Lawrence El (Mint Condition) Stays Humble and Reunites with His Brothers and His Mentors

 

This interview originally aired on The Afternoon Cruise on 09/08/25

READ THE COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

 

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

It’s the Afternoon Cruise. I’m chatting with Lawrence L, the celebrated keyboardist and songwriter from Mint Condition, who’s assembled a legendary cast of musicians to celebrate one of Lawrence L’s most celebrated contributions to the world, mint condition, the mintroludes. Lawrence L, welcome to jazz 88 and what a distinct honor to have you in our studios.

 

Lawrence El 

My goodness. Thank you for having me.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

So let’s be clear. This is happening on Monday, next Monday, over at Icehouse, and you got a show with 5pm doors for The early Show, and a show with 930 doors for the late Show. This is not a full on mint condition reunion. You’re not getting up there and playing the hits, but mint conditions legacy looms large, and your contributions loom large, including these mentorludes, which on record are like a minute long. I’m thinking about things like definition of a band the mintroludes like by a de February. Did I get that devotion Asher and Rio? These are some beautiful sound and tunes they’re gonna turn into full on songs. So tell me a little bit about how they came to be in the studio, and tell me about how you’re going to flesh them out for this performance at Icehouse one week from today.

 

Lawrence El 

Yeah, they, they came about generally because we were playing everything we do as men, condition we, when we when we began. We played anything from straight alternative to just R and B. Gospel isn’t everything was in there. The record company said to us, look, what do we do with this? There’s no like, You got to give us a direction. We don’t have. We don’t know, pick a lane, you know. So we said, you know, okay. And their version of a lane was R&B. It was like, this is Black music. This is where you all belong. And we’re like, yeah, we do belong there. That’s our music. But all of this is us too. We’re not going to get rid of it. We will put it on as interludes to get that out of our system and give people a true what would I say meant experience and and then, you know, take it from there. And if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. So it’s been working. So we go around and fans were saying, Hey, when are y’all gonna do those? Man, we’re gonna do them full length, man, we just get a sample of the interludes. Okay, you know, this is the answer. This is their answer. After all these years, this the answer we’re going to do the the interludes, or we say mintroludes.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

And this is a beautiful example of how a group that is bona fide stars in a lane, we love R&B. Music is beautiful. This is incredible, but those mentorludes gave a lot of texture to the international experience of Black music, exactly. I heard a lot of Brazilian stuff. I heard of Latin stuff. I was a frequent sitter right near when y’all would play at Babalu. Was that Babalu?

 

Lawrence El 

Exactly. You you might find some Babalu nostalgia in there. At some point I thought about that. I said, you know, we have to include something. We did it Babalu, so you never know it may be there.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

This is an example of how wide open your ears are, and also how much a lot of the genres are just for label people, right? This is just beautiful music, beautiful black music. I don’t even want to say Black American music, because you’re pulling from so many parts of the diaspora, and y’all have traveled a lot internationally. Exactly did bringing those type of sounds help you get over if you’re performing in the Caribbean, if you’re performing in Brazil, if you’re performing in Africa,

 

Lawrence El 

yeah, if we were playing on the same show, on the same bill, with someone who was say, like you say from Brazil, they would be into it. Sometimes we have, I remember, we were on the show with Alicia Keys, and she had kind of a Latin section with her, and they ended up coming over to play with us too, because they heard the, I think we did a sound check, and they were like, well, we can do both these things. So that was, that was how we you know, we ran that way. It was, it was always our ears are open. I personally love music all over the place. So if you say flamenco, if you say, you know, Afro beat, Afro beats, you know, we just it’s all part of our the real interest that we have, because we’re not thinking about it generically. We don’t really just want to play like, let’s play something alternative, but it sounds generic, like we really love the musics that we’re doing, and so we try to be authentic about it. You know, with our presentation,

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

I’m chatting with Lawrence El, who’s getting ready to celebrate with the interludes, playing a lot of these minute long interludes from in condition records, but fleshing them out into full songs. And I’m not surprised to report that it’s nationalism be Lawrence l up there with a drum machine. You have a significant cast of people who are involved with these shows, which are happening one week from today at Ice House on Monday. Stokely is going to be there. Cory Henry is going to be there. He’s in town playing. Selby Avenue Jazz Fest that weekend, we’ll talk about that. Odell, Ricky Kinchen, Jeffrey Allen, Kerry Lewis, David ginyard, Jr, yes. Kavyesh Kaviraj, Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave and then here’s the real evil part about the press release you and your team put out. You put all these high power guests, and then you say and special surprise guests who could be more surprising than that list of people I

 

Lawrence El 

I got you, I got you, yeah, we’ll still have others that might slip in, you know, in the door on you.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

Let’s talk a little bit about some of the folks who are coming. And especially, I know you also do a lot of work with Walker West, who is instrumental in putting on the Selby Avenue Jazz Fest. Cory Henry is doing a clinic the day before. Am I right about that?

 

Lawrence El 

That’s right. He’ll do a master class at Walker West, 850, Marshall, and I think it’s at capacity now, so you may not be able to get in now, but you never know. Maybe you can work something out. But he’ll probably present on keyboards and organ, which is a treat, you know, for all the church folks around here, it’s so everyone’s excited about that. We’ll also have Q million, which is Keith Lewis, Keri Lewis’s brother, who’s, you know, Keri Lewis from Mint Condition. He Keith is, and I’m going to say Q million. I want to get that wrong. I just know him personally. But he’s, uh, he’s the engineer for Robert Glasper. And so he’s also going to present a master class there at Walker West. And then we have the Selby Jazz Fest there, which is on the Saturday, pretty much all day. Cory Henry. Henry will headline at, I think it’s seven or 730 somewhere in there, you can, you can look it up, check it out. But be there, because that’s always a great celebration. So it’s going to be an incredible weekend.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

Lawrence, do you have moments where you pinch yourself and go, I’m playing with the cream of the crop of music. You deserve to be there. You’ve been there for decades, and you just go, I mean, it’s, it’s like part of me wants to go. How does it feel to be just a kid from St Paul where this has happened, and then also go, you worked very hard, and this is a very fertile place for legends like you to come from. But do you ever just wake up and go, it happened? I’m in the company of the greats of this music, shoulder to shoulder playing things I’ve written, like, if I woke up being you, I’d be pretty darn excited,

 

Lawrence El 

no, and I’ve never really, I’ve always been behind the the trend or behind the hype. You know, I’ve never really, I’m not that much of a hype kind of person. I just think, you know, we’re, we’re very fortunate to do what we love to do, and it is very fortunate to have all these folks who are really great musicians to to play along. And they are my inspiration. They are my mentors. Now, I always say it used to be that my my influences and mentors were all older. I’m thinking Herbie Hancock and all these guys now, they’re all younger. You know, it’s like all the young folks, you know, the young people are just killing it and doing new things that just tweaking my ears in so many ways.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

It’s, it’s an incredible thing. And I’m not surprised by your humility, and I’m not surprised by the fact that you are willing to learn from people younger than you, which there’s a lot of people who just have too much pride to do that. They won’t, they won’t check out what the younger generation is doing. But I’m not surprised, given your disposition and your spirit that that’s something you’re doing. I’m glad that you are of that mindset of this is just an honor. Let’s play this music. We are so lucky. I wish that mainstream Twin Cities media could do a little more to go just so everybody knows there is, like an absolutely legendary American music story in the Twin Cities. And at times that recognition has happened. And at times I go, why aren’t we celebrating this more? And when I got the email, the press release from Jeff about this show, I was just going, this is incredible. Because to me, this gets to what is one of the most important things about mint condition, which is the musicianship, the songwriting matters, the presentation matters, but y’all wrote, y’all played all the instruments at a time when that was a rarity. It still is a rarity, especially in the world of R and B. You guys fought against the grain to tell your story as musicians. And how does it feel now to be able to celebrate that story with the great musicians of the next generation.

 

Lawrence El 

Oh, my goodness. I mean, we get I’m always humbled because the young someone who I think is an incredible musician, that I think can play circles around me is like, Oh man, your stuff, I’ve I learned how to play from listening to you and transcribing you all’s work, and it’s like, what you got to be kidding? So I think it’s just wonderful. And even on our set, I mean, what I have for the group we have, like, I said, Kavyesh Kaviraj, who’s an incredible player, and he’s a very young dude. He fills the room on his own. So I’m just, again, privileged to have him.  Privileged to have all the guys, because each of the guys on their own. Do you know, they have their own legacy individually, even as we have that is meant and of course, Cory, you know, what can you say?

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

I had L.A. Buckner in the studios now going back maybe two plus years, and I asked if you’re getting together with a group of musicians of your generation. Ellie Buckner is probably early 30s, mid 30s, I guess I think early 30s. I said, What’s a band that you know you’re going to have a shared understanding of and an ability to grab onto something and make that connection? He was a main condition. There’s no question. And this is not a unique Twin Cities thing. If I’m on a session in LA if I’m in Houston, if I’m in New York, this is one of those things where the players of this generation studied what y’all did, and it’s in their DNA of what they do. I don’t have questions, Larry, I’m just buttering you. Thank you, man. We’re talking about this show, though, two shows actually at Ice House on Monday, and this is a big opportunity to see the greats in a small room. Ice House is intimate, and I’m sure we’ve both played in smaller rooms than that, but we’ve played significantly large rooms. What makes you excited about being able to celebrate this music in a really intimate setting?

 

Lawrence El 

We thought about, or I thought about the Dakota and in those kinds of places. And years ago, Oakley and Jeff and I played in a group called Joto, and we played at a place called Babalu. And I would see the guys from the Dakota, because they would always come to Babalu after their set. So we’d see Terence Blanchard or something. They played every every time I watched those guys at the Dakota, I never saw them smile, because they are so like everyone is listening so intensely, and I got to get it right, you know. I can’t be making mistakes. I can’t take too many risks, you know. They come to Babalu and it’s all smiles, you know. And it’s all because that smaller setting that gives you the opportunity to just go for it, you know, and try some new things. We had such fun doing it that way that I wanted to have that same kind of atmosphere and in that same kind of inspiration. So folks could, you know, there’s some people standing it’s like, not this kind of thing where folks are just in judgment of the music. They’re more like they’re celebrating with us. They’re part of the music. I want it to be really a kind of feedback loop.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

I’ve been chatting with Lawrence l who’s getting ready to celebrate the Mintroludes with two performances at ice house one week from today. First shows, 5pm doors. Second show is 930 doors. You took a lot of notes before we started talking, Lawrence, and I want to make sure we’ve covered everything you want to cover in this conversation, because, listen, you’re you’re behind the scenes, dude, I don’t know the next time I’ll get you in front of a microphone. So other things you want to mention, other things you want to talk about, my

 

Lawrence El 

friend, I just wanted to make sure I salute my bros and let you know what everyone’s doing. Odell has been out with Paul Peterson, funk, all stars, NPG,, part of Mike Bland’s new revelations. Yeah, same with Rick, a part of that same group, and he’s got a new album, Truth behind the Lines. And then, of course, core Stoke has his single rare. Now that’s out, and I just say it’s a hot local single this week on jazz88 Look at that. Look at that. And so stay tuned. New Project for him at about the beginning of the year,

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

So beautiful that you spent so long with these people, who I know are brothers to you, and you can still say, Oh, I got a minute on the radio. I’m going to shout them out

 

Lawrence El 

absolutely, these guys again. They’re my main we you know, as I said, the younger people are my my influences, but my main influences are these guys, I learned the most from them, regardless of who I’ve listened to and all of that, it’s in rehearsals and on the shows where I’ve learned how to be a really great musician and be able to listen to what they’re doing and feed off of it, and have that really beautiful energy that we that magic that We had on stage, and so to have them individually, because they’re really coming to support me. It’s not a mint condition per se piece. They’re coming in to say, hey, let’s just be here for you. You want everybody, Chris and everybody to come up, and we’re just here for you. And then now it’s become bigger than all of us, so we’re ready to roll.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

What’ s the number one Mintrolude you’re looking forward to counting off and playing?

 

Lawrence El 

Ooh, the number one, I would say, probably something like My High something like that. You know, Belle Dave febrero, as you mentioned, yeah.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

Very, very cool. Yeah, I appreciate you. Lawrence L, good luck with the shows. I’ll be at the late show that evening, and congratulations on just wonderful success and really circling back and bringing back all your great brothers and friends to perform this music. We appreciate you. Y’all are legends, and I’m so thankful you took time to chat with jazz 88

 

Lawrence El 

Oh, appreciate you so much.

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