 To this episode of the Hawaii Smooth Jazz Connection, I am your host, Wendell and Harris. My guest today is a group that came on to the music scene in Philadelphia in 1976. They have numerous albums out, but you may know them for their hits, Folk Five Folk, Warm Weather and Mount Airy Groove. This group is celebrating over 40 plus years of being together and they still bring down the house when they perform. I am excited to have them on the show today. Please welcome Mr. James Lloyd and Mr. Curtis Harmon, also known as Pieces of a Dream to the show. Aloha gentlemen and welcome. Aloha. Thank you. Sadness. How you doing? First of all, I want to thank both of you for being here on the show because I know it is late where you are and I know it's past your bedtime. It is now. Yeah. But I thank you so much. We got to go to bed early. Oh, wow. Well, thank you. And again, this is about the time we'd probably still be on stage. How about that? Yeah. That's what I hear from a lot of the artists. But thank you. And also thank you, Curtis, for representing Philly. I'm happy wearing your Philly Eagles. Represent. Represent. That's right. So we're going to go ahead and get this started. Both of you started playing music at an early age. So I want each of you to tell me how you got to start music. Curtis. I started actually playing drums. Well, actually playing. What I would say beats at eight years old. I had a knife in this hand and a fork in this hand. Playing on my brother's, my little brother's high chair and playing beats to a rare earth. Get ready. And then my mother kind of got mad and say to my father, he better buy me a drum set for she kills us both. So he ended up buying me a toy drum set. I started playing beats on that. And then he put me in school for music and drum lessons. And then I started playing a little bit with his band before I met James. And then once I got to eight lowest middle school, you know, James and I met and sit along with a third member, said to Napoleon. And we kind of took off from there. Wow. James, how'd you get to start? Um, I started actually when I was six years old. I started playing a little bit with his band before I met James. And then once I got to eight lowest middle school, I was six years old. Actually, I just, I started by imitating my first grade teacher who had a piano in her room. And, you know, so I was just sort of imitating what she was doing. And then next thing, you know, I was taking piano lessons. And, you know, I started just regular classical lessons at six. And then I got the scholarship to a music school, settlement music school in Philadelphia. Yeah. 10 years old. And when I was 12, that's when I ate Lewis and that's when I had the actual pieces of a dream started forming and becoming a thing and playing together. You know, it all started with like a talent show. And, and dinner dances and wedding receptions and block parties. Wow. You know, and it turned into this and it's, it's still going, you know, it'll be not long that Curtis and I are celebrating our 50th anniversary. Yes, yes. Now what high schools did y'all go to? Okay, we went to, we graduated from Martin Luther King high school. But we also went to high school creative and performing arts in Philadelphia. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And we went there when it first opened up. Matter of fact, they didn't even have chairs, you know, I'm serious. We were sitting on the floor at carpet. It was, you know, comfortable. But, you know, you're writing on carpet and your pencil going through the paper. But yeah. And the high school was on the 16, 17, 18 floor of the, you know, the college was through from the second through the 15th floor building. Right. Right. That's right. Okay. And we were actually across the street from the college of performing arts, but, and the three of us were actually taking college harmony and theory. And then we had to go back over to the high school and finish class. Yeah. And then you had like gamble and Huff. That was like right across the street. Look, it's funny because I know where all these places are in Philly. Yeah. This is great. Now, Washington junior was very interest instrumental. Right. And getting you guys off. Can you tell me about that? Well, Grover. We were actually the house band for a TV show that you probably remember called city lights. Yes. Yes. We were the house band for about 13 weeks on that show. Grover actually performed on that show. It was kind of, they would have different artists and acts on the show. And Grover actually was in one of the weeks on the show and heard us play. He came and he was going to play to attract though. He had his, actually hit wine light album out at the time. He was going to play to attract when he heard us play it's there. Wait a minute. I want to play with them. So we ended up playing Mr. Magic together. And it came off very well. We had a ball. And then not long after that, we ended up playing at the Schubert. I'm sorry. The B's you cafe where he did his live album. And then he showed up there that night. Played with us, surprised everybody, and then announced that he was starting a brand production company. And we would be his first property. And then all of a sudden, we were like, oh, no, no, no, no. How did the name pieces of a dream come about? I know you guys started out in high school, but how did that name physically come about? How did you guys decide? Tell that one. Well, we went through a slew of names. I think our first name was actually galaxy. We did the talent show in junior high school. And then we went to touch of class. And then classic touch before we finally decided before we My stepmother, Deanna Harmon, named us that from Stanley Turntine's album, Pieces of Dreams. And she thought that we were three pieces looking for a musical dream. So that's how we got our name, basically. And we thought the name was kind of long and we thought it was like it at first. And we thought we wanted something short and hip, you know, like in Commodore's Gap Band. But it actually caught on and became a household word around Philadelphia. So, you know, and then around the country. Yes, and even today. Yes. Now, one of my favorite tunes, okay. I love this tune. Well, I love all your music. But one of my favorites is Full Five Four from the album Imaginous. How did you guys come up with the name of that tune, Full Five Four? Actually, we didn't come up with that name. That was actually a song. You know who came up with the name of that song? Who? Moses Malone. And how did I know? Because now he predicted that the Sixers were going to win the championship. They were just going to sweep. He said, four, four, four. And that was a prediction, right? So they swept the Lakers and they swept the Celtics and Milwaukee, I think it was five games in the middle. And so it turned into four, five, four. So that's what the song is actually about. It's about the Sixers winning that championship. And Moses Malone is actually on the record, singing Full Five Four. Well, I love that. Listen closely. Yeah, he's in there. And we're not going to tell you how many takes it needed to do that. That was to have some fun in the studio. I can tell you that making that record. We had fun making all our records. I could tell. I could tell. Especially back then when we were in there with Broke. Because it was definitely fun recording with him. And we learned a lot just about everything, dealing with music, how the recording processes are done, how to let the music kind of breathe. And different spaces in music needs to shine through and humility. Awesome. There was a whole lot that he taught us. Plus he was fun too. We shot Pullover's House at times. And we actually had fun on tour with him. And we used to actually open up his pieces of a dream. And then we were in his band also. Oh, wow. So we got to do Double Duty, which was. That was Double Duty on the job training. On the job training. He was a sharp dresser. So, you know, we learned how to like rag bro. Yeah. Because you two be dressing pretty sharp. I see that. You two dress all the time. You two are stepping out sharp from the shoes, from head to toe. Thank you. That's what we learned from Pullover. Another one of your tunes, Mount Airy Groove. How did you come up with that? Because that's another one of your hits. Wow. Now that was something we were messing around. And we had just gotten this beat box that had a built-in microphone. And you can record. Like, oh, that was a big thing back then, right? So we had it at our rehearsal. Because a lot of times we'd be messing around with, you know, just jamming and come up with these ideas. And then try and recreate it or record it. But forget exactly what we did. So, you know, this beat box came out with the built-in microphone. We got this thing like, okay, cool. And one day we just turned it on and, you know, recording. And came up with this groove. I think Curtin started with a beat. And then said it was doing like a sort of like a Verdeen white, you know, bass line. And I was thinking of sort of a Parliament Funkadelic, you know, kind of octave thing, you know, with just weird timing and weird notes and like, you know, just wanted to make it different. And next thing you know, we listened back like, hey, this is kind of cool. Let's make something out of it. And that turned into Mount Erie groove. Well, it's definitely a hit. Because when I hear it, I can imagine driving, you know, around Mount Erie or it can drive playing it. I think the real thing that made Mount Erie groove a hit was the scratching part and the bridge where James is playing the sound. And it sounds kind of like the old Atari TV tennis type thing. And, you know, that's what we really first were learning how to really use sounds and stuff, you know. And really getting into the intricacies of the machines that we started to learn about. And that was it. What, Jupiter 8? That was the Jupiter 8. Oh, we go way back. You know, people thought that that was like, you know, a scratching, like from a record. From a record, yeah. That wasn't that. That was just like me playing this patch I sort of stumbled on and tweaking buttons. And I didn't know what the heck I was doing with this thing. And so I like, all right, I saved it and had this sound and I just played this rhythm. And I didn't realize it. Oh, it sounded like scratching. That wasn't really the intent at all. But it turned out that that was like a thing. And next thing you know, it was, it had become like this thing in the hip hop community to a point where Grandmaster Flash and the Curious Five used a part of that in one of their songs. And another artist named Tracy Leigh used a part of Mounted Regroup in one of his songs. And, you know, we talked in meeting different rap artists, you know, over time, like Chubb Rock and Karras 1. You're like, man, oh, man, Mounted Regroup. That was the jump. That was the people, you know. That's one of the most people songs. Yes, it is. I love it. Like I said, I love all of your music. Now, with this pandemic, which I'll be glad whenever it's over, it has hit the music industry and basically put everything to a stop. What has your group, what have you guys been doing during this pandemic? Basically preparing for our next release. We're due to release a new project in July. We're going around the end of July. And so we're basically, you know, preparing for that at this point. But we've been trying to basically stay safe and healthy, you know, just like everybody else. And I mean, I don't know. We're just doing what we can do. I'm sure your families love you being home, too. Say again? I'm sure your families love you being home, too, for a little bit. Say that again. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But, you know, I love spending time in my studio. I got man cave with pool table and all that down there. So I got things to do. And that's why we both cook. So yeah, yeah, cooking. That's a big thing. Oh, I know you cook, James, because I know you and your wife, Teresa, you call her your wifeager, which I love that. I absolutely love that. You guys post stuff on Facebook all the time cooking. Yeah. Yeah. That was a thing for a minute there, wasn't it? Yes. Yes. Have your own cooking show. How about that? Yeah, I haven't done that in a bit. But yeah, I've lately been concentrating on writing and producing music, you know, for pieces of a dream and a few others. So yeah, look out. All right. Well, we got stuff coming up. Oh, yes. Well, we're going to take a break. James, if you could show, we're going to show a clip or we're going to show a video. If you could in show it for us. This is a clip from BET taping. And wow, this is one of the old iterations of pieces of a dream. There are many. And I'm not even going to tell you what year it's from, but you'll be able to tell it's it's old. So. Okay. Welcome back. That was just an amazing video. I'm just sitting here and watching James and Curtis just bopping along and James doing his thing at the house. Like he's actually on stage. Now, one thing I want people to know is if they have never seen you guys perform, they're in for a treat because I know James, the first time I actually saw pieces perform was at Brian Culverson's festival a few years ago. And on the stage, just going at it on the keyboard. And I think you were blindfolded to as well and playing. Yes. That's the thing I've been doing for like backwards. And then blindfolded. I just get crazy with it, you know. Yeah, we see. And I think at that show that you were talking about, I think Brian and I were playing backwards together. Yes, backwards together. Just going crazy on stage. Yes, going crazy. And Curtis was just doing his thing on the drums. That was just an amazing concert. So like I said, when you guys start performing again, people really need to go and see you. I know I will be there, especially in November. But you guys collaborate with many people. Who would be your dream collaboration for pieces of a dream to collaborate with? You know, I would love to do something with Stevie Wonder. I don't know if that's, you know, how far reaching that is, or much of a possibility that he's even, you know, open to doing stuff. But, you know, if all things in the perfect world, if I could just have, you know, my way. I always say, speaking into existence, you never know. Stevie Wonder. What about you, Curtis? Of course, he jumps. See, wow. Wow. Speaking into existence. I mean, his writing and production. I mean, he's been an icon for decades, you know, as far as his writing and production. And he's one of the masters of it. So, you know, he's actually one of my writing idols. That's for sure. Really? Now, what advice would you give new artists that are coming into this industry? I know it's hard right now, but what advice would you give new artists coming into the industry? Be original. Don't try and sound like something that you think has already succeeded, because it's usually something that's succeeded because it was original. Somebody liked it for what it was, you know. So, you know, do your own thing. And try, don't try to be famous. Try to be good. Try to be good at your instrument or your voice or whatever it is that, whatever it is that you're going to do, you know, in life, whether it's music or anything. You know, don't try and be famous. Just try and be good. Let everything else happen. And it will, you know, when it's when it's supposed to. Do it from your heart. Be sincere in what you're trying to do and let it come from right here, you know. And like Jane said, don't try to be like anybody else, because then they're not getting the true you if you do that, you know. Hone your craft and just have your own personality in your music. That way you can develop your own sound and people know you for what you sound like. You know, people hear us on the radio and they know it's us because we have a certain sound. And that's what any artist should aspire to developing their own sound. Now, if I could just interject one thing that Curtis mentioned that something I was just thinking about just today is that I don't know of any group that has the difference, you know, the breadth of variety of songs and music on their collection of albums. I mean, if you go back to our first to our current, you're going to hear like straight ahead stuff. You're going to hear vocals. You're going to hear funk. You're going to hear like some new jack swing. You're going to hear like Hender stuff. You're going to hear like, you know, reggae type, you know, Latin type stuff. Yeah, you know, it's going to run again. I don't know any other group who, you know, will run so many genres across and within their catalog. Yeah. Wow. That is great advice. Now, really quick, because we're coming to the end, what projects or what shows do you guys have coming up? I know you guys are going to be at the legacy in November in Virginia, and I will be there for that. I'm definitely coming to that. But what are the shows you guys have? The Berks Jacks, that's what I'm saying. Okay. All right. What else? We have the Ion de Amo in Detroit or Warrant. That's not to the end of the year though, but we've got a few things coming up. So where can people go to find your music and to find out where you guys are going to be? Well, you can look us up on Facebook. We have our, we have a Twitter page. We have Instagram also. We also, you can get our material from iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, and most of your, you know, CD outlets and downloads. You can go to like Sam Goody. I heard Mr. Sam Goody in a long time. Oh my goodness, that's a blast from the past. That on the market street, you know, you'll find us there. Oh, well, it has been a pleasure to have my homeboys here. On this show with me. You guys are hilarious. You guys are awesome. You guys are iconic. And I love you guys to death. And I will see you. I will see you Virginia. I'm going to have a serious talk with him and try to calm him down. Trying to calm him down. Please do, please do. But you guys can now go to bed. I thank you so much for being here with me today. We'd like to also thank our fans for all the years of support and love that they've shown us. And you know, we really do love you guys. And thank you so much for allowing us to have a career because without you, there's no us. Indeed. And thank you for having us, dear. No worries. Thank you. And to my audience, thank you for joining us today. And until next time, Aloha and God Bless.