ロニー自身のリーダーアルバムは、現在までに
Plaxico(1990), 　　Iridescence (1992),　　 Short Takes (1993), 　　With All Your Heart(1994),
Emergence (2000)の5作を発表、そして２００１年にブル−ノ−トに移籍の第１弾アルバム　Melangewoを
発表しました。

ロニー・プラキシコのブルーノート・レーベル移籍第一弾で
通算６枚目のアルバムです。

I come from the r&b and blues school. I started on electric bass and
Tower of Power was one of my favorite bands when I was 12 years old. I mean,
that's the first thing I hear when I write, more groove type of feel.
I don't hear bebop type of lines or the traditional walking bass.
I have to force myself to write that way.
I really don't even want to write that way because
it's typical of what jazz musicians do.
I'm trying to think of just being a musician.

Some people tell me they hear M-Base when they listen to this song.
Those influences are definitely there but I'm not conscious of them
because they're so close to me.
It's become so much a part of my vocabulary at this point that
it's just a natural thing. It's almost like looking at yourself in the mirror...
you can't see yourself the way people see you.

I played with Dexter Gordon for two months in '83. I went to Morocco with him,
played the Village Vanguard and other places with him.
He was always one of my favorite saxophone players and when I wrote this song
I was thinking about him. It has that nighttime airy feeling, that darkness that
I used to hear when he played ballads.
A lot of time when I write music, it's coming from the person.
On this song, I was vibing off of Dexter.

That's for Wayne Shorter. I like both his traditional and his modern tunes.
Listening to his harmonies and rhythms just makes me want to stretch myself.
I was listening a lot to his piece "Endangered Species" when I wrote this song,
so it definitely came about from checking out Wayne.

This song is an obvious homage to Miles Davis but there's also
a little Sly & The Family Stone in there. You can hear it from the
muted trumpet and that funky phrase I put in there.
I'm just trying to put the feeling and colors that I get from them into my music.

This tune really challenged me. The intro with the bass and
the saxophone is a bebop line, which is very hard to do on acoustic bass.
The Latin thing that it segues into comes from
living in New York and hearing that music all the time.
What I'm doing here is just trying to create my own vibe from that music without
sticking too closely to the roots of it authentically.
I tried to organically add some personal colors into it.

The intro is something common in most contemporary gospel music.
I got the solo changes from a George Duke tune I remember.
He was another one of my influences when I was a teenager.
In fact, this whole project is connected to people that
I listened to when I was growing up.

I write my music at night and when I was writing this ballad it was like
I was channeling the spirit of John Coltrane. The melody and everything was
like one of those John Coltrane moments.
I was thinking about what he might have played, the way he would've
approached the melody. The song just grew out of that feeling.

Originally I called this "Miles III." The vibe here comes from the chemistry between
Wayne Shorter and Miles, the sound of the two horns together,
plus adding in the funk thing on acoustic bass.

This has an explosive quality to it. I actually recorded it on an earlier cd
but this version sounds very different. I revamped it and made it better.
Now it's got more of a fusion vibe but the horn lines are more like bebop lines.
Once again, a guy has to have a lot of chops to play those lines.

Recordings

Ray Andersen, Victor Bailey, Cindy Blackman, Art Blakey,
Terrence Blanchard, Cecil Brooks, Don Byron, Terri Lynn Carrington,
Regina Carter, Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Monte Croft, Barbara Dennerlein,
Jack DeJohnette, Robin Eubanks, Dizzy Gillespie, Carol Grey, Graham Haynes,
Andrew Hill, Ron Jackson, Lamont Johnson, Jason Moran, David Murray,
Greg Osby, Jim Payne, Marvin Hannibal Peterson, Bud Shank, Aiko Shimada,
Lonnie Liston Smith, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Teri Thornton,
Steve Williamson, Cassandra Wilson, Allen Youngblood

Geri Allen, Art Blakey, Tom Brown & Jimmy Owens, The Chilites,
Steve Coleman, Alice Coltrane, Ravi Coltrane, Junior Cook, Jack DeJohnette,
Bobby Enrica, Rachelle Farrell, Sonny Fortune, Chico & Von Freeman,
Dexter Gordon, Slide Hampton & The World of Trombones, Barry Harris,
Antonio Hart, John Hicks, Jay Hogart, Thelma Houston, Hank Jones,
Rodney Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Kirk Lightsey, Carmen Lundey,
Junior Mance, Chuck Mangione, Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis,
Keiko Matsui, Ronnie Matthews, Mulgrew Miller, David Murray,
David “Fat Head” Newman, Greg Osby, Dianne Reeves,
Joe Sample & the Jazz Crusaders, Bud Shank, Woody Shaw, Melvin Sparks,
Dakota Staton, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Harold Vick, Jack Walrath,
Cassandra Wilson, Allen Youngblood

Television: David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Charlie Rose,
The Today Show, The Morning Show, Joan Rivers Show
Movie: Junior (1994; Directed by Ivan Reitman,
　　　　　 starring Arnold Schwartzenegger)
Major Jazz Clubs & Festivals (US & Abroad), Various Benefit Performances

Louis Armstrong Jazz Award (1978)
Charles Mingus & Fred Zimmermann Bass Competition (1980):
Third Place Award and Most Promising Young Bassist Award
Listings: Grove’s Dictionary of Music,
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

Ibanez (Electric Bass), Labella (Strings), Patterson Basses (Electric Bass),
Fodera (Electric Bass), Applied Microphones (Microphone)

YEAR ARTIST SELECTION TITLE

2000　 Lonnie Plaxico “Emergence”
2000　 Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers “Live at Ronnie Scott's [BBC Legends]”
1999 　Cassandra Wilson “Traveling Miles”
1999 　Teri Thornton “I’ll Be Easy to find”
1998 　Ravi Coltrane “Moving Pictures”
1998 　Mark Ledford “Miles to Go”
1998　 Greg Osby “Zero”
1998 　Ray Andersen “Funkorific”
1998 　Lamont Johnson “241 East 3rd St.”
1997 　Various Artists “Jazz Central Station”
1997 　Jackie Terrason/Cassandra Wilson “Rendevous”
1996 　Cassandra Wilson “New Moon Daughter”* - Grammy Award Winner
1996 　Cassandra Wilson “Songbook”
1996　 Barbara Dennerlein “Take Off”
1996 　Various Artists “Complete Rodgers & Hart Songbook”
1996 　Cecil Brooks III “Smokin’ Jazz”
1995 　Regina Carter “Regina Carter”
1994　 Lonnie Plaxico “With All Your Heart”
1994 　Jack DeJohnette “Extra Special Edition”
1994 　Talib Kibwe “Introducing Talib Kibwe”
1993 　Lonnie Plaxico “Short Takes”
1993 　Cassandra Wilson “Blue Light ‘til Dawn”** - Grammy Award Nominee
1993 　Ron Jackson “A Guitar Thing”
1993　 Gust William Tsilis “Wood Music”
1993　 Ronald Shannon Jackson “Thinking of You”
1993 　Jim Payne “New York Funk, Vol.1”
1993 　Carola Grey “Noisy Mama”
1993 　Marvin Hannibal Peterson “One With the Wind”
1992 　Lonnie Plaxico “Iridescence”
1992 　Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers “New York Scene”* - Grammy Award Winner
1992 　Bud Shank “I Told You So”
1992 　Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers “Live at Kimball’s”
1992　 Don Byron “Tuskegee Experiments”
1992 　Cassandra Wilson “Jumpworld”
1992 　Cecil Brooks III “The Collective”
1992 　Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
　　　 　　　　　“The Best of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Art Collection”
1992　 Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
　　　　　　　　 “New Year’s Eve at Sweet Basil: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers”
1992 　Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers “Dr. Jekyl: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers”
1992 　Lafayette Harris “Lafayette Is Here”
1992　 Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers “Hard Champion: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers”
1991　 Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition “Earthwalk”
1990 　Lonnie Plaxico “Plaxico”
1990　 Cindy Blackman “Code Red”
1988　 Jack DeJohnette “Audio Visualscapes”
1987 　Jack DeJohnette “Irresistible Forces”
1987 　Cassandra Wilson “Point of View”
1984 　Dizzy Gillespie “New Faces”