Trombone Shorty photographed in 2017

Trombone Shorty

Photo: Cliff Lipson/CBS/Getty Images

Interview

Trombone Shorty Is Big On New Orleans, Music Education & Rap

Facebook Twitter Email
GRAMMY nominee reveals how he found his groove with new album 'Parking Lot Symphony' and how music education can save lives
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
Sep 19, 2017 - 12:18 pm

Whether the subject is his latest project, touring, his storied hometown of New Orleans, or education, Trombone Shorty — born Troy Andrews — beams with confidence and pride. Lucky for him, his No. 1 passion threads it all: music.

Trombone Shorty: New Album, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Released in April 2017, Parking Lot Symphony represents arguably the GRAMMY nominee's most passionate project to date. Designed to capture the spirit and the essence of The Big Easy, Trombone Shorty looked to create a more spontaneous, live atmosphere in the studio. The organic results yielded bluesy numbers like "No Good Time," jazzy instrumental cuts like "Tripped Out Slim," and spirited covers of Allen Toussaint's "Here Come The Girls" and the Meters' "It Ain't No Use."

In an exclusive GRAMMY.com interview, Trombone Shorty goes long on the live feel on Parking Lot Symphony, touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, what you'd find on his rider, rap influences, and saving lives through music education.

You've stated you wanted to capture more of a raw feel with Parking Lot Symphony, compared to your prior albums. What led you in this direction?
When we are in the studio doing the records, sometimes we really try to be extremely tight and try to be very clean. And we've never tried to do a live take in the studio, with the energy. So we just wanted to do that, because most of my career and most of our success is because of the live element. And I just wanted to go in there and see if we could just play — to have the arrangements really tight but not hold back on the energy. And we never approached that in the studio. Whenever we go in the studio, it's always, "Oh, we need to be tight. We need to do this." So I said, "Let's learn the material; let's get it as tight as we can. And let's play like we do it during the show." And I think we captured that [on Parking Lot Symphony].

I understand that the album title Parking Lot Symphony is based on a lyric phrase from Alex Ebert from the Magnetic Zeros. Why did the title make sense for the album, and what does it represent to you?
Well, we got together and wrote the song, and he said, "It's Parking Lot Symphony," I just thought it was great because it represents what we do New Orleans. Most of the music in New Orleans is heard on the street and that's where I came up, playing in the street parades. I just thought, "It really is a parking lot symphony in New Orleans," marching through the street for four or five hours, every Sunday or every other day, and I just thought it fit perfectly with my story.

You're recently coming off a tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Back in the day, the Chili Peppers were known for some crazy antics. What's the strangest thing that happened on that tour?
(laughs) Well, you know, I think they're a little older now so they've calmed down a lot. There was nothing really crazy. Flea gets up there and Anthony takes off his shirt — I don't think that's crazy. But it was a lot of fun, we learned a lot from them. It was a great tour for us because we listened to those guys growing up. And our music is very influenced by them. We just have horns, but you can hear certain rhythms in [that are similar] because they are also influenced by the Meters, who we grew up listening to in New Orleans.

I saw some videos before we went on the road — I thought they'd do some crazy stuff so I could try and steal those antics from them. But they kept it really cool on this one.

You jammed "Give It Away" with them.
Yeah, we did "Give It Away" in New Orleans. That's one of my favorite songs, and they brought up the Rebirth Brass Band, George Porter from the Meters and Ivan Neville. We had a big jam session onstage at the Smoothie King arena in New Orleans and that was just like a monumental moment for all of us.

Speaking of touring: What are the most surprising things that would be found on Trombone Shorty's tour rider?
(laughs) On my rider? Probably ramen noodles in a cup. That's probably the craziest thing. But my band really puts some weird things on there. I just ask for coconut water. Well, I do also ask for Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Before the show, we might have cereal or something like that. They take care of the rest, so there's all types of ginger beer and M&M's. We're really cool. We haven't completely lost our minds yet.

You are a huge proponent of music education through the Trombone Shorty Foundation. Why is music education so important for our nation's youth?
Well, think about this, music education is very important because I've realized that, [through] traveling and touring, every place is not New Orleans. It's cool to play music, it's cool to play instruments, it's cool to play tuba and trombone and trumpet, or even tap dance. When we get off the plane in New Orleans, about five minutes later you'll see someone playing. So I wanted to give back to the neighborhood because a lot of great musicians in the city did that for me because they saw something in me as a kid. They'd go on tour and the would give me something to practice, and then they would come off tour and come back to my house and ask me if I had been practicing and then they'd give me another lesson.

I've had great teachers throughout my life and it's an unspoken tradition that we pass things down. In New Orleans we have a lot of kids that grow up playing by ear and some of them never get formal training but they become professional musicians. And what I wanted to do is give them the right tools to be able to come out to L.A. or wherever it may be and be onstage with anybody, and not have anything hold them back. And also, in New Orleans sometimes we know how to make music and play music, but we may be lacking in the music business side of it. So I wanted to introduce that to the kids before they get to it, so it's not a complete random thought when they actually have to do some contracts or have to manage themselves. We have a lot of great musicians and great kids down there. And I think in the bigger picture, it can be a passport for them to see the world. And maybe even save some of their lives.

From down and dirty funk to jazz, blues and hip-hop, your influences are eclectic. Staying with hip-hop: What are your top hip-hop albums of all time and who are some of your biggest influences?
Yeah, I think Juvenile 400 Degreez is one of my favorites. He's one of my favorite rappers coming from New Orleans. There's Mystikal, his albums he did with No Limit. And I have to say Lil Wayne with Tha Carter, what he does on that. Growing up in the city, we all listened to that music. And still today, we still listen it. That's where most of my hip-hop influences comes from, being in the city. I worked with Mannie Fresh when he was doing some things with Cash Money. I worked with him when I was like 14, and we still work together today. KLC, who did a bunch of stuff for No Limit, we still work together. I play some horn parts for him and make some beats for him. Those are my biggest influences in hip-hop.

You've done some voiceover work and played yourself on "Treme." Any interest in getting into method acting?
You know, I've thought about it. I've got a bunch of actor and actress friends that I hang out with. And I'm always asking them things. If I get a chance to do it, I'd like to take that challenge. It's a different type of thing to become someone else. But sometimes onstage, sometimes you get into a vibe. I don't know if it's acting or if it's a spiritual thing, but sometimes I feel like James Brown or I feel the spirit of Louis Armstrong or things like that. I feel I tap into that spirit sometimes.

What's the last show you binge-watched?
I don't get a chance to watch much TV but I have been watching Netflix. There's a show called "Wentworth" that I've been checking out. And when I'm home, my sister likes to watch the show "Power" with 50 Cent and all those guys. So I'll check that out. We'll sit at home as a family and just watch that all day. I gotta catch up because she's talking about things that I don't know about. So she makes me go back to season one and after I watch that, then we're able to talk about it.

Harry Connick Jr. and friends in Jackson Square, New Orleans

Harry Connick Jr. and friends in NOLA

News

United We Sing: Cyndi Lauper, Jamie Foxx & More Help Harry Connick Jr. Bring Smiles To Essential Workers

Facebook Twitter Email
Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, Herbie Hancock, Andra Day, Cyndi Lauper, Little Big Town, Dave Matthews, Tim McGraw, John Fogerty and others also brought gratitude from New York to New Orleans
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Jun 21, 2020 - 7:02 pm

On Sunday, June 21, CBS aired the two-hour "United We Sing: A GRAMMY Salute To The Unsung Heroes" special featuring host Harry Connick Jr., who, along with his filmmaker daughter, Georgia Connick, journeyed via RV from New York to New Orleans to personally thank the essential workers risking their lives to keep us all safe and healthy during the COVID-19 crisis.

The inspiring road trip, which was shot several weeks ago and with a limited crew and social distancing precautions, saw the Connicks visiting truck drivers, teachers, grocery store workers, hospital cleaning staff, firefighters, a trash route worker and other unsung heroes of the coronavirus pandemic.

At each stop, a very special guest, via Zoom, helped Harry offer messages of gratitude to the local heroes, while Georgia filmed the moving interactions. These included Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey and Queen Latifah, along with GRAMMY winners Irma Thomas, Jamie Foxx, Herbie Hancock, Andra Day, Cyndi Lauper, Little Big Town, Dave Matthews, Tim McGraw, John Fogerty and others.

Watch Tim McGraw Perform "Something Like That"

The first stop was to visit Harry's sister Suzanna Jamison, a military doctor currently stationed at Queens Hospital Center in Queens, N.Y. "It's really hard for all the people involved," she said. It was also, understandably so, hard for the siblings to not be able to hug each other. He later visited their father in New Orleans, where they grew up, for another heartwarming family visit.

After narrowly escaping N.Y.C. while driving their massive RV through the narrow streets of Chinatown, Harry navigated them to Chattanooga, Tenn. to thank an adorable trucker couple. McGraw, the first celeb guest of the jaunt, said hi via Zoom. The country icon shared that his dad was a trucker, and he got his country music education at a young age, riding alongside his father with the tape deck going. He then sang an acoustic rendition of his 1999 song "Something Like That" (watch the performance above).

The next stop was to visit teachers at Irvington High School in Newark, N.J. One of the young teachers, Aaysha Notice, shared her passion for showing up for her students, even when they're apart, with innovative ideas like a car parade to celebrate the kids' test scores, driving outside their houses, shouting praises from a safe distance. Their special caller was Queen Latifah—she attended Irvington at the same time her mom taught there. Notice and the other teachers where thrilled to hear support from Latifah, who reminded them: "You are the superstars!"

Explore: 'Black Gold' At 50: How Nina Simone Refracted The Black Experience Through Reinterpreted Songs

The show was interspersed with a stellar selection of musical guests and virtual collabs, the second of which was Trombone Shorty and Little Big Town, with the New Orleans jazz artist playing from his hometown and the country act singing in from Florida and Nashville. They performed a rousing cover of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)."

Irma Thomas

Irma Thomas sings in front of the Mississippi River

Other performances included Thomas singing her GRAMMY-winning 1962 classic "It's Raining" in front of a grey-skied Mississippi river, with Lauper supporting virtually from Los Angeles and Foxx singing a moving rendition of Bill Withers' "Grandma's Hands," dedicated to his beloved grandmother and Withers. Foxx helped thank the cleaning staff at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Ala.

Hancock and Day, who is playing Billie Holiday in an upcoming biopic, performed Holiday's "God Bless The Child," along with an upright bassist and drummer, each playing from their respective set-ups. Later, Jon Batiste and the Gospel Soul Children served up a beautiful performance of "Amazing Grace."

Fogerty and his family, calling in from Los Angeles, performed an electric rendition of his "Proud Mary," with help from Rockin' Dopsie Jr. playing the zydeco in front of the river that inspired the Creedance Clearwater Revival hit. Also while in NOLA, Connick joined an amazing, socially distanced second line, featuring the Bourbon Street Brass Band, the Lady Buckjumpers and the Wild Magnolias, who delivered a brass rendition of "America The Beautiful."

Read: Marching Six Feet Apart: How High School Marching Bands Are Coping With The Pandemic

One of the most moving musical moments came from the tribute to the late jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis, who died from COVID-19. Three of his sons honored the NOLA legend with the hymn "How Great Thou Art," along with Connick singing on a piano. They performed outside of the city's Ellis Marsalis Center For Music, built after hurricane Katrina to serves as a music education and enrichment space for kids, a recording studio, performance hall and more. One of the eldest sons, Branford Marsalis, returned to the show later to perform Dave Matthews Band's "Mercy" with Dave himself.

R.I.P.: Pianist And New Orleans Jazz Staple Ellis Marsalis Dies At 85

While visiting New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell at City Hall, Lou Hill of the Recording Academy stopped by to share the Academy would be joining Connick in making donations to the Marsalis Center and New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, another important local music org highlighted during the special. During the show, viewers where encouraged to learn more and donate what they could to the non-profits, as well as MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund and two food-focused charities, No Kid Hungry and the Conscious Alliance, a coalition of artists dedicated keeping their communities fed.

Read: My Mind: The 'Panther' Theme Song Turns 25

Other stops and celebrity Zoom cameos included a visit to Oprah's Boys and Girls Club in Kosciusko, Miss., where the employees are feeding kids who would otherwise not eat with school out, with around 2000 meals a day! Winfrey called in to thank them personally; she helped open in that Boys and Girls Club in her hometown back in 2006. At a Kroger's grocery store in Knoxville, Tenn., Connick called on Renée Zellweger to praise two lovely employees there. Sandra Bullock zoomed with transit supervisor Joy Palmer, who recently lost her husband to COVID-19.

GRAMMYs

A gospel choir sings with Connick in Jefferson Square, New Orleans

Brad Pitt made two cameos, first offering playful jokes and heartfelt thanks to the lovely Darnell, the supervisor of trash pickup route, and later to help Connick close the show. The final number saw Connick singing "Stars Still Shine" on a piano in NOLA's Jackson Square, with the support of a gospel choir and orchestra. The new song, dedicated to all their new friends on the front lines, and the many more they didn't have time to meet, is available to download now with all proceeds going to the Marsalis Center.

"Nothing Like This Has Ever Happened": How Orchestra Musicians Are Faring In The Pandemic

Grammys Newsletter

Album covers from new music released in April 2017
List

April New Music Roundup: Did you miss these great releases?

Facebook Twitter Email
Stay current and catch up on some of these notable music releases from the past month
THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

As we enter May, we close the books on a month that saw the release of several blockbuster albums, chart-shifting singles and enough new music to get us through the summer. With April in our rearview mirror, we took a look back at some of the noteworthy releases from GRAMMY-winning artists and newcomers alike with our latest installment of the Monthly Music Roundup.

Albums 

Father John Misty, Pure Comedy

Notorious late-night tweeter and self-styled indie rock iconoclast Father John Misty released his latest effort, Pure Comedy. Typical of the singer/songwriter's trademark lyrical density, Spin.com says the album "evokes increasing comparisons to '70s singer/songwriters like Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson, who hid their acidic commentary within sturdy pop structures."

Joey Bada$$, Amerikkkan Badass

Brooklyn-based rapper Joey Bada$$ dropped his second studio LP. The rapper has shifted from the self-aware thematic content of his debut record, B4.Da.$$, toward hip-hop stylings centered around political themes and imagery. Pitchfork calls Amerikkkan Badass  a "starting point for those who may not have thought much of economic, social and political disparity."

The Chainsmokers, Memories … Do Not Open

GRAMMY-winning duo the Chainsmokers released their debut studio album, Memories … Do Not Open. The 12-track set launched at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and the chart performance of its three singles, including Best Pop Duo/Group Performance GRAMMY winner "Closer," made the Chainsmokers just the third group ever to have three simultaneous Top 10 singles on the Hot 100.

Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.

Kendrick Lamar hype was at an all-time high following the release of this album's lead single "HUMBLE.," building to a fever pitch ahead of the release of his fourth studio effort, DAMN. Rolling Stone calls the album "a dazzling display of showy rhyme skills, consciousness-raising political screeds, self-examination, and bass-crazy kicking."

John Mayer, The Search For Everything

Connecticut-born genre jumper John Mayer has never been short on talent. The Search For Everything comes after a candid interview with The New York Times and just ahead of a summer tour. His latest album shows off a more mellow thread of the GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter's DNA. As AllMusic.com says, "He's settling into a groove he can claim as his own, and it feels like he's at home."

Preservation Hall Jazz Band, So It Is

Switching gears from the bluegrass-influenced sounds of 2013's That's It!, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band tapped the production duo of TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek and current member and music director Ben Jaffe to curate a record of more worldly stylings. AllMusic.com says it "showcases a soulful, bluesy, groove-oriented set of songs heavily influenced by the roiling, kinetic sound of Afro-Latin and Cuban bands."

Incubus, 8

What sounds at first like an unorthodox combination of artists — Incubus and GRAMMY-winning DJ/producer Skrillex — turns out to be the former's most aggressive and punchy rock album of their career.  As Incubus' lead singer Brandon Boyd explained to Rolling Stone about the collaboration, "It was like there was one more lick to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop and we found it."

Robyn Hitchcock, Robyn Hitchcock

The revved-up pace and sound of singer/songwriter Hitchcock's self-titled solo album comes in stark contrast to 2014's reserved and pensive The Man Upstairs. "Existing fans will rightfully be thrilled that Hitchcock not only hasn’t lost his edge, but has sharpened his knives on this superb set," American Songwriter claims. "Newcomers can start here to get a whiff of one of music’s most pungent, eccentric and lovable journeymen doing what he does best."

Sheryl Crow, Be Myself

GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow returns to familiar retro form, enlisting Jeff Trott and Tchad Blake, who worked on her self-titled album in 1996. The resulting comfortable surroundings, according to AllMusic.com, find Crow "happy to embrace her eccentricity in addition to her fondness for big pop hooks."

Gorillaz, Humanz

Following rumors that the group had fallen out and disbanded, the Gorillaz returned to music after a seven-year hiatus with Humanz. Themed around emotional reactions to world-changing events and subtle political undertones, Pitchfork call the record a "gloomy party playlist for the end of the world."

Trombone Shorty, Parking Lot Symphony

The genre-busting New Orleans trombonist, trumpeter and singer returned to dip his toes into the deep end of '70s R&B and funk sounds with Parking Lot Symphony. AllMusic.com says the LP is "one of Trombone Shorty's most balanced productions, equal parts New Orleans R&B sophistication and loose, block party fun."

Feist, Pleasure

It's been six years since Feist released her critically acclaimed album, Metals, and now she is back with a more intimate sound and some of her best material yet. According to Consequence of Sound, "Pleasure is a record of patience, and each surprising twist in its understated songwriting is used to illustrate how Feist keeps her cool."

Mary J. Blige, Strength Of A Woman

The GRAMMY-winning R&B superstar has done it again. Mary J. Blige's new album, Strength Of A Woman, arrived with much anticipation. BET reports that fans are "celebrating the fact that the R&B veteran truly did put her heartache (and hope) into her music once again — much like she has throughout her entire career."

Mary J. Blige gets real on new album 'Strength Of A Woman'

Willie Nelson, God's Problem Child

Coming off a GRAMMY win for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album at the 59th GRAMMY Awards, the outlaw country music legend tells it just like it is at age 83 on God's Problem Child, which features some of Nelson's sharpest songwriting, most purposeful lyrics and most vulnerable vocal performances, according to Rolling Stone.

Singles

Beyoncé, "Die With You"

Beyoncé released "Die With You" in honor of her ninth wedding anniversary with husband Jay Z. According to Billboard, the GRAMMY-winning artist also curated an exclusive 63-track playlist for streaming service Tidal to accompany the single track and music video release.

Harry Styles, "Sign Of The Times"

The One Direction star found himself on the top of the U.K. charts with his new single, "Sign Of The Times," bumping fellow English countryman Ed Sheeran from the top spot early in the month. According to Huffington Post UK, the song has a "surprising backstory."

Royal Blood, "Lights Out"

The British blues-rock duo are back with the first single from the anticipated follow-up to their 2014 self-titled masterpiece. If the fuzzed-out "Lights Out" is any indication their album, How Did We Get So Dark?, out in June, it will offer an even heavier version of the band's garage sound.

Phoenix, "J-Boy"

The French synth-rock quartet came out swinging with their first new music since 2013's Bankrupt! The track makes for an apt preview to their forthcoming LP Ti Amo, which lead guitarist Laurent Brancowitz told Consequence Of Sound will focus on "simple, pure emotions."

What was your favorite release from April? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Polls

Which new album release from April do you have on repeat?

Paul Winter

Paul Winter

Photo: Bill Ellzey

News

Paul Winter On How His New Album, 'Light Of The Sun,' Starts A New Path In His 60-year Recording Career

Facebook Twitter Email
Over the decades, the 81-year-old, GRAMMY-winning soprano saxophonist swerved around rock 'n' roll, embraced whale songs and so much more. 'Light Of The Sun' encapsulates his contemplative, meditative vibe
Pamela Chelin
GRAMMYs
Dec 30, 2020 - 8:45 am

When the soprano saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Paul Winter gazes at the night sky, he's not just looking for the Man on the Moon. Not only did Apollo 15 astronauts name two craters after his songs ("Icarus" and "Ghost Beads"), but they left a cassette copy of Road, a 1970 live album by Winter's longtime band The Paul Winter Consort, on the moon. "When I look up at the moon at night, and I remember that story, sometimes I don't quite get it," Winter tells GRAMMY.com over the phone from his farm in Connecticut. "'I think, 'No, that's not possible.' But they said they left the cassette up there, so I've told friends, 'When you go to the moon, take a cassette player and see if you can find my cassette.'"

Winter, who's won six GRAMMYs as an artist, may have turned 81 this year, but he shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the 81-year-old's latest release, Light Of The Sun, released last month (Nov. 13) via Living Music, starts a new path in his 60-year recording career. It's the first time Winter is the featured soloist after decades of assuming the role of bandleader and involving numerous collaborators in his recordings. "It's something I'd dreamed about doing for a long, long time," he says. "When I turned 80, I thought, 'This is as good a time as any to do it.' It was great fun to focus on my playing. It's been a great labor of love, and I consider this my testament as a sax player, but I don't mean to imply it's my last one. I'd like it to be my first one."

Light Of The Sun embraces Winter's lifelong fascination with the sun. (Some of his previous album titles include Sun Singer, Journey With the Sun, Morning Sun, and Everybody Under the Sun.). "The idea was to try to see if the feeling of the sun, the sunlight, could be transmuted into music the way sunlight transmutes chlorophyll giving life to all the plants," he says. "I've long been fascinated with the sun and the ways that we experience it. It's the source of our life. All life on Earth comes from the sun, and it's just a tremendous factor in our lives that we don't think about too much."  

To Winter, the sun also symbolizes hope, kindness, love, serenity, and optimism. As Winter's soprano sax takes front and center, winding prominently through the record, the 15 compositions are as celebratory as they are soothing. At times, the music sounds uplifting, like a morning prayer. At others, the soothing music sounds like the perfect companion to a relaxing glass of wine at the end of the day. A welcome antidote to a dark and stressful year, Light Of The Sun offers a delightful musical reprieve from 2020's turmoil.

To best capture his sound, Winter utilized wide open spaces to allow for the most robust musical resonance and reverberation, recording in three unique locations: the Miho Museum in Japan; the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York and the Grand Canyon. He first discovered the powerful acoustics inside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1968 during Duke Ellington's funeral service, where Ella Fitzgerald sang, and musicians from Ellington's orchestra played in honor of the jazz composer and bandleader. Since 1980, Winter's been the artist-in-residence at the historic cathedral, where he's held winter solstice celebrations for forty years. 

Growing up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Winter switched from clarinet to saxophone after falling in love with big band music when he was seven years old. "It was in the 1940s and the big band era," he says. "I loved that music more than anything, and to have a whole genre of music very much in the air and alive in our culture to inspire me then was exciting." Luckily for Winter, his grandfather owned a music store, making it easy to get a saxophone.

By the time he was 12, Winter had a group in the vein of German drinking bands. He played churches, the local YMCA, and the rotary club. His mom was his roadie. "It was great fun, and people loved seeing these kids play this happy, wacky music and telling jokes that were very corny, of course, but all the funnier because we were only twelve," Winter says. He received his first payday when, one night, he made 50 cents after a performance. "When you were twelve in 1951, that was big money," he says. 

A couple of years later, his band morphed into a 9-piece dance band, playing Great American Songbook standards. "That music is so timeless," he says. "That shaped my aesthetic a lot." While enrolled as a Northwestern University student, Winter formed the Paul Winter Sextet, incorporating bebop music. In 1961, they won an intercollegiate competition judged by jazz virtuoso Dizzy Gillespie and record producer and talent scout John Hammond, who had discovered Aretha Franklin and signed Bob Dylan. Hammond promptly signed Winter to Columbia Records. "It was astounding; I'd never dreamed of anything like that," Winter says.

Unfortunately, Winter says that because jazz was an underground phenomenon, there was nowhere to play publicly. Sitting around his apartment with nothing to do, he decided to write to the U.S. Department of State, asking to be sent on a goodwill tour of Latin America. 

"We were perfectly integrated with three Blacks and three whites at a time early in the Kennedy years when civil rights were the burning issue, and I was extremely interested in cultural exchange," he says. Winter didn't expect a response to his letter, but a few months later, his request was granted. For six months, the Paul Winter Sextet toured Latin America, played concerts in 23 countries, and received steady pay. He recalls the joy he derived when he performed for 5,000 barefoot villagers in Bolivia: "They had no experience with what we were doing, but they loved it because it was rhythmic, and in the warm countries, people like to move."

When they returned from their tour, the band decided to move to New York to try their luck. But though their tour of Latin America was a success, there was still no work to be had and nowhere to play live. Winter considered going to the University of Virginia law school, whose acceptance he had deferred for a year. By then, the Paul Winter Sextet had put out two records, 1961's The Paul Winter Sextet—which only came out in Latin America—and 1962's Jazz Meets the Bossa Nova, which became a minor hit, selling 30,000 copies.

Fortuitously, the band got to play an unusual and unlikely venue. As part of Jackie Kennedy's Concerts for Young People By Young People initiative, the Paul Winter Sextet was the first-ever jazz group invited to perform at the White House in 1962. When they arrived, the First Lady told Winter that she'd been listening to Jazz Meets the Bossa Nova nonstop for three weeks. As President John F. Kennedy worked down the hall nearby, Mrs. Kennedy watched the performance, along with a room filled with children and reporters. The following day, according to Winter, the news headlines read, "Jackie Loves Jazz." With his moment in the spotlight, Winter got work touring clubs around the country. But he didn't like it. "In nightclubs, you were almost a liquor salesman, there to entertain people so they would drink more, and the acoustics were bad."

Soon after, Winter broke up the jazz ensemble and lived in Brazil for a year. Playing with Brazilian musicians planted the seeds for his next musical pursuit. In 1967, Winter formed the Paul Winter Consort, combining jazz, world and classical music, and nature sounds. A few years later, he signed with Albert Grossman, who managed Dylan, Peter, Paul, and Mary, the Band, and other luminaries. But the Paul Winter Consort didn't fit into an apparent musical genre, making it hard to break through to an audience despite having released three records. "Record stores didn't know whether to put it in classical, jazz, or folk, so they put it nowhere," Winter says. 

To attract a large audience to the band, manager Bennett Glotzer introduced Winter to the Beatles' famed producer George Martin. Martin played oboe and had a deep grounding in classical and instrumental music. "George agreed to have lunch with me, and we hit it off so well," Winter says. With Martin at the producing helm, the Paul Winter Consort spent three weeks recording in the coastal town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1971. They released the resulting Icarus to critical acclaim in 1972. 

That's when Winter became renowned as a pioneer of new-age music, which makes him laugh. "It's a joke," he says. He explains that the new age classification was given to him by the record industry when electric music dominated the music scene. Many perceived acoustic music to aid meditative purposes and alternative therapeutics. The simple tag of "new age" positioned the Paul Winter Consort's genre-evading records in record store aisles and awards categories.

While the Paul Winter Consort never fit neatly into one musical category, there is a specific music genre of which Winter's never really been a fan; rock music. So it was ironic when Winter found himself on bills in the seventies with rockers like Procol Harum, Spirit, and Bruce Springsteen. The latter opened for Winter at a gig in 1973. The Boss's friendliness and his extreme confidence struck Winter, but he watched just a small portion of Springsteen's set. "When he started talking about New Jersey, David Darling and I said, 'OK, let's go out for dinner,'" he deadpans.

Nature's music was more Winter's speed, and he had first fallen in love with it when he heard humpback whales in 1968. The yearning quality in whales' songs enamored him, which led to his fascination with other wild animals' sounds. For instance, wolves' howls express what Winter calls "the universal blues." Since the 1970s, Winter has been incorporating what he calls "the symphony of the earth" into his music. He's currently working on a new recording project, recording Indigenous peoples' music in fifteen countries situated along the African-Eurasian flyway, to raise support and awareness for migratory birds, including storks and cranes, who need protection.

As humble as he is hard-working, Winter doesn't display any of his six GRAMMYs on his mantle, preferring to keep some of them in boxes in his barn. He gave several of them away. "I don't think it's healthy to keep awards around. It gives you an illusion that you've accomplished something," he says. "For me, it's always what I'm doing next." He's even reluctant to take credit for his success, continually attributing it to good fortune. "I think if one realizes any dreams in their lifetime, they're lucky, and I've had a huge abundance of luck," he says.

Though he hasn't had the same level of success as some of his contemporaries, Winter says he wouldn't want it because it often comes at a cost. "I think something happens when you have huge success," he says. "Once you become used to the fame and the adulation and the entourage, it seems like often people lose their muse, that the thing that originally propelled them toward resting whatever they did that reached a wide audience and their output ends. They can still perform, but their music is no longer full of magic. There's a certain amount of humility and creative aspiration that is needed." 

"Of course, I can't be critical of people who had great success," he adds. "They earned it. It's remarkable how the adventures that it afforded them, but it's very hard to find people who reach that level who still have their original values intact."

He points to acclaimed folk singer Pete Seeger as a rarity who never lost his integrity. Winter first heard Seeger's music when Hammond took him to a Carnegie Hall concert in 1963. "It was like a revelation hearing a voice that seemed very real to me," he says. "It didn't sound like a pop music voice where you feel somebody's trying to sell you something. And he spoke about [authentic] things in the world. I had never been allured to listen to folk music. That was the big turning point for me." Three years later, the pair met at the Newport Folk Festival, where they bonded and became close friends. (Winter later produced Seeger's album Pete, which won a GRAMMY for Best Traditional Folk Album in 1996.)

Though Winter has endured his fair share of ups and downs in the music industry, he says he wouldn't have it any other way. To him, it's been more critical to stay true to his musical vision. He says that music, for which his appreciation grows more profound with each passing year, has been a "magic carpet," allowing him to travel to places he'd otherwise not have gone and to meet people, including his wife, he'd otherwise not have met. The couple has two daughters.

"I can't say our path has been easy," Winter says. "But it's been profoundly gratifying because I've always been able to keep somehow making the music I love, and I didn't have to try to fabricate something that would be more commercial. I've come to appreciate the challenges. You don't grow without challenge, so there's been no shortage of that for me."

New Age Pioneer Laraaji On The Healing Potential Of 'Sun Piano'

Grammys Newsletter

GRAMMYs

Jacob Collier

Photo: Dyan Jong

News

Jacob Collier Decodes The Magic Behind 'Djesse Vol. 3,' Talks Working With Tori Kelly, Daniel Caesar & More

Facebook Twitter Email
The GRAMMY winner dives deep into the latest piece of his ambitious and awe-inspiring quadruple-album puzzle
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Sep 17, 2020 - 6:03 pm

Anyone who knows anything about him, knows: Jacob Collier is on another level. The prodigious British musician, composer and arranger extraordinaire has notched tens of millions of YouTube views and four GRAMMYs with his effortless command of the medium of music. And even though, traditionally, transparent geniuses are hard to come by, Collier shares his heart and mind for music quite openly, leading in-depth workshops and Logic session breakdowns of his songs and his process. Yet, in speaking with him – even for all of the gobsmacking talent and insanely cool theory wizardry – his dominant trait manages to be his reverence for human instincts.

"The thing about when I make music," Collier told GRAMMY.com, "is that a lot of the decisions that may feel quite technical are basically based in feelings. It's based in an emotional decision."

Most recently, Collier has been channeling those decisions into an epic quadruple album, releasing its latest puzzle piece, Djesse Vol. 3, just last month complete with top-notch features from the likes of Tori Kelly, Kiana Ledé, Tank And The Bangas, Daniel Caesar, Jessie Reyez, T-Pain and more. The album shows off not only Collier's approachable, but his remarkable vision for what music can do and how it can connect people across the world, even during a pandemic. Feeling all of this from an artist who just turned 26 years old last month produces a hope we need more than ever right now.

We tapped into Collier's fascinating world, catching him over the phone from his increasingly famous music room in his home in North London to talk about Djesse Vol. 3 and its stunning collaborations, what he's learned during lockdown, his process of sharing his abundant musical knowledge and even what he does to unwind. Enjoy...

A quadruple album is an ambitious undertaking, and I read somewhere you said you're treating it like a big puzzle. How does Djesse Vol. 3 fit into that puzzle for you?

So this whole quadruple album thing was something I dreamed up about three years ago, two or three years ago now, I suppose. The goal was how can I build bridges between all these different musical faculties that I've been listening to and loving for all these years, and get them all to make sense within each other's contexts? I've been an avid listener of all these different kinds of music for so long. I was brought up on Bartok meets Beck meets the Beatles. And then you've got Björk, and you've got Joni Mitchell and you've got Stevie Wonder and Prince and Earth, Wind & Fire. All these styles and different languages and different parts of the world and different histories converged for me as a teenager.

I just became fascinated with the idea of making it all make sense with each other, so combining different elements. I made this album, I suppose, about five years ago called In My Room, which is my first album. I made it in this room I'm currently in, in my home in North London. And that was really the first time I'd ever written songs. It was good fun.

After that album came out and I toured it about, and I really wanted to do something a little more epic. I set about this four album process delegating my musical ideas as they came out into these different rooms, different boxes. So Djesse Vol. 1 is the birth of the whole thing, the gestation of the sound world. And it's very large. It's a big, expensive work. There's an orchestra present, they are choirs present, the acoustic space taken to great heights, that was the space. And I collaborated with the incredible called the Metropole Orchestra on that record. Djesse Vol. 2 is still acoustic, it's still in the real acoustic sounds world, but it's a much smaller space. So more about songwriting and folk music, world music, a little bit of jazz thrown in, and some music from Portugal, music from Mali, Africa, all sorts of things. So that was a smaller acoustic space.

And Djesse Vol. 3 was always the one I was most excited about because it enabled me the space to explore a lot of the negative space type sounds, sounds made in the digital sphere, electronic stuff, which I suppose lends itself to hip-hop and R&B, and you've got soul music in there, and you've got funky music in there. And pop as well. I always wanted to explore those things.

And the fun thing for me was bringing the aesthetics that I've have been creating and I've been fascinated by for the last 20 years and trying to invent these sounds that I loved listening to in my own terms. And then Djesse Vol. 4 it's going to be the culmination of all these different ingredients thus far.

There are so many great collaborations on Djesse Vol. 3. Does your ability to be so self-sufficient and play every instrument yourself help you when you work with someone?

Well, it's a blessing and a curse because on the one hand, when you've done things yourself for a long time I think it's easier to fall into your own habits and to come into any situation with a preconceived notion of how you'd like it to go and how you'd imagine it could go. In my brain... For example, walking into the room with Tori Kelly, it's like, well, I could go many directions with a voice like Tori's, because Tori's voice is like this kind of music acrobatic machine. It can do so many wonderful things, emotive things.

And so in some ways that stuff is not helpful baggage because it just gets in the way of the present moment. And so with Tori, it was one of the first times really in my musical life where I walked into a room, and I discarded all of my previous ideas. I didn't have a song that I'd written for her. I didn't have an idea, a framework for something I wanted her to be a part of. We walked into them cold and we just started jamming. And so that process to me has proven to be really quite fantastic. And actually, sometimes more effective than when I walk into a room feeling like this is the entire song, can you just sing the melody? Which also can work quite well.

I think for me, it's always about trying to make room for somebody else's musical intelligence and not let my own experience of creating stuff just get in the way, because everyone has their own standpoint. And I think the thing I'm most interested in with all these different collaborators is that some of their standpoints are crazily different from mine. Someone like Jesse Reyez or T-Pain, both of whom are on a song on Djesse Vol. 3 called "Count the People." They come from really different times, different generations of music making. And they have very different reaches in terms of who listens to their music and have very different experiences. And they have totally different voices, but for me I was pretty excited by the idea that these two different musical entities could exist within the same breath.

And same goes, for example, on Djesse Vol. 2. There's a song where Steve Vai, the rock guitarist, is playing in harmony with Kathryn Tickell, who's a Northumbrian pipes player from the North of England, and some of the language is quite similar. I love finding these ways of joining these flavors together. So the Daniel Caesar song was another example where I hadn't planned too much of it and we walked into the room, and Daniel's very natural process of coming up with words, lyrics just fell right into the pocket of this groove that I've been working on. We ran with it and that felt really cool.

Wow. What strikes me about your approach to all this is your awareness. You're not short on talent or ideas, but your awareness is really the missing link. In this last six months, where we've all been on lockdown, can you tell us a couple of things that you've discovered or maybe even rediscovered about yourself musically?

Yeah. I think it goes without saying this is a time where a lot of people have gone back to square one or even pre square one. And it's like, "what is a square?" [laughs] And for me, I was so busy with touring and I was so busy with just scampering around the world, doing mad stuff. And if I wasn't touring I was trying to finish something or directing a music video or editing a music video, or trying to keep up with the social stuff or whatever. There's all these different elements. I think when a lot of these things slowed down, the cool thing was we had to take stock of what the hell is going on and actually what's important.

A lot of people that I spoke to, friends and musicians, I think realized that a lot of the stuff that feels really important is not important. And one of those things maybe is rushing and doing things fast and things having to be done now. And if it's not done now, it's going to be too late. It's always urgent. I really think urgency a massive construct. And I think it's been really nice in the last, couple of weeks since Djesse Vol. 3 has come out to remember that actually it's nice to not rush stuff. I finished Djesse Vol. 3 by the end of March, I was ready to go with my 10-week tour, which got thrown out the window when the pandemic hit. And I then spent four months making the album just so much better than it would have been otherwise. It's so much deeper and so much more sonically satisfying.

I'm really grateful for the time, but honestly, I haven't really stopped in quarantine because I've been challenging myself to all these different kinds of things. I mean I've been teaching master classes from home. I performed on TED. I did a Tiny Desk from home. I made a video for Jimmy Kimmel Live. I made a video for Jools Holland in the UK. I made a video for Stephen Colbert. And on top of that, I was mixing my album and producing that. I was directing the videos and I was editing the videos and all this stuff too.

I think for me, it's been a really interesting period of time. Without being able to actually be with people, how do you get stuff done that's collaborative at all? And one fun solution I found is best explained through a song on Djesse Vol. 3 called "In Too Deep," which featured Kiana Ledé. I actually mailed Kiana a mic and I installed this program called Source Connect on her computer, which meant that I could move her mouse around on her laptop. So far as to install Logic Pro. I taught her how to put the mic in and stuff, and she was super brilliant at that. She sang her tracks and I could hear what she was singing in real time, and printed the tracks into her computer. And then I sent those tracks to myself at the Dropbox here. I continued mixing my song.

That was a really amazing moment where you think actually collaboration is completely enabled by the tech that is existing, but you have to be courageous enough to follow these things through and to be determined to find solutions to things that might feel weird. I think I've enjoyed being a bit of a problem solver in the last six months or so.

You mentioned the workshops. There's so much of what many people would call genius in your process, but there's also so much transparency. Can you talk about what the process means to you versus the result?

Yeah, it's funny because finishing stuff was something I was really bad at. For the whole of my teenage years I was really bad at finishing things. I wanted to get good at it. So the best way to get good at it was just to practice it. So I practiced finishing stuff. The four-album project was like, this is going to make me shed finishing stuff. I'm going to have to get good at this because otherwise I'm going to suck. The fun thing I think for me is learning how to step away from your ideas when you can. But the last year, or four or five months or so, I rediscovered the joys of going right to the very deepest corners of your process having officially finished the song. It's like, how do you get the song to spring off the page, as it were, and feel alive?

A lot of the purpose of doing that is, for me, even more interesting than what some of it ends up sounding like… And also, I love explaining it because I think by explaining it to others, I explain it to myself, and I've realized the connections that maybe I don't realize just by sitting and doing it all day long.

I fell in love with that process a couple of years ago. And I've since really enjoyed just taking apart my Logic session. So I did one for this track called "All I Need," and I did one for "Sleeping On My Dreams." And in the past I did one for "Moon River," which was the arrangement that won a GRAMMY, I guess earlier this year, which is weird that things are still in this year. Also, "All Night Long."

It was fun just to think about, how do I present this as something that people can maybe understand at a broken down level? The thing about when I make music and how it feels to me is that a lot of the decisions that may feel quite technical are basically based in feelings, it's based in an emotional decision. I want gravity to come here or I want it to feel like you're twisting here, or deepening here, or some unconscious awareness that a breath will lead to another breath, or whatever. And these things I think, they're fun to take apart and think about in active terms.

Can you give us any clue on maybe what's to come for Djesse Vol. 4?

Djesse Vol. 4 is something I've almost deliberately not planned too much. But one thing I will say for sure is that I think it's going to be very centralized around the human voice. It's my favorite instrument of all instruments, my voice. I started as a singer, really. I started singing all the instruments before I could even play instruments, like the piano or the bass or the guitar. I was singing all those parts. I want to come back to my roots in that way. I want to do that, but obviously with human voice there's so many directions you can go.

One idea I have for the album, that is if I can go on tour within the next two years so I really hope I can, is to begin to use some of my audiences as instruments even more than I have been. In the last year or so I've been... When I was on the road last year I really enjoyed the concept of the audience singing harmony. I would split my audience into three or four or five parts and get them singing these notes, and we'd improvise these chords. So up and down arrows spontaneously dictates it to different parts of the room and it would be this ever changing chords, omnichords. It really inspired me to think about the voices.

I think maybe somewhere between the audiences of my live shows and the choirs that I love so much around the world and have built relationships with, and also some of my favorite musicians and artists in the world, who I guess I can't reveal too much of right now, but there was some extraordinary singers, vocalists, and people who I've been in touch with for a long, long time who are going to be involved in Djesse Vol. 4. I think it's really a celebration of all these different languages. Because for me, I think at this point with Vol. 1, 2 and 3, I've covered a fair few genres, but I think that it's about bringing it home to where it all started for me, which is the voice, and is the voices of the world.

And I think it's such an important time for people to use their voices in so many ways, right? As people and politics in the world and musically, I think a lot of people feel like their voice sometimes is not important, or that it's difficult to use their voice or raise their voice in certain situations. But I think for me it's like the keys to the castle. If you're able to sing, if you're able to speak, and you're able to be honest within that space, it feels like a really good starting point for the whole world of expression. And to me, I think if there's one thing Djesse Vol. 4, it's definitely intended to be, right now, it's to celebrate that, celebrate the voices that make us human.

That's beautiful, Jacob. It's high concept, but it's also rooted in basic human connection... I know that it's a tough time to be planning a tour, but maybe you could tell us a little bit about what you have in mind for the next time you hit the road?

Yeah, so this is a whole new idea that I was talking to this amazing company called Lyte about recently. We've unveiled this thing, which is kind of a new concept, but it makes sense to me. The idea is, I'm saying I'm going to go to these 91 cities, minimum of 91 cities, at some point in the coming years, and fans can RSVP to these gigs. They can basically reserve their place on the wait list for tickets. So no venue are announced, there's no dates announced because nobody knows when it's going even to be possible, but the moment that things are possible the gigs will go on sale and the people who've reserved tickets will get their tickets.

The coolest thing to me as an artist is that, that means whenever I do go on tour that the fans can dictate the sizes of the venues that we play, which is actually a foreign concept, because normally as a musician, you say, "Oh, I'm going to go play a gig out at the Wiltern and I just hope it sells out. But it might not. Or maybe it will be way too small and there'll be way more people, but we all got to squeeze it in. And it's difficult to move other gigs around on the tour because they're all confirm." So the cool thing now is that however many tickets we reserved in these markets over the next year or so, even if we're not on the road, we can still be planning and thinking and building relationships with venues and thinking how does it make sense to route this and stuff? So, yeah, obviously the exciting thing is the people can go on jacobcollier.com and they can reserve tickets to those gigs, even though we don't know when they're going to happen, there's still something that I can look forward to.

Definitely. Ok, last question. What are some of your interests outside of music?

Good question. Right before you called for this interview I was really deep on YouTube watching videos about Fourier transform and quantum mechanics, which actually is not something I'd normally do just to chill out. I like going deep on some of the concepts that make up our universe. That makes me happy and quite excited. And on a completely different axis, I also enjoy a good game of badminton.

Where Songwriting Meets Innovation: Cliff Goldmacher Puts His Work & Wisdom Into Words

Grammys Newsletter