You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The New YHI - With Andrew and Sam

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

It's time for a change of scenery at You'll Hear It as we welcome Andrew and Sam as the new hosts! In their inaugural episode, they discuss some music they've been listening to.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Andrew Kitchin. And I'm Sam Katz. You're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Daily Music Advice, brought to you by Open Studio. Open Studio. Go to Open Studio.com, all your educational jazz leads. Brought to. Open Studio Jazz. Coming at you.

That's what it is. Yeah. At you. Daily music advice, coming at you. Coming at you. Intra's going to be the hardest part. Once we get through this. We're going to nail this.

Take five. Yeah. It's hard. All right. Here we go. I'm Andrew Kitchin. And I'm Sam Katz. You're listening to You'll Hear a podcast. Daily Music Advice, coming at you. Coming at you today, brought to you by Open Studio.

Go to open studiojadjazz.com for all your educational jazz needs right there. For sure. And why are we here today, Andrew? So Peter and Adam, rumors flying around the office, got into a little, Tizzy on yesterday's episode. Yeah, so they're not talking to each other, right? No, they haven't even coming to the office. They're totally avoiding each other is what I've noticed.

Like, no one's at the office. They're just totally not on speaking terms right now. And then, you know, we got to keep this podcast going. It's a daily podcast. It is a daily podcast. Yeah, so we were like, well, someone's got to do it. And you're the producer, so you decided to bring me on. Yeah, exactly.

All right. Well, we'll see how this goes. Today we're doing what today? We're talking about, seven tracks that we're into right now. Seven tracks. Seven tracks. All right. Yeah. Well, I brought together a little playlist here in Spotify of some of the tracks that I'm

listening to and then ask some of the ones that you're listening to as well. So should we just head on in? Let's just jump right into it, yeah. All right. So this first track is something I've been listening to since it came out in 2014. And it's probably been at the top of my playlist ever since. It's Butcher Brown's Sundress. Oh, man.

Sam's got the stank face going. Oh, yeah. Stank face all day. What do you think of that? I like that. I don't, Butcher Brown, I don't know anything about that. Yeah, so Butcher Brown is a group from Richmond, Virginia, a group of guys. I guess that all went to RVA together or just grew up together or something like that.

But, yeah, they're probably my favorite funk jazz in that current day idiom of, I'm not really sure what to call it. Yeah, no. Might just be smooth jazz, but apparently that's looked down upon around here. No, there's good smooth. If there's good smooth, that's good smooth. Okay, so I am a firm believer that there is good smooth, and I refuse to call it smooth jazz. In fact, I just call it smooth, or smooth with a V if you're really getting in there. Yeah.

And yeah, I'm a firm believer that there's good smooth. Like, obviously there's bad smooth as well, and we can go to toe on talking about bad smooth, but there's bad, you know, jazz in general. Yeah, yeah. I love good smooth, and that probably all started with, like, Gerald Albright and some of the great smooth jazz sax players, because I'm a sax player myself. Yeah. I mean, I think as a sax player, as a sax player, you have to kind of appreciate elements of

smooth, don't you? Yeah, because everybody, when they think about what a saxophone player does, what they think about is, you know, what the greats like Kenny Gorlick are playing. They're not thinking about Kenny G. They're thinking about, no wait, they're not thinking of... Thinking about a different Kenny G. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're not thinking about Kenny Garrett.

They're thinking about Gorylick. So, yeah, I think that, you know, there's a certain amount of that idiom that you just have to get under your plane. And don't be fearful of it, you know, kind of lean into it a little bit, and you'll find you'll get some nice little smooth gigs out of it. Yeah, that's not super cool. No, I'm into that. That's nice.

So let's go into my first track here, which is a recent one from this past year, called End Game by Angel Olson. All right, we're hopping right in. It's a slow burn. That it has to be. 2019 was a great year for music. And, you know, every year there's like, there's that one album, though, where you're just like, this just blows everything out of the water. and I think that album that tunes off of that album is called All Mirrors that out that was that album for me like the songwriting is great the production is like amazing you know it's just like there's string arrangements we didn't really get to the string arrangement on that track but like every song has like these string arrangements and it's just beautiful like it's beautifully recorded uh was produced by john conglinton he's like just one of these like amazing producers out there right now like and you know just the reverb the like the kind of retro sounds, but he mixes in some, like, newer, like, electronica influences in it, too, and it's just,

it just works all, like, so well together. Yeah, no, it definitely has that, uh, something about that, that new sound of just being super ambient, super wish, wishy-washy, and it's, it's, that is, I can tell that that was a builder through the whole track, you know, I mean, that's, that's, that's one you got a deep listen on. Oh, yeah. So I get that. Weird.

Um, yeah, so we're going to go into my third one, uh, the third track on a list. here. Another one of my obsessions over the past year or so has been this guy Tom Mish and this is, it runs through me with Tom Mish and De La Sol. Aw man. One two, three, four.

The way it flows, I love the way it grows. There's something in this sound that takes me far. It's like a special song can move my mood along. But I cannot say your head through my guitar

she told me at the baseline and everything will be all right she told me that the groove will take us through the night I'm going to quickly skip here in the day line just a little taste there no I like that

I like that a lot yeah so that that time to me is just right where it's at like it's that's where the music is I mean, it's just something about it just hits you right there as soon as you listen to it. And that was that entire album for me.

I forget the name of the album. Let me just go check. Geography by Tom Mish. Yeah, I probably listened to that album every day for the last six months or so. Yeah. And that track right there. I mean, that's that sweet spot of like, yeah, I could be out like on the floor bopping of this one. Or I could just be, you know, chilling, you know.

Right, right. It's got the dance energy with the disco beat. And, yeah. So I think it's just something from that track that, you know, anybody can take into their playing is just the relaxed feel of it. And just doing less is more. That's coming something. I listen with Tom Mish.

It's like, it's all about the notes that you play thinking about those before you're out there just playing them. And it's actually funny. You know, when you watch and produce, I've watched a little bit of Tom Mitch production videos online. he's very slow. A lot of these producers are like really fast with putting together something,

but like he's very meticulous and he'll add in layers and then take him out later. And, you know, it's very about, very much about just getting those tastiest licks and the tastiest foundation in there and bringing in things in the right place. Like when that baseline came in,

everybody was just like, all right, I'm ready, I see where this is going. Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah, I mean, as you're going to see from the tracks I've chosen here, I love tunes that just build, you know? Like, I don't like when a song hits, but it's just, like, everything's already there, like, from the beginning. No, I love that, like, we're going to just add in things as the song goes on.

Yeah, I love that. Weird. All right, so we're going to move on to your fourth one here. What's that one? So this is Wise Blood, spelled W-E-Y-E-S-Bud. The song's called A Lot's Gonna Change, and let's listen to it a bit, and then I'll talk about it. Perfect. Some Stranger Thing vibes.

Okay, I know I was just a lot. talking about that Angel Also an album and I was like that one blew all the other ones out of the water last year but you know what that wise blood album too like I don't know man they're pretty close to like that was also like an amazing album it's called Titanic Rising it's also just a great album and man wiseblood just you know that voice again that voice I just love the like the soulful voice the strings the reverb I mean you can you can kind of tell what I'm into here with oh for sure yeah yeah you know it's like what kind of music is that? Because I'm not really hip to this genre at all. But after hearing those last two back-to-back, I would say they're probably somewhere around the same place. Yeah. I mean, it's very...

Just that indie pop rock kind of area, yeah. And, you know, actually, I saw Wise Blood in concert last year, and I randomly ran into Natalie Mering, the lead singer, on the street. And it was super weird. Because I was at off-Broadway, and I was walking in, and, like, just, you know, I don't know if you've ever been to show off-Broadway, but, like, you're just walking on the sidewalk to go into the building, and, like, there's, like, a little side door. And I guess it's, like, how you get to the green room or something for the artist. Yeah.

So I'm just walking, and she comes out of a door and, like, is in front of me. And I'm just, like, standing there staring at her. Because I was just instantly like, oh, you're the person that just made that, like, amazing album that I'm, like, in love with right now. And I was, like, I'm not going to say anything. to because it's before you're about to go on stage and I was just like I don't know I feel like artists don't want to be talked to before they go on you know I mean I'm sure we can do a whole episode about how artists want to be talked to or not talk to um before and after a show uh I know from my experience it's usually don't talk to me after a show oh really after a show yeah I mean

I mean maybe it's not the most friendly I do what I go out in the audience I say hi to people um but it always feels like weird to be like somebody be like hey you know you sounded great tonight and you're like inside you're like man but I missed that I missed that fourth bar on on that song that we did yeah um but yeah no so like if you were to take one thing from from those kind of songs and like it's anything you can apply to your own playing or music advice in general from those kinds of things what would what would you say you've learned from listening to the wise blood and angel olson definitely how to use dynamics and songwriting I mean, it's definitely something that I use in my own songwriting.

You know, like a lot of the songs I'm working on right now, it's like they start off, you know, quiet, kind of slow, and I like to build them up. You know, it's just a formula that just always works, you know? It is a formula that has seemed to be a part of a lot of these songs so far. So, yeah, it might be something to that. But I'm going to move on here to the next one here, the fifth in our list. I had to throw in a little bit of where I came from, my hip-hop roots.

This is half of it by Conway the Machine. I've been so stressed out lately. You don't even know the half of it. And get the dread on the line said I need smoke. Bring me a half of it. We might have to. We could this one out. Hold on.

Hold on. I've been so stressed out lately. You don't even know the half of it. My homie just finished 10 years of his prison sentence. That ain't even half of it. I just whipped up a minute. another brick before it even dry so half of it the plug love me he ain't got it front me i got all this money not half of it got my

back up i'm in this rag bucket from the hood i never had nothing bought that bitch some new she already had a fatty in a flat stomach just as easy as a free throw some of peas all right all right bold move bold move yeah bold move i know this is a music advice podcast and um for for for all ages but uh i picked that because i think that because i think I think, you know, to me, that is a quintessential anthem song. Like, that is the song that you put on when you are in the car and you are stressed out. Yeah. And you just need to get it out, you know?

Yeah. So I think there's something from that song also that everybody can take into their things. And that is the element of just coming in strong. I mean, we've been talking about builds and builds and builds. But just off the top of that, you just, oh, I know exactly what this song is about. Oh, yeah. And nobody can take out the half-fit. So, yeah, you're going to have to get that on the extended pod.

You'll hear it after hours. Yes, you'll hear it after dark version. We'll put that up there for you. But to definitely check out Conway just signed with Eminem. So, you know, he's the next heat coming into the hip-hop world. And Sam, I've always wanted to ask you this. How do you, as a hip-hop fan, how do you integrate elements of that style of music in your sax playing? Well, I actually play in a hip-hop band.

Oh, plug it. Yeah. We go by Lop Rat. You can find us on Spotify or wherever you stream your music. But I think for us, what we were really focused on is integrating the languages of jazz and hip-prud. pop together in a way that was authentic to where we're from. So we also got some elements of blues and stuff in there. But if you go into the hip hop catalog, you'll find, since it's so sample base,

since they draw so heavily on soul and jazz and funk and all that, there's saxophone all over it. You know, I mean, it's just, it's within the genre already just on base of the things they're sampling. So I look at it as playing live samples. You know, you want to really stick to, you know, you want to really stick to, you. one language, one line, one kind of thing that comes back oftentimes. And build off of that and slight variation.

But yeah, it's all about just keeping the groove altogether. So that's what I think about when I'm thinking about sax playing in a hip-hop band. Sweet. Let's move on to the next one here. You know what? I'm not going to say who this is, what the name of the tune is. I'm going to let the audience, they'll probably figure it out pretty quick. Yeah.

Y'all know what that is. It's texture. My Herbie Handbook right there, y'all. I mean, even when Peter and Adam aren't here, we can still sneak in some Herbie on this podcast. Look, there is no reason why Herbie shouldn't make everybody's seven favorite track list. I mean...

You should always be listening to something. Because, I mean, it's so expansive, the catalog, right? No, yeah, I think Herbie's very much somebody like Miles Davis. It's just like... Or the Beatles. If you can't find something to like in their catalog, you just not... You haven't listened to all of it.

No. You haven't listened to it now. of it. Yeah, and that tune right there, that's kind of like the, that's like the bridge between like, like, R&B era Herbie and then like his rocket era, isn't it? You know, like it just ties those two parts of his career together. Man, and I just couldn't help hear how much like of that sound influenced video game music. Absolutely.

Like I was playing through sonic levels and, you know, Animal Crossing in my head listening into that. And so that's an amazing thing. All right. So we're going to move on here to an open studio artist. My last pick here on our list of favorite. He just came out, or he's coming out with a new album very shortly. I don't know if he'll be out by the time this is out.

Wait, my bad. He just came out with it. Yes, my bad. I was going to say it's a sneak preview, but... No, no, no, no, it's not. Okay, so this is off of his just released. album Reincarnation. I haven't been able to check out the whole one,

but I've been listening to the singles off of it, and this one, come and dance with me. It just is an absolute beautiful song. Yeah. So I just love that track because there's no drums. There's no bass. It's just worn.

And a piano player and duo, and it just has your attention throughout the whole thing. I mean, the melody is so beautiful. The solos on it are incredible. It has that beautiful build. built into it. And yeah, I've been listening to that pretty nonstop since I found it. Yeah, definitely.

And, you know, it's like, it's peaceful, but it's like a driving peaceful. Yeah, yeah, it's a driving peaceful. And it's got this element of the gospel. Like, it's just got like this melody where you're just like, mm, like so much grace notes that Warren throws in there. Yeah. It's very tasteful, in my opinion. I've been obsessed. So shout out to Warren Wolf, open studio artists,

and you can definitely find our playlist on Spotify, the Andrew Kitchen and Sam Katz seven favorite albums. Tunes. Tunes. Tracks. Tracks we're listening to right now. Who knows. They know what it's called. They already clicked the episode.

Yeah, yeah. Find that in the description link below. And yeah, we have one more? Do we have one more? We have a bonus coming up. But first, Sam, you're our marketing man here at Open Studio. Why don't you hit us up with some sweet promos that we might have going on around the Open Studio neighborhood these days?

Yeah, so probably the best thing that you can do at Open Studio, the thing that is going to benefit you're playing the most, and this is if you're a piano player, is to go out and get yourself the piano access pass. It's going to give you access to every single one of our piano courses, so it doesn't matter if you're just starting out or you're well on your way. The piano access pass will be perfect for you because you'll be able to try everything.

But Sam, what about the future Open Studio piano courses that we haven't even envisioned yet? Well, if there's piano on them, then they'll be included in the piano access pass. So it's going to be every course, every lesson piano focused. And, you know, if you're playing other instruments and want to, you know, try it out, you might consider the all-axis pass as well,

but piano access pass is going to be the easiest. deepest way for our piano playing audience to find the best lessons out there. Yeah. No, yeah, definitely. Yeah. All right. Hook yourself up with that piano access pass. All right.

Well, we're coming to the end here. I'd say we've done pretty darn well. Yeah, I don't think we need Peter and Adam anymore. No, no. 2020s are going to be all about Andrew and Sam. Right, because we're both great piano players. Absolutely. Well, none of us play piano players.

piano. No. But you know, this is the new you'll hear it, so you know, you're going to hear some great music advice no matter what's coming at you. Yeah. And let's go out on our bonus here. Earlier you mentioned a little rap group by the name of

De La Sol. So, track, I've been listening to a lot, I've been listening to their excellent album Three Feet High and Rising. We're going to play I Know featuring some sweet, sweet, sweet, steely dance, and dance. I got the video up right there.

I got the video up right now, it's great. And until tomorrow, you'll hear it. You'll hear it. This are one man sport and hoons better for this than plug one. Don't have to worry about me squashing other deals because they've already been squished. Freeze a frame of our moves the same, which we can continue right behind the bush. You'll stay with me.