Berklee today

JAN 2013

Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.

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Feeling Rooted In the NBC building at Rockefeller Plaza three floors below the SNL set is the studio where the Jimmy Fallon Show is taped at 5:30 P.M. Monday through Friday each week. Fellow alumnus Mark Kelley plays bass in Fallon's house band the Roots and arrives at 1:00 P.M. to prep for the December 14 show. He's made time in his schedule to answer a few questions and show me around before the taping. Often described as a hip-hop, neosoul group, the Roots was formed by (drummer) Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson and (rapper/MC) Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter in Philadelphia in 1987. They were well established with several albums and hit singles on their résumé by the time they were hired for the show in 2009. Kelley joined the band in August of 2011 after the previous bassist left. There was no audition; Kelley got the nod based on his solid reputation and a recommendation from a respected music promoter. Hailing from Houston, Texas, Kelley spent a couple of years touring with guitarist John Scofield's Überjam Band right after graduating from Berklee. In 2005, he relocated to New York to further his career. "I saved the money I'd earned from the last Scofield tour, settled my debts, and moved down here," Kelley says. "I took every gig I could in the hopes that something would come from somewhere." He worked with Will Calhoun '86 (drummer for Living Colour), Meshell Ndegeocello, Najee, Chris Botti, and others. He also got calls for one-off concerts with Mariah Carey and Queen Latifah, but it was a challenge to find steady work. After a few years, Kelley and his wife (Chilean-born Latin-jazz vocalist Claudia Acuña) contemplated leaving New York. "We had a son and started thinking about moving back to Texas," Kelley says. "We flew down to look at houses, and right after we checked into our hotel, I got a call from Jill Newman, a promoter I'd worked for in New York. She told me that Owen Biddle, the bass player for the Roots, was leaving and that she'd recommended me for the gig. I went right back to New York. The manager for the Roots called and asked me if I'd be interested in the gig. I said, 'Yeah!' He said he had to work some things out with the people at the Jimmy Fallon Show first. He called back on a Sunday night and said, "You're on for Fallon tomorrow night." It was trial by fire, but Kelley clicked with the band. "Doing a TV show is very different from playing concerts—a different type of pressure," he says. "At first I was very worried about messing up." Now two years into it, Kelley is totally acclimated to the spontaneity. "Sometimes Jimmy will just call something, and we have to play it on the spot," Kelley says. "In his monologue, he may make reference to a song. Questlove has a mic that is heard only by the band in our in-ear monitors, and he can talk to us. He searches for the song on his computer and plays it for us in our monitors. We quickly figure out the key and the song's chorus so that by the time Jimmy Lloyd Bishop/NBC up in the Roxbury section of Boston, he took classical piano lessons as a kid and then participated in the Berklee City Music Program, and received mentoring from age 14 until he finished high school. He was awarded a full scholarship to Berklee where he studied film scoring and music business. In 2007, he moved to New York to play gigs with J4DA, a group of Berklee grads exploring a blend of jazz and hip-hop. He also enrolled in a graduate program at New York University. Just as Zimbabwe was finishing the program, his department chair recommended him to Lenny Pickett, an NYU faculty member who was seeking a pianist for the SNL band. "Lenny called me in the summer of 2010," Tuffus says, "and asked me if I wanted to audition. Of course I said yeah. We met in his office and talked a bit, it was relaxed. Then he dropped some of the charts from the show in front of me. He played an MP3 and listened as I played along. Then he and I played together. It was fun." Zimbabwe thought the audition had gone well, but then he didn't hear anything for a few weeks. "I wasn't sure I'd get a call back. But then Lenny called and invited me to come in, and he offered me the job. I was excited, but I contained myself while I was there. In my mind, I was shouting, 'Yeah!'" Zimbabwe was given about 100 charts and a bunch of MP3s so he could learn the repertoire. "I read through the charts and created an iTunes playlist with the MP3s. I listened to it day and night—I even went to sleep listening to it." The 2012 season was Zimbabwe's third with the show, and he has grown comfortable with his role. "Now I know what's expected of me," he says. After the December rehearsal, Pickett told me that they call Zimbabwe "The Ice Man." "He's so cool under pressure," Pickett said with a grin. Predictably, the SNL Christmas show went smoothly, and afterward the band and cast went on break until mid-January. In addition to working the show, Zimbabwe fits in other gigs. In October, he and two other SNL band members were tapped to play the Mark Twain Prize show at the Kennedy Center. Zimbabwe is also an accompanist for an opera company and plays gigs with vocal legend Darlene Love. Additionally, he teaches music lessons to middle-school children in Lower Manhattan and Queens. With a chuckle he confided, "I think teaching the kids might be the most difficult thing I do." MB/M Founder Don Gorder Members of the Roots (from the left): Damon "Tuba Gooding Jr." Bryson, Mark Kelley, and Kirk "Captain Kirk" Douglas is ready for a commercial break, we'll play the chorus as a bumper. "Most of the music is not difficult and we rarely play anything that is longer than three minutes," Kelley says. "We create these things called sandwiches, bumpers for commercials. We work them out at the beginning of each week. Questlove will start a drumbeat, and we jam a bit until we get something. That part is easy." The band also supplies music for comic sketches and accompanies musical artists who sit in with the band or who are the show's featured performers. "Some of the musical guests bring their own bands, but others want to play with the Roots," Kelley says. "That's always an option. When an artist wants to play with the band, we'll come in a few hours early for a rehearsal and camera blocking." In addition to doing the show weekdays, the band maintains its foundational identity. Their 13th album, Undun, was nominated for a 2012 Grammy in the Best Rap Album category. They keep an active schedule of concert appearances and have been known to catch a redeye flight after the show's Friday taping for a Saturday one-night appearance in Europe. They return Sunday night, ready to appear on Monday's show. "This band never stops," Kelley says, "we are always working. Since I joined in 2011, I've only had two or three weeks off. I've never spent so much time with the same people as I do with the members of this band. We are like family." While his schedule is packed, Kelley still finds time for recording sessions and other gigs on weeknights. He's currently writing music for a solo album but has no intention of going out on his own. "I don't foresee Jimmy giving up his show anytime soon and the Roots are a big part of what goes on here," he says. "This gig requires more creativity than other late-night TV band gigs. It's ideal for me. I couldn't have asked for a better gig." Spring2013 25

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