You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 2 Grammy nominated solos: Jon Batiste & Chick Corea

Episode Date: February 11, 2022

First Take Friday: Sit with Adam and Peter as they listen to the Grammy nominated improvised solos from:Jon Batiste - "Bigger Than Us"Chick Corea - "Humpty Dumpty"Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

Hey, Adam. Yeah. I threw you off with that. I'm ready to go, buddy. That was very good, but it's been weeks, if not months, since I started. I know. Why do I always start it? I don't know.

I don't know. But this is good because I didn't actually have anything to say, so there you go. Oh, I think I know why I always started. Okay, great. I'm Adam Manis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Jazz explained.

He got it. That's our new tagline. That's our new tagline. You know what? You're right. We have not talked about this, though. Yeah. This is such an improvisatory endeavor and enter.

prize that we're running here. We literally haven't talked about it. I changed it. I, e slap dash. I don't know. We've just been having so much going on. I just kind of threw it out there and said, well, if nobody says, don't do this, we're going to do this. So I don't know. What do you think of it? I love it, man. Jazz, comma, explained. Now, some people at the company say we don't need the comma. I know. And some of you even talk about a period, jazz period. Explain period. Oh, I kind of like that. That's fancy. That's very fancy pants. But I thought jazz, comma, explained jazz explained because that's sort of what we do I love it man I love that tagline can I have you explain something to me though yes why do we have up here on the TV by the pod

suite here it says for are we going to watch love off the grid no that's just an advertisement and look people can't from the producers of 90 day I don't know what that is I have no idea what does that mean what's going on love off the grid is that appropriate for work to do with my wife sometimes that is crazy yeah I don't know what's going on sorry I can I can just power Let's watch some movies. Let's watch some Netflix. We do. We got the Roku.

No, we can't. And my mother calls the Roku. The Roku. Roku. She's like, can you come out, help me set up the Roku. Rho, period. Koo. That's right.

Roh, comma, coup. No, so, okay, full disclosure. Okay. Like, we don't disclose everything. We've been trepidacious about including the word jazz in this podcast for a while. Because we used to be, remember our first moniker. Daily jazz advice coming at you I remember it because you still sometimes say it

As in 25% of the top Yeah Yeah and so we shied away from that Because we're not huge fans of the word jazz No I don't actually don't like the word very much Yeah yeah I'm evolving very quickly Yeah but the problem is apparently there's folks

Does that come through? What's going on? That sounds great Can I noodle as I as I poodle? Poodle's back There's folks that are searching for this podcast that don't even know us. They don't know the joys of Adam and Peter. That's ridiculous.

And then you'll hear a community, more importantly. So apparently there are people out there that search for things like jazz podcast. I wish there was a jazz podcast. And we're not really showing up in those searches. You know why? Why? Because it's just you'll hear it. And we don't, you know, people don't really know what that means.

So it's really just our friends and family at this point. It's a little bit. No, but we've gotten great word of mouth and thank you guys. And you know what's really spread the word for this we found out is the ratings of review. Yeah, it really does. So we'll ask for those again. and we're going to recommit,

well, we've always done this. We're going to read every single rating and review. Let's do it. Yeah. All right, go. Well, I don't know if I got it. I have to look them up now. If you give us, I mean, I know it takes a little bit of time,

and if you're driving or commuting, don't do it now. It's not worth killing yourself over, right? No. But once you get to a stationary place, think about leaving us a rating or review. Seven stars, like the old days. That's what really put us on the map. With the seven stars? We broke.

Remember when we broke the Apple system? Yeah, they were like, we only do five. and all of our listeners were like, no, we need seven. Exactly. Yeah, so leave a seven-star rating and leave us a review. Let us know what you love about the podcast. Let us know what you hate about the podcast. We get plenty of those, too.

But please leave us a rating. You know, Mama said haters gone hate. Seven stars only. Seven stars. It's not possible, but only seven stars. Today, we are finishing up our greatest improvised solos of the year. Listen, they're not the greatest, per se. But they are the Grammy.

According to the Grammy nominating association. Yeah. According to the Grammys, they are the greatest. NERAS. Yes. NARAS. NARAS. What is it?

National arts and recording sciences. NARIS. NARIS. And I think that's the satellite thing, right? Norad? No, that's Norad. No, I think it's NARAS. I used to be a member.

My membership lapsed, to be honest. We're the Memphis chapter here in St. Louis. Yes. NARIS. Shout out to Boo Mitchell. N-A-R-A-S. Yeah, so these are the top, not jazz albums of the year, right? These are the top solos.

Solos, yeah. nominated for 2021 or 2022. And up first is a, this was a very underrated recording. Was it on an indie label? I think it was on an indie label. Not many people know this one. This is from, it was a little film called Soul by Pixar.

From a upcoming studio. No, what did it? Disney? Oh, is Pixar? It's Disney Pixar. It's about a jazz musician. Yes. Who's super, like, who's just trying to find his passion.

And Jonathan Bates, Jay Batt, John Batiste, did all the music for this, and he's nominated for Best Improvised Solo for his solo on this track. This is bigger than us. This is only a minute and 51 seconds long. It's very, very short for a jazz song, but it is part of a film. So let's check out Jay Batt's nominated solo.

I love that. You know, I think that's in the scene in the movie where the character is trying to go to the place where inspiration happens. Right, the funny little figure people. Yeah, yeah, and trying to get there. And a special shout out, the saxophone. that you hear in the beginning. That's a friend of the show, Tia Fuller.

The pod. Yes, she's been on the show before. And the character, the saxophonist character, was based upon her, you know, her physically. Yeah. And as well as, you know, from what I understand, Jonathan Batisse, the animators for the character, for the main character whose name is escaping me now in the movie, was, they really studied, like, video, maybe even CGIed or whatever they do in terms of the animation of his hands and the way he plays.

And you can really see. I mean, it's amazing. did such a great job. So accurate. And I got to say all the playing, John Batisse playing throughout the whole film. Yeah. There's hardly ever a movie about jazz and specifically about piano that I watch and I'm not disappointed with how the music was handled.

Right. Only a couple of acceptance. And this is definitely one. The whole time I was like, that is what a real musician would play. Right. That is what a real player is. So the only time you haven't been disappointed was Whiplash, I'm sure. Oh, that's my favorite. So realistic. No, actually this and I thought one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

On my beat. Yeah. Obviously, the one with Herbie and Dexter record, Round Midnight. Obviously great. And then obviously, my other favorite actually was Ray. Remember Ray? Oh, Ray was great.

They did such a good job with the music. Like, there was nothing. There's some where you hear drums and there's no drums on stage, right? There's some where it's like, obviously no. Ray was really good. They used some really good New Orleans musicians in that. And I remember them film it. They filmed part of it right on the corner from where I was living in Algiers, New Orleans,

West Bank. Well, they must have, the animators must have filmed him playing all of the stuff because even when the character, animated character is playing this stuff. Yeah. It looks like Jaybatt's hands.

Like it looks like his hands playing it, which is incredible, man. Yeah. It's very cool. Just for, it's nice that when you're like, are so passionate about something and you see it done by Hollywood or something, you're like, oh, they did it right.

Yes. That feels so good, you know? Absolutely. Cool. Well, that is the second, the last, the second to last, of our nominated solos, our last is from the Great Chick Korea. RIP.

Oh, yeah, RIP indeed. I'm so happy that he is nominated here. This is Humpty Dumpty from set two of his acoustic band. Here it is. Live at SPC Music Hall. I think this is it. Let's see if I can get this up. Here we go.

Let's find. set, hold on, let me find this, make sure we got the right one. So I'll just, I'll do a little research. It is, in fact, Nairus, and the CEO, the CEO, the CEO, of Nairus, very interestingly enough, is Harvey Mason Jr. No way. Yes, and I saw that name. I'm like, that's got to be Harvey Mason's son.

Indeed, it is, Harvey Mason, the incredible drummer, super nice guy, just one of the most, I mean, he played on like, you know, for play, he's really well known because he was one of the co-leaders of that. But, I mean, he played on a bunch of just jazz stuff and different things. He played, he actually, I think he was on Chick Corea's, the first record I ever heard of Chicka, Matt Hatter in late 70s. That was your first chick. That was the first chick, LP, literally, I mean, I probably heard something before. That's the first one where I was aware of it was like holding the album. And that was, if I'm not mistaken, Harvey Mason.

But then he did a lot of, you know, he was on like the big Donna Summers album, you know, her debut album, Disco, 1982 and the whole thing. And anyway, his son is the CEO of NERAS. So there you go. This isn't even, man, Chick was nominated like in 2021 for Best Jazz Solo. I think this. That's what this is. We're doing 2020. Are we still doing 2021?

Yeah. They give them. If we have any falses that we overly prepare. No, I mean like last year's. Oh. Last year's ceremony. I think he was probably as well. Always nominated here.

Yeah. I'm just trying to make sure that I have. Yeah, this is the right one. Okay. So let's check out Humpty Dumpty from set to. I'm just thrown here because it says 2018, which must have been when they recorded this record. But somehow he's nominated for this 2018 recording.

This is Humpty Dumpty. This is the acoustic band with John Patentucci and St. Louis Zoned, Dave Wechle. Yep. Chick Korea. I don't know, man. Yeah. Before what? No, I was going to say before you were talking like this on the mic,

but it probably doesn't matter. It's all good. That was like 10 minutes ago before we even started listening to Chick. This might win, dude. I think so. That's really good. That's the best, like, I think I've heard Dave Weckles. I mean, Dave Wechel always sounds amazing.

Dave Wechel's not nominated. This is just for the soul. No, but Dave Wechel sounds incredible on this. And I mean, I'm a Wechel fan, but that's like, that's really, really good. Wow. I think, you know, with Chick and with a lot of musicians, but these three have a special chemistry. They always have.

Yeah. It's for, like, decades. They've been playing together. And with all the first. With now playing together for long stretches, I think, during that. Totally. When they get back together, it's like... Both electrically and acoustically.

Like, however they want to do it, those three just have a vibe. You know how it is. Like, you just find your people. And I feel like Patatucci, and I don't know, I mean, I've talked to Patatucci a lot. I just never, I don't know, I never asked the questions, the probing journalistic questions that a top podcaster would. Come on here. Because I'm just more hanging, you know what I mean? But I wonder, like my impression has always been, and this is just a...

from the music. This is no inside information or anything, but that like Patatoochee and Wackle and a number of other musicians that played with Chick, especially when they were relatively young. Yeah. That they were molded by him. Yeah. In a way not, I mean, Chick was not overbearer, like play this or anything. It was just like leading. Yeah. He was just musical leadership. Yeah. And I know like with Brian Blade and Chris Tom, I mean, Chris Christian McBride. Yeah. With that trio, they were. Great trio too. That was a great trio too. But I mean, there's like so much leadership there and just learning it but then also i think chick's vibe was always like he was learning from them that's what i believe he would have said did you do an acoustic

trio run with like jeff ballard and who's on base on those i don't have been petiucci i'll have to look that up he's had some great groups and then this this recent the art of the trio uh with del puerto yeah yeah yeah and marcus gilmore also and then the group he had a while ago was it origins or with steve wilson like the quartet group that was that was so great. Hold on. I'm going to look up now, Chick-Cree and Jeff Bally.

They did something like live at the blue note, I think, that I was listening to big time. Yeah, and I think like, you know, Chick had such a vision for the right combination

of musicians, but also he was such a virtuoso and so flexible and such a joyous person and such a sharing person that it kind of was easy for him. It was just like, get some great musicians

and going to make them even better because they're around me and I'm going to spread the love. And he was so, to what they were, you know, and then, I mean, when you talk about great groups, too, you can't, you can't overlook the duos over the years with Bobby McFerrin. Yeah. I mean, like, it doesn't get any better than that.

But it's almost like you could put anybody. I thought you were going to say Herbie. Oh, yeah, of course. Oh, yeah. Pretty much Chickoria and anybody. And anybody who's alive. I mean, that, but we, you know, we talked about this. We did a, I remember we did a show honoring Chick like shortly after he passed.

And we talked about how he elevated every single person that he played with. Yeah. And it was, um, the truth. with Jeff Ballard, that was Abashai Cohen. And there was a special trio. All those musicians had such big ears. I mean, all these guys, too. Everybody to play with it was just, it wasn't even just reverence they had for him.

It was really love. Yeah. Like there was, there's a lot of love that transcend. I mean, you're talking about the audience. You're talking about his fans. You're talking about people that play with him, fellow musicians. You know, I never got a chance to play with him. I got a chance to hang with him.

That's so cool. Just, you know, pick his brain a little bit and just share a meal and just feel, just being his orb, you know. was a really loving thing. That's awesome. Well, that's great. So, congrats to Jonathan Batiste and Chick-Coreen all the nominees. Oh, because you're like, congrats. You got some insider information.

And the winner, yeah, our audience didn't know. We are announcing the, that's how big the jazz grammies are. That's right. We're doing the pre-show a couple weeks in advance. The red carpet. Who are you wearing? Oh, you're going with a hoodie, Adam, I see. Yeah, Sullivan Fortner.

Who are you wearing? who are you wearing Adam going with the open studio hoodie I like it Yeah as always I'm I'm wearing the open studio hoodie Thanks so do we have a renewed love and respect for the Grammys No but I have a renewed love and respect for all these great artists That's right that's right

And by extension Just them Just them Yeah yeah no I love this music so much man It's been great to just check out everything And I'm glad there's so much variety in these kinds of recordings It really showcases you know like some of the best aspects of the music we love That's right

All right, until next time, folks, go give us a rating review, seven stars. You'll hear it. There you go.