JazzTimes – October 2019

38 JAZZTIMES SEPTEMBER 2019

better than I do. Why would you call

me your best student?”

Ted said, “Nile, let me ask you a

question. I know you don’t have much

money. Why are you paying to take pri-

vate lessons with me?” I said, “Because

I want to learn to make records, I want

to play concerts, I want to write songs,

anything I can think of in music I want

to do.” He said, “Well, you can do all

of that.” “Really? How?” He said, “Play

better.” [Laughs] Then he asked me,

“Nile, all these things that you want,

what if none of them ever happens?”

Before he even got the last word out of

his mouth, I said, “I’ll keep trying.” He

said, “You’re my best student because

you’re never going to give up.”

How were those first gigs Ted got

for you? Were you ready?

[Laughs] The first time they pulled the

oldest trick in the book on me. Ted had

me sub for him in Joe Newman’s big

band at this place that was around the

corner from where I grew up called

Boomers. They welcomed me, and first

song, they call “Cherokee” at an easy

pace—“One ... and two ... and ... how’s

this feel, brother?” Like they were mak-

ing sure I could keep up. I said, “Okay,”

and then they went—“One-two-three

... [sings fast] Baah-buh-buh-buh,

baaah-buh-buh-buh ...” [Laughs] I was

flying. That was the test. I didn’t know

about that trick. I was like, Whoa, come

on Ted, what did you get me into? But

I was hanging. I was totally hanging. I

only played with Joe Newman a couple

of times but I have a million funny

stories about that.

I’ll tell you one story about some-

body I knew from seeing him at the jazz

clubs. This was after Chic got big and “I

Want Your Love” was a hit. I was walk-

ing on the street and somebody walked

up behind me and tapped me on my

shoulder and says, “I hear what you’re

doing, youngblood.” I turn around and

it’s Harold Mabern, and he’s making

like he’s playing the chords to “I Want

Your Love.” [Sings melody] He was

making it clear he heard McCoy Tyner

in it. He was right! In fact, I use lots of

fourths to play melody while keeping

a funky chordal structure. I got that

from McCoy, and I got outed by Harold

Mabern, and I was so proud that he was

cracking on me.

So you’d hang and play at jazz

clubs and you were taking on

R&B gigs too.

You can sort of tell when I started to

switch from one style to the other by

my guitars. At one point I’m playing in

With brother-in-arms

Bernard Edwards, 1996

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