You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Yes, And?

Episode Date: August 19, 2022

Adam and Peter talk about improvising in everyday life. 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

Hey, Peter. Hey, picture this. Yes. I'm going to set the stage here. Yeah. You don't know anything about the piano. Check. You have to start over.

Yes. But somehow, yes. You have all the wisdom you've had from being a musician for all these years. Wait, I'm confused. Me too. Let's just try to figure this out. Okay. I'm Anna Manus.

And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear Podcast. Jazz. Explain. Oh, it was a pregnant pause. You know, Peter, the intros can't be all knockouts every single time. I were trying. I was trying.

I was going to say. say that we could start a new segment. Okay. Which would be an evaluation of our own intro, an inward looking, self-aware. Oh, it's so much fun. I wish the listeners could hear, because, you know, sometimes we'll take a few swings at the intro. Yeah.

We never talk about what we're going to do. No, never. We literally just press record. Yeah. And then one of us says, hey, Adam or, hey, Peter. Yeah. And then we just go. We're improvising.

We pride ourselves on this lack of preparation. Now, sometimes it works better than other. others. That's right. And in fact, I think some listeners would say most of the time it doesn't work. Well, you should hear the ones you don't hear. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We should just let it roll. We should actually release some outtakes. That would be funny. That would elevate the intakes to another level. People would have a better appreciation. I think we probably have a lot of outtakes on here that we could just make a whole episode of intro outtakes. Well, the thing is, the challenge with doing this, and especially with improvising is, of course, we're playing off of each other. But I think we pride

ourselves on doing this within the musical world so much that we're like, why can't we do this? Because we're always talking about like, look, if you want to learn how to improvise, of course, these are the specific skills you need to learn your instrument, you need to hear train, you need to have reference points, you need to know harmony, you need to be able to relax and breathe. All these things are important. Yeah. But then, you know, something that we do mention and probably should mention more is you have to use the reference point in the framework of having a conversation.

Well, yeah. In English or whatever language you speak. like what we're doing because everybody can do that let me ask a question have you ever done like improv comedy yes you have i have so you know the the golden rule to improv comedy is the yes and whoever has the gold makes the rules exactly okay it's the yes and right so whatever you say i i'm going to acknowledge and agree with and then expand on that you don't say no because you don't shut it down you certainly don't do the Michael Scott thing of just, I've got a gun. Right, right.

It was his improv strategy. Right, right. Every scene he had a gun. And then they made him take, give them all away, even the ones down in the little, you know, the hidden, the hidden invisible. No, but the yes and is, I think it's applicable to our intros, but also the playing music as well. Yeah. Improvising. The yes and is important.

Wow. I wish I'd known that before my one big, you know, I did improv comedy in front of an audience once. That was stand-up comedy, though. That's not improv? No, that's solo. Improv is when it's like. It's like Saturday Live. Oh, right, got you.

But I was improvising solo. It's like solo piano. It's even harder. Were you improvising off the top of your head? Well, I had a loose framework. Okay. I had a couple of jokes because I got nervous at the last. At the first I was going to do it totally improvised.

I would be so nervous. I was very nervous. But I mean, well, I didn't script it, but I had like three stores I knew I wanted to tell. And I kind of had like, you know, like a Y position in terms of like if they laugh at this, I continue down that road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I abandoned and go somewhere else. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Tell me there's video of this. Well, there was video. Reginald Veal. Oh, yeah. The Great Basis took video, but he said he erased it because he was running out of space on his phone. So he had to erase the video. So I was like, is that how, is that the level that, is that how much he cherished this? Right.

Or is he that chinty with his memory. I don't know which. And he doesn't erase Dave Chappelle's stand-up specials. I bet, exactly. Yeah, yeah. I'd give it a solid C plus. So on C-plus. Right.

Which, as you know, for my grading, that's pretty much an F. That's bad. Yeah, Peter once said B minus might as well be an F. Yeah, to me, everything to a B is good. Everything below, it's just like, come on. But how did it feel as you were doing it? It felt pretty good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It didn't, I mean, there was a couple of hiccups, but I mean, people were laughing. Nobody was crying laughing, but people weren't, like, throwing things at me. You didn't bomb. I definitely didn't bomb. I think that's a success for your first time in stand-up. I follow a lot of stand-ups. I really admire stand-ups.

I do think there's a link between stand-ups and musicians. Yeah. Like, I think there is a, especially jazz musicians. I think that's why like Dave Chappelle actually really and Robert Glastor have like a keen relationship. And there's a lot of standups that enjoy music and specifically jazz. Fred Armisen not included. I think he really likes it. No, but there is this, I think there is a similarity in that you're going up on stage.

You're really taking what's in the room. Even if you have something prepared. Yeah. And you're trying to connect with the vibe in the room. Yeah. And there's a lot of risk involved. It's a very personal process. Right, right.

Yeah. And I mean, you know, there's a lot of parts to it that we have an advantage in terms of just being performers. Like you're on stage. Yep. There's an audience there. So you're not, I mean, although I was certainly more nervous than normal, but I kind of know what it means to like go on stage and people's like attention span and what the energy of that is. It's not like just totally, you know, like some people are really funny and then like, you should do standup. But they've never been up on stage. But they've told jokes to like their family and friends. Right. It's different in a bar.

And then they go on stage and they choke up. So that didn't happen to me. But you also as an improviser You have an experience of trying something And it's not landing Exactly And then do you shove it down their throat Or do you like make a you turn? Yeah yeah

But I do think you know what it felt like Was a little bit like playing another instrument That maybe you can play But you just don't have that comfort level To what you're normally doing And it's all different when you're up there And yeah when you get up there Like when you're sitting there with the guitar

And you can actually do this They make some nice sounds But then you get up there in real time And like not perfect sound And light and everything It's a different thing. Yeah. You know, I play guitar as a second instrument,

and I'm not a great guitarist, but I love to do it. And I can, you know, I'm a good rhythm guitar. I'm solid, I can chunk out some stuff. And the very first big thing I did with guitar, and the only thing I did on this appearance is we, with the wonderful Aaron Bodie, we were on Prairie Home Companion on NPR, right? Wow.

Big national radio broadcast. Right. And it was my first time on national radio. This is like when I was a kid. And I'm playing guitar, not piano. And I was, I just remember, just feeling like, have I ever even held the guitar before? Like it didn't, you know what I mean?

Like, if I were at the piano, I think I would have been like super comfy and not super comfy, but I would have been at least whatever. But here I am like on an instrument that I'm not like it's still my second instrument. Right. You know what I mean? Didn't you find too that just the, um, the physicality was so different. Like now you're, you're a multi-sing. Yeah.

It feels like holding a cactus in my harm. Right, right. I mean, you're, you're a multi-instrumentalist now. So you've been in a different situation. but like how much of a security blanket is how we sit, how we stand, how we hold the mic, and all those kinds of things. It was a very helpful experience for that. I'm going to throw you a curveball here, Mr. Maness. And now let's hear a little something from our sponsor.

So, Peter, today we're talking about, this is a little thought. I thought we're just going to tell stories today. This is good if we want, but we do have a thought experiment. Maybe we can just tell stories in the framework of this thought experiment. Okay. So this is, how would we start from scratch today? So if you... Wicke, wick, wick, week.

Not that kind of scratch, but I can see, I can maybe kind of feel the vibe of your comedy routine now. It's very obtrusive. Very pun-centered. So how would we start? I could drop some of my general... Let me just tell you one of my jokes. Okay, please. Because I love for the audience...

This would be great. Yeah, you're my... Let me get my big bribe clips up. So Adam's starting to lean back like he's actually going into a paid audience situation here. I like that. No, this will be good for the listeners, and you can tweet it. me. This is bad.

No, yeah. Well, get that one ready just in case. And then you can have a more positive one. Okay, okay, okay. Ready too, just in case. And look, you guys, tweet at me. I am Peter Martin. Are we still doing the you'll hear of Twitter?

That fell off. We know that. We know that you're repeated. I am. That's my, why is that my name? I have no idea. Got it, got it. Anyway, tweet at me and let me know what you think of this.

So this was one of the ones that landed a little bit better. Okay. With the audience. Okay. Now, so I just go into it or shall I explain it first? Do you a bit, man. Okay, I'm going to do it. Okay, so I said, hey, you know, we're here at a jazz festival.

We were at a jazz festival. Something to paint the picture. So you're outside or you inside? We're inside in a theater, kind of an, not an or not an ornate, but like a real theater with a lot of people. This was before a concert or something? This was opening up for the jazz festival in Tucson, Arizona. Diane Reeves, ever heard of her?

Oh, wow. Multi-Gramie Award winner. You might be at a disadvantage already because these are people who are not coming to cease stand-up comedy. No, but, you know, but normally you'll have like an opening band or it. It used to be, you know, up until not that long ago, it was common to have an open, the opening act be comedy for a music, you know, for a jazz show. There's actually a rich history of that. The Village Vanguard, you'd have, you know, comedians open for miles and all different things.

Famously, comedians don't like that. No, they don't like that. It's not. But they like to work. They like to work, but it's not a great crowd for them. That's right, right, right. So I did say, okay, so check it out. So I had some music-centric things because I'm trying to, you know, speak to the room and to the moment.

I said, hey, everybody. Yeah, so glad that you're out here, you know, in a jazz. festival today. I can tell this is a real sophisticated jazz crowd. We're excited about that. The show's going to get started in a minute and, you know, jazz. I love jazz. I play jazz. You're actually going to hear me play piano, most likely in a few minutes, depending on how this goes.

You know, but I'm really excited to be here and jazz has meant so much to me in my life. I actually connected with my beautiful wife, Kelly, over jazz. When we were dating, you know, I was, of course, trying to brag

about how much I know about jazz, how I play, jazz how great I am a you know trying to impress her or whatever and um yada yada yada and she you know being the competitive spirit that she has was sort of bragging back to this is really weird sorry it's just sidebar because i'm here trying to reenact the thing that's great now i'm improvising it we're scrapping our scratch episode we'll do this tomorrow okay so so anyway so you know i'm trying impress her but she's like oh i know jazz you know we used to listen to jazz a lot my dad was a big jazz this is kelly was a big fan i'm like oh really so i'm like oh really so i'm like oh this is going to be great because she's into something that I'm into. So this is my in. But also,

I'm going to be able to one-upper on this. So I'm going to be the expert on this no matter what. So we're bonding over this thing, but I'm going to seem, because not only can I play jazz, but I know jazz. And she's like, yeah, I'm listening to jazz. And so I said the first time I went to her apartment, she was living in Illinois outside of Chicago. I said, oh, let me check out some of your, no, she was like going to change. We're going to go out for dinner or something. and I'm like looking through her jazz CDs. CDs were the big thing at the time. And I'm looking through and it's like Kenny G.

Georgie. It's a lot of smooth jazz. It's a lot of smooth jazz. So I had to decide if I was going to make a run for it or not during that time. You know what? I'm realizing this joke has no punchline now. I think that could have been a new first problem with the crowd maybe. It's like usually there's a setup and a punchline.

But if you only have a long setup, it might not land as, as, as, you know, as hard as a punch. Okay, that's right. No, no, I remember this. There was a little more of a setup. I remember the punch line out. So I said, yeah, I'm describing all this and, you know, Kenny G. But I'm also getting nervous.

I'm like, that's not really my kind of jazz, you know. Now, the reason that I'm telling you about this actually is very interesting because this is my first time doing standup comedy, which it was. And I said, you know, pull the audience on your side with a little bit of pity, you know. So I said, part of the reason I'm exposing Kelly like this is right before I came out on stage, I got a little nervous. planning on improvising this. I had some ideas on some jokes and I hope you've enjoyed them so far. But about 30 minutes before coming out here, I kind of panicked. I started sweating. I was backstage. Nobody's around. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, like sweat being. And I'm just thinking about tomatoes hitting me and like panicking and running to the piano and just starting to play,

abandoning the comedy. So I called my wife, my dear wife, Kelly, my best friend, my partner, my soulmate. I called her on my cellular device. She picked up on her cellular device 2,000 miles away. Yeah. And hello, hey, honey, it's me. Is this still part of the bit? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, you said you wanted to hear part. He's a long-form comedian. Wow, we have a little heckler in the pod episode here. So I said, Kelly, you know, how are you doing? She's like, oh, cool. She's like, have you done the gig? Yeah. I said, no, I'm, you know, on the West Coast.

So we're starting. So, oh, cool. And I say, so just want to let you know kind of a surprise tonight. I'm actually doing a comedy. routine. She's like, what are you talking about? I said, I'm going to, I said, you know how everybody's always like, oh, you're so funny. Well, Diane actually asked me tonight to do a little setup, you know, well, to tell the truth, I said I was going to do it. She's been asking me to do it. Yeah, yeah. After much, you know, um, asking. So I'm going to do a stand-up comedy. So I'm like,

hello. Credibility. You got asked by the artist. That's good. That's right, right. Um, so I, and Kelly's like, it's just like, hello, you're still there, Kelly? And she's like, don't do it. I was like, I was like, I'm calling you. I'm about to do it. I'm about to do it. I'm calling you to get, you know, to get, to get some confidence, you know, to make a connection. And you're telling me, don't do it. She's like, don't do it.

She said, we can't survive on my yoga earnings alone. Oh. My wife's a yoga instructor. She maybe should have gone on stage. And so I was like, instead of argue with it, I was like, you know what, later for you, I hung up on her. I was like, so that's the reason I'm telling you this joke making fun of her with Kenny G and stuff is because it's a little bit of retroactive. It went over better in Tucson. No, that's good.

It was just sort of that kind of stuff. Also, I feel like I've heard this story before. Like you've told this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's in your arsenal. But it's funny, it's a funny premise. Was that the only time you did stand up? Yes.

Did you do five, ten minutes? What was about 15 minutes? 15 minutes? That's a long time for your first time up, man. Well, considering that joke alone was like seven minutes of pointless meandering. I mean, you can imagine. You could tighten it up. Okay.

Now, how would we apply that to a jazz soul? That would be the equivalent of, like, you know, starting with one thing and then kind of meandering around and then going in another direction. Yeah, I mean, I will say, too, you did start, your first gig was in a theater opening for a musician, right? And I think, so that would be like a jazz musician starting in a theater opening for a musician. You know what I mean? Right. Like if you were just starting out, your first gig was opening for Diane Reeves. But you know what?

that reality was probably easier than going into like a club and doing an open mic. Yeah, because there the expectation is, oh, you think you're funny, you're getting up there. This was more like, oh, this is kind of a surprise. I immediately said it was like, I'm going to be playing piano. Like, that was my backup. You did. If you don't like this, just stick around. I'm really

good at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, you know, I did a little bit of making fun of Diane. Not making fun of her. I was, but I was just like, you know, a lot of times, I did this great. I did a little bit of a thing about But, you know, everybody talks about jazz divas. You got Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and all their crazy demands.

And I can tell you, this is a bunch of BS. I don't like the word diva, you know, and over the many years of working with Diane to say that she's been anything, but a wonderful person and friend to work with would not be true because she's constantly, I did something like that kind of a, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, it was what it was. That's great, man. Yeah. So I don't know, how would you, how would you like compare it up to like your first experience is playing music? You know what I mean? This is, first of all, thank you for telling the story because it's pretty funny. It was, you know what I mean?

What's funny is like on more of a meta level, it's funny that I did it and how I did it. The actual content is not that funny. No, knowing you, I'm not surprised you did it because you are very funny. You are, if not my funniest friend, like in a general hanging situation. Right. You are up there. Well, that's what I learned. Like being funny in a general.

And I had told Diane this actually for years Because she had been saying she's like you're so funny You should do stand up Yeah she never said you should do stand up at my show Actually now that I remember it She was always like you should do stand up But my reply to her and other people that say that you're so funny It's like there's a big difference between being funny among your friends

And being funny in a professional situation Yeah you know Which I kind of learned that night Maybe that's why I haven't done it since You know I mean I held my own because I am funny But it's like I realized how much work I had to do it's kind of the equivalent of like I've got a good singing voice.

I was blessed with a good. I wasn't, but I'm saying like something. Like you have a good singing voice. But I'm sure you realize that a certain... Thank you. I'm sure you realize a certain point. They just using that, yeah, you can do a few things. But if you really want to do that...

You have to spend time on it. But also you realize... Like the art and the craft of it. Yeah, you realize too what an advantage. Like, so we have advantages that we start playing music at a very young age. A lot of the greatest stand-up comedians, they didn't start when they were 35. Right.

You know, they started when they were... kids, essentially, and that those years do help you. Absolutely. To become, like, if you want to get to the highest ashton. Right. Right. I mean, but to cross that Rubicon, Rubicon. Yeah.

Rubicabla? To cross that Gonzala Rubicabla, Rubicon, you know, from being funny amongst your friends to being funny. I mean, it's like, you know, I'm tall and I'm moderately athletic. That doesn't mean you're going to have, I mean, you're going to have a certain level of basketball, but then the work sets in. Yeah, yeah. And so that's what kind of faced me.

And I was like, oh, I don't know if I haven't in me to do this. I'll go back to being funny among my friends. Funny guy. Yeah, also it just happens that I'm one of the greatest pianists alive. So I'll just do that. I think I'll just keep doing all that. Stop now. Stop now.

I'm one of the best jazz pianists on the planet. So maybe I'll just keep being one of those. But think about the people that like become great at, I mean, really great at several different things that are not necessarily that closely related. Actually, like we're playing Christian McBride's voice. He's an incredible basis, maybe one of the great bases. and he's also an incredible commentator, like with his voice and everything. You know, it's pretty amazing.

He's really, really good. Yeah, there's, I mean, you think about like even people like Renaissance man, Glenn Gould, right? Yeah. We like quit playing piano in the middle of his career to work on radio and got really good at being a radio producer and a broadcaster. Yeah. Which is odd, right?

I know. It's true. Well, I think that what it shows is that, like, once you develop, like, and it's always that push and pull, that tug between talent versus hard you know and everybody wants to be like it's a talent or isn't hard work it's obviously a combination totally but like what is that combination and luck too by the luck and luck and timing yeah and yeah where are you born in what century who are your parents yeah you know it's all so but you look at people that are able to do like what you're saying with gleng gould and um one advantage that he did

have when he went into radio is he knew what kind of like hard work the amount of dedication and how to execute on that to get to the high highest level of doing something. Right. So like that's what I kind of saw with the comedy. I was like, and I just decided not, I mean. Right. You know what it takes to be a pianist. Right. And you know that to be equally good at comedy would take that same. Exactly. That same dedication. Even if I feel like I maybe have a little bit of talent for that or whatever. Glenn Gould's already Glenn Gould on the piano by this time. Right. And he's like, okay, if I need to be a broadcast or I need to do radio, I need to be. Right. You know what that mountain top is a different mile top, but you know how much energy and time. So you don't go into that being like,

oh I'm just this is going to come easy to me even though he you know had great ideas and commentary and a voice and all that kind of stuff he had the talent there but I'm sure that he also understood you go in for sure with your eyes wide open well this was super fun man thank you for telling the story I'm inspired I kind of want to you know I'm I'm not like funny in a in a you're funny guy I'm funny guy too I can be I'm a quipper that used to be my nickname I don't know if you knew that but back in my college my new school days I used to call me quipper quipper because I can quip but I have a fantasy of trying stand-up at some point.

Just to go up there and do it, you know? You should do it. Maybe next episode. Such a fan. Nope. I'm not going to do it here. I'm not going to do it in front of our dozens and dozens of dear listeners. Thousands.

We do have tens of thousands. Hey, speaking to your listeners, thank you for joining us today. We're going to get to our, I don't even know if we should. Well, let's know, let's tell them, because we'll do it for in two days. For the next episode. Yes. Tell them the title. How we would start from scratch today.

Yeah. As a musician, not a comedian. Until then. You'll hear it. Base solo. I keep doing that. I keep having the big fright. Come on, Kay.

All right. Try it again. Until next time. You'll hear it.