I am delighted to have as my guest musician, composer, writer, and new renaissance artist, Elizabeth A. Baker. I learned about Elizabeth and her work only a few months ago through a short 5 question interview published on the excellent site “i care if you listen”. The interview on “i care if you listen” focused primarily on one of Elizabeth’s many projects, and one we discuss during our conversation—and that is the Florida International Toy Piano Festival, which Elizabeth is both co-founder and Festival Director. The second annual Toy Piano Festival ended back in early January, and to be honest, the idea of a creative music festival focused on showcasing music produced on a toy piano totally captured my imagination and sent me off to explore Elizabeth’s music, and ultimately, corresponding with her about her music and doing an interview. No surprise, I could have talked for hours with Elizabeth: how she approaches her music and the details of her creative process are no end interesting and fascinating to me, but given her busy schedule and her involvement in a number of creative projects, we had about an hour to cover a lot of ground. I do not want to give too much away here at the outset, but I will say that our conversation touches on a number topics including the role and importance movement, dance, silence, and community are to the work Elizabeth creates and performs. She is truly inspirational.
All music featured in episode 4 is by Elizabeth A. Baker:
The following compositions appear in this episode:
Checkout Elizabeth’s book, "Toyager: A Toy Piano Method
Also, checkout: The New Music Conflagration, Inc.
Links
Welcome to the third episode of “Alloy: A Mixture of Music and Conversation.” If you listened to the previous episode of this podcast, you know that I split my conversation with Pat Daugherty across two podcast episodes. What you are currently listening to is part three. A link to the previous episode can be found via the Alloy webiste at alloypm.com or through your podcast app of choice. If you have not heard the first installment, I highy recommend giving it a listen before going further with this one. BUT…the choice is all yours.
A little background about this podcast….this is still a relatively a new adventure for me so the format and focus of this show is bound to evolve and change over time. Thus far it is primarily an interview show with the goal being to spotlight a musician, band, or anyone in the greater music arena…including independent label representatives, writers, educators, in short, anyone involved in making and/or trying to figure out how to make and share their creative work.
Which brings me to this current episode…
As previously noted, this is a continuation of my conversation with artist, composer, musician, and modern day renaissance man, Pat Daugherty. Pat is perhaps best known for his work fronting the New York Electric Piano and we spoke in the friendly confines of my home studio not too long after the release of their most recent release, “Black Hole in One.” Give it a listen, it is excellent. On that note, for more background about this interview, the music played, and a more complete bio of Pat, checkout the show notes for this episode and/or listen to the previous episode.
Reviews of the latest album from New York Electric Piano, Black Hole in One:
Music featured in episode 2:
Music featured in episode 3:
Videos
Musicians Mentioned
Links
I am delighted to have as my guest artist, composer, musician, and dare I say, modern day renaissance man, Pat Daugherty. Pat is perhaps best known for his work fronting the New York Electric Piano. Their latest release is “Black Hole in One” that showcases Pat’s unique groove-based and totally funk-jazz centered songwriting, as well as his lyrical and vocal side as well. In addition to New York Electric Piano, Pat has recorded a couple of solo albums, juggles additional projects like dance choreography, fine art painting, photography (the cover art for “Black Hole in One” is his handiwork), he has written a couple of screenplays and is an avid reader with a deep interest in history and historical events. You see what I mean? A veritable renaissance man. Which is probably why I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Pat. So much so that our conversation spans two podcasts–I broke our time together into two separate downloads, both of which you will find via your podcast application of choice–be it iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or other means. Lastly, before we head into the conversation, Pat recently relocated from Manhattan to Lancaster, PA, which afforded us the opportunity to conduct the interview face to face, not virtually via Skype. We met In the friendly confines of my home studio here in Carlisle which was a first for me and a real positive experience that I hope is reflected not only in the quality of the audio, but also the engaging conversation that took place. Also, as you will hear in a moment, Pat and I jumped into our conversation by talking a little local and state history. Alright, without further adieu, my conversation with Pat Daughtery.
Reviews of the latest album from New York Electric Piano, Black Hole in One:
Music featured in episode 2:
Music featured in episode 3:
Videos
Musicians Mentioned
Links
I am delighted to have as my first guest, bassist, composer, recording artist Chris Lightcap. Chris has played and collaborated with an amazing array of musicians: he is a regular in Regina Carter’s band, and over the years has played with Marc Ribot, Craig Taborn, Glen Hansard, Mark Turner, John Medeski, Jason Moran, Chris Potter and many more. His playing is featured on over 60 albums and as a bandleader/composer he has produced four critically acclaimed albums of original music–in 2000 he released his first solo album, Lay-up, followed that up with “Bigmouth” in 2002, Deluxe in 2010 and his 2015 release, the spectacular Epicenter, was featured as an “A” list jazz pick by Apple Music back in July and has received glowing critical reviews.
It took us a few weeks to get our schedules in sync to do the interview, and I learned from Chris that syncing schedules with other musicians is actually one of the more significant challenges when making a collaborative record. We wasted no time getting down to our conversation, in fact we dove right in talking about his recent trip to Bogota, Columbia, more on that in a moment. Please note, all music heard in this podcast is by and/or features Chris Lightcap. Links to the music and other things we discussed can be found below.
For more information about Chris Lightcap checkout his website.
For more information about Alloy checkout the show’s site.
Musicians mentioned in this episode:
Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth: Epicenter (2015)
Regina Carter’s Southern Comfort (2014)
Regina Carter’s Reverse Thread (2014)
Matt Wilson Quartet + John Medeski: Gathering Call (2014)
Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth: Deluxe (2010)
Chris Lightcap Quartet: Bigmouth (2002)
Chris Lightcap Quartet: Lay-Up (2000)
Record labels: Clean Feed Records & Fresh Sound Records
Show sponsor: Whistlestop Bookshop