Rhythm and blues. You are not going to do that on the oboe. Sax. Tched over to lots of good tenors, but nobody played bari. I learned to play the baritone sax, selftaught. I was ready to go, i met emilio at the pleasant county fair. 4 weekend, 1968. Not just being proficient, but a lot of soul. Where did that come from . It is one thing to make the switch to the instrument. That is not just practice. Berkeley is a very integrated town. I was fortunate. I hired the musical training to be a good musician. Trained and found the doctor. Soul music in the bay area, it the most popular disc jockey in the bay area. Tavis this argument cuts both ways. Given that it was such a soulful town, you got sly and everyone else out there doing their thing. What gave you the courage to think that you and this band could cut into that . Because we are a white manba . Tavis i wasnt going to go there, but some of the most soulful white folk i know are in oakland. You had to have hutzpah to believe that you were good enough to play. I saw it personally. There was a band in the bay area called the spiders. I saw them play, and it was like i put blinders on. Wel music became my life. Pattern ourselves after them and that is who we were when i met him. He was a roadie for the loading zone. We were a slick soul band. Wanted to borrow the organ, they sent me over to interview me. He asked me what we were like. The spiders had just kicked the loading zones butt. They were amazing. The spiders took it to them. Said, you can use the organ. Afterwards, he says that band of yours is pretty good. Only one thing wrong. Your horn section needs a little bottom. By the way, i play the baritone sax. Tavis just drop that in there. I saw this great band doing it. He came into the band and he was the first hit the that i ever and he wanted to change our lifestyle. That is what was happening at the time. We wanted to get to the fillmore and we knew that we were not going to get in there with a name like the motowns. This Recording Studio and this guy had put a list of potential band names on his desk. What about tower of power in e that was it. Tavis since you mentioned the fillmore, anybody who is anybody then and now still want to play the fillmore. You first got in their winning a contest . We auditioned. Auditions were you had to get your spot a year ahead of time. Right about that time, we got busted for being underage. We played clubs for years underage. The alcohol and Beverage Control put out a letter saying if you hire these kids, we are going to take your liquor license. By the time the audition rolls around, nothing happens with this audition, i am going back we literally played like our lives depended on it. And it all did worked out, obviously. They were not used to big horn bands. They were the usual psychedelic bands. The first thing we did was hit a james brown tune. [singing] walking out, they heard that and they made an aboutface. Popped out inad the back and it was bill graham. He always liked rhythm and horns. I flew to detroit the next day. If nothing happens, im not coming back. He was devastated. He said, youve got to come back. They dug it. Who . Bill graham. Hock the organ and send me a ticket. [laughter] tavis let me ask you to set your modesty aside just for a second. The me what you think contribution over these 45 years of this band tower of power has been to the business . People playingg, real music. Literate lyrics, musical songs and High Performance levels. All of those things, trying to serve our fans and do what we do. There were trends through the years. We thought it was disco that was our lives. Tavis blame it on disco. Smooth jazz, whenever we deviated which we tried a few times, it never worked out for us. We stick to our guns now, and a high level of musicianship. Tavis the flip side of that lowest configuration. You tell me a lot tower of power the high point in . We had rick stevens saying that youre still a young man. Tavis i suspect that over 45 years, this is to be expected. How does a band keep its . Ignature sound in when the times are changing, how do you keep that . The sound nucleus has to give credit to rocco. I was drawing that sound out. We had that style of play. It always sounded like tower of power. Are gettingompanies frustrated saying, why cant you sound like so and so . We would try, but it always sounded like tower of power. As soon as we realize that and we have a unique way of writing and approaching the way that we put the songs together. Who is in the organization, i am drawing that sound. All of your fans will agree that you are still a young man. That is the top. Everybody knows one of yi tell y day. I am still a young man. I guess we all do that. When doc approached me, he said what you do to the songs we are playing is amazing. I would change the rhythm and the harmonies. What you do with these songs is amazing. Own . Ont we write our i was happy. We had a great band and making good soul music. I had been in this relationship with this woman that was 24. She was six years older than me. She would break up with me and come back. Why do you want to be with me . Go be with girls your own age and i said no, i want to be with you. Tavis we all know that story. Why dont we write a story about an older woman telling a young guy that you are too young for me. We were listening to Curtis Mayfield. He had this record out called this is my country. Really high. We loved it. We have to write a great trumpet intro because we had this guy nick gillette. We wrote the trumpet first. Intro atback to the the end. It was really the most famous thing about that tune. It is that song. Tell me about the process when a song is written. Tell me about the process for laying down those horn licks. You get a title, you get a groove, you get a phrase, anything you can build upon. That one was inspired by the Curtis Mayfield tune. And the song was also inspired by cheech and chong, he was in the band and cowrote that tune. We worked with them through the years. We get inspiration from wherever it is and build upon it. Songke sure that when the is done, it is up to your standards. And we give it to the boys. They add a little magic to it. We raised that one ourselves. Now we have a guy that raises the horns. Sometimes we have them play this line and to harmonize or whatever. Tavis tell me about hipper than hip here co. It comes. Cds, live recordings that we did in long island. Tookthey did was, they bands from warner bros. At the time and put them in a Recording Studio called ultrasonic sound. They did a simulcast on the radio station. Every weekend is a different act. We were one of those weekends. A great booklet goes with it. Look at this, listen to this, i got this off of the radio. I hear the band every night. You need to ok this. I will sit down and listen to these songs. It is not that i forgot, but the realization of what an aggregation it was in 1974. Lenny williams was killing it, Lenny Pickett was astounding. Chester thompson on the organ. Fabric, a sole fabric that was really exceptional. It is coming out in november and we are proud of it. Tavis you mentioned a couple like james brown. I am curious, not just to influenced you, but is there a particular person or persons whose vote of approval of what you do has meant so much to you over the years . Programuval was on this. We were talking about whether or not he read reviews or critics and he said, i havent done that since i was 22 or 23. I wanted to know why. He said that Marlon Brando came to him one day and had seen one of his movies. He said, kid, you are good. Since then, he didnt read nothing. Marlon brando told me that i was a good actor and if he said that to me, i havent had to read or listen to what nobody says. Approval you have received over the years, is that all you needed to hear. We have a song called digging on james brown. We did a show with james brown, actually several. Said, i really like that james brown song. We thought maybe, we will see you in court. He liked it and that meant a lot to me. We headlined a weekend at the fillmore auditorium. We were having this feud with bill graham. It shows you how great he was. Way toe best actor open up. We were really hitting it hard. We are playing and the fourth was standing in the doorway of the dressing room. Aretha was wearing the tight white dress and the turbine. She is trying to get out of the way, but there were people here ri. Here. We are nose to nose and she says, tower of power. My favorite band. I just about melted. Tavis when the queen tells you that and james brown tells you that, you dont need to hear from nobody else. Hip coming out later and you want to get your hands on this project. That is the cd and dvd. 45 years of doing this good music. That is our show for tonight. As always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for a conversation with bestselling author and lamotte. That is next time, we will see you then. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Be more. Miriam hi, welcome back to hometime. Today on the show, were gonna spruce up a cozy retreat. Its a sun porch thats lacking a little bit in both design and energy efficiency. So its out with the old sliding doors, and in with the new. Out with the old ceiling texture and fan, and in with the, you get the idea. And it should be fun because we will be working with some old friends. So there will be some tips and tricks, and a ton of personality. You never know what could happen. Hopefully you can stick around. Come on boy. Man. What we need is some elbow grease. Yeah, you can. Are you kidding me . Gmc. Proud to lend a helping hand to hometime. Miriam well well get started on the sunroom in a bit, but a lot of you might recognize jojo, she was with the show early on and youre back jojo im back, yes, that was back in the days when i didnt use readers. Miriam so what do you think . Do you miss the glamour of the show . Jojo glamour. I know you know what the glamour is. The glamour is working in dusty conditions where theres no restrooms, or running water, or 100 temperatures or sometimes below zero. Miriam exactly jojo sure. Yeah actually, its fun, you know it is. Its fun to see how things come together and get built. Miriam so now weve done a few things at your house, first one was the bathrooms right . Jojo right. Thank goodness you helped me with that bathroom, because the layout was kind of crazy, it was sort of like a merrygoround with all the doors and entrances. So we cleaned it all up, made it more contemporary, and it still looks great. Dean again, when we started this project, we had a powder room and a master bath, and they were connected. That was kind of odd. Miriam now the powder room is separated from the master bath, creating two very distinctly different spaces. We have brand new cabinetry in the closet and in the bathroom with some new tile throughout. It has a new bathtub thats a nice size with a nice, new showerhead. It has gorgeous glass doors and an etched glass window, which is perfect for privacy. And jojos faux finish turned out great. Then we went downstairs. You had a bedroom you wanted to make into an office. Jojo thats right, and that turned out just beautifully, but i remembered back in the day, it was this nice sized room, beautiful dimensions, gorgeous view, but the door leaked. The grading was all out of whack so really it turned into a kind of 2 part thing where we had to regrade the exterior and then, that enabled us to do the interior. And , oh my gosh, i just love that space. Mim well now jojo is got a new paver patio. And some totally redone boulder terraces. A new glass door with ventilating sidelights and a warmly decorated space that combines the features of both the home office and a guest bedroom. I really like this desk. Its nice curved. It feels natural and its floating so you can put it wherever you want it in the room. And back heres a Perfect Little nook for the office. Put your computer and printer, some drawers for files and supplies and then some cubbies up here for books and binders. Jojo i just love how this turned out. All this storage up hereyouve got the lights so you can show off all of your lovely accessories. You could hide Office Equipment in here if you wanted to certainly if you have guests this converts into a bedroom pretty darn quickly. Miriam look at that. Jojo isnt that something . Miriam thats just about the coolest thing ive ever seen. Jojo ya need a nap honey . Cmon. Climb in. Miriam laughing nice. Miriam and the last time we were here, we did something really fun with your garage. Jojo that was an existing structure that had been there from the 1940s, but it had turned into rodent hotel, because there was so many gaps and crevices. So downstairs it became the harley garage, upstairs became a yoga studio. Miriam so the winter were done finally. Perfect for some yoga. Right . Joanne yes it is, several months later. Miriam yes joanne serenity n. laughing . When we originally conceived of this space, of course, none of the decor choices were really chosen, and so bit by bit, ive made my selections starting with the lighting and the flooring. Then my sister, the designer, came in and kind of pulled it all together with the right colors and i think its just beautiful especially all the green because green is supposed to impart peace and tranquillity. Arent you, the viewer, feeling peaceful right now . Yeah, i thgh