You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our Favorite Village Vanguard Sets

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

In this very special cross-over episode, Adam Maness and Bob DeBoo from Upright Citizens check out 12 of their favorite live albums recorded at the famous Village Vanguard. What's your favorite live album? link to our spotify playlisthttps://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fzI04bkuBXe0YQcfqJmkt?si=0dk9OWMZTVS6G7wdH93X-wWanna check out some Upright Citizens?https://www.openstudiojazz.com/upright-citizens/Looking to drop a question? Want to listen to the audio pod? Look no furtherhttps://youllhearit.com/Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Hey, Peter. Hey, Adam. Oh. Your face, Peter. Okay, great. I'm Adam Manus. I'm Bob DeBoo. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at Podcast.

Welcome. Welcome. Brought you today by Open Studio. Go to Open Studio. Go to Open Studio jazz.com. Oh! Your jazz lesson needs. Hey, not Peter.

You're Bob DeBoo. What's up, Bobby? How you doing? I'm feeling great. Glad to be here. Glad you're here. So this is a very special episode. Peter is a,

He's actually spending a week playing at the Village Vanguard, New York City, with Christian McBride and Inside Straight. And so you're here filling in while Peter is away playing. And I thought we would have fun in Peter's absence by doing a show about our favorite albums and maybe even discovering some new albums that were recorded live at the Village Vanguard. There's literally like a hundred of these things. Yes.

And they keep coming. And they keep coming. Club is still in existence, of course. Peter is there this week. And this is an annual thing that he does with Chris. Christian McBride. Yeah, they've been doing it for years. And we'll actually start off by showing you an album that this band that Peter is currently playing in Inside Straight.

They recorded live at the Village Vanguard a few years ago. It's a great album. This is the shade of the cedar tree. Christian McBride and Inside Straight. This is Chris McBride on bass, Carl Allen on the drums, Peter Martin on the piano, Steve Wilson on the alpha saxophone, and Warren Moore from the vibes. Yeah. It's live.

It's a great way to start the show. It sounds like the Vanguard, right? Absolutely, absolutely. That song itself just takes me back. If we're thinking about memories and things like that, this song, I remember buying everything that was Christian McBride-related when I was coming up, first got a bass.

This is one of the first albums, not this particular album, but the song that this originally was recorded on from getting to it, Christian McBride's, like early 90s album. That's a Cedar Tree. That's a Christian original, right? Yes, yeah, he wrote that. I wrote a song, I composed a song a few years,

years ago based on this song, actually. And he has an album called Kind of Brown. So I called my song. I know if we played it, Kind of Christian. Yeah, I think we did. I think we did. So Bob, the Village Vanguard, there's so many recordings at this place, right? So a little history maybe. So the Village Vanguard is located on 7th Avenue in Greenwich Village. And it is probably the jazz club in the world. It is what people, I think, who are into this music first think of when they think of a jazz club. What is it about it? I know you've seen a ton of shows there. I've seen a ton of shows there.

Yeah. What is it about it that makes it so special? I mean, iconic is the only word that comes to mind for a club like this. I mean, just even seeing the, you know, seeing the club outside, seeing the, what's the word I'm looking for? The red awning. Yeah, the red awning outside just invokes, like, such warm feelings of, like, walking down the stairs going into the club. and seeing all the pictures on the walls and thinking about all the history there.

And the sound of the club itself, it's really dead. Amazing. It's really dry in there. But as we could just hear on that, on that Christian McBride Inside Straight recording, there's something about it where it's like you really, because I think the shape of the room is kind of a triangle,

like it's this natural amphitheater. You really hear all the instruments like just perfectly. And you're able to sit sometimes. I don't know if you've ever set up on the ledge by the drums. Yeah, sure. It's amazing. You get like, you feel like your, in right there, like in the laps of the musicians.

Even if you're several rows back, you feel like you're just close enough that you can reach out and touch them, reach out and touch the music. And then you can also, I think, here in these recordings and when you're there live, you can like feel the weight of the room, right? Absolutely.

We're going to listen to some legendary recordings here. By the way, this is not the only recording Peter Martin is on at the Village Vanguard. Peter's too humbled to actually talk about this when he's here. So we have to talk about him now. We're only doing Peter Martin live at the Vanguard tracks, right? Yeah. No, but as well,

hear from, you know, we'll a little bit listen to some Sonny Rollins to some Bill Evans, some Brett Hirsch, like the weight of the room and these like legends that have recorded there and performed there, it's there. It feels, you can feel it when you're there. The energy and the legacy just in that room is palpable. Like when you sit down, you know something special is going to happen and just thinking about the history of everything that's happened there. It is very intimate too. You, you are on top of the band. Almost anywhere you sit in there. And it sounds like that on these recordings. By the way, there's going to be a link to this Spotify playlist called Live at the Village Vanguard albums that Caleb is going to put in the description.

So go check these out. And then put in the comments here. If you're on YouTube, put in the comments your favorite albums. I know we're leaving tons out. It was actually hard to whittle this list down to 12 different ones. And there's some really great ones that are not on this list. So please put in the comments, your favorites. So, Bob, next up, we've got this might be one of my all-time favorite albums ever.

This is Sonny Rollins, a night at the quote, Village Vanguard, which I think is very funny. And this is softly as in a morning sunrise. This is Wilberware and Elvin Jones in the rhythm section. Just trio, no piano. There's actually, they have the early set and the late set. The afternoon set and then the evening set. And this is from the evening set with Wilburware and Elvin Jones. 1957.

I think it's important to note. And so something, and we were doing our research here a little bit, on the club itself, I had no idea. The club originally opened in 1935. Yeah. Can you back? I mean, of course, it evolved. It started off like more as like a, you know, like a cabaret type of situation, poetry and, you know, other things and eventually found its way into being a primarily jazz music venue around this same time. So this is probably one of the first, one of the first seasons of the live recordings from Live at the Village Vanguard. So I think it's really interesting to note too. You and I have known each other for a little while. We have some shared interests. Namely, I'm going to bring this up. we didn't talk about this, but the electronic artist, Amon Tobin. Yeah, you remember the album super modified? This is from that.

Yeah, there's a track on that album that's directly from that track. Sampled that Wilbur Ware Baseline. Yeah, it's really, really good. Fantastic. Okay, next up we have one of many Live at the Village Vanguard albums from open studio artist, Fred Hirsch. So Fred Hirsch, one of the great modern pianists, and he actually, his latest album, I don't know if it's his latest. One of his last, like, two or three records

is live at the Village Vanguard with singer and bassist... Is that alive? Alive? Yeah, alive. So he's got one... With lowercase Esperanza, lowercase Spalding. That's right, yeah.

He's got one called Alive at the Vanguard with a trio, which is what we're going to listen to. Then he's got one called Alive at the Village Vanguard with Esperance Spalding. And so there's a little confusion. Distinction there. Yeah, but I love that. that he used the Alive twice.

The one with Esperanza is great, and you probably have heard about it because it was nominated for Grammys. It was a really big deal. But this trio one is absolutely stunningly beautiful. This is I Fall in Love Too Easily from Alive at the Vanguard. And this is the Fred Hirsch trio, which includes John Abert and Eric McPherson.

Killer. Of course, is I fall in love too easily the Fred Hirsch trio, recorded in February 2012, alive at the vanguard. And this invokes some... I mean, there's so many of these albums that we're going to hear, our trio albums. Like later down the line here,

we've got Benny Green, we've got Brad Meldadha, we've got, of course, Bill Evans. But something about a trio in this space, particularly, like piano, sings, bass, you can hear every articulation of... Drummer, you need someone good at brushes, because brushes also sing in the Village Vanguard.

I think it's the dryness of the room. Yeah. But a lot of trio stuff, good trio stuff. I really appreciate you bringing on so many lovely bass tracks and starting up with some bass solos here, too. That was fantastic. I love John A Bear is playing. You know what, though, you joke,

but I think some of my favorite bass solos recorded were recorded at the Village of Angard. Same here. Absolutely. I think about it. You mentioned small groups like trios, too, and on the flip side of that is the Vanguard Orchestra. You know, you're going out and seeing them regularly

when we were living in New York was amazing. And the thinking about Mel Lewis and Thad Jones's big band that was in there. And you mentioned the dynamics in there. I know that when Richard Davis, for instance, would play, he would play acoustic in there. Never needing an amplifier. With the big band. Yeah, exactly. And a number of other bases.

Well, it's funny. You mentioned that that is what is up next. This is from All My Yesterday's the debut, 1966 recording of the Thad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra. This is Big Dipper. Look at that. I mean, the big band sounds great in here. 100%. And there's several Bad Jones Mel Lewis Orchestra live at the Vanguard recordings as well.

They were playing there every week for decades. President. Yeah. It's funny you brought this up too because Richard Davis is playing bates on this one as well. Perfect. I love Richard Clay. That's Big Dipper, live at the Village Vanguard in 1966. That Jones and Mel Lewis Orchestra.

Bob up next is a Vanguard of a pianist. This is Jerry Allen, the great Jerry Allen. And this is actually from some unissued tracks from Jerry Allen's, Live at the Village Vanguard, 1991 release featuring Charlie Hayden and Paul Motion. Not the last time those two will appear live at the Village Vanguard albums. I love this because it's great to hear Jerry Allen play this track in Walk 5. Recorded December 21st and 22nd, 1990. I got to see Mark Turner once in a trio with Paul Motion on drums and I sat literally right

in front of the drum hit. No kidding. And it was the most amazing thing to sit in front of Paul Motion. incredible. At the village vanguard. It sounded just like this. He's an alien. He's like completely original. I love Paul's playing. Charlie too, of course. So this is a whole album that we're listening to. The one that we have linked here on Spotify is a whole album of unissued tracks from this session. There is also the released album, which I encourage you to listen to both. And listen to everything Jerry Allen's ever done. It's worth your time for sure. Next up, we got another open studio artist.

So this is from an album from the great guitarist Jim Hall called Live at the Village Vanguard. A lot of these albums are named Live at the Village Vanguard. Appropriately so. There's a whole category in the Live at the Village Vanguard Wikipedia of albums called Live at the Village Vanguard, not called anything else, just that. Is that where you did your research?

I love it. Yeah. No, I'm thorough. This is from Jim Hall, and this is just kind of like an anthology album that he made with just guests coming into the Vanguard and one of those guests. was as credited here, Jeff Kieser, known as Jeffrey Kieser around here at Open Studio,

and this is called Panorama. Scott Colleen on the bass and Terry Clark on the drums. This is an album I wasn't familiar with before I don't know this. Researching, but this is from Tellark. This was, I think mid-90s, early 90s maybe. This album features tons of guests, Kenny Barron, Art Farmer, Slidehampton, Jeff Kieser, Greg Osby. It's a diverse lineup.

It's a very cool out of cover. Hanorama, live at the Village Vanguard. Jim Hall, of course, an all-time great. Absolutely. Yeah, and just to hear him, again, at the Village Vanguard, that sound, that dry, crisp sound of the Vanguard is pretty incredible. Yeah, you had mentioned earlier seeing Mark Turner there, and we spoke briefly about the shows that we've gotten to see there,

over the years and stuff like that. And I will never, ever forget seeing the great Cedar Walton play there. It was probably 2001, late 2001, fall of 2001, I think. And it was overwhelming the amount of swing coming out of that band in the vanguard. I was just, I was completely... Do you remember who was in the band with you?

You know, I don't. I just remember being transfixed on Cedar's hands. Yeah. And be like, who does this? It's the coolest part. I had no idea. If you get over there on the left side of the club, And you can really see, like, down the piano or from the back of the pianist, see right there.

Absolutely. It is, I mean, this is the standard for a jazz club. This is what the best of jazz club can be. Yeah. Next up is one of the best the piano trio could be. This is Benny Green, Christian McBride, and Carl Allen. Classic mid-90s trio. One of my favorites.

Testifying. They made some amazing albums on the Blue Note label, and this is live at the Village Vanguard. Testifying, live at the Village Vanguard. This is don't be shamed. Opening track. You know what, actually, before we get into this, I'm actually going to do the introduction. So this is the opening track,

but there is an announcement. And this is in the tradition of some live at the Village Vanguard albums. Yeah. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Betty Green. How you doing? All right.

Green Bay, Wisconsin. That you could join us this evening. This is a very special occasion for myself in the tree. because we're recording a live album for Blue Note Records. So you know what that means, right? Thank you. I would like to introduce you to the fine aggregation I have with me,

two of the very finest in jazz today. Would you please join me in welcoming at the bass fiddle from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Christian McBride. And at the drums, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Carl Allen. This is a tune I wrote about expressing yourself. This is entitled, Don't Be Shamed. This is amazing, man.

A couple of great studio records, too. Greens. Oh, yeah, Greens is great. Incredible. Place to be, I think. Place to be incredible. Bish-bash. Bish-Bash, yeah, absolutely.

I'm thinking about the Carl Allen, Christian McBride hookup. And it's reminded me of the Great Open Studio course, Your Sound is your signature. Where Christian and Carl are having these great discussions, and talking about specifically because of this track, thinking about transitions. You know what I mean? They have a specific lesson just on that,

and they are so amazing at this. Yeah. If you're an open studio member, go check out your sound as your signature, Christian McBride course with Carl Allen, where they talk about things like transitioning from that Latin field to the swing feel, all kinds of stuff in between.

Really, really insightful. Of course, just to hear those two masters talk about music for three hours. It's incredible. Break it down. It's really cool. Next up is a, Upstart, John Coltrane, ever heard of them?

How do you say? Cold Train, I think. Now, this is impression. So this album, 1962, I believe, 63, is a combination of studio recordings and a couple of tracks from Live at the Village Vanguard, including the title track impressions. You have the foot tap. So it's recorded in 61, 62, and 63, recorded, or released in 63. The studio sessions were at Van Gelder.

studios and then these live tracks were at the build vanguard in New York City. McCoy Tyner on the piano. Definitely Elvin. Well, there's a host of different folks here. Yeah. So Elvin on tracks one, two, and three. Is it Jimmy? Reggie.

Jimmy Garrison on everything except for India. This particular track here we go was recorded November 3rd, 61. Yeah, so it's kind of a mishmash of different sessions. Energy's unmatched. Unreal. Just Elvin's ride alone for me is amazing. That's Impressions. This track is live at the Village Vanguard.

And Bob, there's another famous John Coltrane live at the Village Vanguard album. A couple. Yeah, featuring Alice Coltrane. Yeah, yeah. And it's really out there. It does get out there. It gets way out. There's live at the Village Vanguard.

And they're just fun. and live at the village vanguard again, I believe. Yeah. And they do, you know, at least the live at the village vanguard in 1962 a year later yet. They do three songs. Yeah. That's all, you get. That's all you get.

But they're incredible. Next up is a late 90s classic right here. Another trio album. This is Brad Meldow, Larry Grenadier, and Jorge Rossi. Jorge Rossi, excuse me. This is the Art of the Trio volume four back at the Vanguard. I believe Volume 2 is live at the Vanguard. Oh, for the title.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. This is Solar. Some classic Brad time there. It's a good solo. Again, Larry Grenadier, one of the great sounds in all of basem. Beats. Sounds every, yeah. He's amazing. This is what, the third or fourth track that the first solo is a bass solo? Yeah, for sure. As it should be. Just those massive register leaves, Larry. Brad's comping right here is amazing too, by the way. Yeah, so good. Brad Meldo, Art of the Trio, Volume 4.

You're not going to let a play? You're going to stop it? There's another 10 minutes. Come on, man. It's so good. It's such a great solo. We've heard the bass solo. You should be happy with that.

The Solar that's Larry Grenadier on the bass, Jorge Rossi on the drums. I think 1999 is that at least? That feels right. Yeah. Big shout out to Larry Grenadier, too, who's been a guest on Upright Citizens podcast with Rubin Rogers and myself, who came on last year. It was incredible conversation. Yeah.

some really cool stuff. Shout out to Brad, who's, you'll hear it. Yes, yes. Listener, apparently. He left us a really nice comment one time, it's really appreciated. Beautiful.

Next up is another late night in these gym. This is Spirit of the Moment live at the Village Vanguard. This is Joshua Redmond Quartet. Joshua Redmond on the tenor saxophone. Peter Martin, you'll hear it's own, Peter Martin on the piano.

Christopher Thomas on the bass. Great Chris Thomas. He said he's own Chris Thomas and Brian Blade on the drums. This is St. Thomas. This is, people talk about this one. Pretty good. Pretty good.

Sunny Rollins, St. Thomas, played by Joshua Redmond, Peter Martin, Chris Thomas, Brian Blade. We got to hear PM solo. Of course. Legendary solo from PM. What an intro, though. That's, you'll hear it co-host, Peter Martin. Yes. You know, famously, this rhythm section of Peter Martin, Chris Thomas, and Brian Blade, they were playing

together as kids basically in New Orleans when they were in their late teens, early 20s. Wow. And they have a trio record out, right? They have a trio record. They played a lot down there with Victor Goans, who's now the CEO of St. Louis. And then Joshua Redmond kind of scooped them up as a unit to be in his band for a while. And then eventually Peter Bernstein joined this band as a quartet. Or sorry, quintet.

And this album, though, I think when a lot of people who come to Open Studio, who come to, you'll hear it often mentioned. Spirit of the Moment, St. Thomas in particular, is like, that's the first time I ever heard of Peter Martin. And for me, too, I've ripped off some stuff here, although I'll never admit it if he's sitting across the thing. 100%. No, I had the double disc, the album, you know, since I was a teenager, and one of my first, one of my early records, and definitely one of the earlier Live at the Vanguard records,

we have to mention, too, I mean, the great connection between Chris Thomas and Brian Blade, and specifically Brian's Fellowship Band. You know, they've got like six or seven albums out together. And it's just fabulous, fabulous stuff. We've talked about Brian Blade a ton. Here we did a whole episode on what a genius he is. How he can do anything with such like originality, grounding. Like, it's incredible.

It's incredible what he's accomplished as an artist. All four of those musicians, actually. So Bob, let's leave the folks here with probably the two most famous recordings at the village vanguard. The one you might even not realize was recorded at the village vanguard. These are two albums. by Bill Evans, by the Bill Evans trio of Bill Evans on the piano, Scott LaFaro on the bass, Paul Motion again on the drums. The first is Waltz for Debbie, which many people don't realize was recorded the same week as the second, which is Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Hands up,

I honestly didn't realize that. I asked you, I was like, what, is this really recorded live at the Vanguard? Both recorded live at the Vanguard in the same weekend, essentially. And tragically, 10 days after this weekend, Scott LaFaro dies in a car accident. He was 25? 24. 24? No. It might have been younger even.

It's like on either side of 25. Neither way. Blanking on which one. So tragic. But way too young, regardless. But recorded in June of 61, released in early 62. Waltz for Debbie is, I think, my favorite overall Bill Evans' album. Here's the title track.

On the Riverside label, both of these. Waltz for Debbie is a Bill Evans' original composition as well. And it's gorgeous. about this session too. These are the best sounding albums ever. I mean, the best sounding live album could ever be,

in my opinion. Piano sounds amazing. It truly does. Face sounds amazing. Drums, you're going to hear sound amazing. The combination of the sound of the room,

sound of these early 60s, Riverside records, and Bill Evans, like, melancholic touch. I'll say. It's like,

it's pretty heartbreaking. And then the story behind it all. also heartbreaking. I know that Scott LaFaro and Charlie Hayden had a really close connection as well too. I believe there were roommates at one point. Well, oddly enough. So that's Waltz for Debbie.

In the very same week, this trio recorded material for Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Probably Bill Evans' most famous album. This album is incredible, probably the greatest album cover with an artist featured on it ever. This album right here. We're going to leave you with Alice in Wonderland

from Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Bob, thanks for being here, man. This has been fun. Thank you for having me. So much fun. Check out the playlist. It's linked in the description or the show notes. And please let us know your favorite albums recorded live at the Village Vanguard that we did not include in the comments.

Until next time. Happy practicing. Bob, so close. Till next time. Peace. Nope. One more shot. Until next time.

You'll hear it. There you.