JLCO Master Class: Kenny Rampton (June 17, 2020)

all right we are good to go hi guys thanks so much for joining us for those of you who are new to our masterclass series my name is Chloe I'm the video editor here at jazzy Lincoln Center but have been posting some of these master classes which has been great in just a minute we're gonna join Jessie Lincoln Center orchestra trumpeter Kenny Rampton to get some of his insights into playing he'll be doing a Q&A with scene Hawkins who's from the Jess Lincoln Center education team and scene won't be sort of leading the conversation today but if you do have a question throughout the session please feel free to use the raise hand function if you click the participants tab at the bottom of your screen you'll see the raise hand button go ahead and use that and we'll get to you we're gonna try to get to as many people as possible if you don't feel comfortable raising your hand feel free to shoot question or comment into the chat we'll be monitoring that as well and Kenny I'm seeing sort of want to keep this open so feel free to raise your hand at any point throughout the session and we will do our best to get to you all right I am going to shut up now and turn it over to Seaton and to Kenny enjoy everybody hi everyone so when Kenny and I were talking about what to do today for this session one of the things that we discussed was that a lot of young musicians reach out to members of the Jazz Lincoln Center orchestra and certainly members of the staff as well for guidance on what they can be doing in developing their careers particularly early on in terms of what you can be doing both musically but also in terms of your personal development your career development and so what we thought today is that Kenny and I will have a chat about some of the things that he discovered early in his career things that he might pass on as advice in this particular moment and again this will be a chat between us but if you have questions and things are coming up feel free to raise your hand or put them into the chat window and we'll get to them the hope is to have something that's informal but also that really gets into some useful tricks for developing your career and some useful strategies for just continuing to grow as a person so with that I thought Kenny why don't we start with your initial memories in terms of your musical training and education we think about maybe your early gigs can you sort of set the stage for where you were early in your career and how those initial steps towards where you've gotten to today took place sure thanks Eden and it's good to good to be here again man good to see some people signing on before I kind of start with that I just want to thank everybody for for coming in checking this out I know as we're in in New York we're in phase one I guess with you know starting businesses up and starting to be able be able to interact with people again and for me that's something that I've missed desperately and so it's good to see see you guys see you folks because that's for me and I think for humankind it's it's so important to interact so thank you all for being here it's important to me and for that reason we want to start it up start off from the get-go with having a Q&A if anybody has any questions anybody wants to chime in I want to make sure that I get to any questions that anybody might have for me from the get-go as opposed to waiting until the end and then we don't have enough time to get to everybody which which often happens so but with that said you know in terms of my early career and coming up you know I I'm from Las Vegas I was born and raised in Las Vegas Nevada my father was a musician he played on the strip he toured with Elvis Presley he played with Frank Sinatra with all the Rat Pack guys my mother was a musician she taught piano piano was my first instrument percussion my second for my mom and dad I've always been involved in music and have always known that that's what I wanted to do from the time I was probably nine ten years old I started trumpet when I was 11 in sixth grade and I remember in sixth grade they had a career day you know and all the kids you know it was like an assembly all the kids got together in the gymnasium and those of us who knew what we wanted to do the part you know so they were kids dressed in a suit you know talking about they wanted to be a lawyer or kids dressed like firemen or doctors or whatever I put on a black suit with a black bow tie and when with my trumpet and I played the theme to Rocky you know because I knew when I was 11 years old that's what I wanted to do I wanted to play the trumpet it's all I've ever wanted to do once I became serious about you know anything really I couldn't ever imagine myself doing anything else so you know my formative years like through high school you know I studied with teachers I got up early and I practiced I was serious I worked hard at it my first gig professional gig was with my dad's band playing for the church that our family went to playing a dance he had me come up and play feel so good by Chuck Mangione and one of the song of Blues it was actually stolen from Duke Ellington they called it night train but it was actually it was derived from a Duke Ellington composition named happy-go-lucky local at the time I didn't know that but um those are the first two songs I performed professionally my dad paid me I think $20.00 you know and then later on when I was 16 my first gig playing in Vegas with professionals other than my dad and his band was um backing up Lola Falana on the strip subbing on New Year's Eve to play with Lola Falana and you know it's just all I ever wanted to do so you know I knew it took practice I knew I had to be serious about it when I went to college at UNLV for two years I I studied classical and jazz I played in symphonies I played in the Allstate Symphony I was first trumpet in in the Nevada Allstate Symphony through high school but I always wanted to play jazz and I remember my trumpet teacher one time in a lesson I came unprepared and made excuses and he was furious with me and and berated me for a few minutes and then said well what do you want to do I said I want to play jazz and he said well you have no idea what that means he said I've seen you come you know I've seen you in rehearsals he said he's come to the Jazz Band rehearsals and sees me and my friends and they're wearing funny hats and class thinking we're cool he said that's not what jazz is he said jazz music is an art form and if you want to be serious about it you have to commit your life to it and he it was some some pretty hard truth that he did he laid on me and he said don't expect to ever make any money don't expect to ever have a family or a home or a car he said you dedicate your art your life to the art and the art will take care of you and I took that to heart you know and I started studying jazz started transcribing started learning how to play bass lines on the trumpet started learning standards going through the keys with them started playing free music playing freely improvising with people and that's when I started to get serious about it and so I that's when I was in college I was at UNLV I was there for two years and then applied to the Berklee School of Music in Boston went school there and saw really kind of how I compared to some of the top players in the country at that time now when I was at Berkeley I was in college with Jeff Kaiser Roy Hargrove Antonio Heart Joshua Redman was going to school at Harvard down the road but we all used to play jam sessions together and I saw how I stacked up against those guys and I was a beginner those guys were all way way ahead of me and I I had to work hard you know I had to really just put in the time spend time on the shed and to be able to try and catch up to get you know learn some of the language of the music and I did and I always kept that in mind that Walt Walt told me that it's about you know it's about the art form you got to dedicate yourself to the art and so the next logical step after I left Berkeley was to move to New York because that's where the music thrives now I moved to New York with the intention of being in a community of other like-minded players so I could learn and grow and create art it wasn't about coming to New York to get a gig it was about coming to New York to become a star make money anything like that it was always about the art and in respecting the art form so I came to New York with that intention and I found pretty early on the when you'd like what like Walt Blanton told me when you dedicate yourself to the art the art will take care of you and it has and that's true in life you know I've worked with a lot of kids over the years and found that if you live your life with a certain integrity which is really what that is then it's going to take you to a higher place than you knew existed honestly and the decisions you make right now determine what your next choice choices are and the decisions every time that you make a decision it takes you to another set of decisions and when you follow your higher path and make the right choice every time it's going to lead you down a life path that is on a higher level you know so just very basic decisions am I going to throw this rapper on the ground or am I gonna wait til find a trash can little things like that even are important every decision matters you know being present is of the utmost important so you know that's kind of how I live my life it's how I've lived my life for a long time and through my career and my career choices people I play with you know I made a vow a long time ago not to cancel on people somebody calls me for a gig and I commit to it I show up I don't cancel because somebody else calls me for gig at the same time that pays $50 more because reputation matters you know and integrity matters so it's interesting cuz I actually led a panel discussion for the Jack Rudin competition which is a college version of essentially Ellington as Lincoln Center with be John Watson who's one of the leading trumpet players in Los Angeles with Camille Thurmond and Mark Whitfield world-renowned jazz guitarist and the the discussion was about being successful in a career of music how to be successful and we each kind of shared our life paths our stories how we got to where we are who we met who helped us and where as each story was very unique there were a few common denominators for each one of us and those common denominators number one is show up on time on time doesn't mean the gig starts at 8:00 you show up at 8:00 you show up at 7:30 that's on time any time after that you're late you don't want to stress out your band leader saying man where's Kenny at gig starts in five minutes no you got to be there at least half an hour early number two play your butt off be prepared there's a lot a lot of things we as musicians need to do to prepare and I'm gonna get in a little bit of that later like practicing fundamentals and studying the music and things like that but show up and play your butt off you know don't just be prepared but be be as good as you can possibly be when you play be better than anybody else if you can and certainly be the best that you can be that's number two number three is get along with people I can't even count how many people I know who are some of the baddest people on the planet when it comes to playing their instrument but their egos are so out of control nobody wants to hire them because I drag to be around so that's incredibly important especially when you're in a band like jazz Lincoln Center orchestra who in regular times we're touring half of the year pretty much at least five months out of the year we're on tour and when we're not on tour we're doing a concert series or concert season in Manhattan so we're around each other all the time and it's really an extended family so it's so important to just be able to get along with other people and it's amazing how many people just can't do that but those who do and follow those three things generally have pretty successful careers and it's not that hard to do really man you know prepare yourself be prepared play your butt off show up on time to be cool you know it's that's kind of what it comes down to and that's more or less what I've tried to do my entire career and and I'm I'm doing just fine I feel very good about where I'm at in my career I have several great gigs you know and I'm very blessed to be where I'm at but I'm also you know I've worked hard at it and I've made it a point to get along with people it's important to be a good person and you know that's that's so important is to be a good person man you know and operate at a higher level consciously you know to really create a good vibe vibration around you so want to be around you and so you can affect people in a positive way through through the art of jazz music and jazz education so I mean in terms of some of my career you know opportunities career choices that I've had you know I've been very lucky because once I came to New York you know I spent some time working it at a bank you know as a bank teller I did all kinds of temp jobs and and whatnot to get by I played in the subway played on the streets you know I was always really broke for a long time but I was happy because I was in a community of people writing music playing music having jam sessions all the time being creative studying the art you know and I was actually very happy and one day I got a call I met a trumpet player in a rehearsal after working at the bank there was a rehearsal once a week there was you know I didn't pay any money it was just for people like me who wanted to keep their chops together and network and and whatnot and I met a trouble player who was a three Charles band and he called me up actually he gave ray my number and Ray called me up a couple months later and I started working for Ray Charles once you get a gig like that with somebody who at the time Ray Charles was very well-known and very popular and you know everybody knows his music and once people hear that you work with Ray Charles hey let's get that guy with Ray Charles you know and then career starts to take off from there so one thing led to another - led to another with in terms of career from Ray Charles to Panama Francis I got Panama Francis gig because the lead Alto with Ray Charles also played a Panama Francis and Panama needed a trumpet player you know and then with Jimi McGriff's quartet and then Lionel Hamptons band Illinois Jacquet big band someone and so forth the Mingus big band and things just you know start to take off from there you make a really interesting point and I'm hoping we can touch on it now you talked about in the beginning of what you were looking to do you were talking about the idea of establishing community and you talked about the community in Boston you talked about community in New York and you also talked about the rehearsal band as another piece of community and laying that groundwork for some of the professional goals and achievements so for people who are just starting out how do you go about establishing that sense of camaraderie with other musicians how do you get your name out there how do you approach it with integrity where you're confident about what you're doing but also being humble about it - all right from me for somebody young coming up who who wants to break into the scene you know it's those three things you know even if it's free like I was talking about with you know there was a free rehearsal band I was working I was opening up safe deposit boxes for people at Chemical Bank which was bought out by Chase later and but it was up by the Museum of Natural History and you know is that's how I was paying the bills and but there was a rehearsal band that met once a week and like I said people just get together and play didn't pay any money and you just played to meet people and and to play getting a chance to play keep your chops together get to play music you know and you could write for you could bring in original music - which was cool so it was about the community win it was about learning and growing is about the art back to that so people you know who are new in town if you have the right intention it's gonna pay off you know if you come in town because you want to be a star and you tell people you don't want to play for free if it doesn't pay be careful what you wish for because you're not going to get called to play people who are in it because they believe in the art because they want to play are gonna get called you know and then when that gig you know happens where it pays $1,000 a person guess who they're gonna call you know but it's it's not about making money it's it's about the art and when you dedicate yourself to that people people know it and so anybody who moves to New York you know the best advice I can give you is play every opportunity that you get every chance you have have to play whether if it's a jam session whether it's a free rehearsal whether it's subbing for somebody on a gig on a door gig whatever don't let money be what drives you play with people you want to play with and play as much as you can you want to build your reputation and whether whether you're conscious of building your reputation or not you are doing just that so if you build a reputation you know and that says I'm not gonna play unless you pay me so much money you know that you're gonna have that reputation and if you show up late someone typed in here if you're early you're on time if you're on time you're late if you're late you're fired that's actually accurate whoever typed that was I say John Charles Thomas thank you for that because that's actually correct you're building your reputation all the time whether you think of it in those terms are not so you know live your life that way men show up early you know and be cool just get along with people you know it's it's a job you know people want to hang out with with people who they like you know they'll want to hire you on the bass hang because you're hanging out between sets - no matter how good you play if you're a jerk between sets everybody you're around because your ego is out of control nobody is going to hire you it's as simple as that and I've seen some of the greatest musicians on the planet struggle and have very unsuccessful careers behind huge egos you know check your ego at the door it's important you know just be cool get along with people treat people how you want to be treated be be a good person man you know that's so important you know you know and play your butt off man you know so anybody who's new in town go to every jam session that you can find you know bring a notepad with you bring like a little I have a little notebook I'm not sure where it's it's on the table over there anyways I have a little notebook that's about this big it's small but I carry it with me everywhere if I go to a jam session and I want to play and there's a tune I don't know I don't play it I write down the title of the tune and the key that they play it in and then I go home and I shed it so next time I go to that jams and I'm ready for it you know don't play tunes that you don't know and when I say you that you don't know you got to know the form you got to know the changes and you got to know the melody you can't blow on a tune if all you know is a melody you got to study you got to practice so you know and in it never ends you know studying and practicing never ends that's a beauty of music you know no matter how good you get there's always room for growth and improvement you know so there's no reason to ever become cocky there's no reason to ever become complacent or bored that's that's what I love about music is you can always learn you can always grow and it's it's a wonderful profession for that reason and it's a wonderful art form and a just a great way of life you know to always know that tomorrow when I get up I'm gonna learn something new I'm gonna be a little better tomorrow than I was today and there's no reason not to be so it's a pretty you know it's pretty cool that way you know I really I love what I do I wouldn't change it for the world so yeah absolutely now to this end this idea of diving and taking these opportunities when they're coming to you we think about the energy that's required to be able to do that to jump in there's two questions that I would ask on that front if you're thinking about sort of building a sustainable career the first would be your thoughts on how a young artist can avoid burning out and the second is even as you're building even as you're making progress there's gonna be setbacks challenges disappointments maintaining a positive attitude during this time particularly early when there's a lot of challenges how do you manage that as well so I guess two questions on burnout and on maintaining a positive outlook and goal okay those are deep questions thank you Seaton in terms of burnout I've gotten burnt out you know I'm not gonna lie there have been points where I just didn't want to play I you know when I get to that point where I feel burnt out I'm tired of what I'm doing for whatever reason now hasn't happened for a number years since I started doing doing this I kind of stumbled onto this by accident that when I start to feel burnt out by you know by playing or gigging or whatever I counter that with teaching and I've discovered that when I start teaching more I'm reminded of why I started playing in the first place and I see students when I work with students I see like you know is this gonna sound weird but I see him as reflections of myself when I when I see a student it reminds me of who I was when I was their age and and I remember how I was looking up to my teachers or people that I admired at that age and it helps me to see where I'm at in a different way in a different light and helps me to feel better about what I'm doing and helps me to get out that get out of that feeling of being burnt out so that's honestly how I deal with with burnout is through education and the more involved with education that I get the more I excited I get about playing and it's a very interesting thing for me so that's that's how I personally deal with with burnout there's also you know if you're burning out sometimes it's good to take a break you know and with the trumpet it's difficult physically to take a break from playing this instrument now I always like to have the trumpet near me when I'm talking so I just talk better when I'm holding in my hands for some reason but um and as I say that I forget what I was saying when when I'm when I'm teaching it makes me want to play more and when I play when I practice more it reminds me of who I really am I used to actually I would value myself as a person I put my self worth as a person on who I was as a player so if I had a gig and I played a bad solo or even a bad phrase inside of a solo I would get into a funk oh it's not i would devalue myself as a person and it's important not to do you know and I did that to the point where I would get depressed I used to really have issues with depression when I was younger and that's very important to realize that everybody has a bad day when you're playing you know and don't let that determine who you are as a person you know because generally most people aren't listening anyways but you know burnout happens for a variety of reasons you might have a bad solo then you get upset with yourself and you know you might I've gone through periods where day after day I just didn't feel like I was connecting with the horn I didn't feel like I was connecting with the spirit of music and you know sometimes it's good to just take take a day off and that's where I was that was was talking about that taking a day off and sometimes with the trumpet is difficult to do that physically because all the muscles that you've got to maintain in here and in here the buccinator and all these muscles are very small you know sort of maintain the strength in those muscles you've got to practice every day so if you take a day off you're gonna feel it if you take two days off you're gonna really feel if you take three days off three days off the whole world is gonna feel it it's how it seems so you got to be careful with taking time off but sometimes it's essentially to take it's essential to take time off if you're feeling burnt burnt out you know sometimes I'll get something in my shoulder or my elbow when I'm playing just from overuse or if I'm playing a lot of plunger you know my left shoulder you know I'm holding the plunger like this my left shoulder struck start to get sore you know so sometimes physically it's important to do that so that helps with burnout sometimes it can be physical burnout it could be mental burnout any any of those things and also if I'm having burnout if I'm just feeling burnt out I find it helps if I listen to certain musicians now my go-to is is Miles Davis that live record was it called for more my funny Valentine live that that record were somebody screams in the middle of Stella by starlight yes the audience that's my favorite recorded music of all time you know if I'm feeling burned out I'll turn off the lights put on that recording and close my eyes and sit and listen intensely that recording and breathe along with the music and that helps me get out of it too but I think education taking time off or practicing depending on what I need to do or and listening all those things help me with burnout the other question was was what's eaten without around maintaining a positive attitude and I think you you you've addressed both of those but you brought up a third point that I'm hoping we can talk about you mentioned physical burnout so the other piece to be contemplating is strategies that you've developed that allow you to have the chops to take on a wide range of gigs that also would allow you to play maybe long sessions multiple sessions in a day what are you doing or what you know did you learn to do in your in your career development in terms of technique that gave you a more sustainable path okay well that that's easy that's some fundamentals and this is true for any instrumentalist you've got to practice fundamentals of the instrument you can't bypass those and think you want to be a jazz musician and just play jazz and not deal with the fundamentals of your instrument regardless of what it is whether it's drums and you've got you've got to do your rudiments if it's a brass instrument there's a whole series of things you got to do to be able to play the instrument you know and there's five fundamentals with the trumpet I'll briefly mention all of them first is sound I always put that one first because that affects every other fundamental so you practice you play exercises to develop your sound you play long tones is most common to develop your sound next is flexibility going from one partial to the next the instrument is build on a series of partials as you show you this real briefly you don't need to use the valves at all so there's three different parcels and then keep going up all right so there's two octaves of partials that you don't use a valise for you change from note to note with airspeed with vibration of the lips different things affect that it's you can think of the trumpet like you know that tube that you get at the world fair the the state fair whatever you spin around and go to they do a little bit faster goes all the faster you do it the higher the pitch goes that's essentially what a trumpet is you're just moving the air faster which causes vibration of the lips on the back pressure which creates the sound so you move the air faster the pitch goes up to the next partial so lip flexibility exercises to develop that so you can go from one parcel to the next that's a second second fundamental third finger technique just moving you know finger finger patterns practing practicing your scales technical studies alright fourth is our tech articulation how you tongue notes different ways of articulating notes on whether it's long short combinations of articulation double tonguing single tonguing triple tonguing doodle tonguing all different ways of articulating the notes and v I was put this one last because it's the first thing that young trouble players always want to talk about is range and playing in the upper register and developing that so as a trumpet player you know we all got to deal with all five fundamentals every single day I practice them every day and by doing that that prepares you to be able to play whatever music is put in front of you now when I do you know my other gig is or one of my other kinks full-time gigs is doing the music for Sesame Street now when I when I go to do that go to the recording studio I don't get the music beforehand I can if I want to but I usually don't I don't need to if it's something specifically for piccolo trumpet or something that's really technically demanding you know I'll ask them to let me know but I generally don't see it till I get to the studio and get to the studio and we immediately start recording there's no time to practice but if you're fundamentally sound you don't really need to you know you just you're good enough to be able to sight read it when the red light goes on to record so you know it's crucial to be fundamentally sound to be ready for any gig any situation and especially if you're a jazz musician you're an improviser you want to be able to play what you hear in your mind when you play you want to be true to the melody that you're creating or the spontaneous composition that you're creating which is improvisation and playing a solo so you never know what you're gonna hear it could it could be anything you know and you've got to be ready to be able to execute that so it's important to to practice fundamentals every day dedicate part of the day every single day to the fundamental practice is crucial on any instrument absolutely now in terms of building up the chops so that you can be playing in a wide range of settings that you can be ready for any particular type of gig this ties into another thing that I think is on a lot of younger musicians Minds or artists who are just starting to develop their professional careers which I guess we could broadly term as the question of selling out so what are your thoughts in terms of getting a diverse range of work when you're young managing in terms of what you're trying to do artistically but also against you know having a sustainable career having you know being able to make rent what are some of your thoughts on how you balance that as an artist well um you know I play a very wide variety of stuff I don't just as I play a lot of commercial music I always have I love Latin music I've done a lot of Latin work I love horn sex and stuff I've toured with matchbox 20 I work with Chaka Khan I've done a pretty wide variety of stuff and I've never seen it as selling out personally I play music that I love to play and also you know I need to make a living you know and I got to pay the rent and I got a buy food and that's a reality and to play music you know there's a period where I played a lot of weddings and I'm very grateful for that period because it helped me to be able to get through you know just help me to be able to pay the rent helped me to be able to survive and and I made a lot of friends and they're still my friends I saw one of them online a couple days ago a great piano player this guy's like a walking encyclopedia of tunes he knows every tune you could think of named Kent ken Levinsky he's he's in New Jersey and he does a weekly thing and we used to play weddings together he'd do play cocktail hour for the piano and now and then I would get to play with him we'd play tunes and it was so much fun because he knows every tune ever written pretty much he does mostly that kind of work though and he was doing like a you know a lot of cocktail hour on Facebook or whatever from the backyard of a bandleader we both used to work for named bud Maltin who's a who's a fine saxophone player who plays that music plays commercial music plays weddings and that's how he's built his career and he's had a very successful career and more power to him you know because I mean there was a period where I had to go through an embouchure change and I really was struggling playing the trumpet I had to take time off and I had to start back start start up again and start over and bud Maltin gave me work so I could survive and be able to pay pay rent and buy food during that time and you know playing trumpet in a band is essentially doing top 40 music you know with with 15-minute jazz set for people to dance it in the mood or whatever where as artistically or musically is that what I ultimately want to do no but it gave me an opportunity to be able to pay the rent and to work on my chops and there's there's a positive side to everything you know I remember scene went into a master class one time for probably 2000 kids where he talked about you know talked about this said every every situation were in there's a positive and a negative to it he said it's important to be aware of the negative and it's even more important to focus on the positive and I remember he used an as an example of the negative the death of a family member more negative than that what's a darker than like losing a parent or you know I mean it's horrible to think about but there's a positive in it and if you can find that positive and even the darkest of times then then you're gonna be all right and he just he just showed by example when his when his father passed away recently the grace and dignity that he carried himself with the the statement that he made the statements that he made was so moving and so touching and so inspiring I'll never forget it you know seeing that man go through such a difficult time and in show such Grace and such positivity and that and it's important in any difficult difficult time we go through to find the positive to it so you know for me to be able to find it positive and playing music that you know no I don't I don't really enjoy playing in the mood you know I know how to and I can but there was a positive to it you know because I was going through an embouchure change or struggling playing the trumpet so in the top 40 band a trumpet player trumpet isn't utilized most this time but it had to learn to play you know things like that you know my girl the horn line of my girl and whatever else and that's not a whole lot of playing but I was grateful to be able to do that playing and to be able to focus on my embouchure and building my chops building my strength and get better so was i selling out by doing that no I don't think I was selling out at all I was getting better I was learning from it I was finding positivity in it and it served me very well it helped me to become the player that I am now you know so playing commercial music I don't see you selling out at all I think if you're playing something it's a blessing if you were lucky enough to get to make a living playing music I don't see it as selling out so some other people do that's on them and you have to ask them that question but I don't I don't see that as that I know you know Chris Botti is a good friend of mine for example chris is a fine trumpet player where the best trumpet players alive and I know a lot of people criticize him because they don't like the music that he's focusing on because he's capable of doing something more creative in terms of jazz and I hear a lot of people criticize him in some of the music that he plays is commercial in whatever my hats off to him and my hat is off to Chris Botti I have the utmost of respect for that man number one he's an incredible trouble player number two he's a very nice man and number three he plays music that he loves and to be aware of your audience and want your audience to come out of out of a performance feeling fulfilled and enjoying it he's aware of his audience and he does play to his audience he doesn't play down to them though he plays music that he loves and I've heard people actually use that term in describing him and I've had discussions with those people to you know to affect them to say man he is not a sellout he's playing music that he loves he's incredibly smart how he does it he's um he's aware of his audience and he's built a very large audience and he's highly successful what's wrong with that yeah you know I think it's a beautiful thing somebody just typed in here Kenny G is much the same and I completely agree with that I remember when I was a kid when my father was still alive I was in Las Vegas shooting pool with my dad at a bar and Ken Agee came on the loudspeaker somebody put it in the jukebox the tuned songbird we all we all know one love so much and I started criticizing it to my dad and my dad said hold on a second he stopped me in my tracks said anybody who's successful playing instrumental music and bringing other people into the fold to hear instrumental music is all right by me and it's like yeah okay dad that makes sense now my dad was my dad was the commercial musician in Las Vegas like I mentioned earlier he toured with Elvis he played with the Rat Pack guys and made a living as the lead as the principal percussion or percussionist in Las Vegas he was a first call guy he played principal play timpani with the Las Vegas Symphony back then now it's called the Las Vegas Philharmonic but the Jerry Lewis telethon whenever Ed McMahon would go to the timpani roll that was my dad he made a living playing commercial music but he loved jazz he loved milk jazz and he loved Lionel Hampton he I grew up here in the Count Basie Orchestra because of my dad you know so music is music man and if you're making a living playing music and you're raising the consciousness awareness of other people playing instrumental music man that's that's a powerful wonderful thing man so you know selling out that's somebody's that's a term that's frankly I think comes more from jealousy than anything you know so is something I don't frankly believe in you know some somebody's playing music and making a living man god bless him more power to him now we've been talking a lot about what individuals can be doing in terms of developing their own career but I want to broaden it a bit because one of the things I really love about these sessions on zoom' is we have a really wide range of people who are tuning in some people play some people don't some people are earlier in their career some people are later in their careers so one thought would be broadly speaking when we're talking about young artists who are coming up what can people in the broader community of jazz other musicians fans friends well-wishers what can people be doing to support young musicians in meaningful concrete ways there are various ways where people can support the music in general is out you're asking to support the music in general or yeah and then specifically for artists who are you know coming up who aren't names how can you no one be helping people like that from an sort of the audience perspective all right well I mean there are a lot of organizations that help artists like Jazz at Lincoln Center like my own nonprofit organization I started a Las Vegas Jazz outreach initiative we create programs for young musicians specifically education programs and we need money you know if anybody even a five dollar donation helps you know and that's the first thing that comes to mind is support organizations that you know about that support young musicians another thing is you know if you go out and you see either a couple restaurants like I live in midtown Manhattan so there's a thousand restaurants around me if you see two restaurants next door to each other one of them has live music in it and the other one doesn't choose to eat at the restaurant that's supporting live music and a lot of those musicians playing in restaurants aren't making any money from the restaurant themselves they just they give them a stage or a place to play they're playing for tips so support the musicians give them some tips encourage them applaud for them that means a lot that means a more than you know to have people clap after you play a solo after you finish playing a song to have an audience and have people actually show appreciation and love for what you do that that goes a very long way I can't how many can't count how many times I've been on gigs where nobody is clapping after a solo and by the end of the gig you just feel like why am i bothering doing this why should I even be here nobody appreciates it nobody likes us we're just noise to them that they got to talk over you know don't talk over the musicians listen to the musicians there you know musicians are there especially young musicians they're playing their hearts out and they everybody wants approval everybody wants appreciation so show them appreciation listen to them applaud for them give them money even if it's you know even if it's a quarter you got in your pocket put that in the tip jar you know they need it you know we all need it organizations right now you know are struggling and doing everything they can to figure out how to stay afloat and stay alive so if you're in a position to make a donation you know of a hundred dollars to an arts organization please do it goes a long way and it's much appreciated if you're in a position to make an endowment even better but you know just even even if not though you know you see some some young people playing on the street you know stop and listen to it for a few minutes put a little you know put a little change in the chip in the tip jar it goes a long way it's not just about the money it's about showing appreciation because everybody needs that and and that goes a long way you know if there's any specific organizations that you you know of that you like that you want to support there's so many there's like a grassroots movement happening in jazz education in the country right now there are a lot of organizations around there's jazz arts Charlotte in Charlotte North Carolina jazz Houston in Houston Texas I guess I need to say where it is if it's in the title jazz outreach initiative in Las Vegas that's my nonprofit and and so many more and we're doing everything that we can think of to stay alive during these times cuz everything's been canceled you know so any donations anybody can make or show of support you know if you follow an organization if somebody were to go and follow jazz outreach initiative you can see some of the fun things we do even to just see those things and then share it on Facebook you know help spread the word you know we all need that jazz Lincoln Center obviously has a lot of content you know and I do my best to share as much as I can when I see Jazz at Lincoln Center has posted something I shared on my personal page I shared on my artist page I shared on jazz outreach initiative page I shared on the Las Vegas youth Jazz Orchestra page so I got four pages that I share all these things on and it helps get get the word out you know light travels turn on the lights in a room and it's gonna brighten up the whole room not just a corner so we want to we want to do that as much as we can so even if it's just sharing something that's extremely mean meaningful and you know any support any way you can think of support any of you can think of to support the efforts being made is greatly greatly appreciated absolutely now I do want to pause just in case there are any questions from folks around developing a career supporting the music developing through the music as a as a person there is anything just raise your hand or you can type it into the zoom chat window or if you're on Facebook you can type it into the facebook chat or checking that too I'll keep going but if we see a question coming in I will stop talking which I'm sure everybody will be very happy about and and we'll take the question but I see one thing here Seaton from Paul M Doherty he said back to Ray Charles in the movie ray when he met women they showed him feeling their wrists to see if the woman was heavy did I ever see him do that yes I did which is interesting but he actually did used to when he would meet someone he would he would feel their wrist wasn't just women with men he would kind of feel he would do this on your arm you know and you want to see if you're big and muscular what he wanted to know what you look like so he did do that all right go ahead Seaton sorry about how maybe that's a good story okay I mentioned or I I joined the jail Co back when it was the else Elsie Jo initially well first time I met went in a few times before I worked with him he probably doesn't remember when I first met him but the first time I worked with him I was hired by reputation he put together a band to do a series of videos called Marsalis on music with Seiji ozawa and we played I think yo-yo ma was on in the video series as well but we he put together a big band of mostly younger players up in Tanglewood and we played opposite the Tanglewood student orchestra which was conducted by Seiji ozawa and they were playing Ellington or they were playing rather Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and we were playing with a big band we're playing Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn version of the Nutcracker which was based of course on Tchaikovsky's and showing you know the similarities and differences and all that one movement at a time one section at a time that's when I first met Wynton that was mostly younger players and that's right around the time that link they were starting the program up through Lincoln Center back then it was called the Lincoln Center jazz orchestra and so we did those videos that's when I first worked with Wynton we got along we had a lot of fun he was very encouraging to me I learned a lot he was very respectful of me and you know we became friends and then there was a concert not long after that I think it was in December that same year they were doing a tribute to to Louis Armstrong at Jazz at Lincoln Center and it back then was before they had their own building it was at Avery Fisher Hall I believe and it was a lot of incredible trumpet players Clark Terry and Nicholas Payton was on it Jon Faddis it was it was like an all-star thing with trumpet players one of the trouble players who was supposed to come up and do that was a incredible trumpet player from New Orleans named Wendell Bru Gnaeus and Wendell had to cancel and they called me and asked me what I come into to sob to make this gig so I did and from that point on I was you know kind of a regular in the mix of trumpet players and that it wasn't a set Orchestra yet Marcus pruned up Ryan Kaiser Wynton obviously were regularly in the section women was there all the time but um there were other other folks too Dan Miller Roger Ingram this is before Seneca black even loose olaf marcus Belgrave I mentioned Jon Faddis I think anyways it was a circle of a lot of fantastic trumpet players and I was I became you know kind of a regular part of that circle and and was kind of in and out when they would need somebody and you know I was probably you know I was on the list you know I probably wasn't the first call but I got called pretty regularly but at the time I was I was also working with with John Hendricks with his group I was a regular member of his group I was working with George grunts big band who's a George was a European or a Swiss composer and arranger and he had a big band that I was a regular member of I was also with Jimi McGriff's quartet or quintet I was working a lot freelancing with different people and I always lived by the rule whoever calls you first and you commit to that's the gig that you do you don't bail on somebody because somebody else pays offers you more money or whatever it's just not you know not a good way to be you know people don't get get mad at you for saying no they get mad if you cancel on them so and I learned that early on so I lived by that rule and had to turn them down turn I had to turn down Lincoln Center like three or four times in a row when they called me and I kind of fell off the list as a result of that for a number of years but I was always in good standing with Wynton I think he probably actually respected that I would assume we've never actually spoken about it but we were always cool and then an opportunity came up where they needed somebody and I would you know came in and made a rehearsal here and there you know somebody was sick or whatever you know they would call me so I started to get back in like several years later and by this time they formed a regular band the name of the band had changed from Lincoln Center jazz orchestra to Jazz at Lincoln Center orchestra and it was a set you know set band and then there was a tour that Sean Jones couldn't do and so they called and asked me to do it so I started working with a band a little more regularly started I did a couple tours subbing for Sean Jones and then it's at a certain point Sean left the band to go do some something else he left New York and followed his own path and he's just got a text from a minute ago I haven't read it yet but um Sean was a good friend but they were looking for somebody full you know full time and I was in mix with a couple of the guys who I know and who were good friends of mine and you know I need to name any names or anything but we all wanted the game and for whatever reason I went and called me for it and I've never looked back that was in 2010 I joined the band full-time it was in 2008 that I did in my first tour subbing for Sean so it was you know kind of two years of auditioning touring with a band you know as a sub and then in 2010 I got the call to join full-time my first profession my first gig as a regular member of the band was playing the Berlin Philharmonic piece went in wrote called swing symphony which is probably the hardest thing I've ever played to this day and that was my first gig with the band was playing that so it was it was a challenge but that's you know that's more luck that's how I I got to be regular with with a band oh it's been 10 years now so we have three questions that have come in we'll start with one from Facebook which is around your embouchure as you play in terms of any changes you've had in your career or any changes you've decided to you know embark on your thoughts on that okay well I used to play I did change my embouchure I mentioned that earlier the hardest thing I've ever done as a trumpet player in my career was to change my embouchure I used to play I can show you take they take the mouthpiece off the horn I used to play like that if you look on my top lip I played inside the red I wasn't above this Ridge where it goes from pink to white I was inside the red like that was my embouchure sorry I don't know if it was that was my embouchure I'm growing up and I had people tell me that I was gonna have trouble when I got older when I was a kid and I was a cocky kid I was stupid I was arrogant I was ego driven and I was like man I'm already first chair all-state you know what do you know you know and I didn't listen to him and you know went on with my life and started my career I was touring I was working as a professional musician playing touring with a Mingus band and everybody else that I mentioned and it was having a successful career and started to have trouble with my embouchure I would actually feel inside my lip I would feel the muscle slip up out of my lip and so it'd just be like loose skin they're playing and I have to stop and because I couldn't get a sound out like that and reapply and continue playing but I was having sir and my endurance was very bad the skin here the pink is very I think it's thinner then up here when it you know gets over the ridge on the lip to the white part of in my case I think the skin up here is a little thicker so I was having significant problems with endurance with range and when it would when I'd feel it slip out it would be like it happened in the middle of solo sometimes I'd have to stop and then we collect my thoughts and everything in this start up again it was it was becoming a huge problem and I spoke with many different people about how to change my embouchure and I got some great advice from a lot of great friends from Lou so off to Bob Milliken to sam Bertus who's a phenomenal trombone player in New York and Walt Blanton my teacher in Vegas and the person who I really focused on who really seemed to understand it on another level was Bobby Shue who had been a mentor to me for many many years and still is Bobby still around if anybody's a trumpet player mosket lessons I'm gonna plug him now Bobby shoo calm go there sign up for lessons he charges next to nothing he only charges money because he people he feels people don't value the information unless they pay for it he's he's a guru and one of the greatest teachers ever but Bobby told me I needed to take time off because all these muscles have memory and unless I took the time off I would struggle with just trying to change my embouchure and that's what that was a case I would I didn't take any time off and I go into gig then I put the mouthpiece up here you know where it needed to be and within four bars the mouthpiece with this the mouthpiece had just slipped right back down you know the muscles have memory and they grip it a certain way so he said you got to completely lose that memory he said take a month a month and a half off from playing completely and then start over put the mouthpiece work where it should go so you got a good balance of upper and bottom lip so you're above the red so that's what I did I started rebuilding and it took me about a year before I started to feel good I started to work again after about three months but I would do gigs I wouldn't play any solos I would just focus on playing like third or fourth trumpet parts and the lower partial and just focus on keep my corners tight and making the making Alfie's my mouthpiece was in the right place and I got through it it was frustrating it was you know I seriously battled with depression during that time because I didn't know if I'd ever be able to play again and that's when I really started doing a lot of work on myself and got away from the notion of if I'm not playing well I'm a bad person and I didn't put Who I am as a person so much on how was my solo tonight you know because it used to be I'd have a bad cell or a bad moment in a solo and I'd be depressed for three days you know and I that was actually very helpful for me as a human being to get over that and realize you know even if I have a bad night it's okay I'm still a good person you know and the change had to go through the embouchure change was incredibly value valuable to me for many many reasons and ultimately I'm a better trumpet nap crop a player now than I would have ever been able to be with my old embouchure here's the second question that came in on the zoom chance where I think it's it's from the perspective of drumming but I think as a trumpet player you have a similar issue which is balancing the needs of practicing against the realities of you know living with family or you know with roommates with neighbors and finding that particular space of practicing and developing while also noting the reality of living around other people yeah I mean that's an issue for a lot of people man I have a friend who lives in the building where I live who I'm actually had somebody sue him and try and get him evicted because he was practicing a saxophone I've always I've just for whatever reason always done this every apartment that I move into as soon as I move in I open all the windows and play as loud as I can all day long into the night as late as I can just to annoy everybody to let them know I'm there and then wait for somebody to complain as soon as they complain then I stop you know it's kind of like a little kid boundaries but it's also marking your territory there are laws that state that you are allowed to practice musical instrument in your apartment up until a certain hour so now the last time I did that was when I moved in here to where I'm living and I moved in here in 2002 so it's been a while but um after I do that then I write a letter and I print it print out like a dozen copies of it and I lay it in front of everybody's door on my floor the person directly above me and directly below me and just state Who I am giving my phone number my email address my apartment number say listen I'm a professional trumpet player this is what I do for a living I need to maintain my skill set I need to practice the last thing I want to do is to make anybody uncomfortable in their own homes so if it's ever a bother to you please let me know call me text me whatever and I will work with you work with your schedules so I so I'm not a nuisance to you as a trumpet player and since uh since I've done that I haven't had any problems people appreciate that you even think about that I did have a thing in the beginning of this pandemic because normally I'm on the road you know five months six months out of the year and now all of a sudden I'm home all the time and having to practice and you know we've done several recordings for Jazz Lincoln Center we just released one that we did for a tribute to Miles Davis and I'm also recording Sesame Street from home and so I've had to deal with a neighbor across the hall who wasn't happy with me playing there was one day in particular where I had three different projects I had to record in one day and I started around 11:00 and I played basically most of the time till like 7:00 at night and they knocked on my door and we're like man come on and so so we talked I said listen and they they were actually new I hadn't given them the letter so he said he was my name you know you ask them their name I was polite and nice you know and I said you know I don't want to disturb you but this is what I do for a living and we're in lockdown I can't go to the studio I can't go on the road I have to do it from home I certainly don't want to offend you or upset you so are there hours generally that will be cool for you cool with you for me to play and so we talked talked it out and came up with a window every day where I can play without bothering them and I said okay cool I'll make sure to adhere to those rules and I tell them I said occasionally I may need to do you know play a little earlier a little bit later than that but it's not going to be often and I'll make make sure I let you know if I'm going to and so you know they're cool with it so I think you know you know starting off my you know life in a new place by opening the windows and blasting to test the parameters and you know just my boundaries is maybe kind of childish but at the same time it's letting them know who I am and letting them know that I'm serious and this is what I do and they're gonna have put up with me and it can be like this or we can work together you know so it's it's working out just fine it has been an issue before yeah that idea of acknowledging their sign while also stating where you're at I think we have time for one more question and this came from the the chant within zoom from Eric who writes I've always struggled with sight reading do you have any resources you could recommend yeah absolutely I used to struggle with sight reading and the person who actually taught me how to get better a sight reading was my mom when I was a little kid you know my mom played played piano and in church she was organist for the church so when I was a little kid like 3 4 years old I used to sit on the on the organ bench next to my mom in church while she was playing the organ and she asked me to turn the page for her you know and she would just nod like this when it was time to turn the page you know but through doing that I started to learn how to read music because I would follow along the top she would play and I would I realize that when she got to the last line that's when she would nod so I started to be able to count 1 2 3 4 understand the a little bit about the value of the notes and so that's how I started learning to read music was through my mom and then after I said you know years later I started trumpet at 11:00 and played in junior high school I was first chair in junior high school band and and jazz band and the summer between junior high and high school I wanted to be able to make the top jazz band and I was afraid my sight-reading wasn't good enough and so I talked to my mom about it and you know said how do I get better inside reading well she had a whole bookshelf filled with piano music so she said alright well we'll set up a little station for you here it said I put music stand in a chair she said everyday I'm gonna pull down a different book of music and put it in front of you and she said I want you to play the top line on the piano music in time don't stop if you make a mistake just keep going you know in sight read it it's that read something new every single thing so that's what I did for a summer for you know over you know two and a half three months whatever it was I'm different different piece of music you know different page of the same book whatever but something new every time I didn't stop and work it out and fix it or whatever I sight read practice sight reading every day for for a summer and I got to high school and I was the best salt reader in the band I was my freshman year I was lead trumpet in the top jazz band and it's because of that you know sight reading isn't something that happens magically you can all of a sudden magically sight read because something clicks because you get it it's like anything else you've got to practice it you want a good sound you got to play your long tones you want good technique at a practice your technical studies just like anything else LeBron James didn't become a good basketball practice he didn't practice he you know how many how many free throws a day do you think he's practice on average over his life and he's still a bad three free throw I believe those are fightin words well I mean I love LeBron I think he's he's an incredible person and and the best all-around player in the game today but um free-throws are one of his nemesis the you know nemesis is is that the right is that Nemus I don't know Emma sees Emma sees thank you and I knew you would know that it's eaten in any case to get good at anything man you've got a shed you got a practice there's no way around it and so that's that's how I learned to become a good sight reader it is by practicing it and it doesn't you know once you get it you get it but you got to practice it so I spend a summer working on sight reading and I've been a good sight reader ever since so I know we're a little bit over time so what I'd like to do now is hand it back over to Chloe I'm gonna type into the chat window here on zoom and on Facebook if there are questions we didn't get to I'm gonna give you an email address that you could reach out to us and we'll make sure it gets answered but yeah Chloe over to you thank you both for giving me a day off there I'm usually doing a lot to host in moderating but I just guys thanks for joining us today like always we're hosting free live events every day throughout the coming weeks more masterclasses conversations more maths classes with the jail's - oh speaking of which our next one will be this Friday with I think Kenny you know this guy Marcus print up it's gonna be part one of a two-part class called the great trumpet masters Marcus will guide viewers through the innovations and styles of the many trumpet legends who have shaped the instruments voice in jazz this can be a fun one yeah Louis Armstrong - Roy Eldridge - Miles Davis and - our own Wynton Marsalis that would be Friday June 19th at this same time unzoom and also on Facebook but please follow us on our our full schedules on our website that's jazz org and you can get your links to your zooms in your facebook lattice there as well the last thing I'll say is if it's within your means please consider making a donation as as Kenny was saying earlier you know this is a difficult time for us as a non-profit so we are we are trying to sort of be humble here and ask our audience to help us get through this time by making any sort of denomination that you're able to we're committed to entertaining enriching and expanding a global community for jazz and we're so so grateful for you all just just by being here it's really great so the last thing I guess is yeah so seating through that email address in the chat feel free to ask any questions he's usually on the game end of those emails and he's he knows everything so he's the guy and then just keep because just keep up with us on social media if you'd like Jasleen cats that are on facebook follow us on instagram and twitter at Jazz org that's jazz org spelled out and thanks so much everyone thanks kenny think see we'll see you next time I'll turn it over to Kenny and say goodbye Thank You Chloe thank you for all that you're doing you're doing so much it's it's so appreciated by by all of us truly thank you Seaton and thanks for everybody for for tuning in I hope you got something out of this and you know seeding if any questions come up for me let me know just give me a call and we'll deal with them you got it and that's it man it's an honor and a pleasure to be here man thank you take care guys we'll see you Friday everyone bye be safe be safe everybody be well

Channel: Jazz at Lincoln Center's JAZZ ACADEMY

Views: 2,121

Rating: 4.8536587 out of 5

Keywords: jazz, jazz education, essentially ellington

Id: -khVp3GLC0Y

Length: 69min 42sec (4182 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 22 2020