October 18, 2018 - Mark Turner & Ethan Iverson

this guy's really do you know introduction they played last night the santa barbara lee fantastic performance mr. mark Turner and Ethan Iverson well mark and I are not exactly licensed professionals when it comes to giving a master class sure probably what we'll do is we'll play something and then take questions we don't have our PowerPoint hunky late Jets presentation all lined up the way we really probably ought to or something like this we just spoke we're sort of a little dazed and confused like then we'll just warm up with a ballad here and played really straight horns Chelsea bridge [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right so why any questions doesn't that can be about that or anything else all right well I mean I suspect a theme that'll be something mark and I will both be saying in this workshop is we probably both just try to imitate the stuff we like you know so like when I was in high school I I love to long this month I still do but I like learning every month to me that's like a dictionary of jazz compositions in a way like the 40 monk James so if you learn the 40 month tunes and you write your own jazz tunes sort of like well that's sort of what mom did but I'll do it this way that's already it's gonna be a pretty solid structure you know I love classical music CEO of contemporary classical music there's stuff on temporary Kings the album that we just put out which is sort of like my interpretation of certain ideas that I've heard from there you know nothing nothing comes from nowhere probably so it's just me trying to be like the stuff I already liked I will say that in my own sort of world of composition which is very much influenced by monk is that I if I find a good idea that's the hard part in a way is finding a charismatic idea but if you have one little charismatic idea you can just apply operations to it to create a piece of composition you know that part is sort of straightforward in a way and that's certainly what monk did yeah came up with one like a bar two bars here's a melody and rhythm that that's charismatic that's it that's a hit so okay I got this to hit bars all I have to do is move them around a little bit and I've got a great piece of music yeah [Music] well I mean one thing definitely is uh I I just like to reiterate basically writing tunes that are tips elicit sounds like mark few life music that you like I thought that very important pretty much everything I've written as either influenced by or maybe even I'm copy up you want to call it that but of course in my version of some music that I like contemporary and you know a friend of mine or or a music by master or from the classical music world as well so for example the Tim we played yesterday Myron's world was directly derivative of a tune that my own Walton Road that's also 16 bars exactly the same and then I wrote my own tune and you know just your own human ingenuity human s will make it sound like you there's nothing nothing to worry about about in terms of whether you're going to sound like yourself or not you know yourself is your attraction and also the retraction on your of your things of feelings about things that you don't like that's yourself speaking to you all you have to do is just follow what it says and apply some musical craft and knowledge to that and you'll come up with some good tunes so the only thing I would say about comps at least from my part is once I have an idea or two I started I started to compile the forms that I liked you know just write them down like oh this sounds fun sounds good ABC or it's an interlude in the middle and you know like a interlude whatever it is I just started to compile a mess with them so that I'm not going on inspiration alone when I write another thing is that I took this actually I asked a friend Caroline anybody know okay so I took a little bit of a class of his and after asked him how he writes so he gave me a lot information as well so basically I just looked for as many tools as I can to get something going basically and then I just I just sit down maybe I'll start for the month and I just sit down and write like 10 o'clock every day I just go to work and I usually write in the morning I can't find anything at night the morning is my creative hours and I just you know I just make it happen even if even if I feel no inspiration I just use sometimes tools to make something happen so I could talk about this later but that's basically now do you find that when you can put so if you're composing every morning do you find that you throw out a large portion of it or becomes fodder for new material use butter for new material I usually don't do anything rarely and this isn't every morning like sousou you know 63 other six five days a year it's periods where else I have to get something done and I'll just you know out of that might come one too and after months you know or maybe five tips or nothing but I just I just do it I personally feel like it's a big project having a huge false start can be part of the game you know like I like that actually a few times I've started something and then like yeah I throw it out okay well I was I got that started the process so if it's but it's not I certainly never regard as a waste it's actually great to be able to make so much stuff that you know you can get rid of a lot of it my but this great author Daniel pink water was sort of an influence on me he told me that eat you should be so productive as a creative artist that you make some for the bandits because always like some bandits that come along or whatever you know it's like it any anything you do in this life doesn't have to be artistic it can just be like whatever running a whiskey store some bandits are gonna come and take some of that whiskey for sure so like alright fine just make sure you'd be so productive that a certain percentage of it can just be like by the wayside or logical and not good whatever any of that stuff is under that one thing I'm just going to add a new thing for me but maybe not new brothers so you can already know society I wrote it a Swede recently based on a book and you know just to be transparent you know I was at one point I was very cancer doing that I used to think that that was kind of a easy way to escape to recognize that wasn't pure in some ways you know having a concept and then writing some music that's the Western value just to just have a concept there so you can sell your project and there might be some of that I would say but but I decided to just try it because why because I was sort of studying with Jeroboam quiet at the time and I found it very helpful just to organize my thoughts at first I used to just as an inspiration and I wasn't going to use the book at all I just use it as a way to organize at least 11 songs and I found that the it's very helpful as given at least some direction to what I was going to write freeze each Tim and after that it was very easy to kind of come up with some ideas so some hits like Ethan was saying and then write some compositions and then you know basically after that it flows so now there are 11 songs which I've never written that pass in my life so it was very helpful so anyway that's another thing I would say well at your stage if you're like in college or whatever you know and hear jazz try to write up great 12 bar blues it might not be as easy as you think trying to ride a crate or some changes they outfit it there's no significant jazz composer who didn't write a good than them changes they all wrote a bunch of great blues Tunes you know try to ride a ballad in the Billy Strayhorn tradition try the right of Chelsea bridge a ABA everything eight bars see see how easy it is to write a good one so if you're into that stuff write a few if you're into that stuff right of Sonata form you know it's some of them some of the stuff that is out there you know it's just it's this blending of classical music and jazz music and all sort of stuff where all the influences actually aren't that well digested you know it's like well I know a little bit about contemporary classical music and I know a little bit about jazz and I want to write this you know piece and 7/8 with some weird pitches boy the truth hurts eye dropper that was like a proper one too right so I'm just saying okay what's what's actually better is to study some blues study some twelve-tone compositions study you know try to write a two-part invention right now write a sonata form right at Billy Strayhorn ballad you know in New Orleans okay right right a second-line do all that stuff and then let the combination of it just on the back of your subconscious you get that stuff together you'll be able to put some stuff out there that was just really sad like you you know so yesterday our rehearsal ended about 1:30 if you gave us at 7 both to you guys in this game were like shedding pretty much a big chunk of the time and Mark you made the comparison yesterday to our performances like athletes and what goes into maintaining your top so you feel like you know you're ready to perform and you just talked a little bit about you know I guess going on toward performing these different places and what you need to do to be prepared you feel them perform yeah I guess you folks up on that as a woodland player I so there are few things that I do i I think we both have friends that don't warm up right yeah just go on go the play I won't mention names but that may sound great you know so I I'm not one of those people I cannot do that you know and I luckily I play instrument where I can practice my hotel room fighting too so even for example cannot but he make sure you usually it goes in early to to the venue ask ahead of time hey can I practice or whatever it's so I've not many piano players to do that but just for example that player because over that so what I do is I kind of make sure that my I'm kind of into exercising and stuff that really helps me a lot just because you know you're traveling around them time zones you've been on a train are playing for six hours it just helps me a lot what might I just feel more awake and my body doesn't but it just helps me play better sometimes it doesn't sometimes it's good when you feel bad actually I'm kind of serious about that but it just kind of helps me to be more awake and more willing to do things but I don't feel like doing them and then I usually I just have a warm-up routine but it helps me to usually it's basically it's a I practice on with the metronome and without but the one where I'm really stressed or where I've got to make sure it's happening and I feel terrible I'm hoarse I can't play I feel technique isn't happening my sound is not happening I put the metronome on as low as possible if you've been some metronomes one I have done 30 I might start at 20 or 10 and I'll start with really slow usually like if I have time if I have like two hours I might start at at quarter notes and gradually I work up to thirty second notes the way I do that is to build triple to each other so you know quarter notes in quarter note triplets ten eighth note eighth note triplets on and so forth I speed up by doing that then when I get the thirty second notes then I speed the metronome on but I keep it going thirty-second notes all the way up to thirty seconds at fast so I just do that until it really slowly until I get really fast and so as a weren't clear used to woodwind player what you want to do is while you're doing that you your be sleeping I usually do like for patterns I do these four petals four or more they all do different things next what I'm trying to do is just get my airflow because basically what you're doing is you're dealing with your embouchure but you're trying to get all so much of your son also comes from your fingers with my players that's what i was talking if you haven't been taught that it everyone is different been but a lot of yourself instrument makers as well as up here so I just try to manage that just like get my sound going but basically I'm trying to do is get everything everything to sound like one don't no matter how slow fast or how many intervals I'm jumping and jumping so my sound gets larger even though I'm glowing with the same amount of force over time so anyway that's been tough spending and sometimes I basically what I want is a ruler a measuring stick so when I can get to 50 these various patterns at least have a measuring stick to know where I am on the instrument as opposed to just playing anything after seeing how it feels I can't really tell where I know why cuz I you know traveling limited time so my my mind is a different place I want something that tells me this is it not like I'm not sure not artsy just like a school library this is where I am no I'm ready to go you know so that's kind of way and if I have time I'll do other things to just more creative things like play some tunes do different kids I'll take a few tunes and play with drop some keys or do the blues rhythm changes for example worth to submit some lines and taking the keys and things like that or work to some melodies there's a certain way that I do that but I will go to that now but I'll do those things after I've taken care of it but then I'm kind of ready to go just like any person that has a job can take like a plumber a carpenter something like that you know nothing artsy about it just this is what has to happen so that you know basically when the people that are coming to pay thirty five fifteen twenty-five dollars or whatever it is to hear you play you're ready to bring something to them as an expert so that's I am I I guess I could say maybe if I had done more practicing when I was a young person I probably need to practice less now I feel like I'm catching up I've always been actually essentially pretty lazy you know I've got less lazy over the years and when you're young and you know moderately athletic it's a really good time to try to play as fast as possible as loud as possible all these kinds of things because it's gonna get only gonna get harder just get older sounds like a rush like play fast and loud you know and I mean loud like bad horrible fusion jazz or something like that I mean that's that applies a lot of things like this why my least favorite music is obsessed with being fast and loud but I've discovered that all of my favorite vulnerable soulful musicians who don't play somebody notes that are just pure artists actually have mind-blowing facility you know we both like this trumpeters to Tom Harold for example vulnerable white guy plays kind of slow wow I can be like Tom he'll actually guys Muhammad Ali of the trumpet yeah it's rough you know so same thing like with you know whatever felonious mo it's like well I can imitate mug this and play so fast then you like get out there and you try to make a sound at the piano like felonious monk it's actually a technique that's really powerful he never plays a wrong note there's no he made so many gigs so many records it's always every articulation every accent lands like the force of a powerful boxer the whole time so I mean I was hoping that was when I was John now so I'll I'll just played my like monk in like the light soulful poets but I wish I wish I had done more serious chops building yeah I just want to add to that which is that was just that absolutely suck about is that basically what I kind of tells my kids that sometimes like whatever you spending an effort to go for something let's say you're right in to some extent but especially you're playing think about it like if you had to jump across a chasm that was a thousand feet down and there was let's say you know six feet across maybe maybe you might be able to make it would you try to jump so you just make it or would you jump you may not use all the extra stuff but you want to ready no that's what I tell myself now I can't always do it but that's what I tried for so you had a question like that kind of becomes like in the world and but also like how your duo projects like how you form that relationship well the duo is I well the first thing I would say is that with anything the more organic it is the better you know that Plus was three guys who had known each other since they were well the bassist and drummer knew that were playing music together at age 13 and they still play music together at age 48 you know I met them when I was a little I was I'm younger than beaten Dave and I but I met them when I was a senior in high school some sort of folklore that we shared you know that so eventually when the band started we were all in our early 30s we docked around the world and we came back together or some sort of agreed folklore was like okay here's this thing and feels natural and it feels like it's powerful let's give it a bad name and go for it mark 10 duo me been playing with Billy Hart for well over a decade not a whole lot but a couple times a year you know enough to really develop something and there were a lot of spaces over the years Billy Clark was the one who said he really wanted to play more free music and we'd be playing three music and there'd be spaces with just the two of us playing and I felt it was special and comfortable I guess I was a one the match would I current you see my needed to a project for him and I suggested do it with Mark but it was also organic you know it wasn't like let me you know let me do a brand new thing for for a brand new day it was like well this is something that's gonna roll forward it is something that wasn't gonna be too artificial so probably most of the stuff that has real weight as a project I suspect even historically but certainly in my license it tends to happen pretty naturally over time so maybe the only memorable lasting situation maybe would be probably Cardozo Michael's band first scourge app so that happened in a similar way same thing you know it's totally organic I knew Boston and then I think I bet maybe in France somewhere he said that I remember in that Jeff that Menem as soon as I got to New York along with Larry printed here like a session mrs. Beckham and then Kurt had started a trio with them in Spain just before coming back and then I was actually the name Lord Norland and I came back to her it was a whole scene of people playing at that time probably many people you would know where he Rossi was playing that used to play with breakfast know how Seamus Blake was chief Gentiles are a lot of people anyway and then I I kind of reconnected with prudence recession and I'd already known Jeffie been so started rehearsing with them and then you know we started playing at smalls every Tuesday you know in New York like three months at a time or more every rehearsed every week multiple times a night this mostly Kurt's music but it started so you know you know one thing that might be helpful is to try to work with people that you want to hear their voice you know it's in some way the less you can talk about it the better you know the hour type of example is the greatest jazz composer the Stig Ellington and it's not just Duke Ellington it's all the people that work his band you know and all the demands that you got to know the names of all the galaxies the people that made up that often sound you know that's kind of the Platonic ideal really you know so it's so yeah Marx worth I know something about the system marks got a new suite for quintet and I know it marks mine I'm just gonna guess your advices bagnat but there's no point of even trying to do it if he's not gonna hire people he doesn't love and that he he doesn't have to explain anything to he wants to hear even though it's a new conceptual project he wants to hear the way everybody plays how they play you know and that there's gonna be times like yeah you have to save stuff or whatever you know but that's in a sense that's the European tradition that's the best of Brahms writing for an orchestra okay there's a hundred people I'm gonna tell you all exactly what but American music has this other kind of power you can say it's like like Democratic or whatever No but there is some truth to that that there's this way that even in the jazz orchestra of Duke Ellington and everybody had their say everybody was required for this kind of large room music to work goes doubly and trebly so for small [Music] well you know the question is how do you market a band that's John rebending it doesn't fit into a box I would say that if the music is incredible you'll get it heard you know that's my first guess about it it's not it's not the hardest thing in the world to say your music is John rebending I mean that's not like that's not a that doesn't require real resolution on the bat the half of the behalf of the artist you can be like my music blends genres it's putting new stuff together let's let's hear it if it's really killing it'll probably get a chance to be heard and I hope it is killing and I wish you luck did you talk about like some of the things of Durham Rachel I saw a piano lesson thank you a little down there but I like it well thank you very much well okay the first thing that comes to mind is that there is a way that jazz piano was taught I don't know what's happened here and I think things have really changed for the better but at a certain point in jazz education it felt like the left hand was told a table of Bill Evans of Herbie Hancock poisons and that's what should play down there I was in the however that's like received wisdom that's not like the truth that's like some received wisdom press some guys like Mark Levine who's not even a great player writing a book called of jazz piano book and this is how you do it that's like ain't true just a way to market teaching jazz harmony give Mark Levine some checks and I'm it's fine that book is fine you're beginner but how was it I was at the New Orleans Jazz museum today and looking at the Professor Longhair exhibit like that ain't received wisdom blues piano played by Professor Longhair that's actual music that's actually what a major artist played on the hand and in the history of jazz piano they actually as I'm sure you know they actually played down there plenty back in the day right but even but Powell's much lower than what felt like a table of Bill Elevens of Herbie Hancock four sentences but so does that Powell that play jazz correctly no he's actually the greatest what's the problem is something that's the missing me all right okay McCoy Tyner plays the top of every blues with a huge low fifth well if you do that in front of a certain kind of square jazz educator they're gonna be like I don't know can't you mix it up and be more creative but does that make it better than McCoy Tyner are you actually gonna make a ruling that McCoy Tyner is breaking the rules rather than he is the rulebook I actually think by Powell McCoy time that's the rulebook right those tables of jazz down voicings it's like it's like whatever just get that away from you what you know something about harmony I mean if it's a fine building block you know it's fine but it's just like what what did they actually play and specifically about some of that low blow stuff as this guy Herbie Nichols who's not too famous but I was pretty into him as at a certain point he played low all the time and then in a do low situation I'm obviously with mark and very influenced by the European classical tradition I played a lot of that stuff played a lot of Chopin I played a lot of Beethoven I loved all that stuff you know Rachmaninoff you know I can't sit in an offhand play a bunch of it right now for you but I could play some of it at a be leveled you know I'm not gonna get an A but that actually think is the Jazz addition to I think all the greats fooled around with the European classical music invisible it's impossible to ignore the piano repertoire is incredible some of the greatest stuff Hammadi is produced are those European composers on that incredible piano repertoire that's a whole lifetime of study don't have to get all the way in there if you ask me ass but I think McCoy Tyner knew it think about Powell Millett Teddy Wilson Art Tatum whatever Herbie Hancock Herbie Hancock played a Mozart concerto when he was in high school with the orchestra no you said I he says an interview it's great I'm about to go out do it with Chick Corea so I I'm I'm reading through scrabbling Hindemith the sliminess key book of scales and Debussy he's checking that out and then he'll go out and improvise with Chick Corea yeah but that's sort of like getting his mind going and his chops going in a certain direction because he knows it's doing what she career he better better get ready I have to play some Strava you know so the low stuff whatever I'm doing is better than all of that you know specifically Chelsea bridge I'll give you a little secret here this is really valuable info it's gonna rock your world okay I like film noir and I like bold Hollywood scores and so I'm gonna vomit of piece like that which is a really straight Laurence response to a foggy bridge in England I'm like I'm gonna try to make the sound like a film noir score a little bit and I actually I know that's concentrated jazz info too because those great cats in the age of segregation they do now is get a chance to hear or study a lot of orchestral scores maybe at home but they can go to the silver screen and watch Lana Turner being romanced by the latest heartthrob and hear that orchestral music and that's how it got into their sound that's how John Coltrane or Wayne Shorter or whatever all those guys talking about the movies you start Wayne Shorter off on movies you'll still be here two days later about movies I mean have a scores for the red shoes and out of 50s 40s and 50s movies I mean this is his list of favorite science fiction movies as goes for hundreds of pages and that's in Wayne Shorter's music although science fiction scores so yeah everything comes from somewhere can you guys talk a little bit about ways to work on recall meet memorization yeah just stretch you know you know maybe you have to you know as a sax player you might have to memorize a lot head you know you guys worked on and a bad Plus work done remember and supported is right a spring or you know and anything in anything music whether it's rather it's just repertoire in general - no these are memorized it really makes this sound like you're a much better musician say that I like good I'm still there like looking a lot of them mark Turner's in the clouds like I'm just playing great and yeah well I guess absorb a lot of actually the opposite anyway I least don't need pretty college is directly related to learning things orally you know just reading something I I have up I mean I can do about of a hard time remember I think but I if I unless I learned something from a record or someone teaches something to me so it's better if you know especially about they're not even if I can't usually I have YouTube recording but you know upon by the session or something and I don't know the tune I'd rather just play it and try to learn and then if I'm not sure I just asked the piano player base but it is just playful and don't tell me the course I don't like people to tell me so I just use my ears basically the basically for memorizing something I need to have some kind of effort if something is difficult to requires effort then I remember it you know it's too easy like reading then I tend not to remember it yeah so just like I was mentioning to two centimeters earlier you know if you can think back on some situations your life where you did things that are easy to like you know like what did you want to eat for the last six months what she's already wearing how how exactly to tie your shoes this morning you know I can remember that stuff but you will remember things with events in your life things that were difficult or were you experienced about a pleasure you know so those are the things that help me remember something so usually what I'm memorizing a tune or something some chord changes or something I usually do something over the tune that requires me to remember even if I just play it on another key or especially Plankton's do the case and you learn it if you play at least two keys at least I would do all too well but then you're gonna learn to tune you know and if I have a person and then I I do things over to voice leading things like that on the board or on the piano tell me so if it's a line like a long warm March times line or something like that there's no secret to that just do it over play it another key these parts of it another key that yeah Betty Carter with audition pianist by asking them to play Skylark and a strange key you know and actually I do spec transposition is one of the great helpful tools transpose the songs you know you might be a little surprised at how comfortable it feels when you go back to an original key and the more you do it to get easier to guess the first time you do it it might really feel hard but if you keep at it it gets easier and I am I I would say that's one of the most helpful things I ever did was a lot of transposition I still do it likewise I just want to add to that too is I find that transposition tunes but especially rhythm changes lose a Cherokee you just got to do it you know if you just did everyone whatever I'm just going to say I do for myself if you just do that even even if you just did it five times a week if you did it every day even if you just did it for 10 minutes 15 minutes every day you would be so good you'd be surprised all the things that you would get from doing you know those little changes and share together they give you everything you need to stand up you will look played through all the kids all the types of changes of court changes that you guys are ready to you know you'll down in there BK you've got all the ear training your ears will be strong and flexible you know your language you know just language and love will be you'll work out all the language you need melodies you have everything you need was there understand both Coltrane and Charlie Parker talked about transposition as well in the interviews so anyway I need I mean you know teachers talking about all the time and then somehow I always feel like students are incredulous like okay whatever if you would actually do it you'll be surprised so that's it it goes to 315 the class all right come on take just working on you know my house had some power tools you know trying to save money anyway yeah I was cutting some wood and I cut the tendons and nerves and these two fingers separate them completely not two fingers but all the way down to the bone and then so yeah and I got the first so I went to the emergency room is actually election night 2008 and my wife is a psychiatrist knew where to go in terms of there's a hospital right next to us which is no tourists so she said no we're gonna go to Park Slope which is a slightly higher income neighborhood there's a better hospital so we went there I think and then I went to the there is a plastic surgeon he's the only one sometimes they do repair for like minutes and fingers anyway he basically told me I can do it but I can't guarantee that your fingers are going to move again so and he was the only person that was there so it's like wow okay that was it and then are supposed to do a tour and recording with a friend and I just had to tell him okay it's cancelled because I may not be able to play either in a few months or ever and then then he knew a friend of a friend who made a call and found a surgeon who's a specialist in this kind of thing and then luckily I got referred that night and it has to happen within three days it doesn't and that's it your fingers will band but they won't anyone to just be like this and that's it so yeah I got lucky and ran into a surgeon that was able to work on them so he fix them basically and then I did like tier four months of rehab which basically means have to these exercises of the fingers every hours for twelve hours every day for three months otherwise your fingers will never have done something talking I did and it worked so I hate here in that story okay one more question nothing it's actually the first break I ever had and I just I just stayed at home watch c-span cuz I see only channel we go it enough people Wow I already hated this story I just read books listen to music you know that's it y'all guys know okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter]

Channel: UNO Jazz Studies Program

Views: 6,563

Rating: 4.9771428 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: SJ9Et1aU-eQ

Length: 59min 45sec (3585 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 13 2020