Jascat Songwriter-producer who performed at the Park Student Union last night

Jazz singer loves Al Green, being Italian, and busting out with hip-hop beats

Wildcat: My name's Nathan, and you're on the spot. What was that you were playing? "Let's Get Together"?

Jascat:: "Let's Get Together." Al Green

Wildcat: That's cool. Al Green's cool. I like him.

Jascat:: Right on. Right on.

Wildcat: What's that one song? (Wildcat sings) "I'm so tired of bein' alone ... "

Jascat:: Yeah, yeah! See? See?

Wildcat: That's what I'm about.

Jascat:: Yeah, hell yeah man. That's all day, dude. Al Green's my favorite singer. He's my inspiration, just the way he gets stuff, man. He's raw.

Wildcat: What about Stevie Wonder?

Jascat:: Oh. There's another good one. Bad, bad.

Wildcat: So you're like a soul man, like in a ... are you white?

Jascat:: Italian.

Wildcat: You're a soul man in an Italian body.

Jascat:: Yeah man. Definitely.

Wildcat: So you be whacking the keyboards?

Jascat:: Killin' it, killin' it.

Wildcat: So have you produced anyone famous at all, 'cause you're a producer?

Jascat:: Oh nah, nah. It's not like that. My buddy just opened All City Records down on Sixth Ave. It's a hip-hop store, so we're doing studio out of there. What we do is, kids can come in to record beats and they can leave with their CD that day.

Wildcat: Do you break dance at all?

Jascat:: Nah. I just make the beats man. I've been in and out of hip-hop all my life.

Wildcat: What's going on when you hit those high Al Green notes? What do you do with your voice?

Jascat:: Falsetto, man. I just throw it up there. Like I said, it comes out how it comes out.

Wildcat: Do you do that falsetto 'cause it's an Italian word or something? Is "falsetto" an Italian word or am I messed up?

Jascat:: It might ... I think it's based in Latin but I -

Wildcat: "Hey Sonny. Hit that falsetto note, huh." You know what I'm sayin'?

öö Interview by Nathan Tafoya