You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Favorite Jazz Cities - #54

Episode Date: November 8, 2018

Today on You'll Hear It, Adam and Peter answer a Speak Pipe question regarding their favorite jazz cities. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Pete. Hey. You ever played jazz in Bozeman, Montana? I haven't, but I've played it in Missoula, Montana. I'm one up on me. I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast.

Daily Jazz advice coming at you. Now, we're talking about Montana because we have a listener question. We've got a speak pipe from a regular speak piper. Oh, a speak piper. I just made that up just now. We should let people know anyone can become a speak piper. It's super easy. You just go to You'll Hearet.com.

We have a way to leave us a voice message. It's really self-exam. explanatory if you go there. Yeah, I don't even have to explain it on here. But anyway, this is from Zoom. I think Zoom is in Vancouver. Vancouver, yeah. Seems right. Our friendly neighbors to the north and west. Zoom is a frequent speak piper, which seems to be a pattern once people get going on the speak pipe. They like it, we like it, and it's all good. But he also always asked some pretty great questions. So let's check it out. Okay. Hey guys, this is Zoom from Vancouver, Canada. I'd love to hear about some of your favorite

jazz cities. Maybe hear about some of the clubs you like to play at, some of the local scenes that you really enjoy. All right. Thanks so much. Peace. So I've not played in Missoula, but it doesn't seem like it would be a huge jazz city up there. No, I did, I believe that was at the gig at Boobo Boom, University of Montana. Is that in Missoula? I believe it is. Yeah. Did a nice concert many years ago. I'd like to go back. But I was just thinking some of the, he's asked about some of the cities. I would start with Van Vancouver. Great city.

Just because he's from Vancouver. And that's, I'm trying to think of, yeah, I've actually played there even outside of the jazz festival. But the Vancouver Jazz Festival is one of the great, great festivals. It's spread out over several days or maybe even several weeks, I'm thinking now, different venues. And just a wonderful audience, a bunch of really great venues from clubs to concert halls. Good local scene. Good local scene. I believe some good musicians from Vancouver, James Blake.

from Vancouver, yeah. And a good like infrastructure there are folks to stay, of course, a bunch of them go to New York

but yeah, that's a great place. I mean, I love Vancouver. And then so up also up there, Victoria,

which is, I believe, Vancouver Island. Yeah. Just a short ferry or helicopter or airplane ride away.

Has a wonderful jazz festival there and a beautiful concert hall there and just one of the prettiest places on the planet. If we're in Canada,

we might as well mention both Montreal and Toronto. Yes. Both have killing scenes. Yes. Montreal is like popping off right now. A lot of musicians from New York are relocating to Montreal.

Really? Oh man. Nice. Good folks moving there to be a part of it. There's a lot of art, obviously, and a lot of good food. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But also some really, really good music. So I would put Montreal up there for sure.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, great music scenes, they almost always are part of great cultural scenes. Absolutely. Great jazz scenes. Like it's very rare you're going to see that sort of on its own, like a great jazz scene with no food. No food and no other other kind of music and everything.

And it's such an interesting thing and it's such a delicate balance. It's amazing. I think how many great scenes there are. I mean, I've been in, you know, a lot of places. To me, there's more interesting scenes than there. Well, now, granted, I'm not normally going to a place to play. play music if they don't have a scene because there isn't the interest. So I'm sure there's plenty of those.

But I mean, there's so many great scenes. And when people ask, oh, where did you play and then you tell them, really? Do they have? They're always surprised at the number of places and the variety of them where there is an audience for this music. Okay. I'm going to force your hand here. Okay. Top three favorite cities to play jazz.

To play jazz. That's a tough one. I mean, because the favorite, like what makes it the favorite? I guess it becomes very much at that point. like really during the gig. So for me, it's kind of about the audience. Yeah. So one would be Paris.

Oh, yeah. Because the audiences are just so smart, but also energetic and knowledgeable, but not really snooty, as you traditionally would think of the French, you know. I mean, they're knowledgeable and they react in a great way. Basically, you know, they're giving you that energy. They understand the history of music. So, like, there's an expectation that you bring it. I love that.

I actually don't like going places when they cheer for anything that you do, whether you play good or bad. Like, to me, that's depressing in a way. It's not real. Right. We could make a list of our most unfavorant jazz audiences. But I think, you know, Paris is just, yeah, so that's one. Okay. And then, and this is in no particular order, of course, New York.

It's got to be New York because that's the same kind of thing. I mean, that's probably the pinnacle of just intelligent, energetic, hip audiences, you know. I mean, where it's just like they're so hip there, they're hipper than you. Right. You got to come up to their level, you know. And then I'm about to give you, you better be thinking of your three. I have my three, but I'm trying not to repeat yours. Yeah, yeah.

So then I'm going to say New Orleans because I love the spirit there. Like I still kind of feel like it's my hometown. I know a lot of the people in the audience and the musician. Like that's a very unique, again, very intelligent. I mean, we come across as being very ignorant actually from New Orleans, but don't get to twisted. We really know our music. We know our culture. It's a very organically cultureed place with the music.

It's very raw, but in all the right ways. All right, my number one, I'm just going to go New York, because I don't know how you could leave that off. I just said you couldn't steal any by three. I'm going to steal that one. It's too important. No, but it is. I didn't leave it off. What are you talking about?

No, I mean, I'm going to steal it. I'm going to hijack it. But it's so important that it's worth it because it's like it is one of the most incredible places to be and play music and you're just surrounded by it. It's the city so nice. They named it twice. They named it twice. It's so important to the music. And you feel that when you're there.

You feel jazz when you're there. It's great. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. That's what they say. From my number two, though, I'm going to go with Philadelphia. Oh, a little Philly in the house. It can be a tough crowd. They've got good music there.

They love you or they shoot you. But when you get them, when you get them on your side, that's fun. Now, that's a very knowledgeable. Very knowledgeable. And they have good local folks there, so they can turn their nose up a little bit. Yeah, and I'm thinking about, like, I mean, so many great Philadelphia musicians, but some of the ones that I kind of know personally the best. You know, Christian McBride and Warren Evans.

And, like, there's a reason that they're, they are such great musicians, but they're super knowledgeable, too. Like, they're total Philly guys. Absolutely. And then, I mean, I don't want to speak out of, you know, Christian and Orrin maybe turn off the podcast now. But I'm going to say, there's a little bit of a maybe with the music, there's a little bit chip on the shoulder because you're so close to New York.

You're not New York. You're not New York. I mean, it's Philadelphia. And, like, that's the closest city to New York. And anyone would feel, I mean, kind of like we have here with Chicago, maybe a little bit. But Philly's even closer to New York. So, like, they really wanted to bring it. But, I mean, the audiences are, it's just smaller than New York.

But, I mean, they're just as hip. I would agree. I'm sorry, I'm hijacking your number two year. But this is why I said it, because Philly is something to think about. It is. You know? And like I said, it's a tough crowd. It's almost tougher than New York.

Yeah. Because they can tell you when they don't like it. Right, right, right. You know, so if you get them, you got them. Well, I always think about, like, you know, a lot of these places, you know, the sports crowd and the music crowd, sometimes they're similar. And I remember Christian tell me about what was it, Veterans Stadium. Somebody was killed at a football game and they didn't find it. Like no one even took his body for four days or something crazy.

It's rough. It can be rough, man. Go Eagles. Yeah. So my number three, and because thinking about the audiences, but it's Tokyo. Because it's just a great place to, I mean, first of all, it's an amazing city. Yeah, the energy. It's a great jazz town.

Great jazz town. A lot of good music going on. And the audiences there are so knowledgeable and, like, do their research. Like, they'll bring your seat. and be very excited to see you and always feel like home there, even though it's so far away from home. Right, right. Well, I'm glad that you, because your first two,

you were within about 100 miles of each other. And we're talking worldwide, so that was good. You went about 10,000 miles away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are great, yeah. Cool. Well, Zoom, thanks for the question. You know, we've kind of done this a couple times,

this sort of where are the best scenes, where are the best cities. But it was good to kind of pin it down to maybe our top three at the moment. I wonder if we could, just this little bonus here, Is there one we could each pick or maybe we collectively one place that's not as expected? I mean, Philly was a little bit, but I'm still a major metropolitan area. Yeah, sure. One kind of city anywhere, you know, in the country or the world that's kind of an unexpected hip music destination. I'm going to put my hat in for Kansas City across the state here.

So first of all. Kind of birthplace of jazz, but I hear you. No, very important in the history of jazz. Yeah. They've got some amazing young, I say young, they're like my age, but like some really incredible local players. The good young players from St. Louis, a lot of them are moving to Kansas City, which is making me mad. We got to step that tight. We got to step it up.

But that's how good the scene is over there. They're playing like seven nights a week. But they have young musicians. Herman Mahari is a trumpet player. I think he spends a lot of time in Paris now because, as you said, it's such a great scene. Logan Richardson is an outdoor player. But they have some history, you know, with Pat Mathieu. A bunch of folks.

Charlie Parker. Well, they have. I fell in love with Kansas thing the first time I went there and there was an enormous statue of Charlie Parker's head. Yeah. And I was like, well, this is my town. This is a great place. But they have some really cool cultural institutions.

They've got a lot of young crowds, a lot of enthusiasm for jazz there and it goes a long way. Yeah, yeah, I would agree. I was thinking, the only thing I can think of now actually is a great place and I've mentioned it before on the podcast. And that's Santa Cruz, California. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Small community there. Never been there.

Yeah, it's, um, it's, They have a very, and I mean, this is very much around kind of one venue, the Kuomba Jazz Center there, but there's a very, I mean, it's such a wonderful culture, culture city and so many great things, so much beauty and nature and everything there. A lot of art and just one of the most beautiful places. And I mean, a lot of people think, well, that's San Francisco, but it's not, it's far enough away. I mean, it's kind of Bay Area, but not really. That it's really, it's its own little thing there. California is big, man. California is big, man.

What is it like the world's fourth biggest economy? It is. Yeah. I'll put it in for a little Santa Cruz, big shout out. That's great. Yeah, cool. Well, if you want to leave us a voice memo or a speakpipe, as we call them, you can go to you'll hear it.com.

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