Interviewed by Maya Trotz for jouvay.com. December, 2006.

Arturo Tappin
Cayman Islands, 2006

Barbados saxophonist extraordinaire Artuto Tappin has toured with Roberta Flack and contributed to Caribbean musicians like Robert Greenidge. He recently released his third album earlier this year which reflects his style as a lively blend of jazz, soul and Caribbean music. We spoke to Arturo about music, musings, and life as a Caribbean artiste.

Jouvay.com: Here we are with Arturo Tappin. Thanks for taking the time to talk with jouvay.com at the Cayman Islands Jazz Festival (pics here) where you have performed before.

Arturo Tappin: This is my third time at the festival. The first time I was here with Roberta Flack, last year I was here with Notch and Club Dread and this is the first year I brought my own band. I have also been here for a Food and Wine Festival.

JC: During rehearsals today you spoke of playing the violin.

AT: When I was about eleven I went to Combermere school where they gave you a musical aptitude test. Dr. Fletcher would play a note on the piano and tell you to sing it. If you made the mistake of making the right note you were forced to sing in the choir. If you got in the choir and you did good in theory you were put in violin class.

JC: How long you did that for?

AT: Five or six years. Then my buddy Nicholas Branker had a jazz band at the time that was being managed by my cousin Mia Motley. The wanted another horn player. I auditioned and played clarinet. They thought I could play jazz so they put me in the band. Then they decided they wanted the sax player and I really liked the band so I would sneak my brother's sax out and take it to rehearsals. I was so accustomed to playing classical music on the violin and clarinet with that pure wooden organic sound that to pick up the saxophone and attempt that kind of thing, it was not working. The saxophone is alot more soulful and raw. Nearer to Aretha Franklin as opposed to the Brazilian Bossa Nova type singers.

Arturo Tappin and Nicholas Branker, Cayman Islands 2006.

JC: Stick a pin, Mia Motley used to manage a band?

AT: Yes, it was called Man Jack.

JC: That's excellent, she may be the next Prime Minister of Barbados. How long have you been doing this professionally.

Arturo Tappin: If by professional you mean being paid, from the time I picked it up I got a gig. After that I went to community college for a while in Barbados. I signed up for economics and english literature, but spent most of the time liming. I was just killing time until I got accepted to Berkeley and got some scholarships. I was very fortunate to have the assistance of Baroness Bridgette Mcallis who helped to pay half of my school fees when I was there. I got an alto saxophone scholarship also. I had done a video with Llyod Wilson Jr., who was the first Barbadian to attend there back in the 70's. He came back to do a concert when I was 16 and told me I should go so I videotaped that and sent that in. One year at Berkeley and I learnt so much because I had to put in about six hours a day just to catch up. I thought that when I was 40 I'd be able to play with those guys on the records. Not realizing that when I got there there were teenagers younger than me playing better than the guys on the records. So I had to either jump in with both feet or find another profession.

JC: Did you play at Wally's (a great jazz club in Boston)?

AT: Of course. I actually learnt alot more at Wallys than I did at Berkeley.

JC: About music?

AT: Music and Life.

JC: That was Bajan owned?

AT: The guy that ran there was Barbadian. Wallys was interesting for they would have all of these musicians from past to present Berkeley students lined up to play from 7 pm to 2 am. You got $50 US for the gig and you had to buy your own drinks. Full of cigarette smoke and jammed with people. If you did not play they would let you know it.

Jouvay.com: I used to go there. So now you are working on your new CD.

AT: Don't force me to talk about it. I am working on it. When it's out you'll be the first to know. (And we were, even mentioned in the acknowledgements. Inside Out was released in Barbados in January 2007 and in the US in summer 2007. Buy now or see US release party).

Jouvay.com: I think you should be paid by the Guyana tourist board. I think you could help solve some of the issues between Guyana and Barbados.

AT: I don't know why there is a problem. Whenever I travel I tell people that Guyana has the friendliest people in the Caribbean. I love going to Guyana and take any opportunity I get to go to the Sidewalk Cafe through Nigel Hughes.

JC: Maybe you should come out and let them know that your great grandmother may have Guyanese blood.

AT: I don't know if that would help. So does Mia's. Her grandmother has Guyanese connections as well. All of the Barbadians that are doing well are Bajan Guyanese. Start with the girl from London, Desiree, Oba, Bajan Guyanese and of course Rihanna, Bajan Guyanese. So, I don't know what is the problem.

Jouvay.com: And we have Arturo Tappin, Bajan Guyanese.

AT: Guyanese by proxy.

Jouvay.com: Maybe we'll push you to solve that issue because you love Guyana.

AT: Of course.

JC: I saw you at the sidewalk in Guyana for the first time when I was a teenager. Had all of the women in Guyana falling for you.

JC: How did you get linked with Roberta Flack?

AT: I have been working with her for about seven years now. She came to Barbados, met Mia and Mia brought her to hear me play. As soon as she walked in I stopped the band. We played Feel Like Making Love and she stood and watched it. When I finished I went to her table and she asked, "what are you doing in Barbados?" I said gigging and she said, "You need to be in New York." A couple of years later she took me on tour to South Africa. I have been gigging with her ever since.

JC: And you have gone all over the world with her.

AT: Yep, everywhere. Helsinki, all over Spain, Portugal twice, Japan several times, all over the states, Argentina, all over the Caribbean.

JC: Many of the artists on your show tonight..

AT: Through Roberta I have met some of the greatest musicians. Some of them I grew up listening to on records like Buddy Williams. In NY there were two schools of music. I am not talking about the universities and colleges. I am talking about learning music from the street. You know after you graduate you have to go out there and start from scratch. There were two bands who taught you what really works in the real world. That was Miles Davis band and Roberta Flack's band. That was the training ground. Miles unfortunately is gone and I have been fortunate enough to work with Roberta. I have learnt so much from being in her band and that is how I met all of these musicians.

JC: What kind of stuff did you learn?

AT: The main thing I learnt was to focus on music more so than getting too caught up in trying too hard to please everybody. Roberta has so much star power that when she starts a show she does not have to prove anything. That helped me to relax alot. Sometimes you get caught up with playing the instrument instead of the music. Roberta taught me how to play the music and not the instrument.

JC: That's a good lesson and it definitely came through in tonight's show. And you met Rhea at the Pan Jazz.

AT: Actually, I met her in Barbados., but I first heard her sing in Boston. I went to see a Berkeley end of term concert and she happened to be one of the popular singers. Eventually we met in Barbados. They had a concert for Father's day in NY (Panjazz at the Lincoln Center) and the promoter wanted NY based Caribbean artists/musicians. I was able to put together a band with grammy award winner Ralph Macdonald, top pan players from Trinidad Robby Greenidge (he plays the pan solo in Just the Two of Us), Nicholas Branker who has produced everyone, Rupee, Patra, Buddy of course on drums, Miles on piano.

JC: Buddy's Caribbean?

AT: If you are from Brooklyn, you are Caribbean. That's why he plays it so naturally. We needed a vocalist and it was father's day and I thought of Rhea and put her on that show and we have been doing gigs together ever since.

JC: Afterwards you told me about her and thanks to you we did the interview in September 2006 and announced to her that she'd be coming to the Cayman Island for this show. You have a big line up for next year. Every jazz festival in the Caribbean. You are probably the most popular Caribbean jazz artist out there right now.

Arturo Tappin: Maybe. As a saxophone player, yes. As a pan player it would be Boogsie Sharpe. As a pan player he is probably the most famous jazz musician in the Caribbean. He's a genius and I don't know if we'll ever have one like him again playing pan on that level. Coming from the Caribbean, the most famous jazz musician who has done very well in Europe and America would be Jamiacan piano player Monty Alexander. What probably helps me is that I play all types of music on my show.

Etienne Charles, Buddy Williams, Atruro Tappin, Morris Pleasure, Rhea. Cayman Islands, 2006.

Jouvay.com: You just produced a show in Barbados for the 40th independence...

AT: It was produced by the National Cultural Foundation and was a gift to Barbados from the Prime Minister of Barbados. I was hired as the musical director and I had to put together a 32 piece band. It was alot of work. Very stressful and very rewarding. It was alot of fun. All of the old school time artists like the Draytons Two, Natalie and Shauntelle did Colors, Alison Hnds. All styles of music. There was classical music on the show with Shawn Jackson who is a Barbadian organist who did his doctorate at Julliard.

JC: I know you also help to produce soca stuff.

Arturo Tappin: Yes, I have done alot of stuff over the years in the tents in Barbados. Splash band was a band I was with and "Get Busy" was our biggest hit which I wrote and produced with Forna Frank. In recent years the biggest I have had was the song with Mr. DJ, "Waistline Shots". This year I did something on Red Boy's riddim called "Don't Do That" which is the same riddim as Peter Ram's "Woman By My Side".

JC: Congrats again on an excellent performance tonight. It's late and your eyes are shutting.

Since this interview Arturo released his CD, "Inside Out". We saw him perform many of the songs live at the first Guyama Ranforest Music Festival in April 2007 (pics here).

Thanks to Desa Philadelphia for the introduction.