Eugene: She's had a hand in
making the album?
Louis: She really
understood the process and I think she can see that we love the work. And what
we're trying to do is something utterly faithful to her spirit – to bring it
alive in a new way. She's excited that
we're also going to bring her work to people who don't know it.
Eugene: Capathia, what is it like for you to
be shaping your voice around these words and Louis' music?
Capathia: The
greatest thing for me about working with Louis is he has a way
of writing that, for me as a singer and interpreter, it's the easiest thing in
the world because I can literally sing the ink right off the page. His music is
seamless in terms of the feeling and emotion of a song. It's fantastic! I feel
this record is our best work to-date.
Louis: When I
write these songs, it's C.J.'s voice that I'm hearing. There are some songs
that I wouldn't have written the way I wrote them, unless I knew she could sing
it. There's a song called "I Want To Sing" that spans two octaves. She makes it
seem effortless. The more we work together, I know how to make something for
her but we also keep challenging each other – and that's fun.
Eugene: That's excellent. Rewind time and tell me how you met!
Capathia: I was
in one of the workshops for The Look of
Love. My musical director was David Loud. Louis was looking for a female
singer for his Langston Hughes project. David Loud recommended me, so I started
working with Louis. I loved the music immediately. One day Louis said to me: "I
think I'd like to write for you." I
thought: "Oh, that's great. But you know, some people say that and you don't
hear from them." But he did! He called
about two months later and he had started to set the work of Maya Angelou – one
of my favorite poets. I went over to hear some of his stuff, and the rest is
history.
Eugene: And back to this album, I listened to
some of those tracks… and you're right, it's a great array of style. For example, "The World" is so smooth and
whole, with a thrumming bass-line. The
chorus of "Telephone Song" almost sounds like a 1960s sock-hop. How do you
decide what feeling pairs with a poem?
Louis: Primarily,
it's intuitive. It's not a great intellectual process. It's my emotional
response to the poem and what I want to communicate. When a song-writer works
with someone else's words, they become his words. I wouldn't choose something I
wanted to set unless it said something I wanted to say. And also, I had no fear
about being eclectic. I'm comfortable with and have played a variety of music –
and I felt it would be to the advantage to the project to let each song find
its own expression. There's some Latin
jazz, there's some swampy blues…
Eugene: And "That Day" is just plain sexy!
Louis: [laughs]
It's a kind of contemporary riff on an almost 1920s Tinpan Alley song. When she
first heard the song, my wife said: "So many songs are talking about other
things, but what they really mean to talk about is sex." And this song is
talking about sex, but really it's about so much more.
Capathia:
[laughs] That's what makes it so much fun!
Louis: The fellow
who wrote the liner-notes said it was "Part of the Life Force!" More than
anything, it's a sense of intuition and not being afraid to let the intuition
lead to where it will not be censored.
And to know it will be shaped around me and C.J. and it'll find its
wholeness in its variety.
Eugene: Capathia, in the title-song, "One
Ounce of Truth," you exude this painfully beautiful yearning around Nikki's
words. What's the story behind this song?
Capathia: I feel
like it's all about a journey through life – you're born, you're raised, and you
smile through your life. You've lived a good life. And when you're gone, you
hope people will continue to smile. I've
gone back and forth on what's my favorite song on the record [laughs] and
whenever I get to that song, it's so joyful but heart-wrenching, it's so
well-crafted. It's a singer's dream.
"One Ounce of Truth"
will be available in stores and online on May 13, 2008. Capathia Jenkins and
Louis Rosen celebrate the release with four concerts at Joe's Pub at the Public
Theater in New York
on May 12, 18, 19 & 26. For tickets, please call 212-967-7555 or visit www.joespub.com.
Photos: Capathia Jenkins and
Louis Rosen
