Bob Seymour With; Andy Laverne

Oh. Yeah oh yeah we do do the do and have act like we're talking afterward I guess. Who won. Well any Laverne. I hardly know where to start with a long and prolific career that you've had but we're awfully glad you came to Tampa to the USF Monday night jazz series. As we speak the concert was last night and really turned out a good crowd and a very enthusiastic crowd. It was a great guy. It was a good good crowd and it's great to be here. I'm just sorry I have to leave so soon. Yeah lots of reasons and the weather is certainly among them. Yeah right. We'll try to hit a few high points in your very prolific career. But with the current starting right now with the current things are your concert here in Tampa was kind of a

celebration of a new label that your one of the artists involved with Clive a bop records. That's right. And brought together a lot of artists including several associated with the USF jazz program. Your projects on you have a couple of I have two that are out presently and one that's coming out shortly. So it will be a total of three. All right you know I hope that is a long lasting relationship as do I and it'll bring you down to the nice weather today. Yeah some more recording would be nice. Process of illumination when you announced the song in concert I thought you said elimination right. But illumination was a great song in concert and as the title of one of those you in looking at your titles I've always liked songwriters who have wordplay whether it's called porter or Mose Allison and you seem to like that kind of thing in your titles. I do I do. As a matter fact to me the title is almost as important as as the piece itself and sometimes

a title can spur a piece of music for me. So I might hear a phrase that I really like you know a word phrase I can maybe write something around that. You know and it's happened several times usually comes up just in conversations and actually process of elimination came up in a conversation that I was having with Bill Shore lap. Oh and we were on our way to a festival out in Washington State of Washington at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Fest. This was a couple years ago and we were riding in a car together and Bill said yeah it's just you know we were having a conversation he would say something about it's just a process of elimination I mean elimination. And I said wait a minute man would you just say I said I'm going to use that for a title and that's how they came back. So he gets a credit he does get a credit for that. Others on the same CD alone to gather ELO am. And I like the the word anticipate mint. Yeah that's one of my favorites also it's a.

Kind of sums up my attitude in life sometimes not all the time but sometimes and disappointment. Besides wordplay though you have some titles in your body of work and a couple of that you did in concert here that also kind of make me want to ask you about music with a message. One new piece called tsunami right. Yeah that obviously came as a result of this latest tsunami in the Indian Ocean and it's you know I can't say that it's necessarily a tribute or I don't know what it is it just you know it's something that moved me so much that I just had it. I can't express it verbally so that's why I wrote the piece and hopefully you know people that hear it will get something out of it as well and just I guess in terms of reflecting on the disaster and just humanity in general. It really moved the people who were there I think I would imagine that's too new to have been recorded. Yes. Yes. One that you did another one that makes me think the same kind of way

is Crystal Night. Well that. As I announced last night I said well you can you know take this title or interpret it whatever way you want but obviously the most obvious would be in relationship to the Holocaust and since it was just the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz the liberation of Auschwitz just felt inspired once again to write up something about that whole horrible event. And I actually have it on the new CD that's coming out on KLOV which is entitled Peace of mind. There's a piece on there called Shoah which is the Hebrew word for Holocaust so I mean I don't you know necessarily like to focus just on dark events and humanity and disasters but some things I think you know I need to express some other way you know musically anyway. It it do but you do find yourself

inspired by events around you expressing things musically that were music with a message. Right. And you know that that mixed with the more frivolous wordplay. I think you know maybe balances out my music and the message and to some degree anyway. Speaking of that same new CD the one titled process of illumination there's one vocal by one of our old favorites are her new favorites the last decade or so Kevin mahogany and what an interesting choice a song called Shanaya. And it turns out it is about the famous. That's right it is and you know I had this whole grand scheme I was going to write this piece for should I should hear it fall in love with me but then I realized wait a minute Kevin mahogany is singing it she's going to fall in love with him. Kind of backfired on me but now it was inspired by her. Her talents you know her writing ability I think is fantastic and I'm I'm not a big country music fan. I never have been and I wouldn't necessarily call her music country at this point it's more you know pop and there's a lot of influences to it but

her music is so well crafted. And I really admire that. And you know I admire her as well so I was just inspired to write when I discovered her for myself which was a couple years ago I guess I saw one of the special she had on TV. I really like the music and I like to presentation everything so I started just listening to should I and then what I found was that I couldn't go back and listen to train and Bill and miles and Herbie and Keith because it sounded so frenetic to me and I was I got. Of sidetracked by this and I said I gotta get you know away from listening to should I because I got to have a career in music I'm not a country player so I gotta somehow get back in the jazz and the way I found back into it was by writing this tune. That was kind of influenced by her music school a little more simple and yeah it's not really a pop tune but it's got some of the sensibilities to it it's more melodic maybe you know. And you wrote the music I wrote the music and Emily bigger wrote the

lyrics She's a great vocalist who lives in New York who I had been working with Dhaka for the past six years on and off and she was the backup vocalist and she one day on the gig with Neil she heard me just playing at a soundcheck she heard me playing and I would say that that's really pretty. So I told her what it was she said what does it have lyrics as a no. So she volunteered to write some lyrics which I'm really happy about. Oh so the music predated any idea of their being. Yes. Rick So you know the song but you've got Kevin mahogany to sing it and the band on this releases Miami saxophonist GARY CAMPBELL And the favorites here a newish wonder based Danny Gottlieb the drummer with whom you go way back. Yes and then his wife Beth the pro. That's right that's right you know Danny and I have known each other for while we were just talking about this yesterday. When we first met when I was on a Woody Herman gig I was playing electric piano in that gig and he came he was still a student at that time what your we it's probably in the early 70s you know like 73 or something like

that. And it was a gig at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. Frank Sinatra and Bill Evans happened to be in the audience that night. I don't know why. You know I didn't know either one of them was big what are your main fans but in any case they were both there and Danny was there he was there to listen to it so he was playing drums at the time. So that's where I'm going to listen to you. That's that's where Danny and I met. Actually it struck me last night in the when you were in concert that you and Danny just knowing from recordings do you go back quite a way as we do. That is a long ways away. Yes yes. The other new CD on the cover of bop records is an interesting collaboration piano organ and drums. Your old friend Danny Gottlieb is a drummer and Gary verse a son organ Who is he turning up more and more on recording he is.

He's he's an extraordinary talent and I first heard him maybe that a year and a half or so ago and I heard him on the radio in New York and Biggio which is another fine station or that we all appreciate in the jazz world. And he was playing with Ingrid Jensen who's a trumpet player who I like a lot and we played together actually I had a little band with her. This was several years ago and then when I heard this CD as a man who's an organ player you know CD was a big favor to her yeah. And it really caught my ear you know and I've. So I found out about Gary through that CD initially and then I was and I was thinking to myself you know thinking about maybe doing another recording project and just messing around with some ideas and I thought you know I should call Ingrid and you know maybe resurrect that quartet that we had. So I tried her number and it had been a couple years since I had spoken to her sir. She had moved I didn't have her number. So then I was trying to get Ingrid's number and John Abercrombie's one of my best friends also had just played with Gary versus ace. Gary was

subbing for Dan wall in John's organ trio. And I remember John saying man you got to hear this guy Gary versus any great you would dig him you know because John knows what I like and so I called John and I asked him for Gary's numbers so that I could get Ingrid's number and then I was I run a lot and I was out of one of my runs one day and I do a lot of brainstorming when I'm running I find I can. That's one time I can think clearly. Usually when sitting down I can't remember anything. But when I'm running I'm I'm thinking pretty clearly so I thought yeah I got to call this guy Gary overseas. And then I thought wait a minute. What about. Piano and organ because you know going back to the early Don. Yeah but going back to the Neil Sedaka gig for a minute there was a another keyboard player on that gig. Eric by Cayless who's a really fine pop player and he plays Hammond B3 in that group and so there was a lot of times where he and I were

playing you know I was playing Husak and I was playing Hammond B-3. I love the sound of that. The combination of those two and you know you find that combination in in pop bands and blues bands but you never hear that in a jazz band I mean I've never heard it in a jazz man. So I just got this idea. That's how it came about and then I called Gary and he was familiar with me I guess he had heard my work or whatever as a matter of fact he he was out at that Lionel Hampton Jazz Fest and oh yeah that very one with Bill Charlotte and I had been fortunate enough at that festival to play trio with Alvin Jones. And Gary was in the audience at that time and he remembered that so we kind of hit it off you know musically and personally and that's how the group alright formed and the first time we played it was just it was fantastic it was the most fun I've ever had in a group that I formed ever. Is that right yeah. I just love this group. It's Danny gully the drummer with Gary verses on organ and the pianist Andy Laverne if we were to listen to one song.

As a favorite of yours from this funny trio disc what. Well I have to go with epiphany because that kind of encapsulates the whole concept of the group and also That's what I had when I thought of this. It was an epiphany literally. All right so let's go back in time. You had some great collaboration early on in your career when you were college age I guess you joined the Woody Herman band for some time. Yes. And then Stan Getz for several memorable years. And along the way Bill Evans was an influence of course on every pianist of your generation and every generation since But you studied privately with Bill. Yeah I was very fortunate in that regard. I had been going down to hear Bill this is probably one in my late teens. At the Village Vanguard and he was there you know when he was there he would be there for two weeks

and I would go down every night and. And then one night I was there and he was on a break and he set a table right next to me and I just overheard him saying to somebody that you know I just moved into this apartment in the Bronx you know and he told them where the location was. So four blocks away from where I live is that right. I got to say something you know I mean I was petrified because I absolutely idolized in particular at that point I mean I wasn't even sure if he was a human being or a superhuman You know I mean I just I couldn't get over it so I went up to him somehow mustered up the courage to talk to me was very friendly and very nice and and that's how we hooked up initially and I went over you know for several lessons at his place and then we became friends as a result of it and you know throughout the years that followed that we kept in touch. And then when I was with Stan Getz. We did a lot of touring as you know opposite bill like the bill Trio would open for stand quartet or you know so we did a lot traveling together particularly in Europe and a lot of hanging out. And

it was really great I mean I really got a lot from that. And ironically I ended up doing Bill's last gig for him at a club and called Fat Tuesdays in New York. The gig was from Tuesday to Sunday gig. Bill did the gig for a Tuesday and Wednesday and then he got ill and I got a call to come in and sub for him with his trio. Mark Johnson and Joel barber at that time. Yeah. And I did Thursday through Sunday which was really a lot of fun and it was really great I didn't know what I was getting myself into there. I mean I wasn't going in to try to sound like Bill or play his repertoire or anything but I just went in and you know played my stuff with those guys and we hit it off as a trio as well. And the audience was very receptive. I mean nobody left you know the place was packed every night and so it was it was really a lot of fun but then it took a terrible turn on Monday was the day that bill passed away that Monday September 15th.

So he took his final nights as a sub that's really quite an honor and it went to you who had befriended him. Thanks to that fortuitous night at the village That's right that's where that all started. And you obviously had come to know those the players and the trio very well. Yeah. As a matter of fact as a result of that gig we ended up doing several recording projects together. We did a trio recording and we did a couple of Quartet recordings one with Tom Harrell and one with Jerry Bergonzi the saxophone player. So this was for a small independent label at that time I have no idea where where those recordings reside now I mean I don't think they ever made it to CD they were just you know vinyl is that right reel to reel tape. But they were nice projects but. Well you do have more than 50. To your credit you as a leader. You know I tell you and innumerable of course side projects and sideman appearances. Another guy who I know has been influential in your careers. Chick Corea very much so. You know I went through my bill period and I

went through my chick period you know and they both have stayed with me quite a bit but you know chick is definitely one of my major major influences and I mean I have an amazingly high regard for him as a person and as a as a player and we've become friendly too as a result of the Stan Getz gig as a matter of fact I met chick when I was playing with Stan and we were playing in Telluride at a festival there. And Chick was playing there with Gary Burton that same year. And when we were on with stand chick and Gary were backstage and that's when I met chick you know after our set and he was very complimentary and and we had the commonality of both playing with Stan so we had something to talk about. You know aside from just even piano or music and you know playing with Stan probably was a rose that you never want to tell anybody else. That's right there are several books at this point you can read and read up on the topic for yourself but I do miss Stan and I love him as well but he was quite a complex personality to say the

least. Well it was the Zoot Sims who had the famous line of eyes but he was a nice bunch of guys. That's right. Are you the one disc that comes to mind you've done a lot of things with the chicks. Songs are influences but one just dedicated to Chicks music and for the most part songs I think that had not been read of his that are NOT That's right. Chick we had talked about you know trying to do something a project or something I forget how it came up exactly but what ended up happening was chick sent me a bunch of music like lead sheets of tunes that he hadn't recorded you know on his own projects and. And then he just said you know do whatever you want with them arrange the marriage if you want to change if you want to be harmonised you know. So I did you know a few little things here and there and then the chick and I had also shortly before that recorded some two piano stuff at his Mad Hatters studios in Los Angeles. So we ended up using part of that as well and that was just extemporaneous

improvisation and there's really some amazing moments on that I think. Not just a gifted pianist and composer but quite an artistic spirit. He is and I have to say that I think he's a genius I mean you know when he sent me there was another. Project that I did for Concord Records and went live it made that call her and I asked Chick if there was anything of his that I could record and he wrote this. This piece is called impression for piano and sent it to me and when I read through it I said you know this guy's a genius. I mean it's just it's gorgeous. You know we probably ought to be looking at the clock I suppose I could do another hour. But I'm. But it just occurs to me that I will make sure that you get on the road before 5:00 if you should be on the road but by building by 10

til and it'll make 20 minutes worth of difference between here and the airport because at 5:00 it's a traffic jam get mouthed off the campus. Are you still in addition to a busy performing career and a lot of recording. Are you still involved regularly in education. Yes I am I and the jazz piano instructor at the Heart School of Music at the University of Hartford. That's the program that Jackie McLean runs and if he's still there he's still there yes. Steve Davis who's the trombone player you know in origin which expand is there there's a lot of good players and I see a number of good players associated with that school and there's Jimmy Green. I'm sure you're familiar with him is a graduate one of the top graduates you know in recent years from from heart. He's a Jackie protege. Sure you know. So are you regularly on faculty there. Yes and I also do a lot of private teaching as well and I have a website that it's Andy Laverne dot com But if anybody's interested in starting with me check out the Web site

because there's all sorts of options available now I'm even giving lessons or video conferencing lessons on the Internet it's it works out great. It's like you're there in person except both people are at their own houses with their own pianos or whatever instrument. Is that right. It really works out well. You know in real time in real time yeah. Wow. What's the secret of the MTs I see that's one of your last or latest projects. Yes. It's a neighbor saw play along. It's a volume of some of my recent compositions as a matter of fact most of the compositions from the CD process of illumination are on that play along that that play along. And the secret of the ending is actually we had another title originally it was called a Cole Porter flat which is another play on words. Actually Linaria a good friend of mine had heard it and she said I love this tune but I hate that title you know. Is there anything you can do with that title I said. Len you know I'm not going to change the title. And then I thought about it I said you know maybe she's right maybe the title doesn't fit this scene.

And we were recording it one day for another session and John Pettit Tucci was was the bass player on the session and he said man you know what's the secret of the end you know is it. And I said wait a minute John that that is a good title I think that would fit better so I retitled it. So you go to the MTs and then that that tune is in that collection the Ebersol play along so we you know we decided to call the whole thing secret to the end. Well I hope that keeps you busy and that you keep coming to Florida to play with your newfound musical acquaintances like Mark new ish wonder. Yes I do others and old friends like a Floridian Denny Gottlieb. Absolutely. I look forward to coming back very soon. All right. Thanks. Thank you both. The only fun you ever remember if you're thinking that out. If you check out the show and

any Louise made her do it. I do it record you know that I don't think you just. Do that you want to act like we're talking afterward I guess. Cool. Well any Laverne I hardly know where to start with a long and prolific career that you've had but. Well any Laverne.