The Cool Lounge

Recorded on March 19, 2011

Here's a tribute to some of my favorite british musicians. Isn't it funny how you forget to mention inportant things at the right time? For example, the second song I played, "Happy People," I heard for the first time two years ago at a new years eve party. As tipsy as I was, I was in awe when I heard the chorus. Why? It sounds like Stevie Wonder to me. Well, I'll let you listen for yourself. I also forgot to mention the websites of most of the artists.Thanx again to The Mighty L for the engineering.

Playlist:

 Recorded at The Basement-San Francisco

 “Too Late” by Junior  Album: The Best of Junior (1995) Official Website 

“Happy People” by Incognito  Album: Tales From The Beach (2008) Official Website 

“Picture In My Heat” by Azur  Album: The Azur Project (2010)  Official Website 

“Return Of The Mack” by Mark Morrison  Album: Return Of The Mack (1996)  Official Website 

“There's Nothing Like This” by Omar  Album: There's Nothing Like This (1990)  Official Website 

“Love Blind” by Jamiroquai  Album: Dynamite (2005)  Official Website 

“Brighter Star” by Nick Van Gelder ft. Marcina Arnold  Single (2008)  Official Website 

“Can't Wait Another Minute” by Five Star  Album: Silk & Steel (1986)   Official Website 

Recorded on April 11, 2010.

Ten hours before this interview I went overboard celebrating my birthday. Yep, I had a too much to drink but knowing I had an interview with Mr. McKenzie gave me the strength to get out of bed. I truly appreciate Derrick's interaction with on his fans walls on Facebook. Thanks!

Derrick introduces us to his Protegé, Karen Morales, who performs "Summertime." The track is produced by Derrick and features a rap by Serge Muniz.

Derrick on Facebook

Karen Morales on Facebook

We want answers! Whatever happened to this guy? Shand recorded a flawless neo-soul album in 2002 and it seems as if he disapeared off the face of the earth. I know he's out there and hope he's listening. By the way Remy, I love your accent!

We're dedicating this show to Remy's mother, Lana Shand who passed away on March 4, 2010.

Shand was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Doug and Lana Shand. His father is of Scottish/English descent and his mother was of Italian descent. By the age of 12, Shand had learned to play the guitar and acoustic bass. While many people during the 1980s and 1990s were influenced by early hip hop and pop, his father was into soul. According to Shand, his father influenced and exposed Shand to R&B/soul acts including Steely Dan, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Herbie Hancock, The Isley Brothers, Stevie Wonder and Blood, Sweat and Tears.

During his home schooling in Winnipeg, he listened to his parents' R&B, blues and soul albums, spending a lot of time in his basement sampling retro music. Shand's love of funk music made him an outcast. His parents encouraged him to earn his GED, and to work on his music as a project. He also attended Garden City Collegiate for his Grade 11 year of studies.

At the age of 19, Shand sent a demo tape to Steve Warden. Warden then became his manager and helped to find Shand a prominent record deal. Two different labels gave Shand offers for a recording deal but he turned down the offer. Fortunately Universal Music Canada had signed Shand to a record deal with Motown Records in the United States.

Shand began recording and mixing his debut album, The Way I Feel, during the spring of 2001 at his home in Winnipeg, performing and recording the tracks for vocals and every instrument on the album. The album features songs such as "The Colour of the Day" and "I Met Your Mercy", examples of his particular style. Shand was quoted as saying the track "Everlasting" was the blueprint towards the content of The Way I Feel, as it was the oldest track on the album, recorded in 1998.

The Way I Feel was released on March 12, 2002, and Shand won a Juno Award for Best R&B/Soul Recording at the 2003 Juno Awards. The album was successful in Canada and sold roughly 500,000 copies in the United States. Shand received four Grammy nominations for his work.

In October 2003, Shand's official website stated that he was working on his second album, to be called Day In The Shade. The album has yet to be released, and since then, there has been no public information regarding Shand's whereabouts or recording projects.

Special thanks to:

Ben Montoya for the master editing.
Mary Louise Knutson for the background music

• Wikipedia
• Jam.canoe.ca
• WMA.com
• Bamalovesoul.blogspot.com
• Maple Music.com

Recorded on March 7, 2010.

I had the pleasure of chatting eith the multi-talented Angel Ferreira who had a big hit with "Wet Jam" in 1988. These days, crossing over from R&B to latin jazz, he's now recording with his own group, Angel and the Mambokats. In the conclusion of our interview, we play his rendition of Haircut 100's 1981 hit, "Favourite Shirts" (Boy Meets Girl). Angel's version is simply entitled, "Boy Meets Girl" and they do it Mambokat style!

Angel & The Mambokats:

This afro-Cuban-soul band is Hot and ready for attention! The leader of the band, L.A. native, Angel Ferreira was a dancer who toured with Madonna on her WHO'S THAT GIRL tour and had a deal with Virgin Records before the EMI buyout. As time changed, so did his sound into something that became a musical culmination of his personal life experiences. The pedigree is long but no need to tell you about it! You can view Angel's soon to be released webumentery on YouTube.

Angel's songs which appear on his self-produced CD, "Horizontal Mambo", are nourishing songs of lost and found love in L.A.'s well healed districts. This Afro-Cuban Soul formula has taken years to brew! It all starts with his Momma buying him his first Michael Jackson LP and learning how to sing the title song "Ben", watching his parents dance mambo and cha cha cha to Tito Puente and Celia Cruz's music, his father teaching him to play the conga drum, choreographing sk8r tricks to Aerosmith and Ted Nugent!, discovering dance as a runaway teen on a rooftop while listening to a transistor radio playing Michael Jackson's, "Workin' Day and Night", witnessing the new sound of Hip Hop on the movie set of Beat Street, dancing and staging cabaret show's in New York City, touring on a private jet around the world with Madonna as one of her dancers, getting signed to Virgin Records, and finally taking out of the oven, The Mambokats' afro cuban soul formula.

Angel & The Mambokats song called "Black Mambo" has been heard by millions on the hottest TV shows worldwide. "Black Mambo" is a fast mambo that describes his quest for infinite love and was first captured in the essence of dance by America's favorite dance contestants, Benji and Heidi from Fox Television's smash hit show, So You Think You Can Dance. Then Beijing Olympic Beach Volleyball gold medalist, Misty May Traynor also dancing to "Black Mambo" on the other monster hit show, Dancing With The Stars. 

Recorded on November 21, 2009

Today we're paying homage to Harvey Milk who will be honored every May 22nd in the United States.

Danny Nicoletta who was Harvey's personal friend as well as an American photographer, photo journalist and gay rights activist gives us a candid interview on his life with Harvey and his enthusiasm on Harvey's day of rememberance.

For those of you who don't know much about Mr. Milk here's a brief bio- Harvey Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician who became one of the first openly gay men to be elected to public office in California, when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Politics and gay activism were not his early interests; he was not open about his homosexuality and did not participate in civic matters until around age 40, after his experiences in the counterculture of the 1960s.

Danny's Website

Photo: D. Nicoletta, 1974

I'm paying homage to one of my favorite groups of all time-Jamiroquai

Hopefully, I'll be able to interview them someday. Special thanks to my good friend Damien Maurice for co-hosting with me and for allowing "The Cool Lounge" to record at KPOO.

I just want to state that I'd failed to mention that Nick Van Gelder preceded Derrick McKenzie on drums for their debut album, Emergency On Planet Earth -sorry Nick!

You can catch Damien's show, "Just Chillin'" every Sunday from 12pm-3pm(pst)on KPOO.

Hope you enjoy the tribute!

Recorded at the American Radio Network Studios for the "Kaliedascope Radio Magazine" in Hollywood, CA, Feburary 2005. The name of the show was "Classic Jams."

Unlike most Jackson tributes nowadays, I've paid homage to Michael and the family while he was still with us! This tribute includes a childhood favorite song by Rebbie, The Jackson's and an unreleased song by Michael written by Michael Sembello. It was supposed to be on the "Thriller" album but they had to choose between this one and "Human Nature."

Special co-host is DJ Frankie Ho. -Enjoy!

Recorded on September 26, 2009.

Finally, a little luck as I get to chat with one of my idols, Jamiroquai former bassist, Stuart Zender.

I love his English accent-lol. He is so friendly and it was a pleasure talking to him! Special thanks to the great Jae Benjamin (Zender's manager) for making this interview possible.

Here's a brief bio of Mr. Zender for those of you who don't know.

Born Stuart ‘Patrick Jude’ Zender on March 18th, 1974 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. At age 7, he moved to the United States as his stepfather was transferred to work near Philadelphia. He grew up in Norristown until he was 15, when he would move back to the UK. He left school when he was 16 and went straight in to music by working as a light man for the punk-circus outfit Archaos.

Zender originally started off by playing a little snare drum before moving on to bass. He got involved in bass guitar more seriously by playing in bands by way of his sister and her involvement of the music scene. Stuart would often go along to the rehearsals and sit on the drums before being attracted to the bass. One former band mate recalls often being frustrated by Stuart’s lack of concentration, citing that he would never practice and then once in rehearsal, never stop playing!

When the time came to talk to Stuart, he had already left for the Jamiroquai job! Before joining Jamiroquai, SZ had only been playing the bass for around 2 years – but he appeared to have a natural gift for the instrument. He comes from a musical family, and his uncle is a guitarist, and his older sister was a backing vocalist. As part of his learning process, SZ learned how to play (note for note) the bass parts of Jaco Pastorius and Alphonso Johnson’s work on the Weather Report ‘Black Market’ album (all by ear too!).

He is currently working on his own material, "Running Out Of Heroes."

Stuart's Site