Lee Fields looking forward to Cork Jazz Festival performance

The story of Lee Fields becoming an overnight success after decades of working hard has been told many times, but ahead of his concert at Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, he laughed at how he literally became Lee Fields. “When I first started I was performing under my own name, we were playing a jook joint in North Carolina somewhere, the guy whose club it was asked my name to introduce the band, when I said it was Elmer, he wasn’t impressed, “what! do you have a middle name?” I said, “yeah, Lee” and he said, “that’s it, that’s it!” So from that moment there man, it has been Lee Fields on stage, and Elmer for the business and financial stuff!”

It is fair to say Lee has had a lot of business stuff to look after since he released his first single in 1969. Now 75, he has been at the heart of soul music since he was a teenager, quickly gaining the nickname of ‘Little JB’, because of his physical and vocal resemblance to James Brown. He released ‘Let’s Talk It Over’ – ostensibly his debut album – in 1979, and it was a long wait until 2002 for ‘Problems’, his second album, to be released. Industry shifts and record label changes are mostly to blame for such a long gap in releasing albums, and Lee was guesting on other people’s records and releasing occasional seven-inch singles in the timeframe, but 23 years is a very noticeable gap in anyone’s discography.

Lee looks back on all this without rancour. “I get asked about anniversaries and dates, but I prefer to look at it by how well or how unwell my time was spent, because sometimes we veer off into things that absorb a lot of time, but we end up further from what we really want to achieve. So now I keep a close tab on time and facts and how they affect what I’m doing, because I realise I’m only allotted a certain amount of time and I’m approaching the periphery of my time on this plane. Time is of the essence, and what I now do within this period is very important because I don’t want to waste time. Time is more valuable than anything on this earth, because we leave all of this anyway; we are in a life game. I call it a game because it’s not forever. To me, you have to make the best of that time possible until we move on to the next stage.”

For Lee, deciding to focus on time has made things more straightforward for him. “As an artist, it makes it easier because I realise when I’m wasting my time very quickly now, sometimes it’s the moment something’s brought up, sometimes I can immediately tell that this is a good thing for me. I’m not being selfish when I say ‘for me’, I’m counting all of the people that I’m involved with as ‘for me’. I’m counting my manager, I’m counting my band, I’m counting my wife, I’m counting my future endeavours. Is this going to take us in a negative direction, or is it going to take us in a positive direction? Every slight movement that we make affects the outcome of the future. So I’m very, very careful about the moves that I make, because time is more precious than the money that we get here. Money is temporary, all this stuff is temporary.”

This mindset deeply influences his work ethic as a showman. “Since every move that we make is very precious, I try to calculate things. I know I can’t spend too much time doing one thing, because I need to be focusing on another thing. It’s the same thing with my live shows. When I come out on stage, man, the band and I have been rehearsing all the way up until that moment, because I want to be my best. I know that there are artists like Prince and others that are proving themselves, as far as their work, as greater than me, but I believe that you don’t have to be a superstar to be great, but you do need to be the greatest in your periphery.”

A case in point is how seriously he takes his live shows and connecting to the audience. “It’s like a good conversation, man, if you have a conversation with somebody and you understand exactly what they saying, and they understand what you’re saying, and it’s a pleasant conversation, that conversation will be remembered for an indefinite period of time, both people can remember and reflect on it for the rest of their lives. Like if you see an old friend, and you think about things you did maybe 20 years ago, and all of a sudden, it becomes almost like you relive that moment. So when I sing and I perform for my audience, I try to connect with them, and try to get to that place called Euphoria. It’s impossible to get there, but the fun part is trying to get there. You’re not gonna really get all the way, but as you get happier and happier and happier, and when it’s over, you say, ‘Oh man! That was a good concert!’ to each other. ”

Continuing on that theme, Lee explained what makes it all worthwhile. “The other thing is you can’t get to Euphoria on your own, you have to make it with others. I can think of euphoric ideas in my head, but if I’m in front of an audience and I’m singing, and I can feed that euphoric feeling, and it passes on to the next person and to the next person, all of a sudden, the whole audience and everybody is so happy. It’s about being in a place, in a very content place, and you know that you can’t stay that long, it’s just for a moment. Those moments are worth everything. It’s worth it for me getting on a plane and flying to Cork. It’s worth my rehearsing the band time after time. It’s worth the people, wherever they come from, travelling to the show. Because when they leave the show, they’ll be saying, ‘I feel good’, you know? And it makes all the sacrifices worth it, that’s what it’s all about.”

• Lee Fields & The Expressions play The Cork Opera House on Saturday, October 25, at 6pm, with support from Toshín. Tickets available at www.corkoperahouse.ie