You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Greatest Baby Boomer Pianists

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

Adam and Peter discuss who their 7 favorite "Baby Boomer" pianists.You can find the "Language of the Masters" course right here!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

Baby boomer, baby, baby boomer. I'm Adam Ennis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to The You'll Hear It Podcast. Jazz Explained. Explain. Peter, it's a continuation of a series we've been doing of our seven favorite pianists by generation. We've done millennials.

Yes. We've done ex-zenials. No, we haven't done ex-Zenials. No, we haven't done that. Not a real thing. It is a real thing. And I am one. We've done Gen X.

We've done millennials. Today, it's the notorious B.B. The notorious baby boomers. Baby boomers. Yes. Would that be something you might be interested in? It is. But we got a full disclosure right away.

I know what you're thinking. Chickoria, Herbie Hancock, those gentlemen are not going to be part of this. Keith Jarrett, not a baby boomer. Keith Jarrett, close. Yeah. Very close. I know people are going to be like, how come you don't have Keith Jarrett? Check your dates, buddy, because we have.

Yeah. Well, have we? Well, the dates are so. It's a great area. You know, because it's not really a thing. But I feel like with this one it is, because baby boomers were post. That's very specific. Yeah, so 1946.

Yeah. So it's, yeah, born between 1946 and 1964, both my parents are baby boomers. Yeah, one of my parents is. But neither of your parents nor neither of my parents is going to be in this list, although they are baby boomers. No, but they actually love all the musicians on this list. Greatest parents of all time? All four of them would make it for sure. Oh, yeah.

Well, three out of four. Definitely greatest boomer parents of all time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, boomer. Let's get started here right away. our first baby boomer Okay, first of all, none of these are controversial, I don't think.

No, I mean, we left off some controversy. I mean, you know. But all of these, I think, are cream of the crop. Yeah. And I dare any of our dear listeners to challenge us that any of these folks, fine folks should not be on this list. Also, most of these folks...

But I also dare you to find plenty of people we missed. Most of these folks, except for the ones who have sadly passed on too young, yes. Most of these folks are still making great music. Right. And so you can go see them in concert like this week if you want to. Right.

Starting with our first up, which is one of my favorite pianists, still working today. This is from 1989. This is Rini. Yes. Peter. We've had Rini on the show. Friend of the show. Friend of the show.

Friend of the pod. Canadian. Yeah. Friend of America, though. And America, I believe, as well. Originally Canadian. And they've got a nice tradition. They do.

There's no slouchers there all the way from Oscar Peterson. But yeah. No, I love Rini. and I'm looking forward to this. This is her solo on I Hear a Rhapsody in 1989, the trio. She's a poet, man. She's a poet on the piano. Look how confident in poise she is,

but yet she looks like she's 14 years old. She's younger, too, yeah. Oh. Yeah, so she was born in 62. This is 89. So she's 26 here? Yeah. 27?

I mean, now she looks like she's about 38 years old. I know. I know. She's eight to the jacket. Check her. Now the jacket does. That puts you back. to the late 80s right then. The shoulder pads definitely will put you back a little bit. Yeah.

But check out Rini and she always sounds great, man. Incredible. Rini, of course, founding member of Artemis, also a friend of the show and one of my favorite bands I've seen in the past couple of years, incredible group of musicians there. So check Rini out with her own stuff and with Artemis. Yeah, wherever she's always great. And I think this is actually segues really nicely because at number two we have the great Mulgrew Miller. Yeah, man. And I think Rini and Mowgru are probably some of the most, you know, for me coming up, you know, just right before me were and continue to be in the case of Rini.

And really with Mowgru, too, his music lives on, the most kind of consistent. First of all, to me, they typify that like mid-80s, late 80s, 90s, till today, sound. Wingspan. Wingspan. Exactly. But Mugru and Rene are like some of the most consistent. Like you put something on. It's going to be clear swinging in the tradition, but hip.

and just like correct, you know what I mean? Yep. And so they both inspire me as well as pretty much everyone on this list. But those two in particular really always inspired me to just like excellence in jazz piano. And so we're going to go, this is a track. Okay, and this is also one of my favorite festivals of all time in Vien, France. I love this. This is Mulgrew Miller.

I got it bad and that ain't good. It's a nice jacket. There's no BS with Mulgrew, is there? No, that's what I'm saying. It's all correct. Amazing. Yeah. Gru, grew.

true, really just, you know, the master, the master. Kind of the conscious of our, you know, of this generation's pianists, I think, in a lot of ways. Next up, one of our, dear friends, one of our faves, open studio artist. Fred Hirsch. This is from his first course with us called Thoughts and Experiments with Solo Piano. Incidentally, Fred dropping a new course this week. That's right. With us called Just Friends, the Art of the Duo, where he's accompanying.

clarinet bass and vocals and teaching you how to accompany clarinet bass and vocals. And this is from a solo piano course. And I'm so proud that we got to document Fred's playing. And shout out to Max Gamees for the transcription here. And yeah, check it out. How great is that? You know, Fred famous for his improvised counterpoint, man, it just doesn't get any better than that, you know, like solo piano, again, no BS at all.

at its finest. So detailed, you know, Fred's instruction, I always joke, this is the first thing I go to, but he literally talks about what to do with your feet for about eight minutes. That's how he starts off the course, which is, it shows you how detailed he thinks about every little thing when it comes to playing the piano.

Amazing. That's great. All right. Next up we have, what are we on number four, number five, number three? We don't know. We don't care. It's number four.

We're number four. We do know. We do care. Okay. So next up we have another master. Mr. Kenny Kirkland. So Kenny was a huge influence on me, maybe the biggest out of all these in a way,

just because of the timing, you know, at a young age when I got to meet him and hear him for the first time. Really the first just mastered pianists that I heard live, actually. Well, I heard Count Basie when I was 12 years old. My dad took me. I just, I didn't make that connection. That's cool, though. I liked it, you know.

But this was like I was sort of trying to play and then I got to hear Kenny Kirkland and go meet him after the gig. They were good too They were pretty good Not on this list So but anyway This is we're gonna have a little fun with this Because that's you know

That's what we do This is from a video that I did So I don't know why I'm infusing myself into that You know what I always wanted to be a boomer piano So I get to be on this You just shoehorned yourself in this whole list here Peter Let's check this out Go ahead man

Ever listen to Candy Kirkland and wonder How does he do that? Yes Or maybe you wonder How does he do this or have you ever laid awake at night and wondered how does Kenny Kirkland play like this? Today I'm going to lay down the four levels of Kenny Kirkland. Anyway, you can check out this whole video if you hadn't to see, you know,

because I already did a deep dive of all things, Kenny Kirkland. And there's so many great videos available of him, of course, that a lot of people haven't checked out. Yeah. You know, all the great records. But Kenny Kirkland was just a massive influence. I like everybody on this list, but I would say, you know, for specific things in his playing that I think we kind of captured in those first through first three few little ridiculous excerpts there. Yeah.

But that kind of like, you know, really exemplifies some stuff that he did that is just like one of the greats, man. Makes you just like, what? Yeah, so inspiring. So fun. Next up. Yeah. One of my faves. Yes.

And shout out to K&KX. This is the, we've had multiple of their videos. KPLU, 88.5. Yep. Cyrus Chestman. Yes. I steal that stuff. Voicing.

Shout out to Yamaha. You know what I'm saying? A little deconstruction going on that. I love it. It's so much fun, man. What an original voice. Yeah. the way he speaks is right in line with his playing,

like the joy, the playfulness, but also just like the deeply, you know, connected with the tradition, but in a very, in a very rich way and a very current way. And how is he not Gen X? You know what I'm saying? I always feel like he's just...

He's close. He's close. I think 63 or 4. He's right on the cusp. We want to claim him into this. He's a Gen X at heart, at heart. Right? World's youngest, baby boomer. Baby boomer.

All right. Are we up to number? number seven already. I think we are. This number six. Oh, this is number six coming up here. Okay. So this next artist who is unfortunately not with us anymore. What she is with us through her music and her spirit was just, I mean, this is Jerry Allen.

This is one of my favorite. All time grades. Yeah, one of my favorites. This is from like early 2000s. She made so many great records. And her original compositions are just amazing. So it's a little weird to not even play that. But this is always just touch me. I remember when I first heard this record. I was like, I mean, this track in particular, the whole record's amazing.

This is Lush Life from the Life of a song. Yeah, Jerry Allen. Jerry Allen. Yeah, amazing. Gone too soon. Jerry and Mulgrew. Yeah. And Kenny.

And Kenny, gone much, much too soon. Yeah. Well, we have one more. This is another one. I don't know this one. This is a surprise me. I somehow missed this. Well, because you just wouldn't consider him a boomer.

This is someone you would also consider Gen X. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because he looks younger than me. I think he's exenial. He looks like an exenial. We're going to put you on the exenial list. This is Benny Green.

This is Benny in Cologne, Germany, 1993. Benny is a boomer. Well, this proves it because... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, no, this is 90. I was going to say, there's some great videos of family, even from the 80s. I know.

Like mid-80s. He's always looked like... He's always had a baby face. He always looked younger, but, man, always swinging. He puts the baby and baby boomer. Shout out to Bernie's bootlegs for this killing solo. Possibly the most of... Possibly the most.

Most killing Benny Green solo. Oh, I know what this is. I don't know what this is out. In front of the pod. It's Ben Wolf and Carl Allen. Young Ben Wolf. Look at that. Young, young, everybody.

Is Benny Green like to swing? I can't remember. Sometimes. Yeah. I don't like the swing. Very much. You know, some pianists, they have, they play real busy, but they look like they're not doing anything. Not Benny.

Benny, he's got active hands. It's like his hands are moving. active mind, active hands, active crazy, lens flare. Ben Wolf killing it. All right, Peter. I'm on a mission to get Benny on the show at some point. Yeah, I know. He's been giving us a little bit of the cold shoulder, haven't we?

Benny, if you're listening, which I don't know if boomers listen to podcasts, but you're listening, Benny. We want you on the show. We want to talk about piano with you. Yeah. We're going to get him. We're going to get him. All right. At some point, some point.

Peter, this is fun, man. This is a good list. Are we talking about already all the people we missed or no? Because we don't know yet. We don't know yet. Oh, Kenny Barron. No. No.

Older. Oh, he's old. Okay, good. I was like, how can we admit? Okay. Yeah, yeah. So he's, uh, um, See, here's the thing.

Silent Generation. Here's where we're going to really get into our problems. Well, wait, is Kenny Barron? We might have missed Kenny Barron. Uh-oh. No. 43. Okay.

So Silent Generation. But he might not make it on the silent generation. Here's the thing. The silent generation and the greatest generation lists are stacked. That's right. It's going to, They're very competitive, right? So stay tuned for it.

Is that a little teaser you're throwing out there? Well, next up is the silent generation, which is not as famous as the boomers and not as famous as the greatest generation, but this is the generation of the big three. Yeah. Herbie. Well, the big four.

Herbie, Keith. Look, you're nervous. I can see that. It's like the big seven. Herbie. The big 700, I call it. Herbie, Keith, Chick, McCoy. That's all silent generation.

Yeah. Kenny Barron is that. I'm not sure if Kenny's going to. We'll see if. and he makes the list. You know, there's so many. Okay, if you guys are enjoying this today, we are not, we don't take sponsors here

because we are so pure of heart. Although we do have one sponsor, Open Studio Jath. Oh, yeah. You know, we have a course that I think... Is that something you might be interested in? We have a course that folks might be interested in. Are you thinking the same thing I'm thinking here? Oh, you're talking about L-O-M?

L-O-M. Language of the Masters, yeah. So we'll link to that below. If you want to support the channel, what we're doing here, and I think enjoy kind of what's going on. Yeah, Language of the Masters. we break down five different solos, one from Herbie, Chick. A lot of silent generation.

A lot of silent generation. Herbie, Chick, O.P., Oscar Peterson. Winton Kelly. Whitten Kelly, Villonious Monk. Yeah. And we break them down. Full transcription by Max in there. Beautiful book that comes along, PDF book.

There's guided practice sessions that I lead where we practice the techniques that we focus on. It's a really good course. If you enjoy this kind of hapless banter, as we would say, this will be some more focused banter. Well, I don't know. I'm not a fan of... Banter.

Yeah, if you're more about the nuts and bolts and how to apply this stuff, check out language of your masters. And consider becoming a member. It's basically what the course is about. Exactly, yeah. So check that out. We have a link below to that.

And I'm really excited about this silent generation thing. I'm finally dialed into what the hell the silent generation is. And that's going to be pretty much our next one of these in our ongoing series of first, figuring out what the names of the generation and what years they are, and then the hardest part. Getting the seven greatest jazz pianists of that.

Until next time. You'll hear it.