“Your lips…your lips…your lips…your lips… are juicy!” If your ears (and radio) were tuned into WWOZ during the last two years, it would’ve been virtually impossible not to hear Olu Dara’s musical tribute to the lips of the one he loves.
If free-form ’OZ actually had such a thing as a regular playlist, Olu Dara’s “Your Lips” (in both the original version from Olu’s debut In The World: From Natchez To New York CD and a live-from-the-Jazz-Fest rendition) would be at the very top of its most heavily rotated tracks. “Your Lips” is one of the most infectious, charming songs ever recorded.
Born Charles Jones in 1941 in Natchez, Mississippi, Olu Dara settled in New York in 1964 after being discharged from the Navy. During the ’70s, Olu was a charter member of the city’s “jazz loft scene,” performing with Art Blakey, David Murray, Sam Rivers, Henry Threadgill, Julius Hemphill and “harmolodic” guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer. In the ’80s, Olu formed his own band–available in two congregations: the seven-piece Okra Orchestra or the four-piece Natchezsippi Dance Band. He also began to devote much of his energies to African-American theater and dance.
Meanwhile, Olu’s son Nasir Jones (a.k.a. Nas) invited his father into the studio in 1994 for the recording of Illmatic, an album that established Nas as one of hip-hop’s finest practitioners. Finally, four years later, a somewhat reluctant Olu Dara was persuaded to cut his own album, In The World. Music writers and critics were uniformly effusive in their praise, France bestowed medals upon Olu and like magic, the veteran musician was everybody’s “best new artist,” a title that amused both Olu and his bandmates.
Olu has now released his second album, Neighborhoods. Featuring the Natchezsippi Dance Band (guitarist Kwatei Jones-Quartey, bassist Alonzo “Skip” Gardner, percussionist Coster Massamba and drummer Larry Johnson) and guest artists Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack and Cassandra Wilson, Neighborhoods will disappoint no one already in love with Olu’s music and will convert those yet to receive the call. It sounds like everything wonderful about Mississippi, Louisiana, the Caribbean and Africa simmered in a single cast iron pot, fortified with an extra-large helping of herbalism and joie de vivre
I have to tell you that, because of my profession, I get a lot of free CDs. One of the only CDs I actually bought in the last few years was your In The World album. Several of my fellow writers and editors have told me the same thing.
That’s good news. I appreciate it.
And your Jazz Festival appearance last year went very well.
Oh, I enjoyed myself immensely, man.
Have you ever spent much time in New Orleans?
No, I’ve always been passing through over the years. The first time I was there, I was about 13-years-old. The first time I came there I came down with my high school band for a band conference. We were in a big gymnasium, I believe, and they had maybe six or seven bands in there, warming up at the same time. My band director, after hearing some of those New Orleans bands warm up, decided that we would go home to Mississippi. That was my first experience so I always wanted to go back to New Orleans and play my music there ’cause I didn’t really get an opportunity in high school. I thought we’d do well enough but my band director–maybe he was wise and maybe he really knew that we couldn’t.
We have some pretty competent high school bands here.
They were the best I’d ever seen. I’d didn’t even know they had young people who could play on that level when I was that age. So I was waiting with bated breath to go to New Orleans with my own band. It was like revisiting, trying to make up for what happened way back in 1952 or something, you know what I mean? I really enjoyed myself.
“Your Lips” was like a hit song in New Orleans. Our community radio station, WWOZ, played it constantly. Everybody in New Orleans loves that song.
That’s great!
Was “Your Lips” inspired by a particular person?
Yes, my wife especially thinks it’s for her. I tell all the women it’s for them, you know.
Do you ever think about returning to Mississippi to live there?
I was down there the other day. Matter of fact, I passed through New Orleans and stayed a night. I went to Mississippi because there was a death in the family and I got a chance to look around. Me and my brothers–we went all kinds of places. I don’t think I could live there now because all the excitement has gone to the riverboats. You can’t find anybody because they’re mostly down at the riverboats. That’s where they go out to at night.
I’ve always wondered, Olu, are you a gardener? Because you sing about food, fruit and nature so much.
Yeah, it’s really because of how I lived in my youth. That’s always at the front of my mind because I love the environment. I love fruit trees with a passion–just to see them. I just go crazy when I see them. Being in Mississippi as a youngster, you spend a lot of time in rural areas. That’s still with me today. That’s what I fantasize about. It’s a youthful fantasy.
What’s your favorite fruit, Olu?
Ooh, good question! I would have to say the Louisiana plum.
Good answer! I have an album of Ishmael Reed’s poems set to music that you play some great solos on.
That’s my favorite of all the recordings I’ve done with other people. I did two albums with that group–Conjure I and Conjure II. Conjure II is with Bobby Womack. That’s the first record I’m on singing. I went in the studio to give Bobby a song. He wasn’t there so I sang it with the band so he could hear it. He was supposed to sing the song but I just happened to get there about ten days too late, right? So, when the record comes out, it’s me singing the song. If I would’ve known, I would’ve tried to sing a little better.
Why did you decide to play cornet, rather than trumpet?
I started out with cornet and of course, moved to trumpet over the years. What happened was I had a part in a play as an actor, where I would be a cornetist. Once the play was over, I was back to the cornet. I had forgotten I loved it so much.
Is there a big difference in playing the two instruments?
Yes, there’s a whole difference. The trumpet is much easier to play. The cornet is more difficult to play and the tubing is a little larger so you get more of a vocal sound.
Who were some of your favorite performers when you were young?
Nothing but live stuff all the time. Of all kinds, from opera to country blues and everything in between. Right there in the small town of Natchez. I saw everybody very young. People I needed to see. On records, it had to be John Lee Hooker and people like that. [sings} “I got my eyes on you…” I liked the Staples Singers–they’re from Mississippi. I was very influenced by Mississippians. And Georgians–James Brown, especially in his early days with “Please Please Please” and “Try Me.” His earlier stuff is really, to me, some of the richest music we have in America. And Fats Domino especially. I love his delivery, his smoothness, the pureness of the music. There were so many people down there but those were the main people I think I was influenced by.
Was it a totally different experience, after your success with In The World, going into the studio this time?
No, it felt the same to me. I spent the same amount of time–maybe three or four days. It felt like it was just a continuation.
Some of these songs have been around for a few years, right?
Yeah, some of the songs are over 20 years old. Like on the first album, I had some songs on there over 20 years old.
What are some of the old ones?
“I See The Light”–I wrote that song as underscoring in a play I did maybe 15 years ago. “Red Ant” I did in a play I wrote along with Dianne McIntyre maybe three years ago. We did it at George Mason University in Virginia.
Is “Herbman” based on a real character?
Yeah, Rob. Actually, it’s a tribute to the old school herbmen. Rob is a new school herbman–he has the same herbs that the old people did down in the country in Mississippi. He’s my modern herbman. He’s very knowledgeable about herbs and that’s very rare for young people these days.
On the new album, you have our local favorite Mac Rebennack playing on four cuts. Is this your first collaboration?
It was the first time. We had never met before. He walked into the studio and we started to make the music. It was just as easy as cutting a piece of pie.
Tell me about the guys in your band–I believe you’ve had the same group for a long time.
The percussionist Coster Massamba is Congolese, from Brazzaville. I met him in New York and I’ve been knowing him about 25 years. We’ve been playing together for 25 years, continuously. On the average, I’ve been with the guys in the band for 20 years. The drummer is the newest guy. There’s two drummers on the CD–Greg Bandy has been with me for 20 years, Larry Johnson has been with me maybe three years. It’s very easy–we don’t really have to rehearse anything. We learn new songs at sound check or in the middle of a song, when we make transitions.
Do you improvise the lyrics in the studio?
Oh yeah, all the time, on stage. I can’t remember lyrics so I have to just go for what I can do. I like to freestyle anyway.
When did you start playing guitar?
I’ve always had a one-string or two- or three-stringer around since I was a kid. I just used it to pluck on, not to really play-play guitar. Once I got six strings, people started calling me to play. Overnight, I learned how to do what I wanted to do. Overnight, I got the style–same thing I’m doing now. I guess messing around with that one string and two or three strings every now and then really helped me advance more than I would have if I would have had six strings all the time, understand what I’m saying?
It’s kind of like Professor Longhair–he learned to play on a piano that was missing a bunch of keys and he had to play around them. Your friend Hamiet Bluiett is coming to New Orleans tomorrow night to play with Alvin Fielder and Kidd Jordan.
I know all of ’em. I met Kidd in New York maybe 20 years ago. Five years ago, we played together.
You were in the Navy from 1960 to 1964. Did you start playing music professionally when you were discharged?
That was not my intention. I never thought, at any time in my life, before I started playing in the ’70s, that I would make a career out of music. Although I had been playing all my life, it was just something I did. I wasn’t thinking, “Well, I want to be a professional musician in New York.” That never entered my mind–it just happened.
How did you make a living?
When I first got to New York, my first job was in the admissions office at St. John’s Hospital in Brooklyn. From there, I went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and worked over there as a clerk. After that, I worked at a child-detention center as a music instructor. I worked for a Japanese newspaper company. I ran discotheques. I think I was one of the first guys involved in getting disco internationally known. How that started was sometimes the band wouldn’t show up. I guess the era had changed in the world where usually if the band didn’t show up, there would be no dance, right? One night, the band didn’t show up and we put on a record player. The place was jam-packed. The band came back and the audience didn’t allow the band to go back on stage. They wanted to hear records–rhythm-and-blues all the way, whatever was popular at the time. Later on, it was called disco.
I worked in real estate for a while, with some friends from Natchez. I did a lot of things.
And you were there for the birth of hip-hop.
Yeah, I had two children and we were living in Queens at the time. That was one of the two spots where hip-hop really originated in New York.
Did your son Nas help you get your record deal?
No, he called to ask me if I wanted a record deal with his company. But I wasn’t planning on making a record so I said no. Ten minutes after that, Atlantic Records called. This is completely separate. It was just one of those things. So I said to myself, “This must mean that I must record.” Nas said he just wanted me to record so his friends could know a little about him. And see that he’s no fluke–that’s what he was telling me.
Atlantic Records had been approaching me for many years to record. But I was really happy doing what I was doing. One thing led to another and now I have two records.
Why did you not want to record?
It wasn’t my intention. Just because I was a musician, it didn’t mean that I was interested in recording music ’cause I was busy doing theater and dance and writing musical plays. I really enjoyed that lifestyle.
Do you enjoy touring with your band?
I enjoy playing with the band. The touring part–if I could just beam myself up, it would be better. I’m glad I waited so long to do it. I’m in a better frame of mind. I haven’t been jaded by the road. I haven’t gotten sick of it yet.
You seem like a very happy, optimistic person. What do you owe that to?
My community, my family–we’re like that. I grew up in a family, including mother and father, with nine people in the house–seven kids, two parents. Never hardly an argument ever. Once the kids became adults, there were no arguments at all. None. No disagreements about anything. When we’re together, it’s just quiet and we talk a lot. It’s always very pleasant. I used to think all families were like that until I got out into the world. It’s unusual.
Does this have to do with being from Natchez?
It has to do with Natchez, too. It has to do with just the way my mother is. It’s probably genetic.
Nas seems like a happy person, too.
He’s a very mellow guy also.
It’s funny–I told some kids I was going to interview you and they went, “Who?!” And then I told them you’re Nas’ father and they were all excited.
Oh yeah, that happens to me all the time. I told Nas a few years ago, “Man, you should’ve at least called me and told me you were this famous!” I get chased down the street by girls who want his telephone number.
What advice would you give a young kid who wants to play trumpet?
I would tell him not to. I’d tell him to sing and play guitar. I never liked the trumpet. I can play well but…I thought I liked it in the beginning but as I got older, I felt that it really wasn’t first in my band. My voice is first and the guitar and harmonica run a close second. I’m talking about the things I want to do. The trumpet doesn’t make me feel as good as the singing and playing the harmonica and playing the guitar. It seems like it’s separate–it seems like I have to go take a step into another room. When I play the trumpet, it turns my music right into jazz. But I don’t want it to go into jazz. I want it to stay, you know what I mean? If you hear a trumpeter’s tone one time, you gonna hear that same tone the next time. But with a voice and guitar, you can do things with them. You can twist and turn them a lot. This is why the trumpet is not elastic enough for me. That makes sense, right?
Definitely. I know Olu Dara is a Yoruba name–what does that mean?
It means, “Good God–hit me, I can’t stand myself!” That’s what I tell people but what it means is “God is good.” Same thing.
