You’ve done some interesting things here in Vegas in recent years—played Tiger Jam with Prince, guested with Medeski Martin & Wood at Vegoose, headlined 3121. Does any particular Vegas memory stand out for you?
Waaaay back, we—we meaning James Brown—either played before Elvis or he played before us, and James needed somebody to stay back and view Elvis’ show and then report back, and my brother decided he’d do that. I think James wanted to know about audience response and number of people at his show, stuff like that. Not really to critique the show but to tell him about all the hoopla.
On your recent Ray Charles live tribute album [Roots & Grooves], your singing voice sounds eerily like Ray’s. Is that your natural style, or was that something you employed for the project?
It’s really close to the way I naturally sing, but because I was into Ray Charles at a very early age, it’s easy for me to know all the mannerisms and quirks of how he phrases. I’ve been listening a long time and doing it a long time, so that comes naturally. But if someone said, “Sing it but lose the Ray Charles style,” then it’s more naturally me—still close to Ray Charles, but I’m not trying to round it off like him. When my voice is right, it’s a combination of maybe Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole. Maybe.
Having toured extensively with James Brown, George Clinton and Prince, what’s your assessment of each one as a bandleader?
I can’t say too much about Prince. He’s just a sweetheart all the way, and a genius. James Brown is where I really learned, almost like going to school. How do you read an audience? When is it time to do a slow one? He might repeat a tune in one performance, or instead of ending a tune go right from one to another and then to another. Lots of these things that I incorporate into my show today I learned from James Brown. Whereas my George Clinton days were all about fun. His motto was, “It ain’t nothin’ but a party.” You might think you had an arrangement on a song, but if the trumpet player got George’s attention and said, “Man, I’d love to play a solo in this song,” he’d say, “That’s fine, go ahead. Whatever you wanna do.” With George, life was never uniform. If a guy would say, “Man, I’m really into basketball. I want to dress like a referee tonight. Is that okay?” And George would say, “Sure.” And some other guy would say, “My feet hurt, I don’t feel like wearing shoes.” And it’d be, “Man, that’s fine. Come with no shoes.” And that threw me. Where I was coming from, with James, we all had tuxedos, shiny shoes, a color scheme. So for a minute, that really threw me.
With Grand Pianoramax. February 21, 8 p.m., $25-$35. House of Blues, 632-7600.