You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Should You Move to NYC/Paris/LA/Tokyo? - #57

Episode Date: November 13, 2018

Don't pack your bags quite yet! Today on You'll Hear It, Peter and Adam discuss the pros and cons to being a jazz musician in some of the world's most thriving music-centric cities. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Yo, Adam. What's up? Do you like moving? I do like moving. Really? Like moving boxes? No, I don't like that part. Yeah, don't call me to help you.

I'm Adam Anas. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Daily Jazz advice and maybe a little life advice thrown in sometimes. Coming to you live from not New York, Paris, L.A. or Tokyo. Yeah. New York, Paris, L.A. Tokyo. I love those four cities.

Like, what was the genesis of this? To be honest, I'm just seeing this for the first time. Well, so the genesis of this is, you know, as a, this is hard to say, but it's kind of a growing elder statesman here in the... You're talking about me? No, about me. Oh, you. About the, in the local jazz community here in St. Louis,

I see a lot of talented young musicians come and go. Yep. Mostly go. The question is, should I move to New York? Right. Should I move to Paris? Should I move to L.A.? Should I move to Tokyo?

Should I move to Omaha? We don't hear that one as much. I don't hear that quite as much. Although I do hear Chicago, New Orleans, there are things like this. I think the question is, as a aspiring jazz musician, especially if you're really deep into it, and you really want to get the most out of your playing, if you want to grow, should you move to a market where there's a huge jazz scene, or can you do it from, you know, your middle-sized city or your small town?

I think it's a good question. It's a great question. I think it changes every year. Yeah. You know, it's one that I think if this was 30 years ago, I think there's a no doubter. Yes. Yeah. You should absolutely.

New York. New York. Just go to New York. Yeah. And I think that still applies to some people. I don't know. I think part of it, though, is the right answer is if you're asking, you probably won't ever do it anyway.

You know what I mean? Well, I think it's so much, I guess it depends upon your personal situation in life, whether or not it's even a possibility. I mean, it's always a possibility. but it's more realistic at different times in your life. But I wonder when you're talking about 30 years ago, you know, for us, if it wasn't, well, you don't remember 30 years ago. I almost do remember 30 years ago.

No, I remember. But 20 years ago, 25, you know, like the world becoming more connected by the Internet. You wouldn't think it would affect this, but it actually does because there used to be kind of, we didn't really know New York or what, definitely not like Paris or what the scene was when you're coming up in a place like St. Louis or anywhere because you're kind of disconnected. Yeah, you would hear reports, but it would be slower. You know, not as slow as like when the steamships were bringing in reports,

but it was more rumors and, man, I heard they have this and this. Now it's like, everything can be verified. Smalls is streaming every night. You know what I'm saying? It's like, that used to be just like a mythical place where, and now it's the mystery is a little bit uncovered. Yeah, and it doesn't mean that it's just like, oh, I don't have to go to New York because I can watch small streaming on live.

I mean, online, you still can benefit from the same things that we benefited when we went to New York, interacting, meeting other young musicians, meeting different kinds, getting that high level of deep, competitive musicianship that exists only in kind of these kind of that. I think that's why you chose these four cities, certainly other ones as well. Yeah. But kind of trial by fire kind of thing. So with the internet, we can see that and understand it more, but you still got to go if you want to.

I mean, you don't have to. but if you want to have that experience of like, I want to see if I can swim with the big dogs. I, you know what? Do dogs swim? I don't know. They do.

Whenever anybody actually asked me about this, I almost always say, yes, go, especially if they're 20 years old and, you know, aren't married with children and are living in their parents' base, and I'm like, yes, you should absolutely go.

Oh, God, if you're living in your parents' basement, just get out. Just get out. Go anywhere. No, but, you know, I went to New York when I was 20, and I know you went at a very young age, and, like, there's nothing more, eye-opening for your playing or your personality.

Yeah. I went when I was 16 and right before I turned, before I even turned 17, I was mugged on the streets in New York. Nothing more eye-opening than that, you know. But this is what I'm saying though, man? It's like if you stay in your parents' basement till you're 30, like, what do you got to play about anyway? No offense to people that live in their parents'

basement till they're 30. Shout out to everyone at their base. Andrew, are you, no, you're out of your parents' basement, right? All right, good. I just think, I just think that, first of all, travel does broaden the mind, but living in a different city, living in a hectic city, living in a,

in a popular city, living in a cutthroat place, living in a place with a bunch of great artists that are around you all the time, it's inspiring. It changes you. That's the key. You know, being around the artist, it really does. And people think like, oh, New York, you know,

you're going to get, it's like in the Stevie Wonder song, you gets off the bus and skyscrapers and everything. Like, yeah, that's all exciting. That's got nothing, you're not going to develop just from like having your feet in Manhattan. But you go to Smalls, you go to Mesro, you go to the Village Vanguard, you listen, you say, man, can I get a jam,

can I try to get a gig. You start to see what the level of the players. You get inspired by that. You get caught up in like, you know, New York is a great place for the arts and other things too, but we kind of know the artistic scene for there being a very high standard. Yeah. You know, because it is competitive. I mean, I don't know the cause and effect.

Whatever that is is more complicated than I can understand. But because of that competitive thing, it demands a certain level. people that kind of stay there and survive there are at a high level and want to maintain those high standards. And so you can be influenced by it. Just like anything, when you're going to be influenced by your surroundings. And that's a very great thing to have, especially when you're young, because then it can get ingrained in you. Then you can go back to another place and bring that mentality with you. Yo, Pete. What's up? Hey, we're always talking about Open Studio here on the You'll Here at Podcasts. But some folks might not know what that is. You want to fill them in?

Well, this is our little project here that we've been doing for about three years where we're presenting just world-class jazz artists that happened to be many of them, my personal friends, that were in my personal Rolodex. And I called them and said, hey, how would you feel about sharing some of the wealth of your knowledge with some folks that really want to, you know, learn from you? And we're going to structure them as video lessons and put them together in a beautiful platform where folks can see exactly what you're playing, hear exactly what you're saying and what you're singing.

We have, you know, notation and structure to what you're doing. doing and we're having such a good time with it, such a great response. We've met so many great, wonderful students from around the world. 104 countries, in fact, we have students in now. It seems like a lot of countries. I couldn't name 104 countries. I don't think I could name 14 countries at this point. Yeah, we are the trying to be anyway, the Center for Online Jazz Education.

So if you want to learn more about Open Studio, go to openstudio network.com. Open Studio, Jazz Lessons from Jazz Legends. I think there's another thing that these cities bring when you're, around all these other great players, just as you're saying, is it's a true measure of where you are. We talk about this all the time about being honest, being kind to yourself, but being honest about where you are. So if you're truly wanting to be a serious jazz musician, a serious musician of any kind, it's good to see you against world-class musicians, because that actually gives you a little bit of insight and hope into getting there one day and seeing how they do it. If you stay in your

small town or your medium-sized city, I see these guys, man, who think... think they have it together and they don't. And you would think because of the internet, because of the small streaming live, because of the accessibility to other scenes virtually, that people would have a better understand. But they don't, especially young people

just because of the nature of their experience. But there's a certain young pianist who shall remain nameless who recently made the trek to the East Coast to Berkeley College of Music. And it was a funny thing. A good example. I've actually seen him in Boston since he just started. I saw him too. Yeah.

And so he, you know, his whole thing was always like, man, Peter, you're like the, you're like one of the four best pianists in the world. I was like, how the hell do you know? I'm like, thanks, but I don't think so, buddy. But he would always say that. And then when I saw him in Boston, after he was living there for just two weeks, he literally told me this. He's like, man, Peter, man, you're so good. You're like one of the best pianists in the Midwest. Like, he'd already knocked it down to the Midwest.

You know, next time I see him, it's going to be the best in this neighborhood. But that's important perspective, though, to see what it's really. like, you know, I might have mentioned this before, but I heard this really great interview with the producer of Saturday Night Live, Lauren Michaels, right? Talking about comedy and about how hard it is to actually put on a sketch comedy show for the entire country. Yeah. So like someone was talking about the comedy scene in like the, you know, the village, the experimental comedy scene and he's like, yeah, that's all well and good, but do it in front of, you know, 15 million people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And be funny and get laughs. That's a whole other real skin in the game. So

So when you go to these places where there's real industry, where there's real players doing it for real, and you measure up against that, then you get a really good idea of what you actually need to do, how much work it takes, and I think that's nothing but healthy. So I always recommend. And then also what we were talking about,

the experience of living in a place that you didn't grow up in, can really open you up artistic, worldview. Yeah. I mean, if I could, I would move to Paris today. Right, right. But I got that future college tuition for the kids coming out. That's right. Well, France does offer free tuition, I believe, for their citizens.

We? We? But I think that's too. In all four cities you have, I don't know. We talk mostly about New York, but a certain amount of this could apply to any of those. L.A.? Yeah, I guess. Okay.

No, but New York, Paris, L.A. and Tokyo, those are all very international cities. Even Tokyo. I was in Tokyo last week, and it's like we always think of as this kind of homogenous Japanese culture only, but it's a very, especially the music scene. I mean, certain parts of Japanese culture, of course, are just. Japanese more so than a country of immigrants like the U.S., which we still officially are, okay? You heard me? Oh, it's election day.

Get out and vote. This will come out a little bit late. But, you know, so that worldview that I think that you were just alluding to, you'll get that just by being in these places, which is great for music and is great for your artistic vision. Yeah, and I just put these cities on here because these are what I consider to be cities with world-class scenes. But, I mean, obviously New Orleans applies, Nashville applies.

Yeah. Chicago could apply. London, you know, like there are a ton of world-class music cities. Second tier, but yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Good. Well, we nailed that.

So I think the answer is yes. Asked and answered. Yeah, I mean, if you want to be one of the cats, that's right. I think you have to at least a little bit. Right. Okay, so yesterday we were talking about the brilliant ratings and reviews and you read one of them. So today, I was feeling like all day since yesterday a little bit.

but envious of you getting to read one. So it's okay if I read one? You know what? But yesterday, in my defense, that's the only time I've ever read one. I don't think that's true. In the history of this podcast. Folks go back and check him on that. If anybody can find the episode where I read a rating and review.

Adam's been known to be very hard and fast. Like, this is the best red. This is the only time. This is, you know, sometimes. I don't know. He might be right. It does come back to bite. Okay.

So this is from Lev Maron. We get some weird names. I think there's the. Who is this for? From? From Lev Maron. L-E-V-M-A-R-I-N. I never know if that's like Lev-M-R-N because I think Apple podcast when you leave a review

forces you into like a one-word and one name situation. But anyway, so this is five stars. And the title of it is, you guys are awesome. Love it. I will note that awesome is all caps. And there are four exclamation points at the end. My name is, oh, well, he's telling us. There we go.

My name is Levan. Oh, I talked to Levan on the phone. other day. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's an open studio member. Nice. My name is Levan. I'm a pianist in D.C. area, originally from Armenia. Big shout out to Armenia. I've been listening every day for months and still can't get enough. You guys are very important to this art form. I hope that by doing this podcast, you're inspiring a whole new generation of artists that will carry the torch forward. Definitely 777 stars. That's very generous, Levin. That's a new take on it. I like it. He's got it. So thank you, Levan, for that.

And big shout out to Armenia, beautiful country with so many great musicians from there. And you can leave us a rating review at your podcast outlet of choice. That could be Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher. We are trending on Stitcher on the jazz Stitcher list. How about on maybe the bathroom wall of your local jazz club? No, that you can't do. No? That you can't do.

It needs to be somewhere we can see it. This is all about us. Come on. Okay, all right. That's CD. on the bathroom wall. Come on. And then we have t-shirts.

Are you still jelly of me with my t-shirt? Yeah, I am a little bit. It's nice. You don't have one yet. I don't. And gray is my color. Well, I know what? Adam's getting for Christmas from the Martin household.

Just saying. And what else we got? I think that's it. Until next time. You'll hear it.