As Dwight Trible was such a generous man with his time, there was too much to squeeze into Part 1. In fact, I don’t think I actually mentioned that there is a new album Love Is the Answer.

I feel like you should never count anybody out and even if it doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere, give everyone his or her credibility and opportunity. Because you never know when your angel will show up and how and what form your angel is going to take, and my angel came in the form of this unlikely person. That’s the only way I see it, my angel showed up

In Part 1 we found Dwight live on stage in the basement of the North Sea Jazz Festival at the Congresgebouw, Den Haag (the last time the Festival will be held at The Hague and a stage on which, Gilles Peterson has also appeared, more of Mr. Peterson later) and you can see the ‘live’ broadcast again by clicking HERE [Highly recommended].

So the album was the concept of Carlos Niño, who had previously worked closely with Dwight on the Build An Ark project along with Derf Recklaw, Nate Morgan and Phil Ranelin.

In fact, from what I can make out, Dwight would have liked to have had a bit more input into the new album, talking of one of the standout tracks, ‘Waves Of Infinite Harmony’, “Waves was sort of sampled, I don’t even know where he took it from.” And of ‘Freedom Dance’, “I like funk music, I always wanted to make a song like that, I wish I was in the studio to mix it a bit more. I would have really brought the bass and drums out to where the shit was really pumping.” It’s pretty funky now, how much funkier can it get? A Dwight Trible remix could be on the cards? (Come on Ninja Tunes, you know you want to).

He says of one of what I called the “infuriating ‘mini’ tracks” like ‘Rise’, “It was more of a nice interlude. I like songs to do a little more, you know, lets do something with it. But hey, I wasn’t the producer. Carlos wanted me to be a bit more subtle, you know, I trusted him ‘cos this is his genre.”

But it’s clear he’s got the ultimate respect for both Carlos and Dexter Story, as, “they know what’s the kids like.” Carlos’ aim was to make an album for the kids to dance to after all. Dwight says, “Dexter brought 4-5 songs over to the house and played them for me and two songs that I thought would work were ‘Freedom Dance’ and ‘Try Love’ which has that infectious kind of feel.”

“My favourite tune on the album? I like that (‘Try Love’) and the tune Daedelus did (‘Life Force’), In fact I’d really would like to do an album with him, he’s a really talented musician.” And the way ‘Antiquity’ came about, simply “Carlos asked me for ten of my favourite records and asked Dexter for 10 of his.” I was wondering whether John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ would have been his favourite album.

He says that it’d be in his top five. He’s written lyrics for lots of Coltrane songs such as ‘Wise One’, ‘Africa’ (both on Dwight’s Living Water CD), ‘Resolution’ and ‘A Love Supreme’. “The thing about ‘A Love Supreme’ was that it was due to be on the Horace CD, even though Billy Higgins played on it, Alice Coltrane’s lawyers made us take it off the record”. So that’s why there’s only ‘mini’ celebration of ‘A Love Supreme’ on the new CD. Whatever the reason, Mrs Coltrane is fine with Dwight as there are plans to do a concert with her.

Part 1 ended with Dwight talking about one of his ‘Guardian Angels’, Horace Tapscott and he says “Not only thru’ my association with him [Carlos] but also my associations with Horace Tapscott, Billy Higgins and Pharoah Sanders, I feel all these people are my Angels otherwise Dwight Trible would be an LA secret”.

Carlos met Dwight on his Spaceways Radio show. He then produced Dwight’s debut CD Horace for his WCP label with a limited pressing of 1000 copies. He recalls, “I could have just played this young guy off when he asked me to come and sing on his radio programme, because I thought he was just some student and he had some high school college show. But the thing is, I said, ‘lets see if the cats want to come and do this,’ and when it came to the day before the show, they all said yes. Little did I know this young guy had a legitimate radio show on a legitimate major radio station in LA and he was writing for the LA Weekly! And I had no idea! I feel like you should never count anybody out and even if it doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere, give everyone his or her credibility and opportunity. Because you never know when your angel will show up and how and what form your angel is going to take, and my angel came in the form of this unlikely person. That’s the only way I see it, my angel showed up.”

The Radio is very important to Carlos. Via Ninja Tunes, we find out Carlos’ early radio influences were DJ Rob One and his “Fly ID” radio show and, from the late 80s, Mike N.’s ‘We Came From Beyond’ radio show on college station KXLU, Los Angeles.

Dwight was recording a jingle over the phone for Radio Magnetic just before we met [to listen to that & interview on Monday, 25th July - see below details] and I asked him what he listened to on the radio in the sixties, when Dwight was in his early teens in Cincinnati. He said Aretha Franklin and Linda Jones. “Do you know Linda Jones?” he asks with the optimistic tone of a fan. “She did a song called ‘Hypnotized’ which was her popular song. In my opinion she was as soulful as Aretha Franklin, but in her own way, a different kind of way. But she had diabetes and she died young. She opened up the spirit and let it all out, you know I mean, oh God she was something special and if you listen to a record by her, you’ll probably hear her influences on me in there.”

There’s more information on Linda Jones at ‘The Queen Of New Jersey Soul’ link below. I’m not sure Dwight understood my explanation of what Northern Soul was (and still is) but Linda Jones is unsurprisingly represented in numerous compilations with ‘A Last Minute Miracle’, ‘My Heart Needs A Break’ and check out ‘You Hit Me Like T. N. T.’ on the Golden Classic link below. While on the subject, does Craig Charles really pick the tracks for his Funk show on 6Music? Check that tracklisting below for 1st April (see links below).

Getting back to the concerts, he tells me, “Lil Sci (see, One In An Infinity Of Ways, New Birth, Exquisite Corpse) is with us on the road, I dig that cat. I dig him the most. You should see him when he works, he’s got such a beautiful spirit.” Andres Renteria and Gaby Hernandez complete the personnel in a sleeker Build An Ark or expanded Ammoncontact. In fact, another one of Carlos’ ‘projects’ is previously little known trombonist, Phil Ranelin who (along with Dwight) played on Build An Ark’s ‘Peace With Every Step’ album of last year.

“Anyone that knows anything about music knows about music knows about Dwight Trible via Carlos and he’s doing a lot of things with other people and it won’t stop with me, He’s doing a lot of things with other people.” He says they saw one of Phil Ranelin’s LP’s on sale in Japan for $1,000 (one for Mr. Scruff on his next trip?).

He speaks of Carlos as a concerned father, he says, “I worry about Carlos” explaining how busy his is, “When we were in Paris, during the day, he was writing lists of stuff he needed to do, business plans and such. I want to get him into meditation just to slow it down, but I dunno, I can only do one thing at a time.” It’s clear, he’s only got love for Carlos, “I’ve been around for a long, long time, It’s only when I stop to think or I got thru some of the boxes of memorabilia at the times and places that I’ve sang in, I say WOW! Without Stopping, we’ve all been trying to get to things like the North Sea Jazz Festival and all of that stuff. And by way of Carlos, all these thing manifest.”

That album cover photo is on the LA beach, Playa del Rey which means, ‘Beach of the King’; how appropriate.

This interview with Dwight Trible is in three parts: Part One // Part Two // Part Three

Links:
Part One of this interview
www.dwighttrible.com
www.ninjatune.net
DJ Rob One passed away in 2000 from non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 28 - CancerBACUP
Carlos Niño’s “Spaceways” radio program on KPFK 90.7fm in Los Angeles www.kpfk.org
Linda Jones – ‘Hypnotized - A Golden Classics Edition’
Chancellor of Soul – Linda Jones
Linda Jones - Monday May 09, 2005 “Linda Jones is probably the top contender for the title of Greatest Singer No One Has Heard Of”
Craig Charles – Funk Show : Linda Jones – ‘You Hit Me Like TNT’
John Coltrane – sample of ‘A Love Supreme’
Billy Higgins
Pharaoh Sanders Live Shows– check Catalina 2000/03 with Dwight & a Billy Higgins Tribute 20th March 2001 and he was appearing regularly with KAHIL EL ZABAR RITUAL TRIO (M. Favors, A.Brown)
Radio Magnetic “Underground Dance Music Internet Radio. Live broadcasts from Scotland UK with DJ mixes covering hip hop, house, techno, drum and bass and alternative club …2005-07-18 13:04:35 DWIGHT TRIBLE IN MAGNETISM presenter Dougal Perman spoke to Dwight Trible recently about his new album on Nina Tune, Love Is The Answer. Listen in to Magnetism on Monday 25 July from 7.30pm to hear a lively chat with a great singer and gain some insight into the making of this fantastic album.
AROUND L.A… PASADENA AND PLAYA DEL REY “Beach of the King”;
Terry Jones - See Comments below www.philerzy.com