You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The Ultimate Stank Face Challenge

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

Jazz pianists Adam Maness and Peter Martin take turns playing each other songs, and the goal is to get the biggest involuntary reaction out of the other guy. Along the way, they break down what's actually happening in the music. In a final round, they have to sit through their opponent's pick without cracking. Who gets the best reactions? You decide. Share your verdict in the comments.-------------------------------Learn to play Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean". Join the You'll Hear It Players Club: https://yhi.link/the_ocean-------------------------------Learn to talk like a jazz musician. Download the Liner Notes FREE today: https://yhi.link/linerNotes-3-------------------------------Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs:https://openstudiojazz.com/-------------------------------📞 Send us a message: https://youllhearit.com/------------------------------About You'll Hear It:Jazz pianists Adam Maness and Peter Martin unpack popular albums track-by-track in this weekly listening party. They talk about what their trained ears hear in the music, offering audiences a new window into the records they love.------------------------------00:00 Rules of Engagement00:44 Round 105:59 Round 210:01 Round 316:08 Round 420:28 Round 525:00 Round 633:51 Bonus: The Poker Face Round36:50 Encore

Wait a second, man. What do you think the teacher's going to look like this here? I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to The You'll Hear It Podcast. Music Explored. Explored, Peter. Today we're going to play a very fun game.

I'm excited. It's called the Stank Face Showdown, Peter, and here's how it's going to go. We're going to do six rounds where we're going to alternate playing songs for each other, trying to get the biggest stank face reaction, which is like a, ooh, out of the other person. Right. Well, it could be a, ooh, or a... Let's do one at the end where we try not to get Stan case of...

Okay, I have one that I think I could pull up that I think would be perfect. Okay, cool. Let's flip to see who goes first. Okay, where'd you find that? Sam's car. Okay, call it in the air, ready? Okay.

Heads. Tails, I go first. Okay, dodge the bullet. Now, I went with a strategy of a genre that I don't think you know a lot about. You definitely have heard the first three that I'm going to do, the bands at least. But I don't think you maybe have, like, jammed out to these songs a lot.

And I'm not going to say what they are. I'm figuring jammed. So jam band is the genre. It's a lot of fish. No, no. I don't think we should tell each other what they are. No. Until some stank face is very good.

So here's my first pick. Oh. Seven and a half? I forgot to control myself. I like it. I feel like that was some good stank face. I did. I totally forgot to, like, I like it.

Do you know who that is? No. That's Led Zeppelin. that's the ocean. Okay. Yeah. So how, the genre, what would we, what we call that genre? I mean, that's hard rock.

Hard rock. Classic rock at this point, I guess you could say if you were a radio station, but that's definitely like hard rock. Boomer rock? Well, they were, they were definitely baby rumors, yeah. But Led Zepp in one of the greatest bands of all time. And that. Is that bad? I didn't know that.

Yeah, here's my, here's my general philosophy for this. Because like, I thought about like, okay, we could go Prague rock or like fusion, which maybe you did because there's a lot of like natural. Like if I were to pick like dirty loops, right? There's a nod of like, ooh, like chord things or whatever. But that's not what Peter Martin loves, actually. Peter Martin likes a thick, solid, dirty groove. And I think that Zep, you know, John Bonham on the drums.

That's the nether drum got me first. Exactly. Huge drum sound, riff-based. That's my strategy from here on out. Got it. Okay, that was good. That was good. So do you get a point for that?

Are we scoring? I think the audience should score each round. Okay, got it. So I'm going to, I didn't have. everything in order, but I want to try something because I want to sort of contrast with where you're starting here. I don't have just one genre, although I have this first genre. I do have several of those in here, so we'll see how that's going to play out. And you may have heard this, so I wasn't focusing necessarily on that. But I do feel like, well, let's just play it and see

where we go with. Okay, okay. Do I know this? Okay. Okay. You know I'm such a sucker for the strings, Peter. You know what? Is this Turtle Island? No. Close, though. It is a quartet.

String quartet. You might know this composition. No, that's very close, though. I like. There's something coming up here, I think. Okay. You might be in German. Ah.

My little improv. We don't always love it on the violin, but maybe. Who is this? Okay. So this is quartet. quartet Abene, a French quartet that's actually been around for a while. They're relatively young, beautiful quartet. They did this record called The Jazz Album, not the most...

Yeah. But this is Dienda written by Kenny Kirkland. That's where you might have... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which he wrote back in the, I think, early 90s, maybe even the late 80s. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great Kenny Kirk... It's such an offbeat...

Actually, the name of the record is Milestones. They do a great version of Milestones on here. But they have... They're a fantastic quartet. I mean, they've covered, you know, late Beethoven. and Mozart, a bunch of great things. I think incredible players. It's funny.

Improvisors, you know. This is a fun game. Your strategy and my strategy is totally different, but I think equally effective. Yeah. I knew the strings and the, I mean, it combines a bunch of things that you love. Okay.

I've got one that I'm sure you've heard this before just because of how old you are, but I don't know if you've ever really took the time to appreciate it. And I think it's kind of right up your alley. Oh, this? It's going to be obvious in a second. Double bass stone.

Look at it. The lips going up. There it is. Wait for it. Wait for it. Take this out. McCoy, Tyner. It is a little more for you. You know who this is? No.

Come on, man. It's on the tip of my tongue. You know it. Give me a choice. Give me multiple choice. Is it ACDZ? No. Is it Journey? No.

Rush? Rush. No. Virtuosic guitarist played on Michael Jackson's album. Oh, Van Haler. Yeah. As soon as he came in, I thought that, but then I was like, I thought I knew most of this. It's hot for teacher by Van Halen.

Isn't that great? That intro is. I did think. I should have just said Van Halen, but I don't want to, I mean, it's, I'm not an expert in this air, so I didn't want to sound ignorant. I should just go with one. I should just blurt it out. I got you on a couple things. That diminished thing.

Yeah. Like on a huge rock hit is crazy. Right. Ding, think. Yeah, yeah. That's cool. All right, what's your round two picks? Okay, so I'm going to change up my order here

because I want to react to that. That was a lot of technique, a lot of chops, right? So we're going to go the opposite here. Very simple and beautiful. Tell me what you think. What is this happening? Oh, good pull of Peter. You're like left hand and right hand chops?

Broken minor third? It's the intro to Mad Men. Have you heard this before? Have you played this before? I'm sure I have. There's no way I can play this. I'm sure I've heard it. What is it?

Okay, so this is Chopin's Aitud, Opus 25 number 11, known as the winter. Yeah, I have tried to play this, actually, and I failed miserably at it. It's massively difficult. The Chopin Aitudes are horrible to try. They're great, but like, I can do a little bit of the first one, the big arpeggio one.

And C. Yeah. You have those big stretches, those ninth and 10 stretches on your right hand, but I can't. do anything else. Yeah. But I will say this. I used to play it.

It's not, I didn't play it like this. This is Maurizio Polini, RIP, who we just lost. The great, Maurizio Polini. He recorded this several times. It's partly because it's in A minor. Yeah, his nocturns, his Chopin. Oh, so great. It's not that, I mean, it's very hard, but it's not as hard as it sounds, surprisingly.

Which is, I think all the Chopin Aitudes are like that in a way. I mean, they're difficult, but they're so well written, you know. Chopin, lots of stank face. A lot of stank face. A lot of stank face. And everything. his little, even in those really beautiful nocturns, he's got those little,

those little like, these little runs that just like pull your... All hard melchers. All right, good pull. Okay, round three. Okay. And please put in the comments, who's winning each round? I've got like 12 tunes, by the way. I'm going to pick. As long as you want to go. We're going to do six rounds with that

seventh bonus. Okay. I'm going to stick with the rock theme because I think I've had two successful ones so far. And this is a little more modern and I want to know... I'm curious to see if you've ever heard this before. Red Hot Chili Pepper No? I see where you would say that

Same era Ooh A drummer is killing The whole band is going Yeah Man I I remember this period

They're killing Damn We got him We got him Man I have so much To explore with this Some of those that work forces Are the same

That burn crosses Some of those The work forces Are the same The burn crosses Can you get who this is, their name as much as you can hear some

against the man political message here. Their name very much is characterized by that. I have no idea. I know what you're going to say and I'm going to be like, yeah. It's rage against the machine. Right. See, I don't know them at all, but whatever I've heard

I'm like, okay, I need to. Now you do what they told you. Yeah, do you like groove? Do you like riffs? Yeah. Hells you. Now you do what they told you. Man, I love the way, too.

They're like, Nothing's been quantized or lined up at all. But it's grooving. Look at your face. Oh, man. Like, that could have easily been like, pop-ha-b-b-b-ha-ha. Damn, I miss that kind of.

That's some power. It's really, really great. Okay. I feel like that. Oh, that was good about that. Good. Raging against the machine. Okay, I need to get with the program. Okay, this, I got a little something for you. This, I'm sure you've heard.

Wait, do I go with one? No, okay, I'm going to do something. I'm not going to go there yet. But where I am going to go. It's good watching the strategy unfold. 219. Hold on. Okay, he's going. He's going. You're going for a specific spot. Yeah, I want it. Because this is a long track, but there's a couple of things. Like, I think that you're going to like, I know you're going to like this.

I don't think you're going to know it. But I think if you're trying to resist. dis-stained face, it's going to be hard. And then you might for a while, but then I'm excited. Because I think I know right when you're going to fall apart. Okay, okay. You're going to know this song. This is the second chorus.

I get the sweetest thoughts when me... Who is that? Things of life and times go on. Nice. Oh, I tried hard to forget it. You know this song? You know what your hand is. I recognize what I have a feeling it's been tweaked a little bit.

Yeah, Montreal, Canada. And tell you what I feel about you. Okay, okay. I never want to live. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know the singer, but now. Who is that? You'd be a little hit.

St. Louis. Sanborn. Yeah, okay. I got it. That's great. This track is. What is that? The hint for the vocalist,

you definitely know her. She has a big St. Louis connection as well, but she's not from here. But her father is. That's Lela Hathaway. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is Chris Mendoki,

who's a bass player. This came out like in the mid-2000s on Blue Note. He had a record called a Jazz Life, and he had a bunch of people on it. But yeah, it's David Sanborn, Lela Hathaway. And that's, what is it, Gino Vinelli's?

Yeah. Composition. I love Ginovinelli. We don't talk about Gino. Yeah. Yeah. Great writer. Great writer.

Hey, what's up, everyone? Adam just budding in here for a second to let you know that for this episode, I recorded a lesson for beginners to the piano on how to play Led Zeppelin's The Ocean. That's right. One of the most groven tunes of all time. And you're going to learn how to do it. Even if you've never played piano before, I'm going to get you playing Led Zeppelin's the ocean by the end of this lesson.

I promise. It's a great time. It's such a fun song to play. So join me at the Players Club. Click the link in the description to learn more. All right, back to the episode. Good. Okay, that was a great round three.

Again, put in the description or put in the comments. Put in the description. Don't mess with our description. All right, I'm going to pivot because of your pivot. That made me think. Okay, I'm going to do, I think you really love the genre I'm about to play. Okay. But I would almost guarantee you've never heard this song

and probably have never heard this band. and I'm not going to say anything more. Okay. This is my stuff right here. I don't know what, but. Yeah, I know you're a picture that creates a scene of the destiny that controls my feet. Yeah, I knew, I know you're a sucker for that East Coast, sampled hip-hop, early 90s. This is from 1990.

Yeah. Obviously sampling, stealing dance, green earrings. Yeah. Wait, who's this? Organized confusion, confusion with a K. I don't know. So Farramanche is one of the, it's a duo. Faramanch is one of the guys on there.

And that's how I actually discovered Faramach first and then went back through all of his discography and found these guys when I was young. And I love that. There's two albums that I just can't get enough. And this is one. It's called Walk Into the Sun by Organized. Okay, I need that. You know what's going to do?

We're going to organize a playlist. And we're going to put in the description of all these. Every track. Every track on those organized confusion albums is just like packed with your, with like samples of our favorite. music. Okay. It's so good. It's so good. So, what this is? Round four? Round four. Okay. So now we're going to move into something that I know you know this artist.

Okay. So I'm going to say it. Stevie Wonder. Know them, love him. Okay. And I know you know this. Interesting pull. You're going to pull some Stevie. Okay. Well, I wanted to do this and I was like, there's not going to be any, even if I could find a track. I could find a track that you probably hadn't heard, but you're instantly going to know it's Stevie. So I decided to go the other way because I'm like, stank face, it comes in so many different ways. But I think this is a little bit less obvious of a stank face and there's several levels to it. And I think there's one part of it

that I want to see if you stank face that kind of has something to do with Stevie but not in the particular way. But just be natural. Okay. Yeah, okay. Love this song. Oh, man.

We just talked about this one. There's so many levels of stank. That's the first one. Is this from fulfilling this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we just, yeah, we just, yeah, we, this is going to be on the show soon. With that drum fill,

can you play the drum fill, please? Oh, absolutely, please. I'm here all day. Damn. And actually, what I started was, and I'll play a little bit of this next, is his harmonical solo. This is not his most famous one,

but this is the one that, to me, man, his vibe on it, is just... But this is the definition of staying face, the drum fill that starts the verse. It's like, what the fuck is going on? How did he think of that? Let me go up to. the Harvotica soul. Okay, okay, okay, that's so good.

There's so many moments. I mean, Stevie's just a stanky, stank face, an artist, you know, probably more than anybody. Oh, no, sorry, I've got a little bit. It's a great soul. Ah. It's one of the perfect soul.

When he comes back to? Yeah, so that's just, you know, so that was kind of a mulligan for you, too. That's good. That's always. I mean, Every TV is guaranteed. Stankface. Peter, before we get into round five, just want to do a quick shout out to Open Studio,

a sponsor of the You'll Hear a podcast. Hells you. We not only break down music like this, but we teach you how to play it. Over at Open Studio, go to Open Studio Jazz.com for your 14-day free trial. That's Open Studio Jazz.com

to start your musical journey today. You've got teachers like Peter, like myself, like Sullivan Fortner, Aaron Parks, Jeffrey Keiser, Fred Hirsch. Ron Carter, Christian McBride, Diane Reeves. A bunch of heavyweights over there. Should we do a snakeface course?

We might have to start doing that. We've done a lot of stankface tunes. Again, Open StudioJazz.com for, oh, jazz lesson needs. Okay, Peter, this next one, round five. I know that you know the artist, and I'm sure you know this song too, but I'm not sure if this is like on, would be on any of your playlist

or in your car bumping it. I do, but I can give you the manis guarantee that you're going to get stank-faced. Okay, I'm excited. Oh, yeah. Yeah. A little D. Ross. Oh, this is the original.

Oh, yeah. Biggie's not coming in. Biggie's not coming on. Woo! That's the stank baseball. Yeah. Those drums. Yeah.

On the hard. On the hard. Everything's stanky. The stank in my diet cope. I mean, people can still play with this. Disney's to do it. Right? You know what I'm saying?

That guitar. Woo. And he's stuck. And then when it comes in. Like, that's great. This is like 1980-ish. Yeah, late 70s, early days, I think. I forget what the year actually.

fantastic. And it's also a good reminder that, like, by some, by some measures, you could call that a disco groove. Oh, it is a disco. You know what I mean? The whole album is disco, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's so good. Upside down is also on that album.

Great Diana Ross. Yeah. Okay. What do you have for round five? Oh, okay. Now I'm getting, ooh, I'm nervous. I got a lot of directions I could go. Did you want to make a record?

No, you're not going to make a request. This is your strategy. Okay, so we did some Stevie. We're going to do some more Stevie, but it's not with Stevie. Okay. This is going to be a short one. Is that okay? Yeah.

I think I can get you stank facing right away, but I have to tell you a little bit of background. This is a Stevie tune that you know. Okay. I don't think you're going to know who this is, but this is a string quartet. Okay? From what they play in the first,

like 20 seconds should have an effect on you. Hopefully it just does sonically anyway. Sorry. Am I overspending? No, you're going heavy classical, though, on this. Well, this, yeah. Yeah. Okay, here we go.

I get it because I'm a sucker for it. I get it. And this part here. So I can't help it That's real violins Is this Turtle Island? No This is Quartet of Bene again

Again Yeah Sorry Who's that? Dacey Kent Dacey Kent Took me by surprise Chello

Pizzicado It is with drums Oh it's so good Great arranging Yeah The cello Make it's all point You can always tell

When someone who's really familiar with strings is arranging And when it's someone not so familiar with strings I can't help it If I wanted to Wouldn't help it Even if I could Can't help it If I wanted to

Wouldn't help it No That's good Yeah The little transitions Which is great too I could. Can't help it.

If I wanted to, wouldn't help it. All right. If you're keeping score at home. Ooh. Yeah, textures. Yeah. So it's some good stuff on there.

Put it in the comments. Yep. Who won round five? I think we've stanked in everything. We pretty much stank. So what costume is winning? If you don't stank? Who induced the most stank?

Okay, got it. All right. I become strong. This is the last round of and so we're going to do the bonus. And I'm zagging here. The bonus we have to really go for like the stank, right? Well, the bonus is we're going to play something that we know the other person stanks out easily at

and the other person has to try to hold their stank. Got it. Okay. Now this one, Peter, like I said, I zagged. I would be shocked if you know this song. Okay. I'm pretty sure you know the artist. I'm going to play most of this song, though, because it's really, it's all about the buildup on this song.

Okay. It's a perfect song Perfectly performed Radiohead It's live It's live And there's maybe one of the greatest Solos in a pop song I've ever heard

Okay Your continents just got very serious Yesterday the odds were stacked in favor of my expectations Flying above the rest Sound is exquisite Very good For live recording Is Alice

I love her singing. The greatest. And, um, guitar. Phantomisky. On guitar. Oh, and Jerry Douglas on the dope.

Douglas, yeah, yeah. Who's one of my favorite. Oh, he's incredible. That amazing? Still get chills. Got chills right now. Damn it. There's hope for the world after all.

Just getting started, though. I'm doing this Yeah, yeah Well, it's like solid Jerry Douglas Allison Krausch right Yeah So soulful dude

And so tasty Just enough Melodic improvisers of all time In the cracks Man that's such an art to that Every word he ever said They added a third voice For the second chorus

Everybody sings Everybody sings Yeah on. When he hits that high note, this goes nuts here at the end. Amazing. That was great.

Hope for humanity, you know what I mean? Her voice on that. That note is so, like, piercing through the speakers. And the fact that this is all live, and then Jerry Douglas, I mean, I put him up there,

it's like almost how Coltrane plays on the Johnny Hartman album. Like every melody that he inserts is just this perfect, beautiful melody. They're not playing the same way. Yeah. But the spirit is the same of these, like, beautiful countermelodies to what Alison Krause is doing. And then just rips the most beautiful melodic solo for these changes.

Yeah. Top that. Hey, everyone, taking a break real quick. We throw around a lot of music theory terms here in the show. If you're Googling things like, what is a triad? Hold on. I'm Googling. What is a Trite?

What is a Lydian chord? How do you spell Lidian? You know how to play that, bro. Good news. We have all the answers for you in the liner notes. You'll find the liner notes. companion guide with clear simple explanations of the contents we explore in this episode in the episode description download the liner notes for this episode for free for next okay yeah well no no no i mean

it's i just i will sir now um this i think i'm sure you've heard it and i think you probably know it um but i think it's very stank face inducing i think it's a great track i think a lot of folks will be like wow peter you like this adam you like this i love this track this has probably been one of my most listened to tracks just at random times in the car walking around. I don't know. I'll think about this because it combines a couple of different artists that I really like a lot. Okay. From different

generations. Okay. So here we go. If this world were mine. Hey, Roman rule seven-bay. Eat her. If this world was mine, I take your dreams and make him most apply. If this world was mine,

I take your hand of me's in front of God. Introduce them to that light. Get through strictly with their five. Five, five. Oh. Five, five, five. Five. Hey, Roma,

seven page, drive it like it's hot. If this world was mine, I take your genes and make him most apply. If this. That's what I do. You got a little strings come in. Got a woovert out of it, too.

Good string. And that bass sound with the string? That club bass. That club bass? Here you go. I'm just picturing you and Kelly cruising down Delmar. We might be cruising somewhere else too, but yeah. This is kind of a household paper.

Who's the singer? Who's the singer. Siza. Say it was his own. Yeah, of course. Kendrick Lamar, of course. Luther Vandross is the other singer. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is a Luther sample. I knew I've heard this before, but I don't, I haven't really like dug into that at all. Yeah. And at first I was kind of like, you know, my daughter. loves a song too. This is like, what, at least 10 years old? String writing is great on here. So, I mean, if this world was mine,

of course, Luther, that was one of my favorite tracks in the 80s. Slow dance, slow dance, jam. And normally I would be like, in fact, I remember when my daughter was first listening to this, I was like, damn, why are they going to do Luther? Like, but then I listen, I was like, wait, this is kind of good. And then, I don't know, it's one of those times, obviously they had

the estate of Luther Andrew. his approval, and he's a co-writer on this, actually. Yeah. And the name of the song is Luther. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Yeah, yeah. All right, you ready?

Yes. For your poker face? Oh, poker face. You cannot stank face. You're, I'm going to try to break you. Okay. You ready? I can be beat down, but I can't be broken.

I know you love this, and I know if you weren't trying, you would stank face all over this. Oh, so am I supposed to try not to? You're supposed to, we're supposed to try not. This is our final bonus round. Okay. We're supposed, we have to keep us straight. We have to keep a put. It's called the poker face round.

I just made that up. Pover, pooh, poca face. And that I could keep the straight face through. But you will not be able to do that with this. Oh. I can try it. Can't help it. That part's good, man.

Okay, I can do it here. Oh, Kenny Kirkland. I'm good. We're not even 20 seconds in. The way it feels. Oh. I knew I could. That is.

Black coats from the other guy. That was Black Coast. Jeff Watts, Charnett Moffin. Kenny, I was, I didn't think you would rate two me on.

Kenny's solo, honestly. Damn, this is better than the one I am. Well, Delphio's the Limo. Yeah, Wittemarsallis is Black Coats

from the Underground. One of, if you don't know, what to get Peter for his birthday, a vinyl pressing of this would go a long way. I've got it.

But yeah, give me another one. Yeah. All right, that was good one. Yeah, because that's not an obvious. And look, we actually, I had some other jazz stuff. I should have played more. I've played some jazz stuff.

I don't know. That, that's, that's good. Well done. It's your kryptonite. It's your kryptonite. But you know what? I think I got you too. This is not maybe as obviously associated for you, but I know you're going to break on this.

So I actually try not to. I'm going to. Because I think you will be able to for a while, but I know the place that you're not going to be able to make it. So. Hey, nothing. Oh, I know what's coming. Fuck. It comes with waves, though, so.

Peter. This is mean. It's just a guitar. I can't. My mouth is naturally just turning down. Let me tell you about the chicken greed. Okay. You know?

No, you got me. Oh, my God. Turn it up. That's all the way. I give up. I can't do it. I'm sorry. Oh, man.

Chicken grease. DeAngel, of course. Yeah, that one's... This was fun. You know what's fun about this? It's like, hey, like, we both just stank-faced the hell out of all of ours. Sue us. We love music.

Yeah, I know. But then we just got to, like, play some really great music for each other. That was fun. You want one more bonus just for fun? Give me a bonus. You want a hat on a hat? Go ahead. Let's put a hat on a hat.

Neither one of us could keep a straight face. Oh, well, if you're going to give me the cavatina, I'm going to cry. So this is Beethoven, Opus 1.40 No? No? Oh no, no. Sorry, this is Revelle. String Quartet. Yes. Sorry, first movie. Oh.

I don't know. I, that that Badeeuvre and Cavatina came straight in my mind. That's great. So you start. But yeah, of course, Revelle, string quartet. And then if you want to jump to the last movie. Hey. I always think that's a piano. I mean, you know, the second, the second movement, the pits movement of that is like,

that's the, I was going to throw that in there, but I thought it was too. Yeah, incredible. Peter, this was fun. This was great, man. Let's do this again sometime. Thank you face. Thank you face. Put in the comments, who you think won the stank face war?

Who gave you the most stank face? What songs would you play for us to give us stank face? That's right. And we're excited for the new season. This is going to be a season full of stank face albums. I can guarantee you that. For sure. For sure.

Until next time, you'll hear.