You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our 7 Favorite '80s Albums

Episode Date: July 1, 2021

Is it the most underrated decade for jazz? Peter and Adam list off their favorite albums from the totally rad decade.Prefer your podcasts in video form? Watch the YouTube version of this episode hereHave a question? Leave us a SpeakPipeWatch Live: YHI LIVE Mondays at 4pm ET on YouTubeWant more of Adam and Peter? Check out Open Studio Pro hereWoosh or No Woosh? Hit us up on Twitter and let us know which team you are onSupport the pod by spreading the word with the link youllhearit.com 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.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Hey Peter. What's up, Adam? Do you remember that film in the 80s, Beverly Hills Cop? Well, which one? One, two, or three. Uno dos place. Actually, all of them. Do you remember the theme to the main character and what it was called?

Well, Axel Foley, Axel F, Axel F. Very good. Do you remember how that went? I said I know it was going to go there. I'm out of Manus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Music advice coming at you.

Coming at you today, sponsored by Open Studio. Go to Open StudioJadiojazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs. Woo! Ow, you just. Hey, you know what, Peter, let's get down to brass tacks here. Just so everybody knows there might be some banter up front. Oh, just to... If you think, if you're allergic to hilarious banter,

then you're going to do fine here. Then you're at a safe space. Is that what you're saying? None of that. Yeah, today we are doing another episode. I love the 80s, really, our seven favorite 80s albums. Now, there's no... Man, this could be like a VH1 show, except they don't put jazz on there, so this is like the VH1.

I love the 80s. What happened to that band? I was pushing it already. Don't get us sued, buddy. That's right. That's right. Behind the music. Behind the jazz club.

So today we are listing our seven favorite 80s albums. And, you know, full disclosure here, these are actually. Actually, Pierre Martin's seven favorite. I was going to say, we should have said that earlier. Well, we are at the beginning of the show still. Because I had a very busy time been preparing some exciting stuff for Open Studio. And also, I don't, this isn't my strongest. I'm trying to be delicate here, but I don't know this decade as well as you know it.

I definitely have my favorites. There's some Keith Jared in there. What he's trying to say is Adam was born on New Year's Eve between 1989 and 1990, whatever that is. I'm a 90s kid. No, I was, I grew up in the 80s, but I wasn't into jazz until the 90s. So I don't really, I haven't really hit this decade as much as I should have. But some of these that I know are on our list. I'm very excited to listen to you because you've hit me to so much music from here that's been very, very, very good.

And so that's why our subtitle for this episode is the most underrated decade, because I actually think it is. It is not talked about enough how good some of the music was coming out of the 80s. Yeah, I agree. And I'm totally full disclosure. I'm totally biased about the 80s because, especially like right in the middle of the 80s, this was really my kind of coming of age in terms of my love for this music, my inspiration from this music, my awakening to great recordings. And of course, many of them, you know, most folks, you get into jazz and then you go down

the rabbit hole of like, oh, my God, my Herbie Hancock. And so then you're like going back to the 60s and the set, you know, and I, of course, I did that. But it was very exciting for me because at first, You know, the 80s, I'm listening to the radio. Great records are coming out. I mean, you know, Thriller came out when I was in seventh grade, and it's like hit after hit.

It comes on the radio. Prince. You got your cassette recorder and cassette recorder, and cassette quarter, sorry. I don't know if you know about that. Cassette quarter? Cassette quarter? Is that the little rectangle one? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And then I had to boombox and you record stuff off the radio. So it's like new releases. So when I got into jazz, I was also into just new stuff that came out, and musicians that were coming like this very first artist that were going to play. for you, like this album, I heard it live first, actually. So it's a very unique thing in jazz.

It still exists and it has at different times, but I was the recipient of that. Like hearing this music back, oh my gosh, this is so amazing. And then the record comes out a few months later. The record drops. So, I mean, like my connection, I'm a little biased. That's all I'm saying. Is that okay?

Yeah, so let's hear our very first album. What do you got for us? Okay, so first, now we've, this has been on the pod before, I would say. Several times. Several times. There's the album up there. If you're on YouTube, you can check it out.

But this is Black. codes from the underground. This was 1985 and this is Kenny Kirkland on piano, Brant from Marcellus on saxophones, Wint Marcellus, of course, on trumpet, a very young Charinette Moff at 16, 17 years old and the incredible Jeff Tane Watts at the drums. And this record, I think this was not Winton's first record. I think it was like his third or fourth. Maybe I think there was Witton Marsalis. Think of one. Maybe this was his third record on Columbia. You still very young quintet was happening. But I think this was a pivotal record because it

really kind of typified and crystallized the sound of that group that a lot of folks were really trying to kind of imitate although this group was being accused of stealing everything from the classic Miles Davis quintet from the instrumentation and the makeup and the way the records

were put together and everything so it was kind of an interesting thing and we're going to get to Miles in a minute anyway because he factors very heavily in the 80s as well well but to that point just like we were talking about before about you know, some young pianists and maybe Keith Jarrett's influence on them or whatever. I think this album, you know, you can hear the influence, but it's definitely its own thing.

I don't think you can accuse anybody here of, like, being too strongly influenced by this. This is its own sound. I mean, there's Kenny Kirkland and Jeff Tane Watts and all the soloists, of course, just make it, you know, at the time it felt so modern and raw. Yeah. If anything, it just has that same energy. Yeah, yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned Jeff Watts and Kenner. Kenny Kirkland because I think that, I mean, everybody on this record, but I think what they're

two, though, oh, it's just, you know, they've got some magic. Yeah. So we're going to check out, I mean, it could have been anything from this record. Actually, fun fact, Ron Carter shows up on one track on this, not the one we're going to play, but plays beautifully. The great Ron Carter. Yeah. Friend of the pod.

Friend of the pod. Okay. It's fun to say. But we're going to play Delphield's dilemma. We hope you enjoy. 3, 4 bar 40 there. So, man, that thing, Jeff watches play. Take, go, get too.

I mean, it's just great stuff. That the Kenny Kirkland, that's like, I mean, that is the foundation of modern comping. Isn't it? Like, that feels like so, I could have been recorded yesterday. Yeah. I just feels so present. And I love the way this record, you know, it's, it's a little bit artificial the way that it's mixed and produced and mastered. But I love this sound.

But that's partly because I came up, like, hearing the sound. But I think it's like, the drums are so wide and like just in front and in behind. Like, it's just, it's like 3D drums. You hear it in the mix. Especially when you got the cans on. Yeah. But the piano, I think, is really crisp. There's a lot of verb.

The separation, that would probably be the only fault I would have a little bit. Everything is so separate sounding. It's almost a little bit anesthetic. Anastasia. Anesthesia. I don't know. Anaseptic. Antiseptic.

Antiseptic. It's a little bit antiseptic. But can we just jump in here a little bit of what? What's going on? I'm still not sure if that's the word. Anaseptic, you know, like just where everything's clean and separate. Because like the reverb levels are a little bit different on stuff. But it's definitely the sound of the mid-80s for sure.

But let's just hear a little bit of candy curler. But you're here I'm talking about with the drums are just the expansiveness. Check out the checkmaker. Uh-oh. Boobo do by Wheatley. Uh-oh. Brantford. Oh, that was still legal back then.

Let's check that again. That's the lick. Oh, repeat it. It's very free. Freedom. Edit, hard edit. It's great stuff. It's great stuff.

We just listening to that for the rest of the show. That's amazing. That 3-4 bar in there, if you can catch that. It's a funny thing. Like, I don't know why, I think I asked Winton about this. We got to get Winton on the pod. We got to get Winton on the pod. There's a lot of pressing questions.

I'm calling him. He went and like, yeah, and we talked about it. He was by our doorway, you know, a few months ago, almost entered the pod. Did you know that? No. Yeah. Well, you might not know. Why didn't he come in?

He had to. Go somewhere. Something else to do. She was on his way in. But the thing is, yeah, there's a three, four bar in there. So fun fact on that. We're going to move on, though, because we got a lot of other fun stuff. Well, we have six more.

That's so good. Did we bring the fire? I think, well, yeah, Kenny Kirkland. Black Codes is always the fire. Yeah. Okay, next, what we have here, we are going to, in one fell swoop, check the pun, we are going to make up for an egregious error from last week, from two, weeks ago, an omission.

From the 90s? From the 90s? A omission of fact. And that the fact is that Mulgrew Miller was a giant of the piano in the 80s and the 90s, even back to the 70s and into the 2000s as well.

So with one fell swoop, as it were, boom, let me see here. With Wingspan, one fell swoop. Hello, we're going to make up for that. Genius, this record. Yeah. Here we go. This is Wingspan, Title Cone.

That's a good sound. Now, that's the 80s right there. Is that digitally remastered? Oh, no, Tony Reedis. Man, my bad. Of course. It's Kenny Garrett on the saxophone. And I hate to even fade this up.

We've got a lot of stuff to get through. Kenny Garrett, Tony Reis, of course, the great. Tony Reuters, we lost him. Steve Nelson. Steve Nelson. Hello. This might be the first Steve Nelson shout out on the You'll Hear a podcast ever. And that is egregious.

It is. A master all the up to today. but definitely have the 80 sound. And you know what I love about this and about Mulgroom Miller? Like this, as much as the win, and this is, when is this? This is right around the same. This is a couple of 87, a couple years later. But this group of Kenny Garrett and then Steve Wilson, friend of the pod,

friend of the open studio came into this band as well later. But, you know, this was very much like taking that classic, I hate to say whatever post-bop, Neil, whatever the hell they call it. But, you know, taking that more straight ahead even than like Winton's quintet, but just like putting it through a. very not afraid to make it at 80s kind of sound and everything and this is a or in keep news produced record so it's a little bit of a different sound a little drier than that Columbia sound I always thought this is a very soulful sounding record I think so I don't

think this sounds very sterile or anything like that no no and I think you know it reminds me of I mean this is recorded studio but this reminds me like that vanguard sound very dry it's dry very in a chunky way exactly yeah no that's great and I don't know why this is in a chunky way um can we just jump to a little bit of piano soul because we love. Yeah. I mean, just, uh.

What a sound. I know. You know, I never, I never got to meet Mulgrew Miller. And I heard he was this nicest guy. Like I heard he was the coolest cat. Sweetest guy.

Look at his hands. And man, he was just. I saw him. I never actually met him, though. He was such a giving guy. I'm like,

he showed me, I mean, all young pianist, you know, he was super like generous and, but just like encouraging. And just a cool guy

to hang around. around like I was always really nervous around him for obvious reasons but he somehow made me like feel at ease and would like always compliment me about just you know so he's a liar basically he compliment and said he enjoyed my playing so but he was such a nice guy he decided to do that no he was just he's just a cool dude I mean the way he plays the way he solos you know I think like like a lot of great musicians when your technique is really good what what that really is about is about the accuracy of your personality

and your soul and your story and your personality, everything, coming out in your playing on a piano, which is not the easiest instrument for our personalities to come through until you get to that really high level, not only of technique, but just of confidence and understanding of why you're put on the planet in the case of somebody like Mulgrew Miller. So whenever I heard him play,

like him hanging with him and talking to him and having him tell stories and stuff, it was very much intertwined for sure. You know what is a common thread here in these first two tracks, man and it makes me think about teaching and our own playing and how we can how we can listen to this critically and apply some of these lessons to our own planning but both Kenny Kirkland and mulgrew miller there's a lot of risk in their playing there's a lot of mastery but it certainly wasn't perfection you know and either of the examples that we just heard like there were things

gone for and things hit and some things missed but like the spirit remained open and generous as it was happening to where it's like, you know, it feels good no matter what's going on. And you trust that an interesting, generous idea is going to be presented to you, you know, at the time of even something not being perfect. Right. And I mean, actually, the beginning of the Kenny Kirkland solo on the, on the Delphield's Deliver that we heard, there was a little bit of incongruity and a little bit of unsettled and maybe mistake you might call it between Jeff Watts and Kenny Kirkland, you know, an example of what you're saying, not perfection, but so much humanity and interesting stuff. And then when Jeff Watts, he hits that snare drum thing where

kind of lines things back up again, such an interesting part of the story for sure. All right, we're going to move on as the 80s moved on. Now, this record was a super big deal when it came out. I mean, this was like probably one of the biggest records. I would have had the feeling I probably They won a Grammy or nominated for sure. Everybody was talking about this record, and it was really sort of a big deal, and I'll just sort of throw it up there. I'm kind of a big deal. These folks were kind of a big deal, for sure. And that is Pat Mathini and Ornette Coleman, Charlie Hayden Jack Dijunette, and DeNardo Coleman.

Who's in the band? Exactly. The front of the record is the same as the back of the record. But this is Song X, and what are we going to listen to? Oh, actually, yeah, song is. This entire record, I believe. If somebody can correct me if I'm wrong on this, as I recall, is improvised. I mean, it's free, what they would call free jazz and just totally improvised.

And I don't know how much of it was worked out, but I think very little. But this was a very exciting record and really kind of like opened me up to a lot of possibilities at the time it came out. Oh, wait, hold on. See, I got my volume low, brough. Brough, come on, bro. Come on. Because we got two different places we're controlling things. See what's happening?

We should just set things up the, uh, and write them down from the week before. Okay. I heard Charlie Hayden, sorry, I mean to cut it off that abruptly, but that Charlie Hayden coming in with that line. So definitely was more worked out. I forgot about that. It's not totally free, but it's a lot of free, free, because this melody at the beginning.

And I was just reading up on it, Adam, and I didn't realize this. I guess I forgot this from the time. Coleman's saxophone tone when combined with a saxophone preset on Papadini's guitar synthesizers, which he'd modified, created an ensemble blend that was surprising to both of them. That's awesome.

Yeah. There's no one better at that thing than Nornet Coleman. I mean, it's just, it's so grounded. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's so soulful. It's like for being so frantic and dissonant, he is the master. Yeah.

He truly is. He's one of the greatest ever. And Song X has a bunch of like, there's a lot of, it's not all as frantic sounding as that. It's like a really just well put together. It was on Geffen Records, which was very unusual at the time. to have like a jazz record. It was a big deal, but it's just a beautiful. This is a great record to listen to from beginning to end.

And I would say put on your LP, but we're getting into like 1985, 86. You might be pulling your CD player, I'm big guy. Absolutely. You might be going 24 bit up on this bad boy. Well, it's digitally remastered. Well, of course. It's doubly remastered. But you might want to get, what would be an appropriate elixir or Vino to have with song acts?

That might be like... I feel like it's a Bartles and James. No, no, well, because it's a... to 80, I know. No, no, but something that's like... Zima? No, that was 90s. Like a Bruno de Montalcino. Oh, I get it. Smooth, but a little aggressive and high end for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what I'm talking about, but that's... It could fit. Who knows? But that's song X. So if you haven't heard that, I highly recommended it. I mean, Ornette Coleman, and I love all his stuff. He was a huge loss as well. But you hear already from the Kenny Garrett we heard earlier,

like the influence of Ornite on the saxophone players in the 80s was just massive. I mean, Bram from Arsales and Steve Wilson and, for sure, Sure, Kenny Garrett. All right, so we're moving along here on our romp through the 80s. This is a cocaine infused and pre-heroine time. Sorry, I'm just kidding. It was the 80s. I mean, you know, you're not lying.

No, just kidding. That was, you know, this was a Charlie Sheen infested, Wall Street induced playlist. Okay, now here where we go, I'm really excited about this one because what do you If I were to say the Chick-Correa Trio, one of the mini-great trick-ch-Korea Trio. Is that something that would interest you? Yes, very much so.

So this record was a great. It was actually a double record because it was the music of Thelonius Monk and a trio music released together. And then I think that was like the LP. And then I can't remember if they did two CDs when the CD came out. But ECM, of course.

This is the classic Chick-Korea Trio that he recorded with back in the late 60s. And then played with it. many, many times over the years. But I think this really kind of is a great example and really typifies Chick sound. I mean, he just had an outsized presence on the 80s. Like he did every decade he was alive.

I was going to say, what decade did Chick not have an outside presence? But the 80s, you know, he was really like in his prime as he was in every other decade. In the 70s and the 60s and the 90s. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to check this out. This is actually, I was kind of torn because there's so much great stuff.

There's some great originals and sort of improv stuff with this trio. really interesting, but I love this rhythm ending. Careful, man. Careful with this label here. Why? What's that? Sorry, I'm just let's give it a go. Okay, okay. Oh.

And that's a great second. Oh, my gosh. That's all we can play. You tell that's going to be so swinging. Oh, you're right. I totally forgot. Okay, ECM, ICNA on the ECMA. Yeah, so could we do like little, we could do a little Oh, what sound? The sound quality is so good.

That's why they're so possessive of it. Okay, that's enough. That's enough. Okay, sorry. Okay, that's it. So check out trio music. By a Korea chick, Vitu Svirislav and Haynes Roy. Can we just take a pause here and just talk about how crazy this is that we have to talk about it like this?

I know. When it's like you want to share music. We've got to get our attorney on speed dial. Ridiculous. I got to get Rick Beato on the horn to help us out of our jam. We're about to get it. Are we still live? Are we still live? Let us know if we're still live.

So just so you guys, if you don't know what we're talking about here on the YouTube for the podcast, we're saved. But certain labels restrict and they have something called copyright. Is it called copyright ID? Something ID. That they can match what we're playing. And rightfully so. But we're here spreading the love trying to get y'all to go on buy and stream this music. You know what I'm saying?

It's an interesting time for all of this, you know. So it's not like we're trying to stream the music in order to gain funds from it. We're talking about it. That's right. Okay, cool. So now, I don't know if a certain record called Round Midnight, soundtrack to the movie would interest you, but that's what we got queued up next, sir.

Certainly would, sir. Is it something that would interest you? Yes, sir. Okay, so this is such a great record. This really was a touch point of the 80s for jazz. This was like a, I mean, not necessarily a turning point because there has been the intersection of Hollywood and jazz many times over the years, but this was like a big moment in the 80s.

partly for this great movie that was made round midnight. They featured Dexter Gordon in the lead role, but also featured so many great musicians, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter and just Freddie Hubbard slew of and also it coincided with the revival of the Blue Note jazz record label as well. And so I love this record and I remember when it came out. I remember when the movie came out, it was so exciting. And where do I have it on here?

So many tracks, I wasn't sure what to do. But this one, the Peacocks with Wayne Shorter playing on This is just gorgeous. Yeah, it's gorgeous. Hold on a second. We safe for this one? Hopefully. He's a little bit of a busy bee with his comping there, but in all the right ways.

Wouldn't you say? If you can do it right, there's no such thing as too busy. That's right. That's right. Great stuff, great stuff. So that's Herbie Hancock, round midnight Wayne shorter. Ron Carter, front of the pod. I think that's Tony Williams on the drums.

Maybe one of our listeners can correct me on that. But that's the soundtrack to round Midnight Blu No Records, There's a real wonderful moment then. Dude, this is a great list. I'm just, I don't like to throw you such obvious props, but props. Well, I mean, at 6.45 a.m. You texted me. Wait, you know what?

I did text you. I didn't even realize. I'm up at like 5.30 every morning. You know, I'm up too, but I don't even think about it. I'm going to read you the exact text. Here we go. Okay. Yo, 6.58 a.m.

Yo, can you put together an 80s playlist for you'll hear it today? also I only listened to Van Haler in the 80s so that was awesome 658 658 658 wow yes okay so that was we got one two three four five six of our seven favorite 80s albums we do have two bonuses

Billy Higgins playing drums on that oh that's Billy Higgins of course of course of course Billy Higgins thank you for that we have two bonuses because the 80s just kept on rolling when you're on a on a cocaine infused bender through the 80s of course you guys you guys You got to go to 11. It's 3 a.m.

But Michael Douglas just walked into the bar. You can't leave. That's right. Oh, is that Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen together? Is that Glenn Close? What's up? Wait a second. Michelle Pfeiffer.

Where are you at, girl? Dude, the Corrie's just got here. We can't leave. The, what's it? The Olson twins. That's the 90s. Oh, that's the 90s. Well, they weren't alive.

Well, maybe they weren't, actually. I don't think they were. Sorry. Okay. All right. So this record may be one that you don't know. young in. I like this. Because this was like

I have to check what year. This is maybe 83, 84 or something. This is Kevin Eubanks opening night. You would think that. Tonight show Kevin Eubes? Yeah, same guy but different. Actually no, same. Well, no, this is before then. But this record

was just like the open, you know, this is one of those records where the opening of it, and I'm vamping a little bit because I want to pull up the cover. Because this is the most 80s cover. This wins the award for our 80s well I think so what do you think that's a super 80s cover look at that leather

jacket let's just check out the whole thing is that a DVD to Eddie Murphy's stand-up man he looks like he looks like yeah he looks like a stand-up comic I know okay check out the pants perfectly creased wide wailed neon opening night the font

does it get any more 80s than that that is yeah I was going to say the title of the album font but also just Kevin you the Kevin Eubanks Yeah. That's really good. And then the prominent digital master.

Digital Master is almost as, is like more prominent than the title of the record. Kevin was on, I think he was on every album in the 80s and 90s. I mean, he literally was on like

hundreds of records. He was everywhere. I saw him once live and he was so killing. Oh yeah. No, he's master. And leather skinny tie.

Does that get any more 80s than that? I actually had a leather skinny tie. Thank you very much. Did you, he looks like a private eye in Santa Barbara. or something. Look at him. Okay, but this, I mean, this I think is one of the best

openings to any record. I mean, the thing is called opening night and the track is called opening night. And Bram from Arsalis and I was going to have Bram from Arsales track. I had to take it off, but he's on several of the things that we've heard. Trio GP. Oh yeah, I skipped over something back. We're going to go back to that. This is number six actually. I missed one. But this is opening night from Kevin Eubanks opening night on GRP records. GRP.

Those are the crispiest symbols in the world Who's playing drums on it? I think it's Jeff Wogg I should know that Oh, Smitty, of course. Marvin Smitty Smith. That makes sense. I remember trying to learn this line.

This part I could learn. That beginning was technique much. Benson, Westmonton. I mean, it's so. Smitty. So, I mean, that's very 80s, very burnout, you know, definitely, you know, with Brantford, with that connection, with the Marcellus brothers. Now, explain the burnout to the folks. Burnout.

I don't know. I was talking with Max about this. So, you know, Max, Camies, our in-house transcriber, after we did the 90s, he and this spoiler alert, he transcribed a little bit of Kenny Kirkland on two down one across. We have that available to us. We will probably doing something with that in the next week or so. That is something that would interest me. Like, look at you perk up. What?

You have the transcription of that? Yes, we do, and it's awesome. But he was like, Max, message me, and he was like, what is the chord changes that? I feel like it's all just E flat, Rainer. But he's like, but Kenny Kirkland's doing all this stuff. What are the chord changes there? I'm like, no, no, that's called E flat burnout. That's right.

There are no core changes. It's just hovering around E flat. Right. And you put in these things, kind of like shape around the harmony. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's what it is. I mean, it's just, you know, sometimes there was changes. Sometimes there wasn't.

but a lot of times you're just hovering around. It's in a key and it's minor, it's major, and you're taking it in and out, and the form is flexible. And, but there is a form. You know, it's just that it's very flexible.

So it's not, it's not like you're in a groove and you're playing a certain way. But I mean, Jeff Watts, Marvin Smitty Smith, too, big props to Marvin Smitty Smith

because, I mean, he pushed a lot of this forward during this time as well between him and, um, this is a killing ban. Yeah, killing ban.

For sure. Okay, so I've skipped over one in the, well, I mean, this is in no particular order, Here, this is going to be number seven of our seven favorite 80s albums. And this is really exciting because this is a gentleman that you may or may not have heard of Adam.

So we're going a little bit under the radar on this one. Oh, so this might be a little hidden jam here. Yes. For an artist. I'm always looking for new artists to find. So I'm very excited about this. If you look on the monitor behind me. Okay.

See, are you familiar with a gentleman out of East St. Louis, Illinois, Miles Davis. It's got catfished into that. Okay. So this is Tutu from. Tootoo. This was the album he dedicated to, sorry I'm trying to mess with this thing here. Reverend Desmond Tutu

who got the Nobel Peace Prize out of South Africa. There's your DX7 sound buddy. Miles. Marcus Miller. Like it could have been from a Beverly Hills cop movie like a little dark scene in the L.A. back. I love Tutu, man.

I mean, don't you miss orchestra hits? Yeah. Like the synth orchestra hits. It's so weird for me. So I mentioned that I'm changing houses or whatever. So literally yesterday I threw out the Roland XP50 that, yeah, that I got as like a, I you throw that out, man. Well, because it hasn't worked since the year 2002.

I got it in like 95. And it literally hasn't worked, but it was my first professional gigging keyboard, you know? So many wedding bands. So many wedding gigs in that keyboard. Pete, that thing long some miles. It really, I honestly hasn't been able to turn on since like 2005. Okay. And I threw it away.

But all the sounds on there, because it was from about 10 years after this album, all came from this. Right. Pacific era of Miles. Yeah. That's how influential Miles was even in the 80s. I don't think people realize that. But these sounds were like, you hear like bad 90s smooth jazz, like really like not good, not thoughtful. Sounds like bad version of this.

Exactly. Like 10 years later. They're behind the time. They're behind the time. Miles was always one step ahead. Yeah, and I don't know a lot about, I did get a chance to hear Miles around this time. Well, actually earlier than this, and around this time.

But he got a chance of open for him with a band back in 90. That was in the 80s. I was in 90. But the thing is, this is Marcus Miller. I don't know how much, I think, a whole lot. I mean, he produced in him and Tommy Lipuma produced this record. But, I mean, you can hear him playing on it. He's doing bass clarinet on some stuff and did a lot of

programming, drum programming, synthesizer program, all that kind of stuff. Marcus Miller did all that. Yeah. He didn't do all of it. And I'm just looking here like Adam Holtzman did some stuff and different people. But I mean, Marcus Miller's hands are all over this record, you know, for sure. He's, yeah, he's a master at this sound specifically. It's so great, man.

But it's, that's 80s, but that's a good 80s. I can get with that. If this isn't 80 sounds, this is something I could interest you in, Adam. Yeah, it is. I'm going to listen to this record tonight, man. I forgot how much I love this sound. It's so good. It's good.

So that is our seven. That's our seven favorite albums from the 80s. But like we said, we got a couple bonuses. And these are ones I kind of wanted to throw out because you may not know them. Our folks may not know them. They're a little bit lesser known. But these were like big records that had a huge impact on me. The first one I'm going to play is, do I have this one queued up in here?

I think so. This was another GRP, I believe. GRP, big shout out to GRP. Their stuff looked corny. in the 80s when we look back on it, but it was hip at the time, and the music was killing. Dave Gruson's lately little, right? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I had

I had a couple of GRP big band albums in the 90s that were really good. Yeah, the GRP big band. Yeah, Dave Wechle. Yep, yep. So this is Dizzy Gillespie, new faces. Okay, another Kenny Kerrachlan appearance, which is part of the reason, like, I remember this, I was just so many to Kenny when I heard him live around this time, and then this

record came out, but I also got a chance to see Dizzy Gillespie, who came to Columbia, Missouri, And I drove out there. It got to see him around the same time, 84, 85 or something. So this is... That's cool. Yeah, it's cool.

Columbia's not cool, but that was cool. No, that must have been awesome. It was. So this is Berks Works. But good? Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Woof.

That's a little digital. Digital. Record. But just stop it. So start up again. Just, Disney is so swinging. I know. I mean, even with the digital...

The digital compression and reverb coming right in your face. That's right. His sound and his, I mean, him, he is so swinging. Playing it again. That was great. Yes, sir. Sorry. No, no, I love to hear it again.

Is that a digital rolling recorder shoved inside of his, his Harmon mute there? That's what it sounds like. It's incredible. You can hear just the years of swing. Yeah. This is how the producer should have like, Ah, Dizzy. Can you take, do another take and swing it harder this time.

Come on, Dizzy. Oops, sorry Ah It's a very... Question, is that an electric or an acoustic face? This is actually This is Lonnie Plaxical

Yeah, this is a very 80s direct bass sound That's a direct bass sound That's not how it's crazy about it. I love Lonnie Plaxo But you don't get a lot of that anymore No, thankfully This is Kenny Kirkland

Brad from Marsala Drums, Robert Amin See, the bass is a little bit like It kind of sounds like I can't even go out Well, yeah, when you make that face, you should see his face, listeners. I can see it. I don't think that's what Ronnie Plaxico look like.

No, no, no, but that's the way it sounds with that direct. Direct. Check it out. Ah, dizzy. So for our listeners who don't know, the bass, you can have a pickup or you can have a mic on it to get a sound of it. Like, you can have a pickup on it like you would an acoustic guitar, and it gets you this sound. This is the sound of a pickup. Is this a mix you think or just the pickup?

It might be a mix, but it's definitely very pickup. It's like a 90-10 music. Yeah. So a lot of live concerts you might hear will have a mix between like a mic on the bass and the pickup. And in order to get sort of a clean sound from the pickup, but you want the natural sound of the bass. Because mics tend to pick up things like drums and guitars and trumpets and stuff like that. So you can't turn them up super loud. Bases are notoriously quiet.

Yes. So there's the difference. If you wanted to hear like a bass with just a mic, listen to anything before 1976. That's right. That's right. All right. We got one more track here, and that is going to be featured. This was another blue note kind of revival record with none other than Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw.

This is a great record. You know what I'm saying? Is that good enough? And it's called double take because you have these guys. I mean, to have them together. Woody Shaw, we don't get enough love to here on. Oh, Woody Shaw. Exactly.

My bad. My bad. So that's on me. That's on me. That's on you. You're bad. I'm always like Woody Shaw, whatty Shaw? Come on.

Let's do Woody Shaw. And I'm like, no, no. And I remember seeing him around this time at the Village Vanguard, like 85 or 86. Woody Shaw with his man with Steve Choray, a very young Terry Lynn Carrington. I mean, like a teenage Terry Lynn Carrington, probably. Mugrew. Well, if you look here on who's on this album, there's a very, looks like a very familiar lineup there. And this is, of course, friend of the pod, Carl Allen.

Carl Allen, one of the great drummers of his generation. Cecil McBee on bass and Kenny Garrett. So this is Sandu. Our second bonus. Oh, sorry. Aerial separation. It's Woody. Hard pan.

Hard pan. That's how Woody isn't. That major third to the minor third. It's radical, dude. All right, so I'm going to. It's totally radical. Yeah. Just a little Kenny Garrett here.

Come on. I know he featured probably in the 90s. A young Kennedy girl. He's a young Carl Allen. Yes. Freddie Hubbard was superb. I think the verb's too much. Oh, Poodles is out.

Poodles! This reminds me a lot of when we trade with the blues at the beginning of the show. Only different. We need more reverb. That's our problem. It's not hard to play up that high. Everyone's like Freddy could play so high. Oh, man.

Dang. And then, of course, a ball group. I mean, I just, you know, I can listen to stuff all day. But this recording, I really feels like the sound of it. That's 80s right there. Very 80s. But I love the 80s. Sue me.

assume me because I love the 80s. I was going to say it's really, really thick on the reverb. And I was going to say, I'd love to hear what it would sound with less reverb, maybe a little less bass too, because it feels very base heavy. But on the flip side, it's already in the bag. This record's already made. That's right. And we can enjoy it for what it is.

Exactly. Which is, man, the playing on it is so spectacular. But even the sound, even that sound. Yeah. It's like, I'm glad everything doesn't sound the same. Exactly. Some kind of, like on that first solo break of Woody Shaw, I mean, especially with the tempo they're playing it and everything,

you're kind of thinking like, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That's in your head, and I love how he gave it a beat and then just ripped into his own language. Yeah. So great. Yeah, this is a great record. The whole record is really, really fun, highly recommended. So, all right, well, I hope you guys enjoyed our little romp through the 80s.

And this was fun, man. What are we doing next? Well, we do have that two-down-one cross from the Kenny Kirkland solo. Oh, you're talking about what decade? I was going up. I was like, really? Are we already going back? Let's go back. Yeah, we can go back to the 90s.

No, no, no, we should, I mean, Pete. Let us know in the comment about this. Let us know in the comments for YouTube. If you're listening to this on the audio podcast, it's all good. I would say the 50s, but that's been the first three years of the podcast. Exactly, exactly. No, man, you know. Or the 60s.

How about little Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock from the 60s? That would be great. Yeah, something we haven't talked about a lot. obviously the 70s that's my favorite decade of music have you ever heard a Herbie record called Secrets by any chance? Is that something that would interest you?

Would you like to listen to that? I mean like right now after the show, I'm down. I've got it right here. I keep a copy in my jacket. The 70s obviously, what about the first, the aughts, the 2000s? What does that mean? What the hell is an aught?

When it was the aughts, I was very anti-saying it as the aughts, but now that we're in the 20s, I feel like the aughts is obvious. The teens, the aughts. So what about the aughts? The first decade of the 2000s. We could do that.

2000, 2010. You know we're going to hear some Roy Hargrove, probably going to be some Joshua Rick. Oh, sorry. That's something that might interest you. I got him. I got him. He's going to pull out his tissue.

Hold on. The best part's coming up. I mean, now that you started it, we have to listen to the part. And this concludes art. Okay, we can fade it out. And then, And this is how we conclude our music of the 80s.

With more Herbie from the 70s. That's great stuff. If we have one fault, we have many faults. If we have one false is that we're a little bit liberal with our decades. So, yeah, maybe the next decade will be early 2000s. We're giving a lot of already in the chat here, Kurt Rosenwinkel. That's a great idea. Can't talk about the aughts without that.

That's right. I think it would be fun, man. There's a lot of stuff to talk about. Cool. Cool. Well, this was good, man. Let's keep the 80s alive. And until next time, you'll hear it.

Did you say keep the 80s alive?