 Karizma embarked on a small club tour in Europe in 2000. This special incarnation, with David Garfield, Michael Landau, Vinnie Colaiuta and Neil Stubenhaus, was named Rizma 2000 and we met the band before the concert in Amager Bio in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here's a previously unpublished interview with the band from April 2000.
- What is the difference between Rizma 2000 and Karizma in the beginning?
Vinnie: Twenty years. Age. (laughs)
- But the music is still the same?
David: Some of it is, yeah.
Vinnie: We're old men now. No, we just thought it was a kind of funny sounding thing, Rizma 2000, just a little joke.
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- Vinnie, it's been a long time since you've been in the band, doing that kind of session.. What's it like going on a club tour instead of playing big venues?
Vinnie: I like it actually, I like playing small places. It's great with the band and the audience, and it generally sounds really good. There's less guesswork with how it might sound, you know, and it's fun.
- When you go out with shows like this, it seems it's made for people who are really into music, like musicians.
Vinnie: Yeah, mostly we play for MEN (laughs).
- You didn't all start at the same time with Karizma, Vinnie came in later?
David: I started the band in 1975 and it was kind of like my big dream. I had this vision of having a really cool instrumental band, that would be really interesting. I was thinking I wanted to reach as many people as possible with the music. And Mike joined the band in 1978 and it changed the whole shape of the band. Because up until then I wrote all the songs myself, and occasionally a sax player would bring in a song and occasionally we'd do a cover song. But when Mike came in, he started writing with me and started influencing me and the whole sound of the band started to change, and that's when it really got good.
- Is it still like your band, and are you still composing the songs yourself?
David: Well, that's really interesting, because on this tour we're approaching it strictly like a band. It's a complete democracy and no one person runs the show, and that makes room for everybody to bring in ideas. Vinnie brought in some material of his and we're doing some of Mike's stuff and now that Neil is with us, he might have some ideas, you know. So it's kind of more of a group. It's a collaboration right now.
Vinnie: But at the same time, a lot of the stuff that we're doing is something that has collected over the years that has been part of the Rizma book, with a lot of stuff written by David and Mike. I got in the band a little later - around 1979, I think - and was doing it for a few years, and then it just kind of went its own way. But David kept the flame going and kept the thing alive, and here we are again.. What's interesting is that we all came back together again. This is one particular incarnation of the band, but mind you, that when David started it, it was not uncommon to have a group of musicians to have a vision of reaching a lot of people. I remember when I moved to L.A., on Sunset Strip there were huge billboards of Weather Report and Stanley Clarke records, now it's all boy groups. In other words, at that time, fusion wasn't a bad word.
- So this is one of the last fusion bands around?
Vinnie: Yes, endangered species, we'll bring it back. It's coming back and it's mad. No, it is what it is, and I think, in a sense, that we've discovered that there's a market out there that we weren't even aware of. We've also seen from our travels, individually and collectively, that not only is there a market for it, the people are hungry for it. Kids want to hear real people playing. They want quality, and by and large, I think somewhere in the collective psyke that they recognize it when they hear it. And they can get duped by a bunch of sample based music and all of a sudden, when they hear quality, a kind of remembering takes place. And also, there are a lot of kids coming out of music schools now, and they're hungry to hear people play. They want to play and are trying to find a home for it, and we're out there carrying a torch to give them some hope.
- Maybe fusion music is getting stronger?
Vinnie: But it's a bit of anarchy right now because people are taking advantage of the internet. People are carving their own markets. For years we were stuck under the feet of junior accountants, telling us to roll over and play dead. They'll still try to do it as much as possible as long as they're running the money.
- Mike, the internet must have had an influence on the awareness about your bands, in Japan and elsewhere?
Michael: Yeah, I guess it has. The guy that does my website has been doing it for a few years. To be honest with you, I don't have a lot of contact or influence on my website, it's his project. I'm not really interested in it.
- You did a lot of different styles?
Michael: To me, it's not that different, but people seem to think so.
- On 'Tales From The Bulge' you had a lot equipment and your sound was very big, almost like a keyboard player. Is it the same now or has it changed?
Michael: It probably sounds bigger, but I'm using less gear now. I kind of got into the Bob Bradshaw thing. He's a good friend of mine, and I started doing all that, with guitar racks. And Buzz Feiten and I were the first to have the switcher board and we just got out of control with it.
- The Michael Landau Trio, is that also jazz, like Karizma, how would you describe it?
Michael: A little bit like that, yeah. We did some instrumental songs. It has some elements of that, jazz and... No, it's different from Karizma..
- How did the Rizma 2000 tour come up?
David: Sometimes we get together for a while, sometimes we don't. But this thing was unique, because a year ago, Vinnie was invited to play the House Of Blues for a drum event, so he invited us to play with him so that the four of us got together. Since we were already here, we went out out and did some gigs, because it's so hard to get us all together, with our schedules and everything. So I spoke with Neil who was in Australia and Vinnie who was in New York, and everybody was putting their schedules together.. And we figured out how to do this one little one-week tour. We're also recording it live, just to see what we come up with. It's really nice to be playing every night with the same guys, you know.
- How do you guys feel about celebrity?
Vinnie: You mean celebrities in our own right? Well, we're celebrities among musicians, we're not celebrities on the level of Bryan Adams. And to me, that's ok. I've rubbed shoulders with it for years and you know, I'm interested in playing music. Not because I need to be fed by people or otherwise I'm nothing, know what I mean? There's a whole trap there, a whole psychology.. That's a thing I don't buy into, thank god, I could care less.. I appreciate being appreciated - in earnest - and that people are very happy and that we can all touch people and affect them in a good and positive way. But in terms of feeding off of that and having a really bad vampirical energy, that's a sick need. For me, I could care less. I'm perfectly fine being not known but appreciated. Can't speak for everybody, but that's how I feel..
- How do you feel about it, Michael? Did you have a big dream when you were sixteen to play like Hendrix, or?
Michael: When I was younger, sure. Definitely. Now I think I definately dislike being famous.
- How about you, Neil, how do you feel about being famous?
Neil: I just want to play music and make a decent living. You know, there's a price to pay at the end of the road, and I would rather not pay that price for something that ends up, in the long run, not being worth it.. I'm happy to just be involved with the best music and play on records, and make a decent living. Then I'm fine.
Michael: Yeah, we're in a good place. It's hard enough even to make a living as a musician. If you get to stay in the middle and work with great artists, that's good.
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- You guys do a lot of sessions with other artists, do you feel you sometimes have to compromise, musically and professionally?
Vinnie: You what, it depends on YOU. Some people just don't care and they wanna do the same gig for thirty years, and they're happy, as in 'just give me the check'. Some people want to do different things and create, and they're not happy with that. Everybody has a different creative impulse and if you stay in one place long enough, you could get complacent or you might get restless. I don't know if there's a formula for that. Some people want to be stars and other people just love the music, so there are different motivating factors.
- Is there anyone who comes to mind, that brings something out in you as a musician, that..
Vinnie: It's my personal experience that we bring things out in one another. There's a symbiosis that happens, there's this synergi that happens when we play, and that's part of our chemistry. It's probably due to the way that we all play together and the fact that we know each other and it's a beautiful thing. I can say that we all do that. As far as everybody else is concerned, I'm sure that we all have different experiences.
- I remember a record that you did with Steve Perry. Do you have any memories of that?
Michael: Yeah. That was fun. It was almost like a band. We rehearsed for about a week and then we did everything kind of live. That was a good experience.
- You guys must be playing almost every day, do you still rehearse?
David: Yeah, we rehearse.
Neil: We rehearse during the tour, too. To add more songs..
- Do you still practice, Vinnie?
Vinnie: Yes, I try to stay with the instrument, you know. Sometimes I let it go for a couple of days, but I like to play pretty much every day, so it's just a matter of trying to keep some consistency. I'm not trying to force it, you know, but I love to play.
- Can you still have role models, the way the business is today?
Vinnie: yeah, I think it's important. I think mentors and role models are very important, I respect people like that and I think it is an important part of the process of passing it on, you know..
- Who are the people you look up to?
David: Lots of people. Personally, these guys in this band. Some people ask me who's my favourite keyboard player or what's my favourite song. And that's almost like asking a parent which child you like the best. I have lots and lots of heroes. There's so much new music coming out, that I really like. Now we're playing a lot of the older stuff, but I try to keep an open mind..
- Vinnie, do you do a lot of drum clinics?
No. But over the years I've done them quite a bit..
- But a lot of musicians see you as a role model..
Vinnie: Yes, I've been told that, and I realize that on some level, and I'm very grateful for that. I do clinics very scattered, it's not a primary carreer focus of mine. I sort of do them sparsely when I can. Rather than making a full carreer out of it, some people are out there doing it all the time or just doing a six-month chunk, I've being doing them since the early eighties, a little bit here and a little bit there.
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