Bob Seymour With; Tierney Sutton

Yeah I did that without cutting you off. I don't do this that often. That's beautiful. Let's see how's the weather in Boston. It's a drab dreary and cold. Well you'll enjoy coming to Florida. I will enjoy coming to Florida. It's about time for us to come to Florida. It is a year overdue it's been it was the opera house show which must be two or three years ago or more. Yeah. And this time you're in the bigger room a few blocks away. Well it could and we were really looking forward to it. Do you know Carol well Xmen. Yes of course. The guy some of the guys in the band have recorded with her and yeah we all know her. OK good. That was great. Everybody will really enjoy her I'm sure. I was glad to see that double bill come up and an afternoon show too which is kind of nice. Yeah. And then you're headed over to the east coast I think from there. I know them where we then were headed back home for a minute and we go to Florida. The folks in Florida.

Yeah yeah let's see I don't remember what the order is where we were in their authority to go to and you better OK. Yeah ever which is first. I think it's here first and then over to right. Jupiter and then. Right. Welcome. Regulations on the early success of the new release is this is this number seven. Yeah it is actually yeah. Number seven. That's correct. It's been really nicely received everywhere. It's a record that really rewards repeated listening I think and keeps bringing people back and will as they get to know on the other side is the two are going well are you. I guess I should ask if the word I should use I guess is if you're happy to be on the road. Beartooth it's been going really well we've been selling out

most places that we've been playing here in New England which we're happy about is the way. They've not been cooperating with us too much. People have had to really make that extra effort to come here. But we've been having a great time. The Sunday show in Sarasota your return visit to Sarasota is in tandem with Carol wells when the pianist and singer and Tierney Sutton band and on the strength of this brand new release on the other side. It's not your force first time doing something with the theme in mind on a disc but maybe the most in-depth look and just a look at the the title is sort of a mix that no secret. Some of the songs that we've been enjoying from two versions each of good happy and Happy Days Are Here Again too. Glad to be and happy happy talk. I want to be happy and. But you really make us hear these songs in a whole different way sometimes actually doing them in different ways. With the two songs that are

repeated what was the what led to your concept of doing these songs in this way. Well I wasn't really attached to how we would do this song because our prophet. This is pretty much collaborative arranging process that we've been doing for 14 years now. In this case I knew that there was going to be some interesting meat in these very optimistic songs from The Great American Songbook and I knew that there were some undercurrents that if anybody could get to it would be the band. So you know I came in with the idea that it would be interesting if we if we took some very well-known songs and did two different arrangements of them just to sort of show people you know what what our process is like and that we we approach things. Sometimes in very different ways even with the same serial. And then as ever we look at the material we realize that the whole idea of

happiness was it was a pretty rich one and had a lot of layers and implications. And you mine the layers and implications in real interesting ways. Well let's get right into what you knew you would bring up and that is the collaborative process. The tour and the recording are billed as the Tierney Sutton band and of course a couple of years back it was the CD titled I'm with the band which brought a smile to anybody who's ever been a hanger on or stuck in the past the doorman. But you really are. With the band and as you say have been with these guys for many years and it is a lot more than a catchphrase you really see it that way too. Yeah well I mean it legally is that way. You know for the last several years we've been incorporated. They're my partners not just on stage for the day but really.

Professionally personally legally financially in every way. So when people hear or hear our music it's it's OUR you think in every sense of the word. I was reading a review this week of the new release a very glowing positive review but it referred to the backup band being impressive and I thought Tierney probably held her eyes at that phrase Oh you bet. It's certainly not an appropriate way to look at it. But that's the tradition and people we spend a lot of time trying to express things differently because it's hard for people to understand that it's different. Unless they've seen us live in which case they understand right away. What's the story with two bass players. Well we we have two bass players in the band we usually are on the road with just wanted to time but we have done some some things with both of them and that's really wonderful

they both bring different ideas and they're both full on you know members of the band. We started 14 years ago with Ray Henry but the other guys in the band had worked with Kevin X even before that and very early on Kevin would come and do traveling with us sometimes and started sticking his nose into the business too. So it's been a wonderful collaboration. One of the songs that you make us here in a new way is one that has occasionally done by jazz performers but not thought of in that context one written by the governor of Louisiana if I recall right years ago. You are my sunshine. Has that been something. Is that something you've done in Europe or TAR before or a recent thing for this record. It was developed for this record and I think it's my favorite thing on the record just because it's so expressable. I mean people people know the song.

And you know the arrangements come about in a lot of different ways. This one is the first idea came from me but that's deceptive because they you know I bring in a little simple idea about starting on the two minor chord and having a few very simple ostinato to this band. And then what Christian Jacob is going to do harmonically with a simple idea like that and what Ray Brinker is going to do rhythmically and what Trey Henry and Kevin X are going to do. I mean it's just it's there's there's really no comparison you know to my little sketch that I brought to them and what it afterwards becomes. I'm going to drop in right there. I think you just introduced that song. And if I can clear my throat I'll be all right. I think the first person that made me realize that you are my

sunshine could be done by somebody who wasn't in the country western world was Mose Allison a lot of years ago who's always kept that in his repertoire and always introduces it as written by the governor of Louisiana. Sheila Jordan did a version of it years ago with George ruffle. I think in like 1970 or something along time ago maybe even in the 60s it's really beautiful and I hadn't heard it until after we made this recording that a friend of mine pointed out to me and it's really beautiful and dark and brilliant and wonderful. I have to go find that one yeah. You mentioned the. Contribution on that song and really throughout all of your work with the pianist Kristian Jacob and for that matter he made a really terrific disc a year or so back. You did a couple of songs on when he did his Julie Stein tribute. Right right yes me to sing a few songs on Stein and mine is a tribute to the work of

Julie Stein and its recent recording contradictions. Does a beautiful work with the compositions of Michel Peter Gianni I'm sure you guys have that one too but he's he's forced. I was struck by the dedication of your desk to your late mother and to his father in law is that right as do I recall right that Maynard Ferguson is questioning his father in law right and Maynard passed just about a week before we went into the studio to record this CD. We almost put it off we called Christian and wilder and said listen if you want to you still want to do this. I mean what do you think. And Christian said no it's ok it's alright we can do it. And so we did it. But all the guys in the band had been with Maynard and Maynard came out to hear us perform in Santa Barbara last year. He had a huge influence emotionally and the interesting thing is to do a record based about

happiness because Maynard was a very happy person. He exuded a definite happiness a spiritual kind of joy about him and he was an example of that to everybody in the band he was a really spiritual guide too wasn't it. Yeah yeah. His memorial was quite wonder and it was at the retreat center of his spiritual community. And the guys in his band have talked about going to India and seeing Xibalba and and being around. I mean your spiritual community and it was a it was a big part of his life. As we speak of Christian Jacob Menards son in law and your close friend and pianist for so many years let's hear the duet. This is quite an arrangement of the happy talk with just the vocal and piano.

Oh. How did that is that something that just evolved with the two of you. Yes absolutely we didn't think about that we just popped that off. Christian is such a genius and I don't use that word loosely. His brain is is at such a level in his artistry and his technique are at such a high level that if you're going to do a song in C major you should just do it as fast as humanly possible. And force them into some kind of corner so he has a little bit of a challenge. So we didn't really we didn't rehearse that much or even really think about it much. It was a song I first picked up from. Of course Nancy Wilson in Cannonball Adderly and I had kind of avoided recording it partly because of that because I was so influenced by Nancy's wonderful recording of it. But we figured if we changed the instrumentation in tempo and all the rest of it that we could have.

I think you made it your own. Happy talk. As a parent that acclaimed one of the favorite things of my own that you've ever done was a song associated with somebody else. Always that I think Christina has to share ownership of something cool which I heard one of our announcers play just a night or two ago. But is that something that's still in the repertoire. It definitely is because people are very attached to it. Just last night in Boston we had people shouting it from the audience and we ended up doing it as an encore. It's definitely it's not going anywhere. There are certain things for each of the records that have amazing staying power and that's definitely one of them. It's a great song and I was able to meet Billy Byers who wrote the song and got his if you like approval so that that's good in June. You know you've been gone for a while so I guess someone needs to do it. And. I'm happy to be doing

wrong. That's great. Keep it in circulation that's that's great that you met the writer and sort of got the imprimatur for him in that way too. Yeah yeah. Your performance of that last time in Sarasota at the opera houses was just is indelible to me. That's wonderful thank you. And let's get let's talk for a minute about the guest artist Besides you're the guys who are always with you Jack Sheldon somebody you've worked with a time or two before on your earlier recordings. And while some of this new release is a little on the mood he has a couple of songs or even been described as dirge like when Jack Sheldon enters the room that changes and he and his couple of tracks one one where he plays trumpet and one where he adds his vocal part really brings some some fun to the proceedings.

Yeah definitely. I want to be happy. Is it completely different now for something completely different. And you know that arrangement came from our drummer Ray Brinker. So you'll notice the many templates. It happened in that temple and meter shifts that occur. And it was only fair to have Jack I guess because I stole the band from Jack. I first heard these guys is that right with Jack. Yeah so I you know use any just such a gloriously beautiful trumpet player he is and always fun to hear his singing and in this case a little talking to you. Imagine that this was pretty spontaneous and fun in the studio the way this came together. Oh yeah. You know jack shit you gotta have his shtick. We allowed him a little stick. And kept it in the record right now. It is the is the live concert

pretty much follow the concept of the new release on the other side in the way that you present it. Well the thing is that we do a different set of music every time we play. So when we do our concerts in Florida will well figure out what the what the room sounds like what the piano sounds like what the what the fountain is like if there's anybody coming to the show that we know we have attachment to a given song and then we craft that based on that. There certainly will be some material from the new releases but we don't know which songs are exactly how they'll be and how they'll be programmed because it it really depends. Well that's great to hear. Even with a kind of concept album so often artists will start with Track want to go to track 16 but this is jazz and spontaneity has always been a big part of what you do. Yeah absolutely. Let's hear the the way you always start that again you know. You open with

get happy done as nobody expects to hear it but near the near the end of the disc the way version some great solos in this treatment too. And get happy I guess really is the closest thing to a title song with a line where the title comes from isn't it. Yeah yeah. On the other side is a phrase from the lyric get happy and you get five points for actually noticing that. And we debated for a long time about the title of the record because we could have gone a lot of different ways but we figured on the other side was was the most descriptive of what the record was about. In that you are looking at different angles of happiness and as someone pointed out you don't get it and you don't get to heaven without being happy first.

Well gosh is that true. You don't get to heaven without being I've got to think about that one. That's pretty deep. Somebody was putting words in your mouth I don't know yet and I don't think that I would say that just hearing it makes me a little mad. So I think a lot of people are not very healthy happy and they're getting into heaven as far as I can tell. So I don't know I think happiness is an odd business. And the way we look at it is it's strange and there's happiness and it's often used synonymously with things that aren't the same. You know there's joy there's desire There's lust there's you know contentment and then there's the average you know I mean you know. Yeah. You didn't realize I was going to get all profound here but. Well what do you do. Well no it's a record that it kind of invites that with it.

That's kind of why it really bears repeated listing not just the arrangements but the whole the approach to the concept of happiness that all these songs and these treatments bring up the one that I think we people will keep finding new facets in these arrangements and. And while you certainly do not play I'm I'll tell you that. All right. And it's a perfect way to end the release. I think after repeating two of the songs in very different versions a good happy and Happy Days Are Here Again with that. It's such a poignant song written by one of our greatest comics that the beautiful version of smile. Well I really didn't feel right about ending the record on this barn burning high note you know kind of saying it was a logical way to end the record but then I thought that's not what I want to say.

It's not all good. I think in the end you know there's still an ambivalence. No matter how far you get into thinking about happiness there's still a melancholy and an ambivalence and I think smile be. To that I had wondered about that because you could very well have ended with that just punchy version of Get Happy. And there's actually a pretty good space between that track and the closer smile and the good which is on purpose. I suspected that it must be right and that's a close that on that very poignant note instead of going out with a bang. Yeah I just didn't feel right. You know about going out all happy skippy happy that wasn't OK with me. Anybody that knows me would know that that would be OK. But. Well to me this is a disc you'll be getting to know for some time and we've been

looking forward to for a while. Really appreciate your comments on the Tierney Sutton band. And I know you'll have a good time swinging through Florida in February and the Sunday afternoon concert at the event ways little and I know a lot of fans and friends in this part of Florida are looking forward to hearing the band. Well we're really looking forward to being there and it's specially nice to talk to you because you were one of my first friends in jazz radio. Long time ago. Well thanks for taking the time to do this. My pleasure. That was a long time ago wasn't it. How is your wife. We're both ready to die now about at the end. Well it hasn't been that long. We'll enjoy a couple days off and I sure appreciate your taking some time now. I'll edit a little of the so I sound as smart as you do. And I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't worry about it. All right. Well terrific help in a couple of events.

I'm going to try to if I can get down there. Well really I thought you were going to announce that you introduced this last try and it refused to go on. Well I haven't been asked. This time but I well we'll just see about that much. I hope I can I've been trying to figure out if I can get. It's an hour away from from us and I've been trying to figure out if I can get there on a Sunday afternoon. But you know let me know if that's going to work out for you. OK. I don't I don't know if they have someone to interview this or not but we would love to have you do it if you if you can be there. Not going to work I understand. It's good you know it's the cademy awards night. So you know get people to watch. I can be back in time for that. But but if I don't show up don't I wouldn't just wait in the wings. All right. OK well thanks so much to me for taking the time. All right thank you.