You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Advice From a Master: Thelonious Monk (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

It's part one of a two-parter as Peter and Adam analyze some advice straight from the mouth of Thelonious Monk (and straight from the notepad of Steve Lacy). To check out Steve's notes, go here: http://cdn8.openculture.com/2017/12/17225415/monkgigtips4.jpgHappy Hump Day! This week's Hump Day Special is Peter Martin and Romero Lubambo's new CD free with the purchase of any course from Open Studio. Just go to https://www.openstudiojazz.com/, purchase a course, and then send your checkout receipt to [e-mail] with the subject line "Hump Day CD" and the address you'd like it shipped to.Want to get the new album without buying a course? You can purchase Peter and Romero's Rio Meets New Orleans - Live from Tokyo right here: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/romerolubambopetermartinLike those You'll Hear It shirts Peter shows off on the podcast? Want some YHI swag of your own? Take a visit to our store! Just go to https://teespring.com/stores/open-studioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. Are you writing down everything I'm saying here? Yes. Yes. I'm digitally writing it down. Click, click, click, click, click, click. Click, click, click.

Click, click, click. Click, click, click. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the Uly Hearer podcast. Daily Jazz Advice and Dictagraphs from Peter Martin. Dictagraphs. Careful.

Hey, hey, hey now. Careful now. That was like, you know, boom, boom. Why do you know about, okay, you probably heard of a telegram. Yeah, sure. Before your time. What do you know about? There was something else.

A telegram wasn't before your time? How old are you, Ben? No, I got, well, I didn't get one, but I remember having, I might still have it somewhere, like a telegram from, like, when I was born, that my, I don't know if that was possible. Someone sent a telegram that you were born? My grandmother in Europe sent a telegram

to my mom or dad or something, like congratulations on the little. Telegram from Mrs. Martin. Wow. I could be making that up. I remember seeing a tele. Maybe that was for my mom, actually, for her birth. Who knows? Why are we talking about telegrams?

I don't know. Because of the do-da-do-do-do-do. Yeah, yeah, we were just talking about. Of the dictograph. Yeah. Right. No, what are we talking about today? This is exciting.

Today we're talking about a handwritten note that was written by Steve Lacey, but written from the mouth of... The words and mouth. The words and mouth of Thonius mug. Directly handed down, like, tablets that Moses handed from up high, right? I'm not sure the full story on this. I bet somebody knows the full story on this. Right. But we had a question about this.

and now I lost it. But it was basically, oh, yeah, that's right. Henry from Whittier, California. And I know you always call me Whittier than you. I don't know if that's related to this. Okay, anyway, but he just wanted to know if we knew about this and if we could kind of talk about it. And so we've both seen this, but I hadn't seen it in a while,

so it was fun to kind of go back through it. And I thought we could just sort of go through and look at some of these things and give our take on them. Yeah, you know, every time this is posted somewhere shared, I tend to read it all because I play a lot better when I do these things. I know. I know. It's kind of like, oh, I've seen it before, but wait, let me see that again. Yeah. Yeah. But basically, we'll put a link below here. It's been widely passed around, but it's sort of a picture of a notebook that, from what I understand,

Steve Lacey, great saxophonist and played with Monk back in the late 50s and then great interpreter of his music, kind of a direct lineage to his whole thought process about music. He wrote down this advice, I guess, is it a rehearsal or something from Monk. And it really kind of makes sense. It's cool. Like, when you see it, you can look along as we're going through this sort of how you cross some things out and put arrows and stuff so it says 1960 too i never noticed that t monk's advice 1960 well he said t munk are we sure this is the lonesus mung it could have just been like teddy mugs some dude tom munk tom muck some random dude no we think it's the lonesmuck so should we jump right in let's do it okay so number one are there seven things

there no no just because you're not a drummer doesn't mean that you don't have to keep time Mike drop Oh the angel sing Yeah I mean it's just like Yeah exactly We all know this but what a great thing They have at the beginning of the list That's I mean it's just perfect

That says it all You are responsible for time You're as responsible for the time As the drummer is Don't think any different Yeah and I like the underlying drummer And keep time And I think the kind of corollary to this

Or the inverse is that a drummer's responsibility is not to only keep time That's right Right for sure Kind of added that in The second one kind of goes along with this, but it also kind of goes along with an episode we did a couple weeks ago about keeping the form and how to keep the form.

Yeah. It's pat your foot and sing the melody in your head when you play. Yeah. Oh, that's so great. I mean, that's exactly kind of what we said. I am a convert to patting my foot. I've been patting the heck out of my foot lately, and I love it. Yeah, pat your foot and sing.

Yeah, and I love, like, monks advice. Everybody thought he was so esoteric with, like, his music and him in interviews and stuff. I love how this is like the most tactical advice. It's like specifically what to do. It's not like think about a beautiful meadow as you praise. No, no, not at all. It's like pat your foot and think about the melody.

Oh, that's good. The next one is stop playing all those weird notes, all that BS. Play the melody and the melody is underlined. And that BS is kind of like added in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And weird.

And that's so great because everybody accuses. He was Monka playing a bunch of weird notes, so that kind of told you where he was at. For sure. The next one is one I think about almost every day. Make the drummer sound good. This is the greatest advice I've ever read. No, when I read that, I was like, what? Make the drummer sound good.

I got to do that? I want to sound good. It's called the Adam Manistrio, sir. No, but when you make the drummer sound good, everything sounds better. Right. And you play just more in the pocket. That's because everything sounds better because, the drummer buys you drinks, and then everything's more relaxed.

Well, think about what that means to make the drummer sound good. That means that you are locked into the groove with the drummer, and that means that you are usually playing in a balanced way with the rest of the rhythm section, right? So if the drummer's playing super busy, if I'm going to make him sound good, I'm not going to try to play over that. You know, I'm not going to try to outplay them. I'm going to really be with them and make them sound better, and then we all sound great.

And then before you know it, drummer's buying you drinks. Exactly. What I love it too, make the drummer sound good, because we think about the drummers being the ultimate accompanist and supportive character in a typical kind of jazz band. But it's like, no, make them sound good. Everyone wants the drummer and great drummers make everybody sound great. I mean, that's part of their gig.

Yeah. But let's flip it around. This is great. You know what, let's, can I just make a suggestion here? Yes. We don't usually do this, but I think this could be a two-parter. Let's take our time with this. I want to take our time.

I don't want to try to rush through these. Can we ask Andrew K.R. important. Andrew, can we do a two-parter on this? He said thumbs up. We're going two-parter. Okay. So let's do... You'll hear it. Let's do it. I'll do it a little more first. Yeah. Now, let's do another four or five, because these are just, every single one of these is

like gold. It's like he had his own daily podcast. I know, I know. Exactly. Okay, next, and I don't totally understand this. I think I do, though. Discrimination is important. Now, wait a minute. Now, does that mean...

I think I know what it means. Tell me if I'm wrong here. the way I'm interpreting this. We have to discriminate what we're listening to, what we're playing, what we're responding to in a band situation, right? That's important. Not to just play everything. We have to discriminate what we're going to play,

what we're going to listen to, what we're going to link up with, what elements of the music we're going to deal with at any particular time. That's an interesting interpretation. That's not how... I was more looking at it just as a sort of quality control. You know, that...

I mean, this is something that I've learned being around you, too, is that if you really want to take it to the highest level, you have to be hard on the details. You have to get the details correct and you have to pay attention to them. That's what I think he means, but I like your version better, actually. No, no, no, I like that one.

I mean, I just so glad it wasn't, like, discriminating against people as important. I would feel really bad about that. Yeah, that's important. Okay, the next one is you've got to dig it, to dig it. You dig? You know what that means to me? Nothing.

Listen. Oh, listen. That actually, yeah, number one. Absolutely. You've got to dig it. Now, Dig It is sort of a term that we don't use as much because it's so hipstered up. But I can imagine, I mean, I know what it means. Or it could mean something we've talked about here, which is don't play anything you don't want to play. Don't play something just because someone said you should play that. Play what you want to play. Play what you want to play. Play your sound. Play what you like. You got to dig it to dig it. You dig? Come on. Now, this next one I think you should take, because I know you have a deep understanding and concept on this one. Yeah, the next one is Allree!

That's it. No explanation. No discrimination. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Could somebody hit us up in the comments with what the heck that means? I mean, some of these are very...

Was that Monk Messing with Steve Lacey? Some of these, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Now, this one I think I kind of understand. I remember kind of connecting with this at a young age when I first read this. And you've got to look at the...

Check out the link so you can see the handwriting. on here it's important always know dot dot dot and then parentheses monk with kind of a semi circle almost with an arrow on it don't know what that means actually I was trying to no but I think always know

what the time is always know what the form is always know what the melody while you're tapping the foot you know to me monk is so misunderstood as a musician and composer because you almost have to be like in this day and age you know

active listening, but at the same time, like really tapping your foot and getting into the groove, like where all your senses are just concentrating on one thing, monks music and monks playing really, really rewards that kind of listening. And that's very hard for people now because everything is so scattered and everybody's brain is so scattered. But I think that that kind of goes along. I don't know if that explains what this says, but that's how I've always felt about Monk's music and why I connected with it from the beginning.

And it's not about like, oh, you have to be a scientist or a musicologist and joy. You don't. There's so much humanity in this music, so much groove and all those kind of things as well. All right. This next one, it must be always night. Otherwise, they wouldn't need the lights. I think that was just a poem that Monk wrote on the spot. He was definitely messed with Steve Lacey. Or he handed him a duby at this point. But the next one is, I think, is great. Let's lift the bandstand, double exclamation points. Right. So the context is they were playing together, right? And he was, this was sort of notes of what they wanted to do. Let's lift. He really wanted

the energy. You know, he really wanted... The recording I remember was Steve Lacey, and I'm sure he was on other ones, and forgive me for not being prepared with this, but is that, if you've ever heard the Live at Town Hall with the mini big band, Steve Lacey's on that. He's young there. He's young there. And actually, if this is 1960, if that's true, that must have been right around that time, I believe. This next one is great, and just good for life

in general. Avoid the hecklers. Exactly. And I like, I mean, it's 1960, So what this is in modern parlance is avoid the haters. Yeah, don't go into the YouTube comments too deep. Except for ours. Which we go into on the regular. Yeah. All right, let's do a couple more and then we'll cut it off and we'll come back tomorrow.

This is great, man. We can go to the bottom of the first page. That would make sense. Let's go to the bottom of the first page. Perfect, perfect. Don't play the piano part. I'm playing that. Don't listen to me.

I'm supposed to be accompanying you. That's so great. Oh, this is so, I mean, that's what I'm saying. Like, Monk was so matter of fact and tactical with this stuff. A young Steve Lacey was probably waiting for these like pearls of wisdom That you know This is so obvious

And it is a pearl of wisdom Yeah Don't play the piano part He said to the saxophonist Like But I'm thinking of what would a saxophonist do To play the piano part Would that be like marking the form

Or playing outlining the chords too much? Yeah and it's not leaving space too Not leaving space Like accompanying yourself Right right right right Wow that's great Yeah Okay this last one is

But also the part Don't listen to me I'm supposed to be accompanying you. That I've always really resonated with me because I'm like some people you comp behind and there, I mean, there's nothing wrong with interacting and stuff, but sometimes it's like, let me be, like listen to the way that I'm

accompanying if it's in a way that it's for you to soar. Like, you have to know your role. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't try to be so dem-and-maybe, and maybe he was being so demure and like, oh, let me defer to you. And Monk is like, no, I'm accompanying you, you solo. This is great, man. It's kind of like that kind of piggybacks

this idea that we did last week on that Nicholas Payton Instagram post. That's really interesting. That was brilliant. All right, so the last one we'll do today, and this one has become classic. And also one that I think about all the time. The inside of the tune, the bridge, is the part that makes the outside sound good. Yeah. This is so,

this could be so game-changing if you don't do this already. Use the bridge as a place to build tension is a place to jump off of for the other parts of the tune. And I really connect us with that always know earlier, always know the form. Know the form, you know. And I think it's interesting because if you take away what's in the parentheses, the inside of the tune is the part that makes the outside sound good.

That's the type of thing Monk probably said, and people are like, oh my God, he's crazy, what the hell is he talking about the Oreo cookie? What is he? But then when you understand the bridge, and maybe Steve Lacey, I'm projecting here, but maybe he added that just to make it clear. It's like, no, he was being very clear.

about the form of the tune, you know, and understanding that and using it as a tension point and, you know, understanding the structure. Just understanding that contrast between those two, between the inner and the outer. I love the idea of the inner and the outer, too. Just starting to think about like that as a game changer. And this is so cool just to hear the way he visualizes, you know, he obviously is a very visual person, the way he thinks about these things and he organizes thoughts. Well, this is great.

Well, speaking of Always Know, do you? you know what to eat is? Wait, it's hump day. It is hump day. Okay, see, now we're starting to get lined up. Damn. Dude, this is three weeks in a row. I've nailed it. You have nailed it. Today is hump day. So, can we do a hump day special? Yeah, let's do it. So we act like we didn't plan this? Oh, we didn't plan it. Okay. Okay. So the hump day special today is, and look, I'm literally making this up as we go.

Well, we talked about the new CD. I have a new CD out. Open Studio Records. Hamera Lubombo, Peter Martin, Duo, live in Tokyo. A little thing we did recorded last end of last year and it's just been released last week, this week. It's beautiful, man. I listened to it a couple days ago all the way through. Unbelievable. Thank you. I haven't really listened to it because I don't listen to my stuff a lot.

But I have heard it. I mean, you guys are right. No, it's fun. We always have fun play with Romero, but it's a lot of some New Orleans stuff, some Brazilian stuff, a lot of jazz stuff. And what we want to do is if you buy any course today, oh, we do with this, yeah, it's going to be today. So until 3 a.m., which is when the next episode drops, you can get a free CD.

So any course buy, purchased, this can be all access pass, anything, even a pack. We'll even accept a pack, whatever. Buy a course today, regular price. And if you want the CD, forward your receipt to Andrew at open studio network.com. Can we do that, Andrew? We're doing it. So forward your receipt and just put like, you know, free CD in the subject line and we will ship out free CD. Is that going to work?

Are we good? Yeah. We're good. Hump Day. Hump Day CD. So check that out. Any course, free CD. And until tomorrow, you'll hear it.