You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - What Makes This Album Great: Empyrean Isles

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

In this episode, the yhi team breaks into the discography of Herbie Hancock. Let's delve into Empyrean Isles and really break down what elements make it so iconic. Unlock your FREE Open Studio trial to become a better player today.📸 Follow us on Instagram:GALA 1. Subscribe NOW (mandatory) https://link.youllhearit.com/subscribe2. Like this video (semi-mandatory)3. Leave us a comment that you've Adhered to the Agreement (optional, but appreciated)↓ Links from the pod ↓Empyrean IslesHave 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. Yes, sir. You prefer a watermelon or a kennel open. Listen carefully before you answer. I prefer an emprian berry or an imperian berry. There you go. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin.

And you're listening to the You'll hear it podcast. Music. Explored. Explored here at OpenStudio. Go to Open Studio. Go to start your free trial. Peter. They get a free trial.

Did you know that? Yeah. Go check out. By day, who are you talking about? Everybody. Anybody. Everybody. Come get a free trial to Open Studio,

see what all the fuss is about. Fun fact. Yeah. In St. Louis, we don't use the word. Well, we use the word everybody, but we say... Everybody. Everybody. Yeah, exactly.

Also, when we're talking about, like, our friend Jeremy, we call him... Jeremy. There you go. Yeah. All right, let's move on. Please. Let's please before I get in trouble for calling people the wrong name. Dude, coming up soon, you'll hear it live in New York City.

In New York City. We want to invite everybody, but we can't. Because it's sold out. It's sold out. Well, it may be. We may have, we may be releasing some waitlist tickets. So do check at you'll hear.com. Yeah.

Is that okay? That's great. You look scared there. I'm not scared. I was just going to say go to you'll hearat.com to get on the wait list. Peter, today we're continuing our series. What makes this album great? And today is what you are lovingly referring to as impreaniles.

Well, only for the last 30 years. It is pronounced imperial. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, how do we pronounce it? Imperian. Imperial. Hold on, I have it pulled up right here because I just wanted to be sure.

Imperian. That's such an official, imperial. I didn't like saying like it, because it sounds like imperial. Imperian. Imperian. Imperian Isles. Okay. Not Imperial Isles.

That seems like something the UK would plant like 7,000 miles on another planet. Now this is Imperian Isles. This is a 1964 studio album by the great Herbie Hancock. ever heard of him one of my favorites this has some bangers on it it's only four tracks on the original recording

there's a couple of a couple of different takes of one finger snap in a lilquivale on the longer side but still short short selections

but it is an incredible record so let's get right into it we'll start with so we have our rating system here we have our 10 categories we have playing and look we have a new bespoke

we do we have our category We have our categories playing. Be entered into the record, the official record. Vibe, compositions, sound, sequence, cover art, title, lore, snobometer, and is it better than Kind of Blue? Question. Yeah.

Which is your favorite of these 10 criteria on our 100 point rating scale, 10 for each of the 10 criteria? I think Snobometer is my favorite. That's quite popular. Is it better than Kind of Blue is great. It's hilarious. I assume at some point we're going to be reviewing Kind of Blue, and that's going to be an interesting question.

That's right. The machines will turn on themselves. The AI will really get us. So let's get right to it here. So this album is, again, under Herbie Hancock's name is a leader. It has Freddie Hubbard on the trumpet, Ron Carter on the base, open studio artist, Ron Carter on the base. And Tony Williams. Crazy.

On the drums. Anthony Williams, as it says on the... Anthony Williams. Would you call this an all-star? One of the most all-star... Yeah. I mean, at the time, they were all very young. So, you know, they were in their early 20s, all of them.

Yeah. And so, and I think Anthony Williams, Tony Williams was even a teenager. I think he must have been. Because Herbie was like 23, 24. Yeah. This came out in 64. That's right. Is that right?

Yeah. And so they're just kids making some incredible music. So our first criteria is playing. And Peter, I'm going to start here. My example of how good I think the playing can be here is with the first track, one finger snap. Freddie Hubbard is good as a get. Yeah. I just want to stop here for a couple of reasons, right?

Because this is about playing. This is about how great everybody's playing in improvisation. And I just wanted to make a note here that that melody that you just heard, heard Freddie Hubbard play. That was in the real book for several years. Yes. As the melody of the tune. That is not the melody of the tune, apparently. It's probably still in it, isn't it? It might be. That was just the first chorus of Freddie Hubbard's solo. So the tune starts with just this. Just that figure, right? There you go. And then, and then Freddy's just going to blow a chorus over the change. Yeah, exactly. But it's so melodic. Yeah, when you're improvised, that could be a

meme, right? When you're improvising is so good, the transcribe everything is part of the melody. And then, of course, this is the introduction of this group's rhythm section on record. Isn't the way Ron and Tony are playing together? It's unbelievable. The clarity of Rock Harder is. The note selection is amazing, but the clarity of it. Herbizcom here, too. Splashing around like crazy.

That's easy. I give it a 10. Well, I, oh, is you giving it away already, buddy? Come on, man. Yeah, we give them away individually as we go. Oh, we do. Okay. Yeah.

So the thing about this, though, is. We've been doing this one time, exactly once. Peter's already forgotten how it works. Well, no, but the only thing about it is we've listened to like 30 seconds of it. Yeah, that's true. That's 10 out of 10. That's a 10 out of a 10. I've listened to this a million hours of this.

This is in a way that's the best playing on the record. I'm not saying it goes down. No. But would that warrant perhaps a 9? Because... No, this is a 10 out of 10 for playing. Just for one finger snap alone. But actually, the quality of this, like...

All throughout is incredible. It's great. Our second category is V. Even the alternate takes, the outtakes are really good to play. Agreed, yeah. They were just... But that's not part of our examination today. Our second criteria is vibe.

And for that, I thought we could go with this vibe. How's that for a vibe? That set a vibe. And then with the remixes in the 90s by the English DJ set the vibe again. I mean, it's such a vibe. Come on. And I mean, look, Tony Williams, that drum pattern. It's like, it's the funky boogaloo thing with a little bit of the nuance thing.

But that modern jazz ride. Yeah, the vibe. Tony Williams and Ron are all vibes. Yeah. And I think it's the vivious battery that never exists. That's there. So for this, I'm also going 10 out of 10. And I know that's two records in a row.

Our first few records have been playing in vibe 10 out of 10. But there's no denying that last week's record of Thelonious alone in San Francisco and this are both, for me, 10 out of 10s, vibe was. Controversial, you're going 9. I'm going 9, which is an A still. I might remind you. But only because there isn't the huge...

I don't know. I mean, it's amazing. But if everything's a 10, what, you know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say that is the thing that pushes this album over the edge. I mean, it's got an amazing vibe,

obviously. Even a 7 or an 8 would be great, I think, the way we're going to look at this. But to me, the playing is like, is so I mean even amongst great players it hits another level on this and just in terms of like

clarity and precision and but feeling and all that kind of stuff and the vibe great great great but maybe not just the vivious record ever I don't know you're just going on

compositions I thought we'd take a look at the second track Olliloquy Valley because I think this is a great tune that's not part of the melody either that's just a pretty big ball again so in a lot

yeah So again, these are four tracks on this record. They're all Herbie Hancock original compositions. One finger snap, Oliquie Valley, Canaloupe Island, and the Egg. I'm giving this an eight for compositions. Even though three of these, you could consider jazz standards, the first three tracks,

the egg is not Herbie's strongest. It's kind of out, which is great, but it just doesn't... It's an interesting place to end the record. It is an interesting place to end the record, but I think it's the weakest competition on here. And it's long. And even like one finger snap,

Oluquivalli, Canelope Island, they're solid, simple compositions, but I don't think they're even, and Herbie's pantheon of compositions,

I think there's better simple compositions than all three of these. I'm still think it's great, but it's an eight for me. So I'm going nine, because, I mean, first of all,

it's just not a lot of compositions, which doesn't necessarily take away, but I agree that they're not all, like, to be a 10, it's got to be all, like his top four compositions,

which I wouldn't say this is. But I would say that at least two of them are among the top. That's why I'm going a little higher maybe than you. I do think that something can be lost in the simplicity of like one finger or not. Because basically it's a quick line but a really interesting set of chord changes. Kind of in the way that like Flamenco sketches is just a set of chord change. I played it on every single trio gig I've played in the last eight years probably. I love it so much.

And Canterlop Island is probably one of the most important. And I think great compositions is easy to, and when we get to, number nine, our snobameter. We'll see what happens down there. But I mean, because it's such a hit and it's kind of considered like a throw weight to some serious jazz cats, but I think it's very strong.

There's a simplicity on here, Aliqui Valley as well, and then the egg is so different. Anyway, I think the compositions are super strong. Not perfect, but to me, still in the A category. Our next criteria is sound. Let's stick with the egg for this. It's a tough one.

So this is Rudy Van Gelder. Yeah. Piano, obviously, which is notorious for... And this is, we should note, this, what we're listening to here is a Rudy Van Gelder remaster from 99, which has kind of become the standard. Yeah. You know, which is always interesting for an engineer to come back 20, 3rd, what, 30 something years later, you know, with a remaster. But so, but there's some really great things to how this sound. The drums sound amazing.

Yeah. As all of Rudy Van Gelder is recording. The drums and bass are like on point piano or pianist record is a little thin for me It's a little not in the forefront on the mix Yeah So that's interesting Because I don't know if we've talked about this a lot

That's exactly, I gave it an 8 And that's how I feel I love the drum sound on this record And on a lot of vangelo Sometimes the drums, but you never know if it's the instrument Or the day No, if we go back to this And Freddie, like it doesn't

There's not a loud Right symbol I know But I think it's like the step on it is so good. The spacing of the drums, I think is genius. You know, the pan.

And the piano sounds like it's in a little can. Yeah, the piano is like a little left of center. Yeah, and I love the bass on it. Like, I love three out of the four instruments. And I think that they're probably the best. I mean, there's many other records where they're similar with these same musicians and probably same instruments, same engineer, same studio.

But the piano to me is, like, if I was just doing the sound of the piano, I'd give it a six. Yeah. Or maybe even a five. I'm just not a huge fan. I mean, this is an engineering thing. There's trade-offs, right? And so Van Gelder always traded off the piano sound and how big of a footprint it took up in the mix with the drums.

Right. But I don't think he saw it as or has seen it as a trade-off. I saw it as a trade-off. But that's another discussion. But I think overall, I mean, the record sounds amazing. Like when you hit three out of four, it's kind of like, you know, and the mix is amazing. Same room, same vibe. The reverb sounds incredible.

I think this is like the sound of it is why the vibe is a 10 for me. Yeah. Because the compositions and the playing are so good, but also the sound, the combination of it. But because of that piano sound, I got to fix it off. Next up, Peter, is sequence. So the sequence of the album. So we've got one figure snap to kick it off, Ailiqui Valley, Canalope Island, and then the egg.

I'm giving the sequence a 10 because these four tracks, I think this is the perfect sequence for this. I can't imagine it another way. Well, okay, I'll agree. If these are the four tracks, I'd say 10. I'm going with seven on this, actually. What the what? Because I feel like the transition from Aliqui Valley to Canaloupe Island,

aren't they both in the same key and have some like melodic and harmonic content? Let's hear the end of the lilipation. I think it fades. Yeah, I mean, it ends there, but most of it is. And then, like there's some similarities that are great. And the fade. crazy, I don't know why, on this, sometimes the fades work great. To me, it's just, it's not perfect.

I think it's perfect. I think it's, I don't know where you would put, would you do candlelo violin second? The egg has got to be last. This would also be turning the record over is the way it was originally intended. Right. So there's that too. But, well, that's what I'm saying. You're saying it's because with these four tunes, I think part of the sequences is composition selections. There's like a certain diversity between those tunes that I'd like to be able to hear. But yeah, correctly. I mean, if we have these four songs,

this is the perfect order. I mean, the record starts, the sequence. And look, the beginning and the end of a record, I think is the most important part of the sequence. You know what? Can I make an adjustment? I'm going to go to eight. There you go.

I think it's not perfect, but it's certainly not bad, but it just has a few minor flaws to me. I put it as a 10 for the sequence, Peter, put it as Nate. Next up, Peter, is the cover art. Yeah. So you can Google this cover art for Imperian Isles.

It is a classic blue note. Oh, yeah, yeah. So we're putting it up here on screen for YouTube. This is definitely an old vintage copy. Is this out of your DJ, your case there? Yeah, straight out of the producer. Producer Caleb's own crate. Great.

It was stolen recently and then returned. Is that gentleman been convicted yet? Or gentle lady? We can't talk about that, can we? Oh, you drop the charges. Okay. He's dropping the charges like it's hot. Drop it like it's hot.

Peter, so this is classic blue note, right? Where they have the color, I forget what they call that, the color saturation on the entire thing and it's blue. I'm putting it at a seven. I love the Blue Note album covers, but I think this is so... I don't know. I just don't...

Maybe I just don't get this one. It looks like water with some little plants in front of it, but... Yeah, I think it's a vibe, but it's not as strong... It's all right. That's interesting. I put seven as well. Oh, interesting. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's nothing offensive about it.

I love the font, which is the Blue Note font, I believe. I love the logo. I don't mind that Herbie's not there or the musicians, although that's always fun. But I'm like, if you're not going to have the cats on there, you've got to bring the fire. And to me, this didn't quite bring the fire, although it fits the album.

And I mean, I've listened to this on vinyl lot and held the album and loved it. There's nothing like... But how much of that is like that the album has such great playing, such a vibe, then you associate it with that. It's not a bad album cover, but it's also not a great album cover. I love... One thing I do like about it,

and maybe would actually... that's probably keeping it from being a five or six to me, is that you're having, like, the way that the spacing on the font is really cool with her, like the sideman, the leader, but just having everybody's name there, but the size of that. I love having everybody's name on it. Yeah, there's a balance to the, like, that to me is the best part of the album. But yeah, the image is not the strongest, I think.

Next up is the title, Imperian Isles. Emprian Isles. Peter says Emprian Isles. Well, I did until today. I'm also going seven on the title. It's a good title, but I don't think, obviously, it's hard to remember because it's a, it's a, um, Imperian means heavenly or of the sky, apparently, as a definition. And it's a word that I don't really use a lot, uh, because I'm not a very smart person. But, uh, and Herbie is, so he probably uses it all the time.

But, uh, I think it's good. It's evocative, for sure. It's evocative just Imperian Isles when you say it, you know, as poetry. it's evocative, Imperian Isles. But, yeah, seven. I think good, not great. Okay, I'm going nine. And part of that is because not only am I feeling confident because I know how to say it, Imperian Isles, but one thing that I...

Just learned how to say it. I just learned how to say it. That's what raised it up. I was going to go Abe, and I'm like, no, I'm feeling more confident. I remember when I first heard, I love that it is mysterious. Yeah. And makes you want to kind of learn about something and maybe has like, what to us is more of an esoteric connection with the music,

but I'm sure to Herbie was probably more, and I'm just remember, I think on the backliner notes it talks about, there's some story or something that kind of connects with it. So that could be part of the fun with it. But I think that it sounds cool. It sounds, you know, even when I was calling Emprian Isles,

like it makes you want to go in and discover the music without saying, cool, hip, jazz, man. You know, like we're just describing what it is. Freddy's killing. And then the tunes, like the names of the, tunes, I think it kind of, I remember being like, Canalope Island, is that part of the

Imperial Isles? I know. I know. Coast of Greece. Well, that's another reason I kind of put it, I took it down to not, because it's the aisles and it is Canalope Island, and I was like, but one figure snap, I'm in a locally valley on the Imperial Isle. It just, it had a cool kind of mystical vibe to it. You know, maybe we should change this title

categories to titles, because you could also do song titles as part of the whole overall vibe. Oh, but we muddle the waters, don't we? Okay, next up is lore. Yeah. And so, you wouldn't I don't think this has some more, but it actually has a somewhat interesting story in that this was released and recorded before this rhythm section of Herbie, Ron, and Tony released a studio album with Miles Davis. Their first studio album, ESP, would come out after this.

So this is like the preview of the Miles Davis quintet, quintet rhythm section. That's before Sorcerer, ESP? I believe so. Okay, the first studio album with that. It says six months after recording Imperion Isles, Herbie, Ron, and Tony would record ESP with Miles Davis, the first of six studio albums by Davis' second grade. So it's before they even recorded it. Yeah. So this must have been recorded in 63 then. It says we recorded June 64. Imperial Isles. Yeah. Okay. And released the same year. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah,

released in November. It's a quick turnaround time. But I think that's great lore. I'm giving a nine for the lore because... You say quick turnaround time on that? Yep. That's really nice. So it must be an organized. The lore on this, I think, is nine because of that. Because of these young musicians who are probably currently still like, you know, that story goes, they're probably still in Miles's apartment basement, like playing together figuring their stuff out and they record this album for Herbie's Blue Note. I got to check Herbie's autobiography because I know he talks extensively about this period of time in his autobiography. Yeah. And so we should check that out. But I love that story that they've recorded this before they recorded ESP. Yeah. So I find that

interesting too. I'm going to go eight just because I'm not quite as bold over by that. But I would say the reason I don't know, the lore for me is maybe a little bit more about the music and kind of the way I first experienced this record because I thought like I had heard this rhythm

section. It's funny how we talk about the order now because I'm relating to the order that I heard the record. So I had heard like Miles Davis My Funny Valentine, which actually probably was right from around the same time when they played live at Lincoln Center with that same band. But I heard that album before So I always associated this as later, you know what I mean? Because I didn't experience this record as much.

And I was kind of like, this is one of the first records I heard Freddie Hubbard on. I remember that because I love Herbie. I love Ron and I love Tony. And I'd even heard like McCoy Tyner and Elv. I'd seen those Blue Note records, but I was like, oh, those aren't as good because Herbie's my guy. So my funny Valentine was recorded in February 64 before this was recorded, but wasn't released until 65. I mean, you know what's so great is like that year, that time with this rhythm section with Miles, with this record with other ones. like there's such a

there's so many recordings there's so many stories there's so many videos it's such a great you know of these really young musicians that sculpted the sound that to this day is probably the most

especially from a rhythm section stand the most influential thing especially on pianists but everybody I mean Tony Williams right I mean to this day I mean yeah anyway so I'm going to aid on the lore next up Peter this is our most vague category

is the snobometer is it vague or is it very specific I don't know what to make of this because obviously Canelobe Island is on this album, right? So you would think this would be low on the snobometer. Like Aunt Linda would love Canolope Island. It's so groovy. Please refresh people because I know it seems

like we've been doing this series forever. So a snobo meter means like the higher it is on the snobo meter, the more just snobs would like the album. And the lower it is, it means the more like, you know, generally accepted. Aunt Linda is our straw man. Yeah, she's our avatar for that. Or my

mother, I think would be another good one. you know, so my mother, who I love very much, but when I first played her kind of blue, because she wasn't really ever into jazz, she loved the first few solos, and then when Trained Solo came on, she was like, I don't understand what's happening.

You know, so sweet. Who walked into the studio and ruined the session? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, well, it's the greatest start that's ever been made. What are you talking? But so, but I don't know, man, because this would be low on the stopometer,

I feel like, like on the lower end, but then that would give it a lower score, but I don't think that we don't, I don't think we want the snobometer to drain the score of a record. What did we do last week on our inaugural? I put it pretty high on the snobometer

because it's monk, and I feel like monk is another one that's not accessible. That one was easier than this. Because this is both, has elements that are accessible, but it starts out super, what would, see,

Aunt Linda might not ever make it to Lilquite Valley or, I mean, Canalop Island, because, like, those are both very low, two and three tracks. Lilquiv Valley and Canalope Island,

I would say are low on the snobometer. Is that correct? Yeah, but one finger's half the egg. The egg is super high. Exactly. So the outer, the, it's like a snob sandwich. Let's do this. So this is only our second version of this series.

So we can definitely mold this. I feel like the samov meter, regardless of how general it is, regardless of, we're just going to forget Aunt Linda, right? Like, no, that's the, that's literally the, no, no, no, no, it's not. It is. The foundation with, that we built the snobbinger out.

Even though it's general, do jazz snobs like this record. And I think that's a big yes. I think because of, one-finger snap. And even Caneloap Island, I think jazz snobs still love this album. It's not say, like, I'm going to put it on here. I'm going seven. Because

I think you're right, but there is a little bit of a raising of the nose because of Canelobe Island. It's going to be interesting, again, when we get to kind of blue or time out, right? Like, time out would be an interesting one. Do jazz snobs like timeout? I think the answer is not very much. Well, that's why we have a

gradient of one to ten. So I'm going seven on the snobot. I'm going eight on the snobometer. Okay. You don't sound meter. And our final one, and this is a yes or no, it's worth 10 points if it's yes, zero, if it's no. Is it better than Kind of Blue? And I'm going to put No. I'm saying zero.

Although I think it's great. And didn't I say yes last week? You did say yes last week. Yeah. Okay. So it's not that I'm going to always say Kind of Blue is. No, me neither. I agree that Kind of Blue is not the greatest album ever made for me, but this is not better

than Kind of Blue, in my opinion. Is the playing on this better, though? No. Good plan on here. There's some, there's some train. There's some train in Cannibal. And Miles Davis on kind of blue.

But that's the thing. We're taking all this like, obviously for me, at least K-O-B on vibe. That's one that's going to be 10. I mean, how is that not 10? Are we getting ahead of ourselves? Don't, listener, do not worry.

We have KOB on the docket. It's going to be a few weeks in. We'll do Kind of Blue. But yeah, there's going to be a lot of tens on Kind of Blue, I feel like. Yeah. All right. Shall we add them up?

Let's add up our score. You go first. Well, let's, we go together. Oh, that's right. I already forgot. Okay. You ready? Yes.

I went first last week. I think whoever brings in the album goes last. So you go first. Okay. So I added up my scores, but I did it in reverse mathematical order. So I did how many points I took off. So hopefully this is correct. So like playing, I had 10.

Vibe, I had 9. So I said minus 1. And I said minus 1. Anyway, I got to 75 out of 100. Favorite track? Favorite track? Lilquivale. Nice.

This was hard. I like all of them. Yeah, I got to 77 out of 100. Favorite track, one finger snap. I would note that we both have a C this week, so I'm a little bit... It's not a C. It's not like the American education system, Peter. We don't have to think about it like that.

Back in your wine drinking days, would you have purchased a wine that on the Wine Spectator scale scored 77 out of 100? Buddy, I was drinking a ton of things that were 77 out of 100 because I was drinking a lot of cheap wine, so, you know what I mean? This is not a cheap record. This is not a cheap record at all, but I think it's good to keep the quality, like, hard to achieve, right? And actually, you know what's really bringing down the score is the KOP? It's like, if it's not better than KOB, it can't be an A.

I know. That's the crazy. That's the crazy. It's got to be better, which actually kind of makes sense because I have a feeling KOB is going to end up around 90, right? So if it's better than KOB, it's got a chance to be in those upper 90s. So KOB is going to be perfect on everything except is it better than KLB? It's just going to, it can't be better than itself.

Bam. So, oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah, because KOB is the zero, right? Right. So we've had some rating reviews of recent. Oh, interesting. And while I pull that up, would you do me a favor, my friend?

Yeah. Tell them about gala, because we've had some renewed interest in that. Well, Peter, the gala. Gala. Gala? Gala? We don't know. We don't care.

Gala. Gala. I'm going to the gala. It's the gentleman and ladies agreement. Yes, sure. We provide you with this podcast. You are free, although it's not free because you are, if you want to adhere to the agreement, go to YouTube.

and in this episode, and leave us a comment. Actually, if you want to, Caleb, could we maybe put our template for what makes this album great, maybe a download, the PDF of our template? No? It's proprietary. It is proprietary, okay.

But maybe you give us your score. They can give us their own scores. Yeah, what's your score on this album? Yeah. If you were to give it and you could do, and maybe the playing vibe, composition, sound sequence, cover art title, LOR, SNAB, is it better than K-O-B?

Give us your score. All of it is one out of 10. And yeah. Cool. And your favorite track. All right, cool. And if you want to go next level and leave us a review, go over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, wherever you listen to this or wherever you don't. And we read every review, or at least that's our new thing.

We're going to do that. Yesterday we had, that would be April 1st. We, oh, yeah, we're going to read that review, baby. From Poopsy, one, two, three. Seven stars. Jazz dudes killing it. Actually helpful advice. Is that a backhand compliment?

Yes. Or a compliment side. Which, actually, two days ago from Neiner B. 23, inspiring pod, five stars. From your one subscriber from Leonard Wood. Shout out Leonard Ward, Illinois, right? Fort Leonardwood, Missouri. You continue to push me musically, but I enjoy the hang with Peter and Adam. Thanks for being a blessing to other musicians.

Thank you. And then from JJ, 54321 from Canada. Snobometer rating 7.5 out of 10. My jazz chops aren't great Heck, I don't even play piano But somehow I still feel welcome And like I can pull useful nuggets From each episode

Go Nuggets, Joker, shout-out This show keeps me inspired To keep practicing and learning Not sure what I mean, have a listen You'll hear it All right, so we do it Don't we have any other ones? Keep playing my brother

Oh do weeho That's it. We read the other ones. Until next time, you'll hear it.