Posts in category H

2009 DTM interview with Albert “Tootie” Heath

Apr08
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

DoTheMath is pianist Ethan Iverson’s great blog about mostly jazz and jazz piano, but also about classical music and classic crime fiction books and a whole host of other stuff. It’s required reading for the jazz musician and fan alike.

From Ethan’s blog, here is a great 2009 interview with Albert “Tootie” Heath. The legendary drummer talks about his musical family, Kenny Clarke, The MJQ, and tons of other stuff. A great interview. A quick sample:

Albert Heath: For drummers I listened to Max Roach, Art Blakey, Kenny Clarke, and Specs Wright, a local drummer who was an amazing musician. He was in my brother Jimmy’s band, and he took me on as a student. I learned most of the rudimental drum studies through him. I kind of cast those aside for a while: you need to be really mature and secure in your musicianship to be able to sit down and deal with the basics. When you’re young you think the basics aren’t hip. So the rudiments I got in early life, I chucked them out, but in later life I’m discovering how important they are, and how much the guys I admired and wanted to be like knew their rudiments. Kenny Clarke was probably one of the most rudimental players in jazz. And Max Roach of course, same thing. His solos were very melodic but you could still relate them to rudiments.

Click here to read 2009 DTM interview with Albert “Tootie” Heath

—Peter Blasevick

Posted in Heath, Tootie - Tagged 2009, drums, Ethan Iverson, text interviews

2010 interview with Dave Holland at NYU

Apr03
2013 2 Comments Written by Peter Blasevick

I’ve been listening to some of these interesting interviews done in 2009 and 2010 by Dr. David Schroeder for the NYU Steinhardt Jazz Studies Program. Check out the short lived blog here. Today is a fun talk with bassist Dave Holland on how he came to join Miles Davis back in 1968.

—Peter Blasevick

Posted in Holland, Dave - Tagged 2010, audio interview, bass, Miles Davis, Ronnie Scott's

Dick Hyman: The Beat Goes On

Apr01
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

The legendary Dick Hyman turned 86 years old earlier this month, and he is as busy as ever. In this lengthy recent AllAboutJazz interview, the versatile pianist discusses everything from Fred Astaire to Shostakovitch to Moog synthesizers. From the interview:

AAJ: You did a series of solo albums devoted to such composers as Cole Porter, George Gershwin and so on, including Duke Ellington. Would you share your thoughts on Ellington as a composer, and as a pianist?

DH: Well, the Ellington project was a little bit different from the others, “the others” including Gershwin, Porter, Arlen, Rodgers, and Berlin. Ellington’s tunes were ingenious, and more to the point, they came out of a jazz background. You can’t say that for some of the others—you can make them into jazz, and they’re wonderful vehicles for jazz playing, such as Richard Rodgers’ earlier songs with Lorenz Hart—but Ellington was already there, in the jazz world, when he composed his pieces.

On that Ellington album I liked going back to some of the things he did in the 1920s, as well as his later standard songs. Some of the older ones are very much like the trial improvs that a jazzman would make in approaching a set of chords. Ellington has a certain catalog of devices he’ll apply to a series of harmonies. Which is the jazz way: You take a set of chords and pretty soon, after you’ve tried them out a number of times and probably changed them a bit, you start to make up your own melody, as opposed to the other process of decorating and embellishing the original melody.

Click here to read Dick Hyman: The Beat Goes On

Posted in Hyman Dick - Tagged 2013, Chris M. Slawecki, piano, ragtime, text interviews

Charlie Hunter: Living the Music

Feb26
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

More interviews this week from the great AllAboutJazz.com! If you don’t regularly go there—and if you have found this site, I’m sure you do go there—you should…it’s everything you want to know about today’s jazz.

Eight-string guitarist Charlie Hunter has stunned audiences for years with his virtuosic ability to play simultaneous bass and guitar lines, sounding at times more like a Hammond organist than a guitarist. Whether playing in a quartet, quintet, trio, duo or solo format (he’s done plenty of recording and gigging in all these configurations), Hunter’s groove-based jazz/rock hybrid is immediately recognizable, and has produced some classic albums. Here, Hunter is interviewed in 2005 by Paul Olson and spoke about Hunter’s collaborative band Garage à Trois, his experimental Groundtruther collaborations with Bobby Previte, the Charlie Hunter Trio, his take on the jamband scene, his thoughts on comping, his much-vaunted bass/guitar technique, and more.

AAJ: I haven’t spoken about how you use your eight-string guitar to play simultaneous bass and guitar parts because, even though you’re known for that, to me it’s like talking about a tenor player about his horn: it’s just what you do. But I wonder if you’d explain how you do the simultaneous parts; not how you trained your mind and fingers, but what your hands do to play this stuff. Is your right hand doing all the work?

CH: Well, no. It’s too damn complicated; that’s the problem with it. The right hand is kind of the execution hand, rhythmically. If you think about it, there’s all of the rhythmic combinations, the counterpoint between the thumb and the fingers—thumb playing the bass, fingers generally playing the guitar. Tons of that kind of counterpart going on. Then you have the left hand, which is the conception hand, dealing, in any given millisecond throughout the music, with your four fingers having to act as a team. Then you put those two hands together and that creates a third set of combinations between those two hands. So, basically, through experience you just learn millions and millions of these kinds of combinations. The more you learn, the easier it is to get to the music.

Click here to read Charlie Hunter: Living the Music

Posted in Hunter Charlie - Tagged 2005, guitar, technique, text interviews

Milt Hinton on NPR Piano Jazz 1991

Feb04
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Some great NPR Piano Jazz interviews this week. Though Marian McPartland no longer actively hosts the show (which has been running since the late 1970s), it still airs weekly with encore performances and in an updated version hosted by Jon Weber.

Today’s interview is with the “Dean of Jazz Bass Players”, Milt Hinton. Hinton kicks off the program by rapping his considerable resume, as he comps himself with bouncing bass. It’s safe to say he’s one of few octogenarians able to do hip-hop, and probably the only one who can drop names like Cab (Calloway), Duke (Ellington), Louie (Armstrong) and Prez (Lester Young) into his rhyme.

He also turns in a thundering solo version of “Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.”

“Boy, that is really a show-stopping piece,” McPartland says.

“It’s a real exercise in calisthenics. Thank you,” Hinton replies.

The session closes on a duet of “How High the Moon” that conjures both Mozart and Charlie Parker. “The dean of bass players” slowly bows his double bass, giving a classical feel to the opening, then sheaths his bow for some pure bebop magic to end this installment of Piano Jazz.

Click here to listen to Milt Hinton on NPR Piano Jazz 1991

Posted in Hinton Milt - Tagged 1991, audio interviews, bass, hip hop

Herbie Hancock 1968 interview from CBC’s Hot Air archive

Jan30
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

All this week I’m posting legacy interviews from CBC-Radio Canada. The Bob Smith Hot Air archive is a treasure trove of approximately 50 interviews Smith recorded with some of the greatest stars of the day, from the world of jazz and beyond. Captured between 1950 and 1982, these interviews include conversations with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Harry James, Oscar Peterson and Lena Horne, as well as Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Liza Minnelli and many others.

This interview with the great Herbie Hancock, recorded in 1968, finds the pianist, composer and multi-Grammy winner at a point in his career between his stint as pianist with the second great quintet of Miles Davis and his own period of searching for new sounds. It was that quest, using synthesizers and electronic keyboards, that led to the creation of his celebrated fusion band, the Headhunters, in the early 1970s. A then 28-year-old Hancock tells Hot Air interviewer Bob Smith about his approach to improvisation, his experience with raucous audiences at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and the musical insights he gleaned working with the legendary Miles Davis.

Click here to listen to Herbie Hancock 1968 interview from CBC’s Hot Air archive

Posted in Hancock, Herbie - Tagged 1968, audio interviews, fusion, piano

Billie Holiday 1951 interview for CBC Radio

Jan11
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Today, a rarely heard gem: Billie Holiday interviewed in 1951 for the CBC by Dick MacDougall. This is a great piece of history; it’s very interesting to hear Holiday later in her short life both reflecting and looking ahead. From the intro:

Holiday rode a roller coaster life of intoxicating highs and bitter lows all packed into 44 short years. By the time she arrived in Toronto and sat down for an interview with veteran CBC broadcaster Dick MacDougall in 1951, her career was well into its decline. She was only 36 but would never again see anything near the charting success or income generated by songs like her 1941 hit “God Bless the Child.”

With failing health, and lacking the coveted New York Cabaret Card that was rescinded after her drug convictions, Holiday went from selling out Carnegie Hall to performing in the casino of Toronto’s Colonial Tavern for no cover charge in only a few short years.

This archival interview finds Holiday in a reflective mood, yet clearly hopeful for better things to come. MacDougall pulls out stories from Holiday’s past, including touring with the Basie band, and duking out her record label in order to record with Paul Whiteman. Her recent recording sessions with Oscar Peterson are discussed, as well as her aspirations to someday see Europe.

Click here to listen to Billie Holiday 1951 interview for CBC Radio

Posted in Holiday, Billie - Tagged 1951, audio interviews, singers

Dick Hyman in 2010

Dec18
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Continuing this week with interviews from Marc Myers at his award winning JazzWax blog, here is a great 2010 interview with virtuoso pianist and human player piano Dick Hyman. In this three part interview, Hyman speaks about growing up in New York; taking lessons from Teddy Wilson; the importance of Jo Jones’ smile; Lester Young; playing behind Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie; recording one of Coleman Hawkins’ most unusual and sole easy-listening sessions; recording on the organ and Moog synthesizer; and working with Benny Goodman, Woody Allen and Norman Jewison. Whew.

From the interview:

JazzWax: When you were playing with Lester Young in the 1950s, what did you notice most about his playing?

Dick Hyman: By then, Lester was at the point where his playing had become different, more sad than the peppy lines he had played on early Count Basie recordings. He had gotten into slowish tempos—which still swung, but his style was less incisive and more oozy. My experience playing with Lester allowed me to develop a different set of values when playing.

Click here to read Dick Hyman in 2010

Posted in Hyman Dick - Tagged 2010, Charlie Parker, piano, text interviews

Nat Hentoff in 2009

Dec17
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Interviews this week from the wonderful Marc Myers at his award winning JazzWax blog! Today is a two parter with a true legend in Jazz journalism, Nat Hentoff. In part one, Hentoff discusses growing up in Boston, how he landed a job at Down Beat in 1953 and what he did to get fired in 1957, while part two covers Charlie Ventura, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus and the links between jazz and justice. From the interview:

Was the competition tough among jazz writers back in the 1950s?
There weren’t that many of us at the time to have much competition. Besides, I never compete with anyone. As a reporter, I don’t believe in exclusives. If your job is to get the news out, I’m happy to help. I’ve often given leads to reporters on other newspapers. I’ve even shared things with reporters if I knew things they didn’t. I never viewed jazz writing as a competitive sport. I may not have agreed with other writers and critics, but I never saw them as rivals in the pure sense.

Click here to read Nat Hentoff in 2009

Posted in Hentoff Nat - Tagged 2009, critics, Jo Jones, journalism, Leonard Feather, Lester Young, text interviews

Up Close and Personal With Roy Haynes

Dec04
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Another great video interview from JazzVideoGuy Bret Primack. His channel on YouTube is full of cool videos like this one, check it out if you haven’t already.

There aren’t too many of the all time legends still with us. Today, Bret and http://www.midatlanticjazzfestival.org present an in-depth talk with Jazz percussion great Roy Haynes, with Nasar Abadey, at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival. Roy talks about his first drum set, how he never played with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra, gigging with Charlie Parker and Lester Young, and other memories, as well as offering some of his tap dancing expertise.

— Peter Blasevick

Posted in Haynes, Roy - Tagged 2012, Charlie Parker, drums, Duke Ellington, gigging, video interviews

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