You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Best of Season 6: Peter and Adam's Favorite Solos

Episode Date: May 5, 2020

It's another compilation of some of our favorite season 6 moments today - this time, it's Peter and Adam's favorite solos that they've talked about this season.Today's episode is sponsored by Anytune. Anytune is the perfect tool for anyone looking to improve their practice sessions. Learn, transcribe, and practice solos by slowing down the tempo, adjusting the pitch, and (for Pro+ users), isolating specific instruments in the mix. For more info, follow this link.We've got a day jam-packed with live events coming at you! At 1:00 PM EDT, Adam continues his daily Guided Practice Session stream available only to Open Studio members (click the link to find out how you can join). And at 4:00 PM EDT, Open Studio co-founder Dan Martin will be giving a virtual tour of the Studio - register for it right here. Finally, Peter and Adam will be hosting a live listening session on YouTube at 7:00 PM EDT; join them as they listen to and give commentary on one of their favorite jazz albums. To keep up on all the live events from Open Studio, check out this handy calendar - we're adding new events regularly so pop in to see what we've got in the pipeline.In light of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, we understand that money is tight for a lot of people right now. That's why we've decided that for the duration of this crisis, we'll be running a Choose What You Pay campaign at Open Studio. Choose whichever course you want and then let us know how much you're willing to pay - that's it. For more info, click this link.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. Have you ever heard this record before? Um, it sounds vaguely familiar, like from a dream. It's a little known album released in the late 50s. Kind of green? Close. Some kind of blue?

Closer. Is that Bob Evans on piano? I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily music advice and beautiful tones coming to you. All right, Pete. We're going to get right into our number one.

one of our five favorite simple solos. You know what I'm saying? Yes. Do you like a simple solo or do you like a complex solo? Because we're going to do both. We're going to do our five favorite busy solos tomorrow. Oh, we are. Okay.

I like simple. I mean, Complex has its place. Agreed. Yeah. But don't you think... Variety is the spice of life. Variety is the spice of life. As Bob Evans once said.

But it's not... I think the point I want to make is that because a solo is simple doesn't mean it's any easier to compose or play. Or to execute correctly. Yeah, it can be much harder. Let's make something. complex sounds simple. Yeah. Well, you know what one of my favorite simple solos is? What? Miles Davis. So what? I mean, do we even have to play the rest of it? You all have heard it a million times, right? Yeah, it's so fun to talk over it anyway. Yeah, I mean, simplicity of it's fine. It's

it's called on. It really is. You kind of gave me a little snicker when you saw this one on the list. But how can you leave it off? Yeah. How are you going to let? It sets the tone. It's the whole album. But you know what? I know we've talked about this, um, at liberty and at length, but it's not just a simple Miles Davis solo. It's a simple composition. It's a simply but magnificently crafted album and story. That's what it is.

It's a story. And then it's like these little simple, but so effective. Like it's so hard to be simple because you can come off simplistic if you don't have the skills with a Z. Maybe even two Zs. Number two of our favorite simple solos, this was your first pick.

And this is Keith Jarrett from, what's the record? Standards Volume 2. He recorded this a couple times on the live stuff, but this is, I love this recording. Never let me go. Man, just got me already, Keith. Come on, Keith. It's just so beautiful. Yeah, obviously, this is just the interpretation of the melody, the soul.

I mean, the whole thing is just a cohesive, nuanced masterpiece by Monsieur Jarrett. Check it out. We will have a playlist. Alex, I'm going to send you this playlist right now so you can put it in the description. Wow, that's so. The inner workings of the finally oiled machine here. And you can hear all these on our Spotify playlist.

Our next selection is also from a master of jazz known for his simplicity and real artist at this. And this is Amajimal, but not for me. You ever heard this track too? I think so. As if he's carrying a wink. Okay, do you get any more simple than not playing? That's what I'm talking about.

I don't know as far as the mind. He's doing so much with so little. You know what I mean? He's saying so much. Isn't that left-hand comping? Talk about dynamics. Yeah. The dynamic between the left and right-hand are astounding.

And the balance. I mean, this is really about just the simplicity and effectiveness of the entire trio, really, you know? Clean balance. Range on the piano. When you play like this, like your approach to time has to be so precise. There's nothing to cover anything else.

It doesn't feel tighter anymore now. A lot of humanity to the approach to the syncopation and the time of the swing. Now here's the solo. I'm just going to hit this one phrase for a while. How'd you know? Look at that. Introducing just a little simple left hand. Not much.

Huh. I might have dropped a two there. He's probably dropped it two. That's Amad Jamal from Live at the Pershing, but not for me. The title track, it is unbelievable. Yeah. And even though it's getting thicker here, obviously with the block cord.

Oh, yeah, yeah. It's still simple, though. Because the approach that he started with, he doesn't abandon that, the rhythmic approach, the nuance, the dynamics. Simple doesn't necessarily mean sparse. No.

It just means a simple approach, like a melodic approach to it. That's definitely been the theme so far. So our next cut. Love you, Amat. This is one you picked. This is from Herbie Hancock's River, the Joni letters, right?

Is that it? Yes. And this is Solitude. We've played this on the show before. Solitude. I'm pretty sure we. We've done the solo before. Yeah, should we jump to the solo?

Yeah. It's kind of in the middle, right? Or kind of after... Oh, no, let's start at the beginning, actually. All right, here we go. Space. What a sound, too? Yeah.

What year was this? This is like seven, eight years ago, maybe nine, ten? 2008 or something? Yeah. 2010? Yeah. Maybe I'll call it. I love how we can...

I hate to talk over this, but I love how we can, like, go down to the month of 1959 and what was recorded, what? We were like, this Hervey record was it? Eight, ten, 12, 14 years ago? 2007. So there's a lot going on in this, but it's laid out, you know, architecturally

in terms of how he's arranged the melody, and then when he gets into solo, in a very simple way. It truly is beautiful. And a lot of space, but there's a lot going on, you know? Like when you really look at it, you're like, whoa, if you look at the transcription of this,

you'd be like, that's not simple, but it's the performance that brings out, I think, the simplicity. That's so great. Yeah. That's Herbie Hancock's solitude from the Joni letters River. We're going to go out on this. So until next time, you'll hear it.

Hey, Peter. Hey. This is like the sequel to our simple solos, but it's not. It's not. And actually, I'm a little too busy to even deal with you right now. Sorry. Okay. I'm Adam Manus.

And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Daily Music Advice coming at you. Coming out to today, we're doing our five favorite busy solos. Now, the other day we did our five favorite simple solos. Right. And we thought, let's kick up the energy. Let's do it.

Let's make it happen. Yeah. And so we're starting here with Michael Brecker. I don't even know if I'm going to pronounce this right, but... Sizji. Sizgi. Sizgi. You know, I'm too busy to even evaluate how you're saying that.

But I just had a little break in my schedule so I can actually attend today's episode. Oh, let's check it out. Okay. It's from a self-titled 1987 record called Michael Brecker. Yeah. He was just like, this is what we're calling this record. My name. Now, we're going to move on to number two.

This is a pianist who is... I don't know if he's really had any influenced. Art Tatum. Have you heard of this guy? This is Tiger Rag. This is from what years is this from? Man, I had to look this up because I was just like, I knew it was older that I thought, but shockingly, this is 1933.

Just put that in your pipe and smoke that as you're listening. When you said that before we started, you didn't say exactly 1933. You put an expletive in there. Because it's so shocking. Yes, I said darned 1933. No, you did not. Here it is. Tiger Rag.

All right, Dayton. It's already busy. Come on. Beautifully busy. That's amazing. Huh. I could do that, but I don't want to. Man.

Precision. Busy. And swing it. Are we talking about stride the other point? I don't even want to talk about us talking about stride in the presence of this. Here you go. It's getting a little busy. Too busy?

Nah. I love to play by that. I mean, when you got it, flaunt. You know what I'm saying? My goodness. That's why it's not too busy. Because, I mean, but you nailed it with the, like, the feel. I mean, that's what really shocked me.

Not that someone in 1933 could play all that piano. That could be at any time in history. The syncopation, the groove is unbelievable. And it's kind of ahead of its time. For sure. He's sort of, in a lot of ways, you know, the missing, not the missing link, but that real connection between, you know, stride and modern playing and solo piano. 100%.

You know, and then we always view it from the lens of Oscar Peterson and his outsized influence on Oscar Peterson. But beyond that, just, you know, how this instrument developed within the swing and the groove. I mean, it's at the Lewis Armstrong kind of level for piano, I would say. It's pretty awesome. All right, so we're going to move on. This is, we're going to go all the way up to the 90s here. This is Brad Meldow's intro from Live at the Village Vanguard volume 4.

I love how the 90s is sometimes becomes like a really modernist stuff. Yeah, it's like the most modern you get. We're going all the way to the 1990. This intro, though, had a lot of influence on a lot of modern players today. Got to hear the crowd noise first thing. Vanguard. Kind of tune up before you do an eight minutes. It's not busy yet.

Before you do an eight-minute intro, you got to tune up, the bass player. He just put two-up at the end of the intro, right? Salsa Hodon feel, right? I like it. Speaking of feel, right, from the art tatum, but this was, I think, a seminal moment in this kind of feel. He was so good at displacing these triplets. A lot of people started trying to play like this.

A lot of people started imitating this. Or they started to be busy like this, but they had nailed the time. They couldn't do it like him. He has such a strong sense of his own time. That's right. This is cool, because he's busy on it. He's busy in a different way from the whole. artative. It's compositional still.

Yeah. And then like the vertical versus the horizontal too. But what a great reminder to us that like intros can be busy. And the way they play as I recall this later on is like a nice contrast going in and out of it. Yeah, when they finally get into it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Larry, is this Larry Grenadier. Yes, it is. Yeah. Larry's after you heard him starting to this, Larry's like, I'm going to the bar. It's only 100 feet away. I'll be back. I'm tuned up. I'm going to order

a Sazerac and drink it and be back in time. No problem. Yeah, man. So Brad Maldow, live at the Village Vanguard. Art of the Trio, Volume 4, live of the Village Vanguard. All the things you are. Iconic intro, I think, at this point. Next one, Oscar Peterson Trio, Autumn Leaves.

Now, you have this starting at, like, right around a 40 seconds. Play a little bit at the beginning, too. At least up, like, see, play a little at the beginning. This is our podcast, but we play how it was a lot of one. Exactly. And, you know, there was a bunch of versions that he played at this. This one I love, because there's the Tatum Connection. Busy AF already.

Exactly. He goes next level on this, though. Huh. But then, you know, Zemeli. And then beautiful, of course. We can probably jump up to about it. No. Oh, no, let's play it.

We only got 20 seconds left. Come on, man. Alex is bopping his head, man. Because it feels awesome. We got Alex smiling without curse words. This is the radio. He's got a lot of ornamentation. Is that the most Oscar Peterson moment you ever heard?

Yeah, but he's like, it's kind of on 11 on this version. from most of the ones I've heard here it's gonna be simple right oh so simple so cute it's cute it's nifty oh it's gonna be like that just gonna be swinging watch it watch oh no he didn't oh no he didn't oh you should wait till the second or third course before you play all that Oscar oh no go ahead yeah this would be the highlight of any solo I ever played man he's like I don't my first course yeah he's just this is like the build-up Yeah, this is the apex for me at any moment. This is the beginning.

Maybe of my career. But he'll go simple at any moment, man. He'll care. That's a good lesson, actually. Yeah. Come on. Just effortlessly glides back and forth. That's the Oscar Peterson trio, live at CBC Studios,

1960. Autumn leaves. Unfrigan believable. Yeah, and that's a rare one. I'd heard that long ago, I mean, not long ago, but I was trying to find it because I remember, I was like, man, there was this one where this,

the spirit of the live, because I love his arrangement on that autumn leaves. But this one, So we're going to link to this. It's definitely not the most known of the ones, but it might be fun for you guys. It'll be in the playlist. All right.

So now our final one, our number five. Wait, final, really? Yeah, this is it, bud. We got five. These are the five of our favorites. Okay. Live at the half note. This is McCoy Solis.

So started at 42 approximately. Gotcha. And I mean, Elvin is certainly helping with the busyness, just all up in there. This cortex could get busy in a great way. Intensity level starts at 11. Oh, nine. Busy Butch?

Hashtag Busy. question mark this guy's got no time for anything and the left hand busy heavy busy but the way i mean the syncopation blues even little riffs are busy left hand is relentless it never lets up uh huh yeah those whole trios out of the man don't even attempt this if you don't if you want on your game this is this is do not get this busy expert level kind of stuff this is like a chef that throws in like 30 ingredients. You better know what you're doing. Oh.

McCoy, why you so busy, man? That's McCoy Tyner with the John Coltrane. McCoy, you know, it's funny, as much as we talk about Herbie and Chick and Artae and all these great, for me, you know, when I really, like, I don't talk about McCoy enough because, like, he was actually kind of my, I mean, Herbie, for sure,

but McCoy on record was the first, like, pianist that I connected with on, on such a visceral level and just, like, a love of music. You know, it is weird. I want to do that. I want to do that sound, man. I was the same way.

Real McCoy, all the Coltrane stuff, and we don't actually talk about him nearly as much as he's been an influence on either. And he's still out here, man. And what a kind spirit. I mean, look, I have not heard a great jazz musician that then I got the, when I did get, if I got the joy of meeting them,

that they weren't just the sweetest people and generous and just like their music. You don't get to be great that easy. I mean, Buddy Rich I heard it was an A-hole, but that could be. Notorious. Ray Charles, perhaps, but for sure. Well, that's it.

Those are our five. We got more, man. Why are you skip? So we're not going to do cold. Oh, okay, we did cold train already. Gotcha. Yeah. Sorry, we're going to go out on the bonus.

Not a hand down. We're going to go on the bonus. This is Sting. This is, yeah, Kenny Kirkland's solo on. This is your boy. Well, I just love this solo. And this, Kenny could get super busy and like rhythmic. This one actually, we'll see how far we get because he starts to get really busy later.

It actually starts out kind of simple. But I love the way it starts. So we got to start it there. Four 16. Sting. Bring on the night. This is from a live album? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this is the, this from the movie. Oh, for the movie. Yeah, you didn't grow up in the 80, so you don't remember this. This is a big moment. Bramford Marsalis, Omar Hakeem. You'll hear it.