You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The State Of (Jazz) Vocals 2024

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

In this special Grammy recap episode, Adam and Peter take a closer look at the cream of the crop in vocal jazz from this year's Grammy Awards. Join us on this captivating journey as we delve deep into the world of jazz vocals and spotlight the finest artists honored at the Grammys. Don't miss out on this exploration of top-tier talent in the realm of vocal jazz!↓ Links from the pod ↓Open Studio Pro | WAITLISTFred Hersch's Art Of The DuoOur Spotify playlist featuring all the artists (plus a few others) heard today.Key & Peele - Scat Duel (ft. Retta)Have 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

Hey, Peter. Hey. I know you love vocalists like Sarah Vaughan. Yes. Diane Reeves. Cecile. Samara. Absolutely.

What do you know about these guys? And now for the Scat style. I love these guys. The bone daddy runs. And Teddy 12 tones. Teddy 12 tones. This is, this is killing. Was this nominated for a Grammy ever?

Like 14 years ago, maybe. Oh, my God. I'm out of Peter, you transcribed this. Are they not a key? They kind of are you. I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It Podcast.

Jazz Explain. Jazz Vocal Edition. Brought to you by Open Studio Jazz. Go to Open StudioJazz.com for... Oh. He's doing vocal preps. He's doing vocal preps. Vocal preps, guys.

And head voice and chest voice. Vocal edition. Let me finish the sentence. Lesson needs. It's not vocal warm-up edition. It's vocal warm-up edition. It's vocal jazz edition. Thank God, because a vocal warm-up edition, no one wants to hear that.

Key and Peele are killing singers. Killing entertainers. They are swinging on. I mean, it's a very funny. We'll link to this video. I'm sure a lot of you have seen it, but it's one of the wittiest and well-executed jazz parodies. Is it a jazz parody? Yeah, they've got some great jazz parodies. But it's kind of sounds, I mean, like, I love the bass is just like, just like on auto

vamp kind of, you know, turn around for like 10 minutes as they just, it's very funny. You know, it's funny. I find a lot of little profane, a lot of comedians to be naturally musical. Yes. And a lot of musicians are naturally funny. Exactly. It's a very, there's a very close relationship there somehow. Also, Peter, I just want to point out for our YouTube video, uh, watchers, look at my mug today. You'll hear it. There was a line of blueprint. So I had to, I had to, I had drink the coffee that Caleb made, which is delicious Caleb, by the way. You made that sound a little funky that. It's got our theme for our audio listeners. It's a coffee mug that has

our theme music printed on it. We used to sell these, I think. Did we sell them? We should have to bring that back because they limited to it. Not many. We didn't sell many. We could. But then we have these bespoke items here. So, yeah, I was just going to say, open studio, jazz.com, it might have got lost in your vocal, I'm up. but tell us just real quick what's happened at Open Studio Pro.

I'm always intrigued, and I know folks are interested, and we're going to be opening up for enrollment soon, I think. I believe we are going to be opening up for enrollment soon, which we haven't done this year. No, this would be the first time this year. So we're very excited because we're always tweaking things. We're always adding classes. We're adding in the coming weeks a new instructor,

the amazing Kali Odortary. Oh, nice. A pianist, young pianist in New York City is going to be joining us here at Open Studio Pro to teach a class. We're staffing up, as they say. We're staffing up, all about rhythm and comping. We're adding a new class by John O'Leary. We're doing all kinds of new things over at Open Studio Pro.

And it's just an amazing community. We're also, and Caleb and I are going to be working on this, I think, this week. We're going to be working on gamifying Open Studio Pro a little bit. Maybe adding some new badge levels to it. You know what? Game on, sir. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just to keep everybody a little bit driven. It's a lot of, I mean, it's almost an entirely a live experience. And like I like to say, we put this.

the live in class over at Open Studio. That doesn't make sense. Okay, anyway. Think about it. Well, today, Peter, we are talking about... Go to OpenSitoJazz.com slash pro, by the way, if you're interested, and sign up for the waitlist. Absolutely. Yeah. Today we're talking about the state of jazz vocals in 20204.

Yes. It's the State of the Union address. Well, kind of. It's more about the Grammys. The Grammys were this past weekend for us. Full disclosure, I didn't see them. You didn't watch Grammys? Did you watch them?

I watched it a little bit with my daughter. My daughter is 13 years old, and it's a very fun experience to watch the Grammys. But you watch probably the real, and I don't want to say the real, like the evening. Yeah, for Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodriguez. She loves the... I'm thinking you and your daughter were not tuning in at 1230 in the afternoon for the webcast. My daughter has great taste in music. And actually, she was super into Stevie's performance. She wanted to see Billy. She stayed up late to see Billy Joel. They debut a new song. No, I'm talking about when they have the jazz and classical.

Oh, she didn't care about that. But I tell you what is... It's hard to find that stuff. What was interesting is watching it with a 13-year-old because this is their music. Like, you know, this is their pop music that the music that will be with them for the rest of their life. Yeah. And so it's like their Oreo Speedwagon or Super Tramp. Is that who it was for you? Yeah.

And Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. Totally. Yeah, yeah. Journey. Yeah, absolutely. For me, it was like Nirvana and all that stuff that was big then and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. But this is for her, this is that. Like this is.

And so to watch her with that, she was so excited for all of the big categories. And it was really fun. Like, I was not, I have no connection to be. Midnights or Olivia. I have a small connection to Olivia Rodpiggo because I accidentally made a video that sounded just like her song. Shout out vampire.

But I don't really know anything about all that. But Siza. Siza I love, actually. St. Louis connection there. Was there a little controversy with, is that, that's not jazz vocals. We can't talk about it. But I think there was a little,

because she lost something to Taylor Swift. Yeah. Well, and Jay-Z made a statement about Beyonce never winning album of the year, which I couldn't actually believe. I didn't know that. But I was like, How is that possible?

She's made so many good albums. But, you know, like I said, I don't really follow pop music that closely. So I didn't really know most of this stuff. But watching it with Nico, with my daughter, was like watching it with, it's like going to a sports game with someone who's a big fan of the team. And like you can vicariously sort of root for. And learn a lot probably as it goes. It was great, man. It was great.

Well, so we're talking about jazz vocals. So we're going to kind of focus in on that category. And we have some of this stuff pulled up. Like I say, we didn't. But you didn't see the jazz. telecasts. I mean, of the... I just walked in sort of at like 9.30, so I didn't see most of it, actually.

Okay, you were seven hours past. Yeah, probably. But let's start with the winner for the jazz vocal album. Well, you know what I was just thinking? Can we just scoot through the other stuff real quick? Because there was a few things. We don't have to go deep into it. We just want to shout out a couple people.

Billy Childs. Oh, yeah. One for... When did he win for, actually? I believe just jazz vocal... Sorry, jazz composition. Jazz composition, as one would. Friend of Open Studio.

So, like, that's an awesome thing. Jeremy Siskin, our very own Jeremy Sisk. Yeah, Jeremy Sisk. Did some arrangements for the Julia Bullock classical. Julia Bullock, amazing vocalist. Yeah, from St. Louis as well. Opera singer from St. Louis.

She actually was, premiered that Terrence Blanchard opera here. Right. Fire Shut up of My Bones here with our... And Terrence won as well for the opera. That's right, yeah. So a lot of cool stuff there. Alex Brown, great jazz pianist

from Baltimore. And his brother was the, our engineer here. for Generation S. Alex won with Amani Woods. Amani Woods. Amani wins and the Harlem Quartet for something that I have not heard, but I'm going to be checking out passion for Bach and Coltrane. Because I have a passion for Bach and Coltrane.

Or as we used to say in New Orleans back in the early in the late 80s, I have a passion for fashion. Oh, that's good. That was a great little jingle. Shout out Brian Blade. Shout out Brian Blade. I want to do, I also want to shout out a friend of the show, Brian Carter for winning a Grammy for some like at Hot.

Best Musical Theater album. Brian's an amazing drummer and vocalists and did the orchestration along with Charlie Rosen for something like it hot. And Michelle and DeGi Ocello for the inaugural alternative, which we spoke about a little bit last year, last year a few months ago, alternative jazz category, which is new.

It's brand new and she won the first ever for Omnichord Real Book, which is a fantastic album. You hit me to that album. It's great, man. It's great. Maybe we'll talk if there's a little crossover from that to jazz vocal. It might be. We're going to do a little crossover because there's something here that we're going to talk about for jazz vocals that weren't in the jazz vocal category. Let's start with the jazz vocal album. I have a question for you before we jump in.

The state of jazz vocals, does this nomination, are we going to go through all the nominees? Yeah, I think so. Does this and the winner, does this represent accurately? Is this an existential question? The state of jazz vocals in 2024. It represents the state of jazz vocals in America with the recording academy, how they view jazz vocals and how musicians who were in that recording academy, that voting block, how they nominate and

vote for the winner. Yes, I do think it represents a certain segment. It doesn't represent everything, obviously. I need to send a quick text to my attorney's Deboisei and Associates. Oh, Debozio and De Boisier. Down in Norlands, they might be having a sazerac at lunch right about now. Did you see someone commented when we first mentioned Debossia and Devosia? That is very, someone commented, this is very much a real law firm in Norwoods.

We took it. We were together when we saw that, their giant billboards. Yeah, no, I'm contacting them now because I am a member of the Recat Recording Academy, so, but I did not vote on these things, just to say this. Okay. I'm not, you know.

All right, let's check out Bern. So this is Nicole singing, obviously, Chris McBride on the bass. Galad on guitar. David Cook on piano, Billy Killson on the drums. This is Byrne? Burn.

I didn't know that I could burn so slow. Deceptivees and constant flow of vertigo. All world's colliding in this tableau. How sincere the depth of war. What you say, I'll stay, if only for today. Nice. I didn't know that youth could seem so wise, starting overtaken by surprise,

all that's discovered within your eyes, and the spark that lit the fire inside, I'll try, until I choose to run or say goodbye. Yeah. accents linger trembling fingers that certain look upon your face and oh the nervous

fear of new beginnings you can tell it's a fun record yeah just killing and you know you know it was great you could hear during that the introduction

it was just McBride and Nicole her breath like the way that that's left and that's very natural and intentional and it's like work so well Sometimes, like a lot of times it tingles out.

Which is, I was feeling it's weird and not human. Yeah, yeah. This is a very, like, it just has that organic flow. She's an amazing singer. Really excited to see where she goes. Yeah, what a voice. A little bit of a surprise, just looking at the rest of the vocal jazz. Nominees.

Well, I'm going to be honest here, man. I'm surprised she pulled this off. There should have been, like, everyone could have won this. Everybody's amazing. That's Cecile Solvant record is. We're going to listen to a little bit. I think she won for an earlier one. Sometimes, does that work against you?

Like, if you just won. She's won a couple times, I believe. But let's listen to Cecil. And how does Samara Joy not, oh, she's on the best dance? She didn't have an album out. This is a single. But let's listen to, yeah, we're getting there. We're getting there, man.

I'm checked up. Let's check out Cecil McClor and Salvant. This is from her album, Meluzeen, and I know I'm probably. Melzine. Meluzeen. Melusine. This is a concept album. And dude, dude.

She's a concept. Listen to the whole thing is... Just let your ears feast on it for a second. A song, I was a while I was a pain no, no could be more

that the sky, now. The lune sudden vins exhibed, I'd like to hear your boosh, baby when I'd like to me when I'd like,

a cry of me there'd be more. There'd a man on a rock and a sea o. You know? I don't know what she's saying, but I'm in. You don't speak French, my friend?

I'm in fully. Yeah. Oh. He's been new, with, with caches, truch, sout chute,

machin, I'm rouged just to basin. He's been a t'nue, I'm not, Pernuille

of piano, yeah. Voile the face of my demine, but I think Selea Cecee Cecele Maclein'

I mean, it's just like year after year, man, there's some great music that she's always putting out, always at an incredibly high level, artistically, vocally. It's just the

vibe is getting better and better. I remember saying years ago when we first were checking her out here on this podcast, I can't wait to see what happens with her as she develops. And it's like, she's not disappointed. And her voice. And I love the way that this album is recorded. I know. Like the placement of it. It's definitely got like kind of a throwback to a not close mic. There's no, like big reaver. The piano is super separated. The piano is super playful. The piano is in is not close mic. Shout out Sullivan, Fortner. And Aaron Deals on here as well. I'm just looking. Kyle Poole, Obed Calvert, fantastic lineup. Weedy Brahma, East St. Louis' own percussion on there.

It's just a great record. I remember listening to this kind of from beginning to end. Like, it's such a, he's got, there's French, and I don't know which is, but I know she goes in some of that Haitian Creole with some of the vocals and stuff. It's beautiful. We've talked about Weedy before, the percussionist on this album. Weedy's the man.

And he is slowly turned in, not even slowly. He's quickly turned into one of the most influential percussionists in the world. Yeah, he's incredible. Let's check out now open studio artist Fred Hirsch with Esperanza Spalding. This is been not for me.

This is from their live album, Alive, at the Village. What a great title. It's really got this Fred Hirsch thing together, doesn't it? Well, it's like, as soon as you hear that, you're like, it's the Vanguard, it's Fred, or one of his eight great students.

That's right. Like, could be Sullivan playing Fred stuff. Jason Moran. I mean, speaking of play for it. They're writing songs of love, but not for me. Where's the one? We don't know.

We don't know. With love to live the way. There's more clouds of grave than any Russian play would guarantee. I was a fool to fall and get that way. Yeah, yeah. Hi, ho, alas and also like a day. Somehow I can't dismiss the memory. is worth a complete listen.

Yeah. It is masterful. They just nailed that. If you like duo albums, and this is the way it sounds in the Vanguard. It's exactly right. You know, like... It feels like you're sitting.

Yes. About five rows back. Oh, me, oh, my. What a sad case I seem to be. That's my fault. Letting love to lead the way I should know that now there's skies of granny. But they say that a Russian plays to boast of many. Gray skies all right.

And then some words I don't really understand because it's like old English. Hi-ho, alas, and lack a day. That's how I feel confused about the whole situation. Esperanza, too, is one of those artists. A little like Cecil and that and Fred in that they're consistently putting out such good music year after year.

It seems like Esperanza always doing something interesting and changing it up. And, you know, like, remember that big project she did live, like, I think it was right around the pandemic just before that, where she did like these huge day long live streams. Yeah. Recording in the studio. And then to turn around and do a duo album with Fred Hirsch at the vanguard and have it be this like spontaneous and beautiful and natural. It's just like. It's so interesting to hear away from the bass just singing.

I love, I play with her a couple times where she was singing and playing the bass. And I think one time where she was just singing in, like, it's not. not a one's better ones, it's just different. Yeah. And it kind of speaks to her multifaceted talents and just the breath. Her attention and understanding, especially on a song like this, like a standard

standard great American song, but like her understanding, nuanced understanding of lyricism and like delivering the lyrics is so well done and also just so well positioned with Fred Hirsch because he's such a lyric. I mean, is there a more lyrical pianist out here?

You know, No, no. It was rhetorical questions. But you know what I'm saying? I wanted to give it a fair shot in my mind. And that could be a challenge as a great lyrical singer, the great lyrical piano. Like the way they put this together,

it's just so well done and just so fun, so natural, so serious and fun and deep. And, like, bespoke. I know I've been using that term a lot, but this is a bespoke duo performance at a very bespoke location, the village vanguard. You know what Fred is, I think, amazing at is recognizing chemistry with the people that he works with.

Yes. And they obviously have a good chemistry. I'm not sure. I know, wait, I think he posted once about this that they had played together a few years ago, but not, I don't know if very often. I'll try to find that post. But I trust Fred's ability to find people that he's vibing with because he's so honest about that and real about that. And so you just know it's going to be a good, a good experience no matter who he's collaborating with. I mean, when he did his second course for us, which was all about playing duo actually. Right, just friends, the art of the duo. Just friends. We'll link to that. One of the best courses we have on the platform. Check that out. He brought in to the studio, Gabrielle Strivelli, great vocalist, who he never really worked with, but he had a feeling that they would have good chemistry. And they did have great chemistry.

And so it's awesome. If you like this recording, check out, and you're an open studio member. Check out that open studio course, The Art of the Duo, where you can see Fred talk about how he approaches playing duo with vocalists and bassists and horn players. And let's move on to our next. nominee, this is the amazing Gretchen Parlato. Gretchen also been making amazing music for many years now. And this is a super influential with the younger generation as well. Absolutely. And this is actually another duo record with Leonel Lueke, and this is featuring Mark Giuliana. Ever heard of a great drummer? Yeah. This is called... Fan of Adams, I hear. Student of

Adams. I don't, well, and he's, I think he's... Sorry, did I put you on the spot? I don't know if he's either of those things, but I know that he's mentioned that he's like some of our open studio videos. So that's like super flattering that he would even be watching any of our stuff. But he's an incredible musician, obviously. And this is from Gresham Parlato

and Leonel Lueke's Lean In album. This is Lean In. What I love about this album is both Gretchen and Leonel known for their sort of vocalizations, not just with lyrics, but as instruments. you know, adding to the arrangement.

Yeah. And so you get a lot of that in this record. Yeah, I mean, some of these tracks, like this one, Esperanza, like, really could have got into the best jazz performance area. Well, some of them did. Fred and Esperanza were in the best jazz performance. Oh, they were. They did get nominated for that as well, yeah.

Oh, okay. So, see, they're thinking, oh, that's right. Yeah. For that track. Okay. For that track, yeah. Done. It's like you're in.

I'm like a step behind. Are you sure you didn't vote in the Grammys? You said you didn't vote. No, I didn't. I didn't. That's Lean In from Gretchen Parlato and Lina Leake. Next up is... Sorry, did you have more to add him?

No, no. I was just making note, though, that Samara Joy and John Battiste are both on the best jazz performance list. Of course, great jazz vocalists could have very much... I mean, I know that there's like this demarcation between Best Vocal Jazz album versus a performance. Yeah.

We have a couple of those that are coming down here. Samara Joy won Best Jazz Performance. Right. Even though she didn't have an album out. She had a single type. which we're going to get to. But Peter, we have one more nominee I want to get to really quickly.

Patty Austin, I fall in love to easily. Why are you rushing? It never entered my mind medley. This is from an album called For Ella 2 with Gordon Goodwin's Big Fat with a pH band. Fat, phat. Pahat band. Yeah.

You might cut that out. Leave it, leave it. Leave it. Leave it. Leave it. I fall in love Too terribly hard For love to ever

I never forget I know Always a reminder She's legend Legend right there What a more Incredible stuff That's for Ella to

Part 2 And you know So Patty Austin I'm apologize I'm gonna leave some people out But I'm thinking Patty Austin Diane Reeves

D.D Bridgewater of course. Of course, I worked with Dyn Rues extensively for many years, but I've also worked with D.D. and with Patty Austin

before. And there's such, like they come from another era. And it's not a good or bad, I mean, of just like professionalism. A voice. Yeah.

And they've all done Elephist Gerald and or Sarah Vaughn tributes and in different ways that are tricky because you're talking about some legends that,

you know, some of which they heard directly. I mean, Diane Reeves tells the story about, like, getting to sub for Elephus Gerald as one of her early gigs as a teenager. Yeah. So the way they pull that off, and Patty Austin, I've seen her do this, I mean, going on like 25 years ago. Yeah. Elifis Gerald tributes and connect. Like, the way they connect with that generation of Masters, Billy Holiday as well.

And Dede's great at this, Diane. I mean, it's just an incredible thing. And like to think now that, and like I say, I'm sorry, I'm leaving out some others. But those three really come to mind kind of from that general generation of just being amazing voices. They're all a little bit different age, but they're just masters. And they're celebrated a lot as vocals, but as jazz musicians. As jazz, like, leaders of this music, they need to be celebrated even more. Well, speaking of leaders of the music, here's a young leader of the music, the winner of the jazz performance, Grammy.

Samara Joy, didn't have an album this year, so it wasn't in the jazz vocal album, but won for jazz performance. For her performance of tight, ever heard of it. Ever played a million times. This kind of triggers me back to those days when I was trying not to mess it up with Betty. I don't know where my man is. Where can he be? When he's asking questions all over town. Where is he?

Where can he be? Hoping it can be found. I'm on the loose. And I don't dig it. Take my advice. If you find a man, girl, hold on. Don't let him, if you want him. Don't let him.

Hold on. Hold on. Tim tight. Oh, no. Where my man. even make an album still winning grammy. Man, she's so, she's got that Betty vibe, that spirit. I'll just say

for the band, just as an F-R-R-I, they sound great. Yeah. But Betty would not have tolerated them not being on top of those beats enough. It's got to be, I remember, it's got to be tight. It's got to be, you got to be on top of the, on top of the, no, but I think that Samara is such a, you know, I mean, I've talked to her a little bit about this and I've heard her

talk about it as well. Like, her connection with, in interviews, can seem very casual when it comes to jazz in a way that sometimes we're like, wait, you haven't been studying this since you're four years old and transcribe, this, like she kind of came what would seem like a little bit late to the music.

But all that doesn't matter. Like when you hear her singing something like this, she's obviously student. This is hard. This kind of, especially this very kind of person. This is the same thing I'm talking about with Diane Reeves and Patty Austin and D.D. Bridgewater and all these masters of that generation,

of any generation, like to come in and to take somebody's song. like tight, that Betty, and be able to connect on just a visceral swing level. I love it. Okay, we've got one more, and this is kind of an honorable mention

because while she's not nominated in any of the jazz categories, Icelandic vocal sensation, Levee, one for best traditional pop vocal album. Okay, see, that's the right category. Isn't that our whole thing when we did that episode?

But it's interesting, though, because she's, you know, traditional pop vocal album. And what do we call it when we were talking about it? Well, Adam Neely was calling it mid-century pop. Mid-century pop. This is a little bit mussy or way of saying the same thing, right? But here she is singing Misty.

You know, Samara Joy's album had Misty on it, and it's just these, these, it's a very, there's some crossover here. But I feel like this is the right category for her. Who else was in, uh, do you have the other nominees for this category? What are we talking about? It was like, like, uh, like Ricky Lee Jones, you know, Bruce Springsteen, but it is some sort of like, sort of like singing standards. Yeah, so it's like some kind of, you know, we used to call these pop standards. kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think this makes

sense for her, actually. And it's a huge album, man. This is another one. My 13-year-old... My 13-year-old knows this album, you know. And also, she was playing cello with Billy Joel at the Grammys. So that's kind of cool. That's very cool. We're going to go out here on Misty. This is Leve. Again, congratulations to all of the nominees.

And I feel like the state of jazz vocals is strong, Pete. It is very strong. Yeah. hopeless as and I feel like I'm clinging to a cloud I can't understand just hope