You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - OG's React To IG's #5

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

OG's React To IG's #5. This time Peter and Adam react to Justin Lee Schultz who is a rising star amongst the jazz community worldwide.Check him out here at the Blue Note.Check out Jesus Molina and Justin jamming here at NAMM. Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Instagram

Hey, Peter. Hey. It's time for another one. What? Another OG React to IG, man. Oh, that's today? That is today. Man, I'm excited.

Let's do it. Be careful what you wish for. Okay. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Some real talk from two players. From how many players?

Two. Just two players? Two players. All right. This is not going to last. I could tell. I can tell. It's not going to last.

Because you're on episode three, your enthusiasm is already waning. No. Like you, in the break. you were like, is it good or I don't know. What should I do? All right. RIP to this one. Whatever happened to just two guys talking about music.

Because you, it was silly. We're going to go back to this. Was it silly? Yeah. I thought it was pretty good. I don't know. You know what? It keeps it fresh by coming up with new.

If this is your first time, listen to the pod, you're like, what are you guys talking about? But welcome in, first of all. But also, we like to have a little playful aphorism. Oh, yeah. Is there anything wrong with being playful? That's right. That would that be something you might be interested in. Of course.

Apparently not, though. But yeah, so anyway. But yeah, this is Adam Manus. I'm Peter Martin. If you are new, we got a bunch of new listeners. I don't know if you knew about that. I did know. And we appreciate all the new listeners.

We appreciate all the OG listeners. We appreciate them even more. And the possible IG listeners. That's right. And this episode today, this is really exciting. This is part of our ongoing series. This is about number three, no, maybe four or five, actually, on this. Where we examine what we call IG artists.

That's right. Which are, we don't actually ever listen to them on Instagram because we're OG. We're old guys. So we go to YouTube because that's out of our comfort zone. We don't know what Instagram is. No, we know Instagram. Of course we do.

But anyway, it's just sort of our playful little nomiker for some of the younger artists like Jesus Malina, Domey, J.D. Beck. Who else did we do? We've done Jacob Collier. Yeah, so I mean, younger is

it's a sliding scale a little bit. Joey Alexander? We put it in this category. Artists who... Under the age of 30, could we say? Yeah, definitely. Generally. Who really got their break through social media, which is...

It's different than how it was when we were young. Right. Where there was like these series of gatekeepers. Yes. Record companies, clubs, festivals, booking agents. Mafioso. Can we say that? I mean, even older musicians that you would have to go through in order to have a career.

We have a fun time watching these young musicians who, it's really, you know, the social media is democratized. It has. How you can find an audience. And obviously, everyone we've listened to has found their audience, has found a really large audience. And it's kind of amazing, actually. It's kind of awesome. Yeah.

And the delivery system is different. It's going directly to the people. It's also going to fellow musicians, I think. So much of this is like sharing amongst, you know, themselves, you know, with other folks. But also, like, it's short form generally. Yeah. shorter form than an album for sure. It's visual in a way.

And so if you're not on the YouTube, you can come check these episodes out on the YouTube. We're going to give you the value on the audio too. Don't worry. We're coming for you. We're coming for you. But the idea is that these are artists that came up being much more cognizant

of how their performance looked as much as it sounded, you know, at different times, I would say, in terms of just how they approach the instrument, how they, you know, the case of Jacob Collier, you know, visualize a lot of the music and stuff presented. It's super interesting. Whereas I think

for us it was like, we're going to make an aisle, we're going to go, I mean, it was like all about how it sounded. Yeah. And even when you, on stage and stuff, there wasn't a lot put into thinking, like, how are you going to physically look outside of maybe wearing a suit if you were a young lion, right? Well, don't you think that another common thing with all of these, and you just mentioned it, it's a short form?

And the form itself, I think, more than these artists, the form itself has dictated what the music is doing more than, I think, before. maybe in the entire LP through streaming era, right? There was long form, there was albums, right? And the streaming era is, like,

definitely was the beginning of the death of the album as a thing. Yeah. And now I can think, I think we can safely say it's pretty well dead. Like, it's not, it's not going to be the same as it was, you know, in the 70s, obviously. Right.

Ever again. Right. It almost seems like the albums are being created even more than, they're being consumed as albums. So it's funny because people are still kind of, I mean, not everybody, but jazz. You still have to have an album, you know?

And I think it's more just because it's a big collection of singles and possible videos. Right, right. But jazz is definitely a little bit behind the, well, a little bit because it's still like a lot of the really big pop artists, hip-hop, R&B, country and stuff. Aren't they just going straight? I'm releasing a song.

I'm releasing a set of, it's not about the album. It might be available later or whatever, but it's coming on. It's definitely. streaming, YouTube, whatever. It's streaming oriented. It's single-oriented. It's a little bit video-oriented.

But I think where jazz and these musicians we're all covering are certainly like what you would call jazz. We should have an episode about the name jazz in the first place. It's a huge deal in minefield. But they're all adjacent to jazz or whatever. But I think the improvised music and sort of the musicianship that is required from improvising has let these kinds of musicians Jacob Collier style who were Justin Lee Schultz

who were listening to today have found a voice because they can do some impressive shit in a little bit of time. Yeah. And it kind of plays to our strengths as improvisers.

But does it play to our best, the best of us? I don't know. This is a good thing for us to think about and to talk about and to ruminate on during the OG

examine IG because I think that that's where we're of two minds, not you and I, but I think all of us is like we want to support this. We realize that it plays to the strengths in terms of like high level of musicianship,

sort of jazz, even if you're not a jazz player, like jazz train players. Like the typical, what's the top level? Berkeley kind of, you know, like you go. Open studio. Of the studio, of course. But I mean, like, if you're coming up a young player and like you're going to go to the best conservatory,

that's like the Harvard of jazz conservatories maybe. I don't know. Juilliard probably. Julia, whatever. But I'm saying it's like, Berkeley, it seems like if you go there and you're studying jazz, you're not studying jazz to become a jazz musician necessarily,

or Juilliard, or Webster, or any of these, but you're just learning to get a holistic, you know, a really well-rounded understanding of music that in a way, maybe if you just study classical music at a conservatory, you wouldn't get. Are you going to learn about harmony and quartals? And, well, yeah, you might. But you know what I'm saying?

Like more things that you could apply into pop music, into really any style of music. If you can play, understand the theory of jazz, as you're pretty well prepared to pretty much attack anything. You might have an authentic vibe on it, but from a theoretical standpoint, from a technical standpoint, you're going to be ready.

Yeah. I think the problem with, and we were going to get to Justin Lee Schultz here in just a second, but, you know, for me... Because right now this is OG's examine OGs. No, we're talking about IG and sort of the form,

which I think is important as a setup. But, you know, the thing that you don't get off TikTok is like, you know, a TikTok video would be half of one miles' day held long note. Right. You know what I'm saying? Wow.

And then you're missing out on a lot of stuff. Like, you're not able, like Miles Davis couldn't exist as the musician he was in today's landscape like that. Well, he's adapted, though, because he was very agile in his adapt, adaptation. He certainly was. He certainly was. But those big moments that happen, those beautiful, subtle moments that happen, they happen on long-form projects, you know?

I mean, it's like the difference between a film and a TikTok video. So the format, though, if you think about the history of jazz, music, so-called jazz music, black American music. Like this creative music, like this is... Not the same thing, though. Not interchangeable. No, no, no, I'm not, I'm just saying, I'm trying to be inclusive here of like, music that kind of came out of this time period of which there's been recording,

like it almost lined up perfectly with when recordings started. So the documentation of music is very different than other kinds of types of music that were maybe once recording formats were well established or whatever. could say. Because the good part of the music is you couldn't write it down. Right. But the fact that this music has always had to adapt to that. So first it was like shorter, you got to get to your stuff because it's only three and a half minutes long for 78 or whatever. Like we've always had to constantly adapt to the recording format. Then we could go longer. Then it was CDs. Then it was, you know, then it's an A side and a B side. Then it's streaming.

Now it's like video and like you've got to really get to your flat. Like how much do we allow as musicians, as creative musicians? And look, it's different for classical musicians. because they can be like, well, we're going to be streaming. We're going to be on video. But you're still going to be playing the Beethoven symphony. How much are you really going to adapt it? You could visually look a little different. The notes are what the notes are.

So when we have so much flexibility, so much responsibility comes with that, but so much adaptability. Yeah, good one. And so we're very well suited for that, but sometimes is that our downfall. Yes, and no. Is that a definitive, yes? Sometimes we're the best. Sometimes we're the best.

Sometimes we're the worst. Let's jump in. Because maybe we can find the answers with the young. Now, Justin Lee Schultz, this was one of our most requested for the OG's request IG. And full disclosure. I mean, he is bad. Yeah, bad is in a jazz musician. He is bad.

Yeah. No, he's a bad dude. He's accomplished. No doubt about it. But full disclosure, I didn't really know. I'm going to start it up and just slowly bring it up as we come in. Because this is PJ Morton, Robert Glass, where some type of all-star aggregation at the Blue Note in New York. York and

Justin Lee Schultz, young Justin Lee Schultz, joined him on the stage. I mean, so first of all, before he even joins them, you can't get more street credit than playing with PJ Morton and Robert Glasper at the blue note, right? He's sitting in with the right folks.

Is that what you're saying? I mean, it's just like, yeah, exactly. Exactly. And he is... I mean, look, those two guys are about as good as it gets. Yeah. Not even about. That little cell phone video Thank you, Justin.

Hey, J. Morg. Out of New Orleans, Louisiana. Robert Glasper, out of Houston, Texas. We got the Gulf South. The dirty golf south is in the house. Can I just say? The blue note in New York

is so well-suited for this kind of a sound and a vibe. So much more well-suited than the Keith Jarrett trio, which did play there and record there, I realized. Yeah. I mean, I don't know.

For me, this is just, that's the vibe of the club more so. The sound works better there. Yeah. Just a brief aside. Where's Justin? AirPods on, perhaps. That's a good start. Yeah, he's in there.

He's in there. Okay, can I stop right here? Yeah, yeah. Look, this is great, but this is, I think I, I think I, I think I, I, I might have something that will kind of define how we're in a different time now. This takes me back to, and we watched this a few months ago. Joey DeFrancesto at age 15, sitting in with Miles Davis. Similar vibe.

Similar vibe. Similar vibe. Sitting with Robert Glouette. Yeah. Similar vibe. But think about the big difference. Like, this is killing Joey D. Francescoe was definitely killing there. He was like 18, wasn't he?

He was like a senior in high school. 17 or 18. Yeah. But similar. And that would Justin? I think Justin Lee Schultz is. like 16 now. This is a year ago.

So, yeah, maybe about the same. So, but I mean, both really accomplished Joey G. Francesco, maybe a little bit more in there, you know, by that point. Yeah, whatever. But the big difference is look at like how, and I mean, I realize it's just taking two individuals. But look at more like, like visually, like he knows he's being recorded with video. Yeah.

And like, Joey D. was just like playing. Now he was being, you know, he had the dookie stick and was like out in front. Yeah. And was like visually not really prepared. He looked fine. He didn't look uncomfortable. but this generation, the IG players now, they know how to appear on it.

Like, they, it makes sense. They've grown up with an iPhone camera and everything. But it's such a thing. And then the fact that, like, somebody in the band or that's, like, before, I think it was like Kenny Garrett was up there and Robert Glasper, but he's got his phone out of his recording. Yeah, I know, yeah, yeah. So, like, he's kind of our generation, Gen X, but he's adapted to.

Glassper's, like, it's just a different time we're in, right? That's ridiculous. Woo! Yeah. Yeah. You've got to be... Look out. Pulling on his Corey Henry stuff there.

Yeah, I mean, that's... That's nice. Lingasy. Yeah. Hello. I mean, it's real, like, chops and stuff, but it feels good, so to me I'm okay with this. Yeah. He's in the pocket.

Bluezy, very blue-y. Kind of funky, kind of funky, so... That's good, man. Should we look at... Is that a two thumbs up? You know, we're giving thumbs. I'm going thumbs up. I mean, look, he's grooving.

You know, even if he wasn't 15 or 14 or 17 or whatever. I mean, if he is 14 there, that's... Even more, I mean, you know... That's silly. It's very poised playing. I mean, look, you might be like, oh, they're just, you know... Just E-flap minor kind of groove. But that almost makes it harder.

Like, you don't have any... You know, there's a bunch of kids that can, like, learn a bunch of changes and navigate and play fancy stuff. He's playing fancy stuff over just one thing, which as we know... It's also, there's a lot of poise. And maybe it's a case of him being too young. young to know that he should be nervous playing at the blue note with PJ Morton and Robert Glasper. So maybe that's the difference.

So Joey D. Francesco looked, he physically looked kind of nervous, but he didn't sound nervous at all. You know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I think maybe Miles made a...

I mean, it's mild, Dave. It's mild. Come on, man. Probably wasn't helping the situation. Yeah. I mean, it's mild. All right, so we have a special thing here, our very own Max Camese, that actually transcribe...

Shout out Max. With the bands and everything. And we'll link to Max's YouTube video here so you can check out the transcription. Exactly. Justin Schultz and Solo Tramp. But it's really great. I mean, it's great. He's standing up. He's playing the keys. He's comping on the Nord or whatever that is in the bottom. Accomplished stuff. Very cool.

Very cool. Yeah. So, wow, you're more positive than I thought you were going to be. Well, you know, so again, like, I think this really, it fits the, he's fitting in exactly with the vibe of what should be happening. Yeah. When a legend like Robert Glassberg calls up a young person to come in. and just like, like, rip it. He ripped it and he crushed it.

Yeah. Now, you're being very positive, but this might change your, your tone on this. This is not necessarily a surprise for you, but we haven't watched this because we said. We started watching, remember, and then we're like, let's say before a lot. Yeah, this one. So this, now, to be fair, this is one of those NAM sitting things that we've had before with different people. They're my favorite, you know. Well, I mean, look, my favorite musical genre is NAM video.

But, I mean, think about Stevie Wonder at NAM. That was killer. And I mean, a lot of the stuff, it's just, yeah, you got a bunch of just like... Was it killer, though? I mean, Stevie's killer, but was the video killer? I mean, it was a cool thing to be like, I don't know. No, not at all. But, I mean, it's, it's a, I don't want to say sausage fest, but it's just a bunch of dudes.

It's a bunch of musicians. It's a bunch of amplifiers and gear. It's not a positive scene for, like, artistic mastery. There's a lot of pointing at each other in pictures. The nam point. The nam point. Okay, anyway, let's just, but I thought this would be fun. And look, this has 831,000 views.

Oh, Amy Nalti's up there. Oh. Yeah, future of music. Okay, there you go. So this is with Jesus Molina jamming at the NAM show 2020. So a few years ago. So he must have been really young here, though.

But let's see what's happening. It's a piano there, ain't? Yeah, it's nice to hear them both on the acoustic piano. Okay, so incredible playing. This is Autumn Leaves, isn't it? Did you hear the melody? I heard the change. So.

Incredible playing. My only question... What? I got... Yeah, totally. Okay. No, my only question on this, or we're going to get back to it,

is this... Obviously, great chops from both of them, incredible stuff. Yeah. But, like, what the hell is going on with this? That's a question. Well, it's a NAM video. The point of a NAM video is to impress, right?

And that's the only gear that you have. Yeah. If you were, if an alien... What do you mean the only gear? It's the only gear that's available on a NAM video or any video. Oh, you mean like the gear you're going into or the gear? Because it's got a piano there. There's plenty of gear at NAM.

No, I mean the gear is in like that's. So if you have different gears, right, if you imagine seeing a live show. Yeah. And there's different gears to the show. There could be a tune that's like, oh, this is the tune we're going to burn out on and can be impressive shit that we're going to play. But there needs to be other gears if you're actually going to reach, you know, people who aren't other piano players. And all NAM videos are that one. one gear, that one speed.

Right. So at that, like that next chorus, if he had been like, you know, instead of, you know, or whatever he did, you know, more than I can do, if he'd just been like, it would never happen. That's not going to happen anymore? Never happened. Because that used to get woo-wooo! That doesn't get woo-wooes anymore?

I don't think it's not on the internet. It doesn't. As I'm saying, if an alien came down. But they're not on the internet. There's a bunch of people crowded around. That's what I'm saying. Are they so camera? Nam is for the internet.

Nam is for the... Let's go to the NAM. When is NAM? Oh, no. Caleb, look up when he doesn't know. He doesn't care. Let's go to NAM and just be like... Yeah, because Caleb's the soulful dude who likes soulful music.

That's what I'm saying. Like, it's a genre that is a hard... You know what I'm an OG. I'm sorry. That is nice. I mean, I could listen to you do this all the time, but why do we got to go to NAM? Can we just... But this is our shit that I stole from Herbie and Winton Kelly and all the real OGs.

You know what I mean? I'm just saying. All right, let me give it a chance, though, to keep one. There's no... This is the thing. We don't want to make it like, you got to play a lot. like this. Come on, man. Put a suit on and play. Also, I will say

as we sit here with our two keyboards next to each other, and we do some playing on with each other, it's hard to get two piano players together and them not kind of have a bit of, especially these are two young guys who are like, you know what I mean? Who are like chop crazy already. They're both kind of fusion guys

already. I know, but then jazz just becomes, maybe that's what it is. The fusion is. I like play, but I mean, they're obviously, again, they're incredibly talented musicians, but I would rather listen to Hank Jones brush his teeth. I think. I think I would rather listen to Hank Jones. Watch or listen to.

Listen to the sound of Hank. I would rather listen to the sound and audio recording of four minutes of Hank Jones brushing and flossing than any one more second of two young shredders. Nothing against them, but I'm just, it's not my favorite genre. I like what he did, sitting in with Glasper and he crushed it. It was great. But if the NAM videos weren't there, could they like, because there's like a way to be like,

you know, you know, to go in and out of that kind of thing. You know what I mean? Yeah. But is it because the cameras are there, they have to feel like they stay in there? Because they kind of did come out of it. Let's listen a little more.

Just imagine that Hank Jones is brushing his teeth right now, Adam. I would rather listen. I would rather listen to the sound. But like, what, he just, bumbo. No, that's all cool. I mean, like, that was in there.

I don't think this is for us, though, Peter. This is just like, I feel like I'm watching a video about Pokemon that my son likes, and I'm just like, this was not made for me. Just the tone of it, the setting of it. This is not meant for a 44-year-old piano. It's like, again, I would rather listen to, I would rather watch the video of him sitting in a clasper and PJ Morton again. But this, the whole NAM vibe and the two piano showy vibe, it's not for me.

Again, nothing but mad respect for their abilities is incredible. but I would rather listen to Witten Kelly tie a necktie, the sound of that. You're going to get into the AMSR, AMR. More heartfelt in a lot of ways. For me, personally, would reach me in a deeper way. Stay tuned for the next episode where we're doing Adam's favorite AMSR.

The subtle sounds of a necktie of Winton Kiley. That's all we got for this one. No, shout out to Justin Lee Schultz. That's two thumbs up for Justin Lee Schultz, I think, in general. But NAM videos, we should do a whole... I mean, if we want to get a rise, out of Adam, you can watch nothing but NAM videos. I'm fine with that.

But it's not my genre. We'll go into NAM. Why would you do that to me? Why would you do that to? We're going to put our own spin on NAM. I'm looking it up right now. Until next time. You'll hear it.

But in jazz, you know, we play all the notes. We play all the skills. That's three chords on a hookahler.