You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - This Week in Jazz - #75

Episode Date: December 7, 2018

On today's You'll Hear It episode, grab a cup-o-joe and listen in as Peter and Adam give you the 411 on this week's Jazz news. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What's up, Adam? I'm just reading through my news app and it's not looking good, buddy. Really? Yeah. And I haven't even got to the jazz section yet. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to The You'll Hear It Podcast. Daily Jazz Advice, coming at you.

Coming at you here live from OpenS, well, we're not live. We're recorded. We're live. We're live. I'm an actual human. I'm alive. We're at Open Studio. Yeah.

And it's Friday. So we know what that means. Yeah. Well, it could mean a lot of things. But this week, it means. It means we've already started drinking. No, no. This week in jazz.

This week in jazz. That's right. Our monthly feature. Well, because, you know, jazz is so great and so important that it evolves slowly. We can't be boxed into one week. No, no. This is when we look at what jazz news. Well, first, we look at all the jazz news.

We're very thorough here. But then we filter out news about jazz hands, which you'd be surprised how much news there is about this phenomenon. There's more news about jazz hands, the Bob Fosse, uh, dance, move than there is about jazz. And then we filter out like, there's even news about like all that jazz speaking of. We definitely, you definitely have to filter out the word Utah.

You're just going to get all NBA news. But one thing that caught my eye and I actually saw some, was watching some YouTube videos other night, I think I texted you, we watched a little bit, is this phenomenon. I mean, we really is truly a phenomenon of Jeff Goldblum and he has a new record out with, it's with a group that I'd never heard of,

but I must be out of the loop. I feel like I'm the, co-host of an award-winning popular jazz podcast, so I should be more in the loop, but it's called, you know the name of the group that he recorded with? It's like the, uh, the, the, the, the Mayfly, uh, Snellinger's, uh, jazz, Mildred Snitser Orchestra. What's the difference? Orchestra, yeah. And, I mean, they're actually, I, awkward pause. Are they? No, I mean, they can play. I don't know. Man, so I'll, I'll say this. I like Jeff Goldblum. I love Jeff Goldblum. He's a great actor. I might be Jeff Goldblumed out. He's been really, uh, uh, he's been really, uh, uh,

He's been making the rounds in pop culture. And he's been doing it with a little wink and a nudge. Like, hey, I know that everybody thinks I'm super cool. And I'm a little bit like. He's as surprised as all of us all right. And then he's also, it also happens to be into jazz, which is what I'm into. And I'm like, Jeff. I mean, that picture tells it all right there, right?

Yeah. So have you watched the whole video? Yes. Well, by holding me in the entire. Hell no. We're talking about cantalope Island, right? Yeah. No, no, I did watch it.

And we got into a nice little discussion with our friend Ethan Iverson last week, because Ethan noted great jazz pianist and founding member of Bad Plus and great writer. Yeah. Great writer for the New Yorker on jazz. Yeah. That there was some incorrect notes that Jeff Goldblum played. That's right. And I kind of had to stay out of the discussion for a minute because then I was about to jump in and be like, yeah, that's why this guy shouldn't be playing.

But I realized that it's an era that I used to make myself on that tune. Well, but it's in the later versions of Kendall of violin, Herbie actually plays the C-flat. Oh, does he? So he makes the mistake himself. Yeah. As was pointed out to Ethan on. Twitter. Oh, that's right, right.

We were alerted from our regular, one of our regular listeners actually got in a bit of a discussion with Ethan about it. Very, very interesting. Twitter is some place that I do not like to hang out for those kind of reasons. You know, I like to hang out a little bit under the radar and I don't know. But I think it's an interesting discussion. So what we're talking about here is on the video, they play Herbie Hancock's Canalope Island. Yeah.

That one. That one. On the second time, you know, that's F minor. Then it goes to D flat 7, like a dominant sound. And then they play the Mildred Snitzer. Yeah, Mildred Snitzer. They play that C flat there over D flat 7. And Ethan Iverson pointed out that that is incorrect,

that originally Herbie played a C natural over the D flat 7, creating some tension. And he's right. I think in the original version, that is how it happens. But Herbie later changed it in some subsequent later versions. and other folks such as Wayne Shorter, ever heard of him? Yeah. And Chris Potter ever heard of him?

Yeah. They've played it with the C-flat. So then it got into this whole thing. Here's the thing, man. I actually kind of agree with Ethan Iverson that I like the C-natural over the D-flat-7 better. Right. And that's the way I play it. It's OG style.

Well, and I think it's like it's more, it's just rar. It just feels real. It's like we're not cookie-cuttering because of the changes. I mean, it's the type of thing, though. I have the feeling if you asked Herbie. which I'm sure people have he'd be like oh yeah no wait which one

oh yeah no that's cool either way you know almost like he definitely wouldn't be dogmatic about it yeah but this article about that I mean I saw a couple of interviews with Jeff Goldblum and he was on some British show I remember seeing but this one I'm referencing in particular is on a site

called the big issue behind the scenes of Jeff Goldblum's debut jazz record the Capitol Studio sessions but you know reading it and they talk about Caneloap Island, not the controversy. This is pre-controversy C-flat versus C-natural. But the thing about Jeff Goldblum, and a bunch of people have been asking me, and I know you

two about what do you think of this, you know, and trying to put us in jazz police mode. And my thing is like, you know, he's a pretty good jazz piano player. Is he Herbie Cancock? Obviously not. Is Herbie, you know, as good as an actor as Jeff Goldblum? No. Although Herbie has been in a few movies. So it's like, I don't know.

don't hear a lot of actors saying Herbie Hancock or another jazz pianist shouldn't do little parts of acting or whatever. And so I think that this exclusive thing of saying like, oh, Jeff Goldblum should not be making a record. And then a lot of people are mad now because he had the number one record on the billboard charts or whatever. And look, he's a celebrity. So and, but the thing is like the records is is not, I mean, look, for us, we're not

going to put it as one of our seven greatest jazz piano records. We're not going to listen to it. No, of course not. No, but I mean watching him play. I mean, he's hilarious. The whole thing is like listening to it, maybe not, but watch some of the video, the YouTube videos. His interaction with the audience is hilarious.

It's really funny. And just like, he's kind of a, he gets real jazzy, which is funny because I think he's joking. I hope he's joking about it. He looks a little tongue in cheek for sure. But I mean, he can play. He can play. The thing about it is, is it's actually good for jazz.

And there have always been folks. They've, like, Johnny Carson played the drums. You know what I mean? It's like, there have always been celebrities who are into different kinds of music, Joe Pesci made a whole blues album. Right. That's actually pretty hilarious and not bad. Yeah.

I mean, to me in some ways, and I mean, I might get a little trouble for saying this, but like Jeff Goldblum, to me, it's more interesting what he's doing on this jazz record than a lot of the like Lala soundtrack and whiplash. It's in that vein, but it's better than that for sure. It kind of is. Yeah. I mean, if you're talking about Hollywood jazz. But overall, man, you know, with the way the music is presented,

most of the time. Yeah. This is actually, I think, a win for jazz. Yeah. For the masses. You know what I mean?

Yeah. If someone as hip as Jeff Goldblum is into it and is pushing it out there, it is what it is. It's better than a stick in the eye. That's what my dad would say. That's right, right. All right.

All right. For my next jazz news, Cavaliers trade Kyle Corver to, oh, wait, sorry. Did they trade him? Yeah. Uh-huh. Well, let's just talk about one more thing because I don't know if you know

we're on limited time from YouTube. We're being limited. We have four minutes left today. We don't usually have a time limit on the you'll hear podcast, but today we do. Come on, Google. Yeah, come on. That is the Thelonious, this is from NPR news, and of course we heard about this last week, but the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is now the...

Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. Yeah. So this is really big news. This is huge news. And I hear here, I think this is great. Celebrate the Living. I know this was actually brought out by Monk's estate. Yes.

And so there's really no slight to Thelonious Monk. And I'm glad you explain. Because for a minute it was not like you're saying, here, here, down with Monk, up with Hancock. Not at all. But I think, you know, if all parties involved want, one of this change, Herbie is the perfect choice for this. Yes. He's been so involved in this too.

From the beginning. Yeah. So it's like, this makes total sense. And this will be a legacy for him that I'm so happy for. Yeah. And I think that the next, you know, kind of the cornerstone of the Institute from at the beginning was the Thelonis Monk International Jazz Competition, which started on piano, and then it went to other instruments.

and it has always kind of rotated back to piano. I believe it's like 30 years, 29, 30 years ago. So that's coming back to piano this year coming up, I believe, and it's going to be kind of the first name with Herbie Hancock, which is so great because he's been judging. I mean, I did that competition years ago, and, like, Herbie was one of the judges. How much more nervous would you be if it was the Herbie Hancock Award you were trying to win?

I know. I didn't get all the information. I was like, is the only is going to be here for this? I mean, at least he's kind of, you know, he's been passed away for a while, but with Herbie, it's like, I know. He's right there, and it's his name on the award. But, I mean, it's such a great thing when a cultural and kind of educational institution builds like this,

and it's been kind of a slow burn, which is great. And they've done so much with the institute, you know, when it was in New Orleans, at, I believe it was at Loyola, when it was, you know, I think it started out in D.C. And then it was at USC for years. And a lot of great players came up in that program. And Herbie's been, like, very involved in the trenches, teaching. playing him, Terrence Blanchard, a bunch of different folks,

but Herbie's kind of been the one constant with that organization, adjudicating, teaching, spokesmen, doing the world jazz day, what is it, the Jazz Day events, you know, that's always been along with, and the stuff at the White House, that's always been presented by,

not anymore, of course, it's banned from the White House. Yeah, but before that, you know, nothing's wrong. The jazz programs in the White House, Herbie was almost always there, and that was put together by the Philones Monk Institute. So big congratulations, big shout out, a lot of love for Herbie Hancock and the new Herbie Hancock Jazz Institute.

Love it. Perfect timing. And yeah, if you want to give us your best piece of jazz news, either basketball or the music or Hollywood, that's right. You can go to YouTube.com. Just search for, you'll hear it in the YouTube search bar. Yeah. This time has got you a little flustered today.

I don't perform well under pressure, man. I need a little time to think about it. I like this. How I'm going to promote? Wait, you're the one who said, let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. I'm out of here, man. We don't have any time left anyway.

All right, you'll hear it.