Go with Elmo Lovano

Episode 116: French Montana sits down with Elmo Lovano for what may be the most profound interview of his career. It’s a deep, honest conversation about life, survival, money, faith, collaborations, relationships, and how he makes hits. French takes us from Casablanca, Morocco, to the South Bronx at 13 years old, speaking no English, to becoming the first African-born artist with a Diamond-certified single. He opens up about his mother’s sacrifice, surviving the streets, building Coke Boys from the ground up, and what it really takes to write a hit record. We get into the story behind “Unforgettable” with Swae Lee, his brotherhood with Drake, the records that built his career including “Pop That,” “Stay Schemin’,” “All the Way Up,” “Ain’t Worried About Nothin’” and his reunion with Max B, who came home after 16 years on French’s birthday. Plus his new music with Max and their hit “Ever Since U Left Me (I Went Deaf)”. French also talks about faith, money, fatherhood, writing hooks vs. writing verses, how to get features, his fiancée Sheikha Mahra, and the lessons that kept him going and brought him to where he is today. Hope you love this one as much as we do. Lets go! Go With Elmo Lovano is the #1 music professional podcast, featuring deep, honest conversations with the legends, artists, musicians, producers, songwriters, and industry leaders shaping music today about how they got where they are and how they keep pushing forward. Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year! Big thanks to our friends Moises for supporting the show! If you need stems, they’re the best in the game. Check them out! https://moises.ai/ Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated! Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/ Follow Dwayne: https://www.instagram.com/therock/ Follow Go With Elmo: https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/ https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo https://x.com/gowithelmopod Follow Elmo Lovano: https://Instagram.com/elmolovano https://x.com/elmolovano Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 114: Cindy Blackman Santana Cindy Blackman Santana has had a mind-blowing life journey. Today, she's the drummer and wife of Carlos Santana. Before that, she rode the rocketship of Lenny Kravitz for all the most iconic years. I remember when I first saw Cindy in the "Are You Gonna Go My Way" video and was captivated immediately by her groove, presence, and energy behind the kit. Cindy is deeply dedicated to the drums, and absolutely in love with jazz. What I love about Cindy's story is that she's lived two musical lives most drummers only dream about. She's a serious jazz bandleader with a catalog going back to the late 1980s, and she's a world-class rock drummer who's played the biggest stages on the planet. She never picked a lane. She brought jazz freedom and fire into rock stadiums and has always blown everyone away. We go deep on her hero Tony Williams and what his genius unlocked for her. We talk about her amazing relationship with Art Blakey, who she calls a father figure, and what it meant to learn from the masters in person on the streets and in the clubs of New York City. She tells the story of her friendship with Dennis Chambers, the connection that eventually led her to Carlos. We get into her drumming passion, her practice fire, her ferociousness on the kit, and the philosophies that makes her playing so alive. Cindy has shared the stage and the studio with absolute legends like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Marcus Miller, and so many more, and she's led her own incredible projects along the way. From her Tony Williams tribute album Another Lifetime, to the supergroup Spectrum Road with Jack Bruce and Vernon Reid, to stepping out front as a singer and songwriter on Give the Drummer Some, she's always pushed forward. She studied at Berklee, learned from the lineage of Max Roach and Elvin Jones, and built a career on pure dedication to the instrument. And then there's the love story. They told her and Carlos that a married couple can't play together in the same band, that it wouldn't work. They proved that it absolutely can. Cindy is the rhythmic heartbeat of the Santana band and she holds Carlos's heart, and hearing her talk about their musical and spiritual partnership is something special. This is a conversation about drumming, about jazz and rock, about staying true to your art for decades, about being a trailblazer, and about spirituality and passion. Cindy is amazing. I left this conversation inspired, and I hope you feel the same. Please enjoy my conversation with the great Cindy Blackman Santana. Go With Elmo Lovano is the #1 music professional podcast, featuring deep, honest conversations with the legends, artists, musicians, producers, songwriters, and industry leaders shaping music today about how they got where they are and how they keep pushing forward. Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year! Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated! Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/ Follow Cindy: https://www.instagram.com/cindyblackmansantana/ Follow Go With Elmo: https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/ https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo https://x.com/gowithelmopod Follow Elmo Lovano: https://Instagram.com/elmolovano https://x.com/elmolovano #cindyblackman #cindyblackmansantana #drums #santana Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 112: Stanley Clarke is one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, both on acoustic and electric bass. His long time collaboration with Chick Corea and Return To Forever changed music. His solo albums and the success from it had him as the first bass player to ever take front and center stage. He's a multi GRAMMY winning artist, and one of the greatest living master teachers, as well as being an incredibly sweet and loving human. Stanley is one of a kind. This is the longest and deepest Stanley Clarke interview on the internet, and we're so happy that Stanley chose us for this. Coming up in Philadelphia, how he found the bass, moved to NY and starting gigging with Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, and Chick Corea. We go DEEP on drummers. His work with Tony Williams, Lenny White, Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham, John JR Robinson, etc How Chick talked him out of a classical career, the switch to electric, Romantic Warrior, why it ended, and losing Chick. We talk School Days and being the first bass player to headline his own shows. The Alembic that changed his sound, his solo records, the great George Duke, and how a jazz bass player ended up scoring, meeting a young John Singleton, and writing the music for Boyz N The Hood, Poetic Justice, and over 70 film and TV scores. His new album Last Train To Sanity is INCREDIBLE.  Huge thanks to our friends at DistroKid! DistroKid is the easiest and fastest way to get your music on over 150 platforms worldwide! Go to https://distrokid.com/vip/elmo to get 20% off your first year! Elmo Lovano drinks Intelligentsia coffee because he’s an Iced Angeleno. https://www.intelligentsia.com Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, ad free episodes, and discussions about music and music careers. https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo Stanley Clarke, George Duke - Sweet Baby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6AHjroSkfM Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated! Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/ Follow Stanley: https://www.instagram.com/stanleyclarke/ Follow Go With Elmo: https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/ https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo https://x.com/gowithelmopod Follow Elmo Lovano: https://Instagram.com/elmolovano https://x.com/elmolovano #stanleyclarke #chickcorea #returntoforever #fusion Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 94: Jimmy Jam. Our first live audience interview! Jimmy Jam has lived through every major jump in music technology over the last five decades: drum machines, synths, MIDI, sampling, tape to digital recording, DAWs, and now AI. Together with Terry Lewis, he helped shape entire eras during these transitions, from Prince to Janet, Michael and beyond. Again and again, he showed that technology does not kill music. Musicians adapt, and the music adapts with them. In this conversation, we explore the real history behind the tools that changed everything, the fear curve that always appears during each breakthrough, and what today’s AI moment looks like through the eyes of someone who lived through many of the most important shifts in music technology. If you want to understand where music is going, you have to understand how we got here. Jimmy Jam has one of the clearest perspectives in the world on that journey. We recorded this in front of a sold out audience at the Abundance Institute’s Creative Frontiers event, and I could not imagine a better guest to talk about this moment in music history with. This is an important conversation, let's keep it going. Join us in the comments with your thoughts and questions, and let’s keep learning together. 'Go with Elmo Lovano’ is a weekly podcast where Elmo interviews creatives and entrepreneurs in music on HOW they push forward every day, got where they are in their careers, manage their personal lives, and share lessons learned and their most important insights. Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated! https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, Zoom hangs, invite only events, and discussions about music and music careers. Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/ The Abundance Institute is a mission-driven nonprofit focused on creating space for emerging technologies to grow, thrive, and have a chance to reach their full potential. Abundance hosts Creative Frontiers to bring artists, builders, and policy-influencers together to shape the future of creativity. Subscribe: https://creativefrontier.substack.com/ Website: https://abundance.institute/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abundanceinstitute/ Filmed LIVE at The Recording Club in Santa Monica https://www.therecording.club/ Follow Jimmy Jam: https://www.instagram.com/flytetymejam/ Follow Go With Elmo: https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/ https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo https://x.com/gowithelmopod Follow Elmo Lovano: https://Instagram.com/elmolovano https://x.com/elmolovano Follow Jammcard: https://www.youtube.com/@jammcardhttps://www.instagram.com/jammcard/ jammcard.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 92: Joe Lovano. Joe Lovano is one of the greatest musicians of all time. A Grammy-winning saxophonist who's been on the cover of DownBeat magazine multiple times (as well as many others), a Blue Note Records legend with 25 releases, a Berklee alum, and he holds the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance at Berklee College of Music, which he’s had since 2001. He also happens to be my cousin and one of the biggest inspirations and mentors in my life. This was our first time ever doing something like this together. A 3-hour deep dive interview that covers (nearly) his entire career. We go into our family history, growing up in Cleveland, our Sicilian roots, his father Tony “Big T” Lovano, and how that shaped his sound and spirit. We talk about his time with Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, Charlie Haden, Esperanza Spalding, Michael Brecker, McCoy Tyner, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Hank Jones, Dave Holland, Joshua Redman, Al Foster, and many more. Joe shares lessons from decades of leading bands, developing tone, mentoring young players, and living a full creative life with his wife of 50 years, Judi Silvano. Joe is one of the greatest musicians alive, a music historian, and an incredible educator and mentor. Here is my interview with one of my favorite people, Joe Lovano.The Music Settlement Scholarship Donation: https://www.themusicsettlement.org/donate?utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=a5cff9ca09-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_JoeLovano2025&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1bd2f9c4a7-a5cff9ca09-434756824 ‘Go with Elmo Lovano’ is a weekly podcast where Elmo interviews creatives and entrepreneurs in music on HOW they push forward every day, got where they are in their careers, manage their personal lives, and share lessons learned and their most important insights. Please SUBSCRIBE / FOLLOW this podcast to catch new episodes as soon as they drop! Your likes, comments and shares are much appreciated! https://www.patreon.com/gowithelmo Become a Patreon Member to stay in the loop as we post Patreon-only exclusive content, Zoom hangs, invite only events, and discussions about music and music careers. Listen to the audio form of this podcast wherever you get your podcasts: https://elmolovano.komi.io/ Follow Joe: https://www.instagram.com/joelovanojazz/ Follow Go With Elmo: https://www.instagram.com/gowithelmo/ https://www.tiktok.com/@gowithelmo https://x.com/gowithelmopod Follow Elmo Lovano: https://Instagram.com/elmolovano https://x.com/elmolovano Follow Jammcard: https://www.youtube.com/@jammcard jammcard.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices