You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Podcast Takeover! Inside The Career of Sarah Hanahan

Episode Date: December 23, 2023

Join Rachel Morgan, Open Studio's Director of Operations, as she interviews Sarah Hanahan from Peter Martin's Gen S project. Dive into the world of a young musician and discover the keys to Sarah's success. A must-listen for insights into the journey and dedication required in the music industry.Jackie McLean — The Jackie Mac Attack Live Open Studio Pro | GATELISTHave 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. Sike! Actually, Rachel Morgan. I'm actually Sarah Hanahan. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast. I am the director of operations at Open Studio and super excited to be the executive producer on the new Peter Martin and Generation S album. And I am here with my newest, bestest friend in the world.

Bestie. Yes. Ladies takeover here at You'll Hear It Podcast. Absolutely. I love it. Yeah, we're taking over this podcast because we should. And they let us. And they let us. Just kidding. Basically, they're not here to, you know, watch us take over the mic. So that's, we're just taking it over by ourselves. Absolutely. We do have permission a little bit. But yeah, so. We let's get into it. Absolutely. Fun story. I had the honor of picking up Sarah from the airport. Yes. Last month. And I feel like four minutes in, we were. already friends. We were best friends right away. Also, so I am, my background is in classical piano. So all of this jazz stuff I get to hear every day goes well over my head. But Sarah actually introduced me to the sunlight album. Herbie Hancock. Yep. And it changed my life, got to say. Yeah, that's a great record. And there's certain records in jazz that just, I don't even know,

you can't really categorize that specific record of Herbys. It's just good music. It's just like anybody would love that record. And I knew, I know you're a pianist and I was like, you'd appreciate this incredible Herbie Hancock record. And as soon as I put it on like first track, I thought about you. And we were just in your car. We were like driving back to the hotel. And you were just like, yep. Yep.

Immediate love. Yes. And then tell them about when you picked up Diane Reeves. Yes. I also had the immense honor of picking up Diane Reeves from the airport, which gave me anxiety to the end's degree. Yeah. And I was like, my number one fear was like, what do I play in the car?

Right. That's so awkward. It's like, the absolute queen. Yeah, the queen. Yeah, the queen. Right. And it's like, what do you play? Like, do you want to play jazz or like, would she be annoyed by that?

Like, you know what I mean? Because if I don't play the right person. Yeah. And then she's like, oh, can you turn down the music? You know, you don't want that to happen. Of course not. You want her to be like vibing. So you had to pick the correct track.

Yeah. So Sarah, the same day Sarah told me about the sunlight album, I still had it on in the car when I had to go get Diane and she loved it. Yeah, she was by me. Yes. Yeah. She actually sang along to sunlight in the car and I was like, wow, I had a like a personal concert from Diane Reeves on my car.

I bet that was amazing. It was really incredible. Because the record's already so good and then Diane Reeves sing along to it. Right? That's epic. For free for me. That's epic. That's so good.

Such a great story. Diane Reeves will not sing for free for you. No. Unless you pick her up. She also gave me a little history lesson about how it was like groundbreaking, like, music that had never been out before and when it hit in the 70s. Yeah. So I was like, wow, not only is she giving me a whole lesson. Right.

But she's also singing for me. She's also. I cried. Like it was. No, that's amazing. Yeah, I think that record in particular, the Sunlight Record is really, was really important for that genre of music and where Herbie was taking in terms of bringing in like the electrical. electronic stuff, bringing in like a bow coder and the roads, all this stuff that the band was doing. And it was kind of incorporating like the songs have really hip changes and the melodies are really hip, like even like a standard or something like that.

But then it brings in this kind of, you know, 70s vibe beats and things like that that weren't coexisting at the same time. So Herbie was really at the forefront of that movement. So I love that record though. Such a great one. Yeah. I mean, I'm just a big music. music fan not even just jazz and general like jazz of course i've you know studied and i love a lot of jazz records i feel like you definitely live and just breathe music yeah i love i just love music literally any type of music all of it i'm like i just love it all pop music i even like country music i like that i like you know

anything rmb you know soul i like old music too like you know i like classical music solo piano stuff you know everything. People always ask like what's that one record you can't live without or like what's that one of those like top three records for you. For me one record I 100% could not live without is a Jackie McLean record entitled Jackie Mac Attack Live. And it was one of his records for I mean as an alto saxophonist Jackie McLean is like my like you know everything and I got to study at his school that he created in Hartford, Connecticut, called the Heart School of Music, Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz. That's where I got my first degree, my undergrad degree. And I studied with all of his students, like Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Abraham Burton, Eric McPherson, Renee McPherson, Renee McLean, his son.

So I really got involved in that lineage. And Jackie is, like, to me, like, it's like Bird, Charlie Parker and Jackie McLean, like, you know, I love those guys. So this is a record he did. later in his career, probably in like the late 80s, I'd say. And it was a quartet with Nat Reeves, Hotep Goleta, and Carl Allen playing drums, and Jackie. And he is just like, I mean, I'll play some of it. He was just on fire that night. And I remember asking Nat Reeves about the record. And he was like, yeah, we did the record in like an old church.

And Jackie hadn't played for a couple months. Like something was going on with him. I don't know if it was like a health thing or something, but he hadn't played. So this was like the first time he had kind of played in a long time. And he just like kept like going and going and going and going. And every chorus, it built, every chorus was new ideas. Like he never like repeated. Like he was just, it's just to me the ultimate level of B-Bob saxophone.

To me, it's the end-all be-all. Yes, please. I'm going to play a little bit of it. Jackie McIntych live. This is one of the best records. See what happens. There we go. first track they come out hot right away and I love the album cover it's bright pink can you see

so that's just a little bit of the first track but just like comes out hot yeah and it doesn't go down from there at all it just goes up and it's about a five five or six track record it's all live and it's just one of my favorite albums of all time in terms of playing the saxophone we definitely have to have you for a listening session oh for sure oh man we're always listening to music we always talking about music. Definitely. Yeah. Definitely.

Yeah. How has it been playing with Peter Martin, Rubin Rogers, and Graham Hutchinson? How has that been? Oh, those guys. Because they're all friends. Like, they've been friends for 50 years. This has, like, been such a great experience for me and, like, such a dream in a lot of ways.

Because I've been listening to those guys since I was in high school. And, like, I've listened to them with Roy Hargrove, with Joshua and, Redmond, Brian Blade, all these incredible people. And it's always like a dream when you get to play with your heroes, like people you listen to on, you like, you don't even know these people. You're just like, wow, I love this album. And then here, fast forward like eight, ten years later, I'm like making a record with them. So that's just like a dream, you know.

For me, those guys are like, I met Peter in 2019 at the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program. and they were just like so supportive of me like from the jump and um Greg was also there and we just like had such a great like relationship and they were just so you know willing to give information and willing to be kind of like mentors or soundboards for you as a student that was great and then I hadn't talked to Peter for a few years like COVID happened and I didn't heard from him and then randomly like on my way to I was going to Juilliard at the time to get my master's degree and I'm like on my way to Juilliard and get a call and I'm like, who is this? Like St. Louisville.

I'm like, hello. I usually never answer the phone either. If you know me, you know I never answer my phone. But I answer and I'm like, hello. She's like, Sarah, this is Peter Martin. Like, how are you? I'm like, man, I'm good. How have you been?

Like I was like, it's been a minute. That's what I said. And he was like, yeah, I've been good. Are you still playing saxophone? It's like, what? As though you quit your number one talent. Yeah, I was like, what do you mean if I still playing saxophone? He was like, oh, you just scared because you said it's been a minute.

And I was like, no, it's been a minute since I've, since I've, you know, talked to you. He was like, okay, great. I want to put this new band together, this quartet with you and Rubin and Hutch, and we're going to record a record. And that was like a year ago from the recording date. So there was a whole year that went by. And I was just hoping. I was like, wow, I hope this is still happening. Like, because I was so excited.

I went into school after I got that call. And I was like telling my friends, I was like, you won't believe. like this quartet that Peter's going to put together. Like, and I told my friends, and they were all like, whoa. Like, just like, that's a lot of horsepower in one band. So for me, playing with them has been just such a dream. And also, they're just like beautiful guys. Like, we've been having such a good time, like hanging out.

And, you know, going to dinner and just talking about music, talking about people. When we played with Diane, that was so special. And they all kind of just welcomed me in. And that's, like, what you could hope for as, you know, a young person coming into the music is just being, you know, lifted and nurtured by, you know, these people that are like, you love, you know. Yeah, for sure. It's always cool when your heroes, like, are cool, you know, because sometimes your heroes can disappoint you. But all these guys are just, like, they're just beautiful cats.

It all comes out in the music, too. So, yeah, it's been awesome. And awesome hanging with all my open studio fan, too. Yeah. My homie. It's been so cool having you in our studio. Yeah, I love it here. Okay.

What would you say is the state? of women in jazz right now. It's such a great question and something like we should all just be talking about more openly anyway. For sure. It doesn't have to be like this big like, you know, to do. It's like there are a lot of women out here playing at such a high level. And I'm just like every time, you know, I think that we need to talk about it more and we

need to be more just in general more supportive of women out here. you know and I think not make it such a such a divide between men and women there's a there's a lot of women out here playing so great it's like a lot of times I get asked like oh wow you're the only woman you're the only women it's like actually I'm really not there's a lot of incredible saxophonist not only saxophone but every instrument who are out on the scene um doing it so I think it's in a good state and I think just the more that we can you know be represented in in the industry is the better um I think it's important for young women to see women playing like I never really got to see that um when I was a kid like learning about music my dad was a musician so I just had him

to kind of like he was like always so supportive and like no just get up there like like he kind of pushed me and was like don't worry about them you know someone said something or whatever he's like don't worry about that like you're good like it's not about that stuff it's about your horn yeah it's about the music you know so I think it's in a good state and I think we just need to keep like encouraging young it starts from being young and it starts from the school systems and things like that you know like one of the most common things is like you know a you know a a young girl wants to play saxophone. It's like, then the band director puts a flute in her hand.

And it's like, that's great. But like, what if she wants to play the drums or wants to, like, we need to encourage young girls on the same level as we encourage young men. For sure. You know, we just need to do a better job as a society, kind of addressing that. And trying not to make it such a divide. Of course. You know, because it's like, it doesn't make any sense.

But I'm just proud to be out here and, just continue to to push and I don't even really think about it and I think people who work with me don't think about like oh Sarah is a woman or anything it's just like we're just playing you know but it's still there and it's we need to we need to speak about it and be you know you know be aware that that is still there and yeah I think I think we just need to do a better job in general including everybody you know favorite female jazz musicians alive right now After Diane Reeves, of course. Diane Reeves, it's my lady.

So many great musicians out there right now. Dedy Bridgewater, Melissa Aldana, great saxophonist. Tia Fuller, great saxophonist. All these people, you know, they paved the way, Cheryl Cassidy, Laurence Sevian, great, all incredible saxophonist and friends. Nicole Glover is a friend of mine, great saxophonist, and Rini Rod. incredible pianist plays with Ron Carter just all these women who have done it you know they're they're out here like check them out check out their music go to their shows you know as you

would do with Peter or anybody else you know what I mean exactly that's just a few out the top of my head but there's many people out here representing so yeah love it yeah um do you identify as millennial or gen Zeme I know we're on the cusp yeah oh my gosh that's hilarious I think people who know my Instagram would say Gen Z because I'll be like on or my, my girlfriend calls me an iPad baby, which is like, which is like I hate that, but I kind of am, like we're kind of obsessed with our phones in some ways. Of course. But what a lot of people don't understand is like that,

unfortunately, like, that's a part of like being in this business is like having, you know, a real social media press as open studio, like everyone at open studio knows. Like that is a big part of it. it. So I would say I'm a millennial. I would like to say that. But Gen Z definitely creeps in here or there. But I'm not so Gen Z that I'm like TikTok. I try to get on TikTok, but I don't, I don't do it so well. Like Instagram, Facebook, like that kind of thing. You too. I'm big you too. I try to indoctrinate myself with TikTok. Are you into it? Yeah. It's so hard. It's so addicting. Like the the scrolling, especially on TikTok is it's so quick, you know.

So I'm trying to stay. I need to be on my phone less. So I'm like staying a little bit away from that for sure. Yes. We're all addicted to our phones. It's kind of sad. It's everybody. It's not even just like our generation.

It's just everybody now. Like older generations like they're obsessed with Facebook. They be on Facebook. Like my dad's generation. They be on Facebook all the time. All this of commenting posting. And then they want to get honest about us being on our phones. I'm like, I'm more productive.

Yeah, right. I'm like, hold on. I'm more productive. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm actually learning something. Definitely. That's what I'm saying. But would you say, like, being in our generation is any kind of advantage over maybe older cats that are out here, you know, gigging and, like, I don't know.

Do you feel like there's an advantage with, like, trying to be in the business and our generation? Yeah, I think, I don't, I wouldn't say it's an advantage. It's just very different. And I think people in, like, our generation have. learned to capitalize on social media and things like that, which is great. That's just the time. Kaza don't do that, who are a little bit older, they have already established themselves, like, so much that they don't necessarily need it in a lot of ways. I think it helps because, like, the unfortunate truth is that, like, everything is digital now. Everything's on our phones.

so even like someone like Ron Carter like he has like an amazing Instagram presence like and he has so many because it's just like cool to see like he'll make like little videos of him playing base obviously somebody manages the account as well but like he will make little videos and just say like you know hi I'll be at Birdland or whatever and it's so cool to see like that makes you want to follow them more so I think there can be advantages of it but I don't think you necessarily you need it, you know. So I wouldn't say advantage. I just say it's just a different time, you know, and it works for some people and it doesn't work for other people. And that's, that's Melody. That's cool. For sure. What is your favorite place that you've gotten to travel to

with your sex? St. Louis? St. Louis. No, for real. We can't even laugh at that. Oh, man. No, I do love St. Louis. It's cool. It's good vibes here. I would say, well, I've been to Europe a lot now in like the last two years especially. I'd never been overseas. And then my first time going overseas was to burn Switzerland at this great club called Marion's Jazz Room. And that was like only two years ago. And that was like my first time going. And then since then I've been like a bunch of times.

So that's pretty cool. I would say burn is one of my, in Switzerland is one of my favorite places. Just because that was like the first time I'd ever been overseas. and it's beautiful, it's such a beautiful little, like, quaint town. They have this, like, you know, river that runs through the town that's gorgeous. And you can see the Alps. And it's just, like, a beautiful place. So I love that there, and I have a lot of friends there.

So that's one of my favorite places. I'd say Austria was, I went to Graz. That was gorgeous. And we ran right around Christmas time. They have, like, all these, like, Christmas markets. And it's just hip. And I'd also say this summer, I went, I traveled a lot. I went to Finland and Italy and all these different places, but I went to Paris for the first time, and I loved Paris.

I really did. Like, it might be corny, but I just, I think Paris is just such a vibe. Like, I love it there. And I went to the Eifflet Tower and I'm like, you know, I just, I don't know, I love the little cafes. I just love the vibe there. It's just very relaxed and, yeah. Are you going to be moving to Paris sometime soon? It's so funny.

As someone told me, they were like, Paris is like the one place that New Yorkers would, like, move. to and I was like what and then I went and I was like definitely I know exactly why they said that because it's kind it's like a city vibe it's like New York a little bit slower you know beautiful you know it's just a different different vibe but I love Paris I don't think I'll be moving there but I love to visit maybe a little house or something a little flat as they say yeah yeah I love it yeah I want to talk about fashion yes there's not enough conversation about fashion Oh, we got to talk about it. And I want to fix that.

Yes. We're going to fix that. Definitely. 100%. Ruben Rogers, I will say, walked in here with some Gucci shoes and they were incredible. Shout out to Ruben Rogers. Love that guy. Incredible fashion taste.

Yeah, he does. Incredible guy. Okay. Beautiful person. Yeah. But there are some people who we won't name. But there's some people who are just regulars at Old Navy on stage. Yeah.

Don't bring it on stage. Yeah. It's so tough. There's so many good places to shop now, I think. I think for me, especially I like to dress a little bit more like androgyness. Like I like to have like suits and I like to, you know, I'm not like, I don't fit into a real category. For sure.

So for someone like me, it's a little bit harder to find things. Yeah, you do. You put that effort in. I have to. You have to. I remember you had like a black polo. and it looked so clean and fresh, I was like, styling. Yeah.

Absolutely styling. Yeah. And that I randomly found at like a, I forget what store that was Club Monaco or something like that. But I think you have to kind of just like creep into a lot of different places and like see what's going on. Right. And you might have like one place.

You're like, okay, I know I can definitely get like my basics there like a black button down and a white button down and like some plaid pants or whatever. Like have one of those places. but the rest is about kind of like for me at least like popping in here and seeing like oh okay i like that blazer i like that jacket i'm going to go for that i'm going to get that here then i kind of creep into another place i'm like oh okay they have a few things i like here so it's kind of about like the search which can be a little bit annoying because you're frustrating yeah you have to spend some time doing it um but it's worth it in the end i think having clothes that like fit and something

you like changes your whole vibe you know i think we were talking the other day about how like you've had to kind of like packing for this week of shows at the bistro was kind of interesting to try to kind of fit the vibe of the rest of the band. How'd you how'd that go? Yeah, I think that's always something I'm thinking about is like I play with so many people and I'm always thinking like especially like what's a band leader wearing. Like I play with this one drummer, great drummer. I love playing with him.

His name is Joe Fonsworth. We do a lot of stuff together. he's always wearing suits like clean suits like stuff he's gotten made so everything is like very you know clean so for him with him i always i wear coats i always wear like you know we're looking like dapper like clean you know and then with other people they like to just like wear like hip like sweaters or like some kind of like a casual more casual vibe so then i have to kind of like outfit because if you wear a suit with that then you kind of like look you know what i mean so i'm always thinking about like presentation and how to how to come correct with that so this band is so funny because

everyone's very different like Peter will do like Peter will like have like he'll be like kind of the most dressy like he'll have like definitely like a button down and like um like a coat on but he'll usually have like some sweet shoes on like some nikes or something hutch is like drummers get away with everything they can wear wherever they want I hate that I love it for them but I hate it for me because they're sitting yeah they're sitting so it doesn't really matter and they always have like the they had their own swag drummers always have their own thing um so he's kind of like more like he always wears something dark like a dark t-shirt or like a dark overcoat with like a dark t-shirt or something like that so i'm like okay he's he's on that level

reuben always very suave and like just very clean whatever he does he does like casual dressy but it's very like unique very like rubin like he'll do dark and then have like his red Gucci shoes on. So it's like, how do you fit into that? Right. You know what I mean? It's very stressed. Right. So this week packing, I kind of did like, I was going for a more casual thing, like a more dressy, like casual thing, but hip at the same time. You got to bring your own thing to every band you do. You got to bring your own thing. For sure. And that's why you get hired. And like, so your outfits, clothes always always represent that. And so yeah, I think that's a great conversation and something I think of all the time and I want to start like my own like suit company and

I want to start my own company because it's hard for women to find suits that fit you. Absolutely. You literally can't and I'm saying like all sizes all high everything just like I want to start a company that's like yeah you can like and not expensive because that's the thing when you get into oh my gosh fitting your own clothes and stuff so expensive. And it's like it's really hard for women like I see even women in jazz. in Lincoln Center like with Winton Marsalis and they all the guys look so good because they all have their suits fitted to them they all you know and then it's like the women it's like well if you could just get a black blazer or so it's like yeah I'm like come on we got to I mean and the women always look great like because you know that we figure we figure it out yeah but like rent suits like

men's wear you exactly can literally rent a tuxedo yeah take it back that does not exist no in women's fashion no I mean we have rent the runway, but that's different. It's different. And it's never going to be a nice, like, professional suit. Yeah. Totally. That's what I'm saying. I just want to have, like, something that it's like, I've struggled for years to find,

like, coats and, like, things that fit me. Especially in this industry, it's like, men are always wearing suits or always wearing dress shirts and stuff. It took me a long time to figure out, like, where can I buy a dress shirt that fits me? You know, you can't buy men's stuff because, like, we have hips. Yeah, it doesn't fit. So that's something I'm really passionate about. I'm like, I want to have like my own thing that it's like it's cool like not just like

boring like blue suit. I mean, that stuff is cool too, but like some designs and patterns. So something I'm kind of having the works right now. I want to be your first customer. Yes, definitely. Definitely. We'll get that hooked up for sure. What are three of your favorite things about being a professional musician in your,

in your literal 20s? Yeah. And your three least favorite things. great question i'm going to have to really think of something three favorite things i mean of course number one traveling like seeing the world and playing music is like the best um number two for me is like the chase like the constantly chasing like to get better and like the journey of that i think is really beautiful and i'd say the third thing is like um just like seeing where I am in my life, I guess, as like time goes on and like composition

compositionally as well. So just in terms of like how I'm writing at a certain time or how I'm playing at a certain time a couple years later, how I'm writing then and how I'm playing then. Just like seeing that layout is like really beautiful. And I like to document everything just so I'm aware, you know, of how I'm progressing. I think that's like amazing. When did you start writing? I started writing in college just not because I was forced to but just because I was like oh maybe like I mean I was just hearing certain things and I'd figure them out on the piano and writing is such an interesting process for me and I think it's cool to think about Peter's process and as well especially with this upcoming record you know he had to write all these tunes for

this specific record and that's such a hard thing to like sit down and be like I'm going to write a tune today. And he did it in like six weeks. It was really crazy. And we only have, there's eight tracks on here, but he told me he wrote like 15. I'm like, that's amazing. 15 songs in six weeks is insanity. It's incredible. And I'm not like, I wish I was more like that, but I'm actually more like for writing for me as kind of like, I don't necessarily wait until inspiration strikes, but I'm more of the person that's like, I hear things for a little while and then I'll put it down on the piano or, you know, figure it out of my horn or whatever. So I kind of like let it naturally happen by osmosis instead of saying like, okay, I'm going to write something today.

So my process is a little slower, but that's just naturally how I feel like it works best for me. Works different for everybody. So yeah, I love to write. And like my writing now is so much different than last year, even like six months ago, five years ago. So kind of like that process is really cool. as a musician to see how you're growing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Three least favorite things for me, although number one is traveling. Number one for least favorite is also traveling. It's, I love to travel, but like being on a plane all the time is awful on your body. I thought you loved airplanes. And like you just said you get on the plane and you just go to sleep and you're just literally out until a little plane land. I literally, I loved it.

I will be that person who sleeps from like before the takeoff to literally. like when the wheels touchdown. Like that's pure exhaustion. I don't know. I just, it can really like, it kind of being in a like an airport, like it's hard on like your health and like, you know, you don't always get to like eat the right things and like you're always on the go. So your time gets messed up.

Your body gets messed up. You're ever like sleeping at the right time. So that's kind of, that can be kind of tricky about traveling. For sure. But, you know, there's, that's just like. You know, I'm just nitpicking. That's a pro-anicom. Yeah, pro-in-com.

Yeah, for sure. Can I guess you're number two? Yeah. That venues don't pay enough, usually. As the one who's trying to book the things, I bet that's probably a least favorite thing. We're trying to milk money out of people because, like. Yes, that is definitely. We know our value as musicians as the manager.

I know the value. Yeah. And then the venue is like, we've got. Five dollars. You want it? Would you like that? Is that okay? Of course that's fine. You only want, you only need five dollars. And we're like, no. You said five dollars. We're going to need more than five dollars. Please. But what's hard is that some musicians would be like, yes. Thank you. You know, and that's what makes the, that's what makes it difficult is that, you know, we're trying. We got to hold ourselves up here. Everybody as a musician. Right. If if you're saying, hey, you know, we need. amount of money. Another group might say, yeah, we only need half of that. The club's going to say, we'll take that group, which is, you know, business is business. But I think as musicians, especially now, it's 2023. Inflation is real. Everything's getting more expensive as we've talked about. So we need to raise the rights. Yeah. And I think we deserve that. You know, it's like every night,

like this is our craft. You know, like we work on this every day, every night. We need to get paid. You know, so I think just holding yourself to that and having people like you and like other people like at Open Studio just being like no, like this is this is like you saw us in here working on this record. We were in here for 10 hours every day working on this record. Yeah. You know what I mean? Before we, for two days. Yeah. Just like practicing.

Yeah. That's a lot of like. It's like a real thing, you know. So even though I mean, I think the arts just need to be. We need to take the arts. seriously in general. Like this is our whole life. Like we dedicate our entire lives to it. And then it's like all people, they want to pretend it's like here's an opportunity and like we should and you are thankful for opportunities. But we also have to, we have the same bills as everybody else. And yeah,

I think that, you know, we, we deserve what we deserve, you know, so. No question. That's a tricky. That's very tricky. But you said, here's five dollars. Like that one State Farm commercial Gotta be quicker than that We're like come on Oh my God You gotta be quicker than that That was only $1 in that commercial

That one dollar I felt that I used to feel that commercial Some of these venues are like $1. Oh for real Man I'm telling us with that Not even responding to that even So sorry It's gonna be very hard It's tricky

And we have to split one dollar between four musicians Yeah and you have to think about And we have to travel there please Right Please please please that's think again That's all I mean, the traveling, too, like, air, airport, I mean, for a flight, it's like four times as much as it used to be, you know, like, it's so much. Like, so you have to, hotels, you have to consider all this stuff when you're, when you're booking a band.

And when you're booking, you know, you have to think about, like, okay, what are they going to need? And so, yeah, it's, it's nice to be just treated well and treated like, hey, we knew what you needed. And this is, like, how much, like, and it doesn't happen very often, which. just sad because it's like man like we're out here working and trying to make everything possible for sure you know got to be quicker than that are you a paramour fan by chance okay I'm a big paramour love paramour um did you hear their new remix album no they did a remix album no um Haley Williams went on jimmy phallon and was like sharing about their remix basically they released This is Why, and then had their friends and, like, people they toured with remixed every single

track on their album and, like, do it in their way. And I know, like, Remy Wolf did one of the tunes. I love her. Domi and J.D. Beck did one of the tunes. They're great. Yeah. That was actually legit jazz on there, and it's really good. Yeah.

But Haley Williams on this interview said to Jimmy Fallon, you know, this remix album, It is really hard to organize musicians. And I felt so seen in that moment. Yeah. Because I can't imagine what somebody had to do to take the album that they had already released and then go to each of those musicians, schedule them to go to the studio or whatever, get all of their tracks, put it all together in one and then release it. That is so much work. That's the work I do.

So I'm, I cried when I thought about that. Yeah. Somebody stressed. No, it's like people don't understand like the behind the scene stuff of putting together a record or just anything like in the music industry. And it is just so hardcore. And it's very, especially in the jazz industry, it's very hard to mangle people a lot of the times. Because people have so much stuff going on. A lot of times in the jazz industry, a lot of people don't, don't have the means to hire like a manager.

like things like that so you're managed you're literally managing yourself and like we're musicians anyway so our brains are like our brains are kind of you know different anyway for sure so to manage yourself and then to deal with people it's like you feel like you don't have enough like capacity to deal with all this stuff like answer emails run your own Instagram run your own website then practice on top of it be ready for the gig like wrestle with the venue people right right rest your own band make your own record talk to the record pets you know you're just doing this all for you're running your own company for yourself it's like so much to do so to on your end of it like I know like for you you're like just said like just trying to communicate with people it's so hard to like get even like

replies back from like you know what I mean so it's it can be really tough and I think we don't think about like that behind the scenes thing as much like what you're doing but But that is so important. Like literally without you, like that this wouldn't have happened. You know what I mean? Like this gig we're doing now, like the record. Like there's so much other stuff that's going on besides just like playing. And that's like just the very top level.

Like, and that's a level that's being seen, which is great. And that's amazing. It's like here's the product. Here's six months to a year of all this preparation just to get the four of us in a room together. Yeah. And here's a 10 page itinerary of what you're doing. every day at every moment at every moment you know what i mean it's just so much like there's so much work behind it so something like open studio and working with you guys is like amazing as a musician because

you guys are just so on top of it and it's like oh it's such like a breath of fresh air you know for sure so we love you so we're trying to say i love you sarah i love you too speaking of new music yes I got to hear a little bit of this unreleased Sarah Hanahan original music that's on the way to your very ears. It is on the way. Tell us all that. So I recorded my debut record last May, 2023. So yeah, I got new music on the way. I recorded my debut record last May.

And I'm so excited about it. I recorded with a great label at Jazz Lincoln Center called Blue Engine. and I was so lucky and fortunate to have my real like mentors and heroes on it. So it features Jeff Tane Watts on the drums, Nat Reeves, who I studied with since I was 18 at the University of Hartford, and Mark Carey, who I love. And he played with so many Roy Hargrove and Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln, all these people I love. I mean, Tane is Tane, so. Amazing. And it also features D.D. Bridgewater.

So yeah, so we went in the studio for two days and I was so nervous going into it. And because I have all this music I've been working on for years and like I finally am putting it down. And like it was magic those two days. Like we did like one take of everything like pretty much. It just was so perfect and everybody played so well. And I'm really just proud of the product. And they just made my music come alive. So I can't wait to put it out.

It's coming out next spring of 2024, and it's called Sarah Hanahan Among Giants. Yeah. I love that title. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So it's my first record. So literally got chills. Be sure to check it out and keep an eye out for it.

Absolutely. Yeah. We'll definitely be back, open studio, have a little combo. And yeah. We're going to hear it because it's the you'll hear it podcast. That's right. You'll hear it right here. You'll hear it.

Yeah.