You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The Emotional Side of Jazz - #172

Episode Date: August 6, 2018

In today's episode, Peter and Adam discuss the emotional side of jazz. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Manis and I'm Peter Martin And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast Daily Jazz Advice coming at you Brought to you by Open Studio That's right Powered by Open Studio I don't know how we're going to say this Presented by

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That's right That's right So today we have a listener question and you know I have our Bluetooth speaker out we don't usually get this technologically advanced this early is that thing going to be directly attached to our system where we're just going no I'm pointing this at the microphone today you know some great jazz we should do another thing about great sound on jazz recording sometime that's actually been done we'll talk about that in another episode oh there's tons of production sneaky things that you can do but this is not at all sneaky

this is just lazy which is why we're doing it no we got a message from Josh from Melbourne so let's through it. Hey guys, big love from Melbourne. My name's Josh, and I just wanted to ask a question around the emotional or spiritual side of music. We all know that music can speak to you on that level, inclusive of jazz. Example, my wife and I've been traveling around Europe, and we went to a gig at the Pister Express in London recently, and about partway through the gig, I was just weeping with tears

just because of how beautiful the music was and the energy in the room and the talent on display. So I just want to ask if either of you have any stories of times where you've, been at a gig or listen to a record and had that kind of connection with the music, or any times that you've been playing a gig and the vibe in the room has been really awesome, or you've had audience members come up to you and speak to you afterwards, kind of in that vein. Anyway, I love the work that you guys put down here on the podcast, and I look forward to hearing it every week. Keep it up. That's a great question.

That is such a great thing. Thank you, Josh. Yeah, wow. I mean, that I think Josh really hits at why we do all this. Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's something that we, as a musician, you're constantly chasing. Yes. You know, we've probably both had this experience at a young age, right? Where you had this, like, incredible emotional experience with other people while you're playing

or while you're listening to other musicians. And, you know, that's why we practice. That's why we gig. That's why we do this, right? That's right. is like to connect with people on an emotional level. Yeah, and I think that, you know, when you get it live in person, there's nothing like it. And I think that's, you know, all the practice, the preparation, all the techniques and tactics and strategies that we talk about.

It's great to keep in mind the goal, which is being in a performance, being in the club, being on a concert hall, being on a street corner, wherever it is, and having between one and 500,000 people, whatever that number is there, connecting. with you, you connecting with them. And it really is, you know, when I was younger, I didn't understand this because I was young and dumb. That was my excuse. And, but it really is about an energy of the music that is so much bigger than the musicians is bigger than the audience. And, you know, it's not even necessarily,

well, I guess it is spiritual. It's not necessarily religious unless you choose to look at it that way. But it is about connecting yourself as a performance. with this energy and committing to it in an unselfish way and so that you know you can get to that level that you will be lucky enough to be in a situation where somebody might cry or be emotionally moved at all I mean that's really what our job ultimately is to do yeah and it's really kind of the the the magic of music you know is it music is deeper than any language could ever be any spoken language that humans make up have you heard about it

guy named Willie Shakespeare out of London? Come on now. That's good stuff, but is it more powerful than Brahms? Probably not. I mean, like, there's just something about the way we've learned to manipulate sounds that really gives... It's primal. I mean, it really is.

There's no other thing like it. It's why it's sort of maintained this hierarchy in, I think, human connection. Yeah. And music is always up there. I mean, you can't have any more. You can't have a film without music. I mean, even filmmakers were like, so heavily on musicians to like sculpt the emotional narrative you know what I mean

tell you how you should feel think about that yeah a scene is totally different depending on the music so so important so integral and so I think part of Josh's question was you know sometimes that we've experienced that and I think you know we've experienced that a lot which is which is a wonderful thing that that's kind of the thing that keeps keeps me going it's funny when people just like man how do you deal with like the industry and the travel and all that like whenever they bring up the negative the potentially negative things. I'm always like, wow, that doesn't really,

those things don't bother me. And then I start to think about it. I'm like, wow, it should bother me. Why am? But then it's that energy you get from being in the performance situations. And look, sometimes it's just you're playing for yourself. I mean, I've been moved to tears playing music before myself. And nothing that what I played was so amazing or whatever.

It was just that, you know, it was the music. It was the music. Yeah. So is there anything that's, that kind of stands out? for you in your long career. I'm kind of thinking about this, I guess, because of Josh is from Melbourne. And when I was there last year for the jazz festival, we had such a great performance. And I wish I remember the name of the venue. It's like a big, it might be just like the Melbourne Concert Hall or something, but they have a lot of the performances for

the festival. And we had such a great gig. I remember that. And the audience was just so connected. It was just kind of one of those nights, you know. And then it was also kind of special because I had a couple of friends there, one of which I'd never met in person before, but it's somebody that we actually work with a lot with Open Studio who lives in Melbourne, who has a great business that we collaborate with. And we had talked and we were going to meet after the performance,

but it turns out he's like a big jazz fan, just totally coincidentally. So he was so excited when I was in Melbourne, and he knew a lot about jazz, and he was really into Japan like I am and LPs, and we had all these connections. So that kind of connected things after the performance when I met him and his girlfriend,

and, you know, such warm folks. And then I had some other friends from the States. And so, like, kind of the social thing was part of it as well. And I'd had such an amazing day in Melbourne, too, such a beautiful city. I went for a run there. The weather was beautiful. I went and got some coffee, had a great meal. And it was just kind of a perfect time.

And, you know, Josh referencing being in London at Pizza Express. That's a great little club. I mean, I love Ronnie Scots, which is right around the corner. That's legit, though. Yeah, but Pizza Express is a cool. I mean, people are always surprised because it's only the, one is a club there, the one in Soho. And it's like a pizza chain, but a really good pizza chain.

It's almost like London's local jazz club. You know what I mean? It's great, though. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. But I think, you know, there's been many times where, you know, I was thinking about the Village Vanguard just because I haven't played there a whole lot, but I played there at some memorable times, and I love the sound in there.

But I've also been there. Like, a lot of my memorable musical experiences are as much as things that I was part of as that I was sitting and listening to the same thing as a listener. You know, so some some great memories from, I remember hearing Bobby Hutcherson play some just transcendental improvisation that

I thought he was going to, I thought he was going to start levitating. Yeah. And that the vibes were going to lift up, except we were in the vanguard, so it's like low ceiling, so you wouldn't have had far to go. But I can still clearly remember, I mean, it was like 1995. Yeah. And I can still remember the energy. I can't tell you the notes he was playing.

But I remember there, and I was like standing in the back with Nicholas Payton and Brian Blade and Chris Thomas. And we were just like, and we were like holding on to each other like we were on an amusement park ride. Just the amount of music flowing out. That's amazing. Yeah.

I mean, there's three that really stand out to me. I mean, there's many more. But I think the three that stand out to me were when I was in New York at the new school, I was there during 9-11, right? So that's the kind of the time period we were up there. And the new school is downtown. It's in Greenwich Village. It was closed off, you know, everything below 14th.

Street. The jazz school is right on 13th Street. So you couldn't get down there for a couple days. And then I remember just kind of people, I don't even think school had started back, but like people just gravitated towards the school. And then the like Italian restaurant across the street, which is kind of the hang, you know. Yeah. And just musicians.

And I were just, I don't even think I played this jam session, but we were just all like vibing. Yeah. At the session. It was so powerful. And it was amazing. And then the second one was. in Italy. You know, Italy's just like this thing that keeps coming up.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's like this little jewel. This cultural magnet of the world. And this was actually after a gig. We were at a, we were at dinner after the gig, which can be the most emotional. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Wow. But someone, but we brought out a guitar and we started, was with this singer, our friend Aaron Bodie, and, and we started, we just started, someone wanted to hear Estate, which is like, you know, people may not know it. It's a Basanova tune, right? Brazilian tune, but it was written by two Italian guys. Bruno Bergetti and Bruno Martino. Are you sure they're Italian?

Yeah. So the Italians love it. They love that Bassa. And we started, someone wanted to hear Aaron sing it, so we start playing it, and then the entire restaurant starts singing it. You know how Italian sing it. They know all the words. And they sound pretty good. And they sound really good.

And that was just like, ugh. Yeah. And then the third one that really comes to mind was right across the street here at the Cranzburg Art Center. It was sort of this farewell concert for Willie Aiken's. St. Louis legendary, tenor saxophonist. He was in poor health. He played one kind of final concert, and he played around midnight,

and it just leveled the room, you know, the experience in where he was. Right. It's pretty special. Oh, man, those are great. So now it's reminding me of something. This might be a little slightly extended episode. Yeah, yeah.

Because then you start thinking, because it really is about the emotion, the feeling. I mean, I'm like, the emotions come flooding back as I'm even just thinking about them. Do I see a little tear, a little bit, a little tears. I was just, now I'm thinking of Marciac, 1994, Joe Henderson

was playing with, it was actually, because you remind you to the Brazilian trio, it was Elio Alvese on piano. Amazing Piaz. Diduca, I think was on drums. The guitarist who produced the record whose name I'll remember in a minute. Oscar Castro Nevis, great guitarist.

But they were, like, I mean, the whole set was just amazing. And I heard that group a bunch that summer. They were touring like everywhere, every festival in Europe. but I remember Joe Henderson busted out that Lush Life solo Oh man And like I mean

It's this huge tent You know I mean huge scent like 5,000 people Outdoor festival but covered And it was just he filled up the sound Obviously they had microphones and PA but he filled up that tent With the most amazing sound

And like playing all the bass lines And playing the melody It was like he was doing all the different parts And then the harmony in the middle Just like effortlessly flowing And I mean it was it was a moving moving experience

and I just remember the way he played it was so good but it was that kind of good that like he was stuck in playing like there was no you know sometimes people play

like you get to something for a second and then you fall out like he was stuck in this this super high level but super emotional way but very like technically adept

with all this cool harmonic stuff but was just like stuck like he had crafted this thing and it was a truly artisanal It's a master playing a masterpiece. Those can be the most, you know, spiritual experiences. Yeah.

When someone who's dedicated their life who's already, you know, who's born to do this and have dedicated their life to do this, they get to a certain point where this kind of stuff happens. Yeah. And I mean, it's Lush Life. So like even just sort of a pedestrian reading of that song is pretty emotional. Yeah, totally. It's so, you know, the lyric and the melody are just so deep.

That's awesome. Well, man, this is, I think, I hate to rate things, but this is, we're going to get to some ratings and reviews. But if we were to give a rating and review to this question from Josh, this would be right at the top. I mean, it's a great question. I mean, this led to some, some super interesting stuff for, for me to talk about. And it just reminds us, you know, discussions like this and stories like this, it just reminds us why we do it, you know. Even if you don't have like a grand Joe Henderson experience yet, you know, those things happen every night at jazz clubs. That's right. That's absolutely right. I mean, I think that,

in any city in any time anywhere it i mean it happens way more like get out and listen to music like support your your local musicians sometimes it's uh i mean i remember when nora jones was like when i was up in new york in the early 90s was like like struggling and playing coffee shops and stuff and i remember when i met her and kind of heard her i was like wow that voice yeah i was and i mean i guess on one level i was like oh she's going to go places but it wasn't even that it was just like man i mean this is new york there's a lot of cool stuff happening yeah yeah and you know sometimes those people get discovered sometimes they don't but there's so much talent and like we're always saying everybody has something to say you know so um you know this a lot of this stuff we talk about just

getting your technical proficiency better and all this sort of stuff it's just about being able to get that that beautiful message out there and that's the reason we play music yeah it is it's to share that message and to communicate with each other in a deeper level than language can ever do you know than spoken language can ever do the the language of music is much more powerful that's why we do it Now let's talk about why we do you'll hear it. That's all about the ratings and reviews. Boy, boy, there's a fast turnaround. It's quick.

Well, you know, we've got to get to tomorrow's episode. Well, we got a really funny five-star rating and review from a jazz fan from the United States of America. That's what this person is labeled as. And the title is, I hear you. So we already know, I hear you, exclamation point where they're coming from. Yeah. They're goofball. Like us, maybe.

They get us. But it's a fun, this is really funny. It's great to know, it's great to get to know Peter Beyond, quote, that white guy in the dressing room photo, unquote, from the Joshua Redmond Village Vanguard CD I had in the 90s. Smiley face. That's awesome. I never knew I was that white guy. I was that white guy in the dressing room. Yeah, I think that's what I put on when I first started working here at Open Studio.

That's one of the reasons I said I wanted to work here. It was just, I really wanted to get to know that white guy in the dressing room photo. Is that all in the album? I don't know, man. I don't remember that photo. I know exactly the photo was funny because somebody, Ruben Rogers or Brian Blase, somebody from around that era recently. Oh, no, I'm sorry.

I'm thinking of another picture from. I mean, so many great pictures from the Vanguard kitchen, dressing room, you know. There is a great dynamic that these two guys have together that make the podcast run an informative, whether you are professional or a beginner, plus these guys are Monster Music. Well, a lot of you in the middle. That's our audience. Professional beginner. Yeah, there's nobody in the middle.

Is that from? What was his name? From jazz fan from United States of America. You know, it's funny. I think the podcast rating system at iTunes is the one area where it's sort of hiding behind a handle. It's almost like it's 1987 and we're back in like an AOL chat room again where it's exactly what it's like. It's like sexy dog one, two, three from Lithuania. You know, it's actually.

some seven-year-old kid from Chicago suburbs, you know, bouncing around on an IP address. Yeah, that's what it feels like. Well, cool. Well, thanks, jazz, man. Jazz fan. Jazz fan. Jazz fan.

Yeah, thanks. You can always leave us a five to ten star. We've had as high as ten and a half star. Have we? What an odd thing to hit at ten and a half. Well, they had, remember, this guy had logic. Oh, that's right. He did.

It was like we give 250 percent or something. It was totally over. It was kind of, yeah. That's good. Yeah, so go to iTunes or Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Pippa or Google Podcasts or Stitcher or anywhere you get your podcast and leave us. Oh, I thought it were not on Stitcher yet, by the way. I know I said that several times.

Yeah, you said it all last week. Wait, we're going to, I'm putting it on my list. We're going to get on Stitcher. Stitcher, where you at? So maybe by the time you hear this, we might be on Stitcher. But if you're hearing this, you don't even need Stitcher. Why would you? All right.

You can go to you'll hear it.com. Yes. our home base. Leave us a question. Just like Josh here left us this great question for today's episode. He left us a voicemail. You can do that. You can also leave a written question.

And we are officially sponsored now by Open Studio. Did you know that, Adam? Yeah, it's weird. I wonder how that connection happened. Well, we have closed the deal. Close the deal. We have an actual audio engineer. We should introduce Andrew.

Yeah, Andrew Kitchen. What's up? Yeah. Hey. Oh, yeah, that's not very good mic on him. Not awkward at all, Andrew. So yeah, we're a sponsor. We have an engineer.

We're up in our game for you guys for 2019. No, we'll go ahead and start now because we're not in 2019 yet. We're in 2018. That's right. No more of me wrapping cables afterwards. That's right. Well, we'll see everybody tomorrow. You'll hear it.