You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Peter & Adam's Background and Motivation

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

Take a stroll down memory lane with Peter and Adam today as they recount what sparked their entry into the jazz world.Coming soon - a new course from Open Studio! It's the long-awaited sequel to our Rhythm Section Fundamentals course, where you'll learn how to get the piano, bass, and drums to play as one well-oiled jazz machine. Stay tuned for more details, and check out the original Rhythm Section Fundamentals to prepare for part two.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 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey Adam. Yes. Are you feeling motivated today? I am feeling motivated. Okay. Just a second ago, you said you weren't. Yeah, it's all changed. Okay, good.

Because you like this episode. I do like this episode. Because it's all about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. My favorite subject. I'm Adam Manis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Daily music and introspective banter.

Coming at you. Are we about to get introspective up in this? I think so because of the title. I mean, it's kind of required, right? Peter and Adam's background and motivation. I'm not clear about what we're going to talk about, but I have a feeling that it's my childhood and my parents possibly.

There's going to be a light shining in your face in a second. Consider me your therapist. Mr. Maness. No, I thought it would be fun. And you know, look, we've been planning this for 30 seconds now. So who knows where this will go.

Yeah, yeah. But we thought it would be, so we were about to do an episode called, you don't want to, our four favorite slick turnarounds. TBA, that's coming. We're not going to abandon our four favorite slick turnarounds. We had a question from an email about this.

Brad Meldow turnaround. It's super hip. and so I had three on the deck and I wasn't motivated to get you to add one Right so I was like Pete I don't want to do that well you were motivated to do that one today But it will come so the idea was like let's talk about an old granddad in I know You know what I'm saying like so we want to slick turn around right now So when I suggested why don't we do this was stolen from some friends of ours podcast where they did a great job just talking about I thought it'd be fun

You know talk about yeah yeah you know your motivation both of our motivation and kind of what we do and why we do it Not just this podcast, although we could certainly get into that. For sure. But just like why we play music, our passion for music. If we have a passion. Well, you know, I think what's going to be interesting about this is you said, not just the podcast. But I feel like for both of us, I know from having several conversations with you about this kind of thing. The motivation for everything we do comes from the same place.

Like, whether that's the podcast. Oh, no. Yeah. Obviously having a daily jazz advice podcast is super lucrative. But, no, but those motivations for doing what? whether it's a podcast or open studio or playing music or writing music or running or meditating, whatever it is, it all comes from a similar motivation. So it'll be fun to talk about. Yes. Yeah. So why don't we start with you since the lights are already shining in your face. Hey, I love it. Let's go back. Let me paint a picture. All these lights are here just for me. Let me paint a picture for you. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's paint it done here. Think about little Adam. Okay. No beard. No facial hair. A little blonde freckled. Were you blonde? I was blonde. Wow. You're like a little runt dog that changes over time, his hair color.

Well, you know, my son, Ivan was blonde, and he's already kind of going brown like me. That must be recent because the last time I saw him, he had a lot of blonde. Maybe he was a little brown street. No, it's coming in. It's coming in. It happens, I think, to all the people on my mom's side of the family. They're blonde and then they're brown hair. That's right.

Okay, got it. Okay, so we're going to go back in time. Little Adam Manis. Where did you grow up? High Ridge, Missouri. High Ridge, Missouri. Were you born there? Jealous.

I'm jealous of that. I don't know that area well. I know it's a beautiful area. I've been close to. I haven't actually been in High Ridge. I'll tell you what. Now it's very developed and it's very suburban, but when I was a kid, it was super rural.

And there were horses right by my bus stop that we would feed every morning. It was awesome, man. It was like, you know, these beautiful, it's right at the start of where sort of the Ozarks might start. So these beautiful rolling foothills and all these horse farms. dairy farms.

It was a ton of great stuff to be around as a kid. Woods, as far as you could see, my grandfather, who was from South St. Louis proper, him and his business partner actually bought the property that the neighborhood I grew up in

ended up being, and he was a contractor, like a construction contractor. And they built all the houses. We were one of the first subdivisions out there, Camelot Gardens. They were very aspirational, very fancy for Jeffco.

Coming on, coming on the heels, of Camelot in the White House with the Kennedys or unrelated? This was like early 70s when they started the project, right? Let's get Camelot going again. Exactly. And yeah. And so, but there wasn't very much out there.

Like we were, like I said, we were one of the first subdivisions out in that area at all. And then by the time I was 10, it was already starting to like, you know, the sprawl of even places like St. Louis, which people might not think is a very big city. It's a city of three million people. And sprawl is happening constantly here. So now, you know, now it's like every other. sort of sprawling suburbia, but back in the day, man, it was a beautiful place to grow up. That's awesome. Now, so your motivation to play, and it's interesting because you brought up before, I think so eloquently, you know, all the different activities that we do together and

separately and what that motivation is and what, and we rarely take time to kind of stop and reflect on this, but I think it's very topical to why we do this podcast. And it's really, I think, as simple as we love being connected with not only this music, but the community, the global community that it's afforded us to be connected with. And that kind of starts with you and I, too, like our initial connection, you know, we knew each other before we saw each other. Sure, yeah, yeah. Because of the music. And partly because we played the same instrument and stuff. And, you know, really more secondarily that we were from the same general city because we didn't grow up together in the same area. Yeah, yeah. I'm older than you. We don't like to stay

older and wiser. They do normally go together. No, but we didn't actually mean until we were already adults and well-established. Exactly. But I think that, you know, as you get older, you know, being connected with people that have a similar motivation to want to do something with their

connection with this music beyond just like, yeah, I want to play gigs. And I think that's certainly something we have in common is like, it's all about playing always and it always will be. Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, some of the other things that we do like this podcast, can you just kind of talk about that? Like what, because I mean, what do 400 something episodes in.

Like, you don't keep doing this if you're not motivated to do it, you know? Yeah, or the podcast? Yeah. Yeah, we're more than 400 episodes in, I feel like at this point. We're like, we're well in. It feels like a thousand. It was a lot, man.

We should have some kind of celebratory episode. I don't even know where we are. Andrew. Yeah, we should, because we rarely celebrate as we're, as we're actually doing. Every day's a celebration. Exactly, yeah. So what was a question?

Well, no, just kind of your motivation. I think people know and understand yours and our motivation behind the music. but your motivation behind wanting to do more with the music that is normally thought of, certainly as young Adam growing up in High Ridge was thinking about, but just, you know, you're involving with Open Studio as creative director, you know, creative force behind the podcast, the teaching, forming, I mean, you have a great band, it's not even a band, it's beyond that,

it's a very unique group called the 442s, but things that are not just like, yeah, I heard the blues and wanted to do that, you know, but all these things that are kind of beyond that. You know, I mean, for me, the older I get, and this really kind of started in my late 20s, because I did just spend so long just wanting to be a player and also a songwriter. Player! Exactly, yeah, a player and a player. Now, I wanted to write songs, and I wanted to be just the best musician you could be, as I think all of our listeners will understand, as you understand.

But then at a certain point, you realize that, like, what am I enjoying out of this more than just the music itself, which will always be sacred and will always be. be primary reason number one. But what are the other things that I have talents at? What are the other things that I really enjoy doing? And I realize that communicating with other people is something that I just love doing. You know, I could sit in this room and talk to you about music or, frankly, anything for hours, and I'd be just peachy with it because it's... That's good because that's kind of what we do. That's what we have to do to keep this going. But I think that's why we've been able to keep a daily podcast going for over two years now, is because we can do that. And I know you feel

the same way. But, you know, I'm always out and I'm always wanting to be playing with people or writing with people, you know, collaborating with people. I love working on big projects where I can just, you know, help be a cog in something greater than myself happening. I think it's one of the great gifts we have as musicians is that sometimes we get to step out into the spotlight and be seen. And then sometimes we get to step back and they're both equally enjoyable to me like sometimes it's as fun to be playing a part in something greater than myself yeah as it is to be the star soloist of something yeah i'm saying absolutely and i think we always kind of connected with that on that in on an intuitive level and i always wonder about you know how much um i mean we both you know kind of well you really play

multiple instruments but sort of with piano being our main both of our main instruments how much the instrument as you get more advanced and play for longer starts to frame who you are almost as a person or help you to connect with those parts and the piano being a keyboard player it really lends itself to collaboration to support to being a leader but also being able to support to being an arranger to kind of holding things together

to wanting to kind of push things to not just sort of wait on the sidelines for something else to happen there is this there's a personality type to pianos pianists yeah genius we call it genius Control freaks. Yeah, one of the two. Both. So I have a question for you.

So I knew, I always knew that I would be a musician just when I was five. Yeah. When I first started plucking out notes. What did you think you're going to be from zero to five? Lawyer. Okay. Oh, wow. I know.

So aspiration. I know. In kindergarten, I really wanted to be a lawyer. But no, I really, it was kind of immediate. Like, I was like, this is it for me. Like, I love this. When did you know that you were going to be a musician? Because you started when you were like two or three?

Yeah. I started really young. but I think by the time I was maybe like really nine or ten or something is the earliest I can remember thinking about anything approaching like what am I going to be doing like or if I was going to be doing music as a profession. Right. Which is weird because, you know, a lot of times people like both of my parents are professional musicians still are. And like so it wasn't like a kid that's coming up where that's not even an accepted career choice. It's like the family business. Yeah.

I mean, if you grow up and your father is a professional baseball player, that seems like a realistic thing. Sure. But for anyone else, I want to be a professional baseball player. Everyone's going to laugh and be like, well, you have a one and a million chance, you know. So it's so funny. But it's really one and a million for both of them, actually. Yeah, there's no difference.

I think it's funny. When I said, I was five and I wanted to be a musician, I really wanted to just be Michael Jackson at that point. Right. Like, I didn't know what it would mean to be a professional musician. That it was much later, you know, probably when I was a teenager was. Yeah. I was kind of, and actually, even now I'm thinking, Beyond Nine, like, I really had aspirations to be a professional soccer player.

Like, I remember thinking about that because at that time in St. Louis, we had a professional indoor team. And, yeah, and, like, we used to go down and see them a lot. Gerald Gran. Yeah, I mean, Slowbo, Ili. Slobo, yeah. And, like, you know, I got to meet some of those guys in clinics. And I was, like, kind of playing. I mean, not at a high level.

But, you know, to a little kid, you thought you're playing at a high level. And that was even after that. That was more when I was, like, 11, 10, 11, 12. and we had our little team in the Catholic League or whatever. Nice. So, you know, I was thinking of that. And then there was a short period. I'm embarrassed to say, well, I really wanted to be a professional criminal.

And in fact, I got into, yeah, this is fun fact. I got into trouble because, you know, I think it was a jazz piano because it was less respectable. Exactly. Yeah. Drop down and give me 20. Lidion Cores that you're going to steal. No, I remember, I think it was like second grade.

It must have been because I was still in public. I was going to Delma Harvard, public school, university city. And, you know, we had to. make a drawing or something of what we wanted to be. And it was like a fireman or a doctor or not a jazz musician, you know. But I did a crude drawing of myself with like a, you know, a criminal's mask on and like a knife or something. And the only reason I remember this is because, of course, my parents were called in to like,

and me for a meeting with the principal's office or whatever, Mr. Roach. I remember him very well. And like there was something wrong with me. But I was like, that seemed cool. And I was really, I was watching so many cartoons at that time, Saturday morning cartoons. there was the there was a kind of a glorified criminal what was his name?

It was a little dog I'm looking at Alex like you remember he wouldn't even boring man Of course But he would Hong Kong Fooey Oh yeah Number one dog in town

This might not be appropriate And he would put like a math Oh yeah That's right sorry Hey the 70s were a little different Actually this was probably early 80s But they um You know he would put on like

But he was kind of a Robin Hood Of the hood as I recall You guys remember the show Yeah, this was definitely not, this would not be able to be happening right now. Yeah, yeah. Hashtag not politically correct. But what was the name of the show, though? I don't know.

Was that his name? I think it was Hong Kong Fuey, unfortunately. The pH or an F? I don't know. Unfortunately. We're going to link down to some YouTube videos that are probably, that have probably been removed due to, no, but it was like, I think it was kind of based on that. I thought that little dog was cool, you know?

Yeah. A little criminal. Yeah, yes. There was that. And I also thought I was like, I feel like I'm kind of smart. I feel like I could do that. that well. Yeah.

You know. I can get away with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think, no, in general, like, I, I connected later with the, actually much later with, like, I'm going to do this as a job or career, although in a weird way, I never consciously was like, this is what I want to do. I played a lot. And I think as the sports thing, it didn't necessarily fade, but it, like, my ability to

become a professional soccer player, you know, it's as natural. As you get older, you get better, but you don't get that much better. And then it's kind of like, maybe that won't happen. and then at the same time I was really just still playing music and then we started a band when I was in like eighth grade or seventh grade maybe even we even started getting some gigs and so like all of a sudden I was already before I decided to do it I was somewhat professional

I remember joining the union when I was in like ninth grade because I had to do some gig and I had to go audition I might even been in eighth grade and so then it's like yeah this is what you're doing but I enjoyed it so I never became like oh gotta grow up and do this I'm just like let me see if I can still to this day let me see if I can still ride the wave you know for sure I think we're both lucky to have grown up here in St. Louis, where, especially at the time we grew up, so many gigs to play. Yes.

Even when you're young, you know, I started, too, when I was 15 just working. And that kind of puts you on a path for something. And it's awesome. And it's so interesting, even like, I think part of the fun and motivation for me has turned out to be for this podcast, like conversations we've had on and off air about connections we had because we came up, I think, about 10 years apart on a similar scene. But we work with some of the same gigs like Willie Aiken. You know, these legendary saxophone is really Aiken, Freddie Washington, and kind of got that great on-the-job training. And we also came up both in really good music and band programs. I had really good private teacher, but also good band situation.

I know you had a great. Lucky for that. Yeah. And so, which is kind of a St. Louis tradition. Unfortunately, it's faded a lot, although we have some great young band directors. Harvey Lockhart. And up in Normandy is. Bernard Long.

Big shout to that. I mean, two of the finest young band directors in the country happened to be here. But it's always been something that, you know, has been stripped away. Wester Groves and Kirkwood, too, got a kid. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And Patrick Jackson, the orchestra. Yeah, I mean, this is one place that it hasn't faded away completely, which is great.

So what about jazz, man? Because, you know, for me, I obviously, like, I started playing jazz gigs when I was a teenager. I went to the new school in New York and I was playing around New York for a bunch doing jazz. mostly jazz stuff, but I don't consider, like I never consider myself, I'm a jazz pianist, primarily. You know, I've always been interested in pop music and the indie scene and string writing

became a thing of mine in my 20s as well that I wanted to get better at. And so, but you, you were on this track of, you were on the young lion train. Man, I had the, the lion main and everything. The big suit. That was our, that's what we call our lions main. Yeah. Yeah, I got kind of, I mean, but that was really just sort of situational, although I loved those musicians and that sound, so it was a very organic thing, but it just happened to be of when I came up and kind of who I met.

And, you know, Wynne Marcellus really was a huge influence on myself and Christian McBride and Roy Hargrove and countless others. Those are just the ones that everybody knows. Mark Whitfield, Marlon Jordan. But what was cool about it's like, that's how I met a lot of those.

Like the reason I met Roy Hargrove at the IAJE convention in Dallas. was because Winton, I had just seen Winton when he came to St. Louis. And he's like, I think he, I mean, I just remember him saying. I used to, like, write notes down because, you know, that's the only way you could remember something back then. And I would write these names of people down. And so he's like, yeah, man, I'm going to tell you some really good.

Because he was, Winton was traveling around. And, like, he was the, that's what I said. He was like the modern day internet before the internet, connecting people and stuff, you know, old school. And so when I went down there, I was like, maybe Roy Harger is here because I know he's from Texas. I didn't realize Texas is a big state. but it turned out he was there

and I saw him here in Texas somewhere I was like my first time ever going to Texas I was like maybe I'll run into him while I'm down there It's only bigger than France Not a big deal Yeah And but then I got to meet him But you know his name

meant something because Winton said it And he's a trumpet player And he was like around my age So you know It was just that kind of And then when we went up to New When everybody went up to New York And I kind of I mean I was in New York a lot

But I was also in New Orleans On that kind of parallel scene too But that had its own sort of young lion scene scene which was cool Brian blade and Chris Thomas Victor Gohens Bryce Winston a number of great players so it was really a learning experience for me along with the kind of older players like we we both got growing up here in St. Louis Carol Beth True and Paul DeMarinus all the Webster folks Willie Aiken's um I mean so many yeah I mean and you take it for granted when you're coming

up but Maurice Carnes you know learned a lot from that guy still I love Maurice yeah it's awesome man well I think we uh fully uh man this was uh man you look you You look like you've been to a therapy session, man. I feel great. But like a good one, because you're smiling. You're ready to write a check, you know? Ready to go, man. Are you ready to re-up for next week?

Yeah, let's do it. I'll see you Thursday. Yeah, yeah. Are you available for five episodes next week? I am, of course. Yeah. So we want to give a big shout out and thank you to our listeners. There's one individual who shall remain nameless today.

Unless I get the spirit. I don't know. But we love all the listeners. You know, Sir Lovelace of Milwaukee Of course he's at the top of the list But we love all of our listeners

He's just indicative of the love And the YouTube commenting that you guys have Leave us a comment on the YouTube's I know this episode isn't on Where do they leave comments We always telling them that Maybe we should have them tweet at us Because we've done that in a while

You're on Twitter? Yeah What's your Twitter? What is your Twitter handle? It's just Adam underscore Manus How boring is that? And I'm at I am Peter Martin So give us a tweet. Let us know what's happening.

And until next time, you'll hear it.