You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - General Q&A

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

Peter and Adam dig through their inbox today and answer a few select listener questions - like is it cool to quote other tunes during a solo?Interested 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.Thursday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)For the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter, I have answers, but I don't have any questions. All the single ladies. All the single ladies. All the single ladies. Put a ring on it. Gotta put a ring on it. Lemonade, lemonade. Okay, now I have tons of questions.

I'm Adam Manus. I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the earlier podcast. Daily music, advice, and inspiration. Coming at you. Coming at you today is sponsored by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio Jazz for all of your jazz education needs. Today, we are taking some general question.

What is a general question? A general question is people... It's like general studies. What are you studying in college? General studies. You can... Oh, sorry. You can...

Such a general playing. Oh, first of all, did you hear my little Beyonce tribute medley at the beginning there? I did. Yeah, that was... That was three tunes. Lemonade. Yeah, no, that was singing. Put a ring on it and single ladies.

I guess put a ring on in single ladies is the same song kind of. What about like a little... Dumb... Bada-ba-ba-da-da-da-da-ba-da-da-ba-oh. Oh, going back early, yeah. So we get emails, is what I was saying. You can email us at YHI at Open StudioJad. Is that our general email address?

For general emails, if you want to do general questions. General inquiries. And then, you know, we had the call-in number, but I'm not. I don't know what you're trying to do with this column number. Because I thought that would be fun. Some people don't want to hit the speak type. No, I haven't. I just realized I had, well, I'm hoping I would get some kind of notification.

It's possible. We could have tons of comments. We would never know. But, you know, we're going to check it. So we're going to be confident with this. call in and leave us an old school voicemail. And you know what? We might just pick up the phone.

You never know. No, we won't. I don't know where it rings. Yeah, exactly. You don't even know where this is. I know what the number is. 314-282-6-4-37. Wait, do I hear something ringing?

That wasn't, no. Okay. We'll try that. 3-14-282-6-4-37. That's the you'll hear it. Hotline. What? Is it the hot line or the cold line?

This is like, remember you used to call in the radio, be caller number seven. Yeah, yeah. So be caller number seven. seven. Yeah. I just imagine us having like one of those beige button phones from the 80s, right? Yeah.

And it's just like, Hong Kong Philly, Bay, help you. The switchboard operate. So we have a couple questions lined up from emails from you all. And so I thought we could take some of those. So the first one is actually, I really like the way this is phrase. This is from Tomas. Tomas.

And I just assume, maybe it's Thomas. It's T-O-M-A-S from Norway. That's Tomas. Yeah. It says, hi, Peter and Adam. Love your podcast. Thank you, Thomas. I have a debate question for you.

Quoting during jazz solos, hot or not? You know what? The correct answer is yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And no. Yes and no. It's just like people.

People are the greatest. People are the worst, as we said. Quoting during solos can be the best. It can be the worst. And it can also be in the middle. It can just be in the middle. It can just be me. Yeah.

But I would say. we're going to break it down a little bit but let's look at this of course that's what we do here let's think about it as if you're not going to be this one's kind of binary if you're not going to just kill it with the quote

stay away from the quote because if it's a meh that's going to really push it down into that not hot as you would say hot or not so there has to be some kind of wit or

agility to doing this beyond just you're quoting something in a different tune. Like that in itself is not going to make this work. It's not going to make it hot. It's going to make it not hot. Well, yeah, if that's all you have. If that's all you have, it's going to make it not hot. Yeah.

So I think the first thing we can think about is that there needs to be a musical reason to do it. Well, because there's never a actual musical reason, but there has to be an alignment with what you're doing musically already so that it's not going to throw you off of what you're doing. Right. Because then it can be a fun. little witty aside. And it has to be the right kind of a solo. Like there's a time in a place for everything. There's a time to like tickle somebody. Maybe not at a funeral though, right? You know,

but at another time to make somebody laugh could be fun. Maybe not to a stranger on the street. That's illegal in most places. I wouldn't advise that. Not good. So it's that kind of a thing. Like it can be a great thing if you do it at the right time. So types of tunes, I know I'm kind of all over the place because, you know, it's that time of day. But types of tunes that I'm thinking of and maybe you could add in some, that this can work in rhythm changes for some reason. I find myself doing it there and getting away with it. Lots to do there, yeah. Yeah.

And why is that? I don't even know why that is. Because there's a lot of different melodies. A lot of melodies. Yeah, but there's a blues. There's a lot of blues. Yeah. I honestly think, though, with this,

there's nothing for me, there's nothing that ruins this more than it's feeling very contrived. Like if you are just like, if you're playing a blues. And then you're thinking about it. And then you're thinking about it. Stop. Stop thinking. In the middle of your solo.

and you just play the head to another blues tune. I hate that. Well, that would actually be playing rhythm changes over the blues. Right, right, right. But that's okay, too. No, but I think that, okay, so maybe we could sort of start to pinpoint the successful times.

If it feels, here's where it's successful. Can I tell you where it's successful? Please. When you're doing, like, if you're playing a blues, right? So I just was quoting Olio over an F blues, right? So if you're playing a blues and you're just playing, play a F blues for me here. One, two,

One, two, three, and something happens organically and you just continue with the quote, right? Like you do something that was kind of. No, no, no. You know what it was. It's like you're developing something. Yeah. Like that is a good case of just, oh, I've discovered,

I accidentally played something that reminds me of Olio. I'm going to continue on and use that as my melodic content. That can be okay. But even that, as you were kind of pointed out, you can tread on some corn, corn riferous territory there. Yeah, if you play it with confidence, and you're hearing it though can work. So let's do, okay, that's a good way to develop it.

And I'm going to do a bad way. Okay. Things you don't want to do at blues. One, two, three, four. Oh, my gosh. Contrived. Yeah, well, you're just playing a bunch of blues that you know in a row, two bars, four bars at a time.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's no bueno. Yeah. But I would say, you know, an overall concept that you might think of, and this is like as you get more confident which you're playing, but only

quoting another tune when there's a certain irony involved and like a little bit of a wink and it's a little bit hidden. It's not as obvious as like, I'm going to play a blues over a blues. And letting it come to you as just an idea as opposed to

you never want to say, I'm going to quote something and you plan that. There's no way that's going to work. Even if it's the most ironic, witty moment. Like you can't, You just have to let it come to you. Now, Charlie Parker was a great quoteer. Dizzy Gillespie, a lot of the bebop masters. Even Miles Davis would do some at times, you know.

Philonious Monk, of course. I mean, it really can happen at any time, Sonny Rollins. Now, okay, what are your thoughts, though, on planning it out as part of the arrangement? So let's say you're doing like, I fall in love too easily, right? This just kind of came to me. At the end, you know, we'll go skip to the end. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

I like that. that almost becomes a medley, right? No, just as like an ending. Oh. Right? So it's like part of the arrangement though, right? So you've used some kind of combined I fall in love too easily with when I fall in love. And a little wink and nod to the lyrics of each tune.

Right. Right. But that's like where it's so like you really have to like investigate to know what it is. Right. I think that's great. I mean, there's a famous one too on, you know. Misty. Yeah.

I mean, I wrote a string arrangement for this one time, and there's a lyric, you know, and the sounds of thousand violins begin to play. But I had like the winds come in and play right after it, because I was like, I'm not going to do that. Let's come on, you know. But. That's, yeah.

This is kind of an anti-quote. An anti-quote. I'm so cool. I can quote and be cool while I'm doing it because I'm going to put you in school, son. So, Tomas, that's not a clear, definitive answer? We'd say not.

But, well, or yeah. I mean, it's hot. It just depends. It's like everything else. Like, if you do it wrong, yeah, it's going to suck. Well, and you got to develop the, I remember the first time thinking back, like, wisdom. You have to develop your quote wisdom. Yeah, yeah.

Because I remember, like, first time I was like, well, I'm going to try this. And then you kind of start to do it. You're like, oops, this isn't work. And then you try to back out and pretend like you didn't do it. I'm too cool for that. I wasn't doing that. No, I didn't walk down the stairs. When you're young and you do it, you ever get the side eye from that experience?

musician. And then you try to back out before you. They look at you like. Right. Buddy Washington. Come on, man. Willie Akins. We might have both got that look.

Tasset. Mm-hmm. All right. This is from Sean. Learn some Italian, son. Yeah. This is from... Our friend, Sean.

No, Sean Simon. Why you put that man's full name out? He put it in here. He put it in here. He has a two-part question. How do you guys pick and choose what gigs you do, especially having a family? For me, it falls into these categories.

Time slash distance, pay, level of musicianship between the whole band, and of course, the hang. When did this question come February? Is it sitting in your headbox? If three out of four of these criteria are met, I feel like it's a definite win. The second part of the question is, would you sacrifice a gig that has extremely high-leveled musicians, even though who you're playing with can be extremely negative and dark about your own playing, making you feel inferior and subtle on playing with fun musicians that might not be the same level? level is you. This is something I struggle with sometimes. Constant negativity is not good for anyone's

mental health. Okay. So that one before I forget it, I would go with the former there. I mean, maybe not constantly, but I want to play with the musicians that are really good, better than me. They're going to challenge me, even if they're negative, even if we don't have a good hang. Well, yeah, because what you want to develop there is not just some musical might, but you need to develop some grit there with that and some mental fortitude to be able to understand that what they say does not affect your value as a person. No. Has nothing to do with actually your values a person or a musician. If you're a crappy person.

No, yeah, but you have to have confidence that you're not a crappy person. And really, you can't just, yes, even though we're sorry Sean, we're answering the part two first here, but I think it's a good point is that you cannot just give way to sort of a mindset that, you know, other musicians' opinion of me is what makes for an enjoyable musical performance because if you do then you will never have a good musical performance so actually consider that a challenge like oh I get to play with these great musicians and they're going to be kind of

a holes to me right this would be a nice challenge of my my mental fortitude yeah yeah because you don't want to I mean look I don't know it depends like so for me like I'm such an introvert that I'm very comfortable like I love to hang with people

and for it to be a good communal situation but I don't need that actually so like if the music is happening, that's fine. And this usually comes more to like, would you rather go on a tour with people that you're not really friendly with and you don't hang with, but the music is just slamming every night? Or somebody

where the group where the music's pretty good, but the hang is so great, I'm definitely want the music. And you know I love a good hang, but I'm like, I'm there to play music, that's my job. So that's the priority. To be honest, it usually doesn't happen. It's usually not one of the other. It's usually a good hang and a good band.

Yeah. So, okay, what was the first part of the question? So the first part is how do you choose, how do you pick what gigs you do? I just am so out of the mode of having any choice of a gig. So it's kind of, but I mean, I think in general, you know, there's always the balance between, I guess, three main areas that sort of transition in and out over the years and maybe even during different times. There's the musical development, possibility of musical development. So that would be more of what we're talking about with playing with really good players, challenging material, great. listening environments with great audiences all the things that have the potential to

help you develop your playing in a way that it could be more rapid and more more deeply felt than if you're just sitting and practicing so positive musical experience yes positive musical growth experience that's one and then there's just money yeah and kind of yeah just like real straight mercenary like that's what you're it's an exchange of money for the gig which is important you know I mean at different times for different people there's obvious reasons why it's less you know if you've got a sugar daddy or sugar your mommy then you don't have to worry about that which is great that never number two never comes into in the or if you have a trust fund I should say it doesn't have to just be sugar daddy sugar mommy yeah yeah but and then the third would be kind of professional positive development so you've got the musical positivity in terms of your development but then there's the like this is a good gig kind of politically or for my career because it's going to lead to something else sure so I think kind of recognizing those and then balancing them to where you are. So for me, at different points in my life, I'm thinking about

those in different ways. There's always a combination. You know, we have families and, you know, we're thankfully not the only providers in our families and we have spouses and a structure there that can provide and give us a little more flexibility at times. But there's always that balance of those things. Obviously, the musicals seems to be usually the most important and you want to put yourself in a position where that can be your primary thing. But, you know, you also want, it's not all or nothing. In order to get to certain musical situations, you've got to do the more political or stair climbing things. You've got to prove yourself, you know. And so you can't be like, oh, I only take things that are musically edifying. Sometimes you just got to pay your mortgage,

you know, so, and then there's not. That would be number two, I would say. Yeah. I think you, you nailed it. If I could add anything, just the way to frame this maybe is that don't do anything unless there's some reason to do it. Like you don't want to be on the gig and it pays crappy and no one's cool. And it's not leading anywhere. And it's not leading anywhere. And the piano sucks. And the piano sucks and the music sucks. Because then you're just having a bad time for nothing. Right. You want to have, you want to be on there. And if it's not fun, you want to be like, able to say to yourself, well, at least I'm getting paid. I mean, at least I'm getting paid. Or if you're not getting paid and the music's not good, you can be like, well, at least I know that

this is a step forward for me. This has some, like, you want to be able to just go to the gig and feel like you're getting something out of it, right? There's something positive that is happening. Whatever that means to you, you don't want to put yourself in a situation where there's nothing positive for you. And that's really the only time that I'll say no.

Like, for me, I was just talking with a mutual friend we have about price for a writing gig, right? About how you choose your prices. And for me, it's like, you know, there's some things that I've done for very little money. And there are some other things that were more, you know, more of a quote-unquote corporate writing gig or whatever. Yeah. That I have to charge a lot of money for because there's nothing in it for me except for the money.

And that's- They can be game changers, as I recall. They can, well, yes, because you can give them a price of like, I don't really want to do this. So, uh, is that commonly referred to as the F-U price? The F-U price. I don't really want to do this. Here's my F-U price. If you meet my F-U price, I'm going to be happy because it's, it's a great deal for you. Like I can- If you don't, forget you.

Yeah. I don't need it, right? So it takes a lot of, it takes some, some planning ahead. It takes some intention on your part. But just know that that is for you to make the best music you can and also to provide. Yeah. And if you start to like kind of understand this balance and it's like, it's kind of like rhythm, melody and harmony, we talk about the balance between those.

Like it's a pliable thing. It's elastic. So I remember doing like, I mean, I had gone on many tours in Japan since like the early 90s. and you know whenever you're you know you're doing tours in different countries like the currency fluctuation can really you know

affect the amount that you can make on different tours and if you're going to do it in you know euros or yen in this case or dollars how you're being paid and what their ability to pay and how they're selling you know there's a lot of things outside of your control so I had done a lot of tours that paid really well over the years in Japan and I remember the first time

I got invited with my own group to play I was like the offer I was so excited about because I love Japan I love the audiences there. I've done records over there. And I was shocked at the offer when I really looked at it. I didn't really pay much attention for it. I was like, wait, that doesn't include the plane tickets?

I started adding. I was like, wait. Am I losing money on this? But I did a tour anyway, because it was like, it was that third group of like, you know, you're trying to build to something. But it turned out the music, but I was like, okay, because I'm going to do this and it's not going to pay great, I've got to make sure the music is great. For sure. And that it's going

to lead to something. And I was like, if the music is good, it will. I trusted the process that it would leave as something. I mean, I've done regular trio gigs, like weekly gigs, right, where I knew, where I didn't get paid for a long time because I just wanted the best people I could get and and I wanted them to get paid and I wanted to, I knew I could build it. I had confidence that we're going to go, we're going to do this every week. We're going to build it. We're going to work on it musically. We call that vision. Yeah, I don't need to get paid because, you know, I can manage to not. And then. You got a sugar mommy. That's what you mean. Yeah. But then no, because we were able to

build something so cool, a lot of people started to turn up. I was able to then use that leverage to get paid and make some money off it and have a great time. But you had everything. Probably in the interim, it was probably the music that, but you had to do that. I remember being in a number of those gigs. Like the music was happening because you didn't just take it as a given, although you had good players with you. You built something. You made arrangements.

You like, okay, we're going to make this into something. But I'm not going to wait six months until the music's great. We're going to start the music being great now. Right now. And you know what? Never once was I drive into that gig and not excited to go there even though I wasn't getting any money. I was like, this is going to be awesome. I can't wait for this.

You know, so. Awesome. Well, thank you guys for the questions. Please keep them coming to YHI at open studio jazz.com or on our voicemail, which may or may not be checked. We're going to check it. I just have to, I don't remember where the heck did it. We'll find it. Well, it's at 314282-6-7 is right.

Exactly. Well, no, I'm saying, like, where do I retrieve it? Do I call that number to you? Yeah. That's for all for outside the U.S. You can country code zero zero one. Right. Or plus one. Plus plus one. Yeah. Plus one. Three one. Zero one. Ninety seven. A.T. called. They want their landline back.

No, you just dial Wisconsin six. You know that first question, hot or not quotes. How about landline? Hot or not? What would you say? I think it's getting hot again. You have one? No, but I hear it's getting hot again. We've always been hot at our house because we've always had one. You've had a landlider. You're joking me right now. We have one right now.

You joke me? I'm not joking you. All right. Joke you. So we're going to give real quick. Also, give us a rating or review because that helps us

the word get out on this. Like if you find some value in these podcasts, whether it's entertainment, mockery, if you like to laugh at us or with us, it doesn't matter. You know, we have some new reviews.

Yeah. Why are you jumping the gun, man? Come on. Sorry. No, go ahead now. Mr. Big reviewer. Okay, we have a one-star review. Do you know about this?

I do know about this. I'm surprised you're, because you're such a positive guy usually. Well, this is great. So I think we said on one of ours, we were talking about the Mount Rushmore of jazz, and offhanded, I think I said, well, it's a little bit racist, whatever.

I think I did too. I can't blame it only on you. Yeah. And we got to review. We lost a listener, probably several because of that, who said, really? You did it again. Mount Rushmore is racist.

Do you realize the whole world has ugly things in its past? Too woke for me. I'm out of here. I love that. Mount Rushmore is the thing that pushed it over the edge. All the other stuff we said. Is it that controversial? I know.

Also, we're white guys in our 40s. Formerly in my 40s. Nobody's calling us woke, but yeah. Yeah, exactly. But we're sorry. Look, we mean to entertain and to delight. We don't mean to offend anyone. So apologies if we do.

But come on. This is the other thing we can joke about or not even joke about, just acknowledge what's happening. But on a serious note, let's remember, like this music is, is like a big part of it is that it's protest music, which I'm very honored and proud to be a part of music. I think all great art is. Like you can look at different time periods, all great art music. And I don't mean art as in European music with powdered wigs on. That's not what art music is about. Oh, but isn't it. No, it isn't. Although with a couple of white guys sitting

there talking about it, you might think that. No, but just music that has artistic vision and weight and cultural significance. It's, it is supposed to be stuff that makes you. you think. And we're not going to all agree on stuff, which is fine, you know. But one star, come on. Come on. Come on. Tomorrow we're going to tell you about some, some other seven-star reviews. So we'll wait until then. Until then, you'll hear it.