Carla Cook Performs (Get Lit)

Carla Cook performs at Get Lit, 2023
( Chae Kihn )

Alison: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We invited James McBride to join us for our September Get Lit event. He knew exactly who we wanted to join him as our musical guest, Grammy-nominated jazz singer and his longtime friend, Carla Cook. Over the course of her career, Carla has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, and many more jazz luminaries. She is also a songwriter and educator who has been on the faculties at Juilliard, Pratt, and Temple University. In a moment, you'll hear two special performances from Carla and her accompanist, piano player, Bruce Barth.

But first, we invited Carla on stage to speak with me and her good friend, James McBride. Here's our conversation. Carla, welcome.

Carla: I am delighted to be here. Thank you.

Alison: How do you know this fella?

Carla: Oh, maybe 30--

James: 30 years and something.

Alison: [laughs]

Carla: Maybe a little longer [laughs] actually. We met-- I knew him as a tenor player before I knew him as a writer, and we actually worked on-- he has a-- can I talk about Bobo?

James: Sure. Yes.

Carla: Okay. There is a--

Alison: Pull the mic a little bit closer.

Carla: I'm going to say upcoming. I'm going to speak very positively about this.

Alison: Yes.

Carla: Upcoming musical entitled Bobos, which he had me play West Indian. I have the worst-- I remember thinking, you can't possibly let someone hear this because it was the worst West Indian accent I've ever tried to sing in. Then he called me this summer to do it again, and it's marginally better.

James: She's fantastic. Carla and I go back a long way. She's one of the premier. If you ask musicians in New York about Carla Cook, they'll say she's one of the best in the world. I'm always afraid to play with Carla because she is super bad, but she brought one of the best pianists in the world to play with her. I've known her a long time. We go back to the Fort Greene days. We played when Fort Greene went in and all those-- everyone lived in Fort Greene back then so we all played together. I've always loved Carla's sound. She's just got a gift, which you'll hear shortly.

Alison: When you think of it as an educator and as a performer, why is knowing the history of a genre important? In this book, if you don't know anything about jazz, you could learn so much from just reading some of the passages in your book. It made me think, why is it important to know the history of music as a performer?

Carla: Well, I was thinking of it as a soundtrack. As soon as you tell me it's set in the '30s, there's a history there. Especially jazz, it didn't come out of nothing. When you talk about the African-American community, you have to think about the blues. All of it, there is just a line, a progression, and it is the soundtrack period. That's why it matters. It matters even if you're teaching very contemporary music, it's important to know where all of that came from.

James: You can't sound good doing something that you don't know the history of. I talk about Mickey Katz in this book, the great Jewish purveyor of klezmer music. You wouldn't see me trying to play Mickey Katz's music. Carla and Bruce could pull it off maybe, but I can't because it's just too hard technically, and if you can't get past the technical part of it, you can't hit the spiritual part of it. The spiritual part of music is like writing. You really have to know your subject. Once you know your subject, then you can really start to sound good for the ages.

Alison: What do you like about being an educator, Carla?

Carla: I love seeing and hearing the same excitement that I had when I was really young. When things are new, or your ability to be able to, "Oh wow, I get it," that light bulb moment. It doesn't happen that often, but when it does, it's the most exciting thing in the world. It's never gotten old. I've been teaching more than 15, 18 years now. I love the balance. I love to perform, but I also love the teaching. It keeps me, and I'm always getting inspired by the students, too. There are songs they bring in that I knew 25, 30 years ago that I hear anew when I hear them sing them.

Alison: James, do you have a music teacher you remember? Someone who--

James: Oh, yes. Probably Wendell Logan at the Oberlin Conservatory. The greatest lesson he taught me wasn't about music. It was about-- I was taking this arranging course and my best friend in school, his name was Leander Bean, still my best friend. Leander was a classical player and we had a midterm, and Leander handed his midterm in and he got an A and I got a C. After class, I waited until everybody left and I went to Professor Logan black guy now.

I said, "Professor Logan, you gave Leander an A on the midterm and I got a C and I want to know," and I pointed to me and him like, "I want to know." Professor Logan looked at me and he said, "I gave Leander an A because he deserved it and I gave you a C, which just became a D."

[laughter]

Alison: Oh, snap.

James: He said, "Don't ever come into my classroom talking like that again." He said, "This music is about the truth, and if you're not about the truth, you are not qualified to play it."

Alison: Oh, you got told.

[laughter]

James: Yes, that was a painful lesson to learn.

Alison: Carla, you're going to sing for us in a moment, but I can't let it go. What's Bobo about?

James: Bobo's is about a-- Bobo's takes place in the '80s. It's about a 10-year-old kid who wants an expensive pair of tennis shoes. We used to call him Bobo's in New York, some of you remember. He gets a pair of Bobo's for his birthday, and then this is about his journey to get expensive shoes.

Alison: Carla, you are?

James: Carla plays Phyllis, the chicken lady.

Carla: I was just thinking of this, Bobos has a community quite like the last two books. I think that's part of my love for it. You get to know all these different characters and you love each one of them. They're all different. Even the villains, you love them too. It's the way you're writing now. That's where you are right now, I think.

James: Amen.

Alison: Carla, what are you going to perform? What have you chosen?

Carla: I've chosen two songs. The first is from a track titled Simply Natural. It is the title track of a CD I put out several years ago. It's really about nature and I would love to tell you that, and I don't love gardening and all of that, but really, it was inspired by a fight with a squirrel I was having in my backyard in Brooklyn.

Alison: Did not see that coming.

Carla: The second it's more of the vibe I'm looking for. It's called A Lover's Lullaby, but I've chosen it because it feels like something beautiful. I think of monkey pants.

James: All right.

Alison: Who's joining you?

Carla: The great Bruce Barth on piano.

Alison: All right.

[applause]

MUSIC - Carla Cook: Simply Natural

Green in the spring

Flowers in bloom

Cavernous mountains

Sunlight at noon

Scent of the morning

Birth of the blues

Feeling a new dawn

Finding your muse

Just take a moment and witness the beauty around you

See all the flight of the bird in the sky

I often wonder why I take for granted the moonlight

How can I not notice the beauty of rain in July?

It's all natural

Simply natural Set up the ocean

Cool midnight air

People in dawn

People and prayer

The softness of babies

The tickle of a breeze

Oh, oh, oh, and the wind blows

The dance of the trees

Oh, it's so amazing

How so many clouds

Live in the sky

Mind-blowing how there are

So many shades of blue

Laughter is medicine

As are the voices of children singing

Oh, what a creation

The ocean a rainbow

I have you it's all natural

Simply natural

[applause]

Carla: Thank you.

MUSIC - Carla Cook: A Lover's Lullaby

I know the day has come and gone

Rest your tired feet

Come and lay your weary head

Down and go to sleep

Night has fallen less suddenly

Now you're winding down

Meditation calling you

I won't make a sound

I will even dim the lights

When you kneel to pray

Fluff your pillow, tuck you tight

You've had such a day

You can tell I'm lulling you

Into sweet repose

I'll be here till your eyes are closed

Sweet dreams

If you dream of paradise

I hope to be there

But if your dreams are not so nice

Darling, don't despair

Don't have to read the message that the stars

Spell across the sky

God loves you

And so do I

Sweet dreams

Now sleep

[applause]

Carla: Thank you.

Alison: That was Carla Cook on vocals and Bruce Barth on keys for our Get Lit with All Of It September book club event. Carla was our musical guest, specifically requested by her friend, James McBride. We spent the month reading his novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. That is All Of It for today. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.

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