May 9, 2024 • 50 mins
On episode 12 of the Between Bites podcast, Nina Compton and Larry Miller are joined by Grammy award-winning musician and composer Terence Blanchard.
Blanchard gives a rich narrative about growing up in New Orleans that spans his early influences, artistic evolution, and professional achievements. He talks about the emotional power of music and shares some of the insights and early encouragement he received from jazz legends like Art Blakey and Alvin Batiste.
Giving a mini-masterclass on the complexities and differences between producing music for film and composing and conducting operas and orchestras, Terence Blanchard's insights shine light on the technical aspects of composition and conducting while showing his philosophical approach to music as a dynamic storytelling tool.
Terence passionately discusses music's role in healing and community building, noting how his New Orleans roots and the city's vibrant musical culture deeply influence his work, resonating with global audiences.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello everybody, Welcome to Between Bites with Nina Compton and
me Larry Miller. We're on the Pelicans Podcast Network and
brought to you by our dear friends at Caesar's Nola.
Today we're joined by I mean, a legendary dude, like
one of the coolest people on the planet. And he's
looking at me like he's not, but at some point
(00:36):
when he sits under a tree all alone, he knows
that it's been a pretty blessed life so far. Welcome trumpeter, pianist, composer,
extraordinary arranger orchestrator, mister Terrence Blanchard.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thank you, Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thanks so Larry and I we we were talking this
morning and I said, do you have the questions ready
for Terrence?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
And he's like, this man is fascinating. He just he
just stopped.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And you know, we were just going through all the
things because we like to just you know, pre plan,
and he's just like, I don't even know where to begin, So.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Let's begin New Orleans?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Growing up? Yes, favorite memory, not anything specific, but maybe
just guys, you know.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I mean there's so many man, I remember, you know,
the Georgans are playing a little league football man and
winning the district champions championship, you know, not a little kid.
That was a big deal because we all thought we
were going to be you know, you're going straight. You know,
I thought I was going straight to the NFL. And
(01:46):
then I mean, you know, I had other great memories,
like at jazz Fest. Oddly enough, you know, I remember
Alvin Battists first time he heard me play at the
high school jazz ensemble, he told me, he said, you know,
you got a four year scholarship to Southern if you
want it. And that was the first time somebody acknowledged
my talent like that.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And that was right here Inka, Uh well, no.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
He was no. I was going to Kennedy at the time.
I was going to Nooka too, but it was Kennedy
Jazz on that that played there, and man, that was
you know, I was like, you're talking to me, you know.
So those are some of the best. And one of
my favorite is from when I was in elementary school.
(02:33):
There's a guy named Alvin Alcorn who came to our
school to marry door Cock Hill and punch a train
park and he came to give us a demonstration of
new Orleans traditional music. And I had been taking piano
lessons at the time since I was five years old
and my piano teacher was next door.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I couldn't miss a.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Lesson, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
And I was playing all those little exercises that you hated,
you know, to try to learn how to play and
get your technique together. And he came in with this
band playing tradition in New Orleans music man, and the
only thing I heard was the trumpet.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
That was it.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I went home and told my dad after he just
rented the piano first, I said, I think I want to.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Play the trumpet. I think my dad forgot about it.
Oh it was. It was not something a lot, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
But but you know, look, man, he said, if you practice,
I'll get your horn, and he did.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And then you know, that's just as they say, it's history.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's amazing. And the way that I'm guessing, because I
don't know Michael Jordan or Steph Curry can just look
at the floor and just know everything that's happening when
you went and you only heard that trumpet. Yeah, is
that similar? And that when you hear music it's similar
to way other people at the top of their game
can sense everything else out there, probably.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
I think, but that I think that that has a
lot to do with growing up in this town, you know.
I think for me, one of the things people outside
of this town does realize is that we hear live
music all.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
The time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
We hear it at picnics, you know, at dances, you know, parides, obviously, funerals.
There's always live musicians playing. And I remember as a kid,
I was always fascinated by that because some of those
live musicians were people in the neighborhood too, yeah, you know,
and that was something that really piqued my curiosity as
a young kid. So I think having that experience has
(04:32):
allowed me to get to the point where there's certain
things that I expect to feel from music. Because one
of the things that I love about New Orleans musicians
is that no matter what level you on, all these
guys that I've seen over the years, people I grew
up with, and even younger people that I see today,
they play from their heart, you know what I mean.
They play with a lot of feeling, and that's something
(04:56):
that we take for granted as New Orleanians, you know,
you think everybody come from that same space.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Man.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
You know, when I got up North, it was very
confusing to not always hear that, and then you know,
being called arrogant when I was calling it out, you know,
and I had to learn a lot about decorum, and
you know, because for me, there was some things that
was just so natural because of what I grew up
(05:24):
hearing and the musicians that I encountered growing up, that
I expected that more when I got to New York,
and sometimes I didn't see that and so became a problem.
But you know, listen, I even learned more from those
guys in New York because while they didn't have what
we had in New Orleans, they had something else, you know,
a certain type of curiosity about moving forward and innovation
(05:45):
and stuff like that. So both things really served me well.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And we were talking before we turned the mics on
about technology and how was it when whatever it was
the first piece of equipment that you're like this my
this my work? Or did you were you fighting against it?
Like no, No, let.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Me tell you know. I was always a techno geek.
When I was a kid. I remember trying to make
recordings with a cassette deck next to my mom's record
play man, and I would put albums around the cassette
deck to make sure that the cut down on the excess.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Now, you know, your own studios.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
When I was in junior high school doing that stuff.
So I was always intrigued by technology, you know. And
I started playing with this band called The Creators when
we were when we were in high school and they
and I was a keyboard player in the band, you know.
And I remember getting a mini micro mood synthesizer and
just sitting around playing with that thing for a little bit,
(06:46):
and it really peaked my curiosity about that world, you know.
And I didn't think nothing of it, but it's one
of those things that sticks in the back of your brain.
And I'd gotten away from electronic music for a number
of years, just playing acoustic music, playing with out Blake
and doing a lot of things. And then my it
was my film work that really brought me back to
that kind of way of thinking, you know, Being able
(07:09):
to utilize everything at your disposal to kind of help
tell a story in different scenes really opened my mind
up to how to use that in my own musical situation.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Then you mentioned the movies. Yeah, I mean pretty amazing
the list of films that you have scored and a
lot of them. And was it at the very beginning
Spike Lee.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Yeah, Yeahpike was the guy. I mean, if it wasn't
for him, I wouldn't have a career.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And what's it like getting that call?
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Scary? Yeah, because you know, it's one of those things like,
hey man, hold on, let me let me you know,
you have another you know, And when he asked me
to do it, man, you know, I have a great
relationship with my mentor and my teacher here in New Orleans.
(07:59):
His name is Roger Dickinson, and uh Roger has been
been there for me throughout all of the big moments
in my life, likely like that. And I remember calling
him and saying, hey man, this student wants me to
write music for orchestra and for a movie. Man, I
don't I don't know what to do. And I'm thinking
he's gonna give me like concrete information, you know. He said,
(08:22):
trust your training and I went, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That's like a scene out of Star Wars or something.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Yeah, you are the one, whatever it is, because I was,
I was really thrown back by that. But at the
same time, I kept saying, well, he must see something
in me that I don't see. So I trusted my
training and wrote the scene. It was one scene for.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Do the right thing.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yes, oh no, no, no, no, no, no better blues, no better blues.
And I brought it in and I'll never forget man,
Spikes Daggers.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You wrote it, so you conducted. I went, what, man,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (09:08):
And then there's like sixty some people out there waiting
for you to come up there and command them, you know,
like to take the lead. And I'm sitting there going
I remember my my sight singing classes at Noka.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I go, okay, but one is here, too, is four
is here.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
But this end didn't know what to do, man, so
they just mimicked the other hand in reverse, you know,
like this, and we got through it, you know, And
it was pretty funny because he said, oh, you got
a future in this business, and I thought he was
just like really hyping me up. But then he called
me to do jungle Fever. But here's the thing that
was like the most. This is funny. This is why
(09:44):
I believe God is always looking out because man, I
was on such a high after waving my hands in
front of sixty some people.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
He wan't then play something that I had written.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I walked down the hall, you know, at BMG Studios
and there was a ninja you're mastering another version of
Stravinsky's The writer is Spright.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And that was the best thing to happen to me.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Because right after having that like really powerful moment, that
recording brought me back down.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, I do have.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Yeah it maybe go. Well, there's a lot more work
to me. I got a lot of stuff to study.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And that goes back to identifying individual pieces. How do
you do it when there's sixty instruments in front of you?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, you don't think about it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
The one guy on second violence, Come on, buddy, I
see you.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
No no, no, no, no, no, no no no, Because
you really think about it in terms of color, you know,
it becomes a thing where after you get a customed
right in for orchestry, you don't even think about the
number of musicians. It's really about the timbre of what
it is you're trying to use to help tell a story,
you know what I mean? If you want it to
be like, for example, when I did this film called
(11:01):
Harriet Tubman, and while I wanted her to be powerful,
she still had a feminine side to her, right, So
I wanted to use these types of harmonies, you know
that that really spoke to that, and said, you know,
there was some people call them power chords, right, but
then I used utilized them with certain instruments that gave
(11:21):
them a certain lushness and softness, so you had a
mixture of both. So it's a matter of just like
thinking through it, you know, like, well, what is it
that I'm trying to convey here?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You know? And then Roger always taught me.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
He said, man, you got to learn how to put
your ego aside because the music's always speaking to you.
You just got to learn how to listen. You know,
it's always telling you what it needs you.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Help sound like somebody. So similar to being a chef
though it was, but.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I'm very intrigued by the music matching the scene. So
do you watch the movie before with no music? Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Well it depends sometimes, you know, in order for the
to show the film to the studio, they will put
in what they call a temp track a temp score,
just to put music in so they can indicate music's
going to go here, and sometimes I could be tricky
because sometimes those guys fall in love with that that's
not really but you know, okay, I'm working on the
(12:19):
project right now, you know where I literally have to
just sit down and watch it without the music and
see what I take from it and try to absorb
the energy from it. You know, I was working on
this TV show. We didn't get a third season, but
it was really it was really a great show Perry Mason.
And the thing that was like so interesting about working
(12:40):
on that show was everything on the screen dictated a
sound to me. I don't know how to explain it,
but you know, it's like, and I totally directed this.
I said, dude, I'm like, everything I'm doing it's coming
from something that's on the screen.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I'm not trying to add something that said.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
You know, sometimes a performance may not be as heartfelt
as you want, so you may have to something to it.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But it wasn't that.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
And that's always fun when that happens, because you know,
you feel like you're in sync with something. But a
lot of it has to do with just like really
being confident, going back to trust in your training. I
guess about what it is that you feel coming from
the scene.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So that whole process. Well, actually, so you've begun conducting
leading these scores and you get to the point you've
played around with some operas, but then it was a
fire shut up in my bones an opera. You wrote,
how what is the process? But I don't even want
to begin to think how huge your brain is inside
(13:39):
to be able to put this together. But to go
from an idea book or an idea to the libretto
where that's going to fit in and libretto being the
written words to help folks who maybe don't understand and
in the music, how what's the order there or does
it change?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
For is alcohol and prayer?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
What is what is your drink choice?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Oh? Vodka? I love vodka, drinker.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
But you know it goes back to the same thing,
and you know that you were talking about with the scenes,
it's absorbing the libretto. The difference is is that in
a film, it's already cut, it's made, and everything is
that I'm reacting to something that i'm watching with With
with an opera, it's all on me on how I
(14:30):
want to tell, you know, the story, how I want
to pace things, you know, And then there's moments where
we need what I call musical air where there's not
much really going on, but you can't have that silence,
you know, on on the stage. You know, there needs
to be something going on. And it starts for me
with the melodic content.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
One of the things that I love about some of
the composers that I love in the operatic world, like Puccini,
is that his melodic lines really enhance what the story is,
you know what I mean, Like they'll develop along with
the storyline, and you know, when it gets to a
certain climactic part in the storyline, you'll hear that in
(15:17):
the music. So I try to write along the same
type of lines to create emotional content.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
The difference is being a jazz musician.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
You know, we deal with harmony that moves rather quickly,
and what I mean by that like harmony may move
every two measures or something like that, whereas normally in
the classical world you can write in whole passages on
one sonic sound.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
If you will, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
And that's been the journey for me because once you
get the melodic content down and then all of the
lines that the singers are going to sing, then I
go back and orchestrate, and I do with what we
were talking about earlier. Okay, well, what is this moment about.
Let me build their orchestration around this. You know, even
with my first opera and Champion, there were moments where
(16:03):
you go from full orchestration to just vocal and base.
You know, it depends on the scene. And that's the
fun part of doing it. You know, it's like create,
really creating the sonic palette for.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
How hard is it for you to end a creative
process that like, all right, this song is done, this
arrangement is done.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
It's it's it's it's a it's a torturous kind of thing,
you know, because you know, it's one of those things
you always kind of freak out about because you think,
oh man, it's done, and then you take a break,
you go hang out with the family, and then you
come back and listen to it together.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
What was I thinking about? You know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (16:45):
So it could go on and on and on, but
I think it at the end is when I start
to run out of questions about it in my mind,
you know, or issues.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You know.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
One of the things that I've tried to teach my
students and start sometimes when you're writing something and something
doesn't feel right, that's an issue.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
You have to figure out what that is.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
You may not figure it out right away because you
can't see the forest for the treaties sometimes, so sometimes
you have to just kind of take a break and
move and step back and then allow it to say, oh,
it was this, you know this rhythm.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Why is this rhythm bothering me?
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Because it's too repetitive or I need to move it
around and make it more interesting. So that process is
one that still haunts me. I mean, you know, I
like this. I'm working on the show right now, man,
and I was working on a scene this morning and
I thought it was finished and I came back and
I go, no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So, do you have anybody you go to or the
decision making processors that are you.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Yeah, Well, when I'm doing big orchestral stuff, always have
an orchestrator, okay, you know. And there was a filmmaker
his name was Miles Goodman, who was my mentor in
the film business. And Miles, you know, taught me always
have an orchestrated, just to have an objective set of
ears nearby, you know, because sometimes we can't see it,
you know what I mean, because we're too busy in
(18:10):
it and trying to create and plush you on the
time clock, you know a lot of times in the
film world, so you're trying to hurry up and make
sure that you stay on pace so that you don't
get back backed up. And it's been great having an
orchestrator because then an orchestrator will look at it and go, man,
that's great. Hey, But you know what about adding something
here to this sound and make this a little full of.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And I love that.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
So now we're in the thick of jazz.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
First, who are some of your favorite artists that you
you know, you're off day, you know, it's beautiful day.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That's a hard one because there's so many you know
what I mean, because.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Everybody out there.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I mean, you know.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
But the thing about it for me, man, it's like,
you know, I'm the type of person that you know,
I appreciate what everybody brings to the you know what
I mean. Uh, Like Stapleton was on the other last weekend,
right and we were thinking about going and I said, Nat,
we wind up.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Going, wind up, not wound up not going.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
But there's so many other people that I would love,
of course, you know, I consider him like my Ottle brother.
But John Batiste was on. I heard this show was amazing.
But then you know, at the Jazz Tent, Man, you know,
Kenny Barron was one of my teachers at Rutgers University.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
He was there.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
I've seen so many great shows and great performances in
the past, Sonny Rollins. You know, up on that stage,
the list is endless, I think for me, you know,
being a part of that tradition is a huge honor,
you know, because of the number of people and the
number of great musicians who've been on that stage and
have given great performances. You know, That's why whenever I
(19:55):
played jazz Fest, man, I get hyped because it's not
only a homecoming, but it's it's like a celebration of
so many things.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
And what's your favorite food?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh my god, Okay, you really gonna make this hard.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
The line is as long as it gets and you
don't care.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, you know, one of the things they stopped selling.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
I don't know why, but there used to be a
barbecue oyster poor boy with blue cheese. When I when
I first started playing jazz Fest, that man, we used
to fight over that thing, like literally take out a rule.
You know, me and my wife wanted to cut it
in hand. You lively had to take out a ruler, right.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No, not that's too you know it was bad, but
I mean I.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Would have to say, you know, soft shell crab, poor boys.
You know, it's one of my things, that my big
seafood guy.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know. And even with that, listen, who can do that?
Speaker 5 (20:45):
You can't be in New Orleans and not you know,
have a great bowl of red beans and sausage, you
know what I mean. So it runs the gambit. I
remember after Hurricane Katrina coming back here, man, we were
at Bryson's for dinner one night, and I, you know,
had been out in the l a for a while,
you know, So I ordered a spinish salad.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You know, I don't know it, man, I know I
realized it after I even ordered it. You know, I
was like, okay, I'm not a regular salad. But it
came with three fight oristers on the top.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
And then when I beit into that oyster, I hadn't
been home in a while back you know, back then
we had been gone for about six months. Man, A
tear came down mind, you know, because I was like, man,
I'm back home. And that's the thing about this city,
you know, their flavors and smells and tastes that are
so much a part of just the daily life here.
You know, when I played with Lionel Hampton when I
was a kid, and they Lino came down here to
(21:44):
play the Roosevelt Hotel, all the guys in the band said, well, man,
where's a good place to eat?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And I go my mama's house, you know, because we
didn't go out to eating. Could cook.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, what was the specialty?
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Oh, she seafood, fried catfish, you know, that was that
was her big thing. Red beans and rice was another
big thing. Then there were a couple of other things
she would do for my grandmother come out. Grandmother had
a different palette, so she would do steward meat for her,
which wasn't one of my big things. But that, man,
that catfish was off the change.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And the fresh shrimp too.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Of course, that's good. That's good living.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, that's good living. Well.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
You know the thing is, you know, it took me
a long time to understand when I moved up north
that we don't put batter on shrip you just put
the Zatarans, you know, egg wash or whatever. I got
the north Man they had this thick thing rip yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, and the next thing, you know, you stick your
falk in and it comes out of it.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Now, one of the extremely cool things is when people
grow up in the city, like you talk about, there's
just something that there's there's warmth and a big hug
in the city. You were at the Herbie Hancock ah
Institute for at U C l A and the other
(23:03):
LA Los Angeles, Yes, and you convinced them to connect
with Xavier h. How is that process? And Royola, Well, no.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It was, it was, it was.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
It was a no brainer because you know, I knew
that it was the Monk Institute at the time. It's
to hurt me he a handcoff institute now, But I
knew that we had a really strong program of sending
our graduate kids out into high schools and middle schools
to work with younger kids. And I kept thinking, you know,
(23:39):
about the young kids who had just gone through the
trauma of Hurricane Katrina, and how some of them may
not have the ability to voice what's going on inside them,
you know, And I thought music along with other phones
of art obviously could be a big help in that arena.
And and we saw it as soon as we brought
(24:02):
the institute here because I can't remember the middle school
they were at, but they were at some middle school
and we had our kids playing and h we start.
We had a vocalist at the time, and she started
talking about scats singing and there was a young girl,
she must have been about thirteen or fourteen years old.
She raised her hand and she said, I think I
(24:22):
can do that. And for me, that means grab her
really quick, you know, locause, first of all, she had
the courage to stand up and ask the question. And
it must be a burning desiring her for her to
be able to say something that she can't say, you know.
And that was just one of many stories that really
convinced me that it was the right thing to do, because,
(24:42):
you know, one of my kids were hanging out late man,
and they were in the French Quarter and they went
to one of the fast food joints. Kids go to
the fast food joined the French quad right there right,
you know what I mean. And they saw some kids
is hanging out there and they thought, you know, they
were going to have a tussle, you know, and one
(25:04):
of the kids goes, hey, tenor man, and he times
around and goes, yeah. He said, Man, you guys were
at my school the other day. Man, yeah, were really cool,
And I see that think that kind of thing for
me means a lot, because look, you know, Miles Davis
used to say something to say, people won't know unless
you tell them. So in order for us to really
hope that these guys experience broader musical you know ideas,
(25:28):
we need to present them to them, you know, And
that was one of that was another reason why I
was really happy that we brought the programming.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
When you have arranged any kind of recording and you
know all the different you know, everything that is in there,
do you ever think about the person who doesn't know anything,
who just judges music on that sounds good, realizing all
the time that you did something special.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Oh yeah, all the time, you know, look Blakey or
that when I play with him. Man, yeah, he used
to say, Man, stop playing for the musicians, he said,
because first of all, they're gonna try to get it
into your show for free. They're only going to buy
one day, and they're gonna talk about you while you know,
(26:16):
stop playing for the musicians, man, You're playing for people,
you know, people who need to have music heal their
souls and wash away the dust of everyday life. So
it's about that, it's not. The ingenuity comes in in
terms of how we are able to say, Okay, this
is something that's a sound that's current, but I don't
want to sound like that.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Let me not do what they're doing.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
So you break it down technically, and then that allows
you to go, okay, well let me go over here
and do this. But it's not about for me. It's
not about trying to prove to anybody what it is
that I can do. I've never I've never been that musician.
That's never made sense to me, because you know, like
I said, that's for us, that's for the musicians. You know,
Louis Armstrong is one of the greatest music is on
(27:00):
the planet, one of the most widely known jazz artists
of our time. And most people will not be able
to tell you what he does. Technically, they could care less.
And it's and and us as trumpet players, we go.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Man.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
That was like ridiculously technically difficult, dude, right, but he
made it seem like it was child's play, and his
music had a healing thing to it, you know what
I mean. I mean sometimes it's one of those things. Man,
you put on some pops and it just makes you smile,
you know what I mean. And when you didn't, you
didn't have the intention of being in that mood.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
So for me, music is always been about trying to
help people heal through certain issues.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Of the day.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I love that. That's beautiful. So if you weren't a musician,
what would you do?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Uh, that's a hard one, listen, man.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
I played little football, yeah, and you know what's funny,
you know, because I got selected to the I don't
know if they still have it, but back then they
had a program called the Nord Saints, which was like
a program for all of the gifted kids, you know,
in the Little League, and then you go and play
Texas and all these other places, right, And I got
selected for the team, and I thought I was on
(28:15):
my way. Man, and my dad, my dad saw a
documentary back then in the seventies on PBS about kids
and concussions, man, and he just everything came to the
screeching help. And then I was so heartbroken because I
thought that goes my NFL kid until man, I was
going I was going to Saint og at the time,
and uh we played the Bayou Classic at the super
(28:37):
Dome and for some reason, I don't know why, I
don't know. For some reason, Grammlin's football team pulled up
in the bus dressed in uniform, right man and winning,
big old dudes.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I started getting off the bus.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Man, I pulled out my horne.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Thank you, thank you. Yes.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Now, your father also was dabbled in music.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Yeah, yeah, he was. He wanted to be an opera singer.
And uh he is a part of that that that
that that large group of people in New Orleans that
I considered him to be like unsung heroes, you know,
like because they have a passion for art, but they
never really got a chance to do it professionally. So
there was a guy at my church named a Cio
(29:24):
La Blanchette h E. T. You know, who was a
music instructor, taught at mcdonnad thirty five for years and
he taught a lot of African American men opera and
my dad was one of them, you know. And uh,
they used to have a group called the Aiola five
that they would go around and do recitals.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
You know.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Sometimes they would go to some of the convents and
sing for those people. Oddly enough, man, I always tell
a story. I tell it on my show too sometimes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You know. Since my dad could sing, they put me
in the choir for one day.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
I lasted one Sunday. Man, they heard me singing. Somebody say,
doesn't that boys played the horn? So that went my
singing career. So I see all the five would also
go around doing Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve, right, so man,
you know, one Christmas they called me to go with him,
(30:25):
and I'm like, oh, really, y'all want me to go? Man,
I didn't realize this was because I just got my
driver's license and they got eggnog wherever they went, so
I became a designating driver.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Hey, you still were you were with everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I didn't need me to sing a note, just hey, man,
just stand right there. We'll be done in a minute.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Did you, as a boy go see your dad sing opera?
Speaker 5 (30:49):
And he never got a chance to sing opera professionally,
but I would see him sing recitals and stuff like that.
I remember when I was a little kid, he used
to sing this thing called Little Drummer Boy, but was
singing to me and people thought that was cute.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
But he.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Really, you know, never got the opportunity to do so.
But it never you know, lessened his love for the music.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You know.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
My dad had a ton of you know, opera recordings
that we lost in the hurricane, those RCA Victor recordings
that I was not allowed to touch ever, you know,
And man, he was sitting in the front and put
those things on and listen to that music. And when
I feel bad about it now, but back then, man,
when he would put on that music, we hit door slamming.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
But that's a normal child.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, So when you come home, what's what's the first
thing you do?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Who?
Speaker 5 (31:47):
Man, the first thing I do when I come home. Well,
it's changed, you know obviously. You know I used to
go to my mom's house, but she's ninety three right now,
and a living situation has changed. So for me, you know,
when I come home right now, I just try to
relax and just enjoy the city. You know, I love
(32:09):
city Park. I love being out of nature, you know,
I love the vibe of the city. You know, I
know we've gotten stuck with the moniker of all of
the crime that's been happening. But you know, I don't
and that's what I say, you know, and I don't
focus on that because I know that there are a
lot of beautiful souls in the city, a lot of
(32:31):
people with great intent about doing stuff for their neighbors.
And that's the thing that, literally, man, you know, blew
me away, because when I moved to New York for
the first time, I gotta I got accustomed to not
speaking to my neighbors because that's that's the.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
And I never I never forget. Man, I came here
and I'm walking down the street and to do go
what's up? And I go, what's up?
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Now?
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Washington, He got to the car, I'm like, what's the man,
You're about to turn around?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
And I had to catch myself, Man, did you just
do that? Man?
Speaker 3 (33:04):
It is It is so bizarre because when we first
moved there, people be walking the dogs or walk the Hey,
good morning, how are you, and We're just like, what's.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Going what's going on?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Then we realized that it's just the common courtesy, and
nowhere else does that because we go to other cities
and you.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Get on the elevator like, hey, good night, oh man.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Like nobody nobody makes eye contact, Nobody even smiles or ages.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It's just right.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
You know what's funny about that? My mother in law
from my first marriage, right, she's from the ones obviously.
When she came to visit us in Brooklyn, she had
the neighbors speaking to us.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Because she just never changed.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
She was.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
She came, hey, how you doing, and be walking in
the building, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Good morning?
Speaker 2 (33:52):
You know people, and she let people.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Man me right speaking to me that do you have
a musical guilty pleasure? You would rather not let anybody.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Know I at all?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
Man, I mean, man, I remember being on tour, uh
Donald have some when we had our band together. I
think we were I think we were in Japan. Man.
We ran into the Neville Brothers, man, and we were
like a little groupies because we had we had been
on tour for a while and and all of a
sudden they hit fire on the bike and man, we
(34:31):
couldn't keep still. I know they were like, man, don't
ever bring them back. So I wouldn't consider that a
guilty pleasure. That's just what I listened to growing up
growing up. I mean I listened to a lot of
different things. There's a there's some heavy metal bands that
I listened to, one called Disturbed that I've loved for years.
You know, I love their music, alge Role. I mean
(34:54):
that my my taste go all over the place, you know.
And then when you start talking about operating music, you know,
soloma Is by Strauss is one of my favorite operas.
You know, So it changes from time to time, you know,
And I think that's because I'm just fascinated by the
mere fact that you can sit down at a piano
(35:16):
and so many different things can come from.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
That That's the thing that blows me away about ingenuity
and creativity.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
What are are there any barriers to young people getting
into jas? What are the challenges for jazz as a genre?
And I know it's incredibly huge.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Well, I think I think the big challenges is like,
you know, trying to know as much about your history
as you can.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
You know, but that's not the strong suit of all
the a lot of young people.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
Well no, and that's the thing I was getting ready
to say, because sometimes what happens is, you know, you
hear something, you go, well, that's not what I want
to do, So you just avoid it and you.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Don't pay attention pay attention to it.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Well, actually, that's exactly what you should do, because then
when you see that, you can say, oh, well, this
came from that, and then the next thing you start
seeing the lineage and it starts to help you to
understand how ingenuity comes about by understanding the foundations of
how things are built and knowing how to manipulate those.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
You know.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
It's one of those you know, it's one of the
old sayings that all the jazz musicians always talk about.
You can't build a building without a strong foundation, no
matter what the building looks like.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
And I'm a firm believer in that.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
So I think the biggest challenge for them is the
vast array of musical styles that exist, you know, in
the library of jazz. And then the other part of it, too,
to be honest, is to not become consumed by it.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
You know.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Alvin Battisz, who is a great educator, he told me
one time, he said, the easiest thing to do is
to play like John Coltrane, because you know, everybody loves
John Colture, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
What I mean.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
He said, the hardest thing to do is to really
find something that means something to yourself and then present
that to a public for possible rejection.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Absolutely, and you're putting yourself out there. Yeah, it's like
us opening a restaurant just hoping people come eat.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
Oh man, I don't. I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
How was COVID? Did you you were in LA for COVID? No?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I was here.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Oh you're here, but you have a studio at both houses.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
I have in both homes. But you know, we wanted
to be here in New Orleans. You know, my house
is on to buy you my my two youngest girls.
We brought them back home, you know. And it was
it was filled with mixed emotions, you know, because when
(38:00):
when you took the world of view, men and a
lot of people losing their lives rather quickly. I lost friends,
you know, I lost family members, and that was tragic
and scary.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
You know.
Speaker 5 (38:11):
I remember, you know, ordering groceries to be delivered to
the home, wiping down the bags, doing everything. You know,
that was pretty crazy. The beautiful side of it was
my career came to a halt for a second, and
I just spent time with my family.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
How long did it take you to get comfortable with
it because I had the same problem with the chef,
like she's crazy going all day, all day, all day.
The first two weeks and the shutdown, it was a
nightmare for me.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, I bet then all of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
She's like, wow, listen to the birds.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Exactly. I mean, you didn't hear airplanes, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
The most it was a great spring.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
It was a beautiful spress, Yes, and I think that
it was.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
We'd wake up in the morning, we'd have breakfast, yes,
and we'd be in bed by seven.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
I got a reputation in the morning.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Yeah, had a very beautiful side, but a very dark side.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yeah, And that was and that was the irony of
it all, because you know, man, we'd have lunches and
dinners out on the deck, bottle of water, and the
sky was just as clear as it could be. There
was no traffic, so there was just peace, you know.
And at the same time, when you had that piece,
you turned on the news and there was that ticker
(39:38):
of the number of people who died, and so there
was a there was a certain type of guilt, you
know that I've I felt like, you know, having this
moment and I felt like, you know, it just the
world needed to stop for a second, you know, and
because it really helped put everything so many other things
(39:59):
in perspective for me about what was important. There was
a young man that I worked with in Detroit, man
and he was forty years old, and I thought he
was relatively healthy and lost his life with a wife
and two kids. I had friends here that I went
(40:19):
to school with that had succumbed to that, you know.
And it was rough musicians friends of mine in New
York who I was shocked about losing that life to COVID.
It just blew my mind and it just felt like
the world was coming to an end in some regard,
(40:40):
you know. So for me, when you talk about getting comfortable,
I kept saying, and I'm not going anywhere to the vaccine.
And I know that's some people who don't want to
take vaccines, but I'm not that person, right And I
kept saying, you know, because the risk is too great,
you know. And once the vaccine was here, and then
(41:00):
I started traveling again. And even with that, I remember
that first tour that I did in Europe. It was
with Herbie Hancock, and it was like it was ten weeks.
It was a long tour. But the thing about that
tour that was amazing was everywhere we went, you can
tell people were ready to get back to like some
(41:21):
type of normalcy, and we kept Herbie in the bubble.
So we kept the banding ourselves in the bubble. You know,
we were always wearing masks. We'd hit the stage and
we came off the stage. We went right to the
tour of us, and we tried to limit fan interaction,
you know, because Herbie was in his eighties and we
didn't want him to get sick. But at the same time,
(41:44):
there was a certain type of exuberance from everybody wherever
we went and appreciation that musician, not only us, but
just there were musicians out there that were coming back
and touring again and allowing people to congregate and they
have those musical experiences again.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
And then on our side, it's a fascinating experience to
just get there again after a year and a half,
two years and be able to just it almost became
centory live music again.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
I think for a lot of us when the world
did stop, you know, because we took things for granted.
We took live music, going to a concert, going to
a restaurant and you know, we just when everything was happening,
I said, oh, restaurants will be fine. People need to
eat all of these things. And we got hit the hardest.
(42:32):
Restaurants were hit really hard because you know, it was
deemed like a super spread up because it's a gathering
space and it's it was just very different.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
And we did a lot of programs.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
With musicians with red beans doing meals with frontline workers
and musicians the second line to deliver meals to frontline workers.
The musicians were doing that because all the venues were closed.
Themusicians were really struggling.
Speaker 5 (43:02):
There were as a matter of fact, I remember we
we had like a little fundraiser at my home where
we raised some money for musicians who just came to play.
And it was one of one of the moments where
it was a proud moment for a number of reasons,
obviously for people gathering together, but for people understanding what
(43:24):
these musicians were going through, knowing how much how important
they are to our community.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You know. But I got to tell you a funny story.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
So so when my opera went to the met, you know,
we opened the season after the pandemic, right, we were
the first productions to go on. And then when we
had the first rehearsal in the theater with the singers,
Peter Gail, who's the director to have met, he kept going, man,
(43:53):
we can't hear the singers, and right and yi thing
the conductor goes, he goes, I know, I know. Listen, man,
they haven't played in two years.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Everybody's excited and they're playing way too loud.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
How was that experience? Were you were you're nervous about?
Speaker 5 (44:13):
Oh? I was extremely nervous for a number of reasons.
I knew that the performances were going to be good
because those those musicians are incredible. They're they're just on
a whole other level. I was nervous about, you know,
(44:34):
would it peat people's interests, you know, and how would
they respond to it? And you know, it was a
beautiful thing. Pretty well, yeah, yeah, we've been blessed. We've
been blessed. But it's been it. But it's it speaks
to something else to me, you know, because the way
(44:55):
people showed up and supported you know, fire shut up
in my bones meant to me that there was some
there was a demographic of people that weren't served for
a number of years and just was kind of overlooked.
And one of the things that we found out is
that not only did they come to my production, but
once they got there, and for many of them, it
(45:16):
was the first time they had been to the Met
and been in the building, you know, So they wound
up buying tickets to other productions. So it started just
to help the overall health of the operatic world in
New York. And one of the things that I've been
screaming about is not being a token, but wanting to
be a turnkey because there's so many other people that
have stories to tell, and it's so many other types
(45:40):
of people who I feel have been overlooked as well,
you know.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
And that being said, you were the first, yes African
American to conduct, to write and conduct and your workers.
Speaker 5 (45:51):
Yeah, well, you know. But here's the thing about that, Larry.
You know, it's interesting because I always when people say
that to me, and they always ask me, how does
they feel. I said, well, it's a mixed bag of
te because I know that I wasn't the first qualified,
you know what I mean. You know, when you look
at Triminisia, Scott Joplin's opera, you look at William Grant Steele,
another great American composer who wrote great operas. As a
(46:12):
matter of fact, i'd heard one of his operas in
Saint Louis before I got to New York and didn't
know it was William grand Still.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
I'm listening to this opera, Go, man, what.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Is this like?
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Beautiful? This is Kellen? What is this?
Speaker 5 (46:23):
They said, oh, man, this is William greng Stele. And
then after that I proceed to go to the Met.
I'm doing an interview on one of the one of
the networks, and they have the camera on me, so
I'm trying to be cool, but they bring out a
legend man, and then the legend there's William grand Still's
name in there three times where he said, well not him,
(46:44):
but the other people rejected his operas, and the comments
were like, you know, we're very disrespectful. Doesn't have what
it doesn't know what it takes to write real opera.
Stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
So you know.
Speaker 5 (46:56):
That, you know, inspired me and motivated me to make
our production the best it could be because I knew
I was standing on some strong shoulders and there was
a lot riding on this, you know. But like I said,
you know, there was such great support. Even now, you know,
we have one more performance now this is the second
(47:16):
run of it this year. We have one more performance
on made a second. I don't know when we're hearing this,
but and it's it's been great because the tendance has
been strong, the response has been strong. But I think
it speaks to something bigger than me as a composer,
(47:38):
you know, like, for example, in the opera, there's a
there's a dance sequence that comes from the step show
tradition in colleges, right, that thing gets a stand innovation
every night, wow, every night. And I know why it
is is because African American people are seeing their culture
on the stage at the MET and that's what blows
everybody away when they see it. They first when it starts,
(48:00):
people are kind of like in disbelief, is this really?
And then when it ends, there's this uproar.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
Of energy, pride exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
You know.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
So it means a lot to me, you know, the
the amount of success that we've been having, because hopefully
this will open the door for people to see that
there are more stories that need to be told.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
You know.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
I hate to harp on this again. One Champion, my
first opera came to New Orleans. There was a gentleman
who came to the show, and he's the one that
clued me into it. He said he was he must
have been in his mid seventies. He said, Man, if
this is opera, i'd come, Meaning my first opera was
about Emil Griffith, a fighter that he knew. He knew
(48:44):
this whole story and he understood it. And when he
came to the opera, he really enjoyed the show. And
that's the thing that we've been trying to say. Look,
I'm the music nerriage. So of course I love Puccini,
I love Wagner, I love Verity, I love all of
that stuff. But that's not necessarily for everybody, you know,
so we need to make sure that we have these
current stories being told in these opera houses.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Amazing cash money or no limit. Let's go from remember, man,
I'm see both sides of the friends with everybody exactly exactly. Well, Terrence,
thank you very much for taking his time out and
(49:24):
even to do it during jazz first. I mean, this
is it means a lot to us. You're you're an
amazing human being.
Speaker 5 (49:30):
No, thank you, guys, I really appreciate this. This is
a lot of fun, you know, coming back home, being
home and not doing this.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
This is all part of it too, So this is beautiful.
Speaker 6 (49:38):
Thank you, a pleasure, thank you, thank you big Wag.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Everybody didn't put it up where
Hello everybody, Welcome to Between Bites with Nina Compton and
me Larry Miller. We're on the Pelicans Podcast Network and
brought to you by our dear friends at Caesar's Nola.
Today we're joined by I mean, a legendary dude, like
one of the coolest people on the planet. And he's
looking at me like he's not, but at some point
(00:36):
when he sits under a tree all alone, he knows
that it's been a pretty blessed life so far. Welcome trumpeter, pianist, composer,
extraordinary arranger orchestrator, mister Terrence Blanchard.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Thank you, Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thanks so Larry and I we we were talking this
morning and I said, do you have the questions ready
for Terrence?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
And he's like, this man is fascinating. He just he
just stopped.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
And you know, we were just going through all the
things because we like to just you know, pre plan,
and he's just like, I don't even know where to begin, So.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Let's begin New Orleans?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Growing up? Yes, favorite memory, not anything specific, but maybe
just guys, you know.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
I mean there's so many man, I remember, you know,
the Georgans are playing a little league football man and
winning the district champions championship, you know, not a little kid.
That was a big deal because we all thought we
were going to be you know, you're going straight. You know,
I thought I was going straight to the NFL. And
(01:46):
then I mean, you know, I had other great memories,
like at jazz Fest. Oddly enough, you know, I remember
Alvin Battists first time he heard me play at the
high school jazz ensemble, he told me, he said, you know,
you got a four year scholarship to Southern if you
want it. And that was the first time somebody acknowledged
my talent like that.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And that was right here Inka, Uh well, no.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
He was no. I was going to Kennedy at the time.
I was going to Nooka too, but it was Kennedy
Jazz on that that played there, and man, that was
you know, I was like, you're talking to me, you know.
So those are some of the best. And one of
my favorite is from when I was in elementary school.
(02:33):
There's a guy named Alvin Alcorn who came to our
school to marry door Cock Hill and punch a train
park and he came to give us a demonstration of
new Orleans traditional music. And I had been taking piano
lessons at the time since I was five years old
and my piano teacher was next door.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
I couldn't miss a.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Lesson, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
And I was playing all those little exercises that you hated,
you know, to try to learn how to play and
get your technique together. And he came in with this
band playing tradition in New Orleans music man, and the
only thing I heard was the trumpet.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
That was it.
Speaker 5 (03:10):
I went home and told my dad after he just
rented the piano first, I said, I think I want to.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Play the trumpet. I think my dad forgot about it.
Oh it was. It was not something a lot, you
know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
But but you know, look, man, he said, if you practice,
I'll get your horn, and he did.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And then you know, that's just as they say, it's history.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's amazing. And the way that I'm guessing, because I
don't know Michael Jordan or Steph Curry can just look
at the floor and just know everything that's happening when
you went and you only heard that trumpet. Yeah, is
that similar? And that when you hear music it's similar
to way other people at the top of their game
can sense everything else out there, probably.
Speaker 5 (03:58):
I think, but that I think that that has a
lot to do with growing up in this town, you know.
I think for me, one of the things people outside
of this town does realize is that we hear live
music all.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
The time, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
We hear it at picnics, you know, at dances, you know, parides, obviously, funerals.
There's always live musicians playing. And I remember as a kid,
I was always fascinated by that because some of those
live musicians were people in the neighborhood too, yeah, you know,
and that was something that really piqued my curiosity as
a young kid. So I think having that experience has
(04:32):
allowed me to get to the point where there's certain
things that I expect to feel from music. Because one
of the things that I love about New Orleans musicians
is that no matter what level you on, all these
guys that I've seen over the years, people I grew
up with, and even younger people that I see today,
they play from their heart, you know what I mean.
They play with a lot of feeling, and that's something
(04:56):
that we take for granted as New Orleanians, you know,
you think everybody come from that same space.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Man.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
You know, when I got up North, it was very
confusing to not always hear that, and then you know,
being called arrogant when I was calling it out, you know,
and I had to learn a lot about decorum, and
you know, because for me, there was some things that
was just so natural because of what I grew up
(05:24):
hearing and the musicians that I encountered growing up, that
I expected that more when I got to New York,
and sometimes I didn't see that and so became a problem.
But you know, listen, I even learned more from those
guys in New York because while they didn't have what
we had in New Orleans, they had something else, you know,
a certain type of curiosity about moving forward and innovation
(05:45):
and stuff like that. So both things really served me well.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
And we were talking before we turned the mics on
about technology and how was it when whatever it was
the first piece of equipment that you're like this my
this my work? Or did you were you fighting against it?
Like no, No, let.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
Me tell you know. I was always a techno geek.
When I was a kid. I remember trying to make
recordings with a cassette deck next to my mom's record
play man, and I would put albums around the cassette
deck to make sure that the cut down on the excess.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Now, you know, your own studios.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
When I was in junior high school doing that stuff.
So I was always intrigued by technology, you know. And
I started playing with this band called The Creators when
we were when we were in high school and they
and I was a keyboard player in the band, you know.
And I remember getting a mini micro mood synthesizer and
just sitting around playing with that thing for a little bit,
(06:46):
and it really peaked my curiosity about that world, you know.
And I didn't think nothing of it, but it's one
of those things that sticks in the back of your brain.
And I'd gotten away from electronic music for a number
of years, just playing acoustic music, playing with out Blake
and doing a lot of things. And then my it
was my film work that really brought me back to
that kind of way of thinking, you know, Being able
(07:09):
to utilize everything at your disposal to kind of help
tell a story in different scenes really opened my mind
up to how to use that in my own musical situation.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That's cool.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Then you mentioned the movies. Yeah, I mean pretty amazing
the list of films that you have scored and a
lot of them. And was it at the very beginning
Spike Lee.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
Yeah, Yeahpike was the guy. I mean, if it wasn't
for him, I wouldn't have a career.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And what's it like getting that call?
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Scary? Yeah, because you know, it's one of those things like,
hey man, hold on, let me let me you know,
you have another you know, And when he asked me
to do it, man, you know, I have a great
relationship with my mentor and my teacher here in New Orleans.
(07:59):
His name is Roger Dickinson, and uh Roger has been
been there for me throughout all of the big moments
in my life, likely like that. And I remember calling
him and saying, hey man, this student wants me to
write music for orchestra and for a movie. Man, I
don't I don't know what to do. And I'm thinking
he's gonna give me like concrete information, you know. He said,
(08:22):
trust your training and I went, okay.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That's like a scene out of Star Wars or something.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Yeah, you are the one, whatever it is, because I was,
I was really thrown back by that. But at the
same time, I kept saying, well, he must see something
in me that I don't see. So I trusted my
training and wrote the scene. It was one scene for.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Do the right thing.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
Yes, oh no, no, no, no, no, no better blues, no better blues.
And I brought it in and I'll never forget man,
Spikes Daggers.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
You wrote it, so you conducted. I went, what, man,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (09:08):
And then there's like sixty some people out there waiting
for you to come up there and command them, you know,
like to take the lead. And I'm sitting there going
I remember my my sight singing classes at Noka.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I go, okay, but one is here, too, is four
is here.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
But this end didn't know what to do, man, so
they just mimicked the other hand in reverse, you know,
like this, and we got through it, you know, And
it was pretty funny because he said, oh, you got
a future in this business, and I thought he was
just like really hyping me up. But then he called
me to do jungle Fever. But here's the thing that
was like the most. This is funny. This is why
(09:44):
I believe God is always looking out because man, I
was on such a high after waving my hands in
front of sixty some people.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
He wan't then play something that I had written.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
I walked down the hall, you know, at BMG Studios
and there was a ninja you're mastering another version of
Stravinsky's The writer is Spright.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And that was the best thing to happen to me.
Speaker 5 (10:06):
Because right after having that like really powerful moment, that
recording brought me back down.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, I do have.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Yeah it maybe go. Well, there's a lot more work
to me. I got a lot of stuff to study.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And that goes back to identifying individual pieces. How do
you do it when there's sixty instruments in front of you?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Well, you don't think about it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
The one guy on second violence, Come on, buddy, I
see you.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
No no, no, no, no, no, no no no, Because
you really think about it in terms of color, you know,
it becomes a thing where after you get a customed
right in for orchestry, you don't even think about the
number of musicians. It's really about the timbre of what
it is you're trying to use to help tell a story,
you know what I mean? If you want it to
be like, for example, when I did this film called
(11:01):
Harriet Tubman, and while I wanted her to be powerful,
she still had a feminine side to her, right, So
I wanted to use these types of harmonies, you know
that that really spoke to that, and said, you know,
there was some people call them power chords, right, but
then I used utilized them with certain instruments that gave
(11:21):
them a certain lushness and softness, so you had a
mixture of both. So it's a matter of just like
thinking through it, you know, like, well, what is it
that I'm trying to convey here?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
You know? And then Roger always taught me.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
He said, man, you got to learn how to put
your ego aside because the music's always speaking to you.
You just got to learn how to listen. You know,
it's always telling you what it needs you.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Help sound like somebody. So similar to being a chef
though it was, but.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
I'm very intrigued by the music matching the scene. So
do you watch the movie before with no music? Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 5 (11:56):
Well it depends sometimes, you know, in order for the
to show the film to the studio, they will put
in what they call a temp track a temp score,
just to put music in so they can indicate music's
going to go here, and sometimes I could be tricky
because sometimes those guys fall in love with that that's
not really but you know, okay, I'm working on the
(12:19):
project right now, you know where I literally have to
just sit down and watch it without the music and
see what I take from it and try to absorb
the energy from it. You know, I was working on
this TV show. We didn't get a third season, but
it was really it was really a great show Perry Mason.
And the thing that was like so interesting about working
(12:40):
on that show was everything on the screen dictated a
sound to me. I don't know how to explain it,
but you know, it's like, and I totally directed this.
I said, dude, I'm like, everything I'm doing it's coming
from something that's on the screen.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
I'm not trying to add something that said.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
You know, sometimes a performance may not be as heartfelt
as you want, so you may have to something to it.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But it wasn't that.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
And that's always fun when that happens, because you know,
you feel like you're in sync with something. But a
lot of it has to do with just like really
being confident, going back to trust in your training. I
guess about what it is that you feel coming from
the scene.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So that whole process. Well, actually, so you've begun conducting
leading these scores and you get to the point you've
played around with some operas, but then it was a
fire shut up in my bones an opera. You wrote,
how what is the process? But I don't even want
to begin to think how huge your brain is inside
(13:39):
to be able to put this together. But to go
from an idea book or an idea to the libretto
where that's going to fit in and libretto being the
written words to help folks who maybe don't understand and
in the music, how what's the order there or does
it change?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
For is alcohol and prayer?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
What is what is your drink choice?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Oh? Vodka? I love vodka, drinker.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
But you know it goes back to the same thing,
and you know that you were talking about with the scenes,
it's absorbing the libretto. The difference is is that in
a film, it's already cut, it's made, and everything is
that I'm reacting to something that i'm watching with With
with an opera, it's all on me on how I
(14:30):
want to tell, you know, the story, how I want
to pace things, you know, And then there's moments where
we need what I call musical air where there's not
much really going on, but you can't have that silence,
you know, on on the stage. You know, there needs
to be something going on. And it starts for me
with the melodic content.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You know.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
One of the things that I love about some of
the composers that I love in the operatic world, like Puccini,
is that his melodic lines really enhance what the story is,
you know what I mean, Like they'll develop along with
the storyline, and you know, when it gets to a
certain climactic part in the storyline, you'll hear that in
(15:17):
the music. So I try to write along the same
type of lines to create emotional content.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
The difference is being a jazz musician.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
You know, we deal with harmony that moves rather quickly,
and what I mean by that like harmony may move
every two measures or something like that, whereas normally in
the classical world you can write in whole passages on
one sonic sound.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
If you will, you know.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
And that's been the journey for me because once you
get the melodic content down and then all of the
lines that the singers are going to sing, then I
go back and orchestrate, and I do with what we
were talking about earlier. Okay, well, what is this moment about.
Let me build their orchestration around this. You know, even
with my first opera and Champion, there were moments where
(16:03):
you go from full orchestration to just vocal and base.
You know, it depends on the scene. And that's the
fun part of doing it. You know, it's like create,
really creating the sonic palette for.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
How hard is it for you to end a creative
process that like, all right, this song is done, this
arrangement is done.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
It's it's it's it's a it's a torturous kind of thing,
you know, because you know, it's one of those things
you always kind of freak out about because you think,
oh man, it's done, and then you take a break,
you go hang out with the family, and then you
come back and listen to it together.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
What was I thinking about? You know what I mean?
Speaker 5 (16:45):
So it could go on and on and on, but
I think it at the end is when I start
to run out of questions about it in my mind,
you know, or issues.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
You know.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
One of the things that I've tried to teach my
students and start sometimes when you're writing something and something
doesn't feel right, that's an issue.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
You have to figure out what that is.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
You may not figure it out right away because you
can't see the forest for the treaties sometimes, so sometimes
you have to just kind of take a break and
move and step back and then allow it to say, oh,
it was this, you know this rhythm.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Why is this rhythm bothering me?
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Because it's too repetitive or I need to move it
around and make it more interesting. So that process is
one that still haunts me. I mean, you know, I
like this. I'm working on the show right now, man,
and I was working on a scene this morning and
I thought it was finished and I came back and
I go, no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So, do you have anybody you go to or the
decision making processors that are you.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Yeah, Well, when I'm doing big orchestral stuff, always have
an orchestrator, okay, you know. And there was a filmmaker
his name was Miles Goodman, who was my mentor in
the film business. And Miles, you know, taught me always
have an orchestrated, just to have an objective set of
ears nearby, you know, because sometimes we can't see it,
you know what I mean, because we're too busy in
(18:10):
it and trying to create and plush you on the
time clock, you know a lot of times in the
film world, so you're trying to hurry up and make
sure that you stay on pace so that you don't
get back backed up. And it's been great having an
orchestrator because then an orchestrator will look at it and go, man,
that's great. Hey, But you know what about adding something
here to this sound and make this a little full of.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
And I love that.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
So now we're in the thick of jazz.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
First, who are some of your favorite artists that you
you know, you're off day, you know, it's beautiful day.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That's a hard one because there's so many you know
what I mean, because.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Everybody out there.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I mean, you know.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
But the thing about it for me, man, it's like,
you know, I'm the type of person that you know,
I appreciate what everybody brings to the you know what
I mean. Uh, Like Stapleton was on the other last weekend,
right and we were thinking about going and I said, Nat,
we wind up.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Going, wind up, not wound up not going.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
But there's so many other people that I would love,
of course, you know, I consider him like my Ottle brother.
But John Batiste was on. I heard this show was amazing.
But then you know, at the Jazz Tent, Man, you know,
Kenny Barron was one of my teachers at Rutgers University.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
He was there.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
I've seen so many great shows and great performances in
the past, Sonny Rollins. You know, up on that stage,
the list is endless, I think for me, you know,
being a part of that tradition is a huge honor,
you know, because of the number of people and the
number of great musicians who've been on that stage and
have given great performances. You know, That's why whenever I
(19:55):
played jazz Fest, man, I get hyped because it's not
only a homecoming, but it's it's like a celebration of
so many things.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
And what's your favorite food?
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Oh my god, Okay, you really gonna make this hard.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
The line is as long as it gets and you
don't care.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Well, you know, one of the things they stopped selling.
Speaker 5 (20:14):
I don't know why, but there used to be a
barbecue oyster poor boy with blue cheese. When I when
I first started playing jazz Fest, that man, we used
to fight over that thing, like literally take out a rule.
You know, me and my wife wanted to cut it
in hand. You lively had to take out a ruler, right.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
No, not that's too you know it was bad, but
I mean I.
Speaker 5 (20:36):
Would have to say, you know, soft shell crab, poor boys.
You know, it's one of my things, that my big
seafood guy.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You know. And even with that, listen, who can do that?
Speaker 5 (20:45):
You can't be in New Orleans and not you know,
have a great bowl of red beans and sausage, you
know what I mean. So it runs the gambit. I
remember after Hurricane Katrina coming back here, man, we were
at Bryson's for dinner one night, and I, you know,
had been out in the l a for a while,
you know, So I ordered a spinish salad.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
You know, I don't know it, man, I know I
realized it after I even ordered it. You know, I
was like, okay, I'm not a regular salad. But it
came with three fight oristers on the top.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
And then when I beit into that oyster, I hadn't
been home in a while back you know, back then
we had been gone for about six months. Man, A
tear came down mind, you know, because I was like, man,
I'm back home. And that's the thing about this city,
you know, their flavors and smells and tastes that are
so much a part of just the daily life here.
You know, when I played with Lionel Hampton when I
was a kid, and they Lino came down here to
(21:44):
play the Roosevelt Hotel, all the guys in the band said, well, man,
where's a good place to eat?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And I go my mama's house, you know, because we
didn't go out to eating. Could cook.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, what was the specialty?
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Oh, she seafood, fried catfish, you know, that was that
was her big thing. Red beans and rice was another
big thing. Then there were a couple of other things
she would do for my grandmother come out. Grandmother had
a different palette, so she would do steward meat for her,
which wasn't one of my big things. But that, man,
that catfish was off the change.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
And the fresh shrimp too.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Of course, that's good. That's good living.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, that's good living. Well.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
You know the thing is, you know, it took me
a long time to understand when I moved up north
that we don't put batter on shrip you just put
the Zatarans, you know, egg wash or whatever. I got
the north Man they had this thick thing rip yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, and the next thing, you know, you stick your
falk in and it comes out of it.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Now, one of the extremely cool things is when people
grow up in the city, like you talk about, there's
just something that there's there's warmth and a big hug
in the city. You were at the Herbie Hancock ah
Institute for at U C l A and the other
(23:03):
LA Los Angeles, Yes, and you convinced them to connect
with Xavier h. How is that process? And Royola, Well, no.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
It was, it was, it was.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
It was a no brainer because you know, I knew
that it was the Monk Institute at the time. It's
to hurt me he a handcoff institute now, But I
knew that we had a really strong program of sending
our graduate kids out into high schools and middle schools
to work with younger kids. And I kept thinking, you know,
(23:39):
about the young kids who had just gone through the
trauma of Hurricane Katrina, and how some of them may
not have the ability to voice what's going on inside them,
you know, And I thought music along with other phones
of art obviously could be a big help in that arena.
And and we saw it as soon as we brought
(24:02):
the institute here because I can't remember the middle school
they were at, but they were at some middle school
and we had our kids playing and h we start.
We had a vocalist at the time, and she started
talking about scats singing and there was a young girl,
she must have been about thirteen or fourteen years old.
She raised her hand and she said, I think I
(24:22):
can do that. And for me, that means grab her
really quick, you know, locause, first of all, she had
the courage to stand up and ask the question. And
it must be a burning desiring her for her to
be able to say something that she can't say, you know.
And that was just one of many stories that really
convinced me that it was the right thing to do, because,
(24:42):
you know, one of my kids were hanging out late man,
and they were in the French Quarter and they went
to one of the fast food joints. Kids go to
the fast food joined the French quad right there right,
you know what I mean. And they saw some kids
is hanging out there and they thought, you know, they
were going to have a tussle, you know, and one
(25:04):
of the kids goes, hey, tenor man, and he times
around and goes, yeah. He said, Man, you guys were
at my school the other day. Man, yeah, were really cool,
And I see that think that kind of thing for
me means a lot, because look, you know, Miles Davis
used to say something to say, people won't know unless
you tell them. So in order for us to really
hope that these guys experience broader musical you know ideas,
(25:28):
we need to present them to them, you know, And
that was one of that was another reason why I
was really happy that we brought the programming.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
When you have arranged any kind of recording and you
know all the different you know, everything that is in there,
do you ever think about the person who doesn't know anything,
who just judges music on that sounds good, realizing all
the time that you did something special.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Oh yeah, all the time, you know, look Blakey or
that when I play with him. Man, yeah, he used
to say, Man, stop playing for the musicians, he said,
because first of all, they're gonna try to get it
into your show for free. They're only going to buy
one day, and they're gonna talk about you while you know,
(26:16):
stop playing for the musicians, man, You're playing for people,
you know, people who need to have music heal their
souls and wash away the dust of everyday life. So
it's about that, it's not. The ingenuity comes in in
terms of how we are able to say, Okay, this
is something that's a sound that's current, but I don't
want to sound like that.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Let me not do what they're doing.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
So you break it down technically, and then that allows
you to go, okay, well let me go over here
and do this. But it's not about for me. It's
not about trying to prove to anybody what it is
that I can do. I've never I've never been that musician.
That's never made sense to me, because you know, like
I said, that's for us, that's for the musicians. You know,
Louis Armstrong is one of the greatest music is on
(27:00):
the planet, one of the most widely known jazz artists
of our time. And most people will not be able
to tell you what he does. Technically, they could care less.
And it's and and us as trumpet players, we go.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Man.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
That was like ridiculously technically difficult, dude, right, but he
made it seem like it was child's play, and his
music had a healing thing to it, you know what
I mean. I mean sometimes it's one of those things. Man,
you put on some pops and it just makes you smile,
you know what I mean. And when you didn't, you
didn't have the intention of being in that mood.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
So for me, music is always been about trying to
help people heal through certain issues.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Of the day.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I love that. That's beautiful. So if you weren't a musician,
what would you do?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Uh, that's a hard one, listen, man.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
I played little football, yeah, and you know what's funny,
you know, because I got selected to the I don't
know if they still have it, but back then they
had a program called the Nord Saints, which was like
a program for all of the gifted kids, you know,
in the Little League, and then you go and play
Texas and all these other places, right, And I got
selected for the team, and I thought I was on
(28:15):
my way. Man, and my dad, my dad saw a
documentary back then in the seventies on PBS about kids
and concussions, man, and he just everything came to the
screeching help. And then I was so heartbroken because I
thought that goes my NFL kid until man, I was
going I was going to Saint og at the time,
and uh we played the Bayou Classic at the super
(28:37):
Dome and for some reason, I don't know why, I
don't know. For some reason, Grammlin's football team pulled up
in the bus dressed in uniform, right man and winning,
big old dudes.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
I started getting off the bus.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Man, I pulled out my horne.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Thank you, thank you. Yes.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Now, your father also was dabbled in music.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Yeah, yeah, he was. He wanted to be an opera singer.
And uh he is a part of that that that
that that large group of people in New Orleans that
I considered him to be like unsung heroes, you know,
like because they have a passion for art, but they
never really got a chance to do it professionally. So
there was a guy at my church named a Cio
(29:24):
La Blanchette h E. T. You know, who was a
music instructor, taught at mcdonnad thirty five for years and
he taught a lot of African American men opera and
my dad was one of them, you know. And uh,
they used to have a group called the Aiola five
that they would go around and do recitals.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
You know.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
Sometimes they would go to some of the convents and
sing for those people. Oddly enough, man, I always tell
a story. I tell it on my show too sometimes.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You know. Since my dad could sing, they put me
in the choir for one day.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
I lasted one Sunday. Man, they heard me singing. Somebody say,
doesn't that boys played the horn? So that went my
singing career. So I see all the five would also
go around doing Christmas caroling on Christmas Eve, right, so man,
you know, one Christmas they called me to go with him,
(30:25):
and I'm like, oh, really, y'all want me to go? Man,
I didn't realize this was because I just got my
driver's license and they got eggnog wherever they went, so
I became a designating driver.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Hey, you still were you were with everybody.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I didn't need me to sing a note, just hey, man,
just stand right there. We'll be done in a minute.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Did you, as a boy go see your dad sing opera?
Speaker 5 (30:49):
And he never got a chance to sing opera professionally,
but I would see him sing recitals and stuff like that.
I remember when I was a little kid, he used
to sing this thing called Little Drummer Boy, but was
singing to me and people thought that was cute.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
But he.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Really, you know, never got the opportunity to do so.
But it never you know, lessened his love for the music.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
You know.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
My dad had a ton of you know, opera recordings
that we lost in the hurricane, those RCA Victor recordings
that I was not allowed to touch ever, you know,
And man, he was sitting in the front and put
those things on and listen to that music. And when
I feel bad about it now, but back then, man,
when he would put on that music, we hit door slamming.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
But that's a normal child.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, So when you come home, what's what's the first
thing you do?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Who?
Speaker 5 (31:47):
Man, the first thing I do when I come home. Well,
it's changed, you know obviously. You know I used to
go to my mom's house, but she's ninety three right now,
and a living situation has changed. So for me, you know,
when I come home right now, I just try to
relax and just enjoy the city. You know, I love
(32:09):
city Park. I love being out of nature, you know,
I love the vibe of the city. You know, I
know we've gotten stuck with the moniker of all of
the crime that's been happening. But you know, I don't
and that's what I say, you know, and I don't
focus on that because I know that there are a
lot of beautiful souls in the city, a lot of
(32:31):
people with great intent about doing stuff for their neighbors.
And that's the thing that, literally, man, you know, blew
me away, because when I moved to New York for
the first time, I gotta I got accustomed to not
speaking to my neighbors because that's that's the.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Right.
Speaker 5 (32:49):
And I never I never forget. Man, I came here
and I'm walking down the street and to do go
what's up? And I go, what's up?
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Now?
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Washington, He got to the car, I'm like, what's the man,
You're about to turn around?
Speaker 2 (33:00):
And I had to catch myself, Man, did you just
do that? Man?
Speaker 3 (33:04):
It is It is so bizarre because when we first
moved there, people be walking the dogs or walk the Hey,
good morning, how are you, and We're just like, what's.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
Going what's going on?
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Then we realized that it's just the common courtesy, and
nowhere else does that because we go to other cities
and you.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Get on the elevator like, hey, good night, oh man.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Like nobody nobody makes eye contact, Nobody even smiles or ages.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It's just right.
Speaker 5 (33:33):
You know what's funny about that? My mother in law
from my first marriage, right, she's from the ones obviously.
When she came to visit us in Brooklyn, she had
the neighbors speaking to us.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Because she just never changed.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
She was.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
She came, hey, how you doing, and be walking in
the building, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Good morning?
Speaker 2 (33:52):
You know people, and she let people.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Man me right speaking to me that do you have
a musical guilty pleasure? You would rather not let anybody.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Know I at all?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
Man, I mean, man, I remember being on tour, uh
Donald have some when we had our band together. I
think we were I think we were in Japan. Man.
We ran into the Neville Brothers, man, and we were
like a little groupies because we had we had been
on tour for a while and and all of a
sudden they hit fire on the bike and man, we
(34:31):
couldn't keep still. I know they were like, man, don't
ever bring them back. So I wouldn't consider that a
guilty pleasure. That's just what I listened to growing up
growing up. I mean I listened to a lot of
different things. There's a there's some heavy metal bands that
I listened to, one called Disturbed that I've loved for years.
You know, I love their music, alge Role. I mean
(34:54):
that my my taste go all over the place, you know.
And then when you start talking about operating music, you know,
soloma Is by Strauss is one of my favorite operas.
You know, So it changes from time to time, you know,
And I think that's because I'm just fascinated by the
mere fact that you can sit down at a piano
(35:16):
and so many different things can come from.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
You know.
Speaker 5 (35:19):
That That's the thing that blows me away about ingenuity
and creativity.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
What are are there any barriers to young people getting
into jas? What are the challenges for jazz as a genre?
And I know it's incredibly huge.
Speaker 5 (35:35):
Well, I think I think the big challenges is like,
you know, trying to know as much about your history
as you can.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
You know, but that's not the strong suit of all
the a lot of young people.
Speaker 5 (35:46):
Well no, and that's the thing I was getting ready
to say, because sometimes what happens is, you know, you
hear something, you go, well, that's not what I want
to do, So you just avoid it and you.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Don't pay attention pay attention to it.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Well, actually, that's exactly what you should do, because then
when you see that, you can say, oh, well, this
came from that, and then the next thing you start
seeing the lineage and it starts to help you to
understand how ingenuity comes about by understanding the foundations of
how things are built and knowing how to manipulate those.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
You know.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
It's one of those you know, it's one of the
old sayings that all the jazz musicians always talk about.
You can't build a building without a strong foundation, no
matter what the building looks like.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
And I'm a firm believer in that.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
So I think the biggest challenge for them is the
vast array of musical styles that exist, you know, in
the library of jazz. And then the other part of it, too,
to be honest, is to not become consumed by it.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
You know.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Alvin Battisz, who is a great educator, he told me
one time, he said, the easiest thing to do is
to play like John Coltrane, because you know, everybody loves
John Colture, you know.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
What I mean.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
He said, the hardest thing to do is to really
find something that means something to yourself and then present
that to a public for possible rejection.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Absolutely, and you're putting yourself out there. Yeah, it's like
us opening a restaurant just hoping people come eat.
Speaker 5 (37:19):
Oh man, I don't. I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
How was COVID? Did you you were in LA for COVID? No?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I was here.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Oh you're here, but you have a studio at both houses.
Speaker 5 (37:35):
I have in both homes. But you know, we wanted
to be here in New Orleans. You know, my house
is on to buy you my my two youngest girls.
We brought them back home, you know. And it was
it was filled with mixed emotions, you know, because when
(38:00):
when you took the world of view, men and a
lot of people losing their lives rather quickly. I lost friends,
you know, I lost family members, and that was tragic
and scary.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
You know.
Speaker 5 (38:11):
I remember, you know, ordering groceries to be delivered to
the home, wiping down the bags, doing everything. You know,
that was pretty crazy. The beautiful side of it was
my career came to a halt for a second, and
I just spent time with my family.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
How long did it take you to get comfortable with
it because I had the same problem with the chef,
like she's crazy going all day, all day, all day.
The first two weeks and the shutdown, it was a
nightmare for me.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Yeah, I bet then all of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
She's like, wow, listen to the birds.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Exactly. I mean, you didn't hear airplanes, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
The most it was a great spring.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
It was a beautiful spress, Yes, and I think that
it was.
Speaker 4 (39:00):
We'd wake up in the morning, we'd have breakfast, yes,
and we'd be in bed by seven.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
I got a reputation in the morning.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Yeah, had a very beautiful side, but a very dark side.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
Yeah, And that was and that was the irony of
it all, because you know, man, we'd have lunches and
dinners out on the deck, bottle of water, and the
sky was just as clear as it could be. There
was no traffic, so there was just peace, you know.
And at the same time, when you had that piece,
you turned on the news and there was that ticker
(39:38):
of the number of people who died, and so there
was a there was a certain type of guilt, you
know that I've I felt like, you know, having this
moment and I felt like, you know, it just the
world needed to stop for a second, you know, and
because it really helped put everything so many other things
(39:59):
in perspective for me about what was important. There was
a young man that I worked with in Detroit, man
and he was forty years old, and I thought he
was relatively healthy and lost his life with a wife
and two kids. I had friends here that I went
(40:19):
to school with that had succumbed to that, you know.
And it was rough musicians friends of mine in New
York who I was shocked about losing that life to COVID.
It just blew my mind and it just felt like
the world was coming to an end in some regard,
(40:40):
you know. So for me, when you talk about getting comfortable,
I kept saying, and I'm not going anywhere to the vaccine.
And I know that's some people who don't want to
take vaccines, but I'm not that person, right And I
kept saying, you know, because the risk is too great,
you know. And once the vaccine was here, and then
(41:00):
I started traveling again. And even with that, I remember
that first tour that I did in Europe. It was
with Herbie Hancock, and it was like it was ten weeks.
It was a long tour. But the thing about that
tour that was amazing was everywhere we went, you can
tell people were ready to get back to like some
(41:21):
type of normalcy, and we kept Herbie in the bubble.
So we kept the banding ourselves in the bubble. You know,
we were always wearing masks. We'd hit the stage and
we came off the stage. We went right to the
tour of us, and we tried to limit fan interaction,
you know, because Herbie was in his eighties and we
didn't want him to get sick. But at the same time,
(41:44):
there was a certain type of exuberance from everybody wherever
we went and appreciation that musician, not only us, but
just there were musicians out there that were coming back
and touring again and allowing people to congregate and they
have those musical experiences again.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
And then on our side, it's a fascinating experience to
just get there again after a year and a half,
two years and be able to just it almost became
centory live music again.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
I think for a lot of us when the world
did stop, you know, because we took things for granted.
We took live music, going to a concert, going to
a restaurant and you know, we just when everything was happening,
I said, oh, restaurants will be fine. People need to
eat all of these things. And we got hit the hardest.
(42:32):
Restaurants were hit really hard because you know, it was
deemed like a super spread up because it's a gathering
space and it's it was just very different.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
And we did a lot of programs.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
With musicians with red beans doing meals with frontline workers
and musicians the second line to deliver meals to frontline workers.
The musicians were doing that because all the venues were closed.
Themusicians were really struggling.
Speaker 5 (43:02):
There were as a matter of fact, I remember we
we had like a little fundraiser at my home where
we raised some money for musicians who just came to play.
And it was one of one of the moments where
it was a proud moment for a number of reasons,
obviously for people gathering together, but for people understanding what
(43:24):
these musicians were going through, knowing how much how important
they are to our community.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You know. But I got to tell you a funny story.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
So so when my opera went to the met, you know,
we opened the season after the pandemic, right, we were
the first productions to go on. And then when we
had the first rehearsal in the theater with the singers,
Peter Gail, who's the director to have met, he kept going, man,
(43:53):
we can't hear the singers, and right and yi thing
the conductor goes, he goes, I know, I know. Listen, man,
they haven't played in two years.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
Everybody's excited and they're playing way too loud.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
How was that experience? Were you were you're nervous about?
Speaker 5 (44:13):
Oh? I was extremely nervous for a number of reasons.
I knew that the performances were going to be good
because those those musicians are incredible. They're they're just on
a whole other level. I was nervous about, you know,
(44:34):
would it peat people's interests, you know, and how would
they respond to it? And you know, it was a
beautiful thing. Pretty well, yeah, yeah, we've been blessed. We've
been blessed. But it's been it. But it's it speaks
to something else to me, you know, because the way
(44:55):
people showed up and supported you know, fire shut up
in my bones meant to me that there was some
there was a demographic of people that weren't served for
a number of years and just was kind of overlooked.
And one of the things that we found out is
that not only did they come to my production, but
once they got there, and for many of them, it
(45:16):
was the first time they had been to the Met
and been in the building, you know, So they wound
up buying tickets to other productions. So it started just
to help the overall health of the operatic world in
New York. And one of the things that I've been
screaming about is not being a token, but wanting to
be a turnkey because there's so many other people that
have stories to tell, and it's so many other types
(45:40):
of people who I feel have been overlooked as well,
you know.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
And that being said, you were the first, yes African
American to conduct, to write and conduct and your workers.
Speaker 5 (45:51):
Yeah, well, you know. But here's the thing about that, Larry.
You know, it's interesting because I always when people say
that to me, and they always ask me, how does
they feel. I said, well, it's a mixed bag of
te because I know that I wasn't the first qualified,
you know what I mean. You know, when you look
at Triminisia, Scott Joplin's opera, you look at William Grant Steele,
another great American composer who wrote great operas. As a
(46:12):
matter of fact, i'd heard one of his operas in
Saint Louis before I got to New York and didn't
know it was William grand Still.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
I'm listening to this opera, Go, man, what.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Is this like?
Speaker 2 (46:22):
Beautiful? This is Kellen? What is this?
Speaker 5 (46:23):
They said, oh, man, this is William greng Stele. And
then after that I proceed to go to the Met.
I'm doing an interview on one of the one of
the networks, and they have the camera on me, so
I'm trying to be cool, but they bring out a
legend man, and then the legend there's William grand Still's
name in there three times where he said, well not him,
(46:44):
but the other people rejected his operas, and the comments
were like, you know, we're very disrespectful. Doesn't have what
it doesn't know what it takes to write real opera.
Stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
So you know.
Speaker 5 (46:56):
That, you know, inspired me and motivated me to make
our production the best it could be because I knew
I was standing on some strong shoulders and there was
a lot riding on this, you know. But like I said,
you know, there was such great support. Even now, you know,
we have one more performance now this is the second
(47:16):
run of it this year. We have one more performance
on made a second. I don't know when we're hearing this,
but and it's it's been great because the tendance has
been strong, the response has been strong. But I think
it speaks to something bigger than me as a composer,
(47:38):
you know, like, for example, in the opera, there's a
there's a dance sequence that comes from the step show
tradition in colleges, right, that thing gets a stand innovation
every night, wow, every night. And I know why it
is is because African American people are seeing their culture
on the stage at the MET and that's what blows
everybody away when they see it. They first when it starts,
(48:00):
people are kind of like in disbelief, is this really?
And then when it ends, there's this uproar.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
Of energy, pride exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
You know.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
So it means a lot to me, you know, the
the amount of success that we've been having, because hopefully
this will open the door for people to see that
there are more stories that need to be told.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
You know.
Speaker 5 (48:24):
I hate to harp on this again. One Champion, my
first opera came to New Orleans. There was a gentleman
who came to the show, and he's the one that
clued me into it. He said he was he must
have been in his mid seventies. He said, Man, if
this is opera, i'd come, Meaning my first opera was
about Emil Griffith, a fighter that he knew. He knew
(48:44):
this whole story and he understood it. And when he
came to the opera, he really enjoyed the show. And
that's the thing that we've been trying to say. Look,
I'm the music nerriage. So of course I love Puccini,
I love Wagner, I love Verity, I love all of
that stuff. But that's not necessarily for everybody, you know,
so we need to make sure that we have these
current stories being told in these opera houses.
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Amazing cash money or no limit. Let's go from remember, man,
I'm see both sides of the friends with everybody exactly exactly. Well, Terrence,
thank you very much for taking his time out and
(49:24):
even to do it during jazz first. I mean, this
is it means a lot to us. You're you're an
amazing human being.
Speaker 5 (49:30):
No, thank you, guys, I really appreciate this. This is
a lot of fun, you know, coming back home, being
home and not doing this.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
This is all part of it too, So this is beautiful.
Speaker 6 (49:38):
Thank you, a pleasure, thank you, thank you big Wag.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Everybody didn't put it up where
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