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The Independent Tuesday, 4 November 2008 Day in the life: Jazzie B, DJ & Producer By David Taylor
7.15am On a normal day, I do the school run. I'm usually up to get my children's breakfast ready.
My wife, Efua is up every morning very early anyway and depending on what's on her schedule, she'll make some breakfast for the kids, or I'll just get the old toaster going. In actual fact, I say kids but more often than not it's just my son Mahlon, as my daughter Jessye does her own thing now. Mahlon just turned 13 last week. He loves music and plays the bass. I think he's almost coming from the same area as where I was when I was coming up. He hasn't got a large pair of bass bins and a shopping trolley like I used to have, but he has got a huge pair of headphones and a large collection on his iPod!
9am After I've dropped Mahlon off to school, I head home and relax for an hour or so, check out some demos that have been sent to my production company Soul II Soul Productions, or any new music that I've been sent. I'm currently into a couple of new things out of the States. There's a singer from Kansas called Janelle Monáe whose album Metropolis I'm enjoying and I'm quite liking this other album by Stacy Epps called The Awakening.
11am On a good week I'll probably go to the gym about three times. I usually spend a few hours there. I'm an FA football coach Level 2 now so I like to keep fit. I coached a team called Peel FC, who are based in King's Cross in London, for the last five years, but this season I've taken some time out to concentrate on my career. I had them from since they were under 11 . We won the Camden and Islington league title three years in a row. I help out at different centres usually in my own community. There's a lot of kids who I taught who are now qualified coaches, looking after teams themselves. It's very rewarding from the point of view of seeing the kids come up, some of them I've known since they were seven and now they're 14. I am able to put something in there because it's something I was heavily involved with as a schoolboy and it's actually something that I truly enjoy.
2pm I'm usually out of the gym by early afternoon and then I head off to meet my press people over at Espionage. They are an external PR company that look after my well-being. At the moment we are promoting a compilation, Masterpiece, that I've done for Ministry of Sound. I'll sit down with them and go through all the bits and pieces, and sort out the scheduling. Today I'm also heading down to Soul II Soul's office in Soho. I usually pop in there probably a maximum of 45 minutes a week. I catch up with Andy Lewis who looks after about 70 per cent of what I do and pick up some new records.
4pm After my meeting I head back to pick my son up from school. At home I sit down, have a cup of tea and go through the newspapers. Then its either back on the road to take my son to his football or I might drop in at the Rising Tide project, which is over in Hackney at the Ocean Rooms. They are developing a centre of musical excellence in the community there. They've got some great facilities and some really great workers who run the musical workshops. I help out Gavin and Paul on the production side. Bands come in and rehearse, practise, learn, and they get versed in everything from computer programming to playing keyboards and guitars. I'm also involved in the Midi Music Workshops down in South London that is linked to the Albany theatre, and I work with Wozzy Brewster. It's more established in regards to the quotas of children that they take on. And there's a whole centre that was built specifically to look after the kids in the community there. Again it's something I enjoy doing. I'll do everything down there from going down to support Wozzy and some of the workers, to the opening evenings, presenting them awards, being involved in the developing areas, the whole thing about encouraging some of the artists. And again it's a place where I've been involved with for quite a while now, and you see the kids when they first start out, how timid they are, some of the guys now have actually been on tour in different countries and stuff like that, it's an amazing facility.
7pm Dependent on where I am, I'll either grab some food on the hop or, more often than not, I'll head home for dinner with the family. Tonight I'm DJing on BBC London, so I need to dig out some tunes for the show. I've actually got half of a hanger in East London full of music. I have been DJing since 1977 and I've got four other brothers who are all DJs and sound system owners, so let's just say there's quite a few tunes in there! I will spend at least four to eight hours a week digging through my crates going through different eras of music. And I still go out and buy new music every fortnight.
9pm It's time to head to the studio. Sometimes I pre record the show - next week, for example, I'll be DJing in Lithuania, Germany and Austria so I just can't be there. The show runs from 10pm until midnight on a Saturday on 94.9FM. As well as the radio show, for the past three years I've been back out on the road and it's been a bit special this time because I've been able to do things that I want to do as oppose to the things you have to do. And I think that from a DJ perspective it makes such a difference. With the sound system I have MCs, singers, my engineer, a few effects. I cut between a DJ set and the grooves and the tracks that I would put together and on the odd occasion, depending on my vocalist, I'll do some new stuff as well. The sound system is quite good because it really does give you a full circumference of how we started, where we came from and technically how we would go about doing the show. And the only difference with the sound system gig against the live show is just having the musicians there, but hypothetically the thing with people going offstage, the MC hyping up the crowd is all the same. 10pm We are on air. Mel and Jamie Collins help produce the show. It's a good vibe. My choice of tracks are very eclectic. It's not a million miles away from my days at Kiss FM back in the Nineties. I'm dropping a couple of tunes from my label. MC Chickaboo, Caron Wheeler, Rose Windross are my current favourites and I'm also playing the life out of a Charlotte Kelly track called "Today" that I've just mastered. It's due out in the new year.
12am I'm still buzzing after the show so I decide to head down to the studio and listen to some of the new stuff we've been laying down. At the moment I'm in the midst of working on my new project. I've been in the studio for maybe a year now, putting together ideas and stuff like that, recording with Simon Law and Mike Mc Evoy. It's for a Soul II Soul project that we're working on now for the New Year. It will be part and parcel of the 20th anniversary celebrations for Back To Life that will happen next year. The plan is to do some kind of launch party in Antigua where we've been running the Back II Life festival since 2004. Norman Jay, the don of dons of reggae music Mr David Rodigan, Trevor Nelson who is an old friend, and the boys from Soul 2 Soul will all be coming down to spin some tunes. 1am I'll probably leave here between 1am and 3am and then it's home to bed. But today's not a normal day - I'd call it a grafting day! 'Masterpiece' is out now. Jazzie B will be performing a Soul II Soul Soundsystem set at the Bulleit Bourbon Originals event @ The Arches, Glasgow on 7 November.
For further gig details and Back II Life festival see soul2soul.co.uk
