You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - What's Happening With Jazz?

Episode Date: November 14, 2019

It's another solo edition of You'll Hear It as Peter gives an update on some cool news and events going on in the world of jazz.What's Happening With Jazz:New York Times article on Willie Jones - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/nyregion/willie-jones-iii-jazz-drummer-.htmlJazz Ahead 2020 - https://education.kennedy-center.org/education/jazzahead/Telegraph article on Ronnie Scott's 60th anniversary: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/news/secret-history-ronnie-scotts-60-years-bopping-blowing-steam/Coming soon to Open Studio: Black Friday specials! We can't give you any details just yet, but stay checked-in to our social media and website for all our deal and discount news beginning November 29.Like those You'll Hear It shirts Peter shows off on the podcast? Want some YHI swag of your own? Take a visit to our store! Just go to https://teespring.com/stores/open-studioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey Peter, what's up? Why are you talking to yourself? Because we got another solo episode of the You'll Hear podcast. Oh, cool. That sounds awesome. I'm going to tune in. Well, it's coming at you right now. I'm Peter Martin, and you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast.

Daily Jazz Advise, coming at you. Coming at you solo once again today. I'm starting to get the hang of this. I'm starting to have a little bit of fun. I still remember my co-host, Adam Manus, but a couple more days of this, I'm going to forget that dude. Just putting it out there. and we are brought to you by Open Studio,

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and we have a brand new mini course coming from him shortly. So check it out at openstudiojazz.com. And now is actually kind of a good time because we're coming up on Black Friday. We've got a huge giveaway coming next week. So sign up for email notifications to be alerted to that. And today on the You'll Hear podcast here, I'm talking about what's happening with jazz.

So this was, we've kind of played around with this before, Adam and I with this week in jazz. And I think we're going to just sort of rename it what's happening with jazz and have it a little thing that we revisit where we talk about kind of current events in jazz, some things that caught our eyes, some things that we're reading, maybe some things we experienced. and you know we're always talking about recordings and learning and and the history of jazz and all these kind of things which is great and I love doing that and we love doing that here but I always want to remind everybody that this is a an art form that's alive and happening and I've been on the road the last few weeks and then I was up in New York a couple days last week and you know I mean there's so much happening this music is so vibrant and you know the whole joke about is jazz dead it's been going on so long that it's like a lot of other kind of music and and and especially just sort of a flash in the pan genres have come and gone while everyone's been talking about is jazz dead. So apparently jazz is not dead because people are still talking about it. And great things are happening, you know. So I just wanted to highlight a couple things that caught my eye that are happening in jazz now. So the first is actually I've got, what do I have?

One, two, three, four things. We'll see if we can get through these relatively quickly. The first is an article that I just read the other day in the New York Times. and I will link below to it. I believe you don't have to subscribe. I do subscribe. I encourage you to subscribe. But I think you can look at this

for free anywhere online. So I'll have a link to it. But it was on, what was it, November 8th? So yeah, just a couple days ago. But this is a great article about Willie Jones III, who is, you know, one of our generation's just most wonderful drummers. I mean, he's just, you know, I can't say he's under the radar because he's played with everybody.

But he's kind of a, I don't know, he's just so good and so consistent that he's sort of easy to take for granted. But he's just really one of the master jazz drummers. So if you're not familiar with him, this is a kind of cool article that will show you a different side of him because this is in their series that I've been reading for years in the New York Times about how just various creative people spend their Sundays. So this is not like by the jazz writer. It's not even really a jazz article.

The title of it is how this top jazz drummer spends his son. Sundays. Willie Jones, the third, starts the day with basketball and ends it going to one of his favorite clubs to just listen. Okay, sometimes he'll play. So that's a pretty cool title. And it's got some great pictures of him at his studio and talks about how he and his wife just kind of spend their Sundays. Did I say Saturdays before? No, I said Sundays, right? Yeah, Sunday. You know, just talking about how they, what they eat and what they cook, what he listens to, how he cleans up his crib, how he goes to hear music. It's just really cool. I mean, I love reading these even when it's about people that I don't know. But I know Willie Jones a little bit. I played with him before and taught with them and travel with

them. So I don't know them well, though, but it was really cool to read this because I love this ongoing series. So if you get a chance, check it out. I'll just jump to the end. It's cool because he says I get back home maybe two or two 30 and my wife is knocked out, but I'm just not sleepy. I'll spend 30 minutes walking back and forth. And I love this. I'll get in bed and put my headphones on. I'll listen to Mackin'Cola, Johnny Hartman. I try to get to sleep by 3.30. So it's just cool. It takes you through kind of his whole day

and what's happening with one of our finest and most interesting drummers. I have musicians, I should say, and drummer. So there you go. That's number one. What's happening in jazz? Next, oh yeah, this kind of caught my eye

because this is going to be some mass, really mass media and exposure, I guess next year. So they're filming well they're filming they're putting together a new movie coming from from Pixar that is going to be called Soul

and it's coming out next year but it must be mostly done because they're talking about like the trailer and stuff but anyway it's starring you know Pixar this is animated but it's starring Jamie Fox Felicia Rashad Questlove and some others

in is it Pixar or Disney I guess that's the same thing oh Disney Pixar yeah right and this movie called soul and it's so cool because it's about a middle school band director who's like an aspiring jazz musician and who loves jazz next year moviegoers will be introduced to jazz loving middle school band teacher joe gardner played by jamie fox in disney pixar soul the computer animated motion picture was directed by two-time oscar winner p. doctor oh yeah who's great up and inside out

um so this is going to be kind of good um his lifelong dream of being a jazz music is not going to pan out. He's asking himself, why am I here? What am I meant to be doing? So this will be cool. It's based in New York, and the music is being put together by John Battiste, wonderful pianists from New Orleans, who I've known since he was about 14 or 15 years old when I first met him. And, you know, it's just got a lot of exciting things.

Disney Pixar is known for their high-quality work. It's going to be set in New York. I'm excited about this. It's going to be some nice exposure and people thinking about talking about jazz, which is always fun when that comes to the, to the, mass media. So that's coming soon on the what's happening with jazz. Next, I would like to talk about Jazz Ahead 2020. So this is what's happening with jazz, and it's kind of topical now because there's a deadline coming up. Jazz Ahead is a educational program, kind of a seminar workshop that was put together by the Great Jazz, legendary vocalist

and impresario of our music, Betty Carter, who is unfortunately no longer with us, but She started this 20-plus years ago, originally in Brooklyn, and then they very quickly moved to the Kennedy Center in D.C. But it's a residency program, an intensive residency, that goes on for two weeks every year at the Kennedy Center for young musicians like really aged 17 or 18 through about 25, sort of top players. There's a very rigorous audition to get in via video and audio, several rounds. And I participated in it this year, to the 2019. I was on the faculty. And they've asked me to come back again next year. So I'm super excited about that. It's May 26th through June 6th, and I'm kind of mentioning it now, too, because the deadline to apply for this is November 17th,

which is coming up pretty soon. Yeah, that's within the next few days or so. So if you're thinking about it, you have to be age 25 and under. So if you're listening to this, you can look at all the eligibility requirements. That's sort of the main one, but the application process, it's about your playing, but it's also about your compositions. You have to perform at least, I believe, it's one of your own compositions. Oh, no, three original compositions. That's right, because you know, that was Betty Carter's thing, was all about creativity and being a composer. And you have to do a standard as well. But you can look at, we'll put a link here to the Kennedy Center, Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead page, which will give you all the information.

check that out, but check it out soon because the deadline is the 17th. It's totally free. I think it even includes housing and everything and travel. So it's a really amazing thing. This year I had such a good time. I'm so excited they asked me back, and it's an honor to go back and meet all these wonderful players. And it really gets the best of the best. I mean, I'm just looking at the list of alumni that came through this program, Jason Moran, who is the artistic director, the residency director of the,

the program now. Wonderful pianists. Christian Sands, amazing pianist, Marcus Strickland, Maurice Brown, Shirel Cassidy, wonderful saxophonist out of Oklahoma, Nate Smith, the drummer, Jackie Taylor. I mean, you know, a lot of great jazz mea horn came through this program. So if you're a young aspiring player up through age 25, you're definitely going to want to check in on this and see if you can become a part of it. And the faculty for 2020, I'm just seeing this for the first time. Jason Moran is the residency director, Casey Benz. Benjamin, saxophone, Dedy Bridgewater, legendary vocalist herself, Peter Martin pianist, yours truly, and Clarence Penn, drummer. So that's going to be nice. And all of us either played with or came through the program. I played with Betty Carter many years ago, 1991. So it's a wonderful thing. Check that out. What's happening in jazz. And then number four, our final what's happening with jazz. Ronnie Scots, how many of you guys have been to the Ronnie Scots Jazz Club? Andrew, have you been to Ronnie Scots? He has, Andrew has not been.

We're going to have to take you there one day. It's sort of the club and has been for many years in London, in Soho. And I first played there with Betty Carter, actually, 1991, was my first introduction to the club. And they're having their 60th anniversary. So it's been around a little while, a little longer than I thought. But they had a concert, I guess, last week at Royal Albert Hall, the wonderful, beautiful hall there at, is that Hyde Park? Yeah, right at the corner of the park there in London. and a bunch of luminaries participated in a night for Ronnie Scots.

It must have been pretty cool because Royal Albert Hall is huge. It's like concert hall, but it's like this massive hall. And I'm just looking at the pictures here. You can read about the concert online. But they had Kurt Elling and Van Morrison, Natalie Williams, Nigel Kennedy, a bunch of great people there to celebrate Ronnie Scots. And, you know, I was looking through the stuff that, you know, like Miles Davis played at Ronny's.

But it's such a cool thing. And this one article, and we'll link to this, it's from the telegraph, the UK telegraph. I love the quote, the sort of subtile is, how did a London musician with bad gags and worst food build a mecca for jazz lovers

in a squalid dive bar? And how is Ronnie Scard still standing after six decades? So if you're interested in that, you can check out this article about that. Yeah, Ronnie Scots was a saxophone player. actually met him when he was still around when I first played there.

And at one time there was two or three Ronnie Scouts around the UK. I believe it's only in London. Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong on that. But that's kind of a cool thing. I know a lot of people travel London. So you're going to want to check in on that on Frith Street in Soho, wonderful club, and, you know, UK Jazz Institution for sure. So there you have it.

That's a little bit about what's happening with jazz, very much alive and well. Lots happening out there. I hope you guys had a good time listening today. and until tomorrow, you'll hear it.