You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - What Are We Practicing?

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

It's another live edition of You'll Hear It where Peter and Adam take your questions - today, they list their Mount Rushmore of jazz, as well the things they're shedding right now.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Monday's Open Studio Live Events:1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)4:00 PM - You'll Hear It Live on YouTube6:00 PM - Bass Guided Practice Session with Bob DeBoo on YouTubeFor the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkLet 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.

us. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to The You'll Hear a podcast. Daily Music Advice coming at you. Coming at you. We're live on YouTube. Come join us on YouTube every Monday at 4 p.m. Eastern time. Peter and I, this is Peter Martin. We are live on the YouTube's answering your question and we already have some good questions today. So come over and answer or ask your questions to be answered. You know, we do speak pipes. You can email us. We won't even talk about that right now because we want you over on YouTube on Mondays. Right. And like, Like we say in St. Louis, don't be scurred. Don't be scurred.

Can you translate that for the good folks? That means don't be frightened. Come on over. Right. And we have a good time. Again, I'll say this again. We've done various Q&As on various platforms. Yes.

But not all of them. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. We've done some. Why did you get so loud about Twitter? I have feelings about Twitter. I don't want to talk about it here. But YouTube, the questions have been the best. So, yeah, come over.

Well, the questions have been the best and the worst and the worst. Just like people. People are the best and people are the worst. We've established that. Yeah, you know what we need to be getting. I just got two folks asked me over the weekend why we don't stream on Twitch. And what I told them was because we are not 11 year old gamers. That's why we don't.

We might be gamers, but no, I'm not. Are you a gamer? I enjoy video games to the point where I have to cancel them in my house. Wow. Because I enjoy them a little too much. I am a gamer at heart, but I can't do it because I am a jazz pianist with a mortgage. So I have to practice the piano, and gaming tends to get right in the way of that. Everything gets in the way of your marriage, of your mortgage.

That's the thing with gaming. I mean, it's a beautiful art for him. Otherwise, people wouldn't spend... Wait, did you say it's a beautiful art form? It is a beautiful art for them. People wouldn't spend 50 hours a week doing it if it wasn't... It's a sport, right? It's a little addicting for me.

I think I'm switching the cameras too often, but you know what? That's the story. You be you. But Twitch, you know, doesn't, we have a video editor here in house, Sir Ian. Yes. That does some editing for Twitch, right? He does, yeah. He's a big, I mean, he's a big gamer.

He's a gamer. He's a gamer. He's a gamer since he was a young lad. And Twitch is, you know, well, actually, you know, at our house now, we're big board gamers. That's what's, well, we've always done it, but we just have more time. We do it, too. Yeah, parcheasy, some sorry. Yeah.

I'm down, man. We're like banana. banana grams and, you know, the older kid games and Catan, Legends of Catan. Are you doing Legends of Catan? Well, I don't actually understand how to play, but everybody else in my house. Are you serious? Well, how do you have any time to do anything? Yeah, isn't that one of those games?

It takes like weeks to play? No, no, no. It's one night. It's a long night, though. It's a long night. Oh, my God. Yeah. We've actually banned Monopoly because it's too long. Monopoly is the original too long board game.

I mean, come on. You go in thinking like, oh, this is going to be great. I'm going to get Park Place. And then by hour three, you're just like, screw all this. Yeah. All right. We have some really good questions here. So let's see here.

Let's see here. Let's see here. Well, look, I'm going to jump on while you're looking because I think this one was asked last week and we may have glossed over it. And I didn't want folks to think that we were running scurred from it. And that is who's on both of your Mount Rushmore's of jazz. Oh, that's a great question. Those who have impacted the tradition and who have transcended their playing forward. I think we have answered this before, but not on this particular platform.

And it's always changing. I mean, not always changing. but certainly that third and fourth spot can rotate in and out. Now is it four? Is that what we're talking about? Well, Mount Rushmore is four for now. Okay. You know, unless they.

Oh, God. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah. We've got to talk about the session before the end of this, too. We want to talk about that later. Yeah. So, okay, Mount Rushmore four, I'm going to say, and obviously this is with no preparation,

but with a certain amount of confidence, 60%, no, maybe more. Louis Armstrong. Yep. John Coltrane. and this is in no particular order. Herbie Hancock and Billy Holiday. Those are your Mount Rushmore? Yeah.

Wait, wait, why are you acting surprised and a little bit confrontational, man? Well, I just, hold on, I need to unpack this. I told you, I was without any forethought. Those are all great, right? So these are your four. Louis Armstrong. Yeah.

John Coltrane. Yes. Herbie. Yeah. And Billy Hancock. Herbie Hancock. I want to be clear. Sorry, yeah.

There's other men. Not Henry Men. No. Great too, but not on them. Herbie Hancock and Billy Holiday. Yes. Okay. I'm just taking it in.

I'm just... Okay. What's up? No, it's a great. That's a great call. Is it great? Is it great? Or is it...

I'm going to go... You have to say Lewis Armstrong. And not like you have to and that like the Jazz Police will get you if you don't. They will. Although they will. The Lincoln Center Jazz Police will 100%. But also, I mean, come on.

There would be no jazz without this guy, right? So he's the George Washington. He's got to be up there. I know you're going to say. And then after that, I think it's a free-for-all. I'm going to make me do this. But you know what? The premise of the question I may have misunderstood

because I don't actually know who's on Mount Rushmore. Are those our greatest presidents? There could be some dispute. It's Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Yeah, so I mean. So a lot of people would put. They're a little problematic, some of them. I think historians have rated FDR actually above

Theodore, but when it was planned, FDR, I think, was still president, so I couldn't put them up there. Yeah. All right. But go ahead. Sorry. Sorry. But, I mean, that's debatable.

And really, Mount Rushmore is kind of jive. Exactly. It's a little racist. It's very racist. Yeah. Hopefully this question was not like, do we want, who are our four most racist jazz music? It's beautiful. And America's the best and all that.

Okay. Let's, you know. But go ahead. So you've got Lewis Armstrong. Lewis Armstrong. I can't do, I can't not do. Oh. Oh, we got him. We stumped him, everybody.

Adam is stumped. He's, he's, he's quivering over there. Who's Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sarabon. That's pretty good. I mean, that's, that's a great, that's a great list. Every bit as valid as mine. It's so tough though, because, I know. Oh, Duke Ellington.

John Coltrane is my favorite jazz musician of all time. So how is he not up there for me? Not good enough for you. As far as like, if I think about historical, I mean, I could swap Coltrane for miles, but also I wanted to just be counterbalanced to you. Right. You already had Coltrane?

I know, man. So, yeah, I think we, you were trying, but how did we, neither one of us mentioned Duke Allington? How was Duke Allenton? I don't know. I don't know. You're talking about Jazz Lincoln Center. I think Winton is texting me right now with a lot of curse words.

I know, I know. I know. This is what I'm saying, but, I mean, just for me, who do I listen to, who have I been influenced more? Who do I love more? Who do I listen to more? Duke Ellington or Miles, I mean, it's miles all the way.

But you know what I'm thinking? That's just my personal taste. Yeah, now that I'm thinking like, okay, Mount Rushmore, we're talking about the founding fathers, which is a horrible thing, actually, if you think about it. But the founding fathers and mothers of this music, you can't go wrong with any of those seven that we named, but not having Duke Ellington on there is a little weird,

just so foundational to the music. See, here's where you get into trouble, see. Oh, I don't you look at that. Sarvonne Bursella, right? Yeah, there's no verses. There's no verses here. You know what? I would be fine with Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holiday, and Duke Ellington.

I know, yeah. That's the thing is you could do 17 Mount Rushmore as jazz. There's too many. Jelly Role Morton. You know, we're at a point where everybody's lionized. I don't know. Let's move on. All right, move on.

So what are you guys currently practicing and how are you approaching it? This is a great question. So for me, I am practicing a couple of things. I have a concert coming up. I have a trio concert coming up streaming. And I have a duo, a two piano concert coming up with Peter. in a couple weeks. You know what we're doing that?

Did they tell you that? Did you agree to that? I did. I'm excited about it. But I got a, I'm honestly, Nick, I'm shedding my ass off to just get my chops up as much as possible for that because I don't want to be embarrassed by this guy. You know what I'm saying? You're not going to be embarrassed.

I'm not going to be embarrassed. But I also, I want to be able to hang with you. And it's been a while since I've actually like played a longer gig. You've been doing it the whole time. But I haven't. I played a couple of 442s gigs in the last couple weeks, the first ones in six months. in six months for my first actual performances. And they were all good.

I'm playing guitar. I'm singing. I'm playing some accordion. Hold on now. You're not just singing. You're singing like every song I noticed. Yeah, I did see that. I've taken over. A lot of singing. A lot of singing. Sounding great. Well, thank you. But then I get to the piano and I'm like, oh. Oh, yeah. I play piano here. I got to spend some time on that. I mean, I've been doing it. I feel right now is we're doing all this. Oh, we're doing a podcast too, aren't we?

I mean, I'm on the daily got a practice session, but I need to, I need to like up my game my intensity is what I have to do right you know you want to grab next question you want me to no Twitch TorTog says yeah got you so okay here's a good one

asked this last week already are you guys planning a course slash GPS series with the main emphasis on left hand like comping voicing systematic rhythm changing rhythm training for advanced players would be great that's pro creation sound

that's uh I think that's is that Christian Appropriation sound? I think so. Anyway, specifically left hand. Specifically left hand. So we have a left hand voicing course

that's really for beginners. And I don't think we have anything planned, but it's good to know that you would like that. So if anybody else would like a sort of pro-style advanced rhythm, comping, left-hand voicings that are really advanced, let us know. If we get a few votes, we'll consider it for sure.

Yeah, and I think this is what's going to be really exciting about. We can't even talk about it now, can we? Well, let's talk about it in code word. OSP? What? What? What?

Stupid says what? No, so we have a new program coming up that we're super excited about that's going to be kind of piano focus and community focus. But our hope is that really the plan on it, a big part of it is that these types of issues we're going to be able to address ongoing, not only in specific courses and mini course, but really do some some quick ongoing deep dives into these kinds of issues now i've done those for that i have quite a bit on jazz piano method but it's a but over the years like left-handed i'm always talking about what to do with your left-handed even a few specific lessons on that um but to be able to address these kinds of things so i'm super excited about that and i i'm apologized for just dangling it out there but it's really coming soon but the idea would be

as you say a couple people are interested in something that we're We can deliver that. Jeff Kieser, Elio Alves, the different artists that are part of the Open Studio family here, can deliver this information and ideas for us all to be able to benefit from, you know, as we're during this time of sort of deep practice. Yeah, it's going to be great. Stay tuned for that. We've been teasing it now for a couple of weeks, but it's coming together, man.

It is. It's going to be exciting. William Bennett, this is a very good question, William Bennett, because this is going to be very relevant for, I think, a lot of pianists in the next couple of months. Yeah. Hey, Peter and Adam, I recently played a gig where the AC was so cold I could barely move my fingers. Yeah. Do you have any advice for playing gigs amidst uncomfortable temperatures?

Thanks, William. So as we're still in a pandemic, a lot of gigs are outside. A lot of events are outside because it's safe. By the way, wear a mask and stay socially distance everybody, as we are. We have plexig glass between us here. And so playing gigs outside is going to be a reality, I think. more so than even was before for a lot of places in the country

where it just makes sense to stay socially distanced and that can be a challenging especially in the cold and the heat is one thing I used to have when I was playing a lot of festivals and stuff

I had a I don't know if you ever got on in this thing but you know you don't have to really bring a lot of gear yeah a piano there I would have a little in my car a little fan a little personal fan

just in case a little PF little PF but in the cold yeah this gets tricky so actually I did a The last cold gig I did was like maybe January or February in Charleston. No, not Charleston.

Somewhere South Carolina. What's that island there? Oh. Not Hilton Head. No, Georgia. I don't know. It doesn't matter. Somewhere that's not normally that cold, although it certainly was in January.

They've got this great festival outdoors. And it was cold. And they had heat. It was outdoors, though. You're like, we're on the beach. And they had heaters blowing, which doesn't help a lot if you're outdoors, unless you're like right by it. But I've done, you know, a couple.

I remember doing the Rockefeller Center tree lighting. You're actually, they had a little bandstand set up on the ice at Rockefeller Center. And it was cold because it's like December. It's New York. It's crazy. And, you know, I had gloves on right until I had a Fenner Rhodes piano. And it's like right before we played and then you take the gloves off and then you play Joshua Redmond is years ago.

Was it like one song or a whole set? No, one song. Okay. But you know, it's TV. So you're waiting. You're waiting. Now play. Now get out.

What if it was a 50-minute set or an hour-long set? What do you do? Yeah, no, you can't. I don't think it's, yeah, I don't know. But this was freezing. It was below freezing. Those are those, yeah, that's too cold. You shouldn't be out there.

Maybe there's some kind of glove situation. But I wonder, are we talking, too, about, like, people doing gigs indoors now where they're trying to keep the circulation going? Well, he just said the AC was super cold. So to me, that question meant, like, my hands were cold. What do you do? So blowing in your hands. Yeah. Works.

You can actually buy little hand warmers. Yeah. You know, that you should shake. You shake, keep them there. You keep them in your jacket pockets, right? You keep them in there and just keep your everything. I think just also, I mean, it's like we always think about the hands and your extremities, but I'm thinking, I think I did something.

Yeah, sometime it was outdoors and we had to still be kind of like wearing a suit. And, you know, kind of like you couldn't have a big coat on, but like some thermal underwear, everything had. It's amazing like your hands then you think you got to keep gloves on. You can't do that while you're playing. But if you keep everything else warm, that's, that's. That's one way to do it. But it is challenging.

It is really challenging.