then you know, in the 90s, you know, then God, I was fortunate. I was boom in that thing, yeah, I saw the Bobby Marks. And then it was like me Ray Kalone and Chino. And, you know, then you had Georgia and Chino and Ray Kalone and you had Georgia Gonzalez, man, he rest in peace. So, you know, Ralph Zari and, so that's where I go like that, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, you know, for me. Second secret video. Yeah. That's at least how I view it. It's a each season of each period of music, right? Same as the James Brown band, like you do. That even that bootsy period of them too and boots in the middle or whatever, like it's two years or whatever, it's amazing. Yeah. I just didn't know, you know, like if you had like any specific influences, God, I was trying to think back to, you know, like my first introduction to this style of music, you know, I was in sixth grade and my dad took me to see Tito Puente. So, like seeing Tito and Jose and Dandy, like as my first introduction, like that was just like a shock. And then it was kind of like explained to me later in different eras. And I was like, oh, okay. I think like for me, for what we do, because what happened is that since we're playing different styles of music. So, like for me, like if I were had to pick from like the rhythm section, I would go with, you know, with stuff that Fania did, because remember a lot, during the 70s, they took out those albums that were like out there, they had John Fattis and all that, you know, then you go, for me, I would go with Deepika, because Deepika, you hear those albums, they just boom, they went higher and higher and higher, you know, but a lot of that stuff, they got from Ida Kettit, which we get it, you know, and they had like the, what was it, Deepika, one of the albums they did, the two sides of Deepika, that they played the, was it Tito Rodriguez, or the, I think it's a gay world, I think my Keto was it, that's what it's called. But I'm, but I'm, but I'm, but I'm, but I'm, but I'm, but I'm, and then you hear Niki with the drum, so you know, you hear it right, right. And then, you know, with Fania did the albums that Montauro record a burrito, Dandy recorded those, you know, there was a lot of fusion going on, so when I hear that, it's kind of like us with Mark, because boom, we'll do a corporate gig, and we'll be playing, we're playing like a, we're playing pop stuff, we're playing stuff like, what's that, oh gosh, help me out, guys, because I'm going to, I need a phone, yeah, the fifth floor doesn't help, bro, you know, it's just a hell of one, yeah, boom, lady, yeah, so it's things like that, that's why, that's, for me, it's like, those of it, right to go from, I was curious, for people that are listening to this, most of them are prime, predominantly English speakers, and they might only know marks, crossover, Latin pop hits, but from what I understand, the show that you guys do is mostly in Spanish, and it's not all of those hits, it's, it's a lot of his other catalog, is that correct? There's too many hits, there's too many hits, but yeah, just the ball. There's people talking to a little, I don't, uh, a little, yeah, yeah, I, I remember somebody saying that he had, I don't know how accurate this is, but I remember somebody saying that he had like 81 number one billboard hits or something like that. Now for people that might be listening and curious, how do you get a gig like this? Do you know what I mean? Like, obviously there's the musical director side of things, but what kind of goes into either on the stage or off the stage, getting a high profile tour specifically in, uh, based in afro-cuba music? I mean, all right, we want to go first on that. How do you, uh, I mean, I think for, for, for all of us has been a, uh, a different situation for you to know, you know, I had to do, uh, the audition in California and do the whole, the whole thing. I think Malkito came in, right, uh, through, through recommendation and kukito as well. So, you know, um, they didn't have to audition, but, you know, at the end of the day, shoot, when they came in, bro. I think, I think Jesse was the only one that that had to audition because, yes, like Malkito and Kukito, they, it's the work that they put in out of Mark and their persona as well. And it's like, wow, talented guys. It's like, they can be here. They, it's just not the job as well. It's just the persona and everything that it fits the bill here that, and you know that they're going to do the job. Because Kukito, so it without, uh, without rehearsal, bro. And Kukito came, yeah, Kukito came in without rehearsal. I think both Turkey and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and percussion at the same time, so, yeah, uh, they threw me, they threw me to the line. And Malkito was the same way. I don't think you be heard. Well, I had, my rehearsal was my first sound check. Yeah, that was just sound check. And then the gigs part, it all three hours later, three hours later. Yeah. Used to be the staple sensor. Yeah. Thank you. So, so you're saying they were vetted by head of time, whether that was social media or just other gigs or whatever, but at least for Malko's and Kukito, you guys had no rehearsal with the band. Did you have a rehearsal with at least the percussion ensemble? Or was it just like, he was learning, we'll see you. It was just talk. Like, I recall it was very funny. Yeah. We meet you, um, in three weeks, uh, go to YouTube. I'll see you in three weeks. Yeah. That was it. It was, it was learned, learned these songs. Okay. Yeah. Get the latest, the latest one on YouTube. Okay. Bye. I'm not allowed to talk about that gig because it was very special to us, right? Eric. That's the, that's the gig that never gets mentioned. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, it was just, you know, getting the call. They needed, uh, you know, a sub. And, um, thankfully I've worked with Jesse. I worked with, you know, all of them before, you know, Malk. And, um, they knew what I, we should plug in unified sound now. Come on, man. We play unified sound. Like, oh, yeah. Like, yeah, we, yeah, we've got a couple of things. The dream guys. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And then we, I just, when we play with Eric too, like, it was, uh, we did, we did, uh, a Christian concert with David and Abraham. And then that same night we had a host of, we took an audio gig. And that was the first time I played with Eric. The first gig I played bongos. Jesse grabbed the bongos. I played team ballers, you know, and, and from there, just, you know, it was a match rating having, you know, it was beautiful. And, um, but it was an amazing experience. Just getting there, just walking on to the stage. The whole band is on stage waiting for us because we're late. And everybody's looking. I mean, it was, it was just crazy. It was crazy. But here we are, you know, um, one of the things that, uh, that, uh, Mark was used to say, like, oh, these guys are ninjas. You know, and I get it because, you know, the best salsa band there is, you know, and I mean in the world. But being there and seeing what they can do, it was, it was just another level. You know, the whole band itself, just everybody just comes in and just kills. I was very surprised with the, like, there are related to play, like, salsa authentically. And then do pop stuff on rock stuff or based stuff. Very authentically. You know, that doesn't happen very often. That, yeah, that was, I was like, that's why I said, oh, these, like, these guys are ninjas. Like, they can't blend in any, any wall and do when they get to play any song on the last minute. Like, they send a song at 10. I am in the morning by soundcheck. It's like learned. There's like, it's a very high level thing. Like, it's very impressive. That's, that's what I, very impressive, very impressive. That was, that was years, that was years of, of grooming. Cause like, in my, in my case, when I came in, a long time ago, 1990, 1993, it was when the band first started. So, I, you know, I got the call from Marque, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Are you, what are you doing? Blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not doing this doing that. Okay, I got a whole bunch of gigs. Can you want to be part of the band? Okay, cool. I don't know who recommended me. I don't know how I happened. And it was just the salsa. What happened? You still don't know who recommended me. You know, I have a feeling that I think I know who it was that recommended me. And I spoke to that person about, I think it was David Marque, he was the one that, that, told me that he probably told Marque and then Marque called me. But it was just the salsa band. Like, a lot of us didn't know that Marque was going to get that far. We knew he was going to get far, but not to the level that he's at now. But as years went by, you know, it's like, you get groomed, you know, you learn and you learn and you learn and you learn. You start learning about how to play other types of music, how to this, how to that, how to this, how to that. And you know, when Jesse came in, Jesse already, Jesse, or drummer, dude. Like drums, yeah. You know, with the church and he already had that, boom, he already had that down. So, and then he studied the HBO thing. Like, like, nothing. Dude came in and they came in in the, in the audition, but I already knew about Jesse, but Jesse played with my brother many times. And he like, he just came in. God is, you know, and then the years of just, you know, seeing all the pop, like for me, seeing all the pop players play, like percussion, you know, like seeing the old times play, you know. It's, it's just years of. Okay, you know, we know what to do when it's the different type of music. We're, we're there specific percussionists that you were checking out back then, but I mean, because I know I had this conversation with Jose Mongual Jr., who said that like the R&B guys, like the Master Henry Gibson's and Eddie Bongo Browns or whatever, we're hanging out with, like that are Averatos and the guys in New York, like, they were, there's no divide. They were all hanging out and sharing stories. Well, like for me, I, I always looked at those guys, like Raphne, Raphne, Donald, you know, Richie Gajate, Luis Conde, those guys, they, you know, Mongolia, Jackson, Lenny Castro, those guys, they have that. When it comes to pop, they know what, they know what to do. And me just looking at them throughout the years is like, that's how it's done, because you hear how they play, you don't, you hear that in elements in it, but you don't hear like a boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, you know, you just hear that. Your hands are, you know, who we talking about, right, Jesse? Jesse, coming out like that, the thing, like, what? You know, and it's all about colors, you know, when to put them in, in order, which a lot of people think it's easy and it's not, you know, and for my boys, they have that, for me, these guys, they know when to put in the colors and things like that, like cookie dough will put colors in them, you like, everything's a learning process, man, because we talk about it too, you know, and that's not only me doing something, you know, I want to make sure that everybody's comfortable, you know, I want them to be comfortable, I want the director to be comfortable, I want Mark to be comfortable, you know, so you know, we do have great communication that makes the sound that we have. We're still learning, man. Every day is a, you know, I feel like every day for us, it is a school, man, it's still a school, and you have to, a lot of times, you have to humble yourself all the time and just be grateful, man, and stay with that mentality of learning. Once you keep learning and learning and growing and growing, every day that passes. I mean, that's it. You just, once that happens, you just keep getting better and better at your craft, man, and, you know, we learn, we all learn from each other. We're the men from one another. We ask each other questions, you know, how did you do this or how did you do that? This turns like, I'm like stuck, I'm like, guys, go. They'd be like, no, you got this, don't worry. Look at you. You need to stop. We all learn from each other. We don't. Well, I think the other advantage is even though you guys are playing music that is African and in nature, you all have experience in other genres so that you have other vocabulary and you have other styles of instruments and colors that you can introduce into what is your doing. That's correct. That's correct. I wanted to change gears for a minute. I know things have been a little tumultuous in the past couple months, not just with weather events, but also with the newer administration. And I ask this question of the ladies roundtable that I did a few weeks ago. What is keeping you sane? What do you lean in into to just kind of exist? Because before you're a musician, you're also just a citizen and a human. And for them, I told them my answer was baking. When I get stressed, I like to bake. Is there anything that is keeping you sane in this time? For me, kitchen and golf. Cooking and playing golf. That's been, that's been my go-to right now. I love the kitchen. It's been something really big in my fat, both of my sides of the family for many generations. So I'm trying to keep that alive, you know, going to my grandmother's house, seeing her cook the recipes that she's been doing for 40, 50 years, bringing that home. That's been helping me a lot in family, at the most family, yeah. Lots of cooking, baking, for real. We're doing music, trying to rest. Resistant is rest. So a lot of resting. It's already valid. That's one that I don't hear a lot of resting, like taking advantage of having the time to, like, recharge. If we can, yeah. Just a little social media. For me, I love sports, man. I love to play ball fast. That was like my, my first passion. So I love to play ball, especially now. I got my kids, man. So to me, it's huge. When I'm here, man, everybody knows. It's all about my kids from my wife, the kids. And so everything I used to do back, if I were to go to the basketball court and go play full court games with people now, everything's with the kids. Let's go out, play with the kids, basketball with the kids, watch, shows with the watch basketball with the kids. So that stuff like that keeps me, I'm good with that, man. Let me see. For me, it's a lot. You know, I have, I have my, you know, my sports, I watch my wrestling, my comics, my video games, still listening to other music. And my family, he's a good, good or bad, you know, because it is what it is, you know, resting, resting not like it. I'm like, oh, it's not. We leave him tomorrow, but I got used to it. Oh, you know, and you know, it's like, you know, getting up in that morning and you in your bed, like, you know, it's like, here we go. Again, you know, which it's, but the rest thing is important, you know, and you know, cooking, taking care, you taking care of myself, boom, what can I, what can I make that's healthy? And my, my goal is to keep my sanity is like, what can I throw out in the garbage that's bad for me? So, you know, I'm good as proud to go to Whole Foods or whatever. And I'm looking at this and reading that and reading boom, boom, I'm going to get that and then I start eliminating things. So I keep my sanity through that and I'm just low key. I always been low key, but I'm like, really extremely low key now. Very, very low key. So now that you guys are going back out on the road tomorrow, are there tips or things to help you tour well? Like, is there something you're like, oh, I always have to bring my wireless headphones or I make sure that all my hotel points are on, you know, I'm getting all the maximum, but whatever, is there things that help you tour and travel well. When can we get those whole points? Uh, you know, I found that out. Certain hotels will take it. I think it's, uh, who was it? Hilton on high, they will take it. But certain hotels, they won't, because since we didn't purchase the hotel, that's what they always tell me, yeah, but I think I, I found out because our infamous famous bass player, Urban Paris told me that and it's true though, he said that I think it was, uh, one of the hotels we stood in, was it a Hilton? I think they, now you can get the points because there was a time that they weren't allowing us. So not yet. I always ask, I don't care who booked the ticket early in the hotel room. You got it. I can just wipe up my name. Yeah. I always bring my yoga mad, bro. Oh, especially longer trips. She helps. See, now I feel inadequate because I didn't know all this time you're doing yoga and I can't touch my toes. Let me see, uh, what do I bring? Uh, in all of those, I got that little video game, was it the, we talk, we talk that, that it has we dock, it has like 30,000 video games. Of course, yeah, your headphones, your wireless headphones, your phone, I don't know how many, your iPad or the movie, you want to download. You know, I bring books to, to read in the room, either educational books and I bring my comics and my healthy stuff to drink while I'm at the stage and I stretch out in the room. Nobody sees me in the gym, but I'm in the room doing my things and I don't know what else, what else. That's for me. That's usually what I bring. The essentials. You know, the essential things to survive on the plane. You know, those bloggers, they'd be like, this is what you should take on the plane and not, you know, I, I think in our case, we got all that covered. Oh, yeah. Jesse Tommy, a little trick. It's called a fire stick. Yeah. That fire stick, that fire stick is happening. It's fire for real. You know, and your VPN, of course, get our VPN account friends. Yeah. And bro, you need to fan always. Oh, that's right. You bring a fan. Oh, yeah. It's a three-inch one. Yeah. I have to do. Yeah. You got to spare battery, fan die. Nice. Is that for temperature or just the white noise? It's for both, man. I need to fan hitting my face. I, you know, didn't place for everything. Yeah. Jesse is a polar bear, dude. I mean, you need to put on a coat and you need to put on a scarf. You need to put on, yeah, we too. We need to do the tour buses. And Jesse could sleep too, man. We used to do the tour buses. Jesse always had the bottom, the bottom left hand bunk. And I remember, we used to be on the bus for like eight hours, sometimes 12 hours. We were, everybody would walk by, be like, hey, is Jesse up? Is the kid up? Because Jesse was then the youngest one. I was always the youngest one and then he became the youngest one. Is he up? So we were open to curtain like, oh, he's still breathing it. He could really sleep. I remember, and you'd be like, that boy can sleep, to this day. He's like, man, where Jesse's coming? Jesse will never come down for breakfast, guaranteed. And if he does, it's because we have to check out. Now he comes. So let's suppose if check out his at 830, Jesse's downstairs at 820. Grabbing the last from the buffet. There you go. For the rose. Yeah, the rainbow man. Hi, Jim, man. The orange is a maquito, maquito, four, two, four behind either. He's right. You're pants on how, how late I go to bed. Yeah, that's true. Are you guys a, just go back to the room or are you a, well, I'm in this city. Let me check out, you know, other events and musicians or whatever. And it just went on. Depends on the city. Yeah. They've been, which friends are in the city. Yeah. One of our last gigs was in New York and we went to the blue note to see Eddie Palmieri. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Amazing. It was, it was totally worth it. It all depends. Yeah. He said, you know, who's in the city? We're friends. What's this? What's that? You know, it's like we, we share restaurants and lists. Damon, to our listeners, Damon shares with me a bunch of restaurants lists. So I try to like it at each city at least to try a couple. And I sometimes I bring the guys. Sometimes I just go along like it depends on the. It depends. Sometimes will disappear. Yeah. Where were you? No. No, I just went on my own and sometimes we're, you know, we're together. And sometimes we're like, oh, we're just half and half. It's, it all, it all depends. Sometimes we just could stay in the room because we're really tired. It's been a long time. It depends. It's like, even in the run, the series, like, how, how, how our bodies are feeling. Yeah. Because it gets the flights there. The flights? Yeah. Flights can be Joe, man. Flying commercial. Flight flights can be brutal because we, we're playing like, for example, we're playing like Columbia, where we're going, we're going to one of those places then. And if the, the concert will finish at one o'clock in the morning, mind you that I said, concert will finish at one o'clock in the morning. Our lobby call will be at 430. By the time you get to the hotel and you know, you're like boom, boom, boom. And then 430 and then to get to the airport is part of like another 45 minutes. And then you're there when the airport opens. So go figure. And then sometimes you have a label. Oh, we got to connect here. Delay always in Panama and then you get five hours and then you're going home. But that's part of that. I say that's what we, that's part of the deal. That's part of everybody go through that. Cause that's spoken to other, other guys from other bands and they all, we'll go through it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just the, why can't you book the 11 a.m. flight? But there's, you know, there's so many other moving parts that I don't want to go there. So many other moving parts out of your control. That is our control. It is. But for the most part, I was going to say you probably have a status now because of all the miles that you guys have logged in. You're probably at some kind of, I don't know if you have a particular airline network that you use the most, but I'm guessing you probably have some kind of status where you can maybe upgrade and have some sort of some sort. So I don't know. You heard already, I don't have nothing. Yeah. I just got down great. And when you're not there, you can also be there. Yeah. You lost? Yeah. You lost all of them. I still have my go for life, but that still doesn't. Yeah. You're really traveling. How much are you a million minor? Yeah. An American. Yes. I am. American. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we, that's the only thing that I, that I have when Americans go for life. Nice. I've been using American express cards and capital, like credit cards to pay some stuff, give me points. And then I immediately pay those off. And then I'll have those points that I'll transfer to the heirloom. Yeah. There's an Instagram account of the point sky. Yeah. I'll get some tips. Yeah. I mean, like, what else besides that, we're always bugging out. That's. Do you guys use master tour? No, they have their own thing. Okay. Okay. Because I know like some pop acts, the tour manager will send all the information in this app called master tour. And then on, I think on the last page of that app, there's maps. So people will highlight things if they go into that town to be like, Oh, this coffee shop was great or whatever. So I know, that's, that's, that's a good idea. And, you know, we have something else that's, that's different. You know, it's, let me, it's just different. Fair enough. Fair enough. I know Jesse has to go soon. So I'm going to let you wrap up with an iconic recording. So this is just a song that you enjoy. It means a lot to you. It doesn't have to be the greats of all time. It should be like off the top of your head, an iconic recording that you enjoy. So many. Oh, yeah, I know, but what comes in first, what comes in? Please, please, please, please, Sabrina Carverter. I like that one. That's a very bubblegum poppy. Just so catchy. I am so sad, I said, or that I'm such a cacolo. The song that comes in my head that I love is a botaro la pelota, but it will be rosario in Hebrew, the Santa Rosa. That's on to me. He's like just top charts. Well, good. Okay, so for me, gospel, right? Yeah, whatever style you want. Glory to glory from Fred Hamlin back in the day. Oh, wow. Nice man. Dude, my roommate, Quiddy, bro. I was just going to ask if that was more around the drums yet. Yes. Nice. So now I feel bad. Like they're all one like old school. I'm like, you're iconic. Just listen. That's iconic. For me, there's quite a few, man. I mean, like the Machito album Kenya that album James Brown. There's a James Brown album that I like that. He did with two killings and bad. It's a good, a good big band. There's that one. The course that December, my extra vida. There's a lot. I mean, that works. Those those work. There's there's a lot. You know, my playlist I have. I have a lot. Somebody else, but those. I know, uh, Marcos is the playlist king. You defer to him for some recommendations, or if you you have a playlist, or you, if you were playlist, rival his. Yeah. It's true. Cause he wasn't one that term, you know, I, he turned me into Kendrick Lamar. I heard it. Kendrick Lamar a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was you that told me about Kendrick and I'm back at Kendrick. I've always heard the name many times because I like old school rap. Some of the, you know, the new stuff now is like, Oh, okay, no Drake, whatever, like cool, but I think it was. Yeah, you connected with the last album. Yeah, he and then he told me about a bad bunny. I'm, you know, I, yo, I'm 50 years old. So, you know what, the album that he took out now is very interesting and your big props to him. It's very good. It is. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time out of you day to do this. Thank you sir. Have a safe trip on the road. And I look forward to seeing you in person or otherwise in the future. Thanks. Thank you guys tomorrow, guys. Thank you. Shout out to like all the, all the listeners, man. Yeah, shout out to all the thank you for listening to the poor. The little messages. Yeah. That sometimes we don't get to answer or we find it later. Yeah, we want to say it in Spanish, Makito. Okay, gracias a to all of those who don't, all of those who don't, they don't, they don't, all of those who listen to the podcast and they don't write in social media that sometimes we can't get the messages for the questions of trips and things like that and we answer them later or something like that. We are always very grateful for the affection and the fact that we always send the good vibes. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys tomorrow. Thank you guys. As always the show notes are located at discussions in percussion.com and my email is discussions of percussion at gmail.com and all the social media handle links are at discussions in percussion except for Twitter, which is @discussapirk. Writing and reviews welcome and accepted feel free to share this with other people that you think would get a lot out of it. And I hope that you are again still celebrating Black History Month. I hope you're staying safe out there and we'll talk to you next week. All right. Take care. Peace. [Music] [Music] [Music]