You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - What's Goin' on Here?

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

Speakpipe Wednesday! Adam and Peter take a look at a Jon Baptiste solo and break down what's really goin on. Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open StudioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Twitter | Instagram

Yo. Yo, what's up? It's Wednesday. Oh, you know what that means. I hope it means speak pipes. Oh, is this a budding speak pipe theme song? Speak pipe Wednesday. Speak pipe Wednesday.

Speak pipe. I'm Adamannis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Jazz. Explain. Now, what day is it again? I couldn't tell from the song what exactly the day was, nor what we're doing on the day.

Let me say it in a language that you understand. It's wedness day. Wedness day. Wedness day. Still how I think about it literally every time I write it. Me too. What a weird word. Wednesday.

And you know what else is weird? It's actually not Wednesday here. But to our dear listeners, it is Wednesday. It is. And usually on Wednesdays we take. It's called time travel. It is called. Live it, learn it, enjoy it.

This is called recording. It's been around for like 150 years. But we do have some voice messages, which we call speak pipes. Voice messages? Are we back to that? We're going back in time. We've got some traveling time both ways. We've got some pages.

Two days forward, 20 years back. Listen, you can page us at 618-979. No, I'm just kidding. No, we have a voicemail from Stan on our speak pipe. Listen, if you want to leave us a speak pipe, speaking to the pipe, go to you'll hear.com And leave us your question like Stan here. Yeah. Now, Peter, warning about Stan's question.

Okay. It is sandwiched by, I'm going to say, some pretty obnoxious praise heaped upon us. I know you don't like that. That sounds like that. Is that something that would interest you? Well, no. Would that be something you might be interested in? I think it would be.

Yeah. Here's Stan, thank you for these kind of words. Here's Stan. Hi, Peter and Adam. My name is Stan. And I am actually a guitarist, but I, absolutely love your podcast. I love your take on jazz music and jazz music and the piano. I used to play piano when I was a teenager myself, but I transitioned over to a guitar because I think I hate my life.

I'm just joking, but it's just a little bit more convenient for me right now. However, I saw this performance of John Battiste and Thundercat. It is on YouTube and the song they're performing is called Them Changes. It's probably like the only one that comes up. It's Google John Patice under Catt. Them Changes. In that performance, John Batise goes absolutely nuts. I mean, he is just all over the place and he never ever loses the groove. And I think at one point he helps the drummer pick up his drumstick, but he never loses the groove. I mean, it is just an amazing display of talent. And I would love to hear your take on what they're doing, what the whole band is doing, how are they keeping that

groove going and what is John Batiste doing in that insane solo. Again, thank you very much. You guys do an amazing work. I love hearing your podcast on my drive when I'm doing shores or even when I'm just playing scales on my guitar really. It's just really great

to listen to. All right. Thank you. Like I said, man, I know that's difficult for you to listen to. Thank you for the kind words. No, that's so cool. Thanks, Stan. So we've got it queued up. I thought maybe we could listen to this performance. Yes, and full disclosure

This is not Friday, first take Friday But this is our first... Have you heard this before or seen this? I've never heard this. This looks like it's from a live performance on the late show with Stephen Colbert Which of course John Patiste is the musical director of Yeah, so this is going to be truly a hot take

This is going to be like our first impressions as we say Not a full review So we know what we're looking for Stan's just wanting to know what the heck is going on right That's pretty much it is that what you got out of it too? Yeah, but specific on I think Jay Bats solo, right? But let's check it out from the beginning.

Okay, you can pause it right there. I've got some initial impressions already. We're already pausing, okay. Okay, so John Battice's outfit, I'm giving him an A. How about that jacket? Dude always looks great. So, and this is an audio podcast, we're going to have to describe it. It's a black jacket with like white spots, but it's not.

Sparkly. It's a little TV sparkly, right? He's an entertainer. And they're, but they're not like, it's not like a consistent pattern of dots, of white dots. And they're very tiny. It's celestial. It's celestial. Like they look like stars in the sky.

Yeah. And perhaps he has a necklace on, but he's so cool. That could be like a backstage pass too. Have you ever, man, have you ever worn a necklace in your life, Peter? Have you ever like? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like I'm. It was not like that. If I tried to do it, I don't know. I think about it sometimes. Anyway. Yeah. It didn't come off quite as cool as John Battis. when I tried it, but...

Yeah. Okay, so, sorry. That was my initial. No, that's a good. It's a good initial. First, first thing. Nothing to do with what Stan asked, but, okay. He's welcome, Thundercat!

Okay, can we pause again? Should we talk about what Thundercats wearing to? Yeah, I'm going to give him a B. If we gave John Betts, he's an A for the outfit. So Thundercat is wearing... He does look dopey or dope. No, he looks amazing. He's pulling it off.

Is that a security tag on his hat? Look at that. Is that a pager? There's, we can't even describe it. You just got to go watch it. You got to go see this, yeah. Is that a bass? Yeah.

It's like a bass with like a hollow body. It's a six-dreen bass. Sixthreen, yeah. Hollow-bodied electric. And he's plugging it in now. They're laughing. Well, you can hear that. Okay.

I love this song, by the way. It's called Them Changes. Batista's a little clap. There's blood on the floor. Merciful when I lost. I'm from Batista's soloing here. Yeah. Oh.

So I think, I think that's about, let's watch the end. Just to make sure there's less than a minute left. Yeah. Thundercat with John Batisse. Yes. Stuck in the groove. Them changes.

Stuck in the groove, but I mean, there was a lot of... That's a lot of... That's a lot of... It is, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. But there's a lot of freedom in there, especially in J. Bath's solo there. You know, he did the thing that we talk about.

I'm sure he wasn't thinking this way, but you start off small. Start off short. phrases. Right. Speed him up a little bit. Yep. Triplets. 16th notes by the end.

He's working that, that pitch bend for sure. Yep. Getting crazy. Taking it outside a couple times. Yep. But kind of at the right place in the story of the solo in terms of like... He's a storyteller. He's a storyteller.

There was a little bit of a hinting at some outside earlier that he'd bring it back. It was almost like a little tease. Yep. Little tease. And then he went in there. But I think for me, the main thing on this and why it feels so good. And I think why Stan and most folks listen to this is such a great connection is that this is such a simple like groove-based thing. You know, like there's two kind of main sections and like, but the groove is established very early.

And it's always a danger for us as jazz musicians when we're playing stuff that is, I mean, look, all great jazz is based on grooves. So when we say groove-based, but like this is almost like kind of a pop tune, you might say. Would you call this a pop tune? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But there's room for a solo in there. can solo over anything. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's like pop, pop, but it is not like a straight ahead.

It's Ted Walt Disney World. I mean, obviously it's Thundercat is what it is. Yeah. But Thundercat from the beginning, he really sets the tone with those bass lines. And it must have been, I know the Tuba was playing the baseline too and maybe another bass player. Like he had a lot of, like, it's just brilliant stuff he's doing up in that upper register. But he really honored the groove the whole time.

It wasn't like going crazy and just like losing the groove. Which is super important. Yeah. And then, you know, Jay Bats, Jonathan Badee's solo, I thought was like that it started like very, as you say simple, but like right in the groove. But even as he made it more complex and compressed things, like that groove was so well established that he could kind of just dance over it. I like to say this is one of those examples where they're stuck in the groove. They're stuck in the groove. There's almost nothing you can do to screw up the groove.

Like you'd have to actively work to fall out of the groove once they get it going like this. Let's hear that solo one more time. Just for solo seconds. minor pentatine right so right there so check it out right well now he's getting into yeah but like he was almost straight e-flap pentatonic and then when he went up to that ninth he set up such a cool dramatic kind of you know it was with the melody but it was harmonically when you keep outlining that and then when you leave it yep and especially with like that would be considered one of your pretty tones right i think so that's definitely a pretty note yeah so

it's a great way like It seems like it's all kind of rhythmic, but there's a lot of harmonic modularity in there, we would say. And now he's going to get into these, like, fourths, phrases, 16th notes. A diatonic over that Dorian, right? Now he's going. Oh, a little chromatic, yeah. But when he was, did he do it like that kind of thing.

And then, you know, he's going to. Hey, I can get you a clap sound if you want, Peter. So that's that blues. He's doing it like on the fourth and the third. or third going up to the major third given of that blues connotation, I believe. Go ahead. Got it, man. There you go, buddy.

Well, thank you so much. Stan. I hope we were able to break it down a little bit for you. It's, you know, he is, we got Peter going now. No, he is building this soul like a true storyteller. So I hope that's what you're taking away from it as well as. Thanks for hip enough to this. Yeah, man.

Very good. I like to see and hear new things. We'll have a link. this performance. Oh, you know what? This is not an authorized Stephen Colbert channel stuff. Is that okay? It's really not. Yeah. Well, it is. There might be another one though. That is. Yeah. We'll see. Cool. Well, until tomorrow. You'll hear it.