You may not be familiar with incredible jazz bass player/composer Linda May Han Oh. If so, be sure to check out her own recordings and her collaborations with artists such as Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey and many more.

We spoke when she was on tour supporting her album The Glass Hours which came out in 2023. In this conversation Oh talks about her relationship to the songs on the record (some of which date back to 2018), the themes that resonate throughout the album and what level of faith she has that things are getting better.

You can read the print version of my interview with Linda May Han Oh HERE. The story includes a video of her performing. Don’t miss it.

I hope you have a great holiday season and enjoy these top 12 interviews.

The post Top 12 Interviews of 2024: LINDA MAY HAN OH appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

As it was last year, Herbie Hancock and Kamasi Washington serve as the curators for the festival. Each show offers traditional jazz combined with artists who blur the lines of how one defines jazz.

One quick reminder if you are planning to attend, one of the parking lots adjacent to the Hollywood Bowl has been converted to exclusively ride-share drop-offs and pick-ups. So parking is a bit more challenging than you might be accustomed to. This might be a good time to explore public transportation to get to and from The Bowl.

Here’s my sampler for Saturday’s line-up:

Mulatu Astatke – “Azmari” from his 2013 album Sketches of Ethiopia

Cimafunk – Playa Noche

Andra Day – Probably

Charles Lloyd – The Ghost of Lady Day

Christian McBride – from the Torino Jazz Festival earlier this year

Here is my pre-game playlist for Sunday:

Baby Rose – KCRW Live from HQ

The Brian Blade Fellowship – Live from San Antonio

The Soul Rebels – Last year’s Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival

Cory Henry – Switch

Kamasi Washington – Asha The First

The summer truly kicks off for me with the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival. I’ll be there…hope you will, too.

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The comma in the album’s title is important to Hersch. Silent isn’t describing the listening. Being silent and listening are two distinctly separate qualities that were of paramount importance to him while recording Silent, Listening and the qualities he hopes listeners might employ when they put on the album. Which they should.

I recently spoke with Hersch about his concepts for this album, how the resurgence of vinyl impacts the albums he’s making and how he’s challenging himself to do something we haven’t heard before. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To watch the full interview with Fred Hersch, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: What is the role of silence in your music and in your life?

Without silence you can’t have music or much of anything else. This is maybe my 12th or 13th solo album. I think the title of this project partially refers to the the specific place and circumstances around the recording of the album. In a fantastic auditorium in Switzerland at the Swiss Radio in Lugano, a legendary auditorium, with superb acoustics, fantastic piano. I was prepared. I had some things that I wanted to play, but, I also left a lot open to the last minute.

I think there’s a lot of patience on this record; playing something and seeing how it lands. Play the next thing. As an improvising musician, that’s how you always want to be. You want to play the phrase and then see where it lands, and then the next thing comes. And if you have a goal or an expectation, then often you’ll be disappointed. Just like life. I like to be in that zone where I’m really minutely paying attention to each detail, which leads to the next thing. There’s a lot of what I call spontaneous composition on the record, open improvisation, whatever you want to call it. Just paying attention to the sonority, not the chord, just the actual sound. So sound was a factor and the beautiful silence that you get playing in a room like that.

I love the way you allow notes to just fade away. Then there’s a pause before you go on to something else. It feels like you’re not only allowing yourself to be patient, but you’re asking your listeners to be patient as well.

I think this record really unfolds almost like a suite. It’s kind of contra to the way that people consume music these days. I believe in the value of an album as a statement; a small film, if you will, a story. I think this album tells a story and builds on itself. A lot of the selections I didn’t plan to play. They just arrived. Certainly the spontaneous pieces just arrived, but when we put it together, we were totally in agreement about the sequence. It’s not just a series of tracks. It’s very much a unified statement. And the glue that holds it together is just sound. It’s a pretty immersive album.

In the press notes for this album you are quoted as wanting to have tell a story with this album. Yet, at the same time, you’re saying that some of the pieces just came to you as you were in the place. I’m assuming that you had the story deeply embedded into your heart and soul so that you knew what those pieces would be that came to you.

No. I had no title at all. I had a list of titles of artworks by Robert Rauschenberg. I would just assign, like Night Tide Light, that’s the title of a collage by Rauschenberg. Volon. I don’t know what volon means, but it’s an interesting word, so we just picked that. But the story emerged. There was no real intent. I think the story just arrived.

Manfred’s a great producer. What he says and also what he doesn’t say. Sometimes he just let me work stuff out. Other times he might say something. At one point he went into the audience, which was helpful. A couple of tunes I just played for fun, and he said, I really love those. I didn’t intend to play them. It was very much something that unfolded as we did it. But once we had the pieces, we completely agreed this is how the story gets told. Sometimes the pieces led very smoothly into each other. Sometimes there’s a very jarring contrast. It’s very cinematic, I think. But it wasn’t intentional. I just wanted to make a record with him in that place on that piano and see what happened. And so this is what happened right now.

I can’t help but believe that there is, whether intentional or not, a bit of a commentary about the cacophonous and easily-distracted world we live in. 

Yeah, I mean, that would be really nice if people would slow down and paid attention. I play in concerts in my home club, the Village Vanguard, people are quiet. It’s maybe the one time in the day where they are away from their cell phone for 75 minutes – hopefully. The final track, Winter of My Discontent, I learned 45 years ago. The lyrics are really relevant to our time. Whenever I play any kind of standard or anything that has words, I’m really singing the words as I’m playing the melody. It helps me emotionally connect to the melody, but it also informs the way that I interpret it. 

I listen to a lot of vinyl, so it’s like only a 22 minute a side commitment. Find time to put some music on and not while you’re on the treadmill or doing your email. Who knows how many people out there actually do that. But, without being fat-headed, I’d say that the people that do take the time to listen to this thing through, I think there’s a reward. We’re in the era of LPs coming back. When you make shorter albums, people are maybe a little more likely to actually dip into the whole thing. This record’s about 50 minutes. The one I did with Enrico Rava [The Song Is You] was 43 minutes. I think we’re in the era of not overdoing it. Less is more. 

Is that better for you as an artist?

It is. I’m going to record a trio album for ECM next month. If it’s only a 45-minute album, that’s only going to be 6 or 7 pieces because there probably will be a bass solo or two and something for the drums to play. I’ve got probably a good 1500 vinyls and some of them I’ve had since childhood. It’s still the best delivery system for music sound wise. As I learned to play jazz, self-taught in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the early 70s, I would have one side of one LP on the turntable for days. I just keep listening to those four or five tracks over and over again and get to know them deeply. We’re in an age where everything is the algorithm says if you like that, listen to this. Everybody’s twitchy with their fingers. I think it’s great that LPs are coming back. To me, they never left.

I have noticed in the past couple of years, listening to artists like Gerald Clayton or Joel Ross or the half of Sullivan Fortner‘s Slow Game that you produced, artists in the jazz world are expressing themselves in a more quiet manner than they used to. Do you think there’s something going on in our world that’s inspiring it?

It’s a great question for which I don’t have an answer. There are incredible 40-and-under musicians or 30-and-under musicians. You mentioned players like Gerald Clayton or Sullivan – state of the art younger jazz pianists, in my estimation. Great instrumentalists and very deep in their way of playing the language and with their own perspectives. I have my ear to the ground. Certainly living in New York, I go out and hear people. I’ve taught a lot of these great younger pianists over the years. I always learn a lot from the way that they speak the language, which is different. I came to New York in 1977. The job description for being a working jazz pianist was you had to know tunes. You had to be able to swing. You had to be able to accompany. If you sight read, that was a bonus. But that was it. Now all the young musicians are expected to be composers and manage their internet empires and social media presences and produce their own albums.

Some of the people that you’re mentioning who are more mature, who are able to hold more stillness and withhold all the stuff that they could play, these are the more artistic ones, in my opinion. But for every one of those, there’s six more I could think of where it’s a lot of stuff that’s kind of forgettable. Nothing sticks. So stickiness in performance – improvisation, composition, is a quality that I value. It doesn’t have to be Andrew Lloyd Webber to be sticky, you know?

Sullivan Fortner told me that you were “an extremely nice man and that you’re not an easy person to please.” How easy or how challenging is it for you to please yourself, either when you’re composing or playing? 

I can be a little tough on myself. I’m at that point in my career where I’ve done so many projects, to find something new, that’s where I am now. I don’t need to make another record just to make another record. I want to make something that represents growth. Something different.

I teach this all the time. Don’t obsess about what you’re not playing or what you wish you could play, or what you played yesterday that you can’t play today. Every time. Blank slate. If you make a mistake, use it. You already played it. There’s no point in tensing up about it. With Sullivan, when I’m dealing with somebody with a talent level like that, people don’t need to pay me to say, oh, you sound great. We were working together at the highest possible standard. It’s a pleasure and a gift to teach such talented individuals. I’m just really glad that people are really coming along to how great he is – finally.

You had him record just single takes of each song and I know you did far more songs that were released. How often do you rely on single takes for your own recordings?

On Silent, Listening I recorded the Russ Freeman tune The Wind. It’s the longest track on the album – seven minutes. The melody repeats twice. I just played the melody at the end. Both times I played a wrong note in the melody. Both repeats I played the wrong note. Same mistake, same place. The Fred of 20 years ago would never put that out. Like, people think I don’t know the melody. I’m always bugging people you don’t really know the melody. I made the same mistake twice. But there was magic in the take. Especially with things like ballads, you have to go with the feeling. To me, if I get a take and I’m really in the flow in it the whole way through, no lapses of concentration, it unfolds naturally, I won’t do another one because I might get, quote better. But then it’s going to be confusing later on between the take that has the vibe and the take that’s more perfect. I think I’ve learned to just leave things alone. 

The best way to make an album for jazz like I do or Sullivan does is you prepare everything or you have an idea, but you leave it open for the magic to happen when the tape is rolling. If you figure it out and then execute it, to me that’s anti jazz. I don’t want to hear people regurgitate what they know. That’s not interesting to me. I want to hear people play what they don’t know. That’s when it gets good. Sullivan could just react and reaction is a huge part of being a jazz musician.

It’s everything, isn’t it? Listening and reacting.

Right! I got into jazz to play music with people and in front of people. Starting as a 5 or 6-year old, I liked to improvise and then discovered jazz. It was a great language for improvisation. Hanging out with all the people in the clubs was fun. It didn’t matter what your age was or your race was or where you came from. Everybody had this shared love of this music. Nobody’s making any money. It was kind of romantic in a way.

Reacting is when I’m playing trio. Yeah, I’m nominally the leader, but I’m really one third of what’s happening. So I have to allow the musicians to add what they do and allow myself to be inspired by them. In a duo, it’s even more intense because it’s just this intimate conversation. Solo, I am reacting to the feel of the piano under my hands, the touch and the actual sound in the room. And then the emotion of whatever piece I’m playing is a large part of it, too. I have to play the right piece at the right time in terms of the emotional connection that I could get.

To watch the full interview with Fred Hersch, please go here.

Main Photo: Fred Hersch (Photo by Roberto Cifarelli/Courtesy Fred Hersch)

The post Fred Hersch: The Power of Being Silent and Listening appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

One of the most highly-acclaimed jazz albums of last year was The Glass Hours. 10 songs written and performed by bassist/composer Linda May Han Oh. Each song is imbued with the thinking Oh has been doing for a number of years about the world in which we live.

Some of her album’s compositions date back to 2018. It was a time when there was a different occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there was a different mentality in the country and it was before Oh became a mother. These are just a few of the things that were on her mind at the time and are just some of the issues that find their way into her very thoughtful compositions.

Oh is on tour with her band playing much of the music from The Glass Hours. I had the privilege of seeing her perform last night at The Townhouse in Venice, CA. The openness with which they played this music allowed for a sense of urgency that was palpable. Oh has four more shows in California before the end of the month. She will then join Vijay Iyer for four nights of shows at the Village Vanguard before continuing on her own tour on the East Coast. (You can find her itinerary here.)

Last week, before she started this tour, I spoke with Oh about the album, the ideas that inspired her album and her hopes for the future. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To watch the full interview with Oh (and dozens of other interviews with artists), please go to our YouTube channel.

The Glass Hours was released last year. That means it was probably recorded in 2022 and some of the compositions pre-date those sessions. How has your relationship to these compositions evolved since then?

Most of these pieces were composed, or at least the first incarnation of them, were composed around about 2018 or so. We first performed that music at the end of 2019 at the Jazz Gallery here in New York City. This was at a time where we were nearing the end of the Trump presidency. There was a bit of uncertainty of what was going to happen next politically and I was just questioning a lot of things, a lot of our values, a lot of the systems within which we live.

I was really thinking about what how we value time and what we choose to do with it. Initially some of the songs were formed as a result of questions that I was asking myself about what I was doing in my life and as an artist.

What were some of those questions you were asking yourself?

Just in terms of how we deal with warfare and violence between countries. Assessing my amount of privilege to that. I can work here with music in a space where many people before me have fought on my behalf for my freedoms. How we can regulate women’s bodies in one way in order to preserve life, but then not provide adequate regulations when it comes to gun control and protecting our kids in schools, and also within the health care system as well. All these things culminated in these songs. Although these conversations started in 2018, they evolved a lot throughout the years. The pandemic hit in 2020 and it was a difficult time for all of us. It shifted some of these positions for me personally. A lot of them evolved, went many different directions, and then I added some other songs. The imperative is about grit and resilience which I think we all had to think about during this time. 

Was the composing of these pieces an opportunity for you to try to come to answer answers for yourself or to pose the questions so that listeners can take in, and use, your music as a way of thinking about these things?

I would say the latter, because I think a lot of these issues are so complex that it is really hard to find a definitive answer to how to solve these problems. I use music for a lot of different things. I want to bring something beautiful into the world. I also wanted to use it to question things. I also wanted to use to use it in a way that can make an impact in some way, make a shift in someone’s consciousness when they hear it.

If I’m sort of confused or wondering about something, music is really helpful for me in order to just at least digest it. I’m not necessarily looking for answers, but this is my expression of how I’m feeling, what I’m questioning.

What you’re questioning on The Glass Hours are some of the basic ideas that we have been contemplating for decades. Do you think that we will ever get to a place where these questions don’t have to be asked? Can your music play a part in getting us to that point? 

I feel like these questions are always somewhat going to be asked. There’s just so much of history repeating. You might hear some of those themes in Antiquity and Jus Ad Bellum (two songs on The Glass Hours). I think a lot about morality and, now with a child, it’s actually how we teach morality and how certain themes and stories that we teach kids – whether it be through books or movies – sometimes they aren’t clear cut. I’m always questioning how I am to do better and how I can contribute.

What does live performance give you in terms of opening up your compositions or perhaps the way you hear and perform them? Not just the way you do, but also your colleagues who are on the stage with you?

Nothing beats live music, you know? The music that we create is always so different each night to night. We may maintain some of the same messages and some of the framework of these compositions. But ultimately, so much of what we do is improvised and special to that specific moment. I’m lucky to play with musicians who are very experienced in improvisation ready for anything to happen. 

It seems to me like a lot of the questions that you’re bringing up in your music could be solved by what you and your band mates have to do every night, which is just listen. Whether anybody gets the message behind the music or not, can’t the fundamentals of live performance of music actually serve as a foundation for solving a lot of our problems?

I work with a lot of students of varying ages and I always say that everybody should learn how to improvise, learn how to play in an ensemble because there’s so much to be said about problem solving, working together, empathy, listening, that really carries through into everyday life. Whether or not some of these students choose to pursue music as a career, you’ve got these skills that you can use anywhere.

How important do you think it is for people listening to understand the point of what you’re getting to with each individual composition or is it enough that they enjoy the music?

At the end of the day, everyone’s going to perceive this music in their own individual way. If I can invite the listener to be in the moment and embrace the here and now by listening, that’s my number one goal. Everyone’s coming from such a different place and headspace and people listen for very different reasons. I hope that people can see some of the emotion, the message behind the songs.

On January 9th, the Grammys website posted a story about alternative jazz and included The Glass Hours as an example of alternative jazz. What does that or any other label mean to you as it relates to either your music or how other music is categorized?

I don’t think too much about labels when it comes to actually making the music, but I do see how it’s necessary for writers, for people in the industry to categorize or to promote certain things; publicize what this music sounds like. It kind of is what it is. I know a lot of people have fought very hard to get this new category into the Grammys, which is amazing. I’m proud of a lot of people who are rallying for more space for improvised music that isn’t mainstream, that isn’t pop music. I’m all for giving more space and more recognition to some of these musicians.

The jazz world is famous for collaborations and I think that’s what makes it all one of the most interesting genres of music that there is. You’ve had the privilege of working with Vijay Iyer, Ethan Iverson, Billy Childs, Terri Lyne Carrington and Tyshawn Sorey. How have artists like that inspired you and informed who you are as a musician today?

If we just start with Tyshawn Corey. I mean, he is just a force of nature. As a bass player I just feel so lucky to be able to play with so many incredible drummers. Tyshawn is not only an incredible drummer, you can riff with him on Max Roach and all the masters. I can also show him some of my percussion scores, and I showed him my solo piano piece, and immediately he’s telling me all the scores to check out. I’m super inspired by some of these musicians that have dedicated their lives to this art form.

You have another collaboration with Vijay Iyer on his upcoming album, Compassion (due February 2nd), which finds you once again working with Tyshawn.

[Vijay is] just a classic example of somebody who’s extremely well-versed in many different worlds and super inspiring. Someone like Terri Lyne Carrington*. She’s just a visionary and not only one of my favorite drummers, but as a composer, producer, a band leader. I’ve seen her in many leadership contexts where she really cares.

There are a lot of people in these positions of power, positions of leadership that, may or may not, do it for their own egoistic purposes. Terri Lyne is just one of those people that really cares about the people that she is trying to work with and making things better and making things more equitable.

I interviewed Vijay in 2019 and I asked him about a quote that he gave to NPR in an interview two years prior where he said, “The reason we’re on this planet as individuals is to express and reflect the moment we’re in now.” I followed up by asking him are the moments getting easier. Knowing that you also believe you’re here to express and reflect the moment we’re in now, as a composer, a musician and mother, do you feel like we’re headed in the right direction?

I definitely feel some uncertainty and uneasiness. I’m constantly reminded of incredible people day to day. I try and make sure that I acknowledge them in my life in terms of people who who want to strive for better. It’s hard to say is it getting easier. The state of the world with things like climate change and those issues, which I feel we should be doing a lot more. There are still positive things happening in the world in terms of advancements in technology to solve certain problems. It’s important to acknowledge those things.

This particular time is a very tumultuous time. I try and keep us up to date with the news as I can, at the same time knowing that a lot of the news that we hear can be very heartbreaking. Positive news is always a really good thing and I think it is good to welcome that. Easier? I don’t know. I feel very privileged in my particular life to be doing what I’m doing. I just hope for better. I have faith that we can do better. 

To watch the full interview with Linda May Han Oh, please go here.

Terri Lyne Carrington will be performing at CAP UCLA’s Royce Hall on Saturday, January 27th. For tickets and more information, please go here.

All photos of Linda May Han Oh (©Robyn Twomey/Courtesy Fully Altered Media)

The post Linda May Han Oh Has Faith We Can Do Better appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

THIS IS THE SIXTH OF OUR BEST OF 23 REVIEW OF INTERVIEWS: “It’s kind of a remarkable thing to be able to have a real relationship with your heroes. It would be beyond my 11 or 12-year-old self. It would be beyond anything he really dreamed of. To know people like Herbie Hancock…they’re almost like mythical figures to us.” That’s how saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington describes the opportunity to co-curate this weekend’s Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival with the legendary Hancock.

The two-day festival takes place Saturday and Sunday. The line-up Washington and Hancock have assembled features Bell Biv DeVoe, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Grammy winner Samara Joy, Aziza, Poncho Sanchez, Lionel Loueke and Gretchen Parlato, Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance Ensemble at UCLA and LACHSA Jazz on Saturday. Arsenio Hall is the emcee both days.

On Sunday the line-up includes Leon Bridges, Raphael Saadiq, Ledisi, Digable Planets, The Soul Rebels, Big Freedia, Andrew Gouché & Prayze Connection, Boukman Eksperyans, Butcher Brown, The Cardinal Divas of SC and LAUSD Beyond the Bell All District Jazz Band.  

Washington will perform both nights. On Saturday with his own band and on Sunday with West Coast Get Down. The members of West Coast Get Down are Washington, Miles Mosley, Tony Austin, Cameron Graves, Ryan Porter, Ronald Bruner, Brandon Coleman and Patrice Quinn.

In 2015 his album The Epic introduced the world in a very serious way to Washington’s other-worldly vision for jazz. He continued with 2018’s Heaven and Earth and the score to the documentary Becoming in 2020.

Washington and I spoke in March about this year’s jazz festival and more. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

I spoke to Herbie Hancock in 2019 when he was on tour in Denver with you. He was curating a show for the Los Angeles Philharmonic called The Next Generation in Jazz. I asked him what he was looking for and he said there so many things changing exponentially. What do you see as the biggest changes in the four years since he and I spoke?

The biggest change I see, which I think it’s a good change – but it can be a scary one as well, is that jazz seems to be, more so than it has in a number of years, kind of re-integrating into the larger musical conversation. For a long time jazz was kind of isolated. We had our own little jazz festivals. We had our own little clubs.

Jazz is now starting to infuse into non-jazz arenas. You see people like Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Thundercat, all these other people who are taking jazz and bringing it into other arenas. And I think that’s a beautiful thing. I think that’s good for the music. 

I saw a video that you did for [record store] Amoeba’s What’s in My Bag series seven years ago. You were talking about participating in Grammy Camp and how you were so impressed with the young musicians who were there. You said you have to “watch out because they’re coming up so fast.” I don’t think 15 years ago we would have thought that young musicians would take this kind of interest in this type of music. What do you think’s changed?

We live in a different world. They grew up in a different world than where I grew up. There’s some young musicians that are so amazing. I hear them and I’m just floored. There are things that we had that they don’t necessarily have as much anymore. And things that they have now that we didn’t ever dream about having. 

Jazz, in its purest form, is an open and freeing art form that those people who are searching for artistry in music, some of them are going to find it no matter what. I think future generations are going to see even more kids gravitating towards jazz and gravitating towards the kind of the freedom and expressiveness that it lends itself to. 

These kids are going to bring stuff to the music that I just didn’t have to bring. They have a new a new reality to add. If we want them to play the music, then we have to accept who they are. They’re going to bring who they are and what they’ve been through and what their thoughts and their experiences are. That’s going to be something different to the music than its ever been. And that’s the beauty of it.

Is the word jazz, as a descriptive term for a genre of music, even appropriate anymore? You performed with Metallica. Vijay Iyer had a quote unquote classical work at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Terence Blanchard has his second opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Do you think that labels or genres are becoming passe?

The definition of the word jazz, having any type of control over what the musicians play themselves, that’s always been kind of no good to me. The functionality of a genre, to me, is just an organizational tool. If you’re scrolling through the infinite world of iTunes and you want to try to find some music that is similar to Wayne Shorter, well that’s sort of where it comes in handy. But I think when you put too much weight on it and you make it something that should dictate what the musicians are playing – jazz is this and if you play jazz, you should play this – that’s where it’s inappropriate and always has been. 

You’ve released a few singles since Becoming in 2020. And [at the time of this interview] you’re about to embark on a fairly substantial U.S. tour before the Jazz Festival. Does that mean you’re working on some new music that that might finally be recorded?

I’m almost finished now. I got one song that I have to figure out exactly what I want to do with it. I want to put it on this record. Just one more song to record. Pretty soon there’ll be some music coming down the pipeline. If I can finish this one last song.

This is one of those songs that I know is beautiful, but I’m just having a hard time figuring out exactly what it should be. That’s a weird way of saying things, but it’s like having a beautiful flower that you know you want in the garden. You just can’t really figure out exactly where it should be planted, you know?

You told Marc Maron in 2016, “The trick is letting go. Bird and those other guys, they ran right to the edge of the cliff. With Trane you got to run and jump off and just be okay falling down this cliff and have the confidence that somehow I’m going to have to land on my feet.” How does that perspective of Coltrane’s work influence the decisions you make as an artist, as a musician, and even as a man?

Fearlessness is a very important ingredient to making music. It can be kind of scary because you’re revealing your heart. It’s like you’re cracking open your chest and opening your heart up. It’s scary, but the greatest music needs to be fearless. Ultimately you have to have faith in the music and that it will lead you to where it should be.

Listening to someone like John Coltrane and hearing how far he would go, it’s almost like a cliff diver who has a parachute but he just never opens the parachute. 

Every musician has a different way of getting to the music that they have in their hearts. I’ve always been a bit meticulous. It’s always been a struggle for me to push the button to go. Once we go it is super easy for me to let go and let the music be what it is. But for some reason in my own head, I feel a need to measure everything is good. Now let’s push this plane out and see how it flies.

Maybe that’s the composer equivalent of measure twice, cut once. 

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I’m measure, measure, measure. Ten times.

Ronald Bernard Jr., who is a member of West Coast Get Down, said that being in this band is a gig forever. He went on to say that, “I could be 90 and Kamasi will still call me.” What makes West Coast Get Down a forever gig for you?

Our friendship and our musical relationship started when we were three years old. We’ve all had great teachers and mentors. But we’re probably all most heavily influenced by each other, you know? Whenever one of us would get into something, we all get into it. Every time we find a gem it would circulate among us.

It was just our friends who grew up in our neighborhood and we all just happened to love music and it stuck to us for our whole lives. Our friendship is more on a life level. I always say life is bigger than music and music is a propeller to life. But life is the real thing. Our friendship is forever and music is going to be forever Our musical relationship will be forever.

Max Roach, who I believe has been a big influence on you, said, “Music mirrors where we should go, have gone and can go. Music is an abstraction.” Looking forward to your next album or into the future, what strikes you at this moment in time as the most important thing you’d like your music to mirror?

This next record that I’m doing, it came during a time of me having a lot of personal reflection. A very kind of swirling transitional period in my life. I recently became a father. Normally my thoughts and music are aimed at the infinite. This record is much more based in my reality. I’m a super spacey guy, so it still has that element in it. It’s just more grounded than I’ve ever made before. Really close personally for me.

When you’re speaking a bit more directly, I want to make sure that I am conveying the thoughts that I actually have. Having the courage to just be able to let it be what it is, you know, despite whatever anyone may think.

To see the full interview with Kamasi Washington, please go here.

All photos of Kamasi Washington at the Hollywood Bowl by Farah Sosa (Courtesy Los Angeles Philharmonic Association)

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And yes, they can finish each other’s sentences. As I experienced when I spoke with them last week. Charlap was in New York finishing the second of two consecutive weeks at the Village Vanguard. Bridgewater was at her home. They will be performing together in Los Angeles on Friday night to open the 2023-2024 CAP UCLA season at Royce Hall. If you love jazz piano and jazz vocals, you owe it to yourself to check out this concert.

Rather than follow a traditional format of questions and answers, for this interview I will allow Bridgewater & Charlap to do their own performance of themes and variations on the concept of musical partnerships. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Bridgewater & Charlap, please go to our YouTube channel.

The key to a good musical partnership is…

Bridgewater: …being open and listening to each other; keeping that line of communication going. It’s no different, I don’t think, than in a relationship without the music, but I think that’s the most important thing. Keeping your ears open and your mind open to receive. And in my case, all of this beautiful musical information from Bill Charlap. 

Charlap: Well, the same is happening to me. There’s all kinds of beautiful information coming to me from Dee Dee. It’s essentially listening first and foremost and chemistry and that we had right away. The chemistry continues to grow, but chemistry, just like any relationship, sometimes you just catch on fire right away and that’s how it is with us.

Bridgewater: It was the first step when we came together. When I approached Bill with this idea I just started calling out tunes and Bill started playing them and then we were putting keys on them. And before we knew it, we had amassed something like 50 songs easily.

Charlap: And there’s plenty more that I’m certain that could just happen. We may choose songs beforehand and say, let’s do these ones, but it could change at any moment. 

Bridgewater: We’ve kind of narrowed the song selections down to some songs that we really feel comfortable with. We’ve kind of worked out, without even saying it, kinds of arrangements in that there’s a beginning and ending and Bill puts some some special little tags on phrases and then I’ll pick those up. We have unspoken arrangements, don’t we, Bill? 

Charlap: I think so. But they can also change on a dime. Both could change on a dime. It’s not necessarily me setting a tempo or you setting a tempo. It could be both of us. Either one of us could take the reins at any point. In fact, that’s the beauty of it. It’s a true collaboration. It’s a true partnership. She accompanies me, too. Were accompanying each other in a sense.

Bridgewater: I don’t know of any vocal piano duo that can do what we do. 

Charlap: It’s great trust. That’s an important word. But beyond that, Dee Dee is such a great storyteller. That’s what [lyricist] Alan Bergman said the first time he heard her. He said she is the storyteller. So there is that. Then there’s Dee Dee Bridgewater the musician. Perfect time, perfect instincts. The ability to hear harmonically exactly what’s going on. The instincts. But it’s beyond telling the story. And it’s beyond the music. It’s all of those things.

Bridgewater: I just saw that that extraordinary documentary, Zero Gravity. So wonderful. Oh, my goodness. I’ve seen it twice. It’s so inspirational. 

Charlap: It’s a knockout. 

Bridgewater: Listening to Herbie [Hancock] talk about the duo that that he had with Wayne [Shorter] I was really struck. I said, Oh, okay, this is where we’re coming from. Except I remember Herbie saying that he felt like Wayne was the master and he was the student and that he just paid attention. I just I feel in a lot of ways that Bill is is such a master with his music and what he does that it would behoove me to pay attention and to listen because we feed off of each other. This is where the inspiration comes from.

Charlap: One can’t hold the other at bay. We jump into the deep end of the pool together at the same time. It’s not sometimes one washes and one dries, one leads and one follows. It changes all the time. It’s in balance. And it’s a dance. it’s also a palette. It’s like a canvas. It’s an emotional canvas, a story canvas. It has humor. It has depth, of course, with the lyrics and the storytelling. There are layers to all of the lyrics, so it’s not always exactly what every word is, too. It might be something else. All of that.

Bridgewater: Bill knows the lyrics. Bill knows all the lyrics. There have been moments where I go up on a word and he just quietly inserts the word that I’m searching for in that moment. I have never worked with a musician who knows every lyric and the stories behind how they came about. This is extraordinary.

Charlap: I’m playing 50% lyrics and 50% music there. They’re wedded to each other. They’re equal partners.

Bridgewater: Yes, but you are unique in that. What can be said about this duo and the beauty of it is because you just have these two sounds coming at you. We are able to dig deeper into the song, into its meaning; exploring the melody more than would be possible, even if it’s Bill’s magnificent trio. We broke that puppy down to just the two of us. That was really the moment. So I think we have this beautiful relationship now. It just tells its own story and it just amplified the uniqueness of it.

Charlap: I must tell when she first called me and said it would be great to do some stuff together. Of course I would love to do that, but I said, “Well, that would be wonderful if you want to do that with the trio.” And she said, “No, I want to do it as a duo.” And I thought, Wow, now that’s special. And that’s great risk. That was great courage. I’ll never forget that first gig.

Bridgewater: I felt naked and I said that to the audience. I said, I feel completely exposed. Nowhere to hide. I remember running around the piano. 

Charlap: It was that feeling of what’s this? This is working. I don’t feel naked. In fact, if I do, I feel very comfortable in it. It has made something that’s really uniquely of itself and a place that is a center that so many things can grow out of. It’s all about exactly being yourself in this music or in any art. So that’s where we’re going to shine the most. 

Bridgewater: Of course, we’re different and our backgrounds are different and all of that. I know that people were really surprised and still are surprised to hear that the two of us are working together and then to experience it and go come back and go, what is that? That was amazing. I think it is the fact that we are different and we are bringing our individual experiences into this duo is the thing that makes it so magical. And there has to be some sort of similarity between the two of us or it just wouldn’t work. I feel like Bill and I are both very adventurous musical spirits and we’re ready to go anywhere.

Charlap: That’s really nice. 

Bridgewater: Something else that that has happened with Bill and I as we’ve gotten more and more comfortable with each other is the the clowning and the having fun. The moments where it’s silly. I think for people to see that with the two of us they’re kind of like, wow, this is different. Like break out in our whistle, do our little whistle things and when I’ll come around behind the piano bench and have my hands on his shoulders and be doing stuff.

Charlap: Well, it’s supposed to be fun and we’re having lots of fun. Kids in the sandbox.

Bridgewater: Exactly. 

Charlap: Would you ever want to lose that finger paint?

Bridgewater: Go play. Yes. 

Charlap: Don’t be afraid to get messy.

Bridgewater: Exactly. Exactly.

And play they do. Beautifully.

To see the full interview with Bridgewater & Charlap (including a very passionate discussion of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” please go here.

Main Photo: Bill Charlap and Dee Dee Bridgewater (Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Courtesy CAP UCLA)

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THIS IS THE FOURTH OF OUR BEST OF 23 REVIEW OF INTERVIEWS: If you’ve been following Cultural Attaché for even a small amount of time, you know how much I love singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. We’re happy to say we finally have an interview with this three-time Grammy Award winner (who also happens to have a nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album for her most recent release, Ghost Song)!

Those three Grammy Awards came for three albums in a row: For One to Love, Dreams and Daggers and The Window. Might it be four-in-a-row? The New York Times called it “her most revealing and rewarding album yet.” I love the album and had the privilege of seeing Salvant in back-to-back performances at the Blue Note in New York City in September. Salvant is truly a once-in-a-generation artist.

She is currently on tour across the United States. Her next show is at Royce Hall on Thursday, January 26th as part of CAP UCLA’s season. She’ll be at the Mondavi Center in Davis on January 27th; Bing Concert Hall at Stanford on January 28th; the Stewart Theatre in Raleigh, NC on February 2nd and Knight Concert Hall in Miami on February 3rd (where her special guest is the Christian Sands Trio).

For her full itinerary, please go here.

Here is my interview with Salvant which was conducted via e-mail.

During the pandemic you were reading Marcel Proust, particularly In Search of Lost Time. In the fifth volume he writes, “The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is..” Do you agree with him and how does that perspective align itself with how you choose, hear and perform music?

I love that quote!!!! Beautiful. I absolutely agree with this.

The pandemic negated the opportunity for LA audiences to see and hear Ogresse. What does the future hold for that work and will you record it or turn it into a fully produced musical/show?

We’re making it into an animated feature length film. It’s already recorded but we’re animating it now with a team in Europe. [Salvant will be performing Ogresse on February 24th and 25th at the Walker Art Center in Milwaukee.]  

Five years ago you gave an interview to ArtsDesk.com where you said, “Visual art is the most important thing to me.” At that time you weren’t sure if that passion for visual arts influenced your music adding, “probably, but not in a way that I can tell.” Has your perspective on that changed since 2018? Do works like Ogresse and/or the art that Nonesuch released with Ghost Song provide examples of some blending of your passions?

Yes! My perspective often changes though! Lately I’ve been trying to approach making music with the same playfulness I feel when I draw.

I first became aware of you when Bryan Ferry closed for you at the Hollywood Bowl in August of 2017. It’s a night I won’t ever forget. I’ve since seen you at much smaller venues. What role does a given venue play in the concerts you give?

My favorite venues to play are clubs! I like to be really close to a small packed audience. I want it to feel like I’m spilling secrets. But it’s always exhilarating and a little bit scary to be in front of a vast crowd like at the Hollywood Bowl!

Sometimes Aaron Diehl is your pianist and other times it is Sullivan Fortner. What does each pianist bring to you and your music? Are there tangible differences for you that influence the way you make music and present it live with each of them?

There are a few others I’ve been playing with over the years. Everyone adds different elements and colors to the music, they bring their tastes, their approaches even their feel to it. It’s the same with every instrument in the band. I often unknowingly pick my repertoire based on who’s playing.

In the concerts I’ve attended there seems to be a semblance of spontaneity in the set lists. What role does fluidity play in each performance? How much does an audience play a role in what you choose to sing at a given concert?

That’s another that changes based on the band. If I’m playing duo with Sullivan there’s often no setlist and it really depends on the moment. The audience plays a bit of a role if they choose to! Some audiences feel quiet, or more reserved. They play less of a role. When they participate a bit more, are reactive, they play a much bigger role to where the set will go.

Music from Broadway musicals used to top the record charts. It’s been a long time since that happened. Yet your passion for musicals is undeniable. The first song on your first album, Cécile, comes from an obscure 1930 musical, Lew Leslie’s International Revue (Exactly Like You). You seem almost childlike in your appreciation for these songs. How and when did that passion for get ignited in you and what role will that material play as you move forward throughout your career?

I’m not sure it’s a childlike quality, it’s more that I love theater and acting. I love operas too, which to me aren’t much different from musicals. I love songs that flow from a character dealing with a specific context.

Like pianist Brad Mehldau and others, you had a background in classical music but switched to jazz (though I heard you sing Baroque music at the Blue Note in NY in September). How does your classical background inform your approach to jazz?

This is a tough question to answer because I try to get away from genres. Genres like jazz and classical are too broad in my opinion. Jazz is extremely fragmented, it encompasses so much different music. Even baroque and early music have such fragmented, different styles within them. There were differences in the music based on cities! Even tuning was based on location.

I think everything I’ve studied informs what I do in some way. In conservatory, I got to learn the aria Medea sings when she goes back and forth between wanting to kill her children for vengeance and wanting to protect them. I think learning that and other songs, learning a bit about baroque dance, studying tap dance for a month in high school, learning the basics of reading figured bass on a harpsichord, all this informs my desire to find a way to approach music in a more open way, with less boundaries.

Your mother has described you as an intellectual (The New Yorker 2017). You’ve talked a lot about your instincts. How and where do your instincts meet up with your intellect and vice-versa?

I don’t identify as an intellectual! I can be a nerd for the things that I love. And I study and research and learn about the history of those things. But following my instincts is very important to me. Sometimes too much research can get in the way of that.

In an interview with Ethan Iverson you bring up a point, this was in relation to Bessie Smith, where you said, “at first I guess it sounds very the same when you don’t know how to listen.” What is the audience responsibility in listening? How much does technology and the need for videos and photos get in the way of your ability to communicate with an audience and their ability to listen? Is the fine art of listening a dying art?

It’s changing the way we communicate. We have more access than ever to all kinds of music and yet our attention span is very low. But I think people are feeling a bit over-saturated so there might be a countercurrent to that soon. I also really admire the way this younger generation coming up can find whatever they connect with, regardless of era or popularity, online. Listening will have to change whether we like it or not! But it’s always been changing. It changed already when the first compositions were notated on paper, when people began having access to records, when music videos started to gain popularity, and so on.

Nonesuch Records alluded in an email last week to a new album coming out this spring. What can you tell me about this new recording?

It will be all in French! About a half woman half snake.

If you could talk to the teenager who had a mohawk, was listening to Dave Matthews Band and Soundgarden before moving to France, what would you say to her about the artist you’ve become and the artist you want to be as you move forward in your career?

I probably wouldn’t say anything about that if I could talk to the teenager I was!!

I’d probably just stare. But I’ll say to you that I feel really lucky for everything that I’ve been able to do, and I’m very excited to keep making my arts and crafts, which is how I like to think of what I do (otherwise you get too precious about it all).

Main Photo: Cécile McLorin Salvant at the Blue Note in New York (Photo by Craig L. Byrd)

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This is a two-disc recording in which the first half finds Sullivan performing solo piano. Each song was performed just once and there are no overdubs and there’s no editing. This part, Solo, was produced by Fred Hersch.

The second part, Game, finds Fortner making use of many of the tools artists use to perfect their recordings, but he uses them to help create music rather than correct was has been recorded. The cumulative effect of the album is to see jazz as a constantly fluid genre of music and Fortner with one foot standing on the shoulders of the legends before him and the other firmly striding forward to the future.

In early December I spoke with Fortner about Solo Game, his working with Hersch and Salvant and what he requires from his art and what his art requires from him. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: Miles Davis is quoted as saying, “You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.” How do you think being comfortable fouls up audiences? I ask that because I think your album is not comfortable and challenges audiences to eliminate any preconceived ideas they might have.

For better or for worse, for an artist, I think it’s important to constantly push. And I think as an audience member, at least for me, and the people that I talked to about it, they don’t like to see people perform and be too comfortable. They like to see some sort of struggle. I think one thing that the pandemic kind of brought a little bit more to light is the idea of watching people’s processes and watching how people create. The idea of watching people go through things and figure out formulas and struggle, make a mistake and then do it over.

It brings a certain type of humanity to the art or to whatever it is that they’re creating. One of the things I try to do is I try to create real performances. If it’s a little bit too perfect, then it doesn’t seem real to me. It’s not human. You know, the imperfections are the things that make music alive and beautiful.

How much do you think an audience is aware of that struggle?

I think we give the audience a little bit less credit than than than we probably should. But I also think that if there’s a type of banter or type of communication that happens within the bandstand, then people can get that. They’re like, Oh my God, what’s getting ready to happen next? Oh, the drummer’s going crazy. Something happened. You know what I mean? The drummer just gave the bass player a look. Oh, he didn’t like him too much, you know? Stuff like that.

What is the conversation you are having between Solo and Game, and how does that give us a better understanding of who Sullivan Fortner is?

I wanted both Solo and Game to reflect Sullivan Fortner. Not so much the pianist, but the artist, the musician and the thinker. Both sides of the album were exposing me. Acoustic being, okay, I’m playing by myself, completely acoustic piano. No edits, notes, no second takes, nothing. Then the other side being, okay, now I get to play whatever it is I want to play, but on instruments that I’ve never played before. Just experimenting with limitations.

Both of them had that idea of experimenting within a certain type of parameter limitation. Both of them kind of question the idea of when we play music, do we actually play music? It underlined that word play. So when you think of that word play, you think of arcade games. Both sides of the album there are various games that are constantly being played. Both sides reflect each other. 

How important is it for you for the tradition of jazz music to evolve as it always has and as it inevitably will?

I think that it’s extremely important. I think it’s also important for jazz musicians to use the tools of the studio. I had a conversation with a great musician and great friend of mine who basically said when we go in the studio as jazz musicians, nine times out of ten, we use Pro Tools to edit a part that we don’t like. We use ProTools or Auto-Tune to correct the note or to fix whatever. They don’t use the studio and use those programs to help as an extra instrument for the music. You know what I’m saying? So what I wanted to do in this album, especially with the Game part, I wanted to use pitch correction as a part of the music and not to fix whatever I did that was wrong.

As an compositional tool instead of a correctional tool. 

You said it exactly the way I want to see it. I also think that it’s important for the musicians to not be so precious with the studio. The idea of it wasn’t necessarily be perfect. It was to be honest and show a real representation of who I am and where I am at that particular time. A lot of times, especially younger jazz musicians, we’re all so gung-ho about creating the perfect album rather than creating an honest album. This album that I created by no means is perfect. I already know, but I know that I can honestly say I’m proud of it because it’s the most me that I’ve ever created.

How long has this other side that wanted to play in the studio, that wanted to to not be afraid of the studio, not be afraid of the technology, been buried inside you?

If I’m honest COVID actually birthed that side of me. The first instrument that I grew up playing was a Hammond organ before I started playing piano. My first love was the organ. So electronics and manipulating sounds within the capabilities of an electronic instrument was something had always been in me since I was seven years old. I’d never really owned a piano when I grew up. I only owned keyboards, but I would just stick to the piano parts and try to manipulate the piano parts. Maybe there would be some times where I could record on the keyboard. I would add instruments just with keyboard patch. But that was just for fun. But the idea of actually going in the studio and doing that was inspired by COVID and Cécile McLorin Salvant.

She keeps subtly reinventing herself. That’s the thing I love about her. They’re not radical shifts. It’s not like suddenly Bob Dylan is playing an electric guitar. There are these subtle shifts and every one of them makes sense. That has to be an inspiration.

It is. Being on the side of the stage that I sit on, whenever I see her and the more I get to know her, the more I realize that she’s becoming more and more herself every album. I think that’s the most inspiring thing to watch her evolve as an individual, as a woman, as a human being on this planet and as an artist. Watching her just really step into what makes her unique and special in her eyes. That’s the most inspiring thing, just her being excited about her being herself.

I’ve seen you with Cécile multiple times. It strikes me that the two of you do not have a traditional vocalist and accompanist relationship. When I see Cécile McLorin Salvant and you’re on the stage with her, it might as well be Cécile McLorin Salvant and Sullivan Fortner, because you two are so intrinsically tied to one another musically. Does this feel like a unique collaboration that is different than what you have seen or witnessed or even experienced as a pianist and a vocalist working together?

Yeah, it most definitely has. And it was like that from the first time we played together. From the very first note, it felt like we were immediately at home. At least it felt like I was. You’re playing with somebody that has that certain type of independence where you don’t feel like they are relying on you to make something happen.

We definitely are individuals. But for the first time, I actually felt like I could play with somebody that I could grow with. You know what I mean? It wasn’t waiting on me to play catch up.

In 2016, you told the Oberlin Revue that “Music is like a drug. You’re chasing that first high….the high you got..the first time I played music and really enjoyed it. Since then, I’ve been trying to chase that feeling.” What was that feeling you were chasing with Solo Game? What was the high? 

You want the honest answer? I went in the studio nervous and Cécile said, just go in and relax. So I took an edible before I went in the studio. So that automatically relaxed [me] and that got rid of the nervousness. But I think the high that I was chasing was just that feeling that I got when I was a kid and I didn’t know anything. I was just happy to play. You know what I mean? I didn’t know. I didn’t know any complicated chords. I could only play in like four or five keys. There was not really a whole lot of harmonic sophistication. There wasn’t a whole lot of rhythmic sophistication. It was just me playing the songs to the choir. I didn’t know anything. I was just happy to play. That was the high that I was chased. 

Did it take a lot to be comfortable in the recording of this particular album? You were working with Fred Hirsch who, along with Jason Moran, complete the album with their own comments about you and this project.

Fred is not an easy person to please. He a very nice man; extremely nice. Been very kind to me. But he’s definitely particular about what it is that he likes. So whenever you’re in a room with somebody like that, you always you automatically feel this pressure of doing anything that you possibly can in order for it to sound good.

I think with Game, it’s a little bit more like I was left up to my own antics. It was fun making it. But I had to suffer when I was shopping the album around. I had a little bit of difficulty trying to find a home for it and people who actually wanted to support it, to back it up and help me put it out because it was so different and so unorthodox. 

I’m assuming you probably got a lot of offers to release the first half, Solo.

Here’s the funny part. When I shopped that around, I only shopped around Game, minus the edits and all the added sound effects. Once I found a label that was interested in that, then I gave them the acoustic album and said, Okay, I want both of these to come out at the same time as one album. They were like, we’ll put up the acoustic album, no problem. But this other one we got to wait. I said nope it is either both of them, or none of it. It took a lot of guts and I almost gave in. But, thanks again to Cécile and to Jason Moran, they were like, no, this is what you want to do. You need to do it that way.

It makes sense that Jason would be a supporter of doing that. If you look at how his career is started and what he’s doing now.

In the last two years basically every piano player, every major piano player, people who are soon to be major, in my opinion, have released solo albums. Jason Moran. Brad Mehldau. Ethan Iverson. Kevin Hays. Vijay Iyer. Fred Hersch. They’ve all released solo albums, especially during Covid, because there was nothing else to do. If I was going to do a solo album, I wanted it to stick out more than just be acoustic piano. I wanted it to be an all-encompassing solo situation. So part of it was sticking out. The other thing was I wanted to make a statement that I’m not just a piano player. I’m also someone that has an idea or a vision musically that goes beyond just the eighty eight key box.

Solo Game was recorded during the pandemic and it took a while, as you mentioned, to shop it around and find somebody who was going to release it. But that’s given you all kinds of time to develop new ideas and new ways of expressing yourself. Where are you headed with new material now?

I’m thinking about continuing along this path; especially in the studio. Going back to using the tools that are available in the studio as a part of the composition. The next project that I’m working on is a trio album. It won’t be a double album, but it will be two different trios. One trio would be with Marcus Gilmore and Peter Washington and another trio would be with Tyrone Allen and Kayvon Gordon, who are a group of guys that I’ve been playing with for the last year or two. They’re a lot of fun to play with.

That’s the next thing to try to figure out. It’ll be a mixture of originals and standards, a little bit more towards the traditional side, but with few surprises maybe. And after that, I think the next thing I want to do is a choral album which would feature just piano for the most part and vocals with my family singing. So I’m in the process of writing stuff like that. I’m trying to continue along in the vein of Game and building a catalog as opposed to creating separate worlds that each album stands in and lives in. 

I want to ask you about something Duke Ellington is quoted as saying. He said “Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions; when it ceases to be dangerous, you don’t want it.” For you personally, what do you want most from your art today, and what do you think your art wants most from you? 

I guess the art wants from me fearlessness. Not being afraid to try and not being afraid to step out there. Being you and being confident in that. 

What do I want my art to give me? I want the art to just continue to give me what it’s already given me, which is a sense of purpose and being able to continue to help me articulate what it is I can’t say in words. To help me to discover more about myself and discover more about the world around me. Art teaches me music and art teaches me about life and learning how to get along well with others, to compromise, to live in harmony and peace and balance. That’s the stuff that art gives me and I want it to continue to. 

To see the full interview with Sullivan Fortner, please go here.

All photos of Sullivan Fortner: ©Sabrina Santiago/Courtesy Artwork Records

The post Sullivan Fortner Plays a Long Game Solo appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Jazz fans have a lot to seek out on RSD, particularly those who love vinyl. However, I have distinguished which releases are RSD First (meaning they will be released in other formats). All other releases for RSD are exclusive – so happy hunting.

My top pick of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: November 24^th is:

JAZZ:  GIL EVANS & TEN – Gil Evans & Ten -Craft Recordings

This is an RSD First vinyl re-issue of this 1958 from the incomparable Gil Evans (known by many primarily as one of the greatest collaborators with Miles Davis.) The album features six Evans arrangements of popular songs and one original: Jambangle.

Evans is joined by ten musicians on each song – thus the name of the album. Those musicians were Paul Chambers on bass; Jimmy Cleveland on trombone; Lee Konitz on alto saxophone; Dave Kurtzer on bassoon; Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone; Louis Mucci on trumpet (tracks 2-7); Willie Ruff on French horn; Nick Stabulas on drums (tracks 2-7) and Bart Varsalona on bass trombone. John Carisi is on trumpet for the first track and Jo Jones is on drums for the first track as well.

Note that this is a mono-reissue.

The rest of New In Music This Week: November 24^th are:

JAZZ:  A LOVESOME THING – Geri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel – Motéma Music/Heartcore Records

This live recording was made on September 5, 2012 at the Jazz á la Villette, Cité de la Musique, Philharmonie de Paris. Though Allen had performed with Rosenwinkel’s band earlier that year, they had not performed as a duo before this concert.

Impressively they took the stage without a moment of rehearsal and performed the nearly 53- minute set that is found on this album. Allen was one of the most sublime musicians of her time. Sadly, she passed away five years later.

This recording (which is NOT part of RSD) is a beautiful and heartbreaking reminder of how profound her loss still is.

JAZZ:  CHET’S CHOICE – Chet Baker Trio – Elemental Music/Criss Cross

This is a late career release from Chet Baker which was recorded in Holland in 1985 and released the same year on Criss Cross Jazz – a Dutch label.

There are seven tracks on this release (though three additional tracks were added when it was released on CD). They include Irving Berlin’s How Deep Is the Ocean?; Doodlin’ by Horace Silver; Conception by Miles Davis and Cole Porter’s Love for Sale.

Joining Baker (who sings and plays trumpet) on this record are Philip Catherine on guitar, Jean-Louis Rassinfosse on bass for all but the last track Adriano which finds Hein van de Geijn on bass.

This is an RSD First release.

JAZZ:  DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET LIVE FROM THE NORTHWEST 1959 – Dave Brubeck Quartet – Brubeck Editions  

Just four months before the Dave Brubeck Quartet went into the studio to record Time Out, they were doing a series of shows. This album is comprised of five tracks from performances at Clark College and The Jazz Club near Portland, Oregon.

Joining Brubeck are Paul Desmond on alto saxophone; Joe Morello on drums and Eugene Wright on bass. The five songs performed are When the Saints Go Marching In; Basin Street Blues; Lonesome Road; Two Part Contention and Gone with the Wind.

This is an RSD First release.

JAZZ: IRON MAN – Eric Dolphy – Culture Factory

Though recorded in 1963, this album by Dolphy was not released until 1968. Dolphy plays bass clarinet, flute and alto saxophone on this album that has five tracks: three Dolphy originals (Iron Man; Mandrake and Burning Spear) along with Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday and “Jaki” Byard’s Ode to Charlie Parker.

Dolphy is joined on this recording by Richard Davis on bass; Bobby Hutcherson on vibes; Clifford Jordan on soprano saxophone; Eddie Khan on bass (only on Iron Man); Prince Lasha on flute; J.C. Moses on drums; Sonny Simmons on alto saxophone and Woody Shaw on trumpet.

This is an RSD Exclusive Release

JAZZ: TALES: LIVE IN COPENHAGEN (1964) – Bill Evans – Elemental Music

Copenhagen’s Radiohuset and TVBYEN studios are where this previously unreleased recording was made. Evans was joined by Larry Bunker on drums and Chuck Israels on bass.

There are 11 tracks on this album: Waltz for Debby; My Foolish Heart; (2 versions) How My Heart Sings (2 versions); Sweet and Lovely (2 versions); I Didn’t Know What Time It Was; Five (theme) 2 versions and ‘Round Midnight.

Good luck. This is an RSD Exclusive with only 3,650 copies made available.

EMERALD CITY NIGHTS: LIVE AT THE PENTHOUSE (1966-1968) – Ahmad Jamal – Jazz Detective 

Continuing in their series of previously unreleased recordings by pianist Jamal, this album comes from a series of performances at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle. Jamal is joined by drummer Frank Gant and bassist Jamil Nasser in these recordings.

This two-LP release features eleven tracks including Misty, Autumn Leaves, Quiet Night of Quiet Stars and Alfie. 

This is an RSD First Release

INCARNATIONS – Charles Mingus – Candid Records

Bassist/composer Mingus recorded a lot of music for Candid Records in 1960. This album, whose title can be confused with other similar titles of Mingus recordings, is comprised of rare and unreleased material.

There are five tracks on this album: Bugs, R&R, All, Reincarnation Of a Love Bird and Body and Soul.

This is an RSD First Release.

MAXIMUM SWING: THE UNISSUED 1965 HALF NOTE RECORDINGS – Wes Montgomery/Wynton Kelly Trio – Resonance Records 

Verve Records released Smokin’ At the Half Note from Montgomery and Kelly in 1965. Left behind were different songs and a few alternate takes that didn’t make the recording.

This 3 LP finally releases these 17 tracks including Laura, All The Things You Are; Cherokee and Oh, You Crazy Moon.

Fans of jazz guitar will want to hear this album which is an RSD First Release.

CON ALMA: THE OSCAR PETERSON TRIO – LIVE IN LUGANO, 1964 – Oscar Peterson – Mack Avenue 

If you love the Peterson’s trio records Night Train (from 1963) and We Get Requests (from 1964), you’ll want this album where Peterson is joined again by Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums. The six tracks here are previously unreleased.

They perform Waltz for Debby; My One and Only Love; I Could Write a Book; Blues for My Landlady, Con Alma and It Ain’t Necessary So.

This is an RSSD First Release.

That brings us to the end of New In Music This Week: November 24^th. If you don’t have an independent record store in your town but want to find some of these special releases, check Ebay.

Enjoy your weekend and enjoy the music.

Main Photo: Art from the cover of Dave Brubeck Quartet: Live from the Northwest 1959

The post New In Music This Week: November 24th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

In the music world the three Bs traditionally stand for Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. For jazz singer José James they stand for Billie, Bill and Badu (as in Holiday, Withers and Erykah).

His most recent album, On & On, was released at the beginning of this year and finds James putting his own vocal stylings to the songs of Erykah Badu. In 2015 he released Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday and in 2018 he released Lean On Me, a selection of songs by Bill Withers.

This Saturday James concludes his summer US tour in support of On & On at The Ford Theatre in Los Angeles. This will be the first and only show of the tour that will feature his entire band that appeared on the album performing with him live.

Earlier this week I spoke with James about Erykah Badu and her music, lessons he’s learned over the years of his career and the challenges he faces as a jazz singer. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

What does this music that you’re performing mean to you now that is perhaps different than what it meant to you when you first recorded it or when you first started playing it live?

I first approached it from what it meant to me. To me, Erykah Badu is kind of like the Joni Mitchell of my generation. She changed the game with her songwriting, with her musicality, with her presentation, with the way that she effortlessly blended all these genres. So I think I first made the album and thought about it in terms of wanting to respect what she had created and find a way in. Now that I’ve been performing it for quite a while, the songs have sort of become mine.

There’s this beautiful moment where the ownership transfers to the performer. That happened with the Bill Withers project, too. You start putting your own thoughts and feelings and emotions into these songs. It really becomes a deeply powerful way to bring a piece of yourself to these songs that are so familiar to all of us. We’ve been kind of taking it in different directions every night. So now what you have is this deeply personal and deeply creative world that exists alongside Badu’s world.

What is the story you want to tell about yourself through her music? 

I think there’s a degree of deep seriousness these days around what jazz singers can do. Why is hip hop and R&B this impenetrable place that jazz singers can’t go? So to me, it’s really about breaking new ground. I’m always excited when it’s something that nobody’s really done before because it feels fresh and it feels like there’s a discovery here. That’s the most powerful thing we can do as artists.

I played Erykah Badu’s songs and I don’t think what you’ve done is a huge leap. This makes complete sense to me.

It’s not a huge leap. We didn’t completely take apart her stuff and make it atonal or something. That’s part of the history of jazz singers, too. When Ella did her celebrated songbook series, she sang the melody, she sang the songs, but it’s the way that she did it, with the phrasing and the rhythm and the inflection and her history that made it jazz to me. Some of the songs I didn’t really change one note of the melody, but in order for me to get inside of her phrasing and then make it my own.

What I was referring to mostly was the fact that I heard a lot of jazz in what she was doing. 

That is so true, especially on her first two albums. There’s like upright bass on there, you know, like Appletree. Maybe it sounds like she’s performing with the jazz trio, which is so cool.

You’re a huge fan of Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane’s collaboration. I think you’ve said that’s the best male jazz vocalist album. Hartman did an interview with the New York Times in 1982, and he said, “The more you sing a song, you are apt to change it. It reflects the moods that you’re in.” Do you share that opinion about the many songs that you’ve recorded, whether they’re your own or somebody else’s? 

Jazz is Shakespeare. This is the classical repertoire. As you mature, hopefully, and deepen, hopefully, and go through some life experiences, then all of a sudden the words in the text become more relevant to you. Definitely when I first sang it, you know, this idea of being touched either physically or emotionally by this other person and kind of reminiscing about that moment, the times was much closer. But now that I’m 45, I can really think of a lot of different ways. For example, like a mentor who opened my world to jazz or to poetry or art kind of changes the feeling of it for me. Even though it’s ostensibly a romantic song, in my mind it’s turned into something else, which I hope comes across in the interpretation.

Should an artist have just a narrow range of interest and a way of expressing his or herself? Does it frustrate you that people seem to want you to be one thing because that’s easiest for them?

It has been frustrating in the past. I think I’ve sort of made peace and found my happy medium with how much I need to explore and how much we exist in service to people. That was a big shift in the pandemic for me. A lot of time to think about why I do it and when I would hopefully come back to jazz singing and performing would I do anything differently. The shift for me was I think I’ve artistically pushed the boundaries as far as I want to. Now my challenge is how creative can I be within sort of like the parameters that my fans enjoy because I definitely pushed it at some points past what my fans enjoy. For the hip hop kids who are like, why are you doing a duo with the jazz pianist? Or for the jazz purist you’re doing trap drums with autotune? There’s beautiful space in the middle, which I love. I think part of getting older is finding what you do best and figuring out how to explore that infinitely.

In an interview that you did in 2012 with the MinnPost you said, “If I could do jazz the way I wanted to, I would, but I just can’t. I can’t do it with the freedom I want or the audience development I want.” Along with your own perspective that you just expressed changing, has anything else changed for you in the 11 years since that comment that makes that less true today?

I think what’s changed is seeing people who have done both and in talking to some of them. Hearing the frustration of some people [who] feel like they’re in golden handcuffs and they can’t write songs or do things or produce that they want to. Then other people who spent their whole career just throwing paint against the wall but now want to sort of hit this commercial high. They’re not able to because they’re all over the map. Being at peace with your choice, no matter what the result is, that’s the challenge.

McCoy Tyner gave you great advice to just be yourself when you were touring with him. Knowing how much Coltrane means to you and how much McCoy Tyner means to you, which was more important, the advice or the man who was giving it to you?

The advice coming from him had a lot more weight. The thing about McCoy, which I found with a lot of living legends across genres, is that they are never looking backwards. McCoy was never telling people how to play. He was always positive. He was always uplifting. He really was in service to the music, to the audience and to his musicians. Never met another musician who was more generous with compliments or energy on stage. 

If you could go back in time to when you were in an a-cappella group called Cerulean and give yourself advice that you think your 16-year-old self really needed to hear to help him navigate his way through the life and career that you’ve had, what would that be?

I can’t believe that you found out about Cerulean, but I love it. I think I would just tell him that everything you believe about music and yourself right now is absolutely true. No matter what comes and goes, you don’t have to worry about anything. The cliché thing is true. The highs and the lows can knock you down. I remember when I was doing Letterman and Conan O’Brien, that was a bit too overwhelming for me. I wasn’t really ready for it. The downs, I haven’t sung in two years because of COVID. I wasn’t ready for that either. In both of those times I definitely did tap into how I felt about music back then because sometimes just putting on your favorite album and remembering this is why I do it is the most important thing.

To see the full interview with José James, please go here.

All photos by Janette Beckman/Courtesy Rainbow Blonde Records

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