You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our 7 Favorite '90s Albums

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

In honor of Throwback Thursday, Peter and Adam look back to their favorite albums from the 1990's.Check out the new course from 15-time Grammy nominated jazz pianist Fred Hersch: Thoughts and Experiments with Solo Piano.  Learn to play with freedom, imagination, and fearlessness as Fred guides you on how to best use your full musical vocabulary at the piano.Links from this episode:Listen to all the albums and tunes played in this episode with our Spotify playlistPrefer your podcasts in video form? Watch the YouTube version of this episode hereInterested 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

Are you looking to expand your musical horizons in a massive way? If so, you need to check out thoughts and experiments with solo piano, the first ever course from the 15-time Grammy-nominated pianist, Fred Hirsch, described by Vanity Fair as the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the past decades. Equal parts Zen Master, psychologist, and old school piano teacher, Taskmaster, Fred Hirsch brings 45 years of experience as a master jazz piano. and composer to bear in his teachings. Fred focuses you on the underlying process of music making,

regardless of the level of music information you have at your command, all in the service of helping you become a better solo pianist and a more creative and emphatic jazz musician. And as Fred says, love the music and it will love you back. So check out thoughts and experiments with solo piano from Fred Hirsch, available now exclusively at openstudiojazz.com. Now let's get into today's show. Hey, Peter.

Hey, Adam. Do you remember the 90s? Oh, do I remember them? I cherish them. I love them. I want to go back to them. Well, buckle up, buddy. I'm Adam Manus.

And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Music advice coming at you. From any decade. From any decade. You know what I've never said before in my entire life until about 30 seconds ago? Hey, Peter? No.

No. I said that blood said way too much. Buckle up, buddy. Where the hell did that come from? what it is. Buckle up, buddy. Buckle up, buddy. We're going to the 90s.

Sometimes, you know, sometimes the red light's on. You just don't know what's going to come out. The red light comes on. I was like, I would, buttle up, Bucky.

Let's butter it up. Oh, man. Well, you know what, though? You're right, though. Buckle up because this, we're talking about an era that I think is just an amazing groundbreaking,

swinging, grooving, tradition-laden era of jazz, the 90s. The 19th. The 19th. Would you say that this is an underrated era? I would. You know, it's both underrated and overrated at the same time. I don't know why. People are not nostalgic enough and yet too nostalgic about the 90s, for sure.

I love the way actually Nicholas Payton came up with a hashtag on this. It's like back in the nine, it's a very long hashtag, so it's had trouble catching along. Back in the nine. these wing cats were really swinging. That's like the, that's like more than one tweet, even the hashtag, you know.

Yeah. But I think that there is, uh, you know, I think there is something to be said, said about it, you know, and I have to be careful here because I'm from that era.

You're almost from there, but I think that you're a little safer because you're, you're, you were just dabbling as a, as a pro in the 90s, but you got to be careful yourself. I was dabbling as a, I was just barely a pro in the 90s.

Uh, and I was loving the music from like, I mean, I guess really 94-95 is when I started to listen to a lot, a lot of jazz and really get into it. Yeah. So, which was a great era to get into it. You know what I mean? Like, because if you, I mean, you could go to, there was a lot of live music still, first of all. Right.

So we used to go down to the Hotel Majestic when I was a kid. Yeah. Did your dad take you to? Yeah, my dad. My dad did too, but we got to get your dad and my dad together. It's possible the four of us were there checking out like, Ray Brown trio at some point. This is way before you in there.

But yeah. So it was, it's definitely everything we have today, I grew up listening to, I think, as you did. But you were, you're on some of these. Well, no, no, no. We were, I'm not supposed to be. We had a, we had a little agreement on that that I was not going to actually be on any of these. But this, but it's buddy. But I did some stuff during this era.

My humble friend, Peter, you are, you have to be on some of these 90s. You know what I mean? Like, come on, man. Well, no, so the ones that I pick, there's a bunch of artists that are friends and that I've worked with and played and recorded with, but I avoid anything that I'm on, not out of shame or anything. These are, like, what do we call these favorites? I just really put down my favorites. I could have put down 10 more, 20 more. You could have been 20 more.

These are really a sampling. And we're going to count them down from 7 down to 1. Ooh, I like that. And I would say it's in no particular order, but there's definitely an order to this. Where I think we're going from my perspective. Worst to best. There's no worse than the group. But it's really just, I think, when I think of favorite 90s albums,

I think of albums that really had huge impacts on all the players. Buddy, you're going to fit in right with number seven. Shall we get into it? When I think of it. It worked really well. Oh, but I digress. But you digress. So let's get into it here.

We really are starting at the bottom of the list. See, ooh, there I said it again, the bottom of the list. The bottom of list is a great place. Dude, I mean, if you check out, like, the bottom of the list is the Brad Meldow trio. So that's a pretty amazing place to start. Well, that lets you guys know what the high quality level we're talking about when number seven is. Yeah, so really any of the first three or four Brad Meldo albums, which I think were all in the 90s could have made this list. But I went with the classic Art of the Trio, Volume 1.

Of course, Brad Meldo on piano, Larry Grenadier on the bass, Jorge Rossi on drums. This is, I think, a really influential album for a lot of pianists and piano. piano trios. Probably the most influential trium, certainly of that decade. That decade. So this is the, the, oh, you know what, man?

Uh-oh. Uh-oh, he's calling it audible. I can see him. Look at her. He's getting excited over there. He's going, woohoo. I'm going to switch it up here. I'm going to switch it up to,

let's play, I don't know what time. I didn't know what time it was. I had a Lenin McCartney track on here and I realized that we're live. Oh, that was good. Actually, that's good. Yeah, same album, volume one, live at the village.

I didn't know what time it was. Yeah. These guys were born without a sixth beat. I know. They had five fingers and five toes, just like the rest of us. It's the language right there. Yeah, wow. So there's the Brad Mello trio.

With the trio's unique sense of rhythm, sense of dynamics. Sense of groove. Sense of groove. And I love, like, I remember hearing them right around. Actually, I might have, I don't know. I was definitely at this, at that gig that week when they're at the Bangar. believe that this came from the entire

Oh, this not from the van guard. This was actually a studio record. Okay. Number one was a studio. Somebody did their homework. Somebody didn't. Apparently, my bad. It's no. I was going to say, I was like, what a studio sound that they got at the, volume two. No, it's volume two, three and four are all at the Vanguard, I believe.

No problem. Yeah. I can I could be wrong about that. But it was a, no problem. No, but there was, there was a, he was kind of like doing a lot of stuff live, doing a lot of stuff in the studio. But this one was live in the studio. Live in the studio. This one was in the studio. I didn't know what time it was. And again, man, the sound of that trio,

it's like one of those groups, especially with Jorge Rossi, where it's just like, yeah, that's that 90s meld out trio. That's right. That's right. And I mean, Larry Grenadier, I think that this was the first time

when I really sort of somewhat consciously started to think about, especially in a trio setting, like playing in five and playing in seven in a way in which the bass player and the drummer and the pianist are not feeling the overall architecture

of that groove exactly the same way. And I won't go deep into this because it's a little bit controversial because it's like, wait, they're all feeling the groove. Of course they are. But what really, I think, hits on some of the advanced concepts they had and how to take advantage of that unique trio and that trident of instruments was the way that Brad would dance over a bigger phrase of that five while Larry would be dung-dung-dunk-d-d-d-d-d-d-k.

Like really digging in and Jorge would kind of go back and forth. And, like, they would explore those options. in really interesting ways. And I remember hearing that at the time, I was like, wow, that's a hip way of playing over that. Yeah. And it always kind of stuck with me. But it always makes sense and always feels right.

That trio is a listen that I recommend for people trying to get into odd meters. Yes. You know, for like things like five, seven. Yep. Because it's supernatural, but there's a lot of advanced stuff that as you get into it, even years later, you can come back and be like, ah, that's how they did that. It feels earthy and organic. Yeah.

So, Peter, let me ask a question. Yes. What if I told you there was an album that had not only Joshua, Redmond. Yes. But Brantford Marsalis. Yes. Stanley Turrentine. Yes. Joe Henderson. Yes. Ron Blake. Yes. And Johnny Griffin. Would that be something that would interest you? Yes. Yes. I'm in. You had me at Stanley Turinteen. Now, what if it also had Rodney Whitacron bass, Gregory Hutchinson on drums? Cyrus, Chestnut and piano. But it wasn't any of these players albums. Right. Is this something you would listen to? This is something that, I mean, these are my guys. This was my era. This is pretty awesome. Yeah.

Just saying that out loud. But bigger than that, well, yeah, no, no, I'm in and all that. You had me at Roy Hargrove back. Oh, sorry. I didn't say Roy Hargrove. Yeah, come on, man. No, this is Roy Hargrove's Tenors of Our Time, 1994, an amazing record. It was just Roy and the rhythm section and one of these guys.

Yeah, that would be awesome. But all of those tenor saxophonists I mentioned are making appearance on this album. And I'll just, you know, full disclosure, the reason I picked this one was because I was kind of like, I got to have Roy on. It's the 90s. but there's so many great records of his. But this one I felt like was the, I mean, it's just one of my favorites, first of all.

But it's also, I think, a great intersection of Roy's, a master, you know, really being a master of developing a young band of his peers. And of course, with that rhythm section, you know, especially Greg Hutchinson and Roddy Whitaker, those two bass and drums. And then Ron Blake being associated with Roy in terms of two horn players. And Cyrus, I mean, it doesn't get better than that. but also with his, you know, uncanny ability to connect with the masters, the older generation, the Stanley Turinthines, the Johnny Griffin's, and, you know, I had the pleasure of playing with both of them with Roy,

and, like, Roy fit in like he was one of the old heads. We were all just kind of like, oh, we're so excited to play. But, I mean, Roy was just like, he was just like an old soul, you know. And so this record, and with the tenor, it's such a great ability of Roy to play with saxophones, you know, it kind of brought all those worlds together. Let's check out Stopping the Biscuit. Oh, first track. First track.

Yeah, Roy's. Nuddles, noodles. This is Cyrus chestnut? I can't take it. I can't help it. It can't help it, man. It feels too good. That's soft of the biscuit from with the tenors of our time.

Roy Hargrove, 1994. Incredible. Just incredible. Yeah, I can't recommend that one enough, man. Any of these actually worth a deep dive. Listen. So next up, it's the first appearance of a vocalist from the this is actually the last year of the 90s

1999 yes this is diane Reeves you know diane i do know diane and you know what i think i mean if you were to press me on my favorite diane record i mean i just love her i love diane uh and i love her her as a musician as a vocalist as a person um but i know her records really well going all the way back to you know palo alto session better days never too far the old school 80s blue note stuff that's for another episode. What we got to do I love the 80s next. I love the 80s right. But I think that if I were to be pressed on one album of any era, I don't know. But if I chose this one, I would I would be okay with my

decision. There's like four of her records that I think are just pinnacle, pinnacle, but like the Mount Rushmore. But this one was probably. It's a beautiful record. Yeah, Bridges. This is Bridges from 1999. There's a really long list of great players who play on this entire album. But this track, Suzanne, This feature is Reginal Veal on the bass Brian Blade at the drums I think it's Billy Childs on this one Yep Billy Childs and he did the arrangement of this

Of the incredible I believe it's Leonard Cohen right Did Suzanne? Yeah And Leonard Cohen song Kenny Garrett plays the saxophone Oh man just check out For folks that don't know this track Check out and we're gonna

Kenny Garrett is going to make another appearance later The haunting Kenny Garrett Saxophone playing at the very beginning of this track is just one of the things that just makes me, my heart sore, but, but that, this alone kind of pushes it into the conversation at least.

One more credit here, the great Romero Lubombo plays guitar on this. That's right, absolutely. And produced by, a gentleman by the name of George Duke, who is gone, but far from forgotten.

Amazing. A great guy. Legend. There's Suzanne from Bridges, Diane Reeves, 1999. Okay, so I'm sorry to, we got to start this again. Because, dude, like,

I forgot about this, album and how incredible okay oh and also it's a great thing about doing these like throwback playlists you know what i mean right and moniungo jackson big like a lot of the percussion and soundscape stuff yeah i mean all of it out that's outside of what brian blade is doing on that drums that's mignongo jackson which is amazing too you really hear that at the beginning you know like some of these it's like you know it's like i have this checked as like i love that album yeah but then when you hear it again for the first time and while you're like oh man that's why here it is again Suzanne.

Can you hear it, wow. You can hear it, and you know that she's half crazy, but that's why you want to be there. And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China and just that you have no love to give her. And she gets you on her way And she lets the rich that you've all live to travel for you So great

Suzanne Diane Reeves Just amazing Billy Child's on the arrangement Amazing Yeah I mean I would say that The arrangement that Billy does on that

And the production from George Duke The incredible musicianship The incredible vocalist I mean it just vocals It just it all comes together In a way that's just magical The production has a very

90s flavor to it in the best possible way. Like all of the, like, like, like, Romero's guitar sound with the piano in there. Yeah. It's just so beautiful man. Yeah. Wow. Okay, next up, number four is from the great Nicholas Peyton. Payton's Place, 1998.

This is, I think, one of my all-time favorite albums, not of just the 90s, but of any decade. And you've got back to the source here as the chosen track. I love, I love this whole record. I love all of Nicholas's stuff. He was young in the 90s, but to me, along with Roy,

he just really typifies that sound and we were joking before about the hashtag back in the 90s when cats were really swinging. But just check out the vibe. Adonis Rose on drums, Nicholas, Tim Warfield, Ruben Rogers at the base, Friend of the pod,

Ruben Rogers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But when they come in, I don't know. Anthony Wansy on. Anthony Wansy, sorry, of course. Anthony Wanzi on, like this was such a tight quintet that they had for a long time that Nicholas had.

But the vibe, the kind of sass that they played with sass. I don't know if that's the right word. You know, just, what do you call that? Not sass. I definitely don't call it sassy. They got sassy, no. Just the vibe and the verb. And this is one of.

Back to the sass. This is one of several Verve records, which definitely had its own sound with the great engineers. We have a couple of Verve records up in here. That's right. That's right. That's right. Verve was making it happen in the 90s.

That's right. For sure. Back in the 90s when cats are really swinging. Here's back to the source, Peyton's place. So good. Classic quintet, N. P. Quintet. Wanzi. Here's the thing. This whole album is like this.

The whole, I know. I know. The whole album is swinging. Can we just listen to the whole album? Come on, man. I mean, I mean, literally the whole album. Wanzi. Seriously, though, does anybody combine swing and sound like Nicholas Payton?

I mean, there's no other trumpet player that I think can touch the swing and the sound of Nicholas Payton. Absolutely. And I think the way also that he wrote for, for this classic, I mean, tenor, trumpet, piano bass, and drums. It's both simultaneously so easy and so difficult to pull off because it's been done well and just, you know, exemplified so strongly by the Miles Davis quintet. So it's like, where do you run from that? How are you influenced by that? Or do you run from it or whatever?

And Sabine Nicholas, I mean, Winton Marsalis with the quintet in the 80s, that original quintet, I say that he did that a lot as well in a different way. but to me, you know, this quintet writing and the way they played the details in that with the baselines in the left-hand piano, very 90s, super hard swinging, super sophisticated, detail-oriented, great dynamics, great groove, great kind of flare for details and groove. And again, just to make it clear to everybody, there is a glaring, there are a couple, several glaring omissions from our list here. And the fact that there's not a Marsalis on the list is a little weird, actually. But it's, come on, Adam. No, I mean, why did you own? Well, no, people, exactly, people in the chat,

there's just so many great records we could have chosen. We said top seven. We didn't say, come on. We just said favorite seven. Yeah. But there's, we could do our own, we should actually do a Marsalis playlist at some point of all the entire Marcellus family. And look, yeah, sorry, go ahead.

You know what I mean? Just make a playlist of our favorite Marcellus albums from all of the Marcellus clan. You know what I mean? Yeah, and look, full disclosure, I just realized, you know who we left off of here? So this actually excuses us from leaving Winton and all. All these, Herbie Hancock. A guy named Herbie Hancock is not on here. There's no Keith Jarrett.

There's no Herbie Hancock. There's no Chick Korea. There's nothing. All those guys were great. Ron Carter, a lot of great stuff. A lot of great stuff. Give us some slight.

These are just. Freddie Hover. I mean, there's legends that are just left off. Well, hold on. So the next couple are, we have two legends here coming up. This is another Verve record. This is, we talked about this on the podcast many, many, many times.

Yeah. This song, I'm never, ever tired of playing in my musical career. whenever a singer who I'm lucky to be playing with a few singers here in St. Louis who can really sing this song and it's just the highlight of the gig every single time. And this whole album

man, this is Shirley Horn, here's to life, of course. The arranging, didn't you say the string arranging here is just taking her piano chords? Well, what I believe Johnny Mandel, this is what I heard from some reputable sources that I believe were actually at this session was that they recorded most of these tracks if not all of them with just Shirley Horn with her trio,

with Charles Ables and Steve Williams, which is a great show. I got the chance to hear them live a bunch of times. Amazing. I mean, one of the great, kind of unheralded as a trio. Everybody knows Shirley Horn, of course, but she had a great trio with her playing. But that she recorded these tunes,

just playing them trio, and the strings were arranged and added afterwards by Johnny Mandel. Yeah, so this is Charles Abels on the bass, Steve Williams on the drums, and Johnny Mandel as the arranger in. conductor from Shirley Horn playing piano and singing, Here's to Life. This is 1992. No complaints and no regrets. I still believe in chasing dreams and placing bets. But I have learned that all you give is all you get. So give it all you've got. So give it all you've got.

I had my sheriffs. I drank my fill. And even though I'm satisfied, I'm hungry still, to see what's down another road beyond a hill. And do it all again. Hollywood, babe. So here's to life. And every joy.

So here's to life. It's Shirley Horn, Here's to Life, 1992. amazing, amazing everything, amazing piano playing, amazing singing, amazing arranging, everything. Yeah, everything. And I just want to say a big shout out to just everybody that was part of this, but David Baker was the engineer of this. I got a chance to work with him a little bit. He's now with this anymore. One of the just true masters. And, you know, I think that different recording, I mean, the engineering is always important. Like to the casual listener, not even to the casual listener, to the very intent listener, they may not realize what an impact.

production and engineering has on the final product. I would say when you hit this very high level in terms of musicianship and album production and engineering, as does this record, almost an equal impact, if not an equal impact. I mean, it's all part of the same team and all part of the same impact. And so David Baker had such a,

his thumbprint was all over this record. It can't make the music better. Well, but it can make it worse. You ever heard a little thing called Autoluteon? Not on Shirley Horne's records. No, no, no, no. No, but I mean, it can't make up for bad music. Right, of course.

You can't polish a turd. You can't polish a turd. But you can also, you could really lose some stuff. You know, you could lose the polish. That's right. That's right. That's right. So the next album, this is also early 90s.

Also 1992, actually. This is Joe Henderson, and this was a big moment in Joe Henderson's career. Some more verve. A little more verve. A little more Verve. I believe he won the Grammy for this. He did. Lush Life, the music of Billy Strayhorn, an amazing record.

He won the gram. I remember this because this is, of course, Greg Hutchinson. playing drums on this. Chris McBride playing bass. Bass, right. Although on this track is only, I believe it's only, oh wait, which track we listen? Take the A train.

Yeah, I think this is just a duo. Yeah. Gregory Hutchinson and Joe Henderson. But I remember after this one, a Grammy, you know, I was super tight with Greg. Still am and Christian, all them. But I remember Greg being like,

yo, man, I want a Grammy before you. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Like, he was, that was, he definitely said that a lot around this time. Yo, I'm 21 years old. I got a Grammy. Peace. Well, the whole album, I mean,

so it's the rhythm section are all real, like it's a young Christian McBride, a young Stephen Scott on piano. Witton Marsalis plays trumpet on a couple tracks. A couple tracks, yeah. On that do-de-do. He does some great work on that effort.

Dee. What's that tune? Is this David Baker, too, this record? Production-wise? I don't think so, but that's a great question. There's another verb. It's the same year. But the sound of this album.

It's Richard Seidel produced. I do know that. Amazing. So the sound of this album is incredible. This is Take the A-Train from Lush Life, the music of Billy Strayhorn, Joe Henderson, 1992. Great Russian. Oh, man. Come on.

The basestrone? Ah. I mean, I don't know if Joe's ever played better than on this kind of stuff here on this record, man. This is like, it's hard not to put this up there in his whole amazing career of work as one of the great works of art that he made. Yeah, it was a fun time, I think, for Joe Henderson because, I mean, Joe Henderson, if you go back to like the classic Blue Note records and, you know, Mo for Joe and Isotope and all the great tracks and records in the 60s on Blue Notes. as leader and his assignment. I mean, he sounded like this. I mean, he was already Joe, obviously.

Yeah. I mean, like high level, but there did seem to be kind of, it seemed to be a little bit. I mean, in the 70s, he had some great, great recordings too, you know.

It was good all around, it was good. So, like, he hit every era where he could kind of stay himself, but then connect, like, with young players. And it was such a great idea. And I think it was Richard Seidel

that came up with this. And I remember I was, I mean, I don't mean to put myself in this. I was a little salty because I, I know I was on the list for this record. And, um,

people to be on it. Yeah, but you know what? I'm glad it didn't happen because everything happens for a reason. That's wrong. You know what people say that? No, not everything happens for reason. You're like, I wanted to be on this record. I didn't get cheated out. Steven Sky killed me. But I mean, sometimes you can't be like, I'm glad. No, I wish that I had been. But, you know, grateful for the many other opportunities. It's understandable, man. But I remember because they were talking about they're like, we're going to have some young cats with Joe Henderson and it was going to be a whole thing. And so I just, I'm super proud of like our generation because Christian McBride and Gregory Hutchinson.

Hutch is laying it down there, man. Yeah, and Stephen Scott, like, those are like my guys that I can't, we were like the young lions at the time. So the fact that they went in there and not only held their own with Joe Henderson, but we're, you know, just like kind of inspired him in a way, yet still being respectful. And it's funny because if you talk to Greg Hutchinson and Chris McBride about these records, they're like, oh, like they don't like the way they played on it.

Really? Oh, yeah, totally. Like they, we should have Greg on some time to talk about this because he's just like, now. And to me, it's like, it's hard because I'll tell him, man, like, you're already doing all. I mean, you heard that brushwork. Yeah. When he went, I mean, it's just like, he was already there.

So I think Greg takes that to mean like, oh, he hasn't developed since then. You know, which obviously he has. But it's kind of like what we're talking about with Joe Henderson back in the 60s and the 70s, the 80s and then the 90s. Yeah. Killing it all the way through. No, but there's something to the story of hearing a youthful master, someone who is in the early part of their journey, but obviously insanely talented is, as Hutch. and Christian McBride were making this album, man. I love hearing that.

Especially, I guess now it's a different thing because I've heard all of Gregory Hutchinson's career since. So I know what came out of that. So I guess I understand where he's coming from with that. So number one, that was number two. Number one of our favorite albums from the 90s. In no particular order. In a very particular order, though.

Because we left off, a lot of people like this. But for these seven, we kind of put them in an order of, I think, importance. Well, I don't know. Maybe it is no particular order. I just think that this album, the one that we have for number one, is... It's probably already on the Spotify playlist. Okay, cool. Everybody can see it.

It's Kenny Garrett's songbook, of course. Yes. But to me, this is, like, when I think of hard-hating 90s jazz albums, this is the first thing. Right, back when cats were really swinging. Is that what you're trying to say? Yeah. So this is Jeff Tane Watts, Nat Reeves on bass, Kenny Kirkland on piano, and Kenny Garrett on. saxophones and every track is banger is they say there's no skips there's no skips on this one I just

was like you know we've talked about some of the other tracks before so we listened to this on our on the listening session and it was just it's almost it's almost like face meltingly too much for exactly but I think this track because and it's funny because this is this is very much Kenny Garrett's record a lot of strong personalities in particular Kenny Kirkland of course the late great Kenny Kirkland that I think did some of his most glorious work on this particular And I should say just with this particular band, having heard it live and there's a lot of great YouTube stuff out there available, which is fun. But I think Kenny Kirkland and Jeff Watts, like they were kind of the bridge between the 80 sound and the 90 sound and beyond. And they probably, you know, not to get into too controversial of an area, for drummers and for pianists, they're probably the two most influential players of their generation, which is still like, I mean, Kenny left us way too early, but Jeff Watts is.

is still out here not only doing his things, but innovating on top of what he already innovated on 40 years ago in a really weird way because he's not only still contemporary. He's like ahead of himself. Like he's already, you know, like on the track races when you're circling other people and you're like, oh, he's in third place now. No, no, no, he's already two laps ahead.

Yeah. He's lapping everybody. And so I think, but certainly in terms of influence, both with this particular sound of how they played together. Yeah. but also with the quartet. And again, just like with Nicholas Payton, kind of typifies that quintet sound in the 90s to me,

Kenny Garrett. And look, I'd be remiss to not mention Brand for Marcellus. Well, we did mention them on the Roy record, but I mean, how many great 90s records did Brant for Marcellus. I know. That's what I'm saying.

We need to have a Marsalis day here. We just go through all our favorites. Yeah. For me, it was hard to, anyway, we'll get into it later. Yeah. You know what I think makes this album,

what pushes it over the top are the compositions, the tunes. They're as influential, Kenny Garrett's writing on this album is, and is influential as any of the play. Yeah, absolutely. And just the way he sets up a saxophone quartet and the balance of that,

the balance of the tunes, they're all bangers, but this is not just a bunch of hits thrown together. This, you know, as we thoroughly discussed and explored on the session many months ago, this is an album that listening from beginning to end, it's like listening to just, you know, an opera or a great novel or a great movie

where it's just like so complete. Each part, there's all these moments that happen we're going to hear some, let's hear it instead of hearing me talk about it. How about that? This is the house that Nat built from Songbook. This is 1997. Kenny Garrett's Songbook. It just keeps going.

Man. It's so good, man. The whole album, again, if you don't know songbook, it's really, it's such a beautiful work of art. Yeah. That's such a great form, that tune, The House of the Nath built. It's just two sections. Love it, dude. Love it. Well, this was really fun.

You know what? I think that that, it's great that we kind of land on that, although we may have have a bonus. We do have a bonus. We're going to go out on the bonus. But we have, there's a little controversy because I had a different bonus, but that's okay. It's all good. That, that, the way that they play on that, I just realized is to me, it's such a great example of the 90 sound, if you're going to say what that is, in that it was very much, like, it's always difficult to reduce things down to like, that's this, and then 10 years, the next that. I mean, it never goes just like that. There's an evolution of it. Yeah. But I think for this

general era that certainly started before the 90s even somebody in the 80s, but if you think about the way this rhythm section was playing the way that Candy Gare is playing with them, man, it is right down the middle with the groove. You know what I'm saying? It's like D, stick-ke, get, stick. And then there's a lot of polyrhythms

underneath, both in terms of but everything is very much not metronomic, but very much like there's not this kind of laid back and I don't mind it, but like the kind of way that came up in the 2010s and stuff where it's like everything's pulled back a little bit and not quite lined up.

It's just a different style. But in terms of like this era, and I think that's why a lot of people, like you listen to that, you know, that stop in the biscuit where I say, stank, gang, Greg Hutchinson, you know, Tain, like all the Brian Blade,

like, we're just like right there down the middle of the groove. And that's what gives it that sound, I think. I always get a little bit sad, not sad, but a little melancholy listening to this record because we lost Kenny Kirkland, not long after this record, the very next year. Right.

And so this is one of the last recordings that he was on. And he's playing his ass off on the whole thing. Yeah. So. Yeah. I'm sorry. I might have misspoken. I meant Kenny Kirkland.

Kenny Kirkland. Yeah. Kenny Garry is very much, very much still with us and killing it and doing amazing. Awesome, man. So we do have a bonus. And I wanted to add this because I knew you wouldn't do it. Because like I said, you're on some of these of the greatest records of the 90s. Peter Martin was out there doing it in the 90s.

It just means I'm old A.F. That's what you're saying. And there was a whole era there where Joshua Redmond was making albums in the mid to late 90s. Spirit of the moment, you know, what was the one someone just recommended on you? See, that was my thing. I don't mind doing it. I absolutely think Joshua Redmond should be on here. Somebody said mood swing. Moot swing. I love that.

That's a great album. The other one is, I realize it's not actually. It's from 2000, which is the one with the beyond. Beyond. I love that. That was recorded, I think, in 99, though. Yeah, yeah, it was. But it came out in 2000. That's a group. But don't sleep on this one, man. This is freedom.

Freedom in the groove. If you haven't heard freedom in the groove, it's so, so, so much fun. My friends and I in high school learned a lot of these arrangements. And so I was back in the day before I even knew you. I was copping your stuff. And so we'll go out on this. Thanks, everybody, for hanging with us. Check out the Spotify playlist. Yes. And let us know, what are your favorite albums of the 90s? You've got some good stuff going on here in the chat,

but for our YouTube folks, let us know what you're listening to from the 90s. From the 90s, very dogmatic. And if you're on the podcast, go over to the YouTube channel, check out this episode. You can comment there.

We can gather to discuss 90s albums, but beloved, forgotten, and forlorn that I'm sure we missed. This is 1996, Joshua Redmond, Freedom in the Groove, Joshua Redmond on tenor, saxophone, Peter Bernstein on guitar, Christopher Thomas on bass,

Brian Blade, on the drums, and our own Peter Martin on the piano, this is hide and seek take everybody peace oh sorry I said no I had to throw in one thing are we still live yeah okay so because a lot of people have asked me about this I can attest because I was right there okay that whole intro yeah everybody thinks that like Josh overdub that or played one part he recorded that just straight through right while we were about to record that that was not added on or don't don't all that all that baseline stuff.

That was just, I can attest. Just wanted to say that. Is that okay? Now we know, let's listen again. Okay, there we go. Okay, now I have to.

So we're trying to end the show here. Yeah, yeah. Was that improvised your line there? That counter melody? No. No, Josh wrote that. That was all written. But I think what happened was we were,

the part before it, like, I was supposed to play some chords. I was always like trying to figure out what to play over that first chorus. Yeah. And I ended up just like, playing it unison

instead of going right to the harmony. Yeah. Because I never really, I mean, I played it sometimes, I guess, with some chords or whatever, but I always liked it just kind of that. And then going to the two separate lines. Yeah. And then having birds. I mean, we played around with some different ideas. But he composed that countermeality.

Exactly. Yeah, I might have changed it a little bit. Don't tell them, but, you know. Awesome. See, that's the kind of valuable insights that listeners want to know. Okay, dear listeners, shh. Until next time, you'll hear it.