Brass Construction “Movin’” b/w “Changin’” (United Artists) 1975
Brass Construction “Ha Cha Cha” (United Artists) 1976
I like all types of music. When I was very young in Guyana there were so many different types of music due to all the different ethnicities there. I lived right down the street from a Hindu temple, for example. I think that really broadened my scope. In this case I wanted to change things up with Brass a bit, and I threw in what little Spanish I knew, “Vamanos, ha cha cha”—whatever I could get over with! [ laughs ] We played that song in concert a lot before we recorded it, and people loved it because it had a little theme that they could shout. So we just put it to tape that way, and it did well.
I loved instrumental stuff, especially groups who had great horn sections, like Kool and the Gang; Blood, Sweat & Tears; and Chicago. But at the insistence of the label, I had to put some lyrics on the instrumentals. So, as a concept, I used verbs for all the song titles and came up with some very simple, abstract vocal chants to go with the music. Later I would hear from fans how much these songs spoke to them—they would have a whole story for these one-word songs! [ laughs ] That’s the trick to writing good songs: Let people plug in their own experiences. At that time, I was going to Hunter College, studying music theory. I actually ended up using some of my Brass Construction arrangements for class assignments in counterpoint! [ laughs ] If you listen to “Changin’,” for example, you’ll hear all these displacements where a phrase is shifted over a bar. “Movin’ ” came from a studio jam session. The way I always set it up was that I would have a mic at the keyboards and all the guys would have cans [headphones], since a lot of them couldn’t remember charts. Wade Williamson started playing the bass line and I came up with some ideas as we were playing and would just shout them out to the guys. That’s why you hear some off [drum] rolls in there, since I would yell to Larry [Payton, the drummer], “Okay, let’s go! Roll coming up!” But sometimes the serendipity of what happens in a live setting makes it sound good—it’s funky, you know! So we jammed on the riff for the whole sixteen minutes, which in those days was the entire reel of tape. Then I came home and wrote the “Got myself together” hook, wrote the horn sections, and we overdubbed it.
Brass Construction “Music Makes You Feel Like Dancing” (United Artists) 1979
Larry Payton had the idea for the track, but he doesn’t really play melodic instruments, so I put the music together. It grew as we played it in the studio, really. I mean, it’s not deep lyrically! It’s just a pocket. Sometimes you just have a feel about the groove of a song, and you go with it. I added a bunch of synth stuff on top to kind of make up for where it was lyrically lacking. There’s a great feel on the drums. It was Larry’s song after all, and he had the pocket locked.
Venus “Madison ’76” (Columbia, promo only) 1976
It’s a made-up group. It was one of those things where the hustle thing was starting; we did a record to take advantage of that. Jeff was the nominal cowriter of the song, but it was entirely my composition and arrangement.
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