You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - YHI Live: Q&A

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

Peter and Adam sign off their live session by taking a few listener questions.For more information on Elements of Jazz Piano (mentioned in this episode!), go here: https://www.openstudiojazz.com/elements-of-jazz-pianoAnd be sure to have a look at Open Studio's brand new course from Edu Ribeiro: Brazilian Jazz Drumming! Learn authentic Brazilian grooves like samba, baião, choro, and more from one of the world's greatest Brazilian jazz drummers. Go to https://www.openstudiojazz.com/brazilian-jazz-drumming for more information.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 and leave a comment for this episode.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, Adam, what's up? Do you like questions? I like answers more. You do? Well, let's do a little question and answer. Question, answer. QA, QA. Bam.

Madam Mattis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Daily jazz advice coming at you here is Friday. Jazz advice and a D-flat that just won't quit. And this thing has been ringing all week. We're excited to be here because this is our final episode on our first ever YouTube live. You missed it if you're listening to the podcast, but if you're with us,

now that's great and we're gonna do some more if people like it people seem to like it right I think they're digging it yeah future podcast listeners are like what are you talking about I don't understand

mind blown but that's okay all right let's get right to the question so we've been doing this YouTube let's just talk about why we're getting right why are we rushing so much why don't you let the people know I'm good okay let's just relax

and chill a little chill time no Adam actually has somewhere to go so we're gonna deliver great content quickly we gotta do this with no edits that's a little bit of okay

But that's a given. What are we talking about? No, we don't have to rush through anything. I'm good to go. What are we talking about? We're talking about cute questions and answers here. Oh, that's right. So we've been on YouTube live all day recording these.

If you're listening to this on the podcast, this is next Friday. We, the week before had a YouTube live that you missed probably. Yeah. We talked about that. You're bad. Okay. But we took questions all day in the YouTube chat section. And so we're going to do our best to answer as many of these as honestly as we can.

And let's start right with the first one. from Jesse Rieks. What's each of your favorite impression to do of a jazz community member? I know yours. Well, yeah. I was just going to say. This is the great, the great, the legend,

my friend and someone I look up to a lot, the wonderful Lou Donaldson. And have we ever done this? Have I ever done this in an actual episode where I, I'm so, like, I look up to him so much, I'm a little afraid to do it. I do it a lot off camera. Andrew, has he ever done this?

Yeah. I've done it. I've done it. Andrews. What you know about bebop or the blues? I never heard you play either one of them. I mean, Lou Donaldson is such a legend. It sounds like I'm mocking him. No, it's a lot of love.

It's a lot of love, yeah. But he's just, he's one of the wittiest. We should do an all-star witty. Or maybe we did it. I think we did do it. Oh, yeah. You think I can't remember because I'm old. I've been playing rings around you since he was a little boy, though.

But Lou says all these great things. If you ever get a chance, I mean, he does it on stage. You know, he's older now. but he's as witty and as sharp as he's ever been, even more so a lifetime of just musical knowledge. I mean, he's a genius with the saxophone, which is easy to forget because he's so funny, and he's so witty.

Aligator Boogaloo. Yeah, I mean, he just settled a bunch of stuff. One of them was, I remember he was talking about a certain young saxophonist that I won't mention their name because they're actually really good. He loves cracking on great people, Betty Carter and Cecil Taylor, you know, but he was talking about this young saxophone player.

He's like, yeah, I heard such and such down at the vanguard. I told Lorraine it sounded pretty good But if you really want to make some money I mean it was packed in there But I said let people in for free Lock the door And then as soon as he plays Make him pay to get out

That's like classic Lou Donaldson You know so I love I love Lou and that's my favorite I have a visual one which isn't great for our audio listeners But for the YouTube folks I'll describe it It's my Brad Meld out Oh Oh so serious and introspective

Adam's getting the vibe going Let me describe what's going on right now. I turn my head and then I close my eyes. I pout my lips a little bit. And this is also out of love because when he does that, I get amped up. Exactly. Well, and the thing is, like Brad Mellon,

if you were to take away the sound of what he's playing, he would have this pompous look of self-importance and self-adulation that would be so off-putting. But when you hear the beautiful sounds coming out of the piano, it matches so beautifully that it's all good, right? So good. Yeah, yeah. So good.

It's part of the show for me. Part of the show. Okay, so next is from the show. Paolo and Paolo asks question for Peter and Adam. Wait, would you skip him? Oh, wait, no, I did. From Potato in Despair, which is a great username. What are your favorite genre? What are your favorite genres of ice cream?

Now, that's an interesting question. It's not flavors. They ask genres. A genre. Yeah, well, I feel like they're trying to kind of cross-pollinate into jazz and music, which I appreciate, which will enable us to have authority when we talk about this, right? I mean, if I'm not talking flavor and I'm talking genre of ice cream, I'm going all day long, Ted Drew's frozen custard concrete. Not an ice cream, though. And not a genre.

I would put it in the ice cream genre. It's a frozen custard. You said it yourself. It's ice cream with eggs, but it is delicious. It is a genre unto itself. Which one did you say chocolate chip concrete? I mean, for flavor, it's Oreo all day. Oh, Oreo's good, yeah.

The peanut butter, the Reese's is, I mean, we grew up on that stuff, which explains a lot of our... None of that. It's the Oreo. All day and day. Wow, so dogmatic. So dogmatic. Okay. Well, they did ask each of us.

So my faith, I'm kind of obsessed right now with the salty caramel or caramel, depending of where you're from, add jennies. Are you familiar with jennies? I do enjoy some jenny's. Andrew, do you know about jennies? You do like sugar, I've noticed. So you might want to get with jennies. It's in the west.

Well, it's there, it's from Columbus, Ohio. And I guess it's a chain, but it's incredible. They have it here on Euclid in the central west end. And Jenny's salty caramel obsessed. totally overpriced and overdeliver. Okay? Can we move on to the next question? Yeah, we can.

Okay, this is from Paolo, which I believe is Italian for Peter. No, no, it's Italian for Paul. Rachel Morgan left her phone in the pod cave. Ooh, let's see what kind of text matter. It's Friday. She might be getting some, what up, girl, what you're doing tonight?

Okay. Anyway, Paolo says, question for Peter and Adam. How do you move from good non-pro jazz pianist to decent pro? I think you have to watch a lot of teams. TV and go for some long walks. Go for some long walks on the beach.

Preferably listen to Kenny G on your iPad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yep. No, so good non-pro to decent pro. I actually think that the non-pro to pro is really, like there's some non-decent pro players we know. That's more of like a market thing. Like if you're in an area that doesn't have a lot of good players, you could become pro not really being that decent. It's also your comfort level with being, you know, not having a lot of money too.

Yeah. Anybody can just be like, I'm going pro. Yeah, yeah. And that's, and try to make a go of it. It's so different than like basketball. Could you imagine I'm just like, yeah, I'm going pro.

Yeah. I mean, it's going to be a little harder to be able for me to monetize my basketball skills. Even though I feel like there's some pianists out here that are pros that are about as good at basketball, as piano as I am at basketball. Agreed.

So maybe it's a little more competitive. But the thing about it is, I think professional, doesn't that just mean that you are being paid to do what you do? I think a part of it is like how seriously you treat it. Of course, we're always trying to get better, but you don't turn a corner one day and become pro-level. But I think as soon as you put on the hat of a professional and say, look, I'm going to really treat this like a professional, like a job. And not like a, oh, this is a job,

but like, wow, I'm going to really take pride in this and try to fulfill my promise with this. Then I think that you can make that turn pretty quickly, actually. Yeah, I mean, there are a bunch of little things you can do under that, but I think that's a great tent post for that. I mean, You have to start with a regular practice routine and practice things that you're not good at. Those are two huge things that can get you to. Because what I'm guessing Powell means is how do I get good? Yeah. And all of those things.

But really, it's how serious are you willing to treat it? Serious. That's the trick is serious. It's not the level if you're doing the things that we talk about and practice routines and listening and all those great things, you're going to continually get back. I mean, continually. There's the ups and peaks and valleys, but you're going to improve as a player. But the idea of, like, a professional is a mindset, I think.

more than anything. It's not a level. So, look, we've both done things that, from teaching to, you know, working in business, to doing whatever in which I think we've tried to become and have become professional. And part of that is just deciding, I'm going to treat this like it's a job, even if it's a side hustle or whatever. Like a great Uber driver. They don't have to be a trained chauffeur, but if they treat it seriously instead of just like getting the back of my junkie car, right?

Agreed. Okay. All right. The next question is from riddle reader. That's a great name too. Looking for tips for playing over chromatic descending turnaround, eG, C7, E flat 7, D minor, 7, D-flat-7 at the end of the form of a jazz blues. In a way that doesn't sound contrive.

Yeah. That's Ed. Thanks for the question, Ed. Yeah. That's a good question. That could be a challenging turnaround if you're not sure what to do. Yeah. I mean, without a time today to go on a deep dive on this, I would say the number one thing

you can do to not sound contrived in those kind of situations is to find phrases that stretch over the chords. And they don't even necessarily have to be longer phrases depending on how quickly you're going through. But the idea is a phrase that it does not, I mean, it's amazing how many, like when people get facility like harmonic and melodic facility and start to link those up

and understand how these complicated chords, whatever, chords work, how much they start to feel like they have to fit into those because while now I know the chords, so I'm going to play something. thing. I'm going to play a phrase over these chords. All scale arpeggio. Yeah, yeah. And every note has to exactly match. And I always

say a great example that is Donnelly. Like if you know the chords to Donnelly and the melody, the melody does not precisely line up with what the chord that stretches over and stuff. And so don't get boxed in. Do not be a, you know, a boxy kind of player. Don't be as dogmatic as Peter is with ice cream genres as you

as you are with scales and chord changes. Play over the bar lines is basically what it is. I was going to say, I mean, if you're playing this cadence here, C7, E flat seven, D minor 7 D-M-7, D-flat-7. At the end of a jazz blues, I'm going straight blues scale there every time, man. I'm laying it down, yeah.

Lean into the blue scale and the chromatic. This might be a fun. Maybe we'll do it at the piano one for the premium. That could be just because demonstrating these, we'll get to it. But thank you for the question, Ed. Good stuff. Now one from old buddy, Joe Miscara. What's up, Joe?

Houston in the house. That's right. Joe writes, I'm curious about the history of Gulf Coast. O.S. locations. Oil. Wall with jazz photo art. Where can I get it? and Brown Steinway.

I think I know what Joe's talking about here. Cinderblock, current. Okay. Wow. That's... Wall with album art and Brown Steinway, I think that is our old offices upstairs. Yeah.

Well, no, but this is the photo art. No, no, I think he's talking about what we have now by the ping pong area. Dan Martin designed that. Yeah, that's all custom, Joe. That's custom. Who's right now tuning in probably from somewhere on... Tel Aviv.

Oh, he's in Tel Aviv. Yeah. I'm super envious. Dan, Dan, did all that. Basically, it was all his, like, out of his brains. And that was in our, we had a smaller office than what we have now, up on the third floor of the building we're in now. And that's Peter's piano that was in there, the Brown Steinway, for a few years, a couple of years. That's in my house now. It's in your house now. It's a nice little ass, nice little Steinway

ass. And then the cinder block, I'm thinking that's CIC, the big room. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Fun fact on that. You know what that room is now? It doesn't look like that. That was a cool room. That was a really cool room. That was the original, when we became open, studio some borrowed with some lent space from yeah great kind of startup community here called CIC incubator incubator but now it is Microsoft offices and they've sectioned it off and there's walls they were in that whole space it was just an unfinished space that was going to be a restaurant it was a raw space for a couple of years and they let us graciously let us have I mean we were there for months and months and almost yeah I want to say six or nine months our offices weren't there our offices

were in a five by five coffin we paid for the office but we got this huge space But the best part about that space wasn't even the space. No. It was the piano. The piano. We had a beautiful Steinway 9 foot that we had a chance to buy for Open Studio. We didn't have any money was the problem. But that's a nice piano.

That's still lurking around St. Louis. And that is a nice deed. All Steinway Ds are really, really great, but that was particularly good. That was a lot of fun. And we did, if you see like Rhythm Section fundamentals, that was filmed in there. Yeah, yeah. A lot of fun stuff. Good, good open sound in there.

Totally. Okay. Good eye, Joe. Yeah. From Ian Yep Ian Dodds One of my favorite names

My first son is named Ian I don't know if you knew this That's the Scottish form of the word John I think Yeah Anyway you don't seem interested I'm not I'm not really not

Okay you want to read this one Yeah wondered about The type and quality of piano Monk and Winton Kelly played In the Black Hawk Live in San Francisco Minton's back in the day Surely they weren't all well-prepped Steinways

No I'm thinking almost none of them Although I have to remember like the Black Hawk Those records I'm thinking I guess he's talking about like The Miles Davis Live at the Black Hawk Friday and Saturday night I remember the piano sounding pretty good there Although these guys are like notorious for making bad piano sound good But also you know I think they might have

This is this is going to be a difficult conversation But I think our culture on our piano culture Has certainly shifted since that time in that they didn't really have music in a venue or a restaurant unless it was live music. And there was a whole industry and a whole profession of professional piano tuners that has now been greatly shrunk. I mean, that was like a legit profession you could go in, a trade that you can go in. And I think it was just considered more part of, I've heard, it was considered just more part of it that you had a piano. And then that it was, you know, kept up in the same way that if you,

have a venue and you have a sound system you don't have like you know a subwoofer that's been cracked or whatever and you just let it go right yeah so I'm wondering if there wasn't more care taken back in the day yeah it could be because it's always like what you know what a balance is especially depending on the age of the instrument between just the quality of the instrument versus the upkeep of it and like now you

I mean there's great piano technicians all around the world it just certainly is less but there's all I What I always hear from them is like they don't have the time with these instruments. They're like, they can only afford to have us tune. They're like, I'm always hearing tuners, technicians saying, man, if I could only have like eight hours to pull the action out and really work on this thing, I could be, I could really do something with it. So yeah, if that was being done more, you know, in general, that would certainly help.

Because that mean, yeah, you can't turn a piano into something that it's not, but I think it's more common now. You can feel it to play on instruments where you're like, who, I mean, we did some stuff recently. where like such an amazing instrument, but just so many little adjustments would be great. But this is also a reminder. I kind of took this also to mean like, let's stop complaining so much.

It's like, because Monk, especially, I'm trying to think Whitney Kelly doesn't pop into my mind, but Monk, there's several recordings where you can just tell the piano was crap. Yeah. And he makes it sound so good. Like he just works through it in a way.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, the piano still sounds as it is, but you can just feel it. He's not being deterred, you know? So it's like, I always take that as a thing. It's like, well, If Monk tolerated this, I'm not going to get so up about a piano and be like, I can't play this or whatever. Let's do, we have time for probably two more questions.

Okay. So let's go right into a question from Charles. Charles asks, okay, so I'm a horn player and I've signed up for one course. Would the premium membership benefit me to or is it pretty much geared toward piano players? I think Charles means you'll hear it premium. Right. You'll hear premium. Which you'll hear premium.

Full disclosure, Charles, there will be some piano specific things because we have so many piano. here, but there will also be a lot of just general improvisation not to mention the archives and all the other stuff that goes along with it. Yeah, and I think that I mean the All Access Pass is the way to go if you want to cover every, because it's got all instruments, still a lot of piano but a lot of other things.

I mean, considering that it's like for the you'll hear at Premium, it's not that much more per month for the All Access Pass and it's like everything we've ever done. It's a great value. Yeah, and you can always, you know, we'll always switch you around as needed. We're very flexible. For sure. Let us know, Charles. We'll do anything. We'll do anything. We'll do anything. All right, last question.

Okay. Thelonious Chunk, you cracked me out. Did you say that? No, that's the ice cream genre. That's good. All right, last question is from Saad. And Saad asked, Peter, can you name any must study jazz books, especially for an advanced beginner? I'm not sure what advanced beginner means, but maybe he means intermediate.

Okay. I have an idea on this. A book? Well, it's close to home. Oh, would that be Elements of Jazz Piano? We have a workbook. Check out Elements of Jazz Piano. Rachel, could you link to Elements of Jazz Piano here in the chat?

Could you bring us a copy of that to show? Would that be able to be able to be able to? Yeah. So, Saad, we've made this intermediate jazz piano course that is geared towards people who want to get from like beginner into like being able to play some gigs and play with other people. And it's been really, really popular because of how structured it is and there's playalongs and there's practice routines and it's really, really good. Yeah. So I would recommend Elements of Jazz Piano. We'll link here in the chat.

There's the book that accompanies. workbook too. I mean, the videos and everything, even this on its own will take you far. And I think a fun thing about this course is I looked at it recently as we were moving some things over. And I realized as, yeah, and we label it intermediate and it is. But I was like, man, there's stuff in here that I would really, at my level, would value from practicing at this point. There's a lot of flexibility in there. So it's not, I mean, it's doable by almost anyone, but there's a lot of things in here that we talked about. Yeah. That are really valuable for people at every level. So I think that would be a good. Yeah, awesome. Thanks everybody for the Q&A.

This has been super, super fun to do this live. We're going to do another one of these. This is really successful. We box ourselves in, man. We're too good at everything. We have to keep doing it. It's just self-aware. There's something about it that feels like very comfortable.

Well, I love that it's like today, but it's also next week. Like we're covering two different things. We're in the future. We're in the past, we're in the present. Next week we can just take off because we've already done our work, buddy. And until then. You'll hear it.