Legendary Motown singer Smokey Robinson has been busy working to ensure that generations of all ages will be able to enjoy his music.
Legendary Motown singer Smokey Robinson has been busy working to ensure that generations of all ages will be able to enjoy his music. Constantly recording and performing shows across the country, Robinson will headline, along with bluesician Keb’ Mo’, the July twilight performances in The Morton Arboretum’s 2009 Summer Concert Series, “In Tune With Trees.” Ahead of his performances, Robinson told the Defender about his new album, how Motown impacted the music industry and the effect of Michael Jackson’s death on music.
Chicago Defender: Your new album, "Time Flies When You’re Having Fun," is due for release on August 25. Tell us a little about the album.
Smokey Robinson: I produced it myself (with two co-producers). I actually have a CD out currently. It’s called "Timeless Love," and it’s a CD of all the old standard tunes, the George Gershwins and people like that, you know. Originally I thought that I was going to record "Timeless Love" live, but I never got around to doing that, so I rented out a studio in Los Angeles and I recorded the songs live in the studio. By that I mean I had all the musicians in there playing while I was singing like we used to do in the old days, and we had a ball. We were having such a great time recording that way that I decided that we were going to incorporate some of my original material into those sessions, which is "Time Flies When You’re Having Fun." I called it that because that’s how I feel about my life. This particular CD is all original material with the exception of a remake I did of "Don’t Know Why I Didn’t Come" by Norah Jones. I also have three wonderful guest artists on there who are my really close friends: Joss Stone, India.Arie and Carlos Santana.
CD: Are there any other artists today that you would like to work with?
SR: You can just name somebody and yeah, I’d like to work with them (laughs) because I’m a music fan and I listen to everybody. I listen to everything from blues to rap to gospel to classical. I just love music. We got a lot of great young talent out there making music, and I would appreciate recording with any of them. One of my favorites is Maxwell, who just came out with a new CD, and I’m very happy because I was wondering what he was doing. I was waiting on him! But I love them all.
CD: So would it be safe to say that you are happy with the status of R&B/soul music today?
SR: Music evolves, and it evolves for generations, but it’s the same thing happening over and over again. There’s some good music and there’s some bad music, but it’s always been that way. You’ve got some music that’s negative, but you’ve also got some great, wonderful talent out there making some great music. You see, people tend to dwell on the negative, though. So instead of saying, ‘Oh yeah, there’s some negative music out there, but there’s some good music too,’ they’re going to always say, ‘Well, this new generation is making some terrible music,’ and that’s just not true.
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