The PlayErie interview with
John Novello of Niacin
When
included as part of a balanced diet, Vitamin B3 -- or Niacin
-- helps regulate normal tissue metabolism. When included
as part of a balanced album collection, Niacin's TIME CRUNCH
helps regulate mental processes, and keeps the attentive
music lover's ears and nerves sharpened.
Billy Sheehan (Talas, Mr. Big, Explorers Club), Dennis Chambers (George
Clinton, Steely Dan, Dave Sanborn, Stanley Clarke), and John Novello
(Chick Corea, Manhattan Transfer, Edgar Winter, Ritchie Cole, Donna
Summer, Andy Summer) are the powerful three-piece working under the
name Niacin. On TIME CRUNCH, their fifth album and second for Magna
Carta, they shatter preconceptions of the jazz/fusion trio just as
swiftly as a hammer shatters a watch.
On Wednesday, November 20th Erie will be treated to a healthy dose
of Niacin at the Docksider. (1015 State St. 814-879-0708)
Recently PlayErie.com had the opportunity to speak with keyboardist
John Novello about his musical direction, both with Niacin and also
personally.
PE: Tell
us a little about Time Crunch. What can we expect on
this release, and how would you say it compares to Deep
or High Bias?
JN: Time Crunch was
composed and performed after my wife passed away
in Jan 2000. I was very moved and inspired to
do some of my best work. In fact we were all
very moved. Gloria was a close friend of all
of the band members and in fact sat in with us
at the Blues Alley in 1997 - the only singer
to ever sit in with Niacin live. Niacin has always
been a chemical reaction of three players; shit
just happens when we get on stage together. But
with this record, I feel we pulled out the stops
and went for it. There's no compromises... NONE!
We played everything we wanted to play and we
played it well! I'm very impressed with this
CD. I like all of them of course, but this one
seems to have gone where no notes have gone before!
And the pockets are on fire which is what it
is all about! It's a good CD to listen to while
you're driving a Ferrari to Vegas and have nothing
but clear straight roads in front of you. Guaranteed
to keep you awake in my humble opinion.
PE: How
would you describe the band to someone who has
never heard you?
JN: It's Fusion as
it is meant to be, NEEDS NO EXCUSES, begs to
differ, and offers each musician's very best
-- their PEAK of ability and creative dedication.
It may at times be funkified, rockin', jazzy,
avant garde, heavy or mystically mesmerizing
-- but always driven by intensity of focus. It
is not wimpy smooth jazz fuzak suitable for broadcast
in retirement community recreation halls.
PE: Although
the Hammond B3 is a Niacin staple do you use
it exclusively on tour or will we experience
other textures such as piano, synth, etc.?
JN: You will experience
some ripping synth leads and some piano and some
rich orchestral interludes, that is if you are
paying attention. But the main primordial beast
that I have to keep under control at times is
the B3. For some reason when I get behind that
monster, I come to life. I guess I enjoy playing
with my organ in public and getting paid for
it! Others would get thrown in jail! WE don't
recommend being on ANY drugs when listening to
Niacin as it's dangerous to your health and slows
your mind down too much to appreciate the message.
PE: Do
you tour with an actual B3?
JN: You're kidding
of course!!! It would be a sacrilege to play
a clone especially in Niacin - vitamin B3!!!
I have many B3's. My favorite one is a super
modified B3 that has both manuals MIDIED. I'll
be using that one for the West Coast Tour. I
have another hot rodded one that I use that a
B3 tech keeps for me out of Buffalo that'll I'll
use for the East Coast Tour.
PE: Your
bio states that you have worked with Chick Corea,
Andy Summers and John Pattituci among others.
Give us a little background on this, and also
how you came to work with Billy Sheehan and Dennis
Chambers.
JN: Although I have
worked with all of those people above and many
more, I really can't remember. Gigs just come
about and you do them. Chick's was a dream come
true. I literally one day just wrote him from
an address on the back of one of his CD's. He
wrote back and we became pen pals. I eventually
met him in Boston back stage at one of his concerts
and we became friends. In Los Angeles where he
and I eventually moved, he hired me to program
his synthesizers as I was a wiz at that and later
on his CD Eye Of The Beholder, he asked me to
play some synth parts with him live in the studio
while he blew some piano. It was a gas. He is
a consummate musician for sure. We are still
best friends to this day and stay in comm mostly
thru email but occasionally hang out in person.
I just went to his concert at The Hollywood Bowl
in Los Angeles where he played with three of
his favorite projects - He and Gary Burton, The
Three Quartet's Band featuring Steve Gadd, Michael
Brecker, Eddie Gomez and of course Chick; and
the Electric Band with John Patitucci, Eric Marienthal,
Dave Weckl and Frank Gambale. It was a night
of uncompromising fusion!
PE: Of
particular interest to PlayErie.com readers is
your journey from the Erie area to Los Angeles
and the high profile projects that you are now
involved in. What was the chain of events that
lead you from Erie to where you are now?
JN: My historic Erie
bands in order were The Jades, then Symon Grace & The
Tuesday Blues and then C.J. Bri. C.J. Bri was
the forerunner of Niacin as it was an eclectic
progressive fusion organ trio. It's members were
Derf Mckeeton on bass and Jay Lewis on drums.
Symon grace had a hit record "You Won't
Keep Me Working" on Mainline records and
just as it was about to break nationally, our
singer Mike Nuber was drafted. At the time I
was furious with Mike because it didn't seem
he tried very hard to handle the situation. When
the record company found out we lost our lead
singer, being a vocal band, they dropped us.
I was devastated. But in hindsight, it was meant
to be because that motivated me to move out of
Erie and go to Boston to study my craft seriously
at Berklee College Of Music.
I then moved out to Los Angeles in 1978 and within a few months I landed
a gig I never expected to land with a new R&B Disco band called
A Taste Of Honey. I became their music director and since I was broke
when I hit LA I took the gig... something I would not usually do because
I was a bit over qualified to play four chord Disco tunes... well sometimes
five chords.... but what the hell, I made a lot of money, toured the
world and made a lot of connections for about 4 years.
I then went with Donna Summer for a world tour as she heard me in Japan
and asked me to play with her. That's how shit happens in this business.
I always tell musicians to give more than is expected on every gig,
even a wedding or a lounge gig, as you never know who might be listening.
I got sick of these types of gigs after a while and then refused them
and stayed in LA and began organizing my fusion projects, doing sessions
and teaching which led me to write my keyboard line "The Contemporary
Keyboardist" now published worldwide by Hal Leonard Publishing.
I have two best selling books and three videos with them with two more
books on the way.
I met my wife, Gloria Rusch while I was touring with A Taste Of Honey
and it was love at first sight. She was an incredible singer, actress
and vocal instructor to the stars and eventually we got married and
started a fusion project called Novello/Rusch which did one record.
We were voted the West Coast's top adult contemporary jazz act in 1995
and were just about to pop when in 1998 she developed breast cancer.
I took off my career and helped her fight it for 15 months but she
had to move on in Jan 2000. I was devastated but I just finished a
book about the experience called The Song That Never
Ended: A jazz musician's intuitive discussion about his journey to
love and beyond. It will be released on New Paradigm
Books in April 2003. I never thought I'd write a book about love and
loss and recovery but life has many different turns and twists and
I believe our whole purpose in each lifetime is to learn spiritual
lessons and to make this place a better place from our having been
here. That's what the book is all about. I highly recommend it to anybody
as it tells the whole story. Sure making money and having a nice house
and car etc. is fun but it ain't what it is all about, I can assure
you. My wife hooked me up with Billy Sheehan and that's how Niacin
was formed and here we are - C.J Bri reincarnated as Niacin. What a
f.... journey in hindsight. Pretty wild indeed!
PE: What
are some of Niacin's musical influences, as well
as your own?
JN: Erie's own Basil
Ronzitti was probably the most early on important
influence in my life. I began studying the accordion
with his father Mose Ronzitti... what a great
being! And then when Basil came home from the
army, I began studying from him. Basil used to
do transcriptions of serious music like Mozart,
Bartok, Stravinsky etc. and we'd play them in
an accordion chamber group. That was my first
experience with serious classical type music
and it was very inspirational for me. Then one
day he wanted to enter me into a jazz contest.
He wrote a jazz arrangement for them to play
on Green Dolphin Street but I couldn't improvise
and so he had to write out the solo etc. That
pissed me off that I couldn't improvise and I
made him teach me jazz etc. If it wasn't for
him, I may be a bank teller listening to Kenny
G in the elevators .... yikes!!!
About that time I was also going to the Holiday Inn and listening to
Erie's own Mary Ellis Brown. She played a Wurlitizer organ and sang
and was and still is oh so soulful. I couldn't wait to hang out and
listen to her. I used to really listen to how she made the tunes her
own and thus added her soul to the equation. Then while attending Edinboro
State College, I met Dr. Paul Martin who I studied serious music composition
from and who turned me on to much 20th century music like Penderecki
and Stockhausen etc. Of course during that time I always had my own
bands as I mentioned above which I used to try out new things but eventually
I moved to Boston and studied and absorbed everything I could. I mean
I was a human sponge obsessed with learning everything I could and
in fact still am.
In Boston I eventually studied from the famed jazz instructor Charles
Banacas who really specialized in teaching bebop. He helped put the
final touches on me. The rest was now up to me. I had the knowledge,
now I needed to live some life and channel it into my music.
My main influences are ALL the great B3 cats - Jimmy Smith, Pete Robinson
from the German trio Quatermass, Mike Ratledge from Softmachine, Keith
Emerson, Brian Auger, Mark Stein form The Vanilla Fudge, Felix Cavalier
form the Rascals, Gary Peterson a genius B3 player I met in Boston
who I just tracked down and am going to produce next year, Larry Young,
Jan Hammer; pianists such as Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Keith
Jarrett, Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Cuban jazz pianist from the Planet Monster,
Oscar Peterson, Joe Zawinul, Jimmi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin,
Yes, Traffic, Blind Faith, Genesis, ELP, King Crimson, the soul and
funk bands like Earth, Wind & Fire, Sly Stone, James Brown, Sam & Dave,
Wilson Pickett, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, B.B King, blues cats
like Muddy Waters, James Booker, Dr John and serious cats like Bach,
Beethoven, Mozart, Bartok, Stravinsky, Penderecki, Stockhausen, Elliot
Carter, Ravel... I'm sure I'm forgetting some... I mean it never stops...I
love it all except for country!
PE: Describe
your writing process, do you derive material
from jamming... or is it a more structured, written
approach?
JN: Both.
Sometimes it comes right out intact which I call the Mozart
paradigm. For example the tune Glow on
the Niacin CD Time Crunch. I was in my digital recording
studio late one night by myself and I was finishing up
my wife's CD Tightrope which
I promised her I'd finish if she didn't make it. It was
a pretty emotional thing to do of course listening to her
beautiful voice and knowing she had gone to the other side.
I was about to go home and I was looking at her picture
and missing her much. All of a sudden I got the urge to
blow and I began playing my Kurzweil 88 synth keyboard.
I improvised a tune and had recorded it just in case. Later
on I added bass and drums to the first take improvisation
and named it after her name - Gloria = Glo her nick name
which eventually became Glow as
she was/is a glowing being! I love that tune for this reason
and it is a nice oasis in the middle of the intense Niacin
vibe but still Niacin.
Other times, I develop short little sketches that I record or jot down
during the year. Anytime I hear an interesting groove or phrase I make
a note of it somehow and eventually I might compose something around
it.
Other times I'll find a new sound on one of many synths and let it
inspire me to play something and then if something comes out that I
like, I'll develop that further. It pays to have some compositional
and arranging chops for sure. I'm glad I did all of that studying as
it is really being used for sure.
With Niacin, Billy and I do all the writing and so he does the same
process as I do and then we compare sketches and pick and choose which
ones to develop and record with Niacin. Billy is an amazing talent
as is Dennis. They are both self trained but nevertheless they know
what they are doing.
PE: The
band did a cover of King Crimson's "Red" on
Time Crunch, how did that come about?
JN: That was Billy's
idea. It was my idea to extend the tune on the
end and jam on it. Billy has challenged me with
the last three covers that he chose: Red, Blue
Wind and Meanstreets as they are all very guitar
oriented and I had to figure out how to do them
and pull it off.
PE: Billy
Sheehan has mentioned Niacin's progressive rock
roots, such as ELP, Yes and Genesis. There was
a time when "prog" was very un-cool...
do you feel that enough time has passed that
we may now accurately see the contribution progressive
rock has made to music in general?
JN: I never thought
it was uncool and the people that did were simply
uncool! Currently it is on the rise like never
before and the Internet is really helping.
PE: Any
thoughts on the current state of the music industry...
regarding topics such as Napster or the situation
with the RIAA and internet radio stations?
JN: My teacher Charle
Banacas before I left to go to LA and do my thing
told me the following: "John, there's making
music and then there's the music business. They're
not the same thing!" I didn't know what
he meant at that time but I do now. I never let
the "music business" alloy my feelings
for writing and performing music, never!
PE: What
is your advice for young artists trying to break
into the music industry at this time.
JN: Don't get into
the music business ever. Get into music man,
just for the love of it! Do it because you love
it. I do what I do because I love to do it! That's
the only reason. Sure we all have to make a living
but I see too many people JUST making a living
and they seem miserable to me. I feel blessed
to have the desire and courage to go after what
I LOVE to do. For example the other night I heard
Gonzalo Rubalcaba play the standard "Yesterdays." It
flipped me out. I loved what he did. So I sat
at the piano for 7 hours and copied and analyzed
what he did. I was in heaven. You have to have
that kind of love for what you are doing. If
you do, you are already successful. The rest
will come and if it doesn't, so what. When you
can flow unconditional love - love with no qualifications
- to a person or subject or whatever, you have
found the secret of life itself! That is richness
and guess what? You take it with you!
PE: Is
Niacin thinking about its next release? Any hints
as to what you might have in store for us?
JN: Really not sure
what we'll do next but I can assure you it will
be uncompromising and from our hearts. Maybe
we'll go country!!! :)
PlayErie.com would like to thank John Novello for taking the time out
of his busy schedule to talk with us. Thanks John! - interview
by John Trevethan
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Listen
to Niacin
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| Elbow
Grease |
realaudio |
mp3 |
| Invisible
King |
realaudio |
mp3 |
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Order "Time
Crunch" and other Niacin CD's below
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Links
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The
official Niacin site |
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John's
official site |
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|
John
with Alan Howarth |
