You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Why We Love Larry! (Goldings)

Episode Date: November 2, 2022

Adam and Peter dive into the musical work and life of pianist Larry Goldings. Hans Groiner Links:- Monk Video - Zoom Lesson TeaserLarry Golding's Performances: - Blueberry Hill- James Taylor Accompaniment - Jive Coffee - My Foolish Things- Scary Goldings - Shut-InsGuy with a Gig Vids:- Close EncountersHave 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

Hey, Peter. What's up? We're talking Larry's today. You ready? I love a lot of Larry's, but I love this Larry, I think the most of all the Larry. Is this the greatest Larry? I mean, he's great. I'm Adam Manus.

And I'm Peter Martin. You're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Two pianists, one a little more positive, one a little bit more negative. I was going to say, just talking about music. Today, you are positive feet. And I might be antagonistic Adam or something. Yeah, a little aggravated Adam. You know, you're coming around.

You can't always bat a thousand. I'm hoping to get changed around today because we're talking about one of my favorite musicians. I thought this might be a smile on your face. Yeah, I love this dude. Yeah. Larry Goldings. Okay, so we were debating right before the pods started. First of all, welcome in, much love fam.

Yeah. But we were debating, not debating, we were discussing violently with gloves on. Now, we were just debating a little bit whether or not folks would know, well, we know some folks, if not many of are illuminated, illustrious, and highly erudicious and educated listeners and viewers. That's up. I don't think it's right, so don't go back to that. Like if you're erudite. Exactly.

But erudicious have never heard. Well, you've got to go on an aeroplane to climb that. Oh, boy. No, but I think a lot of our listeners and our viewers. Had it me loved it. Will, of course, know Larry Gold. I mean, he's just like one of the badassest pianist of our generation. Yeah.

But I think quite a few folks that are in the know actually will not know who he is. They might recognize him. But he's a little bit under the radar. I mean, as much as you can be for like doing huge tours. Yeah, I was going to say. John Mayer and Christine Aguilera. But he's a real like jazz OG. Well, yeah.

And piano OG too. I think what's so special about Larry Goldings is that he doesn't conform to like what you think. Right. Someone like if we start off with playing maybe something with him and Bill Stewart and. Oh, I got to go to. Peter Bernstein. I got a good old school one. Someone who plays with that kind of organ trio, right?

Yeah. You wouldn't expect to have a comedy alter ego that's so legit hilarious, right? Well, that and yeah, and that we'll get into that too, but yeah, the musician and then he's super funny. And then he also does all this quirky music at his home, which he's surrounded by all these quirky keyboard instruments. He's kind of a renaissance, man. Almost like vaudeville in terms of like really high level of musicianship. He can sing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, but his roots, and I mean, you know, full disclosure, I've known, I actually met Larry like the second day, maybe even the first day I got to New York in 1987. Ever heard of it when I was going up to go to school there? He was in the very first class at the new school. You're alma mater. That's right, yeah. Alma mater. I don't know if I'm saying that right. But he was in the first class with a very illustrious class, Mike Wiener, Spike Wollner from St. Louis.

and that's actually how I met him and I remember Larry Goldings was living in this really cool one bedroom apartment on Fifth Avenue in the village right by the new school and he had a piano, he had a Steinway I think like upright or something I was like man you know

I was like bouncing from like rooming with people and I was like and he could play already then and he was funny and a super nice guy I think he's from Boston originally but anyway so I always funny funny folks from Boston you notice that like it's outsized how many funny people are from it's actually outside

outside of the Borch belt, but it's still very funny. Yeah, so there you go. Okay, so let's just play some of his music, and then we'll tell a few anecdotes about him and just try to get to the breadth and depth of, you know, sort of just some of his talents, not everything. So this is, and actually Peter Bernstein was, I met him right, that very first day, too.

Peter Bernstein, incredible guitarist, friend of the pod. Friend of the pod, been on the show, yeah. And he's had this long-time trio with Bill Stewart. It's funny because they call it Bill Stewart-Treele, but I mean over the years it's been it's like all three of them it's all three of it really is Larry Goldings Peter Bernstein and this one's I mean this is going back this is uh 1997 so this is of course Larry Golding a young Larry Golding oh but that's kind of like so swing that's where a lot of people sort of first heard him even more than on piano I remember

in the 90s like he was really known he toured around this time well maybe a little bit after this with macy O Parker yeah we remember seeing him at norsea jazz felt so he had just gotten the gig yeah and was just like grooving his ass off on that gig and really became known as an organist. Yeah. But, you know, keyboard, piano, of course. But I think to a lot of folks, this is exactly what they first heard him doing. That's when I actually first discovered him.

I didn't see him with Maceo. My dad saw him with Macyo at Union Station outside. Oh, yeah. In like the summer of 90, whatever. Yeah. And for some reason, I couldn't make it or I wasn't able to there. And I was like, oh, what was it like? Because I was just getting into James Brown's music then.

Yeah. Macyo played with, of course. And he was like, there was this guy on the organ who was unbelievable. It was like Larry something. And we looked him up and discovered him. Yeah, man. That's cool. Killing.

Okay. So another thing that he did, I think a lot of people saw him here, but a lot of jazz, what was that? This is the most jazz piano podcast button I've ever put on a sentence was just like, yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You don't know what else to say.

Anyway, well, you need to make it awkward until you actually, actually kind of look backwards on it and highlighted it. I feel better about highlighting. I'm glad we don't edit this thing. Okay, ever heard of him, ever seen him, James Taylor? One of the greatest. So, Larry's had a long time association. I mean, actually, he was just playing with him the other night on the, on the Colbert show,

accompanying James Taylor, but he's been his MD for a long time and played with him. And it's such a cool thing because I think most people kind of not necessarily on a podcast, but most people in the general public, the GP, as we call it. would know Larry just vaguely as being the pianists. But they did this thing, and I remember seeing this live a number of times around this kind of mid, late 2000s in the aughts where it was called James Taylor. It had a very successful tour an album called One Man Band.

And the funny thing was it was actually a two-man band. Well, it was kind of a one-man band. And James Taylor used to joke about this how Larry was the One-Man Band. And you know how self-effacing James Taylor is. He's just like, I just play a few chords and sing some pretty stuff. you know and that larry was you know playing keyball words and harmonium and and piano beautifully but this is just a little snippet that i found and i remember seeing this like i said this tour and it was really a special thing i mean if you know larry this is some very simple playing

that he's doing kind of an antidote to what we just heard but he's the greatest oh he's so great at this i know yeah and then look he's already doing his humor stuff you know multi-talented Mr. Larry Goldings, Larry Golding. I mean, I could listen to him. A touch. No one better with a triad. And it's almost like really great. It's kind of coming out of the show piano,

like Broadway pianist tradition a little bit. But like the most refined, almost Keith Jarrett-esque. Voice leading. But I mean, but this is a guy that can just rip through bebop on the piano. That's what I first heard. It's really inspiring. Yeah. But to be able to have that kind of control, because I would be like, you know.

Oh, we know. We know. We know. And I've become like a Larry Golding's, you know, a meme or something. So, oh, we know. Yeah. But, I mean, it takes a lot of control to be able to do this. And this is like improvised.

I mean, this is not written out. Plus, you've got to be able to nail these songs in a way that's like interesting. But the James Taylor's fans, they're very peaceful. They're not going to want all those. Don't be messing up their tunes. Yeah, don't don't even think about a tritone substitution unless it's part of the two. They don't need all that. They don't need all that.

Anyway, we'll just listen a little more, but you can go on the deep dive. And James is always great about, you know, featuring him. But mostly it's just like the pianism of what he's doing there, I think, is so great. Just the touch, the, I mean, you could see a transcription of that, and a lot of people would be like, oh, I can play that, but probably not like that. Well, and think about that. So you have a simple tune. Can you create this, you know,

this sort of church style arrangement that's very simple, but very elegant in the way the voice reading is working. Very Presbyterian church. Or Lutheran perhaps? I'm a sucker. Hey man, the Lutheran hymnal is solid. A lot of that is Bach and Martin Luther himself.

I like the way you said. Bach. This is very casual. But that kind of playing is really appealing. Yes. That's really fun. Let's peel back another layer of that appealing playing. Please do.

All right. Do we want to hit a little bit of humor now? So here's what I think is the most interesting. thing about Larry, right? It's like, so he's, he's in one of the great straight ahead trios of the last 25 years. Yes. He plays regularly with not just James Taylor, but James Taylor is certainly like his most regular. Yeah.

But he's also playing with like John Mayer and a ton of high level. A lot of big pop kids. And then he does this. So, okay. On the side. So yes. So then he has this whole other alter ego, Hans Groiner, which is like, and look, This is also eager, but this is like the OG jazz meme.

This is pre-U. I know, I'm sure it is. Because I remember getting this via email, the whole video file in like the real player or something. Amazing. From Peter Bernstein. It was like, look what Larry did. And, yeah. My name is Hans Groiner.

I am from Austria. Beautiful. Look at the editing. Brownell. The home city of Adolf Hitler. Don't hold that fence me The little smile The little smile after he says it

Is not afraid to walk It's so subtle It's so good I grew up playing accordion Very young I think I was two Look where they

I mean Did they go on location To Austria? No that's in California Of course but it was fun I heard the first Jazz That I heard

When I was 7 I did not like it For the most part I still do not like it But when I was Can someone put this guy in a TV show or a film please No, it's so great

And this was before, you know This was so early It almost I mean this says it was uploaded 15 years ago But this was longer This was definitely before that I mean that's when YouTube was online It was 2007 right

I think so Yeah But I'm telling you, I remember when this came because it was like, the only thing that held it back from not being huger was it was pre- YouTube. But then he gets into the- Try to find the spots where I did not like the music, which were many. I was going to fix Monk. He's going to fix Monk, right? It's to make Monk better.

I'll show you a little bit of shades of how. A little bit of shades of make Monk great again, like in advance. I mean, you know, he's a funny guy, you know. He was ahead of his time. to the concept of the monk interpretation. He's just a bit disgust. I cannot listen to more. Just appalling used to all of our Austrian fans, too.

Yeah, yeah, big shout out to. Hey, I had a great time. I was with my family in Austria this summer, so it's all good. Okay. Now he's going to fix it. Now he's going to fix it. I think you will like it as much as I know I will. Yeah.

Really well, though. The G-cord just kills me. It's such a great choice. He's fixed it. Oh, see, I even, see, he's doing it. I'm already kind of trying to hip it up. He's got it. He's got it.

Anyway, so that's the original video. But I mean, okay, so the idea is very funny, and I think there's plenty of suggestions to come up with an idea like that. Just bludence. What's in my cup here? Let me shout out to our new open studio gear. And some Tito's. No, like,

T don'ts, more like He don't. But what? But the execution is what's so good. He's like legitimately Seen and seen. A funny dude. Yeah.

Super funny. So I got one more. Can I just do one more quick? Because he's done a bunch of things and he did this master class. You were talking about, but this is from a little promo. This is pretty recent. Well, it says 2020, but I think it was. Yeah, maybe it was that.

I can go. Why is this funny already? Look how he's light he's played. And I don't think anybody's ever quite done that. Because the mic is clipping. And I'll write a little introduction song for the master class. I just make these things up, and then I walk right up the scale. And I stay diatonic because that's where...

Was that a little allusion to James Taylor there? Just a quick one, walk right up to... You can do that minor right there because you're going to... Kind of slip it in and out of the accent a little bit. The importance of limiting what you know to achieve a more universal sound. And I think it really is about learning things and forgetting them. But second to that, it's...

Don't learn them in the first place. Say we have a minor chord, which I try to limit the use of. of the minor chord. Doesn't make me feel good. It's a chord that I think should be used less in general. But if you're going to use it, say we're on the relative minor, and I think it's called the relative minor,

because a relative of the person who came up with this chord told them about this chord, and it's some kind of conversation that happened between relatives. You're going to want to be careful about the different type of... Oh, man. I can't hear this stuff all day.

That's not even, so that's just one of his characters. Do you have any of the other, like the, what is it, the guy with the gig ones? Those are so good. Oh, yeah. Now, that's good because that's what I actually have. So some folks, yeah, might have seen. I forgot that's what it's called. That's right, the guy with the gig, because he does the, the series.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is the, this was one, was this during the pandemic? He got creative. He could tell, yeah. Okay. Okay, we're going to need a player. Well, this is so. grade too because Larry has done so many like big time gigs

where you're like oh my god I'm this great thing but that's always the time when we can all relate this piano player then you're just the piano player the keyboard player where's the keyboard player where's the keyboard player we're much to do the national anthem mr. Taylor's ready to go this is Larry the lighting and everything you're winging it my friend well some of this is from a like a Steve Spielberg movie no but he's lit to match He wasn't in the movie? Oh.

Barbara Streis. I think he played with Barbara Streisand, too, actually. Anyway, this stuff is great. Was there another guy with the gig, and we want to do it? There's a ton, but you should check out his Larry's own YouTube channel. If I may, Peter,

yes. I want, maybe we can do some stuff that he's doing sort of closer to now. Yeah, I got some good stuff. Some really interesting things happening even like this year. Yeah. So one of my faiths.

Can you bring my... So he's been working with this tap dancer Melinda Sullivan. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And just check this out. Oh, this is okay. Okay, first of all, just pause that. You got to take it back. So this, we're going to do a little bit of a clinic here.

The way he kicks off, I love Larry's time. I know. Like, I mean, everybody knows about his funk time, and I got some great organ flunks. Like his pocket. There's no different between the funk pocket and this. Exactly. So this is like just a master class in how to just gently. but resolutely just go

I mean just listen to the way he count I don't know if he's counting off or she's tapping but it's just so right it reminds me of Monk's actual version of this tune solo piano I mean not the way he's playing just the way it just hits that groove it's so powerful oh he's just like tapping his foot but look how relaxed he is

ooh goes up to the keys on the bass little chord bass there she's swinging on that look at her just yeah the little taint to tang tang Very simple voices.

We gotta get Larry on open the studio. Coming soon, 2023. I'm committing you, Larry. I know you're watching this, Larry. Man, he's so stuck in the groove right now. Monk and flows. These two together, man. Yeah.

Because this is like some high-level stuff from her, too, the dynamics, the swing. It's not easy. This is at his crib, right? Yeah. All those little four-way clothes, voices, the triads. Oh.

Man, this is like, coping. I mean, it's so like, it's monk, but it's Shirley Horn to Macy Hank Jones Eric Garner So that's Larry

and Melinda Sullivan on the kicks Pretty great So great Okay so I got something here This just shows I mean we were talking about His versatility

We talked about that at the beginning Right his versatility And this is some more recent stuff That I think He's attracting a whole new Sort of generation of Fans with the scary pockets You know the scary Goldings project

with Jack Conti and some other folks Mono Neon who's not on this one. And now John Schofield. Yeah, John Schofield and Mono Neon and who was on drums on that. I'm going to space on that. But this is like the OG. Lewis Cole.

Louis Cole. Lewis Cole. This is like the OG Scary Pocket. Oh, is that okay. I love this first record that they did. Yeah. And I mean, I grabbed this one because there's a lot of cool stuff. You can go down a deep, beautiful rabbit hole on this.

But this kind of gets right to it in terms of like, well, you'll hear. Uh-huh. of i movie that's funny that's funny so you know i mean tasty can we say that's tasty right there can we say that's tasty sounds are amazing yeah again his pocket yeah it's like star of the show

star the show for sure um okay and then i got a couple you got anything else that's it for me i don't want to okay this is kind of a can a little bit uh this is super recent i mean like his stuff pops up and then i'm always seeking him out but he posted this just the other day uh and we'll link to all this stuff and this is on the Larry Golding's channel here when was this posted yeah three days ago um but this is a little bit akin to the these foolish things that you played uh in terms of like he's singing

on here which i hadn't heard him sing much but his pocket the way i just want everyone to listen to like the way he goes in and out of the time we talk about like you know you're stuck in the you know on a swing groove or you're going robotic like he kind of eases his way in and out because he's got that that great feel and that great confidence and this is almost like just incredible like oh i walked in the hotel lobby and like the greatest pianist and vocalist not his vocals are not great in the way where it's like oh my god it's elophist gerald but it's just it's just so right though let's be shut in shut in we'll stay in see the day in in the private way that we do let the riffraff and the rap

I'd rather be shutting I mean, these voicing are like, this is super inside baseball right here, right? We'll say, thanks, but no thanks. I love people that can just play really great stuff

and make it seem so easy. I know. You read this, you'd be like, oh, this is all very, yeah, yeah. It's just like the timing of it. I mean, he's just messing around, too. That's the other thing. It's like the most unpretentious greatness, though.

I'd rather be shut in with you. Now he's starting to hint at that time, right? He's playing. We'll cook a good meal. We'll read our books. It's allowed. I'll allow it. And we'll trade those loving looks.

You know what this is? It's just like, you know, if you're having a party at your house and someone's like, oh, Larry plays piano. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, he sings too. No, no, no. Oh, okay, fine. And they just, like, he just sits now.

And everyone's like, holy shit. You know, it's like. Yeah, yeah. Like a party trick. Do you know this too? I don't know this too. Do you? No.

No trouble in this bubble with a population of two. Let the hurry and the worry fade. I mean, you know, that's some high level. right there. It's some very it's like subtly high level. I love stuff like that. Hey listen we love Larry. Sue us. Sue us. We love Larry. No Larry don't sue us for playing all your shit today.

Larry's well connecting in Los Angeles with the legal system. That's right. Okay, I have one more thing. This is going to be a little surprise. Okay, cool. This dropped like, uh, no, that's you there, my friend. That's not a surprise. Okay. This dropped an hour ago. Like right before we were getting a Yamaha reface. Is that what that is?

Okay. So this, I just watched one time and I was like okay I'm all over this. Blueberry Hill first of all I was like not Fats Domino Blueberry I'm a big big Fats fan of course in this tune but this is so dope we can just listen to it and maybe even roll out on it sure hopefully the copyright um

overlords of YouTube and Larry Golders won't take this down for us but check this out oh wait a second to get my thing up here okay anyway big shout to Larry Goldings thank you Larry for everything we're bringing you on the pod well he's doing a workshop for us I think next month Or is it this month at Open Studio?

Yeah, it's this month. I'm super star. So become a member, and you don't have to, I mean, you can become an Open Studio Pro member, but that's available to all members, right? Yeah, yeah. I believe, yeah. So check that out. We'll have a link below to become a member.

Larry Goldings, Blueberry Hill. One hour ago. Breaking news. That was some fats right there. Doing a solo tour for Europe. Why can't he be an I? He's an IG artist, right? He's an OG IG artist.

No. It's not the same. Editing or anything. Classic jazz, jazz club. camera setup. Yeah, surveillance video.