What Albums Taught You How To Make Music
John Birge, one of the DJs on Classical MPR drives a small fancy old car. I would notice his car even if we were both doing 70 on 94. So when I saw him in my neighborhood I was curious why. I asked him at work, turns out he lives nearby but was making his way to Jefferson and Snelling to see a big collection of maple trees that all turn scarlet at the same time. This struck as the most classical DJ thing in the world to do, but also something pretty incredible to see. So this morning, when I went out on my walk I made sure to get to Jefferson and Snelling. Friends, it was majestic. On my way up Jefferson I was finishing an episode of the NY Times podcast “The Argument”. This wasn’t exactly easy listening, I have a hate hate relationship with David Brooks though I generally do still seek out his writing and thinking. And he was pretty legit on this episode in my opinion. But I promised myself that on the way back I would listen to one of the greatest jazz records of all time “Somethin’ Else” by Cannonball Adderley.
In particular I wanted to hear their version of Autumn Leaves. It opens the record and it establishes the magic of this record. Miles Davis is wrapped up in constantly setting the vanguard for music. But for some reason he commits to taking second billing to the alto player from his own band. So what we are basically hearing is Miles Davis’ full ensemble working without the pressure of being Miles Davis’s Full Ensemble. The collection is relaxed, bluesy and friendly. It is vastly less ambitious than Kind of Blue and I am not mad at that in the least. As I let the sounds of Autumn Leaves surround me while enjoying the actual Autumn Leaves of Jefferson Ave I thought about to how many spins this record got when I was in high school. Although this album is not my favorite jazz record (Hank Mobley’s Soul Station is) I learned a lot about how I wanted to play jazz on this record; switching feels, bluesy solos, solid 1/4 note walking, brushes to cymbals, trading between horn players. Your favorite records aren’t necessarily the ones you learn the most from. I love Pearl Jam, but I’ve never really played rock the way they do. I think Lil’ Wayne has produced some of the best hip-hop in the history of the genre, but I haven’t taken a bunch of tricks from his records.
So I think I’ve learned the most in jazz from Somethin’ Else. Here’s what I’ve got for rock and hip-hop.
No, it’s not his best record. It might not even be his second best record (that’s debatable), but It Was Written gave me so many tricks for hip-hop arrangements and more. The actual track Street Dreams has almost every trick on it that Heiruspecs has used for arranging our own music - two measure pause before a huge snare on beat 4, drop out or lower the volume the sampled snares on selected 2s and 4s to emphasize the lyrics, add extra reverbed out snare hits. Plus, roll out all these tricks out slowly so there is an established sense of what the groove is before you start changing things. I give credit to ANT from Atmosphere for pointing this out to me. Heiruspecs was doing too much too soon to our beats on a lot of our songs, that change helped us a lot in my opinion.
Beyond the tricks, this album was actually very digestible as a live musician thinking about working in a live music format. Most of the songs can be communicated in a live band format, as opposed to early Wu-Tang records, which I think are often better than It Was Written, but didn’t have the same inspiration potential as a musician. It would also be disingenuous to not mention the Roots in this conversation: I think “It Was Written” gave me more lessons in how to support great rappers but the foundation on how to connect a band with a great rapper goes back for me to Organix, Do You Want More??!? and Illadelph Halflife.
I haven’t spent a lot of my career playing bass in honest to goodness rock bands. I’ve never felt completely right in a “rockin’ band” ala Pete Seeger et cetera. I’ve been drawn to blues and I’ve been drawn to rock music done weird. And to me Kill the Moonlight by Spoon is the ultimate rock music done weird record. The pauses, the patience, the willingness to delay gratification. I worshipped it and I think that in my work with Ela’s Stapled to Air (the rock project I am by far the most proud of in my career) we were aiming at the Spoon thing so hard. I remember the way that Peter Leggett (drummer) and I worked on the music. . .it was to find the skeleton, to add the special sauce while removing the burger. And in the world of Spoon at this time, the bassline always had to have a point, had to make an impact. I’ve been so comfortable in my career playing the root notes and making it work, but there’s something special going on with almost every moment of bass on this record. That’s how I aspire to approach rock bass playing.