You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Non-Jazz Albums for Jazz Heads - #27

Episode Date: February 26, 2018

Prince, Stevie Wonder, Carol King and more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Peter Martin. And I'm Adam Manus. Welcome to the You'll Hear It podcast. Today we're going to give you seven non-jazz albums for jazz heads. Jazzheads, is that like a, what is that kind of, some kind of like doll or something the kids are playing with you? Yeah, a Jazz Head, Bobblehead. Yeah, I'm a Talking Bot Bobblehead doll. Like there's Nat King Cole.

That's right. Well, these are like, you know, hey, I'm a jazz guy, and I don't listen to non-jazz albums. No, this is cool. And I'm looking here at our list, and these are very, like, standard. things that I think all jazz musicians could get a lot out of. Yeah. And I mean, you know, I think that you'll find that these are records that a lot of jazz musicians that we know really good players and stuff are already certainly hip to, but there's probably some maybe that you're not, and I'd love to hear from you guys

because I'm always, you know, thinking about this. Like, I've always listened to music. It's amazing. Like, throughout my life, I've never actually predominantly listened to jazz. Yeah, me neither. I mean, I have certainly during times and like learning souls and I love jazz, and I mean, if I could only listen to one thing, it probably would be there. But I've always been kind of just like listening to great recordings. And I, because I was lucky I came up at that, you know, the end of this sort of LP period, just a little bit. I caught some of that and then early CDs.

I did do a lot of like full document listening kind of things. And so you kind of get into just the art form. It's almost like, do I like abstract painting or, you know, realist painting or European or African or Asian painting? I mean, they're all within the painting world, but they're so different. Like I just kind of like stuff within that whole recording. an album and what you can do with that classical jazz, R&B, hip hop. I mean, so many great things. I'm totally on board with you.

And I think one of the great things about playing jazz is that it's so malleable and any more, it's so open that you can incorporate lots of different elements from other styles of music, from rock and R&B and classical and all this stuff into jazz. And it's totally natural. I mean, the people who set up, the geniuses who set up this form that we play were so ahead of their time as far as like, you know, setting up a form that is fun to throw just about anything at, and it sticks, and it's fun to play. Right, right.

So, yeah, what we have here is, so there's seven albums that I think do have, I think on all these, there's some kind of jazz connection. I mean, none of them were really jazz records, although it doesn't really matter what you call. They're all great records, in our opinion. Definitely. So first I'm going to start with Steely Dan Asia. Great record. Yeah.

And so this one, you know, is, this is cheating a little bit because every, like, insider jazz. It's almost a jazz record. It's almost a jazz record. It's like Wayne Shorter's. Totally. It has a very prominent role in it. There's even like a tune that's not really a blues, but called a blue, you know, Deacon Blues. So it's got some fairly overt references.

But I mean, it's really a high-level, you know, 70s pop album, I guess, or whatever it is. I mean, it's one of the greatest albums in the 70s, in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, the sound on it's amazing. I think it's that Steve Gad. Yeah, I mean, some of the greatest so-called session play, but just some of the greatest musicians that plays. studio musicians. It's unbelievable. Black Cow. Asia itself, you know, Deacon Blues, unbelievable, and definitely easily crossed over into jazz and so much you can pull out. I mean, just the chord changes on Black Cow. You know what I mean? Those are like slash chords and it might as well be a

Pat Mathini tune. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Great stuff there. All right, so our second album is Marvin Gay's What's Going On. This is absolutely Marvin Gay's masterpiece. This is another one of the best albums of the 1970s. I think it was 19... Right on 70, wasn't it? Seventy, yeah, yeah. And, you know, a somewhat political album and an interesting recording process, I mean, a lot of jazz musicians, Detroit-area jazz musicians, played on this record and just killed it on this record. And this is also Marvin Gay, it's sort of his artistic peak of, you know, the stories go that he would come in and just arrange on the spot, and there was a lot of slicing and dicing on this. And a lot of

collaboration between the so-called session musicians and Marvin, for I understand this. One of my favorite tracks on this is what's happening brother if you can go transcribe the chord changes to that i mean that to me is is soul music encapsulated in about two minutes it's unbelievable yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a great uh you know representation i would say uh among many but but an iconic one of of more of the jazz influence on r&b or pop or whatever as opposed to like a fusion record or something yeah but really the the influences of it and and again just an incredible recording from beginning to hand oh inner city blues oh yeah oh it works in as an album too you know it's like definitely part one and part two totally to be listened to all the way through yeah and a lot of you know like

seamless transitions and stuff between the grooves and tunes um so next i'm gonna go to stevie wonder and you know stevie wonder has a very special place in in sort of the world of jazz because he's very influenced by it he's a a very you know obviously incredible musician but he's a very adept jazz musician, a lot of people don't know that. I mean, I've heard him I'm sitting at a club in New Orleans at 1 o'clock in the morning, play giant steps on a keyboard. No way. Yeah, yeah. That's surprisingly, surprisingly good.

And I know he has a big affinity for jazz. Grew up, you know, playing it and his kind of, you know, for him to go back and forth in jazz, it's not like a dabbling thing. It's just a part of who he is. Seameless, yeah. And so I would take, I mean, there's so many great records. Maybe on this one I'm going to cheat a little because I'm going to say intervisions, but I'm also,

can I throw in a little asterx for, like, songs in the key alive? I mean, I'm going to throw an for talking book on this. Oh, and talking book, yeah. I mean,

we could, you know, I mean, and really, if you think about it, like, what was the movie with the,

with the green cover and the, uh, Secret Life of Plans. Yeah. I mean, in terms of jazz, you know,

we gotta get back to what we, I'm getting excited now. So, so these are seven non-jazz albums for jazz heads. That's kind of a good, because jazz heads

always want to get something that's kind of unknown and esoteric. A lot of people don't know about that record. Oh, any of those are great. But you know what's so great about Stevie's writing?

I mean, he uses, like, whole tone scales and, like, all these, you know, in slash chords and tritone substitutions and all these things. And he writes in crazy keys. It's always like G-flat. B, yeah, totally. And I mean, I think jazz musicians have a lot to grasp on, too. You know, that's kind of an obvious one, Peter, honestly. Yeah, no idea. So let's go to a more non-obvious choice.

Michael Jackson. Oh, wow. Michael Jackson. This next one is Thriller. And this is, have you ever heard of this record? I heard a little bit about it. I think it was like 1995. Not quite.

No, no, no. Of course, Michael Jackson's famous thriller, one of the greatest albums. You know what year this is? Is this the anniversary? No. I mean, what year came out. Oh, is it 83? I think it's 82.

And look, we're doing this in real time. I know you guys think we're sitting with like a bank of interns here looking up things on the internet and telling me in our ears. But I don't see that. Do you see that, Adam? You would be shocked at how slapdash this all is. Exactly. Maybe not. Maybe you wouldn't be shocked.

I mean, I would, exactly. They're like, no, it sounds like that, actually. I'm going to say 82 because I think it was like, I was in, now messing up. I was either in seventh or eighth grade, but I was like really the target demographic for that. I think you're right. I think you're right. I think it's 82.

Not in terms of musical knowledge or complexity or anything, but I mean, that's like one of the, if not the grade selling record of all time. So you got to hit the kids hard with that, which you did. But I mean, what an era that you could have a record that musically sophisticated. And just production. Oh, my goodness. Sophisticated. And the level of players on that.

there's session musicians. You're talking about, you know, some of the great studio musicians. Toto. Yeah. It was like, you know, Toto guys were on that. Yep. And, I mean, you know, such a deep record. I mean, you know, for me, oh, wait, this is yours, man.

Why am I stealing this? Sorry. Go ahead. No, you're doing a good job, man. Probably because I didn't know what the year was. Yeah, but I mean, that's, I mean, and I think, you know, Quincy Jones is probably really the link there when we talk about, you know, the non-jazz record for jazz heads, for sure.

Underrated cut on Thriller is the first track, baby, of mine. Oh, baby, mind. Unbelievable. It sounds like it could be on off the wall, actually, in a lot of ways.

Yep, that was a little bridge between that. That's 79. That key change at about three minutes. That's good stuff. Nice. All right. Well, let's go with something

right from around that era, maybe a year or two later, and that is Herbie Hancock's Rocket. Now, you might say, oh, Herbie Hancock, that's a jazz record. Sounds familiar. That is not a jazz record.

And this, you know, Rocket is an interesting record because Herbie, you know, went way off the reservation with this record. But I actually think it's a great record. I mean, a lot of, like, jazz heads, you know, would kind of put that one to the side. But I think it's a fun record. I think it's, like, a culturally significant record. And if you were around, like, I was pretty young when that record came out,

but I was a little bit aware of what was going on around me. I was just old enough to sort of know what was going on. And, like, what that record and that track and the video for it did, culturally with, like, MTV and the way that MTV was very segregated up to that point. And I mean, of course, Michael Jackson had a lot to do with this. But, I mean, that was an era when, you know, black artists were still not played on white radio. And not because it was illegal, just because of, like, the cultural way things were done. And, you know, for sure, Thriller, I mean, and off the wall, you know, those records changed a lot of that.

But Herbie, in his own way, you know, and it's crazy because he's a jazz, he never stopped being a jazz panace. And there's some jazz stuff on there if you, you don't have, you don't have to dig that deep to find it. That's great. You know, for me, Rocket was like a slightly, I was just slightly too young to remember it in the real time. And then as I got in jazz and Herbie Hancock, I sort of avoided it because it was like his, you know, his commercial one run. But I need to get, I need to check that out. I mean, of course I know the song and I have the video, but I'm going to go look that up tonight. Yeah.

So that brings us to our second to last non-jazz album for jazz. This must be number six then. This would be number six. And this is Carol King's masterpiece tapestry, unbelievable album, the songwriting, production, the players, everything about this. is so good. The lyrics. The sound on it is, is unmistakable. You can just, as soon as you hear that bass drum, you know, it's like, oh yeah. That's me play. That's not the record. Get the record. Get the record. Get the better. No, then you've got, you know, I feel the earth move under my feet. And what's the, what's the big one? The, um, yeah. What's that on? I don't know.

Oh, it's too late. Oh, yeah, too late. Yeah, that's right. Yep. Such a great record. So I mean, that's a great one, too, actually. There's so much, you know, you can blow over the changes to, it's too late. Sharp 11s everywhere, you know what I mean? There's a lot of jazz references. Yeah, that's it for jazz heads, for sure. So we just got one more, right? I mean, this just making me think about, we really, this could be 777.

Well, you know what we should do next time? We should do seven classical albums for jazz heads. I was thinking a bunch of them. That's good. As we were going here. Okay, I'm going to go for number seven. I'm going to make an executive decision, and we're going to go Prince Purple Rain.

Amazing. Now, so, a great record. And, I mean, I got a little bit back in here, like talking about thriller and rock, and it kind of put me back to being a teenager and stuff in Purple Rain, you know, during my high school years of that record. Actually, I think I might have been the eighth grade,

actually, when that came out. But, I mean, so I'm a little bit caught in the 80s. I'll admit that. But I would say Prince, and really this goes beyond just that record. but he's somebody that really should be on the radar and probably is for most jazz heads if you're going to venture off off of strict jazz recordings because his level of musical artistry and understanding was at such a high level so like it's not even necessarily about saying like well he could play these chords and yeah he could and he had a great awareness of jazz and influence and blues and all those things but just his level of instrumental mastery and vocal mastery is really what you're And that's something that we celebrate all the time in jazz music. One of the greatest performers of all time.

Yeah. Of any genre anywhere. I mean, he's an unbelievable guitarist, an instrument, a great drummer, like, you know, all these things. He can do everything. Obviously, the vocal prowess is evident, but, you know, the showmanship, the dancing and the songwriting, everything. The production, all of it is such a high level. Yeah. And I mean, I think Purple Rain, you know, there's a lot of, like, to me, very deep blues.

And thinking back, like, that was in some ways what first really gave me blues and gospel, you know. And really, like, that foundation, but put into such a sophisticated and modern pop sensibility on that, you know, great stuff. You'll hear it. That's it for today's episode of the You'll Hear It Podcast. For more information or to hear more of these podcasts, go to openstudio network.com slash podcast.