You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our Favorite Peter-isms (Feat. Geoff Clapp)

Episode Date: June 4, 2019

Another day, another yap with Geoff Clapp. Today, Adam and Geoff talk their favorite things about Peter.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Jeff. Hey. I've noticed that these things are going a lot smoother with you here. Well, because Peter's not here. I'm Adam Manus. I'm Jeff Clap. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. Peter is still out of town, so we have a special guest, friend of the show, friend of ours, friend of Pete's, Jeff Clap.

Come back soon, Pete. Just joking, man. Come on, back. We miss you. We thought we would do a dedication show to our buddy, Peter Martin. One of the best ever. One of my best friends ever. And this is our favorite Peterisms.

Now, we're going to have to, I think, Jeff, we should balance some very positive things, which there are many. Many, many positive things. With a little bit of humor? We'll see, we'll see where it goes. We'll see where it goes. So I'll kick it off with my favorite Peterism,

and this is a positive thing. Okay. It's that Peter wakes up earlier than anybody else I've ever met. Consistently. Consistently. And he gets all the things. things that I should be doing done before I wake up. Right.

And I think when I found this out, I was like, oh, oh, that's why you, Peter Martin. That's why you're a bad boy. That's one of my favorite things about Pete. He has a way of making you feel really bad about yourself, but at the same time, exciting about life. But I think for our listeners, I think you can take something from that. Like, I started waking up just a little bit earlier, you know, so I can do certain things. I'm still not full on Peter, you know, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, 3 a.m.

That's why you say that. I worked out twice before you I woke up exactly but that's how I just watched that one of those videos yesterday this guy's like relentless you know he is and he's so consistent and he's always been consistently inspiring

not only as a musician but just as a friend as a person I mean how long do you guys know each other oh man he man 80 no 91 maybe when he was playing with betty carter he was in and out of new Orleans I think so almost 30 years

maybe He actually was with Josh Redmond. All right. And then I just, I remember his old house, he had the Betty Carter poster. And I would just notice, man, this dude's traveled a lot. Yeah. And he's like, my age. It's probably, it was just like, really, man?

But we were over at his house building a bookshelf one time. This is my favorite Peter. Peter has a way of putting off what we should do and enjoying your life for a few, for hours. So we kept putting building this bookshelf off. If we'd go get coffee or he'd check out some music. But the bookshelf was half built on his. porch. But we never finished it. You still owe me that bookshelf.

Wait and falling that one. That's great, man. Yeah, but Peter, I mean, you know, it's funny how he brings people together. Well, I mentioned yesterday. He's like a big jar of glue. Yeah. He really is. That's what he always does. I went to Austria. Actually, I was just in Austria for nine days because of Peter Martin. And he doesn't even know that. Because I was at Greg Hutchinson's house.

And this guy was buying a symbol and so I was like, well, I just give you a ride to the subway because it's a way away. And we listened to Peter Martin Parabola Trio with Blade and Thomas. And he's like, oh, I love, you know, Peter's my man. I can't believe you love Peter. So we became close friends. And now I go to Austria because of Peter Martin Trio. So thank you, Pete.

But I'm not giving you any money on that. Okay. And that's the next thing. All right, my next, and this is not as positive, but it's funny is one of my favorite Peterisms is, is his ability to at any time turn on a dime and cut you down in a very funny way. Mom jokes are appropriate always apparently. Actually, not so much with me.

It's not really appropriate. I think that might be a thing with you. I think it's just me. But then when you get back at him, he's like, he'll hang up on you. No, he won't do it. I mean, he's one of the funniest dudes I've ever met. We would do gigs, trio stuff.

And he, there's like, it's on YouTube. There's like a two-minute Peter Martin, he di-trib on how country Jeff is and hilarious. He's got that on all of us, man. I mean, I was peeing on myself on stage. It was so funny, man. He, uh, I, I think, though, again, for our listeners, this is actually some useful information because I think this helps him be like the

heavy cat that he is working with all the top people he works with. Yeah. Because he's as good in the van as he is on stage. You know what I mean? He's as good in the green room. If not, you're waiting for him to get there. for the hang to get on that's right i mean it's called piti time but that's pety time i mean dude that's the important part of the hang is important part of the gig you know yeah he taught me a lot

about that like he would come to new york with whoever yeah i think it was with went i was living in brooklyn and he called me like seven the morning was like hey man's cappuccino time was cap we get a what was that there's this cafe on the east side at a end first you're like we got got to go there let's i'll be there at 30 minutes so i'd literally get up and rush over there but he would get my day started yeah you know and it was always the best breakfast for this conversation ever. Mostly him. Yeah. You know, but he can take anything you say. And if the conversation is ever going left or he'll just, you know, he'll put it back in place. Cack and talk. Cack and talk. But no, he's funny and funny. And he's just one of the, you know,

he's got a big heart. On a deep note, he helped me through a lot of stuff personally. But still putting me down at the same time. He's got a, he's got an interesting way of doing that. You know what you do? It's funny. It's a tightrope act that he has a good feel for. Yeah, like even in rehearsal today, I mean, you said something genius, you know, because we're working here with Terrence. And, I mean, this is really hard. It's a different skill sites. And you're learning some stuff that Peter may or may not be able to just sit down and be like, bam. He'll be fine. But you said he's annoyingly, what was it? I said he's annoyingly brilliant.

That's Pete in a nutshell. Anollingly brilliant, funny dude. And then we can't forget to mention his wife, Kelly, keeps him straight. You know, she keeps them. Kelly's amazing. That is awesome. All right. Final thing I want to talk about,

and you have more experience than me because I play piano, but I do have, you know, about 20 experiences of actually sharing a stage with Peter and playing music with them. And one thing that I've found inspiring that I've tried to borrow from is that he's always inviting me to play with him as he's, like, it's never.

He never puts the spotlight just on him. He's always inviting you in on the bandstand. He's kind of like a drummer trying to make everything. Totally. Exactly. Bring you in. Yeah. During his solos.

Yeah. Like he wants you in there with him. Yeah. And that was a huge lesson for me as far as like, like, you know, you think you communicate. You always trying to make that connection. But you could always be more open. Yeah. You know, letting things happen.

And he's so great at that, man. He's great at that. And I used to see him and Brian and Chris Thomas all the time trio. and they would pull out some of Majimao Trio stuff. And it was like he could see the ball and basketball. It would just keep moving between the trio. He was playing over top, just cat swinging out. It was always a conversation going on.

I think that's who he is as a person. Yeah. You know, so I kind of just said what you just said, but I saw it happen, and I saw him grow tremendously just as a musician and a sideman with Victor Goans. Yeah, yeah. which went in. Right.

And he would not, what I love about him, he doesn't take, he takes some music very seriously. I'm sure he takes himself seriously. But you would never know how serious he was, how lighthearted he is about stuff. Yeah. It's because he takes the hang seriously. He's all about the hang, okay? All right, Pete. Well, I hope you're having a good tour.

We're going to do some episodes remotely with Peter tomorrow. So tune in to that. This is fun, man. Yeah. Jeff, thanks for stopping by. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. You might have you come in the, you're in St. Louis for quite a while.

For a month. So, yeah, I have you coming into some brush stuff here at the studio. It would be great. For our drummers out there. The honor. Cool. Well, until next time, you'll hear it. Peace.

Peace. Peace.