You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The Trio Setting - #6

Episode Date: January 7, 2019

Today on You'll Hear It, Peter and Adam answer a listener question about how playing in a trio is different from any other ensemble. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Peter. Yes. How much do you let the bass player solo in your trio? If his name is Carlos Enrique's Nunn. I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Daily Jazz Advice, coming at you.

Coming at you from the second week of 2019? I don't know. I should stop just like... I think it's the first week still. No, it's the second week. No, it's the first. It's Monday, buddy. Oh, it's Monday, all right?

Oh, welcome to week number two of our third season. Kid is lost in the clouds over here. I am, I am. So we have a speak pipe. We have a voicemail from Patrick. Speepipe. And let's check it out. Okay.

Hey, Peter and Adam. This is Patrick from Cincinnati. I dropped a few questions earlier this year a while ago by now, actually. But I thought I would drop another one in the old speak pipe before 2018 ends. I've been digging on a ton of the Scott LaFaro era Galevins trio as of late. And it's got me thinking about how the trio is a unique ensemble and how it's different than playing with really any other kind of group for a pianist or guitarist, which I am. So I just wanted to hear how you guys approach trio playing in terms of interaction, composition, arranging, improv, all that stuff in the, trio setting.

But yeah, thanks in advance. Thank you, Patrick. Yeah, thanks, Patrick. Thanks for dropping that questions. I think this might be one of our younger listeners because he's dropping questions. Dropping questions all day long. And he noted that it was quite a while ago when he left other questions. And that's how long we've been on the air now, buddy.

We're coming up on our year anniversary. I know. What is one year? Is it paper or silver? I can't remember. I think it's for this podcast, it's, I think it's for this podcast. It's iced coffee. That's right, right.

So, yeah, well, yeah, that's a great question. So Patrick is a guitarist, and, yeah, why don't we start there? Is there a difference between trio playing with, I guess we're talking guitar-based drums versus piano-based drums? There probably is. There probably is, but not huge. I think actually trio playing, as long as it's a chordal instrument, there's definitely similarities. But even if it's like tenor-based, you know, tenor-saxophone-based drums, there's still some similarities that happen. I mean, I love a trio.

You know, we both have our own trios that we play with regularly, and it's just one of the more fun ensembles you can be a part of. It is. And I do think that, yeah, the instrumentation, certainly the classic piano tree, classic guitar trios. You know, I think it's more about the number of players, because I'm even thinking about like in classical music, chamber music, I've had a little bit of opportunity years ago to play in some trios.

And also quartets, even when I was doing violin, but the trio is kind of a unique thing. Duos, of course, wonderful, solos. But the trio, maybe it is kind of a magical, number of three, right? I think especially with like with the piano or the guitar, there's so much that we can do as the chordal instruments. I mean, it really becomes, I think it's one of the, the more fun ensembles that a chordal instrument could play in because we get to do everything we can

do. Yeah. From like, you know, solo playing to, you know, for intros and altros and interludes and stuff like that to, you know, voicing chords one way and melodies the other to accompanying, you of the bass solo, the drum solo, stuff like that. Yeah. I mean, it really is, you get to do everything. Right. So it's really a fun, fun thing.

Yeah, and I think, you know, talking about the interaction, I know he mentioned that, when in a trio, you have this great thing where you kind of have three duos almost from an interactive standpoint. That's right. You know, the different combinations of two. So with a piano bass and drums, you're always looking at the bass drum kind of rhythm section, foundation and the way that they interact, play together, swing, improv, and all those different things. That relationship is always existing. And then, but then the piano and bass has its

very interesting relationship and interaction, you know, in terms of harmonic foundation and many things. And then, of course, the piano and the drums. Yeah. So it's a really cool kind of, it's almost like the ideal number of people maybe to be having simultaneous kind of conversations without going crazy. Well, it's so interesting that you brought that up. I've never thought about it like that, but it really is, and that's such a cool way to think about it, like three different duos, because I'm thinking, like, for the piano and the bass, you know, because there's no other melodic soloists that can be a part of that, they can really be flexible with, you know, substitutions or any kind of alterations to the changes or the melody and be very quick with it.

More so than you can be with, you know, if you're backing a saxophone player, then all three of those people have to be in sync at the same time, but it's, you can be really, really light on your feet with piano and bass like that. And then with the piano and the drums, you know, in the TRIA situation, the bass usually gets more opportunity to be a soloist than they do in almost every other situation. Right. And so the piano and the drums get

to be an accompanist on their own more than they do. You know, if you're in a quintet, most of the accompanying is going to be done with piano bass and drums or guitar bass and drums. But because the bass is the second, really the secondary or sometimes the lead soloist, the piano and the drums have to be more in tuned to be able to accompany with just that configuration.

Yep, yep. Really, really interesting stuff to think about. Yeah, absolutely. And then, of course, the classic, the bass on the drums, no matter what we're doing, no matter what the configuration, they have to be locked into each other. Right, right, right. Yeah, very cool.

So from another thing that I think Patrick mentioned was about arranging for the trio, and a few days ago, we delved a little bit into Amajumal, that great version, the great arrangement on, no greater love. Yeah. But there's a lot of elements in that that existed a lot of Amad Jamal's arrangements. And that's just kind of

one style, but it's a very influential style, of course, on a whole generation, several generations now of pianists, on trio playing and like, what's your concept in general on arranging for a tree? I know you do a lot of arranging, and we're always thinking about arranging for bigger ensembles, but you've been doing a lot of

trio playing lately. Yeah, I mean, the first concept that I think of, and we've, I know you do this as well is for the piano for arranging for the trio, I really think of it as three different voices I can use, you know, my low voice, my mid voice, and my treble voice.

And I have those options available to me to arrange with the bass and the drums in any configuration. So, for example, the classic is to have the chords in the left hand and the melody or the solo in the right hand and arrange something for that left hand

and the bass to do together. Whether that's a unison line, or some kind of harmony or some kind of hits. You know, we were listening to that Amad Jamal and a lot of those, dun, dun, dun, dun. But then there's also things you can do where you maybe have the bass up with, you know, your right hand or your treble voice,

and your left hand is providing some other kind of line or accompaniment. A little counter melody. That's the advantage we have as pianists, maybe more so than guitarist, although they can do this a little bit if the voicing is right. If you're writing the arrangement.

Or if you're Stanley Jordan. If you're Stanley Jordan, you can do it. Charlie Hunter, you got it all about yourself. So those of you on YouTube could see what Adam was just doing with his hands, but if you're listening to this podcast, I'll just describe it a little bit because he was doing piano hands, not to be confused with jazz hands. Very different. Very different.

Yeah. He's laying it out. Yeah, basically the three zones of the piano, which we've talked about before, which is like the low zone is your left hand and really the bottom part of your left hand. The middle zone is like the middle of both of your hands. Yeah. It can be their own voice combined. And then the high zone is the right hand.

Now, that's like the most elaborate you're going to get. Usually it's going to be one hand or the other, and a lot of times it's just going to be, you're just piano part playing both hands together. What about the blue zone? How does that, you know, the Mediterranean diet blue zone? Does that fit into those three zones? Yeah, no, it's good for a healthier, longer life.

Right. What about the keto zone? Are you in keto zone when you're in those three-tosone? Bro. I'm always in keto zone. No, but one thing I will say that is really crucial to piano trio arranging, and I think any trio arranging, is dynamics.

The dynamics of a piano trio, I think, really determine, you know, how good the arrangement is. And you have all this huge headroom low and high. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good stuff. Well, thank you, Patrick, for the question. Thank you for the speakpipe.

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