You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Equipment We Gig With

Episode Date: April 15, 2019

Today, Peter and Adam answer a Speakpipe on the gear they use on gigs. Wanna send a SpeakPipe of your own? Check out the bottom of the page at http://www.openstudionetwork.com/podcast.Today'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.

You're Pete. Yep. Are you equipped? Equipped and minted. Equipment. All right. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin.

And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Daily Jazz advice coming at you. At you. Coming at you today. Today's episode is sponsored by the Oxford American. The Oxford American is an amazing cultural resource that we're so happy to be our, become our charter sponsor here on the You'll Hear podcast. And we've heard from some of our listeners that have purchased subscriptions,

that they're really digging it. It really is. The writing is incredible. And the subject matter is, I think, incredibly applicable to what jazz musicians are trying to do because it deals with a lot of roots music. And when you're dealing with roots music from the perspective of great writers

who are, for the most part, from the South and who have been steeped in that culture, then it makes it even more special, even more, like, immersive. Yes. And I think in this day and age of so much information, flying around in every direction. Much of it good, much of it bad,

to have a curated source for us to go to in a beautiful package, beautiful physical package, and online. I've been checking out there online stuff lately on my iPad. I have an iPad mini from about 2001. I didn't know if you knew that. Congratulations.

Yeah, yeah. But, you know, to have this organization and the editors there that have kind of curated the subject matter and the writers and it's just like you can go there and you don't have to think, wait, am I missing out on something? You're going to learn something. You're going to be entertained. And I think you're playing and your conception is going to be for the better.

Agreed. So go to Oxfordamerican.org slash y-H-I. That's Oxfordamerican.org slash y-H-I, as in you'll hear it and you can get some special deals. Yeah. So today we're talking about equipment. Why are we talking about equipment? Well, because we have a question. We have actually a slew of questions because we solicited some last week. Do you remember that? I know you're usually like a real move-on kind of guy. Yeah, yeah, I usually forget everything as soon as I say it.

But we did solicit. We kind of shamed our listeners into giving us some more voicemails, some more speak pipes if they go to, if you. I wouldn't say shame. I would call it an invitation. I was an invitation to excellence. I don't know what that means. The goal was I thought maybe we can get a whole week of speak pipe voice messages five. I think we got more than that.

We didn't. We only got three. Only three good ones. But we need more. Everybody, we need more. So keep them coming. but we do have three great questions this week from our listeners. So if you have a question, if you have a comment,

if you just want to call and complain. Right. You can go to you'll hear.com slash podcast and leave the message there. We're also thinking about taking some video questions because we've been blowing up on the YouTube's. I don't know if you knew about that. I mean, that's a relative term,

blowing up. In theory, our wonderful producer, Andrew, could get this question. So if you can figure out a way to get video to Andrew at openstudio network.com, which is not going to be that hard. Feel free to leave a. question via video. But let's jump into...

He looks worried. Andrew looks worried over there. He'll figure it out. He'll hear it. So let's hear our question. This is from Terry. Hey, Peter and Adam. New listener here, Loving Year podcast. I had a question. I'm a mid-level amateur

piano player, formerly a drummer from childhood. But I'm doing gigs on stage with piano and I know you can't really get into endorsing products, I'm assuming that. But I was wondering, can you talk about what you each gig with, what type of equipment keyboards or a keyboard that you like and why? I'm kind of looking

at different keyboards that I've either been using and brands, et cetera, and I'd be interested to know what you like and have an understanding of why. which might be helpful to me as I'm learning what I should have when I sit on stage as well. Thank you so much. Keep doing the great work you're doing. Enjoying it.

Thank you. All right. That's a great question, Terry. Yes. Thank you, Terry. And very cool that you've transitioned from drums to a real instrument. Came over from the dark side,

just like Darth Vader. No, I'm just kidding. Love your drummers. That's right. No, but actually, we've been talking to quite a few. I'm just trying to place where, and open studio members, too, A lot of drummers come into piano later on in life and stuff,

which is a really cool thing. Some of them really good. I think it makes sense. I think the two instruments actually work really well together. And there's some kind of bridge between them. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'm attracted to the drums as I know you are. It's a bridge over troubled water, I would say. I have a drum set in my basement that I like to fool around with.

And I think it's important for any musician to learn the drums and any drummer to learn piano. But anyway, to your question, Terry. Okay, so this is something we've kind of talked about. but you know for me and I know what your answer is on this too is like preferred is the Steinway D the Steinway D if we can't.

German if not possible we will go with New York I mean if we have to yeah I mean we're big fans of the acoustic piano we're not necessarily purist for it though but it does depend on the type of gig I mean if it's a if it's a trio gig or just a really straight ahead jazz gig where you don't really need that other palette

of maybe a Rhodes or some synth sounds. It's great to have a piano. Now, obviously, we can't bring a piano with us. So that's when we get into a situation where you might want to do a gig or get a chance to do a gig somewhere that doesn't have a piano. Or we could also talk about

what about if there's a substandard acoustic piano. Like, how do you make the decision whether or not you're going to bring a keyboard in? When is it better to just at least have your rig and know what you're dealing with? For me, it's almost always better to have the acoustic piano. I mean, you know, I keep like a tuning kit

in my car, basically, so that any piano I encounter, if it has a lot of unisons, or if it's really bad, I can actually spend 20 minutes on it and kind of get it as close to where I want it as possible. And how did you learn to do that? Just by doing it and messing up a lot of piano. You learn on your own, though. Yeah, YouTube videos, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, that's good for folks that. I want to do that. You know, I mean, you know me, because I've done this with you, I'm not afraid to annoy a person with questions about what they're doing. So every piano tech that I come in contact with, I'm like, how should I do this? That's cool. watch them, you know. So that's one thing is you can get, for like 35 bucks, you can get like

a decent tuning kit with a wrench and all the stuff you need. Yeah. And it's pretty self-explanatory, but you can also watch these videos. And then, you know, for me, and I don't know, I know you don't, you're not a big, like vintage keyboard guy, although I do see you eyeing the vintage vibes. Oh, I'm all quite a bit of vintage vibe. So I. Oh, and Terry, by the way, we absolutely can and will name. We've already named a couple brand names. Totally. And we'll invite the companies that we are talking positively about to come and endorse these and show you. That'd be great. Vintage vibe. We're on. We're on. No, but I, so for years when I played in the Marvelous Aaron Bode's band, I just brought a suitcase Rhodes with me everywhere. The one that's sitting right over there. The one that's sitting right over here in our studios. And I also have a Whirlitzer Electric Piano. That's kind of my go-to rig right now is a whirlie. Yeah. I don't mind not having the piano sound. I rather have a hammer hitting something. Exactly. That's my personal preference. I mean, I actually grew up a lot of my early gigs, one of very similar Rhodes suitcase model that, I mean, even before I was like,

driving and stuff. I'd make my sister, my mom, whoever gets to give me a ride, throw it the back of the Dotson. There you go. What, what? But I mean, you know, that the roads is such a great and fun instrument. And so now normally when, I mean, I can't remember a gig I've done recently where I just played the roads, but I've had roads, you know, supplementing the piano on a lot of gigs, depending on the material especially as well. Yeah. Although, you know, the vintage vibe has, it's so close. It's so close. It's so good. Yeah. So those of you that aren't familiar with that vintage vibe is a great company out of New Jersey. And they make several different instruments, but their main thing is kind of, well, they started out, I believe, fixing.

And they still do a lot of repairs and refurbishments and kind of mods of Fender Roads and Worleys and organs too. If you own any vintage keyboards, which I own several, you're always on there because you're always trying to fix them. Yeah, and they got parts. Yeah, so you buy parts and you watch videos of how to fix them. But they do have their own electric piano that they build and for sale, and it's killing. I mean, it just sounds amazing. And it wasn't somebody, didn't some company buy the Rhodes name? Yeah, I haven't played one of those, but I heard they're a little suspect.

I think, I mean, if you want a less maintenance, I don't know if they're maintenance free, nothing's maintenance free, but a less maintenance than an old roads from the 70s or early 80s to the vintage Vod is the way to go. But the reason why I prefer Rhodes is because there's a hammer hitting something. And it's because you can control the size. sound in a live situation. I think more than any live piano or keyboard piano sound that I've played live. You know what I mean? So I know I've seen you play as a secondary instrument, usually to a grand piano, a nord for electric piano sounds. I have a Nord as well. You have an electro? I have a Nord piano, but the electro is like the smaller version of that. Yep. And those work,

but even when I get on a gig with that, I usually put it on a road sound. I know. Because it's better than the piano sound. I know, generally. Yeah. And then, yeah, I mean, I remember playing, like, the Nord lead years ago, like in the 90s when it first came out, the original one. Wow. I remember seeing Michelle and DeGiocello playing that thing, like, bass lines on it.

Like, she was playing bass and killing. And then she went over for that for some sounds. And, like, I don't love with that instrument. Then there was, like, the Nord lead two. And then they got into more of the, and that was a lot of vintage synth sounds on there. Yeah. Then the piano, the electro, which kind of combined a lot of them,

and then really strong for organ. If you don't want to have the whole organ rig, you know, the B3 kind of situation. Yeah. Because then the piano, oh, no, maybe the piano, but the electro has the draw bar. The electric has the draw bar. I have the electro, I had an electro for a long time. And yeah, that has really good organ sounds. Yeah.

And, you know, for live, since Terry's asking about live situations in particular, I think it is important when you're playing any kind of, I mean, you can always just get a really good controller and then have a laptop and have every, you could have every Nord sound, every Moog sound, a road, you know, a sampled bows, whatever you want and just trigger it off of there. Yeah. But I always find, and I know a lot of people do that successfully. Yeah.

To me, like having something that you don't have to fidget with too much and that's kind of dependable. Like the Nord's have, like, never let me down. Like, they've never crashed like my laptop has, you know. Yeah. They feel okay. They feel okay. Yeah.

They're not. My piano feels better than the electric for sure. And the vintage vibe feels better. And the roads. The roads feels better. Anything, like I said, anything, well, some roads are terrible. Yeah. But anything with.

an actual hammer hitting either a string or a time is preferred for me. I've had a lot of the motif series. I was going to say you see a lot of people play the Yamaha, the motifs, and you see a lot of people prefer, especially for piano stuff, the Roland. Yeah. And I just don't know those boards as well. Yeah, I'm not super hip on the Roland when I have played them. I just don't, they feel too, like, it feels too mechanical.

The Yamaha, like, weighted action motif is, I mean, I haven't actually done, played it in years, but I always enjoyed that action. I mean, it's because it was a Yamaha thing. And it was super stable. And, I mean, maybe because it goes back to, you know, my days playing the DX7. I don't know if you're familiar with that. There's one right over there. Is there?

Yeah, of course. Cartages? Yeah. Expansions? I do. I have the whole E expansion. But those were great. I remember doing, I never had one because I couldn't afford it, but I would borrow one

from a neighbor of mine who played in a reggae band. He used to make so much money. And selling wheat, of course. No, just kidding. But he, no, he, the thing I liked about the DX7, and I think that this really went along with the motif was, Yamaha was super stable. Like you'd pop that car, you and the sound would come,

I mean, for the time right away. Yeah. There wasn't like stuff crashing and whatever. And for a live situation, that's the thing, a piano. I mean, I've been on gigs with electricity went out in the concert hall. For sure. And that's a great thing about having an acoustic piano, because you can keep rolling with that.

You and the singer are going to keep on going. It's so true, man. And so, you know. You want to be as close to stable, I think. That's why I could never imagine triggering stuff off of a laptop, unless, I don't know. We're not tech guys either. I think both of us, we prefer a piano firmly grounded in the earth. That's right.

You know what I? But, so, you know, Terry, to kind of try to be somewhat helpful. So the keyboards that we use when we have to use keyboards, we both have nords or use nords. And then we have both, to sum up, we've both seen in a lot of professional situations, you know, like, Robert Glasper uses a motif. There's nothing wrong with it at all. And you can load in any sample into a motif. At least you used to be able to.

Well, any of these are mini, you can do whatever. And then the roll in pianos, I know a lot of professionals who use and love those. Right. Right. And don't forget, at the end of the episode, see, you thought we were going to forget from last week. We're going to give you our actual number one tip about equipment. Are we really? Yes, we are.

We did it last time, didn't we? I just have to think of it. No, I think I've got one in mine. A nice little thing at the end. So don't forget, though, to go to oxfordamerican.org slash y-H-I to get your special subscription for $25 for $4 of those amazing issues. It's a quarterly magazine. It's amazing. It's incredible writing.

And it's all about, you know, southern culture, the roots of the music that we all play. Yep. And so what's your number one tip for equipment to bring to the game? Well, this is in the great tradition of Christian McBride, as in we're going to teach you something by telling you what not to do. I'm going to say you're going to want to stay away. from a Cassio tone. Oh. Nothing against Cassio tone.

But, okay, just to be fair, too, there's another company that makes a keyboard that we said what's good, which is Yamaha. They make something called the Porta Sound. Oh, yeah. That's a little toy. Stay away from that bad boy. And my tip is to always keep a melodica in your car. Ah, that's another one.

Yeah. Clips in your pocket. That's right. Yeah. Well, till tomorrow. You'll hear it.