You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Composers Who've Influenced Us

Episode Date: April 26, 2019

They're back! Peter and Adam answer the last SpeakPipe of the week about their influences from classical music. Wanna send a SpeakPipe of your own? Check out the bottom of the page at http://www.openstudionetwork.com/podcast.You'll Hear It: Classical Influences PlaylistHerbie Hancock's MasterclassListen to the classical works Peter and Adam discussed in this episode with our playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/zpb9n56jhvy0tq45oa0yo4r9m/playlist/3Z0lD2w690BztalkPBgEKE?si=H3OCJSSfTQ2u9evzer4tUgTake a look at Herbie's Masterclass here: https://www.masterclass.com/classes/herbie-hancock-teaches-jazz/chapters/ravels-creative-harmoniesToday's episode is sponsored by the Oxford American. The Oxford American is a magazine dedicated to documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South. Its award-winning annual music issue comes with a CD sampler and digital download - a must-have for any serious music fan. Recent issues have featured Nina Simone, Thelonious Monk, John Cage, and John Cage. Visit https://www.oxfordamerican.org/yhi today for a special subscription discount!Let 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, Heather. Hey, Kelly. Wait, wait. Wait. We're back. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hearer podcast.

Daily Jazz Advice, coming at you. Coming at you. It's good to be back. It's good to reassert ourselves. It was nice to have our better halves here. We did. The better halves made up a hole that we've never been able to quite do. But that was fun.

They big shout out to Kelly Martin and Heather Manis for ably sitting in for us. And just so folks know. Right? Are they better than us? Let's not push it. They were pretty good. No edits. No edits.

We usually mess up a lot more than what they did. They came in. We weren't sure what to expect. They threw a few curveballs, but they were funny. They were poignant at times. They talked about their kids a lot, I noticed, which was cool. But they're amazing mothers and women. And it was so cool to have them in here.

Absolutely. Yep. Well, today's episode of the You'll Hear podcast is, of course, sponsored by the Oxford American. Go to Oxfordamerican.org slash YHI for some great deals. You can get a full year subscription for $25. There's so many great articles about music,

music that has to do with exactly what we talk about on this podcast every day. So please go check them out. The Oxford American, that's Oxford American.org slash YHI. Yeah. So today we have a speak pipe. We have a speak pipe. Now we've been loving the speak pipes. We had almost enough for a full week, but not quite.

So please everybody. Keep sending us. You know what? Don't get dark on them, though. Because they're doing good now. We've got to give them encouragement. You know who hasn't sent one. Who?

Zoom from Vancouver. Well, I know. Because he would have put us over the edge. I know, but we said we love, whoa, hello. See, you are. That's what I'm saying. Don't go dark on me. Where's Heather?

She was so uplifting. No, so it's just, I think Zoom was kind of like he took it a little bit to back off and give other folks a chance to shine, which they did. He's always welcome because his questions are good. Well, here's one from Blake. Hey, guys, what's up? I just thought of an idea that might be, cool to talk about on the podcast.

So I was reading a Herbie interview the other day, and he was saying that when he was younger, he checked out a lot of Maurice Ravel, the classical composer. And I know a lot of that, or some of that music that he checked out has probably seeped into his jazz playing. And I know a chick, Chick Korea,

checked out a lot of Scarlatti, Scriobin, I think Debussy, too as well. So I was just wondering, have you guys checked out a lot of classical composers and if so, has that seeped in to your jazz playing? And, you know,

I just thought it would be a cool thing to hear you guys kind of elaborate on. Hope that helps. All right, thanks. Thank you, Blake, for the question. That's a great question. We've talked a little bit about our classical influences, but let's go full on end. Yes, let's do a deep dive.

A 12 minute deep dive. Both of us. Both of us started playing classical music. That's right, right. When we were children. Yeah. And I still love it, and I try to see as much live music as I can of all genres, but classical music is something that, to me, is just very special, seen live. It's great.

I love it because it's kind of like, I mean, I love the sound of it. I love the whole thing, but it's also fun to like, it's sort of an antidote in some ways to jazz in that, I mean, jazz we are going to hear part of which we're expecting, Like if you go to see a jazz quartet, saxophone, piano, bass, and drum, you kind of know what, and then they start a tune that you sort of know, you know part of it, but then there's this whole unexpected section. Whereas a classical concert, it's like everything's kind of expected, but the way that it unfolds and the energy of the day and everything, the notes are there. They're basically written so that improvisation element isn't there, but I love that. You know, it's cool about, from a jazz musician's perspective, studying a little classical music is doing some score study. Yeah.

Because we, not everything that we listen to, of course, we transcribe. Who's got the time for that? No one has the time for that. And nobody got time for that. And so what's cool about classical music is you have sites like IMSLP.org, where you can check out some of the scores of the great works of classical music. Or their sister site. Google Images.

Google images. No, that's true, actually. You can just Google the score. And you can read along as you're listening to the music. And you could see how the composer structure everything from melodies to voicings, counter melodies and counterpoint key changes and themes and all that stuff and it's it's all right there on the page it's really fascinating to uh to check out but you know um it's had it's classroom music has no doubt had such a huge influence on tons of jazz musicians i know you have a part of your

list today is sort of jazz musicians interpretation of classical music yeah yeah because we thought we wanted to i mean his question about specifically about herbie and him reading the interview about rebelle you know herbie was one of those pianists i think pianists in general in jazz i've noticed have kind of more of a classical lineage than other instruments. Well, yeah. I mean, it's because it's, technically speaking, there's so much great pedagogy on classical piano that it helps get your chops up. It does, yeah. And the technique, I've always believed it to be very similar

that's required. Whereas for other instruments, some other instruments, it's very, I mean, for bass, it's, I mean, of course. Way different. Yeah, I mean, the left hand stuff is great, but I mean, so much pizcato instead of. I mean, even for things like trumpet and saxophone. Yeah. It's so different. Different sound and I'm sure. But yeah, Herbie, that, so. he's somebody that, you know, he has the great, is it possibilities his autobiography? Yeah. Yeah.

He talks a lot about his early exposure to, he had a really good classical teacher growing up. And then, you know, of course, played with the Chicago Symphony, the CSO at it, like, when he was 15 or 14 or something crazy. And, but he recorded, I actually heard him do this live one time in Europe, this, the Ravel

piano concerto. And he put it, it's such an odd place to put it, but it made so much sense musically. Conceptually, it's like, what? On that Gershwin record, And Herbie's great about it, especially like the last 20 years or so, of like having these theme records and then putting something on, like the Joni Mitchell record had like some, had like a Wayne tune or something. Yeah, it wouldn't. It was, I can't remember. I can't remember. Yeah, but he kind of always says, so the Gershwin's world record had Revelle, you know, but it actually makes sense and conceptually, I mean, from a musical standpoint in terms of the influence on Gershwin and stuff. But he goes full on into interpretation, like in doing some improv and change. some things up. So maybe we'll just hear a few seconds. Let's check a little bit of that out.

Here we go. Have you played much Revelle? Yeah, I played a little bit. And more Debussy than Revelle, but I love. Yeah, I love, I've listened to us. La Vals. I actually got to sit, like, in the orchestra. And with Berlin Philharmonic playing that.

Amazir, Sir Simon Raddle conducted. That's one of the most memorable musical experiences. But, you know, to answer your question, partly with just sort of a resource, if you check out, and I just wanted to find it. Yeah, in Herbie Hancock's, Masterclass, which we don't talk about a lot, a little bit of a competitor.

No, they put out some amazing content, and Herbie Hancock has, his teaches jazz, see, Masterclass is calling you right now to thank you, man. But they are, he actually has a lesson, Revelle's creative harmonies. Do you know about that? No. Yeah, so he really kind of does a little dive into, it's jazz players, don't just learn from other jazz players. One of Herbie's harmonic touchstones is the French composer, Maurice Revelle, learn how to add

some of Ravelle sound to your bag of harmonic tricks. So you might want to check in on that. We'll put a link below for that. That's great. Well, I chose a couple of selections here that aren't jazz musicians interpreting classical music, but some of the pieces that have influenced me directly in the music I make. And the first one is a Beethoven string quartet. This is from Opus 130 in B-flat.

one of the later Beethoven string quartets, absolutely amazingly gorgeous period in Beethoven's writing. Amazing. This is, I figure what movement this is, but this is the cavatina movement of that quartet, and it knocks me off my feet every single time. And I think there's so much, you know, last week we were talking about voicemleading.

There's so much voice leading in this that has influenced what I want to hear in my own voice leading. So let's check out a little bit of that. Every time. Every time it kills me. You know what it is? it's that bass movement, right?

We talk about baselines all the time, but listen to when the cello mimics what has just happened before them and goes into the minor harmony. Yeah. Every time. Yeah. I lose it.

And that's what I was talking about before. I'm like, we know exactly what's going to happen. Yeah. But it's almost like this cool. It's like you've been going to a restaurant, you're ordering. Somebody's fun to order something you don't know. Yeah.

Sometimes it's fun to get an old classic that you like and you can't wait until you get to that third course or whatever. But even when you know what's going to happen. Yeah. Shut up. making myself some way fancier than I don't actually

go to restaurants with three choruses but I've seen it in movies before on Netflix. Shout out to our buddy Sean Weil for a hip and me

to that track because yeah and it's the Guinari Quartet that performs it which is one of the best string quartets in the world.

I'm going to go on with my second one because you have some others after this but another one that has influenced my jazz playing and writing especially

is Philip Glass and this is actually from what is this the New World Saxophone Quartet and they're playing one of

Philip Glass string quartet, string quartet number three, Meshima. Check out the sound. It's one of glasses, more famous pieces for sure. But there was something about this when I heard this done by the saxophone quartet that completely opened me up

to him in a way that wasn't before. I don't know why that sound hit me so hard. I think it's, I mean, you know, he's like the king of the eighth notes. And I think the precision, which the valves can open up that rhythmic eighth note pulse. And man, they're nailing that intonation on that.

I mean, that's definitely, I mean, It's got that Baroque influence to the lines, but there's some real, talking about Revelle, and it's on my mind, Revelle to the way he orchestrated those saxophones. Like with the movement below together, you know, that's some real, so that's met. And in the real modern sense of rhythm, you know,

the minor major seven. Layering rhythms over each other. Yeah, yeah. That's cool. I'm going to check that out. Well, maybe I'll just choose one more because, is that cool? Yeah, sure. Okay.

You look so disappointed. man. We got other stuff to do today, man. We're not just a podcast machine up in here. There's always tomorrow. He's still nervous about the ladies upstage in us the last couple days. That was rough. All right, you got one more. Okay, so this is, you know, going along with this theme.

All right, I'm going to do two more. How about that? Okay. This one is my friend Cyrus Chestnut, our friend, from Baltimore, Maryland area, amazing pianists. He's always had some, like, things I've seen him do live over the years, kind of fun takes on. I mean, look, when you try to,

try to jazz up classical. That's a slippery slope. As in you immediately slide down into a corny area. Playing some Claude Bowling before you know it. Whoa. Oh, shady. Shady on Claude. No, but, right.

But this, I love like the way he does. We're going to listen to two things. Okay. And this is how great I think Cyrus Justin is. We're going to listen to Cyrus Justin. And then you'll hear the next one what we do after this. But this is his take on Debussy's Goliwog's Cakewalk. And this is a song that I played as a kid growing up.

And I always thought it was like kind of jazz. I didn't really know what. I was like, wow, this is jazz because it was definitely an influence of American music on Debussy. Let's hear. Cyrus Chestine can make just about anything swing hard, right? And the thing is, yeah, absolutely. But the thing is, I think he really hit on something like the ones, sometimes he'll take something that's just, like, this is already kind of swing because it's based on rag time. Yeah, there was a ragtime influence on it.

About, upto, about it. Yeah. Yeah, so there's some syncopation, but he really places it in a way, but then doesn't change the melody, really. It's super cool, but in the arrangement and the rhythmic interpretation of the drum. and stuff. It's a lot of fun. Cool. I have one from, this is from a composer who I think is like a year younger than I am. His name's Caleb Burhan's.

He's a very talented violist, violinist, and composer. He's with Alarm Will Sound. He plays here in St. Louis quite a bit, New York-based chamber music ensemble. This is from his record, Even Song, and this is his Magnificat. This is like, to me, some of my favorite new music Caleb makes, and I hope to hear a lot more from him soon. But this is

his organ and choral work magnificent. I'm going to kind of watch it in here. So some of the most exciting things about classical music from, orchestral music from the last half of the 20th century in this early part of the 21st century is the way in which extended techniques have really been fleshed out, exhausted to the point where now, like, there are ways of getting techniques

that I think were not possible before that are so detailed. And I think musicians from all genres are borrowing those kind of things. And so the first time I heard this track and I heard the sliding between the voices, I knew that was something that I wanted to borrow. You'll hear it. But you know how you hear... On a future out of madness composition. When you hear the sounds that you just know like that resonates with me so strongly.

And that idea of, you know, creates an emotion. I haven't really heard before that much. And this was one of those moments for me. Absolutely. Well, and I think, I mean, look, this art and music, nobody owns it. No. And it's all there for the, and that's what I think is so great. And, you know, about this. Now I'm forgetting, who asked the question?

What was the original question? Blake asked. Oh, yeah, Blake. Yeah, okay, that's right. About Herbie. So that's why, okay, so Herbie and Revelle, that was sort of our whole, this wonderful journey down classical influence on jazz. I think what you see is, I mean, Herbie just takes the composition, and then,

adds his flavor to it. So he's gone full circle with the influence and then made it his own and then is bold enough, but musical enough to just take those notes and improvise and mold it to his liking in a way that's super interesting and edifying, I think. All right. Last one. What do you got? So this is kind of my original, you know, impetus to really want to play jazz piano because it was one of my dad's favorite records piano starts here. I've talked about it before Art Tatum, but he plays the song humoresque this composition by Dvorzac that I had actually been

I learned years before on the violin and the piano the original version from the Suzuki method and so then I heard Artatae I was like wait isn't that the same song I'm like dang you can do that jazz and just make some stuff up and that started me down the slippery slope the rabbit hole of trying to play like Artatum TBD date on that one

so this is Artatom piano starts here humoresque well how good is that Very. What's the scale? One to ten? 11. Yeah.

That's great. That's awesome. Well, please let us know your favorite classical pieces either interpreted by jazz musicians or pieces that have influenced your playing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We want to hear from you. Check out our playlist. We're going to include a link below. That's right.

And we got anything else? No, but we're going to get back on the ultimate band wagon at the end. Ultimate. Remember? Oh, our Ultimate one? Yeah. Oh. Did we have anything else still on there?

Yeah, I have an Ultimate one. All right. How about a little, uh, um, palestrina. Oh, can I get a what, what, palestrina? A kitty, kitty.