Tuesday, Midnight.
West 16th Street, New York.
Another sold-out show by the legendary Roots crew.

“If I can’t say to you, ‘Come see this, this is gonna be incredible,’ my name won’t be on it,” says concert producer Jill Newman. Her name is proudly affixed to this bill, and her advice is well heeded: A thick line of hippies, hipsters, and hip-hoppers jam every inch of concrete between the Highline Ballroom and 9th Avenue. The Roots have just returned from London, where they played another Newman-produced show with David Murray and Ornette Coleman at Coleman’s Meltdown festival, and their Jam on this evening will include guest spots from Bilal and Styles P, among maybe 20 others. After a long day of recuperation from the show, which ended a shade after 3am, Newman and I met at her midtown office to discuss destroying genres and putting on bad-ass shows.

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Crawdaddy!: Could you tell me about the new “The Roots Present The Jam” concept?

Jill Newman: When the Roots signed on to do [Late Night with Jimmy Fallon] and they were gonna be in New York, live in New York, I said, “Wow, it would be great to do a weekly concert with them, let me approach [them].” They loved the idea of doing a weekly concert and developed it into a jam concept, so it’d be the Roots […] and then special invited guests each week. Both the Roots and myself contribute to the guests, [though] Questlove and the Roots always have the final say. We’ve only been going since March, so this is a rather new project to us. And as of now, we’ll be going through December ’09, weekly. The other part of the concept is it’s a $10 ticket, which sort of gives back music to New York. I mean, it’s totally affordable for pretty much anyone. In doing so, the Roots and myself are giving the gift of music, because obviously, if it’s a $10 ticket, there’s not much budget [behind] it.

Crawdaddy!: I think I counted 30 performers that came across the stage last night.

Newman: And probably, sometimes there have been 45, and sometimes less because people do longer pieces. We invite guests, and different artists show up each week, and Ahmir [Thompson, aka “Questlove”] works out, in his brilliance, who works with who on what song. And also the Roots’ manager, Richard Nichols, who has been their manager since the beginning, also contributes to that. It’s a really wonderful collaboration we have going, and, most of all, we have a lot of fun.

Crawdaddy!: Could you talk about setting up the Mos Def/Gil Scott-Heron collaboration?

Newman: Mos Def and I started working together on his acoustic show six years ago. We started it at the Blue Note jazz club in New York with [a] five- or six-piece [band]. Mos loves Gil’s music and has always done some of his music, so when I had the opportunity to produce Mos Def for JVC Jazz [Festival] at the great Carnegie Hall, which I had been pushing for three years to do, and needed a special guest, that was definitely my idea: Two generations of artists who are both very much geniuses in their own right. I felt that the collaboration, their ideas together, on stage would be something to be remembered forever. And it was. It turned out that was the last JVC Jazz in New York, so that makes it even more historic than I realized at the time. Actually, it was one of my dreams come true to have Mos Def and Gil Scott-Heron collaborate, and to make it happen in that form, that context, that hall, was really an amazing experience. There was nothing about music barriers. There were people who were in their 80s there, who thought they didn’t like hip-hop, who thought that was one of the most brilliant concerts they’ve ever seen.

Crawdaddy!: I was wondering about working with Gil Scott-Heron and working with Sly Stone—these are two gentleman who have sometimes had trouble making it to the stage. Is there a certain risk to producing a show with that type of talent?

Newman: Yes, well, last year at Carnegie Hall there was no risk with Gil Scott-Heron. I knew he was great and would be there. He was at rehearsal with us all week; it was fine. No, there was absolutely no risk. Sly Stone on the other—lemme just say one thing: I’m not an executive producer, so I’m producing with other people’s funds. I’m not the person putting out the money to produce. I’m the creative producer. But yes, there is risk because if things don’t go well, in the end, no matter what, though you’re not responsible for what an artist does or doesn’t do, I’m always the one that would be somewhat at fault. So it is a risk. But for me, when it’s a matter of having the opportunity to work with legends and greats I’ve admired my whole life—Sly Stone, Gil Scott-Heron—it’s not even a question. So when I had the opportunity to bring Sly Stone back to New York after 35 years, it was really a no-brainer. There were risks and it was a little problematic, but it was four incredible concerts. I just think to bring him back after all this time and have an opportunity for people who had never seen him live, to be able to do that was fantastic and worth any risk. [Sly Stone] remains an innovator and a genius, and I hope to, at some point, work with him again. We’re actually in discussion about some future events.

Crawdaddy!: How did the opportunity to work with Sly Stone come to you? Or did you find it?