You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The Best 7 Minutes Of Music You've Ever Heard

Episode Date: April 24, 2023

Adam and Peter react to the master Thelonious Monk playing his iconic piece "Monk's Dream".Check it out for yourself right here. Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Instagram

Yo, Adam. Yes. Ever heard this? It's a dream. It is. I'm Adam Annis. I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You Hear It podcast.

Music advice. Coming at you. It's an open studio podcast. Peter, I believe our theme song... It's an OSP. Our theme song, Emotion and Motion. Yes. Your tune is in the key of D-flat major.

Is it not? You see, I was thinking about these things. And I surprised you with that. That is correct. Yes. Oh, wait. Wait, check this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Show them to think the thing. What? So that's... Look, I can even prove it. It's a Peter Martin composition. Oh, my gosh. Look at that. We're dropping...

If you're listening here, on our YouTube channel, we have our notation game up. So you can see a light up keyboard. You can even see notes come up on the staff as Peter's playing here, which is pretty awesome. But my point is, Peter... Hold on a, my point is... Poodlems.

Our theme song is in the key of D flight. Yeah, we've got Poodles McGee... Poodles are one of the most popular and beloved dog breeds in the world. It's so true. So we have our theme song, Emotion on the Key of D-flat major. Now, you were just playing a clip

of Flonius Monk quartet playing Monk's dream sounded like it's in D-flat major. It is. But it looks like he's playing in C on that keyboard. Which means that it's probably an old video that has been sped up or something. Right.

Which I don't understand how that happens, but... It's kind of mastering issue, but we are going to be watching this amazing video of Monk in Brussels. Brussels. I don't know if that's correct. Playing his famous tune, Monk's dream.

So it is pitched up a little bit, so it might be a little weird if you have perfect pitch or trying to transcribe it, but all the better for us. I kind of like the way it sounds in D-flat. I do too. Should we check it out?

Let's check it out, man. Let's have a little bit of a reaction to one of the great quartets. I already like it just to let you know. Is that Frankie Dunlop? I believe it is. On drums. Charlie Rouse sucks.

It is Frankie Dunlap. John Orr on bass, Charlie Rouss. Classical forte. Oh. Oh, man. Look at how... They plays with his whole body. Check out how he's crazy.

There's a lot of intentionality. Look at the hat. Frankie Dahlia. It's just a masterclass of swing and sensation. Okay, stop. start that over again. So the first thing that jumps out to me when I listen to Monk and when I'm watching this video

is the amount of call and response that's in everything. And it's something that gets left out, especially with beginner and intermediate players. Do not go chasing after stuff that you don't need to go chasing after. It's all given to you in the music. All you have to do is

be receptive to the call and respond. And it provides you with the answer, right? Listen for the question and you can you'll have the answer. Monk and ye shall find. Monk is the master at call and response. Let's listen to that head again

and listen to how many phrases get responded to. Right, and listen to what Monk is not playing that enables a couple of different levels of call and response. Calling response between the two hands, certainly between the saxophone, by playing the melody and then just letting those counter melodies with the left hand enables the great Frankie Dunlop. One of my favorite drummers.

Talk about unheralded, not unheralded, but not heralded. Definitely under the radar, underrated. But like his constant call and response, brilliant. And he's right there from the start. And that there, bippo, beep, bop. It's not bip or d, although he does do that sometimes, but the way that he lays these and makes the little variations each time is really exciting.

Paul. Response. And then Frankie Dunlop that's doing all sorts of subtle. Space. Ah. Then you had that one hi-hat in. Setting off. It's all set up to free.

Woo. Frankie Dunlop. Yeah. Such a melodic player. Okay, can we just back it up a little bit to the start of this ax-so. So one thing that jumps out here is listen to how long Frankie Dunlap fills after the... After the one, right? After the one.

Yeah, yeah. Letting, not settling in for. a very long time but delaying the sort of, they're going to lay into this, you know, walking, walking swing rhythm. He's delaying it for so long. It just adds so much drama to the situation. It does. So at the start of the end of the head, the start of the saxophone.

And I think the reasons why it adds that drama is because it's like to just be a shabang right on one, which at times could be appropriate. Listen, nothing's wrong. But in the way this head is set up in the way they're playing it, that's sort of expected. And I think a lot of times this is really good for us thinking about. any comping instrument, but you talk about the drums and the piano, kind of a big part of what we were doing this kind of a tune, comping, making those decisions,

you have to make some intrusive, what could potentially be seen as intrusive decisions for those in the service of the music. So what he's playing is very musical, but it's kind of intrusive and some lesser drummers, i.e. 99% of them are going to not play that, even if they hear it because they're like, oh, that's too much.

It's the beginning of his soul, let me give him some space. Yeah. But it actually sets it off beautifully, I think. I'll go back just a little bit before. The last eight. Now. They really settle in until like the fifth bar. Oh, I love that.

That, that, boom. On the bass snare to bass drum. So for drummers, you know what this is about, but it's just so brilliant. But for piano players, like, clue in on this kind of drum company because this really gives you stuff to talk to and to use.

Let me hear it again, right? Ah, so it's back, back, on two, you know, that's like the big two. You hear it? Monk hopping and Frankie Dalai is a wall-won copying part.

Pay attention to how Monk notoriously comps the melody. So you can almost always hear the melody in Monk's comping. Yeah, if he's playing a fragment of, he's playing, you know, a rhythm of it, Or if he's like, you can hear it and then he's comping around it.

Yeah, it's omnipresent. You know what's interesting? I never really, I might be speaking out of turn here. But I was just thinking about like the way that monk comps and it's as much about like the way Frankie Dunlop here, Ben Riley, who was the other drummer who played during this period a lot and kind of classic, you know, monk Charlie Rouse quartet setup. But like the way that they comp is for a certain type of solos could be difficult. could be chaotic. You know, I think for the way that Charlie roused souls, and that's who they're camping behind, it's perfect.

Yeah. Because, like, he's just continuing to play. There's a lot of, I mean, he's taking breaths within the music, but he's not like, you never really see him waiting and taking space, like, listening to see how he's going to react. It's very much, like, the way that he's listening is more subtle. Yeah. Like, you can hear it in the harmony and the way that it interacts

with his interpretation of hearing that melody. Because, I mean, for sure, the way, like you say, the way that monk comps, it demands attention to the form and the melody all the time for everyone, for the listener, for the comping instruments, for the basses, for the solo, for the saxophone, for everybody. But I think it fits so well. And I'm thinking back to, and I don't know if these stories are true, but I figure they are. I've heard them enough about like Monk not really liking, I mean, Miles not really liking the way that Monk comped. And like on Bag's Groove and some other cuts that they were playing together. He asked, he told Monk to stroll and not comp behind him.

And I'm wondering if that's because of just the way that Miles soloed, a lot of space, a lot of like listening, reacting to what's happening around him in a more, I don't want to say overt way, but just the space that that gives you that time to really breathe something in as opposed to like being comfortable with that sort of continuous improvisation, that feedback loop just constantly going like a flywheel kind of thing. Well, I mean, think about the soloist that Monk is most famously used. We're talking about Charlie Rouse, of course. Yeah.

Sunny Rollins, John Coltrane. Those three tenor saxophiles. I've ever heard of them. I've ever heard of it. Yeah, very different approach. Coleman Hawkins. Coleman Hawkins. Very different approach than Miles for that kind of phrasing.

Yeah. Should we continue? Yes, please. So then, Mark's going here. I hadn't heard of you this before. Or is it going to major? Might be going to major. Yeah.

So, like, the changes on this are, you know, major going up in force, major seven, the dominant, the dominant seven. But doing a nice little kind of skipping that fourth and going right down to the B. Well, it's a B flat actually. I mean, that melody is there. Munk is still playing the melody. He's still playing the little things that happened around it.

You can keep going. He's still playing all these little things that are happening around it. Yeah. All of his call and responses are still there. I just want to take a little bit. It's the tune. It's playing the tune. And I think that it really informs this kind of playing.

Like you hear them pull back. Like because the four. is so it's just accentuated in so many different ways like the melody is accentu I say with the form with the changes with the rhythm of like that the repeated rhythms that occur within the melody they're brought so much that it enables this kind of pullback at the top of the chorus that can be very effective you hear like that's a big pullback that's like a pulling your rug out a little bit but Charlie Ross just keeps going monk got up oh Monks back to go

dancing yeah Charlie Rouse didn't even care amazing So if you're listening, Monica is now standing between the saxonist and the piano. Yeah. Shuffling. Dancing. Can we call it dancing? Sweating. Profusely.

Oh. Man, this is all vocabocamp for piano. This is that John Orr, you said? On bass. Man, look at all that. It's great to see. So, so, there's no. No really like comping going on, I don't think, yet in terms of left-hand comedy, but he's using his left hand with the right hand for the melody in a way that I don't know would be that odd. Check it out.

I guess you'd be able to hear that, but it's very, it's not really that counterpoint. It's part of the same line, right? Now he's going to add it in flat nine. Where does this music come from? It's amazingly original. It's an original in an art form that is full of originals. Right. It's so weird to see him playing and see. Like you hear it in deep. That's strange.

So that's something that like, you know. Well, he's... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you check out the whole tone stuff, and this is something that people kind of grasp onto pianists when they want to imitate Monk. But what they usually miss is something that reminded me from Ryan. Ron Carter, Ron Carter's course he did for us, the maestro, where he talked about when he would do certain slides and like there's an intentionality where you're starting and where you're ending.

I think from a rhythmic perspective, you really hear that with this. Check it out. You know, like that's, he's coming from somewhere and going somewhere on time, you know. The bus is not late. He's definitely hearing that flat nine on that bridge. That's all melody right there. with the two with the double stops. Again, all of the call and response happening here in the composition itself and with what

Frankie Dunlop is playing. Man, I love his technique on drums. It's so incredible. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Beautiful. Thank you, Thlemonious Muck for the lessons in swing, in music and life in general. We'll link to this jacked up video out of tune below. Maybe we could fix this one.

Should we do that and make a little project? Nah, we're all good. No, the pitch. No, the pitch. No, they'll get it. Okay. Yeah. Until next time.

You'll hear it.