Growing up, alto saxophonist Vincent Herring was more into the pop music of the day than the jazz he heard at home.
But, when he visited the KNKX studios in 2024, it was clear that is no longer the case. Herring brought his band, Something Else!, and they delivered a series of classic jazz tunes infused with soulful pop sensibility.
Something Else! included fellow saxophonist James Carter on tenor saxophone and soprano saxophone, who was Herring's first choice for the band. But, Carter's appearance in this studio session was extra-special because his recordings for Something's Else!'s debut record were cut from the final version.
"The record company wanted to get tracks under nine minutes, and they were like 20 minutes. Corporate structure does not want to have that on recording," Herring said.
A fan of soul music, Herring found inspiration for this project in the Motown Revue concerts he loved as a kid. These were packaged concerts that featured up to a dozen of the Motown record label's biggest stars.
"They would have all of these groups — The Temptations, Diana Ross — and they would play all of their hits, and they had a rhythm section," he said. "They would play all these songs and then the next artist would come on. It was so fun to go to that concert, because you knew all these songs, and you would get to hear them back to back."
When Herring started putting together the personnel for Something Else!, he thought back to the fun he had watching those Motown Revues.
"Wouldn't it be nice to have something like that? You know, just thinking about myself as a audience participant, how much I would like to go to that concert," Herring said.
Herring's own pathway to jazz began when he heard a jazz legend playing saxophone on a hit from 1977, Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are."
"It had a great saxophone solo on it, which was Phil Woods, and it took me a long time to find out who that was, and then I went to see him live," Herring said.
Herring's got another band that honors the music of jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, too. But, despite the fact that one of Adderley's most celebrated recordings shares its name with this band, Herring says this project is, well, something else.
"That's just another project that I love doing, and it fits into who I am, and it's just perfect. But that's not what this project is, and I don't want people to shortchange it," Herring said.
In 2024, Herring appeared on another record for Heavy Hitters, a group led by Mike LeDonne and Eric Alexander. When he isn't recording and performing, he pays it forward as a jazz educator at William Paterson University and at Manhattan School of Music.
Songs heard in this episode:
- "I'm Not So Sure"
- "'Round Midnight"
- "Naima"
