You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - First Take Friday: Bill Charlap Trio

Episode Date: November 19, 2021

Peter and Adam listen to and break down the first track off of the Bill Charlac Trio's album "Street of Dreams", with Peter Washington (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums).Get your copy of the album on CD or LP HEREListen to the album on SpotifyHave a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeSupport the pod by spreading the word with the link youllhearit.com Learn more about Open Studio Pro: openstudiojazz.com/proInterested 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 Twitter | Instagram

Hey, Adam. Yeah. You know who this is? Yeah, I think I do. I can give you a hint. Okay. I just saw him 48 hours ago. Oh.

In New Jersey. Oh. Yeah. I mean, does that narrow it down? Was it Stephen Colbert? Close. I'm Adam Annas. And I'm Peter Martin.

And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Music, advice, inspiration, and dope listening, especially on Friday. Oh, you brought dope back. Hey, Peter, can I do my alternate? So you took care of the cold open as well as we like, Can I do my alternate cold open for you? All right, here's the alternate cold open. Okay.

Hey, Peter. Yeah. Oh, wait. Oh, hey Adam. Sorry. How do you like your fastballs? Uh, right down the middle. And that would have been, because we're talking today.

Yes. About one of our favorite pianists. Yes. But that track that we just started with. Oh. Out of nowhere. That's a fastball right down the middle, Peter. It is.

It's not really out of nowhere. It is out of nowhere. It's out of a, it's out of a 93-mile-an-hour fastball straight down the middle of the plate well when you're beautiful i mean look this is bill charlap we're not giving anything yeah um kwash kwash kwash kwash k-washington peter washington bill charlop just three heavy hitters they're all 93 mile an hour

and they're all kind of like pitchers they can actually throw about 108 miles an hour they don't have to and what a rhythm section is so good quality is so good and they've been high quality now for like over 20 years over 30 years over 40 years over 50 years Sue us. We're prone to hyperbole here. So they have a new record out on a fledgling label called Blue Note. And it's called Street of Dreams. And I know this is Peter's going to seem weird.

Like they're really taken, they're all in suits. They're on a New York City street. No. Yeah. Also, they're going in another direction on this record. No, they're really taking it out. No, man. I mean, this is like.

Well, again, when you've got it, flaunt it. That's what I say about these gentlemen. And I did have the pleasure of seeing Bill Charlap at our gig in New Jersey. he was there in, you know, checking the music out, but I think in support of his wife, the wonderful, amazing Rini Rosnes, and it was so great, I mean, so much piano talent in that family,

it's really criminal. Oh my gosh. It's only allowed in certain states, New Jersey being one of them. Can we do a bit of a vehicle analogy here to Bill Charlotte? So if he, if we're all vehicles, right, if we're all, I'm like a homemade mini bike

that you see like a teenager in High Ridge running down the street. He's like a Bentley. Like this guy, Peter, you're kind of a Corvette over there. You're a bit of a muscle car. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, but this guy, he's all class, man.

He's, he is all class. Mahogany interior. Exactly. I'm all ass. He's all class. You know, he's got the C and the L. He's like a Mercedes C.L. Actually, that's what he is.

You know, actually, you might be more like an Aston Martin. No, they'll try to clean it up now. You're right. I'm like a Hoosier Corvette. Big shout out to Indiana, by the way. We love you. Love you. I just drove through Indiana, actually.

It was beautiful. Would that be something you might be interested in? But, no, I totally agree Bentley. because I was going to be like Tesla, but he's actually way class. No, he's not like experimental and new like that. He would have nothing to do with Elon Musk.

Yeah, it's just because like, you know, he's already got it all together, you know. He could get in a Tesla and drive it beautifully, of course.

Kenny Washington. Maybe he's more like a Lincoln Continental. Ooh, you know what I mean? Matthew McConaughey, new Lincoln. Like a new Lincoln like it's, it's American made,

but it's really like it's, you know what we should do since this is first take Friday, which we should have mentioned, right? Oh yeah. Is that what we're calling you? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So instead of listening to these great out, well, we just listen. We should just talk about them and make car analogies. That would be fun. That's what we're kind of doing here. So, okay, so we do like to listen here on First Take Fridays. We like to listen to the first track. And this is our first time hearing this. This is the dupe. This is from the Bill Charlap's new. And this is totally the first. I mean, we're going to always disclose if it's something that we have heard because, but we're going to try to do these. I think the idea is just totally, like, because what we were just listening to is a later track out of nowhere. The great thing about Bill Charlap is, I already know I'm going to like it. Like, I know that it's going to satisfy that, that bone in me that wants that, whatever that, that muscle, that wants to flex the straight ahead, beautiful sound of just an ultimate master on the piano. And that this like very straight ahead trio jazz, man, it's like right in my wheelhouse. Yeah, yeah.

So this is the Duke. You know this tune? Yeah. All right. Yeah, it really, this type of playing, I think, in this trio, it's just a whole. Mark of, you know, I've heard this trio more alive probably than I have even on record. And, but it's very similar. Like, this felt like one take.

Yeah. I mean, who knows? Maybe they did. Well, no, I know they did do 10 takes. I doubt they didn't more than one. Yeah. Two, probably to get one for safety. Yeah.

But I mean, like this way of playing, it's very, you know, it seems like it's so in control that it seems like it's the opposite of how they play live, but it's not. This is exactly the way they play live. I mean, if you haven't seen this trio live, do yourself a favor. Yeah, go have one of the best nights of your life for music. It's really amazing. Like I said, man, it is a Bentley. It's like being in, you know how sometimes you get bumped up in the plane?

Yes, I love that. Damn, people live like this. Every time I hear this tree, I'm like, damn, people play like this. I know. No, that's such a great analogy because it's like once you're there, you're like, you don't want to go back. Yeah, man. You don't want to go back into, you know, we don't even call it coach. We call it garbage class.

There's first business and garbage, man. Wow. I've been there. I've been there. I know the smell of garbage. But no, yeah, it is. I mean, and they are, they're so masterful. But like I say, I really think that if there's any little slight, I mean, this music speaks for itself.

So as usual as we do on Friday, as we're talking about it. But if there's anything deceptive about this, and I would invite you as you listen to this recording to do, is to find all the really interesting, adventurous little alleyways that each of them go. Sometimes usually one of them kind of leads it. I think Kenny Washington is really good at doing that in a subtle way. Because he seemed like once you start listening to his snare drum and his bass drum interplay, there's so much happening. I can tell like Bill Charlotte has totally dialed into that. Absolutely.

So it's like, it's kind of like come around the corner here. So once you start hearing those, you're like, wow, there is so much going on. This is not just because if you don't listen attentively, this just sounds like the most fantastic hotel lobby trio ever.

Like they're just playing standards. There's nothing offensive about it. They're nailing it. There's no mistakes. but there's not maybe there it would be your own fault for missing it that you would think that there's not a lot of meat there because there is but it could kind of seem like they're playing it it close to the vest yeah but in fact just like the 93 mile an hour fastball you know the masters make that look easy oh yeah but to get that sliding you know a little bit of movement on it

a little bit of movement right like you got to really know yourself so this is the kind of trio that really attentive you don't have to be educated I don't believe in all that you educated listen, you just got to turn your ear in and then you'll be like, wow, I am not in the Ramada in the lobby. I'm in the Village Vanguard or I'm in the Carnegie Hall or wherever or I'm on Blue Note Records and you start to see that that that, you know, grace and elegance that's there, just like a Bentley, that there is a motor there and a spirit of adventure that it's super exciting and it's constantly turning. I mean, I think another analogy you could do here is a food analogy.

One of the best meals I ever... We'd never do that here, would we? We would always do that here. One of the best meals I ever had was surprise, surprise, surprise. It was in Italy, Peter. Ever heard of it. Italian cuisine. So, you know, you've done these Italy tours before, right?

You just spend all your time thinking about and eating food. Yes. Going through all these little, you know, usually like there's some, there's some grandma in the town you're playing at. And you go back to, you know, your hotel or their place, and she's cooking your dinner for you before or after the show or whatever. And it's great. But there was one time we had a couple of days off.

We found, you know, a really hip, modern, I think it was a Michelin Star restaurant from a young chef, But a young chef... I'm sorry, hold on. Oh, you've got your fancy pants on. Sorry. I was just checking. Yeah, yeah, I know.

I strapped them on there. So, but a chef who is doing some new stuff, but is obviously steeped in the tradition of Italian cuisine. And it was one of the greatest meals I've ever had because you could taste the history there. Yeah. But you could also taste someone pushing themselves beyond that history. It was like someone with just great fundamentals who knew every ingredient and how it worked with each other because of the history. because of the history of their culture. Yes.

And then pushing themselves. That's what this music reminds me of. Yes. Like, obviously all three masters are steeped in the history of the music, of their instrument. They know even things, obviously, beyond jazz in a deep way. And they bring that to the table. And then every gig I've ever seen them on or every record I've heard,

they're pushing themselves in these new directions. And that's where, I think, just like that meal, that's where the fun stuff happens. Absolutely. And I would just say this trio, I mean, you know, the main thing, that I would compare it to if I had to think of anything. I mean, there's so many historical references in the way they play.

And like you say, it's steeped in the tradition, but a lot of modernness later in there. But I would think, like the Hank, I remember seeing the Hank Jones trio play, 1991. First time I went to Italy, Hank Jones,

ever heard of it. Yeah. And Kenny Washington was playing with it. Would that be something you might be interested in Hank Jones? But this is like that kind of, you know, elegance and, you know, but very song, sense of groove, but very trio, you know,

very like taking advantage of all the great things that the piano-based drum, not just as a rhythm section, but as its own entity, its own ensemble, as they might say in France. That, that, you know, this is the extension of that this is the next generation. So, although Kenny Washington was playing with him too. So maybe that's the link. Awesome. So the tune was The Duke by Dave Rubeck.

Yes. It's the Bill Sharlap Trio and the name of the album. It's a Bluenard album. called Street of Dreams. Yes, new release on the Blue Note label, Go check it out. Every track is a banger. This would be a good one.

You know, I just invested in, why didn't invest, I just jumped back into Apple music because I've been playing with Spotify, but Apple music has the loss list and the spatial audio. I'm going to check this record out on that because I think it might be interesting

to really be able to hear it in a different way. Very cool. Well, thank you, Peter. Big job to Apple. Yeah. No. Thank you to the Bill Charlotte trio. Amazing, as always.

Until next time. You'll hear. Spirit.