A Collaboration Of Love And Music

 

They say the greatest marriages are built on teamwork. On today’s show, Tara Joseph is joined by one of the music industry’s most talented husband-and-wife teams – double-Grammy nominee and Concord recording artist, Monica Mancini, and three-time Grammy winner, five-time Latin Grammy winner, and with an Emmy to his name as well, Gregg Field.  Monica and Gregg share how they met, how they work together and how they collaborate whilst always ensuring they have fun along the way!

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A Collaboration Of Love And Music

I am joined by one of the music industries most talented husband and wife team. Please welcome to the show, double-Grammy nominee and Concord Recording artist, Monica Mancini and the three-time Grammy winner, five-time Latin Grammy winner and with Emmy to his name too, the incredible producer and one of the best drummers of all time, Gregg Field. Welcome to the show. How are you both? It is lovely to have you on the show.

We have landed in La La Land.

We’re happy to be talking to you.

Thank you so much. I have to cut to the chase. I’ve introduced you to everyone. What I think everyone’s going to want to know is how did you meet?

Monica was singing with her father’s orchestra on a 30-day tour of Japan and I was playing drums. I had heard that Henry Mancini’s daughter was going to be singing. I thought, “This has to be nepotism if I’ve ever heard it.” We did our first rehearsal in Tokyo and the first song we rehearsed was Days of Wine and Roses. I’ve got my head buried in the music. I hear this voice starts singing and I thought, “This can sing.”

Have you heard the expression, “Stick a fork in it?” It was popular back in the day. We pretty much knew that this was going to happen two weeks in.

Was it love at first sight?

No. I thought that Gregg was this super cool, groovy, but not in a great way. He is too cool for the room kind of guy. I realized how freaking talented, cute and lovable he was but it was not love at first sight.

All of those things.

Here we are, many years later.

How lovely. Gregg, you mentioned earlier that Monica, your father was the legendary Henry Mancini. How was it growing up with such a musical genius in the household?

I didn’t appreciate his genius until I was in my teens and twenties. I was a rock and roller back then. I wasn’t particularly interested in what he was doing. I grew to appreciate him the more and more I started to sing his music. As a singer, you particularly start to realize how wonderful it is to sing beautiful melodies. He was chockfull of great melodies to sing. Growing up, it was very regular and normal. It wasn’t a Hollywood upbringing. We were in San Fernando Valley, little kids playing in the streets. It was pretty normal. I had no sense of a genius in my midst.

Were you encouraged to go into the business or do whatever you wanted to do?

We weren’t encouraged. We took music lessons and did all the things that kids do such as piano lessons, but they never encouraged one way or the other. They wanted us to stay in jail.

Was that hard? Was that jail on the horizon?

That’s for another episode.

We must schedule that one then. Gregg, did you have a lot of music in your childhood when you were growing up?

As a singer, you particularly start to realize how wonderful it is to sing beautiful melodies. Click To Tweet

I was from East Bay outside of San Francisco, from a little town. My parents were not in the music business. My dad was a surgeon and my mom was a nurse. They went together to the office every day and were together for 47 years, but they loved music. Very early on, in elementary school, I started playing trumpet and they encouraged that and switched over to drums in the fourth grade. I had great teachers all throughout the school that encouraged my parents. They say, “Whatever he wants to do, support it.” They love music and I caught some breaks early on. They could not have been better parents for encouraging me. I’ve learned that that’s important for young people that want to study music and get into it to have a support system. I was very lucky to have that.

You met within the music world.

It was an orchestra with about 40 musicians. We were all literally on the road, all throughout Japan on a bus for weeks. We were immersed in this music every day for a month. That’s how we communicated at the beginning is through music. It’s lasted that way for a long time. I don’t know that I can do any music project without him. I haven’t yet.

That was going to be my next question. Do you collaborate regularly together? Who comes up with the ideas? How does it work?

I’m on my sixth CD and they are all very different. I say, “We got to pick an artist.” You have to have a theme or some idea and then we work on it together. We pick material together. He beats me over the head until I sound right. He produces me. It’s a fun musical collaboration.

The one thing that I love about the two of you is you are laughing. When Alyssa and I had dinner with you, we laughed. The four of us laughed for hours. You seem to have this amazing energy and Joie de vivre about you and within your relationship. It must make working together with a special thing.

It is. Monica predominantly does symphony concerts all over the world. She has for years. I’m music dreading, but I’m usually sitting on a drum set and I’m listening to her exhibit her craft. I am stunned sometimes at how beautifully she can interpret a lyric and internalize it. What a lot of people don’t know prior to Monica having her career as a solo artist, she was one of the pre-eminent background singers on records and television shows for many years. She sang a duet with Michael Jackson on the HIStory record. She was operating at that level and for my life in a studio, I don’t run across background singers coming in as a drummer.

I didn’t know about her. It was only because when her father, Henry, passed away in 1994, he had two years of symphonic concerts booked. Bill Conti, who was a friend of the family, the famous film composer reached out to Monica and said, “Would you like to come out and sing with me doing your father’s music on these symphony dates that he was going to take over?” Monica agreed to do it and that was the beginning of her solo career. She had been singing on stage as a primary performer for 2 or 3 years by the time we met.

I had no intention of becoming a solo artist. I was happy going to the studio and hanging out with friends and singing on people’s records and on jingles and TV shows. It was a blast and it was a good living. I had no intention of going out there and being a solo artist. Dad died and I was put in this position or accepted this position to start singing his music because he was always around to do it himself. There is no reason for me to do it.

Do you ever find it an emotional experience singing your father’s music?

It took me 5 or 6 years before I can get through a whole show without getting choked up. As a performer, it’s nice that you can communicate emotion to an audience, but you got to keep it together.

Do you have a favorite number?

I loved singing the Days of Wine and Roses. I’ve always had responded to that melody since it was written in the ‘60s. For what reason? I don’t know, but I connect with it. There’s a song that I do call Two for the Road, which is a family favorite. It was my parent’s song. I don’t sing anything on stage that I don’t connect with or don’t like. I stopped performing a lot of his stuff back from the beginning because it was things from Victor/Victoria.

I love that film. That’s one of my favorite films.

I thought if I am going to sing Le Jazz Hot one more time, I’m going to kill myself. You can have it.

Monica did the demos for Julie Andrews.

I love this story. This is brilliant.

 

We got tons.

Gregg, alongside everything that Monica has achieved and you are a multiple Grammy winner, three Grammys, five Latin Grammys and Emmy. Tell us about it.

I’ve been fortunate. It’s those late nights where if you spend another hour on this one little piece, it’s going to polish that to a diamond. Eventually, if you keep hanging in, the jewel reveals itself. It’s a dear friend who unfortunately, has passed away, Ed Cherney, a great engineer. He used to talk about when we’re working on records and we put all the time in. We have all this technology to work with but ultimately, we have to make the technology disappear and the emotion comes in. For me as a producer, that’s central to all the success I’ve had. It’s finding the emotion in music across multiple genres. I work in a lot of crazy different genres, but that one piece of advice that I got from Ed or his wisdom has helped me.

Let’s do some name dropping. Tell us who you’ve worked with. Tell us what you’ve won these Grammys for. Brag about it.

What I am proud of is I recorded a session for Mr. Taco. I got a call to do a session. It’s the Masked Singer. I’ve worked with all these great people and now, I can put Mr. Taco on.

Who is Mr. Taco?

I don’t know. That’s the part we didn’t know who it is. He was singing the Sinatra tune. They called and one of my lucky gigs was I was Frank Sinatra’s drummer for the last years that he toured. I recorded the duets record with them. If we are going to drop a name, that’s a pretty good one. It’s been diverse. I was lucky to start producing Plácido Domingo. I’ve produced Pharrell. I’ve produced Mark O’Connor, who was a wonderful bluegrass musician, fabulous musician. He won a Grammy. I work with Stevie Wonder and produced him many times. It’s very diverse and I like it that way.

I would have made a list if I knew you were going to ask.

I had on the show the lovely Jonathan Antoine. You produced his album and he is excited that it’s going to be coming out soon.

It comes out on Sony and with a companion PBS special that we did a few months ago. I am very excited and proud to be working with that talented boy.

You are an extraordinary drummer and you toured with Sinatra. You also toured with Ella Fitzgerald. How did you discover you had this amazing drumming skill? Did you always want to be a drummer? How does one wake up and decide, “I’m going to be a drummer?”

I’ve been playing trumpet and I was in the fourth grade. One of my school mates said, “Let’s put a band together.” He played guitar and they had a bass player. I said, “I play the trumpet.” They said, “We don’t need a trumpet player. We need a drummer.” I said, “I play drums.”

If they ask you if you play something, you’ll say yes and work it out later.

It was my ninth birthday and I asked my dad to rent a drum set. He rented this little kit. I sat down on it and I could play this simple beat that was on every rock and roll record at that time. A couple of years later, I got in a bike accident. I knocked out my front teeth and I couldn’t play trumpet anymore. I thought, “I’ll keep playing drums.” A crazy thing happened when I was ten years old. My parents sent my brother and me to Disneyland every year. This particular year, I was walking around the park and there was this massive stage. The curtains are closed, there’s a big crowd gathered. I am waiting to see what was going to happen and the curtains open and it’s the Count Basie’s band. This was a long time ago and the hairs stood on the back of my neck. I was freaking out. What the hell is this? I’d never heard jazz. None of the other ten-year-olds were freaking out but I was. I asked my dad to buy every Count Basie record he could find it.

I would come home religiously and practice those records. I could sing every trumpet part, every trombone. I could tell you when the Alto saxophone player opened up his vibrato. I was obsessed. Cut to senior high school and this is a crazy story, but I promise it’s true. I read in the paper that Ella Fitzgerald and Bassie were going to perform in San Francisco for a week. I bought a ticket for every show and I would stand outside the stage door. I’m seventeen years old. I’m gobsmacked when I would see the musicians come in. I did this on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Saturday night, they were going to do two shows. My girlfriend and I were going to go to the second show. Coincidentally, she calls me that afternoon and canceled. I thought, “I’ve got nothing to do. I’ll go to the first show.”

I’m standing outside the stage and that night, not any other night, one of the musicians stopped me. His name was John Williams. He was a baritone saxophone player. He said, “Do you work here?” I said, “No.” He said, “Why are you standing out here every night?” I was smiling at these guys as they were coming in. I was a fanboy. I said, “I’m a huge fan of the band. I’m a drummer.” He said, “I’m John Williams.” I said, “I know you’re John Calvin Williams. You’re joining the band in 1968 and you’re from Greensboro.” He said, “You are a fan. Do you want to come back?” Suddenly, I find myself in the green room of this theater and they’re all my heroes.

Basie hadn’t come up yet. He was coming by private car. When it’s time to go on and the band is standing in the wings, I’m standing there and outcomes Count Basie. John said, “What’s your name?” I said, “Gregg Field.” He said, “Basie, this is Gregg. He’s a drummer and he’s a big fan.” Suddenly, I’m standing in front of my all-time hero and he was a lovely man. It’s time for the band to get on stage. The whole band walks out and they sit down. Basie is about to be introduced and the manager comes up and says, “Basie, Sonny Payne is not here.” Sonny Payne was the drummer and Basie said, “Didn’t you say you play drums?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Do you want to play?” I said, “Yes.” I walked out on stage. I sat down on his drums. I looked to my left where the music would normally be and there was no music.

Doors will start opening when you have a passion for things. Click To Tweet

I said, “Where’s the music?” He said, “We don’t pull it out.” Sonny Payne knows the music. At that moment, I hear ladies and gentlemen, Count Basie. He comes walking out and he sits down at the piano and he starts to play a tune that I had played in my bedroom for many years. It was insane. I played the whole concert. The reason that the drummer wasn’t there is that they were doing two shows at night. One of them was an hour earlier and he didn’t realize it. Basie kept in touch with me and then I got out of high school and moved to LA. I auditioned for Ray Charles. It was one of my first big gigs. I toured with Ray for a while. When I was 24 years old, one afternoon, my phone rang in my apartment and it was Basie. He said, “Do you want to join my band?”

What dreams are made of, right?

This is something important. For any student that I have, I stress that doors will start opening when you have a passion for things. It’s more magical than I would probably want to tell you. Frankly, I’ve used that as a technique for attracting success. Wherever I put my attention, I see doors start opening up and I encourage that. I taught at USC for twenty years. I had a lot of students, but then I would look back and I’ve kept in touch with many of them. The ones that had that deep passion and that drive are the ones that made it.

You often hear that the most successful people in the business that we’re all in, which is such a difficult business, are the people that have the most positive attitude and work the hardest.

It’s like you.

I’m trying.

Your dedication to artists is remarkable.

As a manager, it becomes a bit of a vocation rather than a job. I particularly feel so passionate about what I do. If I didn’t, it wouldn’t work. Together, collectively, you’ve worked with some of the biggest stars ever. Monica, you’re a double-Grammy nominee. You’ve released six albums.

The sixth one hasn’t been released yet.

Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, John Williams, all of these extraordinary people. Are there still people on your list that you would love to work with?

The last CD that I did was called I’ve Loved These Days. It is where I sit musically because I’m an old rocker and I loved the whole singer-songwriter genre. I did Paul Simon tune, Jackson Browne tune, The Beach Boys, and all my favorite people in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I was fortunate enough to work with, I did a duet with Jackson Browne. I did a duet with Brian Wilson. I’m on the record with Stevie played harmonica for me. Honestly, it was a dream come true. I had Paul McCartney. We met in London in his office and we were working out our duet together on I’ll Follow The Sun. We put it in the pipeline but his career is still going strong. He had no time for a little old me, but that was a highlight of my life. I would love to resurrect that duet with Paul. I had been fortunate to work with a lot of special people and I expect to continue that.

I am sure that you will. I have to ask you, Gregg, what was Sinatra like to work with?

When we have cocktails later, I will tell you the whole story. He was very different than the public persona. He was complicated and incredibly generous. We flew first class everywhere all over the world. We stayed where he stayed. He paid us a lot of money but forgetting that great part of it. Other than Fitzgerald, he was the only other person I worked with that was so intense. When you were on stage with him, I’ve never experienced a level of intensity to get it right as I did with Frank. Ella was that way. She was interesting. She was like the greatest grandmother you could ever have. She was the sweetest and the most generous woman, but when she walked on stage, it was hardcore. You had to bring it. With Frank, it was stressful, especially in the first couple of years because I had to step up my game.

He was firing all his drummers.

That was the other problem. He had his drummer of 25 years, a fabulous musician named Irv Cottler passed away. This was also his personal friend. When Irv passed away, they went through four drummers and two bass players. I got the call for a tour of Europe and we rehearsed in London for four days without Frank. The first gig was in Antwerp, Belgium, this massive arena with 18,000 people. He didn’t even show up to the soundtrack. We’ve got this massive orchestra and I was in the pit. My heart’s pounding through my chest when we’re about to start this thing.

The first time I see Frank is when the audience sees Frank. “Ladies and gentlemen, Frank Sinatra.” He comes walking out and I thought, “I know what to do with this. I’ve got to calm down.” The drummer’s job is if you need a three-point shot at the end of the game, you give it to the drummer. That’s our job if we’re going to do it right. I took it on and we had played. The first tune was Come Fly With Me and we played for about a minute and he came walking over the edge of the stage, looked down and smiled and I thought, “I got this.” I wrote an article for Vanity Fair.

He writes too.

 

Somebody has to, but it was, “Why Frank Stopped Touring? What Led to the End?” If you Google Sinatra Drummer, Vanity Fair, the article would come up. It’s a fun read if you like that kind of thing.

Do you share the same musical tastes generally? Do you like to listen to the same music at home?

No.

Do you argue over who puts what onto stream?

No. My radio is tuned to various new stations and then the only other music I have is serious ‘60s. I’m a Beatles and ‘60s maniac. That’s what I listened to like ad nauseam. It’s also because I know the song so well when I’m driving in the car, which is often, I like to sing and warm up to that music since I know it and I’m familiar with it. I blast that out in the car and keeps my voice in shape.

Do you have a song that resonates romantically with the two of you? Is there a song that is your song collectively?

There should be.

Two For The Road, which we’ve adopted from Monica’s mom and dad. Leslie Bricusse lyrics from a movie called Two For The Road with Audrey Hepburn. It describes our lives. The great thing that I’m fortunate before Monica and I were together, I would tour and I would be in a relationship away from my significant other for weeks at a time. That’s difficult for anybody that tries to sustain a relationship. The beauty of it is when Monica works, I tour with her. When I work, she comes with me.

I’ve only had two gigs in my entire life over twenty-some years that he has not been there to play drums and that’s because he’s got another gig that he couldn’t turn down. That’s hundreds of concerts that we have done together. Without him being back there, it’s weird. I don’t feel good. I need him.

If you are stranded on a deserted island and you’ve got three songs. I know that you have different musical tastes, what do you do?

I thought you were going to go for albums on that question.

Go for albums.

Rubber Soul and the single would be All My Loving, which is my absolute favorite Beatles song of all time. When I hear it on the radio, I start to weep. Don’t ask me why. It’s a dumb little rock and roll song, but it chills me. The third, I’ll have to think about while my husband tells you his. It got to be some jazzy thing I know.

It probably would be either the two records that Sinatra made with Basie. There was a magic moment in time when one of the greatest big bands of the 20th century partnered with the ultimate partner, which was Frank. When I was with Basie early on, we did a TV special called Sinatra: The Man and His Music. We played two songs with Frank. Other than Ella, I’ve never felt a singer who the wheels were spinning together between the band and the singer. There was that moment of time when they were both at the height of their careers. Certainly, that would be one.

Bobby Darin and Matt Monro. Those are mine, Beatles, Bobby Darin, and Matt Monro.

Would you be at different ends of the island?

No, I love all that music.

 

I’m going to take a swim while he’s listening.

You’ve both had many extraordinary highlights in your careers. I usually say to people, “What is the highlight of your career?” I didn’t know how to ask that to the two of you because there have been so many. Is there one in particular for either of you or is it too many to even specify?

Gregg would appreciate this. What I did in the Royal Albert Hall twice and that’s otherworldly to me. I would have to say that’s way up there, the Hollywood Bowl, which is right around the corner. Certainly, playing there is a trip. That’s a highlight but if one sticks out, it would have to be Albert Hall as far as the concert goes and then sitting on a couch with Paul McCartney.

How about you, Gregg?

It’s different times for different reasons, I suppose. Playing in Madison Square Garden with Frank was pretty cool. Also, Albert Hall produced the greatest audiences ever. I’ve played there a lot. The last time was with Gloria Estefan years ago. We did a concert there.

It’s always full.

The way it’s set up with the audience right in front of you on the floor and then surrounding you. You hear and feel that heat comes off the audience and it inspires me. The reason that the concerts are so great there is that you feel that the audience hits you. Any musician would tell you that everybody wants to win a Grammy. It was very late in my career. Not that my career is over, but it took a long time for me to win my first Grammy. The first one’s the hardest. It was for the Latin Grammy and it was the Producer of the Year Grammy. To say I was stunned and I forget preparing a speech, that would be absurd. To know that finally, you’re going to get that little statue and you walk up and hold it is pretty thrilling and it doesn’t get tiring.

I think it must be so nice to get that recognition when you’ve worked so hard, but also the nomination, like you’ve been nominated twice.

You can win more Grammys than you cannot have nominations. A lot of people would say, “How‘s that happen?” I’ve been nominated probably 2 or 3 times, but if you produce an album and the album wins, the producer also receives the Grammys. For example, if I do Arturo Sandoval records, he’s the nominee but the producer and the engineer will receive the Grammy as well.

You’ve been such amazing guests. What can we hope to hear and see from you both in the future? Monica, I know your album’s coming out. What’s the game plan over the next few years. What would you like?

I want to go back to your question about career highlights. I think one just hit me. I got a call from the Apollo Theater in New York and they asked me to produce the Ella Fitzgerald 100th birthday concert. I have to tell you, this is a league of its own. Ella was discovered on the stage of the Apollo when she was seventeen at the amateur contest. I worked hard on putting the show together. The album’s coming out in a few months, but to be on the stage of the Apollo with Count Basie’s band and big string section and a lot of great artists. Before the curtains opened up, I looked down and I was looking at the spot where the greatest jazz singer of the 20th century stood and sang for the first time. The combination of all of that hit me and all the other musicians right square in the chest. It was probably the greatest concert I’ve ever been involved in. Monica sang and it was insane. It started a career with the Apollo Theater. Now, I’m producing for them. I think probably that’s the moment.

I’m glad you shared that with us.

That one just jumped in my head.

The only reason that my forthcoming CD is not out there yet is when it was time to mix it and to put it all together, my husband started getting very busy. I was pushed to the back burner. I don’t pay him. He takes the paying gigs first.

There is that mortgage and being married to a Mancini.

What can we expect to see from you in the future? An album that’s going to be produced and finished very quickly by the husband.

Monica and Dave Grusin doing the music of Dave’s with lyrics written by all the great lyricists. It’s just piano and vocal. We’ve got Jonathan’s record coming out. I’m going to start and I’m excited about this, a Christmas album for the Apollo Theater. It is called Christmas from the Apollo and we’re going to start doing that.

Thank you so much. It has been a pleasure having you on the show and I’m looking forward to our drinks.

I’ll tell you the real story.

I want to hear it all, unfiltered. Thank you to our readers. Thank you for tuning in and you will be hearing from me and my partner, Dani Behr, very soon. Thanks.

Important Links:

• Monica Mancini
• Vanity Fair – Frank Sinatra article
• https://www.Facebook.com/monica.mancini.58323
• https://www.Facebook.com/gregg.field.9

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