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The Beginning
"My first paying gig was as a conga player. Some older guys from my neighborhood were in a backyard playing one day and I wandered in and started playing a conga that was in the corner. I wasn't really a conga player but I'd been playing them my whole life. Because my father used to play congas, there was always at least one around the house. Matter of fact, there still is. "
The next gigs I got were in after hours spots. Way after hours. It was illegal to play in those places even if I hadn't been a minor. But it was a lot of fun and an opportunity to play with some great musicians. I did those gigs off and on for the next ten years. They were somethin' else, too. For example, me and my boy Billy Grant on bass would have a gig out in Harlem that finished around 2:00 AM. Then, we'd drive out to the Bronx for another gig and play till about 8 or 9 in the morning. The party would still be going on and the bands would still be slammin', which was neccesary if you wanted to make it outta there.
"Those after hours clubs had tighter security than any of the legitimate clubs we played. That's because almost all the clientele were straight up, hardcore gangsters that were always on the lookout for something to breakout. Once you made it past security and into the club itself, there might be anything going on in there. A lot of wild stuff would happen right out in the open. But those were definitely some of the best parties you could ever go to." To return, close window.















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AL B SURE
"This was on the "New Edition Heartbreak Tour" along with New Edition and former member Bobby Brown. It lasted seven months but Al continued to gig for months afterward. Around that time I also played with Brenda K Starr R'n'B group En Touche.
"We used to call it the 'Aaaghh' Tour because that's all we heard when we were onstage. Al, Bobby and New Edition were real popular with the women fans, of course, and they each had at least one single in the R'n'B top twenty for the entire time we were on tour. The whole show would really turn out to be a three hour pelvic thrust party!" To return, close window.







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LENNY KRAVITZ
"I got a call from Bobby Brown's drummer Zoro who was in New York to do Lenny Kravitz's debut tour, "Let Love Rule". The band was already chosen and he asked if I knew singers who might be interested in doing background. After some calls, I arranged for a lot of vocalists to go down and audition.
"Lenny's requirements for singers were simple. He needed them to hold straight tones for nearly all the parts but not many vocalists are used to singing without vibrato. He wasn't too happy with what he heard. After a while, though, he noticed that the person singing the way he wanted was me. So after all that auditioning, I was the first vocalist chosen! Afterwards, Zoro told me they didn't ask me to sing in the first place because back on the New Edition tour, he only knew me as a keyboardist.
"After me, one of the other two singers was Angie Stone. At the auditions, they only wanted male vocalists but Lenny really liked Angie's voice and decided to go with her.
"This was his first album so he didn't have the huge following he has now. He was married to actress Lisa Bonet at that time. When we did the Bottom Line in New York, she went through the audience handing out flowers to everyone. It really set the tone for the type of music we were gonna play." To return, close window.









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KOHIRUIMAKI KAHORU
"Kohhy's love of 70's and 80's soul/R'n'B music gives her live show a certain kind of drive that keeps you on your toes. Today, her shows are just as energetic as they ever were with a big emphasis on back beat grooves and old style horn arrangements.
"It was with Kohhy that I performed at the Fukuoka Music Festival '93. Along with all the  international artists invited to perform the show also featured rock legends The Grateful Dead, which really boosted ticket sales. With a capacity of 80,000 seats the Fukuoka Dome is the largest indoor arena in Japan and it was sold out for this event. I hadn't performed in front of that many people since the New Edition tour five years earlier.
"Kohhy is one of the few artists left on the planet that still performs totally live. She writes and produces her own music. What  you hear at her shows is what the band is playing right then. It's a real pleasure working with her and I'm grateful to call her one of my closest friends" To return, close window..









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CHARA
"The first time I worked with Chara was in '92, just after her debut. I did background vocals for one of her very first shows. We had run into each other many times over the years at rehearsal studios and various shows backstage before her I toured with her in '97.
"Each time I've worked with Chara it's been one of the most comfortable experiences I could ask for. Her crew, her management and her band were all absolutely wonderful. And Chara herself is the most down to earth person in the world. At rehearsals as well as backstage at the shows, she was right there being a part of the band, never getting caught up in an ego trip even though she's a huge star.
"Chara possesses one of the most important traits of being a great artist: she truly loves music. Her honesty comes through to her audience and they love her for it." To return, close window.












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COCO LEE
"This gig came up just after she did the theme to the movie, "Mulan" and right before her Oscar nominated theme to the movie, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". My boy Winky had been in Hong Kong for years and was already on the gig playing saxophone. He called me in Japan about setting up the background vocalists.
"Her backing vocals were particularly challenging because more than half the lyrics were in mandarin and cantonese. Getting the pronunciation correct while hitting the right notes was really something else! Also, these were outdoor concerts. The shows in the evening were humid but not too much to deal with. But the dress rehearsals, which were scheduled from the morning till about 7:00 pm, were so hot that some of the dancers actually passed out. We had to re-schedule them based on the position of the afternoon sun. You truly understand the term 'high noon' when that 12:00 pm heat is beating down directly on top of your head. But after the preparations and rehearsals were done, the live show made it all worth it. It was all so extravagant. The first show had 20,000 fans screaming to see their favorite singer. All those faces smiling up at us was amazing! Coco danced and worked that whole stage for two hours long as well as any of her back up dancers. All the while singing in that amazing voice. Every musician and singer on the gig was blown away by Coco's talent and strength. She truly deserves to break out in a global way." To return, close window.










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MONDAY MICHIRU
"I first met Monday after one of her shows in Tokyo. Along with Shinichi Osawa, her then producing partner, me and Monday have worked together many times both live and in the studio. Over the years, we've also become great friends. Monday and Shinichi are two artists I feel very fortunate to have met. Their creativity on stage and in the studio with Mondo Grosso and other artists has absolutely inspired some of the best work I've done." To return, close window.
















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BUST-A-MOVE
"The object of the game was to have a dance battle with different characters. The player would copy moves or create their own until they won all the battles against each character. "Creating songs for characters is very interesting work. I was given a personality profile of each character plus certain keywords or phrases the game designers wanted heard. The real challenge is to take all these ingredients and make it comfortable in song form. One of the characters was named Hiro. His profile was that he's a really good disco dancer with a "Saturday Night Fever" style. He has a huge ego and loves to bring attention to himself. His keywords were gold ring, cigar and playboy. I named the song, "The Natural Playboy". Here's a few lines:

".... and I look like a star,
When I'm smokin' my cigar,
And all the girls know my name
I know, my gold ring is beautiful,
And everyone wants one
Everyone wants to have my style..."

"I was satisfied with the end result and the producers were really happy because it covered all the points of Hiro's personality."
"One of the nicest surprises I ever recieved came from Nuriko, a university student in California. One day I got an e-mail from her asking if I was the same Kaleb James that wrote and performed the Bust-A-Move soundtrack. I wrote back yes, and she wrote that she and her friends were huge fans of the game and had actually started a small homepage for other fans to log on to and converse about it. She said that the game and the music was wonderful. I went to her page and sure enough, there it was. I noticed some of the character information was incorrect so I wrote and told her about it. She asked if it would be okay to ask other questions about the lyrics and other things. I said sure and sent them a copy. To this day, there's still a note on their page that says, "Special thanks to Kaleb James for helping out". It's really a good feeling when something you created is enjoyed by people all over the world." To return, close window.