You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - It’s Time: Joshua Redman’s Spirit of the Moment

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

For the first time ever, we’re digging into an album Peter actually played on. In this episode, we go deep on Spirit of the Moment, saxophonist Joshua Redman’s 1995 double-CD live album, recorded at the legendary Village Vanguard, with Peter on piano, drummer Brian Blade, and bassist Chris Thomas. We explore how Redman rose to stardom in the ’90s, stories from Peter’s New Orleans trio days, and what it’s like to be onstage for a now-classic recording. Plus: crowd gasps, Josh’s nods to Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and his father Dewey Redman, the art of laying out, and why this record still inspires a specific crowd of 17-year old jazz pianists 30 years later.

Yo, Peter. Hey, man. Man, these intro tunes have been getting kind of out of hand. I know. I know. It's been bonkers, man. You know what, that's my bad. A lot of, no, I mean, cool arrangements, but a lot of hits, a lot of re-harmed.

It's getting fussy. It's a little fussy. I thought today maybe we go, like, straight down to it. Oh, what are you thinking? Well, for this album, you know, St. Thomas is classic on here. Sonny Rollins' tune. Yeah. Key of C.

I made a lead sheet for everybody. I don't really need it. I mean, Bob probably does. One, two. One, two, three. And. Yeah, guys. That's what I'm talking about.

What do you think, Pete? Can we play St. Thomas? I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Music Explored. Explored. Brought to you today by Open Studio.

Go to Open Studiojadjazz.com for all your jazz listen needs. Peter, did you know that we have a brand new YouTube channel that's devoted to just performances? I've heard of such a thing. Is it called Open Studio music by any chance? It is indeed called Open Studio. Music. Performed. That's right.

We're going to end this episode with a version of St. Thomas, and that version of St. Thomas is going to find its way over to the new tracks channel, open studio. Music, we already have. We've got a couple hits on there already. We've got our version of Michael Jackson's Rock with you from our off the wall episode from this podcast is over there. How is that? People are liking it. Really?

Okay, I'm going to check it out. I don't want to, no, no, I'm like an analog follower. What's the herd of anelope? I'll follow them off the cliff. Yeah. But go check it out. Well, actually. Oh, that was the two.

piano one. Yeah, just the piano vintage and we switched at the end. Oh, right. Good time. So go over there, check out Open Studio music on YouTube. There is a price for that.

It's free 99. That's free 99. It's affordable, but it's not nothing. Well, it actually is not free. You have to subscribe. If you enjoy it, if you don't like it, just leave. Give us this up.

We're also doing like original music over there. Yeah. Probably going to make an album here. We're having fun. Yeah. So today, Peter, is a weird day. It is one of our most requested albums ever. It is an album that...

By you. No, by our dear listeners. It's an album that I was infatuated with when I was a young man. In fact, me and all my friends in my friend group would talk about this album, listen to this album. It was just a lot of fun if you were in high school and a jazz nerd, which I was in 1995. It is Joshua Redmond's Spirit of the Moment, live at the Village Vanguard, of which you are playing on. Yes. This is the very first time we are listening to an album on the ULTN.

here podcast that Peter Martin was on. And this is one that your fans really, really appreciate. They really love all of your solos. We get requested. Can you guys talk about St. Thomas? Can you talk about Jig-a-Jug? And so, yes, today we are talking about it. I'm excited. Can't you tell? How are you feeling? Honestly, how are you feeling? I'm feeling fine. I'm actually more, I'm lessened to the listening of it than the, I do know people love this record. I think it is a great record. But I haven't listened to it a lot. What's interesting to, there's so many records that, like what you mentioned about being in high school with your friends, like, I kind of had the exact same thing, probably 10 years earlier where I was listening to like Wint Marcellus with Kenny Kirkland, you know, Brandford, Jeff Tane Watts on Black Coats from the Underground, and then Jay Moved with Marcus Roberts, those records, because those guys were like 10 years older than us. But they seem like they were just light years ahead of us and everything.

But when you're in high school and you've figured out a little something, and then you hear some guys and gals that are still kind of young, but this seems like, dang, how can I get there? You know, it's a really exciting time. So I get that. And, you know, a lot of people have, I mean, this is probably one of the most talked about records just from people coming up to me, as you said, that are just like, oh, I love your thing on that.

But it's very interesting because I haven't listened to this record very much. In fact, I've almost never listened to it. I've heard it, of course, and we're going to hear it. This might be the most I've ever heard it in years for sure. And I was evolved a little bit in like the mix and listening to it right at the time. But since then, I just haven't really listened to it. So it's very interesting to just get other people's reactions to something. Because normally, if people tell me about a record or something, I go listen to it.

Or it's something that I already know. And so you're getting people's comments and reactions and connections. You have that connection through the music. And so weirdly for me, I don't even feel like I have that connection even though I'm on the album. Well, it's this album, by the way, too. This is a timely podcast about it because it is 30 years old this year. Damn! Wait, hold on a second. Damn!

I know. Wait, you were in high school 30 years ago? I'm old, man. That's right. But you're older. And when did you graduate exactly? Let's graduate as a loose term. Save for me.

So, but this is, this will be a fun, if not, slightly uncomfortable episode for Peter. It's always weird hearing yourself. I feel like 30 years, though, is enough time past probably where you could be like, that's a whole different dude back then. Right, right. How old were you when you made this? I'm just looking at the dates. I was 24. 20, wait was this, yeah, 95, I was 20, March 95, I was 24.

Just a, just a pup. I was just a pup. But I felt pretty well seasoned at this point. We were started out earlier. We did some stuff. Because yeah, this is, it was released August, 1995, recorded March, but I'm pretty sure that was 95, we recorded. It was, it was March, 1995.

Yeah. The 21st and the 25th of the Village Vanguard was when these sessions took place. This was released on Warner Brothers Records. Right, Warner Jazz. Warner Jazz, under Joshua Redmond's name. Yeah. One of the best live jazz albums of the 90s, kind of like across the board,

people talk about this one as up there as far as like live jazz albums. One of the best Village Vanguard live albums ever. And Joshua Redmond, also a young pub. He's about your age, I think. Yeah, he was probably, I think he's like two years older than me, maybe. That's about right.

We were all right around this. The whole quartet was within one to two years. Actually, the rhythm section, Brian Blague, Chris Thomas, and myself, we're all born in 1970 within a couple of months of each other. Yeah. We'll get into the rhythm section in a little bit. Sorry. No, it's all good. I know we got to talk about the saxophonists first.

I know how this party goes. We'll get there. We'll get there. I think he solos first on every time. So like you, Peter, Josh Redmond comes from a musical family. His father is also, like you, a professional musician. The great Dewey Redmond, the center saxophonist. Dewey Redmond famously played with Ornette.

Coleman here in the late 60s. This is round trip from New York is now. Two tenors. Yeah. This is actually Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. Oh, wow. On this album. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh. Isn't that great? Hornet Coleman, Dewey Redmond, Jimmy Garrison on the bass, Elvin Jones on the drums. Yeah, Trains rhythm section. Yeah. With those two tenor titans.

Pretty great. Did you ever get a chance that was Dewey ever around when you were in Josh's band? Yeah, he was. And I'd actually met him. before that and I got a chance to play with him a little bit and he was a really it's such an intro

I could do a whole other episode on the connection musically and obviously genetically father's son between Josh and Dewey super interesting in terms of their concept and stuff but of course I was really even more familiar at this time

with Dewey's work with of course the American Quartet with Keith Jarrett because I'd been listening that stuff a lot actually because of Brian Brian Blade turned me on to a lot of that stuff, strangely enough, around this time. And this was still in definitely a period for me of discovery. I mean, as much music as I heard and learned growing up, still when I was in my early 20s, thanks to people like Brian Blade and Chris Thomas and Joshua Redmond and Roy Hargrove,

I mean, they would turn me on to Nicholas Payton, turn me onto so much music, man. I felt like a little green puppy, you know, like Kermit the frog or something, just like totally green. So it was a very exciting time for me. Yeah. Well, Joshua Redmond, having such an incredibly accomplished father, of course, naturally became a musician. I don't think he got there in a straight line, though. No, not at all. He is a smarty pants of a guy and probably could have done anything. He ended up, thankfully for all of us, turning to the tenor saxophone and turning to jazz. And in 1993, he made his debut.

This is from the self-titled album. This is Blues on Sunday. We've got Joshua Redmond on a Hunter Saxophone, Kevin Hayes on the piano, Christian McBride on the bass, and Gregory Hutchinson on the drums. Quite a line. Early 90s jazz, baby. Early 90s jazz. A little throwback. Yeah. Hey. Oh yeah, this was on Warner Bros. Yeah, he came out on Warner Bros. Yeah. This is a really young Christian McRae. It's a really young everybody, but it's so fun because like McBride, Kevin Hayes,

everybody, John. They already had their personalities. Like, this is how they sound now. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was a very, there was a lot of strong musical personalities, even though we were all very insecure and, like, still trying to figure shit out for sure.

I mean, I remember this whole period. In fact, Josh, right around the time, that was 93, I think, 92. He came down to New Orleans, and I think it was before, like, he won the Monk competition, the Thelonius Monk Competition, which was a really big deal then. I guess it's still a big deal, but it was really big then because they had just started. And I guess it was a couple years before he won before we did all this. But anyway, that's kind of what led to the debut album and the Warner Brothers deal and stuff.

So the first album with a bunch of his peers, Kevin Hayes, McBride, Hutch, are all around your guys' age. Next album with sort of the generation above Joshua Redmond, Pat Metheny, Charlie Hayden, and Billy Higgins. This is Wish, which is a lot of people's favorite album. I thought that was the first record. They're around the same time. That's right, right. Yeah, same year, actually. This is turnaround from Wish.

Yeah, the legendary rhythm section here of Pat Mathini, Charlie Hayden, Bill Giggins. And Josh got to tour with this group. Well, he toured with Pat Mathini, but it was essentially this music, which was such a great experience for him. I mean, all of us, that was a cool thing. We got to do a little bit of touring with the elders, with the masters, so important because there's so many gigs. We were playing so much together, different iterations and stuff,

but such a great thing that the masters gave back to us and let us be on the bandstand with them. When is the Pat Mathini episode happening? That's what I went. Oh, yeah, we got to do that. We got to do that. Next up, 1994, this is now

when we played on the podcast before when we were talking about Brad Meldow. This is Moody Swing. Brad Meldow. This is heading home. Brad Mildow. This is heading home from Mood Swing. Oh, yeah.

So we're all leading up here to 1995 95. Yeah. And this track is actually a little, this is a little unusual from the rest of that record. This is kind of foreshadowing to more the like,

funky crossover stuff Josh would do later on. But this is Brian Blade, Christian McBride, Brad Mill now. But this is leading into some things that we're going to hear on the spirit of the moment. And then it's later,

especially with like the elastic band and that kind of stuff. Do we get funky on spring? I don't even remember. There's feelings of funk. There's not like this, but it's feelings. of it for sure. As all of this

is going on, there are a swell happening in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Yes. There are many, many young musicians who are about your age, including you, Peter. Yes. And there's especially a trio that has made a name for themselves, and it's a trio of Peter Martin,

Chris Thomas on bass, and Brian Blade on the drums. Yes. You all are playing together, I don't know, how many nights a week? A lot. A lot. We had a gig. One of the gigs we did on the week, we were playing with everybody, and then we were playing as a trio, you know, with Victor Gohens in his band, with Nicholas Payton, he was playing with us.

But we had a great gig for a while at a place called Charlie B's. Charlie Bering, great personality, impresario, RIP, Charlie Bering, opened up a club in the Warehouse District for a while. And the gig started at one and one until either four or five. I can't remember. It was an after-hours kind of gig. How much would they have to pay you now to do a gig like that? It'd be easy.

I'd get up early. That would just be an early gig now. It was a late, but we'd always have a gig. If you have your green smoothie, you go to the kick. Yeah, I was like, oh, this is great. I don't have to stay up late tonight. Go to bed by six, yeah. But yeah, no, it was such a great time, though.

Oh, man. Well, speaking of Victor Goans, Victor will often joke that, like, Josh Redmond stole my rhythm section. Man, I forgot about it. This is good. You found all this online? I know some people personally in this scenario, as it turns out. So this is for Mother's sake.

This is from Victor Goans' is 1992 album Genesis. So Victor, uh, tenor saxophone is, famously from Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, New Orleans guy, and he had hired you and Chris and Ryan as a rhythm section, and within a couple of years you'd be playing with Josh Redmond, the three of you. This is, for Mother's Sake. Oh, man. It's Nicholas Payton on the truck.

Teenage, Nicholas. Peter Martin, Chris Thomas, and Brian Blade. So here you're 21, 92. Probably. Yeah. And Nick is probably 18, 19, yeah. But we were playing with even before then he was 16 is what I think when I met him. He sounded like this.

What's in the water? There was a lot of like thinking back on it, man, we played so much. And then we were just like rehearsed. Sometimes we wouldn't have a gig. We'd just be like, all right, we're going to rehearse. Can you imagine calling someone now? Can you just rehearse, just jam? You remember when old cats would be like, take advantage of the time when you're young?

I know. Because you don't get it back. And you're like, yeah, whatever. We'll be fine, but it's true. That time that when you're teenagers, when you're in your early 20s, is the time to, like, do crazy stuff like rehearse all day, go play all night. You know what I mean? It gets harder and harder to do. So during...

If you're wondering and listening, that will be something that old people will often say and continue to say throughout history because it's true. And get together and play with people in real life. You know, like there's a tendency now. It's like, oh, I can send tracks around or I can, you know, put my video up on Instagram. That's all fine. But, like, you have to seek that out. like to learn how to negotiate that. But I will say, so during this time,

I don't remember the exact timing, but probably around a little bit after this record, Josh did come down a few times to New Orleans, which is, I think when I first met him, I might have met him, yeah, because this is before I was playing with Roy Hargrove. And Delphio, Marcellus brought him down. I might be screwing up this story,

but I'm 97%. No one else was around. You're good, you're good. No, there's a lot of people there. I should just call Josh because he would... Let me text Delphino. Man, Josh would definitely remember. Like, he has such a great memory for this stuff.

But he came down and he knew Delphia, I think, from Boston. Like, Delphia was at Berkeley and Joshua was going right before this to Harvard undergrad, but he was going over to Berkeley a lot. Aaron Goldberg, same thing. He was like coming up right after Josh and Benham at Harvard, but they used to be over at Berkeley. That's all the cats were, you know. So, like, he came down to New Orleans and there is this thing about,

like he stole the whole rhythm. It was a little more complicated than that. But he definitely would have heard us. I mean, we all played together during that period. And then it was more kind of like, Like he had this great group with Meldao and McBride and Blade. Yeah, the Moody Band. Yeah, and I think McBride and Meldow were about to go do some other things.

And he heard us, he knew we were playing with Blade a lot. And like, there was that. But for me, it was more the connection with Roy Hargrove, because that's when I played with Josh and really connected with him the year before in 94. Right, right, right. Because he was playing as like a guest with Roy a lot because they did a record together. But he must have had you three in mind somehow, Or was that just fortuitous?

I mean, I think it kind of was a little bit fortuitous, actually. I mean, he knew we played. We'd all played together in New Orleans. But Blade was already playing with him. And he knew we wanted to sculpt something around that. I was playing with him with Roy. And then Chris was kind of playing with everybody during that time. So it came together nicely.

Well, you all have such a special chemistry. And I think what's really special about this episode and this album is that we get to hear, first of all, you playing in a context of some of the highest level musicians of your generation. and whatever was going on in the air at the club that week, the people are super into it. And I remember this from seeing Joshua Redmond in the 90s. Like specifically, there was this energy around him of like this is like a whole new thing that we're seeing here.

Nothing quite like it had happened. It was almost like Young Lions kind of 1.1. Because he was still the Young Lions, but it was like Winton, Branford. It wasn't that. It wasn't that. But it wasn't like a generation. later.

Right. But like we all, like we were talking about, it's like a half generation thing. Roy, for, like between, I think Roy Hargrove

and Joshua Redmond. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. No. Yeah, but I think, but I remember there was,

but it was also like the media landscape was different. And we like to think it's only about the music, but the way this stuff was presented. Like they had a media machine behind Josh and kind of behind all of us. Yeah.

I mean, we had like a Donna Karen like endorsement. You're kidding. No, all of us. The whole band. Get out of town. The clothes did fall apart by six months later.

It was just, yeah. So, like, stuff was presented. But I think we followed through on the music in a way, but it was very much geared towards younger people. Wow. Like, and I think you'll hear this on the record. I remember in the club, it was so exciting. People were lined up, and it wasn't just old heads.

Like I said before, man. It was a combination. You know, at this time, I'm a junior in high school, I think. And me and all my friends... Oh, your final year. Me and all my friends could not get enough of this album. And so, you know, knew every note, knew every solo, would try to play. Like, I remember trying to play herbs and roots and just falling on our faces, you know what I mean?

And you know what's cool is like these records, I don't know, maybe this still happens, but I don't know when the record came out, it was just a few months, well, March to August. Like, there's something about, especially a live record where it was just a few months ago, and you're getting it in St. Louis and High Ridge. And it's like, man, this happened in New York, like in the spring. Like, to me, that's exciting. I love going back to listen to records from the 50s, but come on now, is that 75 years ago?

How about seven months ago? That's cool. Yeah. So kick off with an incredible track to start. This is Jigajuk. This is a Joshua Redmond original, as many of these are, most of these are. But this track is just unbelievable. Well, let's listen.

Oh, yeah. D-flat blues, I think. Chris Thomas always played great stuff on this intro. Different every night. Great tradition to Village Vanguard recordings. Yes. A dry. Bone marrow dry.

Bone marrow dry. Can hear the kick drums so clearly. Yeah. Blade always tuned his drums so well. I'm actually surprised. We're playing pretty simple and discipline here, which we didn't always do that. It's very like, like Chris is the main one, which is great. It all goes.

Yeah. But listen, you can hear the crowd from the jump, like, hanging on every note. Yeah, the energy was really palpable there and helpful for us. I do remember that channeling RVG on this mix here. I forgot about that. For the PM. Yeah, it's, there's a little bit of like, I forgot about this. Me and Blade and Thomas, we do have a little bit of that in New Orleans way of playing a rhythm section.

You know, like this is not as, it's New York. but it's got a little bit of New Orleans in it, which made sense because that's where we all were at there. Yeah, you guys came together a couple years ago here at Jazz St. Louis for a little reunion trio show that was unbelievable. That was fun. One of my favorite shows the past five years. Oh, thank you, man.

Yeah, Josh always fitting good to the New Orleans thing, actually, as much as he's like, I'm a coastal guy, west coast, east coast, he pulls out the swim, jump stuff. That's a little bit of Deweyism, too, though. Like, they play out, bebop, but also like Texas Tanner kind of, his father. Yeah, his father Dewey from Fort Worth. Yeah, that's right. That's the Texas connection. And also the year

before this, we did some gigs with Roy Hargrove, Joshua Evans, Stanley Turrency, Johnny Griffin, Ron Blake. So, like, he had a lot of really cool Mark Turner, like, younger and older, like tenor stuff. Tenors for a time. Yeah.

And, you know, Chris Thomas and Brian Blade, like, one of the great rhythm sections. of all time. That duo there, but and they were just on the road with Nora Jones a couple years ago. Yeah. Still. Josh, master building a solo.

Not a problem. There's a lot of this. Yeah. There's a lot of this in the album. There's a lot of growth of the solos. Okay, turn it off. We will not turn it off. Kick-on stuff played is doing throughout this

first part of your solo. Second set, this is definitely second set. A little bit and some quibble bits there. Do you remember, like, one thing about playing with Josh, Like, I was always very, I mean, I'm always trying to think about, like, not just like, my soul is a story, but the whole thing. Yeah. And when he plays a soul like that, it goes to the mountaintop a couple of times. Yeah.

Like, I don't like trying to go to that mountaintop. I think I do maybe on some other tunes, but I try to balance that, you know. Now watch, I'm probably going to try to go there now. You do. Oh, do I really? On this, damn. Well, sometimes Josh would be egging me on, too. Oh, Blade, you know.

Or not even just me. I'm just saying, like, us as a band. I also think that's a young musician thing, too, of like... Oh, okay. Forget about what it's that. No, a couple times you do, for sure. Like, if he's trying to, like, building, building. And I agree.

I'm the same way. It's like... And when it's a live gig, it's even more important because you're feeling that... Because sometimes it's kind of like a chef just putting too much on. Here, eat some more. You're like, oh, it's good, but I'm... You know... Yeah, sometimes you just want to completely change up the bottom.

Yeah. And not just everything is the same structure. Everything is the same architecture. Yeah. And Blade actually does a great job. He's such a great architect of like, whoa, okay, it's going on a two now. Such game playing, though, man. But you guys didn't go fully, like, what you could do with some other tracks, which are.

A little Chris Thomas action here. Man, it's fun. Do you remember this week? Like, do you remember? Because it was over multiple days. Do you remember playing at the Vanguard? No, I do. Was this like your first, fourth?

It wasn't the first time, but it was. It was early on. I think I maybe played there two times or something, maybe three times. So I do remember, and I can check on this. And if people are interested, maybe in the comments,

I can figure this side. Because Josh will remember, I know this, almost the whole album is from one night. Like, they recorded every night, which was a really big deal. Because now when you record that,

they can set up everything in the kitchen, you know, for recording, but they had a full, like, truck out there, which used to be, you know, like one of those audio trucks,

trailers that would come in, was, like, parked on 7th Avenue. And it was a big thing, because usually when you, you played the vanguard, it was like you'd get one or two nights of recording. If you played there for the week, Tuesday through Sunday, the record companies would give you either one or two nights of the trailer.

So you had to do it. But they were like, we're going to up the budget on this. They're going to have the truck there the whole time. Amazing. And then there was just like this one set that was just like killing. I mean, I think the vibe, as I recall was good. Like, we used to go out in the truck and listen to stuff afterwards. But that got a little bit.

Like, Josh was really into like, how are we going to put this together? But there was one set that I think was like half of the record. And I think that one night was like more than three quarters. So we did a lot of this tunes over and over again thinking. And it was early on in the week, too, as I recall. Was it really? Yeah, yeah. That's funny.

But there was some good choices. I wasn't super involved with that. I was there for a little bit of the mix and stuff. But it was mainly, yeah, I mean, it's the Vanguard, man. It's just, and the audience was great. It was like packed every night and was a very young. I mean, it was all different ages there, but I remember a lot of young people and super exciting. The next track, we take it to the Gershwins.

This is absolutely beautiful. and this is, I know a lot of people's favorite. This gets tossed around all sorts of jazz playlists here on Spotify. This is my one and only love. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got a little bone to pick about the piano sound on this one. I mean, it sounds live, which is cool. Yeah.

But, come on. I mean, it's very much the way the piano sounds in the vanguard, though. But level-wise, yeah. Level-wise, good. It's not like that. This is a nice, man. I know. People didn't have phones. That's right.

Yeah, would people not react like that now? They're like, I know that. Something changed, right? Just playing a standout. I just did like a regular entry. He just came in. It went like... Getting sexy.

Yeah. Getting sexy. These trucks are long, man. Everything is really... I mean, it's a live album. That's what you want, though, man. This is what the people want the long tracks on a live album. Yeah, we didn't...

I remember, it wasn't like... We were just playing sets. There was very little... I mean, Josh is very good at, like, putting albums together in tunes and stuff. And I'm sure he spent a lot of time thinking about like the sequencing and different things. But in terms of playing, I don't remember there being a lot of like, all right guys don't play. You know, I think we just played.

It's a beautiful version of my one and only love. And I love the long track listening. Like I don't want people to shorten the stuff. Right. For a lot. Like, I want to, if it's a live album, I want to hear what you're doing. This is the way we would play at the Vanguard if they hadn't been recorded. And that's why it ended up being a double CD.

This is a great original here that Count Me Out, which comes up. Oh, my God. Do you remember these tunes? Yeah. I mean, yeah, I remember. Stressful. Because I had all this stuff remember. I remember that.

Yeah, because I remember I started adding those chords in because Josh always wanted like a single line. I think I kind of snuck them in. I was like, okay, you know. Joshua Redmond plays the tenor often just like it's a drum. Yeah. He's very, he must be one of the more rhythmic. Man, composers.

Absolutely. Yeah. Players. He really understands, like, rhythm, syncopation in terms of how it sits in the groove in a really advanced way. That's why he'd be played play off of each other so well. I just stepped on a really great moment. I would back it up.

Also, I think if you were to do a Joshua Redmond impression, you would have to do huge range. Yeah, huge range sweeps. It's part of the thing. It's very sunny Rallens-esque. Like, his understanding of the ranges of the tenor is at that sunny level, I would have to say. Yeah. But it's even more exaggerated. Yeah.

You know, I always like laying out. I think I did it a lot. I can't remember what tunes. But I felt like as much as I always wanted to play with them. This is a great trio with a pianoist trio, too. That's good. So it was always hard for me to like. And then when Peter Bernstein came in the band,

I remember telling him sometimes I would come, and then he would also be like, you don't have to, but cool stuff happens when we, like, out sometimes. Yeah, I love letting the drummer kind of take over as the main compor. Yeah. You know, like give them just all the space. On this tune, I actually went up, there used to be a great pizza place right above the van.

Oh, yeah. I went up and had a slice. It was 95 cents at the time. It's in the 90s. Going to the truck, the Warner Brothers truck, and be like, what's going on, guys? You know what's so great about this in hearing, especially when the piano stops, the pianist gets out the way? Is, like, that's very modern as much as the 90s.

I mean, putting myself back into the 90s. But it's also a kind of time, it's like very connected with, I'm thinking like Sunny Rollins and his pianist trios. Totally. At the Vanguard. Totally. Or anywhere,

there's something about that room. And I mean, shout out to James Farber, to Paul Booth, who, like, who, you know, James Farber was the engineer on this. Matt Pearson,

who produced it and like Josh for the vision on this. But it's got that like fresh feeling. But it also kind of could be like 1959 in the vanguard in a way, you know. That's the, advantage of the vanguard is that it is a timeless sounding studio essentially. Yeah. Like it sounds like the village vanguard. Yeah.

And yeah, it's hard to differentiate between this and something that happened 10 years before this, 20 years before, 20 years after. Yeah. You know what I mean? It all sounds like that dry vanguard stuff. Of course, you can hear the difference in the recording technologies, but it's very, very similar to other live recordings, even from the 50s and 60s. And I might be speaking out of turn here because I don't want actually.

remember but well the record after so i think we this was analog i think this was recorded on like the half inch things oh wow or three quarters inch or whatever the reason i don't totally remember what was in that truck was because i know the record we did after this the uh freedom and the groove was definitely because i remember us like i remember farber you know testing edits and stuff like whether that we were going to go in he was with with the razor blade you know on the on the so i'm i'm assuming this would have been too so i mean that contributes i think to that because a lot of that early digital sound was a little bit. I mean, this was well into the digital period.

I mean, a lot of people that know that we record this podcast also. Totally analog. Yeah. This is an analog. Cahler back there with razor blades. Yeah, we're just pressing buttons. We're just surfing the net. We're not actually triggering anything.

Yeah, yeah, no, it's all on tape. Yeah. All right. Well, no, I got something. I'll give it to you afterwards. Don't let me forget to talk about Japan. Because that's a key to this record, actually. Yeah. Japan.

The next track I want to listen to is an Irving Berlin tune called Remember. and I don't want to listen to your solo because it's something later in a category. I love this tune, and this is one of my favorite tracks on the whole album. I'm a little busy in the background there. Chris, such a great, oh, playing off the solos. Chris, tasteful, Thomas. Yeah, can we talk a little bit about Chris Thomas and Brian Blade? You've known them forever since we were teenagers practically.

I mean, you've known Chris Thomas. since we were 12 years old. Since we were 12 years old. We've been playing music together since we were 12. Because you guys grew up in the same neighborhood essentially. Yeah. Yeah. And what is it about Chris Thomas? Like, what is that thing?

Well, he's just, you know, he's an incredible bassist. And, oh, Josh didn't know the blues scale. Okay, got it. That's a great. Josh is a master of the solo break. Oh, my gosh. And that was kind of a well-placed one. That was good.

No, Chris is just like he's such a, like you hear it on this, kind of playing especially. He's all ears. And you know, I know a lot of other great bass players that are all ears or mostly ears, but I think Chris is kind of off the charts. So, and then he's such a great player. His sound is so great. It's so him. And then because he's able to listen to several things at the same time, as you have to be able to do for all jazz musicians, but he's just doing that at a very high level. So it enables him to be able to do, like you heard that the way that Josh started that solo, Chris immediately played something that could have been very obtrusive, but it was almost like became a counter melody, a counter idea that was very

subtle and interesting, but rewards, if you listen to this over and over again, you'd be like, I haven't listened to this a lot, but that would already be something that's like, oh, next time I'm going to check that out, and that's another way to kind of, another prism to view this music with. And so he's always got all that stuff happening. It always feels good. The basic stuff is there, but then there's all these cool little subtleties that his really highly attuned

the ear leads you to. I mean, as you're saying that about Christopher Thomas, I could just plug in Brian Blade to that as well. Absolutely. All those same things are true about Brian Brian Blade. The ears are off the charts. He hears everything and the choices and the decisions

and the taste of what he's doing. Like you mentioned his tuning, his sound has been copied so much for the last 30 years. And for good reason because it's just this incredibly earthy, organic. He can play like, you know,

really fire New York style straight ahead stuff and he can play you know, country music with Emily Lou Harris or, you know, incredible pop music with Nora Jones, just soft, acoustic things going on and everything in between, seemingly. Yeah. Because he always has that, his sound from the

like, and yes, that is the tuning, it's the size, he had a really little bass drum at this time. I don't know if he's still playing on one that small. I want to say 60 inch? That was a huge influence, man. I remember drummers here in St. Louis. Oh, cats were throwing away their big bas drums. 15, 14-inch bass drums.

Right. Like, floor tom's converting the bass drum. Yeah, totally. Blade was playing such small bass drums. Yeah. But it's more like, even like, we would go to jam, so like, we were playing a lot. Even like when we were, we toured so heavy this year. I was going to talk about Japan.

And, like, we would go to jam. We were just going out to play. And like, Blade just sitting down on a random 22-inch bass drum, still sounded like that. Yeah. Still sounded like that. So, I mean, yes, it's, it's, you know, you get into a perfectly crafted situation like this where he's got his drums. And it's important. I'm like, he still travels

with his drums more than any drummer I know. Like, you know, and it's a pain in the ass. But he'll do it. He'll carry all this stuff. Well, it's easier when you've got an 8, 16 inch basestrum, I guess. That's good. Yeah, incredible taste and... Yeah. Two things. Drum kits and denim shirts. Denim shirts. He was so early on that.

But yeah, so right before we did this record, like, I think it was actually we ended the week before. Because I remember we went straight to New York. either on that Sunday or Monday maybe even. The Vanguard started on Tuesday. We did a three-week tour in Japan,

which was really the first tour and introduction or iteration of this quartet. So that would have been in whatever, the beginning of March, end of February. And it was like every night, I think we had one day off a week and we were playing at the Blue No Clubs in three different cities.

It was a whole different setup back then. It wasn't like this one night, two nights, but we played in Tokyo and Fukuoka and Osaka. And it was a double-baked. with Benny Green Trio, with Christian McBride and Kenny Washington, K-Washing on drums. So we'd each play like half the set

and then break and then half. So we'd hear them every night. We were hanging. We were going out to jam sessions and playing all this music. So that was all the lead-up. And then went right to New York, flew in, and then started the next night, did this. And it was very much like,

that's the way I think to prepare for a live record. Now, I don't know if I'd want to do this now at my advanced stage. So you were coming off a Japan tour. Yes. resetting your clock at the village vanquess. Yeah, and maybe there was a couple of days, I don't remember, but I don't remember being really tired at the venue. But the main thing, I mean, the tour actually could have been anywhere.

But the fact that we were playing every night in a club, you know, and it was like, you know, seven nights in Tokyo and then seven nights. You know, so it was very extended. And we were also playing for Benny Green and Christian McGrath. Like, I'm thinking, and me and Benny are like, hang, but I'm listening to him play every night. And I'm like, damn, I got to bring it. Because I got to play the next set right after him.

And then he's playing after me. And so it was a really special time and hanging with Chris Thomas and Chris McBride two of my best friends forever and Blade and John, I mean, everything. What a luxury too that just doesn't happen anymore. I know. Like, I feel so bad for these young musicians

that don't get to have big long stretches to work stuff out. You know what I mean? I mean, you can put together a tour, but like you said, it was different. You would get these like week long, two week long engagements sometimes at places. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And you get to like actually... It's just sets and reps. Sets and reps. Work it again and again. in front of a live audience, and that makes a huge difference. Yeah, and I think it was really smart of Josh

to whoever figured that's out, like to get that, because we'd all played together. Like, we could have just come into the vanguard. Like, we had all played with, I mean, Blade had been playing with Josh for several years. We and Chris and Brian had been playing together.

I've been playing with Josh, like right up to that point with, I mean, like, there was plenty. We didn't need to play together for a rapport, but we needed to become a band. And I think Josh understood that. And we just played the stuff and a bunch and led right into that.

So a lot of people were kind of like, oh my God, you've got this point. brand new band and you all just rolled up into the vanguard and made this incredible record. But that's the little secret behind it. Well, this was released as a double CD. So it's kind of lost in the streaming era were these double CD, sometimes triple, sometimes quadruple CD releases of things.

And this was a double CD and it has one of the greatest one-two punches, the last track of the first disc and the first track of the second disc. The last track of the first disc is St. Thomas, and it's followed by the first track of the second disc, Herbs and Roots. Maybe the two greatest one-two live tracks ever next to each other. I mean, you can make an argument for it. They're both...

Do we need to talk about Donnie Hathaway live at the Troopador? Sunny Ron's live at the... I can name about 30,000 records. I know you haven't listened to this, man. This is really good. They're both about 12 and a half minutes long. Okay. But we're going to listen to a good chunk of St.

Thomas. It starts with a legendary intro by Joshua Redmond and then has a legendary piano solo by our very own Peter Martin here. This is Sonny Rollins composition, St. Thomas. A good time he's playing there. You do this every night on St. Thomas? Yeah. I mean, it was very different. Like this was not a, you know, he sometimes played short, sometimes long. I mean, he would do a lot of this stuff because he hears that and it's good. and it works. I think sometimes

we just started too, though. It wasn't. You know, there's a lot of there's a lot of Joe Henderson influence here too on it. It's easier to see the Sunny Rollins on Josh in the general. That's interesting.

The way he hears the bottom of the register, the horn, and jumps up and down while the guru's going very Joe-esque. Nice take. Yeah. And, Josh would hear these things. A lot of people think that's a gimmick.

Like, he's hearing that stuff. Because it's not all perfect. You know what I mean? He's not like, I'm only going to play it when I know. Like, he's going for something. And sometimes it's like, which to me is thrilling. You know what I mean? As opposed to like,

like, that's not easy to do. I don't play saxophone. But I had no idea this was so long. This is. This is like a different way of playing free, which Josh has always excelled at playing free. And on a couple of the tracks, in the more traditional, like, free jazz. But this is a kind of free jazz, too, I think. Even though it's, like, harmonically, it's very down the middle with terms of the tune.

But, like, rhythmically in the form and, like, stretches out. Yeah. The melody, stretching the melody. And the melody, yeah, little fragments and stuff. And, like, he has such a great understanding of, like, what's thrilling and interesting about the instrument. Yeah. It's like a trumpet player that knows to go up high,

it's not just a gimmick if it's musical. Like, people love that, you know? Because it's like, how does he do that? Oh, yeah. There's still seven minutes left in this track now. I guess it worked, though. This guy's really got his Peter Martin hit together. But I'm definitely hearing, like,

some influence from this kind of stuff Josh plays in the intro. Yeah. You know, like kind of going in and out of the time and then it's got a little bit frantic feel. Hopefully it's effective. It's a party, man. It's a party. But it's not like a cool

tiki torch party. Like, you know, it's chill. It's kind of like, come on, man. But I think Josh established that on the intro. Just rip some bebop shit. Always. I remember always been like, phew, gets a swing.

I can do that. It's so killing. I think I was Josh. I think I was Josh. It's cool. I mean, it's cool. I mean, to be honest, like, yeah it's fine whatever no I just don't

I'm always surprised and people like I love your solo because for me like it's kind of hard playing over this tune even when I occasionally do it now it's just C

right it's a deceptively difficult tune to make sound good and I never really felt like I remember I used to joke with like Blade and with Chris it was like

it was like wait do we know how to play is this Calypso or we swing it whatever and Blay would just be like nah man it's cool kind of a New Orleans but it's like you know

we didn't talk about it a lot but it definitely was not, you know, I think you're always trying to get out of the shadow of the way on a tune like this. It's so associated with the composer, right, and the way that he played it. I think, Yeah, and I mean, Josh did a great job

with that extended intro and just his whole vibe about the tune of like, like you say, making a party, opening it up, a lot of nods to that version, but also just like, let's see where we take it. But I do remember always being relieved when it got to the swing. And we wouldn't always do it. Like, there wasn't necessarily a trigger for that.

we wouldn't even always go to it and sometimes I would trigger it I can't remember like we it would be triggered by how we were playing yeah but it wasn't like I'm given a signal it like it would just go there or it wouldn't yeah so um you know I think that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing that's the thing I don't know it's so effective too it's before that and then the melody it's kind of like it's always like okay what do we do now and so we're still in the groove so so the one thing we sell in our back pocket is like well we can go to the swing because we haven't gone there's so effective too and it's almost yeah and it's almost like a pulling back in a way because it's not, it's like, it's a little bit more of this. It's not as much of a party. It's more of like, let's go uptown now for the rest of the party. But it's fun to hear this, man. It was a good time. And I remember, like, there's little things I hear in there, like Blade, like the way we've always played together. And I remember this at the time. And I don't think we ever, I know we never talked about it. But there was a lot of, like, trust there. So there's times where like I could really

go for something and he would come in. Like, he hit that one, one right on it, which probably helped me because that's very not much like Blade. And then I played over the bar light. And then I think the next time I pushed right to the one and then he played. So there was a lot of just trust that you have when you play with somebody every night for a couple of years and leading up to this. So that's

that was a real luxury to be in. A bunch of great tracks on this second half of this double album. Just in Time is incredible. Is that the first one on the? Oh no, that's the... No, we got it. I want to get in the categories, which is going to take us to herbs and roots. I want to shout out Brian Blade for the composition

of Mount Zion. Oh yeah. Not credited on Wikipedia. Did you know Wikipedia not 100% accurate? No, about 81%. But this is a very different thing on the record, too. It's very cool, though. I'm glad they put it on there. And very much foreshadowing to what Blade was going to get into

with his wonderful fellowship band, which still continues for this day. Super great. Yeah. But I want to take it to the category, Peter. My Desert Island track is the first track of that second disc. It is Herbs and Roots. I think it's the best composition on the album.

I think it, I mean, I still think about it all the time. Why don't you just bring me on the desert out, then I can sing all this stuff to you. Excellent. I assume y'all are picking up a bass. Yeah, we're walking up. You're trying to get by people walking up there. Super awkward.

Great opening track for a set. Oh, yeah. It's so funny, man. Sitting here with you listening to this. I literally learned this when I was like 17 years old and like all your voicing. Oh, yeah. It's crazy. I'm glad you kept going for a lot.

be honest We could That band of teenagers could not actually hang with this Did I keep the baseline going while Because I could do that

But I remember being like To record it Let me Oh yeah Yeah Yeah I have a band Josh

Great composer Yeah Totally You know Is he recognized Is that He should be I think so

Yeah Hey His stuff is simple And catchy And has little quirks And twist To it

It's great, too. It really goes shit. We talked about how he's, as a player, treats that saxophone as rhythmically as any tenor saxophonist. Yeah. Like a drummer. Yep. And that helps with composition.

Because his, like the rhythm of that head, the way that he starts it a little bit earlier each time and incorporates those hits, that'll always work. For sure. And this kind of like, he's very, that baseline, he wrote that. Like, he's not one of those like, okay, F minor, come up with something cool. I mean, sometimes we would change things or whatever, but he always, as my recollection, would have all the important elements, like, he would spend time and, like, put that together. There was very little, I mean, there's plenty of, like, stuff to hear and play over.

He didn't write all that bad shit, I don't play. But, you know, no, but the important elements of it. And the great thing about this baseline is, you know, the release is coming at some point, you know. Or maybe we stay on, I don't remember. Oh, what? Brian Blaine here. man. I love it too because we're, you know, like 50 minutes into the album at this point when you're streaming it. And it's like all of a sudden we're going to throw down,

you know, the most throwdown song on the record. Is this the first on the second CD? Okay. Yeah. What do you got for your desert island? I mean, I would be none. I mean, I don't want, I mean, I would bring food, fruit and vegetables instead. I just want to say in front of our audience here that I appreciate you even agreeing to do this, because it's tough to listen to yourself especially in front of other people. Yeah, and I don't want to make it like, I like this.

This is good. It's good. It's just, it's so like, I have a lot of emot, like this takes me back to that, like more than I would think. And it's not that I, it was a very happy time for me.

And I like the way I'm playing, actually more than I thought. But there's also an element of like, oh, have I gotten better since then? I'm a little bit, but not as much as I could, you know what I mean? It's a little bit like.

You've definitely grown for sure. But what's fun about it too is like, like, that's me. Like, I haven't told, like, there's so much stuff on there I still play. And when I was a little younger, would hear that, that would frustrate me because I'm like, oh, I should have developed it. I was like, you know what? That's how everybody is.

That's me. It's all good. That's how everybody is. This is just 24-year-old you. Yeah. So the one that I came up with, now full disclosure, I did not listen to this. This was more just my recollection of all these tunes. Jigga jug.

Which, is that the first track? First track. That's okay. That's if you want to remember that. That's pretty much as far as I usually get in this. I was like, oh, yeah, that was fun time. But I mean, that would be something that if I listen to every day, I'd be like, it's cool. I like the way everybody's playing on that.

But just in time. I could have done that. I like that tune a lot. Just time is great on this. For my Apex moment, it's actually one of your solos, and it's kind of I zagged here when I could have zigged. But it's your solo on, remember. On two feel. I like two feet.

It just reminds me of how you actually, a little bit, how you play that? Yeah. It was a little bit different than the other solos on the sound. Yeah. I do remember like we were not afraid to just like play this stuff like this is there's a Hank Mobley record which I think is where Josh heard this playing this and it's very I mean like we're not playing just like of them but it's not that different like we weren't afraid that during that period just play yeah and we had enough other kind of stuff

on it so when we were playing a standard like there's no crazy reharmes or anything on this is there a little bit of reverb one that would have been a 90s thing And blade just catches everything. But in such an interesting way, it's never like, it's very subtle that it's like, oh, feels so good to play with it. The trio here is like off the charts meeting each other's minds, sensitive to dynamics. I also love to throughout this whole record, like you've mentioned how Josh is vocalizing it in your solo. Yeah. Throws in like a, whoa.

Yeah. Yeah, I think this is a better soul than St. Thomas. It's great. I think this is my favorite solo on the whole album. What about you if you had to pick an apex? That, I've probably never heard that soul since then. Apex moment. I like Blades.

I just listened to it right before this. Yeah, good. The Blade and Redmond trading on St. Thomas. That was great. Let's try to check that out a little bit. Just go like 17 minutes into the track. I think that's what I start. Because Blades, it's long trades.

Is that a whole chorus? Yeah. Which you don't think about for Blade, you know. Totally, Blake. Man. Damn. Oh, his Blakey influence on this, right? Because you always think of Elvin, you know.

It's definitely there, too. Percolating. Down low. Whenever I hear Brian Blade, especially live when he's playing to a room, I feel like he's just, not only is, of course, this incredible jazz drummer, but he's almost like he's the greatest orchestral percussionist that's set down to the drum kit.

Like, he makes it sound like he's the entire percussionist. section and an orchestra so of the how, like, his timpies and all the sparkly stuff. And I don't know if it's just a combination of his touch, his taste, his dynamics, but there's something about him that feels very grandiose when he plays. Like all of the solos, he just knows how to get your attention with dynamics, with the timbre of the drums, and more than any other drummer that I can think of. I mean, you mentioned Elvin as a direct influence, but to me, it's like that plus. I agree. I agree.

It's like Yeah, that's a great way to put it orchestral, you know, he's such a orchestrator. He's an orchestrator over it. At the drums, which we always think about like the drums are part of the orchestration, but when you extend it out the percussion, like there's from the low to the top,

from the symbols, the hi-hat, but his bass drum and low-tom interaction, like there's so much of like almost like a constant drone effect and that Blakey stuff. Yeah. With all of it, it's amazing. It's amazing. And really take,

it's very much like the way a great pianist takes advantage of the entire range at the right times. And I think on that solo, it's all out there. Bespoke Spotify playlist title. Peter, you got anything good for this one? Well, I like my martini... I like my martinis and my live jazz albums dry.

Good. I like that. Then that's reference to, of course, the Village Vanguard's dry sound. Yeah, and shout out James Farber. I think he did an incredible job on this. It was so fun working with him during this whole period. Farber. But it was also...

Yeah, it's very dry. Although hearing that piano there, there might have been, I think there was some reverb put on or whatever, but I think, you know, he did a great job of capturing how it feels, how it's, I've spent so many hours.

It's spent so many hours. I just really have. You know, playing there over the years, certainly not nearly as much as some people. But it just takes you there, and it's such an interesting room because pretty much wherever you sit, I mean, I haven't sat all over,

and I've spent way more time up at the piano or by the piano, but there's pretty much the sound in the feel, it's just a different volume level where you are and what you're hearing more of. But there's that clarity, there's that dryness. It's the same thing where people like, yeah, clapping or whatever. Everything, that presence.

You know, you're omnipresent with the music. And what that does to you while you're playing is a very special thing in terms of focusing in and how that energy of the room, the history, but also more importantly, I think the energy of the people that are in there, the musicians on stage, all of us, all the humans in the same room.

So that's, I like my martinis and my live jazz albums. dry. I have a couple. The boring one I have is Village Vanguard classics. Ooh, going straight down the middle on that one. Yeah, that's straight down the middle. You're either going to get a strikeout or a home run. But then I've got a fun one too. I've got one called flupe. Weeep. And that's just referencing my Joshua Redmond impression. So it's a playlist called Floup. Weep. Right. And it just is everything that sounds like that, including a lot of Joshua Redmond intros. Well, I was just thinking. So at first I was like, oh, you could only have Joshua Redmond on that place. No. But Josh Rubman and every saxophonist they came up

eight years after him. Melissa Aldana. Yeah, everybody's so influenced by him. So up next, what are some other albums that pair well with this? I have a couple of other Village Vanguard albums. I have Oh, good. You mentioned Benny Green. I have Testifying. Oh, yeah.

Carl Allen and Christian McBride. Christian McBride, of course. And then I have Art of the Trio volume two, Brad Maldow trio with Larry Grenadier. That's a good piece. Yeah, Meldow. Both live at the Village Vanguard. Awesome. So I had, I was thinking more along the lines of just like early 90s jazz that I love listening to.

Mood Swing by McBride, I love that record. I listen to that record so much more than this record because that's where I learned all that. Like when he first called me to join the band, I just, I was out. Yeah, I was like, I'm going to memorize all this music and I'll listen to it. That was like the most I ever listened to Meldow and McBride. All this, it's a great record. And then Christian McBride's getting to it, which I believe was his first record on Verve. Moonswing, of course, and this Live of the Bangor were Warner Brothers.

but the two big labels, what, three, Blue Note, Warner, Verve, all with their own kind of sounds because of the engineers and production teams. But I think McBride's getting to it, one of the great, kind of early 90s, verve, or any kind of jazz record.

So that would be a fun little walk-down memory lane in that up next. Do you have any quibble bits? You know, yes, I put me. A little bit of a... Well, no, no, but I do... No, no, I could go through a list of things. It's really not that important

to people because I do think I played well. I mean, it sounds good. But that's part of the thing when you hear it's like, ugh, why did I play that? Why didn't I catch that? Because I'm listening in a different way, so I'm not super objective. But that's it. I mean, maybe now listening to it, not even again, because like I said, I haven't listened to a lot, but maybe the piano's a little bit out of balance a little bit. Yeah, it is. That's what I have. But that's how it kind of sounds in the Bangor, doesn't it? I don't know. I can usually hear the piano pretty well better than that. That's my only equivalent is it sounds like the piano is maybe in a different room. Yeah. Or it wasn't.

There certainly wouldn't be the first Van Gogh record that's not like that. No, it's not. But I would have loved to have you a little bit more present in the mix. And the piano tuning, which I know there's not a lot you can do for a lead set. I was definitely playing hard. I can tell you. I wasn't down low because I wasn't, in fact, that probably would have been detrimental to the piano tune. But yeah, we should have had the

unless it, because I don't think they were doing, it should have been tuned like every set because of how hard we were hitting. Yeah. Stembopperator, what do you got? I'm going to go with a five. I'm just going to do that every week from now on. Right in the middle. Does anyone like the snobobot? You know what it is? I like the name.

Snobometer. Well, because it used to be snobometer, which was fun, but it's not like snottometer or something. Yeah, snobometer is great. Bill Martin, William Martin, my father, William Martin Jr., Charlotte, North Carolina. I don't know why I said that. He hasn't been there in 70 years, I don't think. More U. City now, probably. More U. City.

But the snobometer named by my father renamed. Has it lost its luster? All right. I got five. The reason being is this is a record people talking. about a lot, so that makes it not snobby. But it's also a record with two CDs with 11-minute songs. That makes

it very snobby. So now we're at the stage of the snobometer, where you have to comment... I didn't say anything about it on Linda or Ethan Iverson. That was good. But you're at the stage where you have to comment that you don't know what it means, and you nail it every time. You've been nailing it because I think that's about right. I have three. I could have put four here as well, because I feel the same

way. I feel like it's slightly snobby because it's a live album with a bunch of long tracks, but really catchy heads, really incredible swinging solos. I feel like it's a three. But you got it, man. You nailed the snob-on.

There's no question. You just want me to do five because they'll be like, let's move on after. You totally understand it. I feel like you... So Ethan Iverson is meh on this record and Aunt Linda are meh on this by saying five, right?

Kind of. Yeah. Who is this record for? Can we make it a little bit of a side? I think it's for musicians. 17-year-old Adam Manus and High Ridge. I think that's exactly who it's for. But think about that.

There were a lot of 17-year-old Adam Manus is at that time. Dude, like I said, every jazz nerd I knew in high school was super into this album. And I think probably if we can see the comments of the people who are going to love this on YouTube on Spotify, it's going to be a very similar demographic. Yeah, and actually, you know what's fun for me now is like hearing these great young players. Like we were just together at the Good Night, Good Luck. And the wonderful pianist that was playing. Joe Block.

Joe Block, yes. Shout out Joe Block, who sounded great on that. He kind of mentioned, you know, really enjoying this record. It's fun to see the younger musicians connect. So the 17-year-olds, that could be at any time. It's not just in 1995, I think it's just whenever you're... But there's a special thing. Like, it's like when something's happening at that same time.

Because we were all, you were probably listening to Herbie. Oh, I know you were listening to Herbie, McCoy and stuff. You know what it is with this album. As I think when you're a young musician and you're just starting out, I feel like you hear something like this and you hear like the interaction that's happening between you all and the crowd going crazy. Yeah. And these incredibly long, built-up solo.

and you're like, oh my gosh, this is why I play this music. This is what me and my friends do in our basements together. And I didn't know you could do this to the Village Vanguard. Right, right. I mean, I didn't know that you could just like build these things that feel this good and play these killing tunes and like take it to these places and that audiences are going to like, woo, yeah, you know. It's very aspirational this album.

You're like, man, we could do this. Like, they're just playing St. Thomas. It sounds unbelievable. We've got that in the fake book right here. I got the charge. I'm going to take a five minute intro on this. And everybody's like, maybe. Yeah, but it does.

It makes it seem like maybe in seven or eight years, that could be me because that... And it just feels good, too. It just, you know, you and Blade and Chris Thomas, you guys just feel great as a rhythm section. Joshua Redmond, we've already established writes these incredible songs that he's a great composer, very rhythmically fun, interesting,

but simple harmony that's kind of easy to play. Yep. Is this playable? Yep, absolutely. All right. Is it better than kind of blue? No. Hell no.

I put a hell no. I actually wrote the word hell. Acutrements, I have a six Oh, I put a six too. Okay, great. Yeah, I don't think it's... Alam cover's okay. It's not great.

You know what's interesting? I remember there was like a printout of this. We were on the road somewhere, and Josh was like, man, how do you guys... What do you guys think of this is one of the things? And we were all like, hmm, I thought we were going to maybe all be on stage at the vanguard at the playing, you know?

Yeah, yeah. Because we're not on the cover. You're in the inside. We're on the inside, kind of a weird picture of us. But I remember thinking, like I think for the time it was very like I understand why they did it and I mean shout out to Josh for like really pushing for this to be a double CD because the record company definitely was like let's just pick the one I remember that really we're going double we got to

charge twice as much we're going to lose and half as many people are going to buy it you know oh no you couldn't charge twice as much that was the other thing remember the other thing yeah um but yeah I think it's just like uh okay so leave us a comment by the way we have a couple of comments here we like to read some of our comments this is from Spotify this is from our chick korea episode a couple weeks ago. James Ellison says, I've just now been on such a binge with this album, so I was super stoked to see you guys do this. We hear this a lot about people who are into a certain album. Yeah. We'll talk about it. Galby says, you've inspired me to listen to this album again. That's what it's all about, Galby. We're talking about the electric band. It's not Galby.

Galby. Gaube. Marcus White says, dope. Love how y'all love music like real musicians. We certainly do Marcus White. That's not what Marcus said. You read it wrong. So wait, say it again the way you just did it. Dope. Love how y'all love music like you. Now, what he said was. Dope love how y'all love music like real musicians. There's no comma. Yeah, I implied a comma. Okay. Until next time.

You'll hear it.