JPB - I met Diop at a series of auditions that I gave to
see what type of musicians where in Berlin at the time.
He was back and forth between Senegal and Europe and happen
to be in Berlin when I did this.
He had really the most powerful feeling of any of
the musicians and I knew I had to do something with him.
What I didn't realize at the time was how open he
was to trying new thing since his style is quite traditional.

JPB - It has been very rewarding and I have learned many
new things to incorporate into my style. It has been a lot of
work to get the different cultures to understand one another
but even that has taught me good lesson that I can use
for the rest of my life.

JLF - Did you have the return of your expectations?

JPB - Yes I did. Originally I got much opposition from
my agent and some business colleagues because I
was moving away from what I had established
with the funk music vibe but when people saw that
I was determined to make something good happen,
after finding a label to put the first record out,
people started to work within me more.
Now we have been voted in the top 50 c.d. by Jazz times magazine.
I'm 36th. Not bad.
http://www.jazztimes.com/critpicks/top50.cfm

JLF - The cd Boom Bop gave to you more exposure in many
music's magazines. Do you feel comfortable with this?

JPB - Oh yes. You can never get enough and anyway we are
talking about creative music. This market doesn't compete
with Rap or pop exposure because we can't get videos played
and the magazines are marketed to a small group of
intellectually hip people.
I don't know how much we got but it all helps to
get people to buy the c.d.'s which help us to finance
doing more recordings. We give a lot of sound files of
music performances away on the web sight that's why
I hope people realize that we need their support in
buying the c.d.'s not down loading them when they
find them on the net. If everyone who down loads sound
files would buy just ONE c.d..It would finance two
or three future projects.

JLF - Trance Atlantic Boom Bop II is the record
more urgent, pointed and thick that I listened in last
time. In some hypnotic moments, I travel for unknowns lands
with prince, mystic and fables, others places more notorious
like your old home Chicago, with many typical urban sounds,
like streets, trains and others characteristics like
Art Ensemble Chicago. I listen to crazy noises that I've never
heardbefore, rhythms crossed and exciting, maybe, African
sounds from Mars, like you told me one time. All this, is Boom Bop?

JPB - Yes man I'm so glad you understood and could receive what is
on the c.d.. In a away I new it was ahead of it's time but
it was burning in my stomach so I had to bring it out.
It is provocative if you think of jazz in traditional
terms so I knew there would be some controversy.
It's a kind of collage and a bridge between West
African and Black American roots with this abstract,
bigger than life and extreme symbolism that you often
see in ritual masks or carnival costumes. big butts,
beautiful fat women and also in artists like William H. Johnson,
Thelonius Monk and Henry Threadgill who is himself on the c.d.
There is irony, humor, hippness and intellect all
wrapped in one. I needed to express my version of
this and so I had to step out of the funk thing and set up
a basis in which I could open up the groove.
It was also important because Africanisms in any form are
often ridiculed in western culture and so it's up to the
artist's to show the beauty and power of it all.
Like seeing an orange from a distance but then tasting
how sweet it is. We are the ones who must pick the orange,
peel it and serve it to the masses.

JLF - What is the importance of your brotherCarl in
Trance Atlantic Boom Bop II?

JPB - Well Carl was really important to the Boom Bop
sound because it was his original sampling sequenced
tracks that laid the direction of the sound of Boom Bop II.
I will explain. Boom Bop II was actually recorded before
Boom Bop 1 so his work pointed the direction of the original
sound which we built on for the next recordin which was Boom 1.

JLF - In this record you play some moments with a new timbre.
(solos in Thierno de Conakry, Trance Atlantic and Freedom Delta)
What is your process to get this timbre?

JPB - I have used just a few effects. Namely my digitech octave pedal.
I have the black one because that was the most stable one they
made and all the others do too many other things a break very easily.
A lot of it is also the way I drive the amplifier
and using tape in the studio instead of digital recording.
Hitting the tape with a high level brings some nice sounds on
the electric guitar.

JLF - The cd Boom Bop exhibit more your side in acoustic guitar.
I remember you playing acoustic guitar only in your song "Badriia".
Your involvement with the natural percussion sonority inspired you
to play acoustic guitar?

JPB - well the big joke with all my close musicians friends
is that I play much more acoustic guitar than I play electric
because that's all I play in the house.
So my friends always see me with an acoustic but I'm know
for my electric sound.
It was bound to be featured in my work and the next c.d.
I will play even more of it. It will give my work a fresh
direction and I think the ladies might like it more too. ha ha ha
I am working with a new company called Lakewood

JLF - New Afro Blue is a composition very expressive,
have a inspired guitar and sax solo.
What is the story about this composition?

JPB - New Afro Blu is a Afro blues format that I really think
has a lot of possibilities for blues music.
The connection between the blues text and feeling and the
discipline of african Rhythms is a marriage that few have tried.
Michael Hill, Johnny Copland Ry Cooder and of course
Ali Faka Tourè and the Mali guitarist.
But it's about a woman who cheats on a man and he
is the last one to know so he is deeply hurt, text;
"Cologne all around me It's in my bed see you in
the joint(club) with him standing ther, every body knows
what's going on but I'm the last one to find it in my home;"
but his love for the woman brings him back and he even sit under her
window and sees her crying one night. This give
him the idea that maybe there is hope for their
love and so he swallows his pain and tries to work it
out with the woman. text:"can we search for another beginning,
I know we can make it happen and if you say it's not impossible
then we'll be together"

JLF - In 1999 was released Vibe Music, a great record.
This cd doesn't depend in your Boom Bop Project, but it made
the connection between your cd Boom Bop and the cd
Rock The Cathartic Spirits. This record had experimental
moments, old and new compositions in your better style,
very bold and contemporary. The music of this cd for me,
transmit the sensation that it was made without pressure,
very tranquil, almost like your improvisation "Jubie´s Jones" (Groovy)
when you introduce Big Royal Talamacus and Slam T. Wig.
Also in this period you play a new guitar.
Talk me about this time, your work, life, guitar and if to
you really Vibe Music was recorded with tranquillity.

JPB - I know what you mean about the sound of this recording.
There are so many feeling during the process of a
record I honestly couldn't say that it was all tranquil.
There was a feeling of knowing what we wanted.
It was the last of the BluWave bandit recordings and so we
knew each other very well and where we wanted to go.
There was no sense of racing like when you first
play with musicians, so that's what youprobably felt.
I think what I try to do is to get lost in the music.
To be almost unconscious. I think there are many moments on
that c.d. where I got to this level.

JLF - Rock The Cathartic Spirits is the last record that
have the name The BluWave Bandits...

JPB - No Vibe music was. You know I thought Rock.. was my best
work up to that point within the BluWave sound and it really
didn't get noticed. I felt that the spirits on the record were
locked and still are locked in some lost chamber waiting to be released.
When? I don't know. But I left a lot of emotions, sweat and tears
somewhere and I'm looking for them.

JLF - ...this band will come back?

JPB - I don't think so. Not in that form. That was a very special
brotherhood that I had with Mark Batson, Fred Alias as the base.
They were generous and genuine partners in a cause.
We all had a mission to bring this sound out because at the
time we were surrounded by disco and Bon Jovi.
Rap was not fully developed but it was starting to get strong
but NYC was still a desert for original black music.
Now all those guys are doing other things. Batson
produces India Ari which is a very hip project that would
not have come out when the BWB was around.
That's why we had to fight for the sound and maintain the sound.
I might do other projects with them but that time of the BWB is over.
The cause is different now.

JLF - You are a citizens world, traveling around the world
and you are living in the two of the most modern city's,
Berlin and New York. This urban vision appear in your music
as in your life, but you search for roots. Explain this situation.

JPB - I am not searching for roots. I just try to tell my story
through the different sounds and textures and I come in contact with.
The story is already there. It will change as we go through the process of
construction but the idealism and energy is already there.

JLF - What are your next step and when you will come to Brazil?

JPB - Man I would love to play for the Brazilian people.
I feel very connected with many aspects of Brazilian culture.
I know they would like what we are doing but these thing have to come
when the time is right. It will happen .