You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Surviving The Holiday Setlist

Episode Date: December 21, 2023

Are you TIRED of playing Christmas gigs yet?? Adam and Peter are here to give you some simple tips to add some spice to this holiday season!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

Adam Maness. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Music advice coming to you. Music advice coming to you. In this holiday, let me finish. Okay. In this holiday spirit. That is a long-ass tagline. Music advice coming to you in this holiday experience. Well, I've decided it's not going to be a tagline anymore. It's just going to be whatever. It's just like in a solo. You know, like when you, when you think, oh, I'm going to play this at that point. It never works out. It never works out. No. Is it time for my solo? Oh, new buttons. Oh, yeah, new buttons. Thank you. A little bit of a precursor to 2024. Yeah, that's from producer Caleb, that one. Caleb, what is that from?

Jazz Transformer from the Jill Transformer. Jazz Transformer from the Jill Transformer. That's a very millennial button you put on there, Caleb. That's awesome. Cool. How you doing? Pretty good, man. It's good to see you.

Happy holidays. It's been a couple weeks. Happy holidays to you. Yeah, it's been a couple weeks. We've been having some fun here. It's gotten a little frosty outside. It doesn't look like it. It's chilly.

This looks like the middle of summer, but it's a little frosty here. No, man. Look at that low. ass sun. That is a chilly outside right there. That's right. How bright the sun is. You know that winter sun where you're driving home at like 3.30 and it's right in your eyes? I don't call it this. I call it the soler. Okay. The soler. He's Spanish and fancy.

Yeah, so we've had an interesting couple of weeks around here. Yeah. Actually, it hasn't been a couple weeks. I saw you exactly seven days ago plus 12 hours. That's true. We parted ways on a stage to a roaring, sold-out audience clapping for us. We were like ships in the in the sea saying goodbye to each other. Goodbye. Have a great time in New York City. I'll just be over here with my adoring crowd. Exactly. How long did you say on that stage? That was a lot of applause going on. It was quite a while. Yeah, that was a fun night. So we had played a week ago Monday.

We played our annual holiday spectacular that we've been doing now. Did you know this seven times? Well, I just heard seven times. Yeah. And you are seven for seven for attendance. You are six for seven. I'm six for seven, which is a B plus. Let me tell you something, man. Everybody missed you. you. Everybody said it was so great to have Peter Martin back this year because you were gone last year. We do our annual holiday spectacular. It's Peter Martin and the 442s. No, no, it's the 442s, Adam Manus and a bunch of special guests of which I am but a minor mere peon. No, you are an important cog in that wheel. And everybody said it was so great to have you back. The energy was right.

That was our most successful one ever. We sold out that joint. We sold out all right. Big time. We sell out every year. It's a Christmas concert, man. What are you going to do? Yeah. And that's one of the first. the things we're going to be talking about. That's right. It's selling out because I think it's not selling out if you're buying in. Hey now. Oh, this might be a strategy. Shout out to Rodney Whitaker for coming up with that in 1994. Is it not selling out if you're buying in? Exactly. It's true, actually. Yeah. No, so we did our annual holiday spectacular. It was amazing. We had a great. Your new orchestra was featured beautifully throughout the evening. That was so fun because I was sitting right over by them. I put you on there for on purpose, man. I wanted to keep me in line. I wanted to impress you. No, I wanted to entice you. They sounded great. The arrangements were great. Thank you. Thank you. You've come so far with your arranging. You've always had great ideas, but now it's like you're hitting those, the details of that. Like we talk about a hat on a hat.

Like you've got the good hats on the hat in the arrangements. Like you know when they take something away. You know when to add, when to leave something going with the strings while something else is happening. You've got such a good year for that. And we'll be talking about that a lot in this next year because I know a lot of folks are, like arranging and composing, whether it's holidays or not, is such a interesting, I think, combination of art and science. you know and grit and grit exactly and like yeah exactly I think because you've done so much now but it's it's it's grit but like sometimes people do things over and over again but for some

reason they don't get better you know what I mean and that could be within your practice or certainly within your composing or anything so Peter's talking about this orchestra I started this year called pop pop pop pop we're like a modern pops orchestra yeah and I started it four reps four sets and reps mostly like because I remember I do a lot of arranging for larger ensembles I'm so blessed to work with the St. Louis Symphony a lot in fact I just had an arrangement on their holiday show the world's second oldest symphony that's right no the US is second I had a white Christmas arrangement on their holiday show this past week and I that it was a perfect example of why I started pop pop pop because I got invited down to hear it I heard it one time and now I have to like figure out I have to

figure out how to get better yeah hearing the piece one Right. Because, you know, as a composer, arranger, you get so much limited time with a large ensemble because it's so expensive, you know. And so I got to hear this arrangement once. And like, I was like, okay, well, things weren't, there were certain sections where things weren't as big as I thought they were going to be. Or sections didn't stand out as much as I thought. It could have been range or the dynamic marking that I, I wrote or just, you know, the orchestration in general. And I learned so much in that like four and a half minutes, but I was like, man, I wish I could hear it every day for the next week, because I'm sure there's so much more I can. could hear and you know I'm taking notes on my phone about you'll hear it yeah yeah so I'm so I'm very happy to hear you say that man because it has been like it feels like a slog sometimes you're like well I got to just hear what I'm writing with the real players to figure out how to get better at it and it's so rare that it happens yeah but see folks take note to what Adam just said because there's a great lesson in that because it's not that different from when we hear recordings of ourselves play play an improvisation solo piano whatever it is it's like there's different approaches the the

the approach that you're talking about, you know, attenuating your ears versus your expectation to how you think something's going to sound. Like, if you're playing a solo and you're like, oh, I killed it on this part. And then you listen back and you're like, ooh, I was rushing or it wasn't, it didn't have the vibe that I thought it was. Like, that's a way to growth. For sure. Like, that's the pathway to growing because you're starting to line up your ears with the

reality of what's going on in real time. That's right. Whereas some people listen and they're like, oh, that just didn't, they didn't play that right. or like a more rigid less kind of growth mindset attitude towards how your music's coming out of other people playing it. Same thing when we're playing it too. Like we have to kind of remove ourselves a little bit from the process if we want to grow for sure. Yes. Even if you're you're talking about there's a reality and then there's the what your plans are. It's really hard I think especially

for beginner improvisers to listen to yourself on playback and let go of your yourself as like attached to the results of the music. Right. Like I'm only good unless I sound good here. Yeah. is a big mistake and it's almost impossible to avoid it first. And it takes a lot of like just personal work. But I think it's like you just said, man, that's super important. So you can just honestly be like, first of all, so you can just enjoy your life and not have to have your results of what you play be attached to your worth as a human being. But also then that you can honestly assess like, oh, okay, like I was going for this. And I like that I was going for this, but it didn't quite come across how I thought it was going to be. And that's only done by

direct feedback of what you're doing. Absolutely. Yeah. So we're talking the day, Peter, about how to manage Christmas gig fatigue, which is, you know, where we're starting off at least... It might be where we are right now. It is where we are. Six days before Christmas? Are we hitting fatigue? December 19th right now as we record this episode. Both of us have done a ton of gigs in December already.

I've done really a bunch, including a bunch of arranging and writing for other people's Christmas gigs. And how do you survive this season in a lot of ways it's great because the cash is coming in, man. Like these are where all the gigs are happening. There's parties happening. There's, you know, there's concerts happening galore. So there's a ton of stuff to do. All right, so today we're talking about how to manage

Christmas gig fatigue, which obviously we're both feeling the effects from. I think a lot of folks are, yeah. It's December 19th right now. We've been playing ton of gigs. We've been writing a ton. Yeah, yeah. And I think that there's the positive part,

you know, it's like when you're tired and exhilarated from doing things versus just tired and burnt out. So maybe we'll come up with some ideas on how to do the former as opposed to the latter. And I think the most important thing is this is counterintuitive alert. Are you ready, sir Adam? So I think one of the keys is don't play so much Christmas music even on seasonal gigs. So your key to managing Christmas

gigs is don't do Christmas gigs. No, no, no, do gigs still. First of all, there's overt Christmas gigs like what we did, the holiday spectacular. That's meant to be very warm feeling Christmas music. Right. But we didn't do all Christmas songs. We did some Hanukkah songs. And we did actually some secular songs. We did some 442's originals just about cold weather. Yeah. I know, but I think we always think that we have to, even if it's a holiday gig, people, I've found you can do up to 50%

non-holiday songs and no one will complain. You know, we did at our 442s gig, Peter. Remember, we did Poinceena. Yes, I know, but I saw that on there. I was like, this is brilliant. So Christmasy. But it's not. No. It somehow is and it's not. I was reasoning that it's, well, it's close to Poinceetta, which is the flower, the Christmas plant. It's a totally different word.

But did anybody complain? No, they love it. No, exactly. It's a great tune. But no, I think that things that are, like, have something, there was something about that groove that was holiday-like that was where, maybe because of the placement in the show. And that's what you can do.

Like, if you've got a bunch of holiday gigs and you're afraid to not play playing Christmas songs all the time, find a tune like that and place that in there, you'll be surprised at how well it works, you know. Also, just incorporate some good winter songs in the mix. Now, maybe like, ding-dong, The Witch is Dead. You can't put that in. there. I think anything from Wizard of Oz's fair game. Is it? Oh, we did that too. We did somewhere over the rainbow. Somewhere over the rainbow.

We did Joni Mitchell's River, which is, you know, dude, was that even a Christmas kick? It's coming on Christmas. Oh, that's right. The Lyrics. 442 song, The Caves and the Cold, just because there's cold in the title. You can also do things like, you know, in the Bleakman winter. It's a beautiful hymn. It's not about Christmas, but it's about the season. It's about the season. It's about the season. That kind of stuff kills, actually. We did, I produced along with Diane Reeves, her Christmas album about 15 years ago that still, I think is a really, really fun, great sounded Christmas album. But like we did, A Child is Born?

Thad Jones. That's not a Christmas song, is it? No, but it's, it fits the narrative. It forces its way into being a Christmas song. Christmas is about a child born. Yeah. You just have to throw a manger in there and you're right there. That's right.

Glory manager. Remember you hit me to that great Harry Belmont. Glory manager. Glory manager. Glory manager. Yeah. If y'all don't know, Glory Manger, add it to your Christmas rep.

I think we talked about it last year. That's a great one. Such a good tune. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so I think just like managing the expectations, because I think that listener, like everybody loves that, well, not everybody, but most people that buy a ticket to a holiday program really enjoy hearing things and, you know, obviously Christmas songs, but they can have fatigue as well because you're being

assaulted with like everywhere you go, there's music playing holiday music. So I think it's actually a service to throw in some of these other things that are seasonal, new seasonal delights that can work. A little bit of a side note, always a danger area for me to go into, but it's kind of funny. Did you hear about, you know, the George Michael, Christmas, Christmas?

Last Christmas. Last Christmas. Oh, good. I don't know what you were singing, but I assume. So last Christmas, do you hear about this like global challenge to avoid that song? Why? Oh, that's good.

I didn't play it because this is a safe. It's just like a game. Can you avoid not playing? Can you, no, can you avoid not hearing it? From like, from Thanksgiving weekend through Christmas Day. How would you do that? Well, people are doing it. Like, you have to stay home.

You have to stay home. And do people not like that song? Well, it's considered a little bit overplayed, perhaps. It might be overplayed. I was thinking about adding it to the set list next year, but maybe I won't now that it's... Well, no, no, it's fine. I think it's good, and especially if we place it in a different setting. But it's so much so, like, when I was up in New York, there was some places that

advertise... No last Christmas? No last Christmas. So it's like a safe club or bar or restaurant to come into it. Because if you hear, like, more than three seconds of it, you're... out of the game. You know, it's kind of like, you know, doing the brackets for the final four. It's a game.

I get it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a game. That would be fun, actually, if we did it next year and the game was still going on. And we just said, we're about to play Christmas. Get out of you. Please leave the hall. Right.

Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah. So that's my first one. What do you have? It's just to play less. Yeah.

My, my- avoiding Christmas fatigue. My advice are avoiding fatigue of any kind is, and I have to do this myself. And I've been doing this really since around Halloween, man, is when like all of these writing gigs really kicked up and just my I got really, really busy with things outside of Open Studio and then I have all the stuff that I love to do here at Open Studio. And like I have to remind myself that this is my life. So oftentimes we will get into the habit of being like, okay, well once like I did it. Here's what I did. My last Christmas gig is on

December 17th, which was two nights ago, right? And I was like, okay, I circled it on my calendar. Okay, that's my last gig. Once I get past that, I'm good to go. And I had to stop myself and be like, no, no, no, no. Like, this is not something that we're like, once this happens and once I get to here, then I'll be fine, I can relax. Because I know from experience now, I've been around the sun a few times. I know from experience that once I get to December 18th, I don't feel like, ah, all done.

Right. There's something that's going to come up. And there is already. Like there's something, there's other things to shoot for. And I also know that if there's nothing, after about three days, I get bored and I put stuff on my calendar because I want to do be doing stuff. Dooby, doby, do. Doobie, do.

I wouldn't be doby, do be doing stuff. But my advice and I reminded myself all season this season is to just remember, this is your life and you enjoy it. This is what we signed up for. This is what we signed up for. And even though you're busy and even though you wish you had a little bit more time to yourself, like don't get grumpy because you've over-schedged yourself if you can help it.

There's, you know, feel your feelings. But just remember like, this. Everything we're doing, this is our life. And if we are just constantly looking down the road, but once this is over, then I'll have a rate. Then I'll be happy. Yeah. And I'll be great.

Right. Because that's, I do this too, Peter, whenever I have a vacation coming up, because it's so easy to be like, oh, if I could just make it to vacation, then I'll be sitting on that beach just chilling. The problem is, in the past, I do all that, and then I get to the beach. And I'm so I've already programmed myself to be looking far into the future, right? Like I'm, I live my life thinking down the road. Yes.

So then I'm on the beach. I'm thinking down the road. And I'm not enjoying the beach. in front of me. Right. So just enjoy what's in front of you, even in the busy times. Like appreciate it, have some gratitude for the work, for the people that you're working with most of all, for the fact that you get to make music every day, for the fact that people

want to pay you to come and play their office Christmas party, even if those can be a drag or whatever, whatever it is. Lame gigs can still be amazing experiences if you're in the right frame of mind. Well, and think about this, like looking forward to something else, like you say, to sitting at the beach for a lot of people like especially i'm thinking the 442's holiday spectacular like that's their beach they're looking forward to that they've got that thing circled right on their calendar so we have to remember that even for us when it gets into the grind sometimes it's like oh when i ever can get past this it's like no that is the destination yeah everybody's is

different but i think that that always brings me back to thinking about that and you know having just done these gigs at the vanguard which actually that's trick number three yeah don't play any Christmas. We've played no Christmas music. Saving that for last. But even that start, I mean, surprisingly starts like you're, it's a lot. It's like a lot of, like, you're playing every night with like great musicians that I have to remind myself, like, that's what I signed up for. It's going to be tiring because it's exhilarating. For sure. Because there's energy in the room. Like, it's packed every night. Like, yes, if I was playing with a bunch of crappy musicians in a, in a bad club of which there was sparse attendance, I would, I would expend a lot less

energy. Is that really what I want? You know, so it's like you have to understand what goes with this. And like, so I have to circle every one of those sets as a, as a great destination because each person coming to that, a lot of them are doing that. They're not there at every set. Like, each one is a special thing. And even if it's not, we want to make it special for them. So I think around holiday times, because it's such a destination for people, all these

different kinds of events and it's so special, they're not going to be jaded. They're even more so in, that's why I think people are in more of an entertainable kind of mood during this time of year. They're fraud for a good concert. Yeah, so we need to align ourselves with serving in that way. But it doesn't have to always be done in the typical ways. We can also care for our mental health, you know, by changing it up. Sometimes, you know, what's fun I know for us is just like different arrangements on old classics or whatever.

That's fine. It doesn't have to be, you know, just the way people are expecting. But I think that getting even more into the service mentality at this time of year can help us to really not only get through. And that's, I love your thing of like framing it, not just as like, oh, let me endure this. It's like, how do we thrive during this time? 100%. Yeah. I mean, it's almost a cliche at this point.

A lot of people have probably heard this. But it's like, you know, you start off as a child and it's like, well, once I get past elementary school, I'll be in middle school. And then I'll be really cooking. And then when you're in middle school, you're like, well, high school is where it's going to, I get to like do music and sports and theater. And then you're in high school and you're just like, well, I need to get into a good college. And then I'll be set. once I get into this good college, you get in a good college. You're like, well, this is fun, but I know I'm going to need a good job.

And once I have a good job and then you get a good job, you're like, well, once I have a family or a house or whatever, then I'll be set. And then you get a house and you're like, well, let me get another family. I'm going to need another house or another family or whatever it is. And then I'll be set. And the cliche is then you're basically just like putting off your own happiness. Yes. For some imagined incredible future.

Yeah. And then you're just sitting there on your death bed and you're like, well, I guess I can be happy now. But you could have just, if you are able to stay present in the moment, set your life up so that you're enjoying everything that you're doing, including work. You know, constant work is guaranteed. Constant work and death are guaranteed in the life. So work is going to have to happen.

Enjoy, learn how to enjoy that. Design your life around like truly enjoying and getting some fulfillment out of that. If you're truly miserable, you might think about what you're doing. Right. Right. But if this is like what you want to be doing and you're still like, oh, but I'm too busy. and maybe once Christmas is over, I'll be whatever. Enjoy where you're at, man.

This is the time right now as you're hearing this. Yeah, and just the only thing I would add that we can use beyond just the holiday time as well is like think about this same kind of attitude with your practice, with your development. Totally. Because it's the, these are the kinds of ways of thinking. Like, we always think about like, how do I practice the scales or like, we got this new fingering or this new way to optimize. And those things are important, but they're not like, those are more for specific to

solve specific problems. The overall thing in terms of like happiness and thriving with music, like kind of the top level. Like what are we trying to do? We're trying to get better. Or are we really trying, I mean like, yes, we want to get better as players. But that's not even the top level. It's like we want to be joyful in our development. We want to bring joy to others and ourselves through music. That's really what the ongoing goal is. So we don't want that just to be a destination in terms of like, once I'm good, I'll be able to bring joy to people. and then I'll complain because I'm having to play holiday music or whatever. But it's also like how do we thrive and enjoy our practice?

And so the practice we know becomes a grind. How do we turn that grind into like, man, this is so great. I'm getting these sets and reps and nobody's seeing me do this, but I know, even if I don't feel like I'm getting, but just like you're in the gym, it's like you're actually getting weaker before you get stronger. It's like, ugh, those last reps are, I love how I'm not even in the gym, but I love how I have such an insight into these things.

But I think that that kind of same thing we're talking about, the holidays, if we can apply this to our practice, and I know this is an ongoing theme for us, and we'll be here at the podcast, is really fun. And I think one of the best gifts we can give everybody this holiday season. That's a great, did you guys hear that? What a Christmas monologue. And Scrooge opened the windows and said, Merry Christmas. Everyone. I thought Scrooge is bad. Is he, though?

You'll hear it.