Fildza Md Zin | 8 May 2001
Bluey Maunick and his band, Incognito released their first album 18 years ago. They took only six days to record that album. On the contrary, their new album took them two long years to complete. “Making music to me is the story of my life. You spoil the ending if you skip a chapter. It was so important to make the last album 'Beneath The Surface' which I was told wouldn't succeed… I needed to have my head, to tour for a while then stop,” says the veteran of the British jazz/soul scene and is still producing the beautiful music he's become so famous for and lasting longer in the industry than anyone should have a right to.
This man has done a lot of things that people can only dreamed of. He built a studio, set up a label, Rice (for which he's producing Maysa's second solo album), worked with Earth, Wind and Fire's Philip Bailey, reggae legend Maxi Priest and still found time to write new materials. In all he had 40 songs ready by the time he finished writing the last song. and that's about three album's worth of songs! “When you are touring you tend to spend all your time planning the next record. This album almost just happened because I was planning other things around it,” he says. “When we recorded 'Always There' (their cover of Ronnie Laws' jazz-funk opus which is an enduring club classic) Jocelyn Brown sang it in the studio and the next time I saw her was on Top of The Pops. This time Jocelyn came round and we hung out, I saw her over a period of two weeks and we chatted and got to know each other better. This record's about communicating with people again. That's what it's about.”
The story of his life.. live with something for so long and you can make as close to perfect as possible, and that's what you'll hear from “No Time Like The Future”. “Most of the time when you release an album straight away you hear it when it's released and you think 'I'd wish I had done that instead' - with this I could go back to it six months later and say, 'That's staying in, that's coming out, we're moving this sound to that track.' I get bored listening to most albums these days and just flip between my three favourite tracks. I remember when I was first buying albums by Santana, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, I wanted to hear the whole thing, listen to it from top to bottom. I personally feel I've done that with this album. Maybe by the time I'm 60 - I'm 42 now - I'll have made an album I'm happy with.”
From the opening choppy piano chords of 'Wild and Peaceful' leading into Maysa's plaintive vocals you're in familiar territory, Incognitoland, a place where jazz meets soul and R&B.
Six days to two years, the sound may be as funky as their first album but this time around it was a different experience altogether. When they were putting the first Incognito set together, Bluey chuckles when asked about the first album. “It was in a basement with rats the size of cats sitting in the windowsill. We had one flood and we had to move studio. We ended up knee deep in rubbish. We spent five months in a real close environment, but we recorded everything there. It was triumph through adversity. When you go through any kind of pain it's no fun at the time but you look back and think, yeah that was worth it. It was a struggle but it's already putting a smile on my face.”
He made technology transparent with this collection. The engineer at the pressing plant found it hard to believe that the vocals had been recorded digitally. The album's full of textures you'll never hear. Incognito is soul music and whilst Bluey's plan is about using technology to create classic music, they've never used to so many musicians; 40 or 50 over the album (and that's not including the 18-strong string section).
The story of his life. Bluey went to Ronnie Scott's one night and heard Cuban roots band Irakere. He went up and introduced himself and asked if they would like to play brass section on 'Fearless'. He laughs, clearly tickled by the memory. “They didn't speak a word of English, just music, but that was all we needed. I sang a part to them, but they were like, OK, OK, OK, good, good. That's the only words we said to each other but it was fine.”
With “It Ain't Easy,” one of the album's real standouts, Bluey had the chance to write a song for Jocelyn, who has been belting out her lungs for more than 20 years. 'Somebody Else's Guy' is her only real solo success, but from disco favourites Inner Life to Masters At Work's Nuyorican Soul project she's been guesting with success for decades. It's not what you'd expect, not a gut-busting screamer. He knew what she was capable of, so he pitched the vocal lower ad has turned out a mature, restrained floater, all the more powerful for being restrained. Then there's new girl on the block, Karen Bernod, who ahs worked with Erykah Badu, D'Angelo and duetted with Luther Vandross. Listen to the voice of a true song bird when you close your eyes and journey through the streets of Marrakech. Then continue into the deep funk of “Get Into My Groove” or lose yourself in the darkness that is the epic “Black Rain” where Bluey's son Daniel and drummer Richard Bailey combine with dramatic effect. One thing's for sure, there's never a dull moment.
In the seventies, Bluey used to work in a record shop in Tottenham, North London, selling the Philly sound, led by Dexter Wansel, a writer/producer of real class. There were solo albums like 'Voyager', full of sweeping strings and stand-out melody, tracks like 'Life On Mars' and 'The Sweetest Pain', and there was work on acts like The Jones Girls 'Nights Over Egypt', a stone classic. Covers have been good to Bluey, there's been 'Always There', there's been Stevie Wonder's 'Don't You Worry Bout A Thing,' so the time was ripe for 'Nights Over Egypt'. Bluey called Jocelyn and Maysa into the studio, changed the song's mood from the original laidback groove into an uptempo dancefloor killer that's going to lay waste to clubland all year long.
One problem, no one could work on how the second verse started. After days of searching he got in touch with Dexter Wansel. Bluey says, “I told him I was with a group called Incognito and did he know us… ” He did. Turns out Dexter has everything they've ever done. Dexter had news for Bluey. As Bluey was covering one of his tracks, Dexter was covering one of Bluey's 'Deep Water' and for one of Bluey's vocal heroes, Philadelphia mainman Billy Paul. “What are the changes of that happening?” asks Bluey, looking pleased as punch. “They say there's no time like the future, but things better be better today. Let's make them go right, and go right now.”
