By Natasha T. Brown
This week we continue Sophisticated Sunday’s Black Music Month series. Many people are unaware of the various talented and accomplished artists that started on stage right here in D.C. It’s my pleasure to spotlight a homegrown musician,
Antone “Chooky” Caldwell for the 2nd Black Music Month installment. “Chooky” just released a new album, Subject 2 Change, which he discusses in detail below.
World–renowned Bassist Antone “Chooky” Caldwell was born and raised in Washington, D.C. and bred to be a musician since birth. Members of both sides of his family were involved in music and his parents brought him a different instrument each year for Christmas. The multi-talented musician now plays seven instruments – bass and lead guitars, piano, drums,sousaphone, trombone and organ.
“With each instrument, I take on a different character, all with the same personality – me. It’s like having seven best friends, and one just presents a different facet than the others do,” he explained.
Twenty years into his successful music career as a multi-instrumentalist, respected bassist, Billboard charting and Grammy-nominated producer and engineer, anyone can tell that Chooky was born for a life of music. His live sets captivate audiences with a 17-piece instrumental and vocal arrangement. His albums place the artist in various musical roles, and he’s collaborated with a long-list of legendary artists including Macy Gray, Sisqo of the group Dru Hill, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, The Pussycat Dolls, Rahsaan Patterson, London based recording artist, Ali, and Gospel recording artists Andrae’ Crouch, and Shirley Caesar. Most notably, Chooky engineered and produced Jazz Saxophonist Ski Johnson's album New Beginnings, which topped at #1 on the Billboard charts in the Contemporary Jazz category for three solid weeks. In addition to music chartings and positive reviews, Chooky received two Grammy nominations in 2009 for his work as producer and engineer on New Beginnings.
Chooky just released his latest album, Subject 2 Change, which debuted last week with two sold-out shows at Blues Alley in Washington, DC. On the day that we spoke, Chooky had also just graduated from Seminary and was preparing for a show that same evening with Mint Condition at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore. Below Chooky discusses his work and the strong influence other black music greats have had on his career.
So, what’s a Chooky Caldwell musical experience like?
I’m very meticulous with everything from my attire to the band. With this particular album, Subject 2 Change, there are 17 people on stage (two keyboards, lead guitar player and bass player, drummer and percussion player, three horn players, three background vocalists, me (I make 13) and one song on my album called “My Life” has all 13 people plus three more vocals – my daughters Ariana, 13 and Jaali, 13, my cousin Jesse O. Flood II (who raps on “My Life”) and my wife Tamika Caldwell. It’s like a family reunion.
I often tell my audience that they are eavesdropping on my conversation with the band and more so a conversation between God and us. I have a color scheme for every performance. It brings a unity and that’s what the audience and the fans appreciate.
Chooky Caldwell has released three albums: Eargasmic Reincarnation in 2002 was an all singing album. “Bassically Chook” was a 2011 solo bass contemporary jazz album and the newly released “Subject 2 Change.”
Talk about your newly released album. What were you looking to accomplish with this one?
Well, everything that I was looking to accomplish changed, that’s why it’s called Subject 2 Change. It reacquainted a lot of the listeners that I’ve attained over the years. It’s more mature than my last album where I was highlighting the different facets of me. Now that [that goal] had been accomplished, I brought in different producers including Marcus Johnson, Warren Jones and others for my latest.
So what I’ve done is that I crossed genres and it has something in it for everyone and it was unexpected. On the album I’m singing, playing instruments, producing.
Each song puts me in a different element because I don’t compose songs like a singer or a musician. Every song is supposed to tell a story and it has to breathe. If at the beginning of a song, you’re all the way out the gate, that’s not good, because the song has nowhere to go. The music says a little bit and the lyrics say a little bit and then it does something together so you’re like “ohh.”
There is one duet that has been getting a lot of airplay called “One for Me,” with me and my wife Tamika. A young lady Aisha Bellow wrote it for us, and people have been saying it is a showstopper.
How did it feel to hear that your work had been nominated for two Grammys in 2009?
I engineered and produced, New Beginnings for Jazz Artist Ski Johnson. And I received the email one morning that the song was #1 on Billboard. So I stopped and prayed and thanked God. Because you know I’ve been doing music for a really really long time. It’s been always been good, but I was always support for artists who were already established. So when that happened, I felt good because I was being recognized as my own entity. When Billboard recognized me I told myself that I would put my best foot forward. That recognition enabled me to become nominated for Engineer of the Year and Producer of the Year in contemporary jazz at the Grammys.
How did the music history and or figures in black music influence who you are as a musician?
Well, it’s amazing that you asked me that. Today I graduated from Seminary with a Bachelors of Theology with a concentration in music studies. The thesis that I wrote was, “How Does Music and Arts Effect Christians and Non-Christians.”
Music can dictate the time period of a certain demographic and capture the dynamics of our time. Like Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry.” And a lot of Stevie Wonder’s music. That’s where I got the title of my first album, Eargasmic Reincarnation. Whatever you were going through, the songs that these African Americans would sing about would create a euphoric state, and it was called “eargasmic.” So that’s what I wanted to do with Eargasmic Reincarnation, meaning it was a different body doing the same thing as the greats.
Visit Gkamrecords.com to learn more and listen to Chooky Caldwell’s music.
Natasha Brown is a writer and founding communications strategist of Think Brown INK, a creative think tank and communications agency, focused on social responsibility branding for artists, entertainers and entrepreneurs. Follow her on Twitter @NBrownINK or @TBINatasha or her company @ThinkBrownINK