Podcast

The first time I heard Peter Bernstein was on “The Intimacy Of The Blues”, the first Larry Goldings Trio album that my parents used to listen to and I really liked that album. When I got more into to buying my own records I bought “Heart’s Content”  – I really lived with that album for a while, listening to but often times, also playing along with it quite a lot. I became in awe of Peter’s sound and his extraordinary talent for melody.  Another important record during this time was “Sweet Sience” by the Larry Goldings Trio. Among my favorite albums of Peter are “Monk”, “Solo Guitar, Live at Smalls”, “Heart’s Content” and “Earth Tones” and of course all the other albums with the Goldings Bernstein Stewart trio.

Since I started this interview series I got to talk to his Peter’s longtime musical partners Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart and I’m happy to finally include Peter himself in this series of interviews now. We talk about melodic lines, his teacher Ted Dunbar, playing with Sonny Rollins, guitar keys & open strings, Monk’s music, the lesson with Keith Jarrett, the Goldings Bernstein Stewart trio and much more. Hope you enjoy!

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When I first heard the Dirty Projectors some time in 2012 I was blown away. (I think it was either “Two Doves” from the “Bitte Orca” record or “Maybe That Was It” from “Swing Lo Magellan”… don’t remember it exactly). I fell in love with this music right away.  The creativity and the searching quality of Dave Longstreth’s songwriting and production style simply amazed me. Also the way he leads the band was a big inspiration for me. Actually, it feels strange to single out specific things that I admire about him and this music, it’s the whole package… !

I then made an effort to check out as many Dirty Projectors records (and bootlegs) as I could.  Among my favorite albums are “Mount Wittenberg Orca” “Bitte Orca” & “Swing Lo Magellan”. I remember a tour through South America with my trio where I exclusively listened to Dirty Projectors (and Maria Callas singing Puccini’s “Tosca”!) for the whole tour. I love this band and I keep finding new things in those recordings all the time.

My composition “Longstreth Blues” (as heard on my album “GLOW II“) is my tribute to his music. In it I tried to channel a couple of things I learned through listening to Dirty Projectors.

I went to Berlin to see them live in August of 2018 and I got the opportunity to interview Dave Longstreth in the afternoon before the concert. I was super excited to talk to him and ask him a few questions. Hope you enjoy our conversation!

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The first time I heard Drew Gress was on Fred Hersch’s beautiful trio album “Live at the Village Vanguard”. I was immediately drawn to his big sound. but also I was in awe of how lyrical he could be in one moment and how burning and risk-taking he would be in another moment.

Drew was also on a lot of other records that were very inspiring to me, for example all the other records with Fred Hersch, the Claudia Quintet albums, his own records, Ben Monder’s “Flux”, Antonio Farao’s “Thorn”, Tony Malaby’s “Adobe”, the Marc Copland albums, The Bill Carrothers albums, John Surman’s “Brewster’s Rooster”, “Within A Song” by John Abercrombie and many more…

I’ve learned a lot from listening to him on these records, from seeing him live on stage and also from this amazing workshop video that I encourage everybody to check out!

To me, Drew is one of the most eclectic musicians who always has something meaningful and deep to contribute to any musical situation, he’s a real hero of mine and it was a pleasure to talk to him. Hope you enjoy!

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