CMR
It’s Cafe Mocha. On the line is the Queen of inspirational soul, two-time Grammy Award winner, Anne Nesby. Welcome to Cafe Mocha for the first time ever. Hey! Well, thank you. Hi to you. I’m so excited to be on here with you all. Oh, my goodness. Miss Nesby, this is an honor. We were listening to your new single, and it’s called My Man, and it’s about… loyalty and working things out. Can you talk about it a little bit more? Absolutely. This song, I say it celebrates love and loyalty and truly being seen as we build relationships in our homes and with our families that I believe it leads to stronger communities. So with this project, I wanted to really, emphasize building love relationships. So that’s why we started off with this song, My Man. Is it, is it about your marriage, your relationship and personal stories in there? It’s about my love for my husband and hopefully that it will touch. I always say whatever’s from the heart reaches the heart. So, uh, I wanted to to just put that image out there for whoever this touches, whether it be a man speaking about his woman, his wife or woman, because cooking food and serving it fresh to the table and running the bath water can be his job as well. So I wanted to definitely talk about What goes on in a relationship where you’re truly seen and you don’t have to be asked, you don’t have to ask what’s needed, but being able to see the need and because you love, you do that thing.
Right. You know, you worked with R.L., one of the singers from the group Next. You two have history together. Let’s talk about it. We have… We have history. The group Next, which who are now platinum awards winning artists, living in Minneapolis as young teenagers, they used to rehearse in my home. I used to vocal coach the group before they even became Next. And they would come every other day and they would rehearse in the house.
got to the point where we took them to their first showcase. And all these years passed full circle. Our rail comes back. He said, Auntie, I want to do something good for you. I want to do you a record. And I want to give you a good new sound. So that’s how this project came about. We hadn’t been out there in a while. And he said, Auntie, it’s time for you to be out there. He said, because I can hear you out there now. And as we began to collaborate with this other young producer from Birmingham, Brian Cook, we call him B-flat, who was also phenomenal. I always like to work with young people to give them an opportunity as well to be seen and to appreciate their gift.
So this collaboration was very easy and I’m really excited about the things that we’re doing. I mean, the single, my man sounds so fresh and new and we were listening. I’m like, I was just jamming to it. And so, but you know, it’s been like, what, about 10 years since you’ve been in a studio? About 10 years. I’ve been doing other things. Uh, actually I took a little detour and I started doing film, uh, And also the miniseries, well, not a miniseries, but Queen Sugar on OWN with Ava DuVernay and other wonderful women directors. I absolutely love the opportunity to do that. And it kind of inspired the thought of this song, this project as well, being a woman of a certain age.
And what I did on Queen Sugar, Marrying Prosperous, having a blossoming relationship with people of a certain age to let people know that you can have a beautiful love life in your senior ages and you don’t have to give up and that you can live and be vibrant and have life. I love that. So I do that. Absolutely. I was doing that. And also, the documentary that I did on Cirillo McSween, I executive produced and narrated another one of our beautiful hidden figures, one of the gentlemen that was responsible for being a part of negotiating the Panama Canal treaties. He was also a financial advisor. a powerhouse with Dr. King and Jesse Jackson with Rainbow Push throughout Chicago, one of the first black insurance agents with New York Life, and so many things, so many things he did for the community. And for us as a people, I wanted to share his life story as well. And I also…
stepped away, stepped into the cooking line. I love cooking and nursing my family. A cooking line called Miss Anne’s Soulful Casserole. So we’re doing that too. I’m just doing everything. We love it. What’s the casserole? What’s it called? Miss Anne’s Soulful Casserole. If you like black eyed peas, if you like black eyed peas and cornbread, And a few other things in there. You’re going to love Ms. Anne’s Sofa Casserole.
It’s Cafe Mocha on the line. It’s Cafe Mocha with Lonnie Love, Yo-Yo, and Angelique on the line. Anne Nesby. I mean, she has a new single out called My Man. She also has a new documentary, Cirillo. A Legacy Untold. Now, I want to know, you’re the executive producer of the documentary. What got you involved in the project? One of the young men that works with my team got us involved and really turned us on to Cirillo McSween. He had done a lot of work with New York Life.
And he’d been around and heard his history, and he brought it to our attention. And as we began to work the project, we realized that he was definitely one of the hidden figures, Mr. Justin Cooper, who is the director of the film, of the documentary. And one of my brilliant team workers brought that to our attention, and we went on with that thought. Wow. This is an old history. I mean, you know, this isn’t anything from the 30s or something like that. Why is it hidden? Why was the story lost? Or was it just buried? It was buried like so many of our hidden figures. People haven’t investigated and really talked about people like Cirillo. In fact, Cirillo was also one of the first
African Americans to receive the Golden Arches with McDonald’s after reaching that $3 million point. And he was so involved in the civil rights movement, even working along with Dr. King. So a lot of our history has always swept aside because we don’t talk about it as much or we’re not taught that in school, like we hear so much history. Definitely. Well, the film is debuting in Atlanta. It debuted already. How long before it hits? It debuted in Atlanta. It can be seen now online. Okay. It can be seen now online at Justin Cooper. And you can also go to my website, at Anne Nesby, and I’m on all social media platforms. So it can be viewed there as well. Oh, I am interested. I want to see this. I want to see this movie. Oh, absolutely. It’s Cafe Mocha on the line, the legendary Anne Nesby. She has a new single out, My Man, and a new documentary as well, Cirillo, A Legacy Untold, which you can see online.
I want to move on to another topic, but I did just Google Cirillo McSween. And when I say nothing comes up, the only thing that comes up pretty much is your documentary. So there’s that. That’s why she said he was a hidden figure. Yeah, I know. That’s terrible. And the fact that he is also an alpha. Oh, wow. And very prominent, I should say. Well, see, this is why we have to make sure that we use our platforms. And that’s why we applaud you for doing this and bringing this to our attention. Thank you so much. I want to go back to your acting because you talked about Queen Sugar a little bit, which is probably one of the things that people most remember in recent times about your acting.
Is that something that’s on your calendar? Is that something you have an agent and you’re working hard to pursue, or is it just something for fun? It is definitely something I’m pursuing. I actually love that part of my life, the arts, and to be able to… I’m auditioning now for other films and television. This past two years, I toured with… the Tina Turner musical and played Tina Turner’s grandmother, which was an awesome undertaking. And to learn the deep histories of Tina Turner, someone that I loved and probably incorporated some of the things that I heard her do with her powerful singing voice and realizing what accomplishments she made It opened the doors for people like me to be seen in the music industry, to have a seat at the table where they’re making deals. She was one of our first black women to really step in there and sit at the table to make her deals. So that was an honor for me. And I love theater. I’ve done theater with women.
Dave Halbert, of course, Tyler Perry as well, touring with his very first show. And the bug just got me, so I just turned it around and started auditioning for other films and television. One of my other cherished films, Fighting Temptations, I played the role of Aunt Sally and had the opportunity to work with the beautiful fiancée. and Cooper Gooding and so many others. And my dear friend and sorority, Angie Stone, whom we just lost. Having been there with so many other beautiful artists on that, it kind of gave, I kind of got bitten with the bug at that point. So that’s what inspired me to continue working in film and theater. Well, I’m glad you’re back in music because I remember… you know, you with the sounds of blackness and you talk about that experience at that. I mean, it’s just it’s classic music, timeless music that we still listen to. Can you talk a little bit about being with the sounds of blackness? Absolutely. My my start with sounds of blackness came about. My sister had been with the group about 10 years.
Before I even came to Sounds of Blackness, one of the main lead singer at that time, I came to Sounds of Blackness from a theatrical show with Donald Lawrence. And I initially came in to do theater because, you know, Sounds of Blackness is not only a singing ensemble, but it’s also a theatrical company as well. So the first thing I did with them was the musical, The Night Before Christmas, a musical fantasy show. from which derived Soul Holiday, the song that we play as one of our Christmas anthems and coming in with Sounds of Blackness to do the night before Christmas and touring with that. And from there, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, of course, renowned producers and artists themselves, brought Janice Jackson to the show there in Minneapolis. She was working in the studio.
to just get a break from the monotony of being in a studio every day. And she just loved the group, and they were getting ready to start their label, Perspective Records. That was a division of A&M. And South of Blackness, we were friends with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in that there wasn’t a huge African-American community in Minneapolis. And Sounds of Blackness was doing that Christmas show, and they came and talked with Sounds of Blackness and told them that they wanted to start their label and give God honor. And that’s how the evolution of gospel came about. Sounds of Blackness doing that first project with that first lead single, Optimistic, that I still love so dear. One of my favorites. in that it speaks so much to encouraging and inspiring people to continue on whatever they’re doing and never give up. And me having a Christian background, it was wonderful for me because it allowed me to express myself, my views about how we keep looking up, holding on, and never looking back. And it was just wonderful for me because it gave me the best of both worlds.
Mm-hmm. I still love that song, too. I play it on Cafe Mocha probably too much. All the time. Oh, wonderful. All the time. We love that song. No, we need a song like that. That’s, I mean, we need a song. But you’re also a songwriter. I heard that you wrote songs for, like, Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight. Yes, yes. And I’m telling you, me having an opportunity to write for the legends that I love and, you were inspired by that paved the way for me, Patti LaBelle. By that time, I was a staff writer for Flight Time with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. And Patti was coming in, and they had exercised their option for me as a solo artist. And I began writing for my solo project. And the first lead song that I started out with was Right Kind of Lover.
Oh, my God, brother, big Jim, right. Who’s no longer with us. He was my writing partner and Patty was coming and Terry Lewis said, and I think this will be a great opportunity for you. I know you wrote this for your project, but I think this will be a great song that, and it will give you a great story with your career and, and also provide collateral because you realize that we have to have collateral and invest in ourselves when we’re building our own businesses. So that was how I came about having the opportunity to write for a Patti LaBelle of her status. And I was so honored to work with her. I had worked with her early on, even before I had even worked with Sounds of Blackness, singing background for her.
as I was living in the Chicago area and when she would come to Chicago, sing background for her there and just admired and loved her and her stage presence and watching her and dreaming and just the opportunity to write for her when she came into Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and also the same thing happened for Miss Gladys Knight, the song Home Alone and I was just so honored and enamored and in awe of watching the people work that you’ve admired. And I used to tease my sister and I used to tell her, I’m going to learn all the background stuff because just in case, you know, I get a chance to meet these famous people, I’ll be able to sing background for all of Aretha’s background, all of Patty’s backgrounds, all of Gladys’ backgrounds. And it paid off.
because that was my first meeting with Patty. But the honor of writing for them has been a highlight in my life. And not only that, but I wanted to share one of the great highlights of my life, as they honored Luther so earlier this year. One of the highlights I like to share of my life was being introduced to Miss Aretha Franklin by… luther vandross at the grammys where we won uh the grammy award for optimistic wow and and i was over the moon over the moon do you hear me uh so that was definitely and learning from him and touring with him on the power of love out of the box just off of our first single he saw us on uh jay leno and um
And his people said, Luther said, that’s the group I want to tour with me on the power of love. Nice. So all of those legends, God allowed me to share, to see them and just watch them, watch their work ethic and to be around such greatness. It’s just been a joy in my life. Well, you have been an honor. to us, Ms. Ann Nesby. I mean, you just you’re a legend. You are so talented and you will continue to shine. And we are just so happy to have this conversation with you. Me and Angelica, both of his smiling. I know. It’s like, wow, what a great interview. I love you all too. And Ms. Sheila Eldridge is a part of the beginning of my career and coaching me on my very first days of my career, being there and coaching me. In fact, the very first outing Sounds of Blackness had Ms. Sheila Eldridge and Deanna Williams had us to come and do the I Am Conference there in Philadelphia. So I always say homage to Ms. Sheila Eldridge, and she was right there coaching right along with me and
showing me how to interview Miss Deanna, coaching me along. And I am so honored to be a part of this show and knowing that she has a part of this as well. Well, she good for something, Sheila. She don’t coach us. She don’t coach us about nothing. Well, we love you, Miss Nesbitt. Thank you so much. I love you all, too. Thank you. We’re going to let Sheila know, too. I have an album coming soon. I have an album coming at the beginning of April. Oh, great. Called Miss Anne Anniversary. Oh, we cannot wait. We cannot wait for it. Well, thank you. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to come back and talk to you again then. Oh, you promise. Okay. Come on back. Absolutely. Thank you all so much for your time and what you do as well, because we’re nothing without what you do. God bless you all.
God bless you as well.
