#  This is the last installment of my interview with the amazing bassist from John McLaughlin's 4th Dimension band.
![bf Screenshot2017-12-0607.33.55.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQCGhP48a2jii4jDY28s6tBHbpfaUMdgdY3Erk8c2N7mb/bf%20Screenshot2017-12-0607.33.55.jpg)

## Interview with Etienne Mbappe -- part 4, the conclusion


Alan Bryson:  So you stayed with Joe Zawinul for three years, that's like going to music school for three years!

**Etienne Mbappe**: Playing with him was like a dream come true, and it's the same playing with John McLaughlin now, they are living legends, part of jazz history.  They wrote part of jazz history.  You know, Joe was a great story teller, he would talk about Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley.  We were on the road with long hours to kill with some overnight drives, for me it was like a kid in Africa listening to his grandfather tell stories. Wow, I was drinking in his words, you know, that period when he came to the States and was breaking into the business and playing with all those great names like Miles and Dinah Washington, he was a part of that. So being in Joe Zawinul's band made me feel like the luckiest guy in the world.

Alan Bryson:  What about John McLaughlin, had did that come about?

**Etienne Mbappe**:  I was of course familiar with John through his work, like Mahavishnu, Shakti, and of course various recordings.  In France John was REALLY big, you would see him on primetime TV shows like a pop star, that was John by the 80s and 90s.  Of course for me a living legend.

I met him once in the South of France in Nice, I was playing with Joe at a festival and he came to say hello.  He said “Hi guys, how's it going.”  And John speaks good French.  So discreetly, he said, “I want you to give me your number.  I don't want Joe to freak out.”  That's what he said. That was around 2000 or 2001, and he called me eight years later. 

I was in the States at the NAMM show in Los Angeles, it was January.  So my phone was ringing and I answer and it's John speaking in French: “Hey Etienne, it's John McLaughlin, how are you doing?  You're in the States.”  So I ask, “How do you know I'm in the States.”  “You're at the NAMM show, ja di di, ja da da – you posted that on your website.  So I don't want to run up your phone bill, so how about joining my band?”

I said, “You gotta be kidding me! When?”  He says, “In April.”  So I said, well I got some shootings to do.  He says, “It's April next year.”  So I said, I don't even have to think about it, YES, YES, YES!

Alan Bryson:  He's great because he's not a music snob, he loves music and is open to many things.


**Etienne Mbappe**:  John has become a great friend, we can really talk.  Of course he has that living legend background and he has so many experiences to share, like about Mahavishnu and how he got into the Indian vibe, how he learned with Ravi Shankar – so being in a band with him is a true blessing, and it makes you humble.  It's like, do what you have to do, do it right, and have fun – share some love, give some love. That's the message, play music, make people happy, try and be yourself, be happy, believe in your dreams.  Go through and keep on doing it, realize your dreams, that's the message.  

It's about love, it's all about love. You're surrounded by love, be humble and do what you gotta do, that's about it.  I heard that from those elders, and they wrote the history of jazz.  Playing with them is just a blessing, knowing them is just a blessing, and being in a band and the paths we cross, it's just a blessing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpXP3xol3VQ
**John McLaughlin makes a guest appearance with Joe Zawinul. Etienne wasn't with Joe at this time, but it is a great clip of McLaughlin and Zawinul together**
***

Alan Bryson:  You've had so many blessing, like you got to meet Ray Charles!

**Etienne Mbappe**:  That was a funny story too.  I did some session work with him, he was doing an album of crooner songs, covering people like Charles Aznavour and Frank Sinatra and he came to France to do three or four songs.  So I got a call, “What are you doing?”  I'm at home, so I say, what do you mean what am I doing?  “In the next couple of hours?  There's a recording session tonight, it's not far from you, and it's with Ray Charles.”  I'm like, you gotta be kidding me!

So when I came into the studio, it was surreal, like, am I really here?  I'm here with this genius, am I really here.  You just can't believe it, but believe it or not, I didn't have a camera to take a picture with him.  So I actually played for a couple of hours in the studio with Ray Charles!

Alan Bryson: You've got another tour with John McLaughlin coming up, you'll be playing some big festivals, are you pumped up about that?

**Etienne Mbappe**: We're playing some great places, a huge festival outside of Nashville and I've heard we are playing just before Paul McCartney.  So I guess the place will be packed like I don't know what.  I don't know if I will succeed, but I will try say hello to Sir Paul McCartney.  A bass player and another living legend in pop music.  One fourth of the Beatles, I mean I'm dying to be able to just shake his hand say hello and get a picture. It's a blessing to be around those living legends, jazz and pop, it's a blessing just to be around them.  

Alan Bryson:  I also wanted to ask you about the tour with the Ringers you just finished, and get your impressions on that.

**Etienne Mbappe**: I remember I was on tour in the States and I went to the House of Blues and I heard Jimmy Herring, and I was like, wow!  Who is this guy!  So I got on my phone and called a friend, Bill Evans, a great saxophone player, and I said, I'm here in the States and playing a gig and there's this guys on the same bill, Jimmy Herring, and he's just amazing!  

So I had a great time afterwards talking with Jimmy, and I told him I love his playing so much.  So later when he was recording his CD and Jimmy asked the head of his label, Abstract Logix, to get in touch with me.  And they invited me to come over and do some tracks on his album.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y67hen1X0QE
**Jimmy Herring talks about Etienne being exposed to Redneck Jazz :-)**
***

So I knew Wayne Krantz through some mutual friends in New York, and of course I knew Mike Landau from all the amazing session work he has done and a bit of his solo work too.  So everybody emailed the others some possible songs for the Ringers tour.

Then we meet and had two days to rehearse.  I was wondering, what's it going to be like playing with three guitar players?  But there was a lot of respect and just music.  We had a great time touring and playing each others songs together.  I hope we continue this experience, because I loved it. The chemistry was great, and it was great to play with Keith Carlock on drums. Keith is a special drummer, he has that certain “something.”  He's got something like that New Orleans groove with a lot of rim shots, “dacady dacydey dack” – and he grooves like hell!  It just clicked, like we had been playing together for many years.  I brought some Africa songs, and I showed him the groove and he just got it right away.
***
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1dzI0yrNlA
**The Ringers doing one of Etienne's songs**
***

## Here's the link to the [**part 1**](https://steemit.com/music/@roused/my-interview-with-bassist-etienne-mbappe) link to [**part 2**](https://steemit.com/music/@roused/my-interview-with-bassist-etienne-mbappe-continues) link to [**part 3**](https://steemit.com/music/@roused/my-interview-with-etienne-mbappe-continues)

***
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZDLCAPB4wdwjwcTQHMf2LhBpFGicx4NuitESZxFqiiMU/image.png)
***

***
Photos are YouTube Screen Captures -- effects by @roused 

***

<center>[![follow_roused.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbeKVA6LeVBZuo11RFGbxJy9BBieEU3jNHbG2B8YvBAJ7/follow_roused.gif (92kB) )](https://steemit.com/@roused)</center>

![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXL6zVfutgWwm5wshoa4y6aCN2qVPVowS8UjknToDSJuR/steemit%20close%20graphic.jpg)
##### --------Having trouble reading?  Click (R) on image to view in full screen---------






away.