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BiTS: If I had a list of all of the people I've spoken to who've told me exactly the same

story, they sit down to practise, and end up writing a song, I would be a rich man if I
could sell them.

MD: [Laughs] Yeah, it's true. It's true. I mean, like, because I'm like scared to like,

even pick up the guitar sometimes because it's like I'm writing a song and then it's
going to be two hours later because I'm going to have to put the bass line on there.
I’m going to have to come up with a little keyboard chord and then work out my solo.

I’m going to write some words, I'm like, oh, this is supposed to be a ten or 15-minute
rehearsal. It's been two hours. I just wrote a whole song.

BiTS: [Laughs] Do you get your musicians to work off charts, or is it pretty much

free flowing?

MD: Well, my keyboard player, he's classically trained, Vince Varco, my co-producer.
So for him I can just give him the score, or I can just give him the chords and tell him

what feel I want. Now my drummer, he just listens to it. He listens to it for like 30
seconds. He says, okay, hit record. Let's go. He knows exactly what to do. We've been

playing together so long, me and my drummer Casper, my nephew, we instantly lock
together. It's like when we play live, it's like if I'm getting ready to go [singing], he's
right with me [singing]. Like we can anticipate where we’re going. And it's like the
“Empty Chair”, CD, the EP, the drummer, he did all

his tracks in like 30 minutes.

BiTS: Really?

MD: Yes, he did all his stuff in one day.

BiTS: Terrific. Absolutely terrific. Now listen, over
the years you've played for, or played with, dozens

and dozens of fabulous musicians from KoKo Taylor
to Nellie Tiger Travis and Buddy Guy. Has there
been a gig that you've done that has been absolutely
outstanding for you, when you've thought what on

Earth am I doing here? This is wonderful.

MD: Oh, absolutely. I did a tour with Dorothy Donegan. Have you heard of her?

BiTS: I have, yes.

MD: Dorothy Donegan, she's a jazz piano prodigy. She's phenomenal. They called her
the female Art Tatum. She took me to the Netherlands when I was 24 years old. And

those theatres and the stages, and the way she played, it just totally changed me. It
just totally changed my life, my approach to playing. Because I was green back then
and she would end her shows with a boogie woogie [singing]. Really fast and she's

playing all these jazz, bluesy, bebop licks and so all I could do was play B.B. King
[singing]. I couldn't get in there. So after that, that's when I really started shredding
and then when I was at Berkeley, I used to practise sometimes three or four hours a