Episode #12

This was a very nice session that featured Terence Blanchard on trumpet, Bobby Lyle on keyboards, Chico Huff on bass, drummer Kendrick Scott, percussionist Edgardo Cintron and guitarist Lionel Loueke. Besides having a terrific career as a solo artist, Terence is also well known for his film work. For years, he has been the principal soundtrack composer for film director Spike Lee.

We taped this episode at Milkboy Recording Studios in Ardmore, just outside Philadelphia, PA. My biggest challenge that day was working the clock. The weather was terrible…heavy snowfall all day long. As I recall, we were scheduled to start at 2pm and hopefully wrap at 5pm…so that Chico (our bassist) could leave in plenty of time for a 7pm hit he had that was about an hours drive away. Plus Terence would also then have plenty of time to chill before his 8pm hit at a jazz club in Center City Philadelphia. Bobby, however, was flying in from Houston. Well, we were all set-up and ready to go at 1pm…an hour early. Bobby’s flight was due to arrive at 12noon, so all good…or so we thought.

Long story short, due to the snow and the storm, Bobby’s flight didn’t even land until 3pm! He grabbed a cab and didn’t arrive to the studio until almost 4pm…leaving us then with but an hour to tape. He walked into the studio, raced over to the piano, sat down, took 3 or 4 minutes to get comfortable, and we immediately started to roll tape. As anyone who knows Bobby would know and expect, he was the consummate pro…cool, calm and collected from start to finish. Fortunately, we were able to keep rolling tape until around 6pm, as Chico took a quick minute to place a call and learn that his gig was pushed back. And lucky for us it was. It allowed us time to tape our third song of the day, She Hate Me, an original and yet unfinished composition by Terence that he was writing and working on for an upcoming Spike Lee release. We recorded the tune in one take. To this day, it remains one of our finest.

Whether driving the arrangement with aggressive chord progressions or soloing effortlessly over changes, Bobby was on top of his game…as were all of the guys. The vibe was fresh and very much alive. Despite the time crunch, they pulled it all together. It was a blast…2 hours of great fun and great music. Then, after packing up our gear, we all decided to battle the storm and go into the city for dinner and to catch Terence’s first set at the club. More great fun and great music. And a great hang to boot.

– Tom Emmi / Producer