You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Can't beat it? Copy it!

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

First Take Friday! Today Adam and Peter dive into Gerald Clayton's new album featuring John Clayton and Justin Brown.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, Peter. Yeah, I have a message for you. What? Full disclosure, this is our second take. Okay. Right? The first one was neither witty nor informative. I'm not going to blame you or me.

I was the only one talking on the first one, so. Well, then you just implicated yourself, sir. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear's podcast. Jazz. Explained. Thank God you finished that.

That was too much, right? I was a little bit of... I was trying to make it dramatic. I was pregnant with triplets, pause, right? Too much. Too much. So it's first take Friday. We have a brand new album from one of our favorite pianist,

a friend of Open Studio Gerald Clayton. Yes. Gerald's done a couple of different masterclasses with us. Brilliant masterclasses. Brilliant is the understatement, man. He's such a great listener and was such a great coach to our students. And he put out a new record just last month on the Blue Note label, a little small independent label on Rutan Forum, Peter, Blue Note.

That's right. Don Was is heading it up, a unbeknownst to many producer on this startup label. Can we get Don was on the show, man? You know what I'm saying? Guys a great interview. Yeah, Don hit us up. We'd love to talk.

Yeah. But this is exciting too because I feel like, I mean, this is just things are moving fast, which is, as they say, things move fast in the big city. But I feel like his last record, which was one of my favorites from last year. So good. But maybe it was two years ago now. Yeah. Live at the Village Vanguard. So great, though.

Yeah. That was a great one. We listened to that a little bit. We did. Did we do it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so I'm really excited, but it was surprised that he's got another one.

dropping already again, but that's the way it's supposed to be. Well, this is Bell's on Sand, and there's a few different collaborations on here. There's some solo piano stuff, which we might listen to a little bit. He's got two versions of the My Ideal standard. You know the tune My Idea? I love My Ideal. And he's got some stuff with John Clayton, bassist John Clayton. I love John Clayton. Sue Me.

Who doesn't, man? No, I love his playing. I love his Boeing. I love his, I love his talking to him. He's arranging. I love his big band. He's such. a nice guy, such a smart

educator. I mean, he's the whole package, so no wonder Gerald is great. I'm about to do an arrangement for a small orchestra and a vocalist. Kennedy Holmes, who's amazing. Yes. We're doing the national anthem for a NASCAR event here in St. Louis coming up. Yeah. Well, she

can kill the national anthem. Well, I'm looking, I'm doing a lot of... So you don't kill it. I know. I'm trying not to, but John Clayton's version is haunting me. Oh, I know. You can't beat it. It's unbeatable. And every... Well, copy it then. The problem is every version I've made I'm like, this is too much like John Clayton's

Whitney Houston version, you know what I mean? Now, I haven't heard this record at all, so this is exciting to me. Now, we're back to the Gerald Clayton. Yeah, Bell's on Santa's in the name of it. Have you heard this at all? No, not one bit. So maybe we should, I know we usually listen to the first, we should certainly start with those.

Just a little smorgish board. A little smorgish board, as they say up in Scandinavia. So let's start with the first track, which is Water's Edge. Okay. This is with Gerald Clayton, John Clayton, and drummer Justin Brown. Water's Edge from Bells on Sand, a new album from Gerald Clayton out on the Blue Note record label.

That's pretty stunningly. It's stunning. I mean, we're in here just like, wow. And so it's pretty amazing. Makes me really want to learn about this record. This sounds like another one that is going to reward us for some intent listening all the way through. And maybe we could jump to a couple other things, which we hate to do, especially now that we're hearing this. I mean, John Clayton, hello.

That was just, I mentioned Arco. That was kind of a premonition to that beautiful Arco playing. And is this Gerald's composition? I think it might be Gerald's composition. I'm having a hard time finding the exact credits on everything. There are a couple of tunes here by a Catalan composer. Yeah. Who passed away in 1987 named Federico Mampu.

Yeah, Federico Mampu. And so let's listen to that. From Barcelona, I believe. Barthola. Catalana. Yeah. Catalan. Let's listen to a little bit of this.

Demand de tu nom Le Flore. This is a Mampu composition featuring Gerald Clayton, John Clayton, Justin Brown, and a vocalist Morrow. Yeah. Let's check it out. Demand de Tu nom de Flore from Bells on Sand. That's pretty beautiful. So I'd heard of Frederico Mampu before. I don't think I've ever heard, consciously heard his music, but this makes me want to, you know, learn more about him, which is such.

I love it when great musicians, you know, go out on, I wouldn't say go out on a limb, but do something a little bit unusual that is beautiful, obviously. And I, you know, hopefully this is coming through on the pot. This is a beautifully recorded record. Oh my gosh. This makes me want to go find the vinyl for this. It's so gorgeous.

And, you know, really sit down and listen to this. I mean, it's just luxurious. Yeah. Amazing. It's a beautiful piano sound. It's resonant, but it's natural. I mean, fantastic playing, as you can hear, but I want to learn more about Federico Mampu's compositions.

And, you know, Gerald Clayton is, he's a thinker. He's a thinker and he's a player. And when that combination comes together, great things happen. Absolutely. Yeah. Let's go out on one here.

This is called That Roy. I can only assume that it's an original about, I assume Roy Hargrove. It looks like it's just Gerald Clayton and Justin Brown, but I could be wrong about that. Okay. It's called That Roy, and let's check it out. Yeah.

And until next time. Let's hear it. Oh, what? What?