You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Who's the Next Oscar Peterson?

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

On this week's episode, Peter and Adam try to pin down which pianist from this generation matches the skill and feel of Oscar Peterson.Hear more (and play better) music in just 5 minutes a day with the new course from Adam Maness: 5-Minute Ear Training! Check it out by following this link.Who's the Next Oscar Peterson? (listen to all the tunes from this episode with our Spotify playlist)Christian SandsHiromiEmmet CohenAshley HenryKris DavisGerald ClaytonSullivan FortnerRobert GlasperInterested 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.Let 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.

Hey, Adam. Yes. Who's the next Oscar Peterson? I mean, I assume it's Jesus Malina, yeah? Oh, well, let's listen on and find out. Okay. I'm Adam Anas. And I'm Peter Martin.

And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Music advice, coming at you. Coming at you today, sponsored by Open Studio. Go to Open StudioJazz.com. It's Jazz Lessons from Jazz Legends. That's our tagline, Peter. Say that five times in a row. Jazz.

And now you go to Open StudioJazz.com. You can check out all of our courses. We've got a lot of piano courses. We've got some bass courses. Some bass courses. Got an ear training course. That's a new one. A brand new five minute ear training.

Those are 35 minute ear training sessions that take place over six weeks. You can check all that out at open studio jazz.com. And just be clear, that's five minutes per session. That's not five minute course. Like take you from bad ears to great ears in five minutes. We don't want to get in trouble with the FTC up in here for false advertising. Yeah, we try to under promise over-deliver. It's a great course.

And folks have been enjoying it. It's kind of just another one of those little elements. elements that's fun to work on as you're working on your soloing and your harmony and all the different elements. We should do that on the podcast sometime. You know what I love about the course is I with the five minute your training course, I deliberately just started the course by turning on the camera and going, if this is C, what is this? Like that's all it is. There's no instruction. It's just every day you get to the piano or you don't get the piano. You get to the course and I get to the piano and I test you. And over time, it really does work. And eventually

we build up to things like cadence says that's you can check that out again open studio jazz com five minute you're training but check it out awesome stuff cool all right well today we're talking about who's the next next oscar peterson and this is a big question this is a ridiculous question who came up with this i don't know is it my week uh it was my week that's true well this is look this is to pull you in and spoiler spoiler alert uh-huh there's only one oscar peterson yeah i was going to say isn't the next Oscar Peterson Art Tatum? Well, it was the other way around. I know, but still.

But the idea was like, you know, that we delve into some of the younger pianists. Now, are these actual young pianists? Are these like 45 years old? Well, I think 45 is probably the outside. There might be a 45 year old in here. And so just so you guys know, we're doing this live in real time. I mean, it's a podcast.

So you've downloaded this or listening to it on Spotify or whatever. But right now, Adam has no idea what we're going to do. He doesn't know any of these pianists. I put together a playlist. Okay. That'll be linked below as well. Wait, like I've never heard of them.

How would you know? No, I think you've heard of all these. Okay, good. I think you've heard of all these. And I can tell you if you want, but you're such a fun loving guy usually. You like to be surprised. I'm a wild and crazy.

Who's over 45 now? Yeah, this guy. But, yeah, so the idea is, yeah, these are young pianists, but these are also, I did try to pick out really, either pianists that I love all these pianists actually but they're also ones that you might think okay if there was going to be

a next Oscar Peterson coming in the under 40 to 45 but much younger some of these range it could be one of these so are these just a general question yes what was your criteria did they have to sound like Oscar did they have to be like very technically they had to own at least one Oscar Peterson track okay or had streamed okay one Oscar I think I understand I think I understand no stylistically they're not, although I do full disclosure, I did

choose tracks and some of these artists I know really well so it was a lot to kind of choose from some I don't know as well, but I did try to choose tracks that sort of showcase, like there's not going to be any ballads on here for instance, although Oscar Peterson the master of the ballot. I mean, if they play a ballad

and they do a quadruple time like block chord solo then maybe, yeah. But the thing is, I didn't choose any pianists that were overtly like they love Oscar Peterson and kind of patterned their playing after them. Okay, good. There's a couple that I know are very influenced by it.

But I mean, is there a jazz pianist at any age now that isn't at least somewhat influenced? Well, yeah, I can think of one, actually. There are a few, sure. Some people really actually have a hatred of Oscar Peterson's playing. Are they haters, or is it a hatred of his playing? I think it's a little bit of both.

Yeah, no, there's a whole... I remember actually there was a really nice guy I went to college with. I'm going to forget his name, but probably good. Jesus Molina. No, we were outside of the new school once, and he was like, I just feel weird because there's a weird thing with Oscar Peterson here at the school where it's like, you're not cool if you're in it.

Like it was one of those things, yeah? And he's like, I'm going to be honest with you, Adam. All I want to do is sound like Oscar Peterson. I was like, man, you should do that then. If that's what you want to do, you should do that, right? Right. And I'm like, don't listen to those snobby cats up there at the 55 bar. You do you.

That's right. 22 years later, Robert Glasper has a very successful career, so it worked out. It's not Robert Glasspar. Well, no, I think that that for sure is in, there's definitely an undercurrent of that where it's like, oh, is it not cool? He's so good, obviously. Yeah. But, well, you know, somebody that comes to mind is Fred Hirsch. I know he doesn't have a hatred for Oscar Peterson, but he doesn't have a preference.

I remember hearing him talk about that. Yeah. Like he loves, I mean, it's just like everybody has their different artists that they're really in close and that they just gravitate towards. and I don't think that he really gravitates towards Oscar. Yeah, I've heard people say that they find him boring or just sort of repetitive. Repetitive. Yeah. I find him super grooving. Yeah. And fun to listen. Now, I've never heard anybody say, I don't find him grooving. That's one thing. Listen, is it the same thing as listening to like Keith Jarrett play solo piano or whatever? No, it's a whole different kind of category of experience. But it has a lot of value for me. Yeah, absolutely. So did you decide if you want to be, uh,

informed of the, well, now I can't because we're just going to play. Well, no, I could tell you before. Surprise me, bro. Surprise me. Okay. Let's see if I can guess who it is. I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight at least. So we were just a two hour, two hour episodes.

So yeah, no, we're going to move through them relatively quickly. We're not going to listen to these entire tracks. But first, this first track is. Okay, first of all, can we see if I can guess it? Yeah, of course. Because I'm terrible at it. This is going to be hard. I don't think I would have been able, I mean, a couple of them, because I, they're sort of favorite tracks to me, I would have been able to guess.

There's no way I'm going to be able to do this, but I just want to see. You're going to get some. You're going to get some of it. Okay. Okay. Base player. Does that sound like the next Oscar Peterson? It sounds like the next Ray Brown. Is it Benny Green?

No, that's a very good guess, though. And it con? That's even a better guess. Well, Benny Green, under 45? Come on, man. Sorry. He's like 55 years old. He does look.

No, he's like, yeah. No, he's a little old than that. He looks like he's 30 years younger than me. He looks like he looks 10 years younger than me. Yeah. No, who is it? That is Christian Sands. I almost said Christian Sands.

Shit. So, more importantly, is Christian Sands the next Oscar Peterson? No, he's the next Christian Sands. He's got his own vibe going. It's great. You can say that after every person? I think so. I mean, if you don't know who I'm going to play yet.

If you keep doing quality young pianas like Christian Sands, I'm going to give them their props, man. That's Christian McBride trio. So you were correct about the next Ray Brown. Ulysses Owens? Ulysses-Owitchie's Owen. Damn, he's good, too. I know. This is a great trio.

Wow. It's a great trio. It's a great arrangement. This is Christian's arrangement of, I've played it with them before. It's very difficult. Although it's easy to play with Christian. Yeah. Okay.

So that's number one. Got enough of that? Yeah, that was great. That was so much fun. Thank you. Okay. Here we go. Is this person the next Oscar Peterson?

Is it Tigran? Nope. Good guess. I mean, he's a pianist. So that's a good guess. They're all good guests. Who is that? Is that Benny Green?

I'm going to do a little bored fade there. That's Heromi. That's Haromi. Yeah. And this is probably, this is, I think, for her last record,

a pretty recent one that I've been digging on. She might be the next Oscar Speakers. That's what I'm saying. Like, there was a method to my madness. This is not just random. That's true, man. Wow.

But she's also like 50 years old, isn't she? I don't think so. Oh, she might be. I mean, she looks like she's about 23 years old. But that's, from Spectrum.

Haromi. She's younger than me. That's the thing. I think about anybody who's younger than me as young. But I guess there's a certain cutoff, right? Everybody who's younger than me is 25, because I'm obviously not older than 28. I mean, I'm 50, and I know that,

but I think of, like, the younger demo is, like, 18 to 49. Thank you. You know. All right. So you, okay, question. Yeah, okay. Is Haromi the next Oscar Peterson? Yes.

Okay. Well, how about it maybe? Because you don't know that we're going to only pick one today. We're only picking one. Actually, you know what? Honestly, Haromi would lead the pack as far as I'm concerned. As far as unique combination of soul and technique.

Yes. That I think mirrors and a sort of artistic aesthetic that mirrors Oscar's trio and his whole vibe as well. So I'm going to say Haromi, as far as just fitting the vibe goes, it would be up there as the next Oscar Peterson. In my opinion, I'm excited to hear the next six. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, don't get ahead of yourself, but that's, but it's a good. You put a little marker in the sand.

That's all good. Okay, you ready for the next one? I'm going to see if I can do what she was doing. I can't do what she's doing. Yeah, that was a lot of, that was, that was nice. Well recorded too. Yeah. That's from Spectrum.

Cool. Okay, here we go. Number three. Is this pianist the next Oscar Peterson? Oh, wait. Can I put the volume up to the right place? Next Chick-Corea. You got enough?

Yeah, I know this track. I'm blanking on it. What's the track? Hurling Riley. It's Hurl and Riley. So that's Emmett Cohen. That's Emmett Cohen. Very good.

Very good. So, what do you think? Emmett Cohen is also up there, I think. Just, again, on sensibility of, first of all, just a heavy sense of the blues in his playing. Yes. You know, and a really strong sense of groove. Is Emmett Cohen?

the next Oscar Pierce again man I you know it's like Haromi is the next Emmett Cohen's next Emmett Cohen in my opinion they're are you holding on but you were you were okay with saying Haromi may be so I know I'm really you're gonna hold on is she at the top of your list I feel bad because she is a genuine artist in her own right so oh you can be both I know you can be both I'm gonna this is close actually Emmett Cohen and Haramie I would say are both very they have Oscar leanings right they're Oscar curious so I would I would I don't know.

Let's not back that. Sorry. So this is, I'm being a little wishy-washy, but I think maybe Emmett is more on that vibe. Oh, interesting. I'm going to stick with Haromi. Okay. Haromi's still at the top. At the top.

You know what? I'll go with, I'm going to stick with you there. No, no, no, no, don't let me influence you? No, no, no, no, I should go with my first instinct. I don't, okay. Also, because young Emmett there, this was from a few years ago, wasn't it? Yeah, well, maybe two years ago. It's recent.

He's developed a lot. It was very chickish. He's a little even more, even more, now and a little simpler now than he is in that recording. I think and he's very good at playing for the right situation so for that tune with Hurling on a blues or something yeah you're gonna

you might be hearing some more Oscar leanings man he's a good player he's a good player very good yeah okay so that's three okay and you don't got some good candidates so far sure here's number four now this one I'm just gonna go ahead put it out there and say you probably don't know who this is and I'm gonna say

oh I'll see about that I've been over three No, but I mean, but you guessed Emma Cohen on the Christian Sans Like you know at least those three Haromi and Christian Sandh You're saying I don't know who this is I don't think you know who this Because most people I might mention it

I don't think I've ever mentioned him to you And I've never heard you say his name But you might surprise me This is the same thing for listeners This is all is discovery Okay But I'm looking at young pianists And I was thinking of young pianists

That I've been impressed with So it doesn't mean that they're super well known Okay Okay, let's get the volume up and check out I'll give just one little hint This is Monk's dream Great Monk too Okay.

Jeez. Is that Eric Reed? Under 45. Well under 45. I have no idea. Who's that? That is Ashley Henry. I have no idea who that is.

Yeah, I didn't think so. He's a young pianist. Definitely in his 20s. I don't know if it's late 20s or Meread that I heard. He's from London. Really good player. And, you know, he's got some good stuff out there. I was thinking about, what is some young pianist?

Oh, yeah, what was that dude's name? I remember seeing him live. And I've heard his got a couple of his tracks, you know, liked on Spotify, so he shows up on my thing every now and then. That's great, man. But now you know, Ashley Henry. This is from Ashley Henry's 5. The track, that's the name of the album.

The track is Monk's Dream. If you guys enjoy it, let's just hear just a little more because I don't want to. Good player. From South London. Big shout out to South Side, Southside London. So, I know you haven't heard a lot of him, but is Ashley Henry the next Oscar Peterson? No. Okay.

That's okay. That's fine. Might be the next Jackie Terrace. Ooh, kind of a Eurocentric attitude there. I like that. It's kind of a similar vibe, actually. It is, yeah. No, that's true.

Okay, there we go. We're four in, and either Emmett Cohen or Haromi is at the top of our next Oscar Peterson list. But we're not committing. We're not overcommitting. We're not undercommitting. Ready for the next one? I'm ready. I'm not sure if that's an honor, by the way, or an insult to be, for us to dub you the next Oscar.

Well, think about it. I would be like if you and some other pianist was like, yes, people. We listened to these eight really good pianists, and we decided you're the next Oscar Prizes. I'd be like, cool. I would not be mad at you. But that's just me. Okay, this is, I'm not going to tell you who it is,

but this is another monk tune, but it's one of the least known monk tunes. So. Sounds like for it? No, not even close, right? I mean, a pianist. Let me just jump ahead. I don't think it's going to necessarily help you,

but. I'm so terrible. this. I'm so glad I asked a guess. Well, you know what? I would get none of them. This artist, I'd be hitting the same averages as you right now. Zero. Are you zero? No, no.

You said Emmett Cohen. Is that, was that Benny Green? I think that you think that Benny Green already is the next Oscar Peterson. So you're like, he's got to be. How is he not? We're looking at a young pianist, man. Prove that Benny Green is not the next Oscar. I mean, yes, he can play probably the most like Oscar Peterson of any piano I can think of any

as I can think of right now. But no, this is Chris Davis. Oh, she's amazing. She's amazing, and that might have been a little bit of a difficult track. I mean, she does a lot of different things. This is from her duopoly record, which I've always enjoyed. Yeah. And that's with Billy Drummond.

All of her tracks are a little bit difficult. Yeah, yeah. In a good way. Yeah, there's a lot of different stuff going on. So it's not necessarily like, oh, yeah, that's Chris Davis. But there you go. I'm a fan. That's great, man.

Yeah. Question. Is Chris Davis the next Oscar Peterson? 100% not. She's very original. That's true. Not that we're saying Heromi's not original. No, not at all, not at all, no.

Okay, ready for the next one? Yeah. Here we go. Picking very clustery intros for all these people. I think that's kind of a, no offense, but like a millennial thing. Because these are all millennials. The clustery intro. Yeah, these are all millennial.

It's like, I mean, you're up in millennials. I know, and I love some avocado toast and a clustering intro. Did you hear what I did before? I had avocado toast for breakfast today. How do you feel about a clustry intro? So piano said you like him or her a lot, I know. Clustery intro of his normal playing. Not only think of it.

And it's from a really new record. Is this Sullivan? No? Is this Aaron Parks? No, those are both really good guesses, though. I would have totally guessed one of those that have been like... Check out how good this sound is. Okay, I'll give you a hint.

This is live at the Vanguard, which I, this is one of the best piano sounds I've ever heard at the Vanguard. Man, I'm striking. Listen for a second, because it may, when he goes into the tune, this is Bud Powell. Celia, believe it or not, but it might help. If Sullivan Fortner is not on this list, will you tell me? At the end, yeah. This is more typical of his or her point right there. The clustering avatostost at the beginning.

Sounds really good. Adam likes that. I'm going to break my face, man. Stop, who is this? Okay, so you want to guess, you want to, you want to guess Sullivan Fortner again? Wait. You can't. Is this?

No. I don't know. Who is it? Gerald. Gerald. Gerald Clayton. Yeah. Shoot.

That's what I'm saying. I know that you love is playing and know it pretty well. But this is a funny time. You know, for me, even in preparing this, these, all these pianists. And look, I definitely kind of skewed towards ones that I like. But there's others that I had to leave off that I like as well. Every generation has a sound, which is cool. I mean, yeah, I think I'm just throwing by the amount of clustering intros

that are going on here. Apparently, you think that this generation sound is the Sullivan Porter sound, which is interesting. Well, yeah, well, actually, I know, he's going to end it. Avautils.

No, you know what it is? It's all the... I mean, is there a Fred Hitch, influence on this? I think it's a Mel. Keith Jared, for sure. It's a Mel Dauian. Meldowian, you know,

this is all like the, all the things you are from the live of the vanguard. We should do that on the session sometime. It's so influential, obviously. So this is, Celia from his, I think this is fairly recent, live at the Village Vanguard called Happening. It's a great record.

I'm embarrassed that I haven't heard that. No, it's good stuff. Okay, so is Gerald Clayton the next Oscar Peterson? Obviously not. Okay. There you go. There you go. You ready for the next one?

Wait, what are we up to? We got one, two, three, four. That's six. So we only got two more. Okay. Unless I add that one I was saying, no, I'm not going to want to because I've already got it in here. So, okay, this is seven.

Okay. Are you ready? Yes. Is your name Freddie? No. Okay. Here we go. Okay.

Who is this? Is that Connie Hahn? No, it is not. I'm going to give you a hint here because. It sounds really good. Is this Jabat? No. That's a great guess because they went to the same high school and kind of came up together.

Shoot. And another hint is this gentleman, you have guessed him. I know. I didn't want to say it because I've been wrong so much. I know it was. Yes, you got it. Can we just listen to the beginning again? Man, the piano sound, what he plays,

this is killing. I don't throw that word around that one of my time when every episode I throw that word around. But check this out. I mean, to play at that, I mean, it'd be easy to play

if you're a good pianist or if you're the next Oscar Peters and you could play that baby doon dabapidoo and dabber do. But I mean, listen to the volume level he's playing, but there's the groove and the swing is phrasing. That's very patient.

That's a very patient way to play. And you know what the song is? This is changing keys, the wheel of fortune. I was going to say, is this a wheel of fortune theme? Wheel of Fortune. Yeah. I mean, this is just so great. This is from his moments preserved record.

You know the one with the... You're else. Is a good tune? Camera. Is the theme to press this right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bo-P-B-D-D-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

That is good. Merriffin wrote that, by the way. Did he really? Yeah. Wow. And the Wheel of Fortune. Wow. There you go.

Merv. Yeah. Kingmaker. Anyway, no, he is not, Sullivan Fordner is not the next Oscar Peterson. I think he's more along the lines of the next, like Hank Jones. Oh, interesting. Okay. Okay.

But again, he's, they're their own people, man. They're their own artists. Of course. It's an absurd premise, Peter. But you know what? people to listen to the I know it's a clickbait it's a fun no it is a fun little exercise but you see how like all these tracks and really all these pianists I would say there is some connection with you know really refined technique really bluesy play you know there's something that connects them all

with Oscar Peterson okay so that was it that was so glad Sullivan's out of the way so you're not guessing don't know why you didn't guess him on the one that he was on but that's I was self-conscious about it you're like I can't say it again I can't say it again is too much can't be wrong again Are we ready for number eight? Sure. Okay. It's Paul Blay. Dang.

He's not under 45. Check it out. This will give it away, maybe. Yes. Finally got one right. Dang, it took me it forever. I had to pull out a fellow, Glasper might be that world's oldest millennial group with yourself,

actually, now that I'm thinking, right? Yeah. He's right around this. Yeah. So a little bit of a clustery, not a clustering. I know this record, too, so well. This is great because they just vamp this here. The bridge to Stella.

Yeah. Like they just turned it into like a sample. Listen to that. Is that, um, Colenberg? No. No. So tasty too. Yeah.

Right? Yep. Live at Capitol Studios. Covered. Um, so is Robert Glasper the next? Oscar Peterson. No. Okay.

So you know what? Hold on. Can I just say that if Glasper has any kind of, I think Glasper is, Robert Glasspers, again, very much his own artist in person. And it's ridiculous to compare him to anybody. But if you were to make a connection between his career and a master of the past or even of this kind of current generation, but a little bit older than him, you'd have to go Herbie.

Jay Dilla. I would say you have to go Herbie Hancock just because of his Robert Glassper's crossover abilities. Yeah. And his ability to play with so many different kinds of artists. from different genres. Yeah. And his,

really his use of space, you know, and his ability to kind of push back at conventions. I think he's, he's, he's, the herbie of our time.

The next herbie. I mean, Herbie's still the herbie of our time, so that's ridiculous to say, too. And you know what? I actually toyed around with because everybody knows we're overly hyped up on Herbie

around the, you'll hear a podcast. No. I was thinking, I was like, we can't do the next Herbie because Herbie's very much with us. So that was the reason

I chose Oscar Peterson. I wanted somebody that is, is not with us anymore. Their music is with us. Well, and the next Herbie, that's, we're talking about basically our entire generation. I know. I know. We've all, we're all guilty of crimes.

Yeah. So, well, there you go. That was eight artists. What'd you think, man? That's great, man. That was an eclected group, right? I love it. This is really fun, actually.

It's really fun to listen to these pianists. And actually, can we make a playlist? Do you have a playlist of these? I already have it. Yeah. Let's share that playlist here in the... Playlist will be in the description. Yeah, in the description and check it out.

I'm very excited to dig into some of these albums that I haven't heard of. That Gerald Clayton is something that I need to dig into more and more. And if you haven't heard, checked out this last one, this live at Capitol Studios, you've got to give this a go. It's so happening. So, kind of great. Until next time. You'll hear it.