Who excited you most?
If you’ve grown up a disciple of Stevie
Wonder, to actually have him come on stage
and sing with you, and come to the studio
and work with you and invite you to his
place... that’s the stuff of dreams. The same
thing happened with George Duke before he
passed away. Also Chaka Khan, Al Jarreau,
Philip Bailey... the list is endless.
You’ve been called “the elder
statesman of acid jazz”. Do you feel
like an elder statesman?
That’s the contradictory thing: when you
“WHEN YOU GO ON STAGE AND PLAY
SONGS LIKE THESE, YOU BECOME THAT
FIVE-YEAR-OLD KID WHO FELL IN LOVE
WITH MUSIC”
Incognito, 2019. From left:
Cherri V, Bluey, Joy Rose
and Vanessa Haynesgo on stage and play songs like these, you
become that fi ve-year-old kid who fell in
love with music. You become the teenager
who discovered Earth, Wind & Fire. You’re
in a younger place. The body may have
changed, but inside you’re the same guy.How did it feel when, after more
than a decade on the acid jazz scene,
you suddenly started having hit
singles and albums?
You fi nd a new lease of life. You think you’re
already there and already on a high, and
then suddenly you fi nd a higher high. But Imust admit, I also lost myself in that period,
when the success came, because everything
is available to you. There’s no moderation.
I lost a lot of friends from that period. I lost a
lot of people who had started a lifestyle that
they couldn’t stop. I was fortunate enough
to be surrounded by friends and family who
sorted me out. That period opened doors, but
it opened doors to everything.The 80s and 90s are often described
as the golden age of acid jazz. Are
you buying that?
The only people who buy that are the
people who had it, and then lost it. When
you’re still doing more than 200 gigs a year,
when people are coming to see you in their
thousands... I’m still living the golden age.OTomorrow’s New Dream is
out on 1 November on Bluey
Music and reviewed on page 83.
Incognito’s 40th anniversary tour
comes to Indigo at the O2, London,
on 4 December.