Warren Wolf Part II

GC: I'm trying to remember the first time I met you. You were playing drums, it was a jam session. I showed up with Tim Warfield, I don't even remember why I was there...but I think we showed up and played Solar or something.

WW: Was it Wally's?

GC: I don't think it was Wally's, was there another place?

WW: I thought the first time that you and I met was with Tim on a New Years gig.

GC: Yeah, a New Years gig with Rodney Green in Pennsylvania. With Chris Bacchus.  I remember that, that was a while ago. Alright, so when did you start playing with Christian McBride?

WW: I started in 2008. I got a call from a woman in this office, somebody he was working with at the time. They said, "Mr. Wolf, Christian McBride would like to have you in his band for one week at the Village Vanguard." He had these things called the "Christian McBride Situations." I think a lot of people knew how badly I wanted to play with Christian so I thought it was a prank call. I was like "man, stop playing" and they said "no we really want you to play, we'll take care of everything, we've got the hotel." So I went up, and we all thought it was just going to be a week. So it was me, Steve Wilson, Carl Allen, Eric Reed. So after the show's over, people were raving about that band. Keep the band together, keep it together. So he said okay, and booked a gig somewhere in South America, and then we did Monterey right after. I thought that was going to be it. At that point, I was in Houston, doing many gigs here and there, I've never actually been in a band. As a matter of fact, I didn't even think bands existed in jazz anymore.

GC: Wow, that's really telling.

WW. Yeah. But then they were saying we're going in the studio and doing a record. I still thought it was like no big deal, I mean how many cats go into the studio and release records and then go off and do something else? But after we released  the record, we got some gigs. Again I was like "okay, a couple gigs, I'm used to this." But they said "no, we're going to keep it going!". That record was Kind of Brown, and we've been touring that record even up until today, 4 years later!

GC: Does he have a new record coming out?

WW: We just recorded it back in Spring of this year. So hopefully it will be coming out at some point next year, when he's done with this Monterey All-Stars Tour.

GC: I don't know how much time we have before we hit... there's so few people here, I wonder if they'll delay it... anyway, in closing: what are your thoughts -  I would deduce that, because you have probably very few memories of life without being a multi-instrumentalist (and you play bass too, we don't even have time to talk about that) - what are the benefits of being a multi-instrumentalist for you?

WW: For me it gives me the knowledge to know what I want to hear in my band. There's so many times where I'm doing my own gigs, and if the piano player isn't doing something right, I can get on the piano and tell you "try this". Same with the bass player. I could at least show them something, what I'm hearing. Also it helps with teaching. I'm teaching now at Baltimore School for the Arts, as the jazz instructor. I can always sit down at least with the rhythm section and tell every one of them to try this, try that. At least from the rhythm section perspective. When it comes to horns, I could tell you how to solo but I can't work on sound much. It just helps me be a complete musician. It gives me knowledge; I don't want to have to say "okay, I know vibraphone stuff". I like to know it all.

GC: Speaking of vibraphone, legend is that you don't even own a vibraphone! How do you feel about that?

WW: I feel fine. (laughs) I actually sold my vibes about 5 years ago on eBay.

GC: Because you never use them?

WW: Nah it wasn't that, I was playing gigs on them. I just needed some money because I was trying to finish a CD of mine. The thing is, my dad has a set of vibes, I can use them... which I do, when I need it. I just don't have one in the house. I live almost 30 miles from my parents, I just don't feel like driving down there all the time.

GC: Where do you live?

WW: I live in Owings Mills. They live in Baltimore City. The way I practice nowadays - people ask "do you practice?" and I say "no" and they don't believe me, but I really don't. I tend to do a lot of mental practicing. And it's not even just jazz, it could be whatever. The more and more I can hear stuff, it's like I have the ability to hear stuff and it goes through my head down to my arms or fingers. I'm not saying I don't practice at all, there are certain times where I might want to work out little kinks. I feel fine though, if I don't have the vibes. I mean there's been times where I try to practice, then just get bored. I mean, it could be because I practiced so much as a kid. A lot of people just don't do that nowadays. I ask the kids in my high school how much they practice, the answer is "hardly ever". I did it a lot! And that's not trying to say I'm the best...I just don't really know what to work on physically. When I hear stuff on record though, I hear it and go "oh that's nice! I like that." And that could be from the worst musician! I could pick up something from the best musician or the worst musician. I'll take their ideas and ball it up and out comes... what I heard.

GC: I mean, I should be practicing. But I don't have the time. Because I spent a lot of time in the 90s practicing, I feel like on piano I can get away with it... trumpet is a different story, but I feel like I can still play at a certain level without practicing. It would be nice to have time, but I have a child and a job. And you have three kids?

WW: Yeah, three kids. They live in Boston with their mom. Even when we were all living together, when I was trying to practice, it was really hard to do it. Because my kids would be like "hey could I join in with you?" and I'd be like "no no, leave me alone."

GC: I have the same problem.

WW: Now I'm remarried, my wife is a ballet dancer. And every now and then... I haven't completely just shut off. Like right now, I am practicing the Carnival of Venice on Marimba because I'm about to record it, and that thing is hard. Not so much technically hard but... just a lot of notes. Making sure I just nail them. So I'm practicing that a lot. But other stuff, not really. Because jazz music is so free for me. I don't have a rule, like "make sure you get this note, make sure you get that note". Because everything could be resolved in a certain way, it's just how you execute it, make sure you get your rhythm right.

GC: Does it matter to you what instrument you're playing? Does it all just become the same thing, or do you find that you're thinking about different things on different instruments?


WW: No it really doesn't matter. Me, I like to think as a drummer or vibraphonist. I mean I can play piano, but I don't really like it.

GC: You don't like the instrument?

WW: No. But I'm saying that mostly because it hurts. Also, I don't have the proper technique. People see me play piano, but I play them like I'm playing vibes. I've never had a lesson on piano. But fingerings... if someone said "play the Eb major scale" I'll probably mess it up. I've just never had the training. I'm self-taught, I know what chords sound good. I know about as many chords as any other professional pianist. There are just certain things I can't execute right. But I'll do gigs on piano. Same with drums. It's hard to sit in on drums though because I'm left handed, and I don't feel like making the trouble of making the switch. I could make a living as a pianist or drummer... which I do, sometimes.

GC: I guess for me, I try to tell my students that a certain amount of technique is important, but... like you get drummers that just practice chops all day and all night and they don't really know how to function musically. They can't hear. Do you find yourself trying to relate that to your students? How do you relate that?

WW: I'm not even there yet.

GC: (laughs)

WW: My students... it's a classical oriented school. So jazz is like an elective, but they enjoy doing it. It's not even about chops. For instance, I was telling my bass player - he's just trying to get the right notes in, but he's making mistakes. So when he thinks he hits a right note, he plays real soft. I said "don't do that! If anything, right now I want to hear you maintaining that beat and that pulse. At least figure out what key you're in, but we'll get to the other stuff later." So it's not about chops so much for me. It's more about making sure they're playing in the key with some type of decent rhythm. Playing as a unit, getting an overall sound, making sure dynamics are there. That's what's more concerning me right now. That's a whole other conversation, because the jazz thing just isn't there, isn't present. I'm just trying to help them learn this stuff. And it's not even jazz, just contemporary music. You could play smooth jazz and still play changes. It's more just like trying to get them to understand the concept of chord changes and such. For me I'm like "this is easy, you can't hear that?" But they can't.

GC: Do you enjoy teaching?

WW: Um...(pause) Yes. I think my biggest thing that I have to work on when it comes to teaching is being more patient. I pick up music very easily. Over the years you get better, but it just came very easy to me. And it still comes easy for the most part, I mean there are certain challenges but it's like "okay, that's fine." A lot of my students, I look at them and talk with them, have conversation s with them, but they just don't understand it so much. I always wonder "why can't you guys get this?" I've learned to be more control and calm, let them take their time.

GC: Did you ever want to move to New York?

WW: Couple reasons for that. For one, this isn't the 1940s and 50s anymore. Back then, if you want to play jazz, yes you have to move to New York. Everyone wanted to be seen by Bird and all the cats back then if you wanted to get the gig. But how it is now with the prices in New York, a lot of cats are going to the city fresh out of college and they're playing these gigs in restaurants for very little money. It's like the money that was good back then, except they're still doing it now and the cost of living went up like 5 times. I mean if a person wants to live that life, I'm not hating against them, that's fine. There are plenty of musicians who's plan is to never get married, have a family, they just eat, breathe, and live that shit. That's not me. Me, I had kids at an early age. That's another reason. I had my first child when I was 20. And she's now 12, going on 13. I have three kids, like I said, and I couldn't... maybe I could have, I don't know, but I didn't think I could afford living in New York. My girl is the oldest, and I have two boys. Eventually they're going to get older and I want them to have their own rooms and things like that, so I look at it and think that's either going to be a 4 bedroom apartment or 4 bedroom house combined with the unsteadiness of the gigs... I couldn't afford New York. That's why I came back to Baltimore. I was teaching in Boston at Berklee for 2 years right after graduation, but it just got so expensive in Boston I decided to come back to Baltimore. It's pretty reasonable to live here, you can get to D.C. in 30 minutes, 45 to Philadelphia, New York, and there's an airport and you can get just about anywhere, any major city. And the other thing, I really believe that if you really play your tail off, they'll find you, if they really want you. I mean, people who want to go to New York... that's cool for them, it's just not for me. And besides, I don't really like New York. I like to go there and do what I have to do. I like to go to New York and then come home. I'm a family guy, I like Owings Mills. I have grass! I can see deer running around! I have to deal with buses and shit, I live in a nice quiet neighborhood in a 4 story house. In New York, a 4 story house would be like 3, 4,000 dollars or something...

GC: To rent.

WW: Yeah, and I'm buying.

GC: Yeah, I hear you. Where do you see yourself in ten years? How are you going to get out more as a leader? Is that inevitable, are you trying to work on it?

WW: I'm trying to work on it now, because I've released my first record last year, on the Mack Avenue label. The next one will be recorded February and March, two different bands. It's just about getting the right team together, in order to push me and it takes the promoter of the club to actually believe in that person, give them a chance. So it's a matter of what happens on that end. Then there's another side, there's other sides I want to conquer, I want to get back on the classical side of music. There was a point in time where I thought about moving to L.A., play R&B and pop music because I like that style of music too. I remember about 4 years ago I got an offer to join Ne-Yo's band, playing drums.

GC: Really? Wow.

WW: I got the offer, I'd rather just play straight ahead... at that point in time.

GC: I bet is pays better with Christian.

WW: Probably, because I've heard those R&B gigs pay at the max like 500 bucks.

GC: I've heard that. Because then you can get anyone to do it.

WW: The thing about those R&B gigs... not all, but the majority of them, you get more things quicker. Endorsements quicker, life might be better depending on who you are. You get to travel on your tour bus, you get to wear regular street clothes on the gig, access to a lot of different women, if you're that type of person.

GC: Want me to keep that in there?

WW: Sure.

GC: (laughs) Well I think that's why a lot of young people will do that, because they're still out there having fun. (Signal to go onstage...)Oh, we're ready? Alright. I think that's good.

WW: You sure? We could do more over the break. I've got a lot to say, man.

GC: Actually, my saxophone student has to transcribe this. So this should be good.

http://www.warrenwolfmusic.com/

The Great Shirley Horn

Shirley Horn

I've worked with many jazz vocalists over the years. I would be lying if I said I loved every minute of it... However, I believe that there are musical areas that you can't really explore without a vocalist. I learned a lot as a pianist accompanying jazz singers; not only did I gain experience in comping, playing rubato, improvising intros and outros, but I was exposed to a whole range of music that I might never have gotten to know if I had only worked in instrumental situations. There are certain tunes which come up only with vocalists; most jazz students these days don't even know basic tunes like "Alone Together" and "All The Things You Are", let alone tunes like "Skylark" or "What A Difference A Day Makes", or "Estate", etc...In all fairness, I feel like I'm only on the periphery when it comes to jazz vocal repertoire; although I did work with a lot of singers, I never considered myself a "singer's pianist." Indeed, there were many singers who I was clearly not their favorite(meaning I didn't get called back, or didn't keep the gig for as long as I would have wanted), which is cool because honestly, there's no way you can be everybody's favorite. Still, we can grow amidst failure and success, and whether the singer was great or not, or whether I was great or not, accompanying singers is an art unto itself. In some ways, it's becoming a lost art.

Then there are the singers who just comp for themselves. The late, great Shirley Horn was one of those. I was recently listening to a live recording she did called "I Thought About You", which was her first for Verve Records in 1987. (It's a live recording from the Vine Street Bar and Grill in Hollywood.) Her version of "Something Happens To Me", the opener, is exquisite; her swing and phrasing is a perfect encapsulation of jazz singing in less than 4 minutes. I listened to this track many times in a row, and when you listen to her piano comping, you realize that she is the perfect accompanist for herself, and yet, if you didn't know, you would think it was two people!

Here is a live version from a 1990 Bern, Switzerland performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INsLeBrFPKM

Shirley Horn was born in Washington, D.C. in 1934. She took classical piano lessons from the age of 4, and majored in piano and composition at Howard University; although she was accepted at the Juilliard School in New York, she couldn't afford the tuition. Horn worked in D.C. as a pianist fronting a trio, and was discovered in 1960 by Miles Davis. Davis let Horn open for his group at the Village Vanguard. During the 60's, she recorded some great albums for Mercury and Impulse, but never really achieved stardom. Here's a track from "Loads of Love", released in 1963:

Towards the end of the 1960's, Horn became frustrated with the direction of the music business and trends in popular music. She choose to stay in D.C., spend time with her family, and perform mostly in local venues. It wasn't until the 1980's when she made a comeback with touring and recording; in 1987, Horn signed with Verve Records and recorded for them until her death in 2005 from complications due to diabetes. From this period, there are so many classic cuts; my favorite, and probably yours, is "Here's To Life":

If you don't feel some deep emotion after hearing that track, you might be a robot. Or Mitt Romney.

Horn had the same rhythm section for 25 years: Charles Ables on electric bass and Steve Williams on drums. I got to play with Williams a bunch when I lived in D.C.; I believe that Williams, although having a great career and an indeed special musical relationship with Horn, is rather underrated in the drumming world. If you listen to how sensitively Williams plays on these tracks, you can see how special his musicianship is for this kind of situation. Many drummers would have a hard time holding back their "chops" for the sake of such quietude.

I was fortunate to see one of Horn's last performances before her passing; she had an engagement at Au Bar in New York. She was clearly not well, but her magical powers still came out in her music. I think all jazz vocal students should be required to listen to everything Shirley Horn has ever done. Her phrasing, her delivery, her swing, her taste in material, her piano comping, it's all there. Shirley Horn was indeed a treasure.

Here is also a film about Horn's life that might interest you:

"The Shed" Second Annual PSU Summer Jazz Camp Featuring Jimmy Greene

Wow. Summer is fast approaching. If you are one of those people who spends the sticky months on vacation from your instrument, then this post is not for you! But if you are serious about using your free time for musical development, then we have just the thing for you. "The Shed" Second Annual Portland State University Summer Jazz Camp is happening. thanks to a partnership with The Portland Jazz Orchestra and PSU. It's July 16-19, and it's going to be even more awesome than last year!

Yes, last year's camp was a really positive experience. The camp is different from many other jazz camps because we focus on specific repertoire for the entire run of the camp. We select a number of jazz standards, from easy to more challenging, so that everyone can get a chance to really familiarize themselves with specific tunes. This way, a more in depth application of various concepts can be achieved. Oftentimes, we tend to look at a tune and then get distracted by other tunes and concepts, and we don't REALLY learn the tune we set out to learn in the first place. "The Shed" is a chance to focus a little more deeply. This is not to say that we don't just call other tunes if the mood strikes!

Alan Jones, one of the many great faculty members

The range of folks who attended last year ran the gamut from raw beginners to more experienced adults and everything in between. Most of the feedback was positive. Some people wanted more instrument specific information; this year, we are adding instrumental master classes in addition to the general masterclasses. We've also added a day, so we will have more time to get to more topics.

The most exciting thing about this year's "Shed" is the presence of tenor saxophone master Jimmy Greene. Mr. Greene is internationally known as a soloist; he spent years as a sideman with Tom Harrell and Harry Connick, Jr. and many others. He has a number of albums out as a leader, and is a really fine composer and educator.We worked together at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada for 2 years. I'm delighted that he can make it out to Portland!

Jimmy Greene

For more information, please go to http://theshedjazzworkshop.wordpress.com/ We hope to see you there!

Reno Jazz Festival 2013

Last weekend, I flew to Reno, Nevada. No, I didn't go to gamble or see Sawyer Brown in concert. (Anybody remember Sawyer Brown? Winners of Star Search?Are they still touring? Seems like a band that would play Reno once a year.....)I was asked to be an adjudicator at the Reno Jazz Festival. This festival, hosted by the University of Nevada Reno, has been running for 51 years, and is primarily a competition for middle school, high school, and college jazz bands. It's a huge event, and it's remarkably well organized considering there are usually around 300 bands, 9,000 participants, and 60 judges/adjudicators. There are also some professional performances; this year the featured acts were Dave Douglas and Matt Wilson. There are also some additional clinics and performances; I gave a piano clinic, participated in an adjudicator jam session, and also one afternoon concert. Other than that, it was wall to wall adjudication for me.

So far in my career, I haven't done that much judging of competitions. I was rather surprised that the good folks at University of Nevada Reno had asked me to come. I ended up having a really wonderful time. I was assigned to be the feedback judge for high school combos. I didn't give any scores, but I gave constructive commentary for each group that I listened to. I alternated between listening to a band for 25 minutes, bringing them to the "feedback" room, talking to them for 25 minutes, and then running back to the concert hall to hear the next band. It was back and forth all day for both days. I actually had a lot of fun listening to the high school kids at all different levels and critiquing them. Most , if not all, of the students and their directors were very receptive to my feedback. I think it's important to stay positive in these situations; after all, I could barely play at all in high school, so already most of these kids are in a better situation than I was at their age.

I have to give it up to the folks who organized this festival. When I imagine all of the work that it would take to do something like that at PSU, I shudder to think of the magnitude of responsibility. School of the Arts Director David Ake and trumpet professor and festival organizer Larry Engstrom did a wonderful job of making sure everything ran as smoothly as it could. It's kind of an odd place to host a jazz festival; Circus Circus, the main hotel where everyone stays, is part of a Vegas like casino complex which has almost nothing to do with a jazz. I participated in an adjudicator jam in a Mexican bar/restaurant right in the middle of the casino. I'm not sure if our uptempo version of "Lover" made us any friends besides the jazz festival participants.

Portland State University brought two excellent groups to Reno. One of our groups, a quartet called Reverse Mermaid, tied for third place among college groups. I didn't get to hear either group because I was busy judging the high schoolers, but I heard that they both did really well. I had coached both groups and contributed some arrangements to the second group. The Reno Jazz Festival  are great about sending mp3 files with and without comments. When I have the time, I'll listen to them and give them my own feedback.

I happened to find this set of videos from the faculty concert that took place on the Saturday afternoon of the festival. It was rather impromtu, but I had fun playing after listening to so much music for two days. You'll hear Tom Wakeling on bass, Don Aquilo on tenor saxophone, and the fabulous Mark Ferber on drums. Enjoy the videos and maybe I'll see you in Reno next year!

 

Tour Diary: Ballard Jazz Festival

Seattle, just like I pictured it....Space Needles.....and everything....

I just got back from a long weekend in Seattle. No, I don't live in Seattle, I live in the other famous Pacific Northwestern city(and no, not Vancouver, either). A mere 3 hours by car without traffic, and merely 8 hours with traffic.......Seattle is a city with a lot of natural beauty and culture. Yes, it rains a lot, and it rained A LOT during this trip. However, I'm used to it, having lived in Portland for a year and a half. ( I think the rainy-ness is worse in Seattle. Honestly, the weather in this part of the world is really mild compared to the east coast.)We actually stayed in West Seattle, which from downtown Seattle is about a 15 minute drive without traffic.......2 hours WITH traffic.....I love the little bungalows in West Seattle, and the views are breathtaking. We rented a really lovely 2 bedroom house; my wife and son wanted to come up for the weekend, so we made a little vacation out of it.

I performed for 4 straight nights at the Ballard Jazz Festival. Ballard is a little neighborhood about 10

to 15 minutes from downtown. It's kind of a hip and happening spot for young people to congregate, with bars, coffee shops and restaurants. There are also some nice residential neighborhoods. The festival is the brainchild of the proprietors of Origin Records: drummers Matt Jorgensen and John Bishop. Both are great musicians in their own right, and their multi-talents include running a successful record label and a jazz festival. I really dig the fact that some musicians were able to create and control their own events and include other deserving musicians in the process. I can't even imagine how much work it took to put this festival on. The trick is that not only do Jorgensen and Bishop organize and promote the festival, they also play in it as well. I'm extremely impressed with their ingenuity, and they have been successful for 11 years. Here's hoping for many more.

Matt Jorgensen

I'm honored that they asked me to do 4 nights of gigs. The first three nights were at a venue called Conor Byrne( it's pretty much an Irish Bar..). Night one featured the theme of "Brotherhood Of The Drum"; I played organ with the Matt Jorgensen Trio featuring guitarist Tom Guarna. Although the set was a mere 45 minutes or so, it was very highly concentrated music; both Guarna and Jorgensen were on fire from note one. I felt like my reaction time was a little slow, but I tried to keep up the best I could.

The second night, we added bassist Paul Gabrielson and turned the same group into the Tom Guarna Quartet. I was relieved to not have to worry about the bass lines. This was my first time playing with Gabrielson, and he is quite a strong player. He and Jorgensen had a nice lock, and once again Guarna was shredding like gangbusters. Both nights had an attentive, enthusiastic crowd. The Ballard Jazz Festival is well promoted and seems to be a popular event. I believe that there are jazz fans everywhere and it's really just a question of getting them all to come out at the right time.

Night Three was basically the same group as night one except we called it the George Colligan Trio. So we did mostly my tunes and a few standards. I don't get to play organ that often(well, it wasn't

Tom Guarna

even a real organ, but it's a Nord Electro;close enough for jazz....), so I feel rusty sometimes. Holding down the bass line is quite a different feeling from just comping chords. I try to cover my technical shortcomings as an organs by playing with the best rhythm I can and trying to keep a certain amount of intensity in the music. The crowds were enthusiastic, but they ebbed and flowed, due to the fact that this night was what they call the Ballard Jazz Walk, where there are many different bands playing at once; listeners go in and out of venues up and down the block like trick-or-treaters on Halloween. I only went across the street to see the Portland crew of Jeff Baker on Vocals, Darrell Grant on piano, Dylan Sundstrom on bass, Jason Palmer on drums, and David Valdez on alto sax. They were really throwing down, considering they were backing a singer(come on, Jeff, I'm kidding around!)

The last night was held at the Nordic Heritage Museum. Two bands would perform; first was trumpeter Lew Soloff, back by Milo Peterson on guitar, Essiet Essiet on bass, and Sylvia Cuenca on drums. I got to hear just the tail end of the performance; they played a mellow version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing", and ended with a rousing rendition of "Caravan", on which Soloff showed off his impressive virtuosity. I was really looking forward to being reunited musically with one of my first bosses in New York, alto and soprano saxophone master Gary Bartz. (This set again featured Jorgensen on drums and Phil Sparks on bass.)I worked with Bartz back in the mid 90's, and the time I spent in his bad was a real learning experience. Bartz's music is truly connected with the legends, and it's amazing to bask in his energy and wisdom. Bartz has wisdom in his choice of notes but also his choice of words; during our soundcheck, Bartz remarked that "people think it takes a lifetime to play this music. It actually takes MANY lifetimes!" (This is something that we need to relate to our students, who are under the impression that it takes 4 years of college to learn jazz.)

the Great Gary Bartz

I don't know if was the nostalgia for New York in the 90's, or whether it was just the pure joy of listening to one of the most unique alto saxophonists alive, but I was smiling pretty much the entire concert. Gary isn't slowing down as he's getting older; he's playing better than ever. Bartz knows how to swing and how to play modal music, but sometimes it's almost like he's playing rubato over the swing. It's so lyrical; not too many younger saxophonists know how to play like this. Bartz is also a master at quoting other melodies as part of his solo; however, he does it in such a way that it is never corny or contrived, it always feels natural, so natural that you might not even realize that it's a quote. During our version of "Star Eyes, " I believe he quoted maybe 3 or 4 other melodies in rapid succession as he improvised.

I always remembered that Bartz liked to find tunes which were kind of off the beaten path; on this night, we ended up doing a duo version of a Sidney Bechet tune called "Si Tu Vois Ma Mere", which was used by Woody Allen for his recent film, "Midnight in Paris". I always loved comping behind Bartz, whether it be a rubato ballad or a furious swing tune. This gig really brought me back. It's always great to play music with great players, and this gig was really something special. I left Seattle with a really positive, optimistic feeling about music. Congratulations to Matt Jorgensen and John Bishop and everybody at Origin for another great Ballard Jazz Festival.

The Warren Wolf Interview Part 1

Warren Wolf is an amazing young multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore. He plays the drums quite well, and I've hired him and worked with Wolf the drummer in a number of settings. He is THE premier young vibraphonist on the scene. He also plays piano and bass extremely well. I hope he doesn't play anything else! You might have seen him with Christian McBride or Wolf's own group. I was able to finally sit down with him and find out how he turned out so well.

GC: Warren Wolf! I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, finally getting to it! How’d you become such a bad motherfucker?

WW: (laughs) That’s a very long story.

GC: (laughs)

WW: In basic detail, my dad, Warren Wolf Sr.. His main day job was a school teacher. He was a Baltimore City Public School teacher, he taught History - U.S. history, World history, things like that. He also had a band on the side. Music was a serious hobby of his. I would say around 1978 or 79, the year I was born, he wanted to buy an instrument. He wanted to do something completely different than what everyone else was doing, so no saxophone, trumpet, or drums, things like that. So he bought a vibraphone. I was born in November ‘79, and a couple years later, three years later, he got me started.

GC: Wow, so you started at three. Wow!

WW: Now that’s not just vibes, that’s everything. From the vibes to basic piano to drums. It started at three. Most people, as far as drummers go, most people know that I’m a left-handed drummer. I’m not a left-handed person though. I’m a left-handed drummer because my father’s a left-handed person. So the way he played drums - that’s how I saw the drums coming up. I saw the drums set up as a lefty. So I thought “oh, that’s right, that’s how it’s supposed to be.” Then I got older and started going out and seeing all these cats playing right-handed drums and I realized that I’m the wrong person. So that’s the drum side... as far as mallets go, I took lessons at Peabody Preparatory with Leo LePage. He’s now deceased, but he was with the Baltimore Symphony. He was also a jazz drummer when he lived in Boston back in the day. Took lessons with him every Saturday for like an hour, outside of my normal practice that I did every day from the age of three to seventeen, I practiced 5 days a week, 90 minutes. 30 minutes on drums, 30 on vibes, 30 on piano. That ranged from jazz to classical to pop music to Motown. Everything, just about. My father wanted to give me a crash course in music.

GC: That’s very regimented, for such a long time. It sounds like it must have been very focused if

 you were compartmentalizing it like that.

WW: It was very focused. I mean, my dad - he knew what he wanted me to be from the moment I was born. I didn’t have a choice so much.

GC: But you do love it.

WW: No I do love it. I didn’t really start loving it until middle school jazz band. But before that - what kid wants to be in the basement? I had a typical childhood - I went to school, got home and watched my cartoons. But when my parents got home, around 5, it gave them a half hour wind-down time and then my father was like “okay, let’s go”, and we were in the basement from 5:30-7pm every day. After that, I do homework, eat dinner, go to bed, do it again the next day. Saturdays were the day at Peabody, an hour at Peabody. Then after that - I have two older sisters, so I would just play with them or go outside in West Baltimore. Same for Sundays - I didn’t grow up in church, so they were just another free day, with family or whoever.

GC: So would you do music that day?

WW: No, no music.

GC: So you don’t know life without music.

WW: Pretty much. It’s pretty much all I know. I mean, just like any typical kid, at least what I saw growing up in Baltimore, I see sports on TV and rap music and so I knew that stuff, but music was and is my life.

GC: Did you do any listening? I assume he had a lot of records.

WW: He had a pile of records. I don’t recall anything in particular. But I always had a good ear, I just didn’t know it then. He’d put on the Yellowjackets, Spyro Gyra, Anita Baker...all of those records are what I remember. That’s what he played in his band. He had kind of a fusion band that played around Baltimore, called the Wolf Pack.

GC: I don’t know them.

WW: No, no, it wasn’t a band that actually went out. Just a local band that played restaurants.

GC: Was it like... did you ever know that band Moon August?

WW: Oh yeah, I knew them, with Harold Adams on tenor. I think they were more on the swing side.

GC: Really? I thought they got...smooth...at a certain point.

WW: I think they did a mix of things, they played classic songs like “Sugar”, “Stolen Moments”. Then they’d easily go into something like “Sweet Love” by Anita Baker. That’s what I grew up listening to. And my parents still do this to this day, they still play a lot of Motown songs from back in the day. I heard all of that stuff, Motown, Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson - I heard all that stuff growing up.

GC: That’s how you make a virtuoso I suppose. You get to the point where you’ve just been doing it for so long. I mean, you’re a lot younger than me, but you’ve probably been playing longer than me.

WW: This is year 30 for me now.

GC: Yeah. I’m 42. I didn’t even really get serious about piano since I was 21.

WW: Yeah, I’ve been playing for a long time, but like I said I didn’t really start enjoying it until I got to middle school. I went to a school called West Baltimore Middle School, back in the day in the 60s and 70s, they called it Rock Glenn Middle School or Junior High School. The band teacher was Betty McCloud and we had a jazz band, concert band, wind ensemble, but the jazz band consisted of 8 trumpet players, 6 trombones, and a pile of horns. No bass player, but I was the pianist and sometimes drummer in the band. I think what made me really start liking music - like I didn’t really understand the concept of changes and playing in the key. My whole thing back then was play whatever the hottest song was on the radio for your solo.

GC: (laughs)

WW: One of the songs that we did - we actually did not play jazz oriented big band charts. We were a big band in that setting but we played songs like “Eye of the Tiger”, things like that. One of the songs was “Louie Louie”. So when they got to the keyboard solo they were like “alright Warren, you go!” and I forget the name of this girl, but she was very popular. This was 1990 or 1991. And I could sing the chorus of this one song... (sings chorus) and I learned that on piano. So I used to play that on the solos and I would watch how my peers in the auditorium would react - they’d get up and start clapping and dancing. So I was like “wow, if I can get that reaction playing songs like this I wonder what it could do for real?” So at that point, I think it was 6th or 7th grade, that’s when I really started loving music.

GC: You liked the attention.

WW: Yeah.

GC: So your concept was “get house immediately”?

WW: Nah that wasn’t really the concept but that’s just what happened.

GC: It’s kind of a concept!

WW: Yeah, I guess. I mean, like I said, I knew a certain thing about changes but not too much.

GC: When did you really learn about changes?

WW: It kind of slowly picked up - I can’t say there was a given moment. My dad had these charts, I remember when I was starting to learn how to read. He had a big band chart of St. Thomas. And it had some time of solo in there, written out. And I remember playing it and I still remember how the solo goes to this day but I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just like “okay I’ll read it down, this sounds good over this.” At some point in middle school my dad would take me out to the club. We used to go to the Sports Lounge. Organ player, his name was Chico (that’s all I know him as) and the drummer Bobby Ward. We used to go over there, and he’d play the vibes, and sometimes his band would go over there. There wasn’t anything that I specifically worked on to learn what changes were, it was more just playing and playing. Like I said, I always had a good ear but I never knew it. One of the classes that I had at Peabody was classical theory.

GC: In high school?

WW: Middle school.

GC: Wow!

WW: I had to separate myself between high school and Peabody, but I’ll talk about that in a minute.

GC: Okay.

WW: I took a theory class in middle school and I was pretty terrible at it. My teacher always had said “he has a great ear”, and I didn’t know what he was talking about. Eventually after I graduated middle school and got to high school - Baltimore School of the Arts, fall of 1993, the staff told me that I could not attend Peabody anymore and I could not study with the percussion teacher because the teacher at the School of the Arts was also a member of the Baltimore Symphony, but he was strictly classical. His name was John Locke. Basically they didn’t want me studying with two guys from the Symphony, they already had someone there at the school. So I got accepted into the school. How I figured out I had a good ear - I had perfect pitch, but this is how I figured it out. Ninth grade, 1993, there were a lot of students who were trying to figure out a popular song - a Mary J Blige tune called “Real Love”. Very popular back then. The students couldn’t figure it out at all. I was like “hey, I can play it!” They didn’t know what it was, we were freshman. They said “yeah right”, and I just got on the piano and played it right away. They were like “wow! Can you play this one?” They kept asking me. And I had never played these songs before. So I did some research after a while and found out I had perfect pitch, and that’s why a lot of people said I have a good ear.

GC: Why didn’t they tell you?

WW: I don’t think they knew. I think it was just something I had to figure out on my own.

GC: It’s interesting, you taking those classical lessons and your ear never coming up.

WW: That’s another problem in my youth. I was at Peabody Prep for years and I wasn’t just some little kid taking lessons. During that time I was also going on tour and performing as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony. My first concert as a soloist with the Symphony I was  about 8 years old. I played all sorts of Concertos, Bach’s Concerto in A Minor, Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto in C Major.

GC: On mallets?

WW: Yeah, on the marimba. I also did a two week tour with the Symphony when James Galway was a soloist. We did John Corligiano’s “Pied Piper Fantasy”. And we all know the story of the Pied Piper - the guy who comes and takes the kids away. I was one of the little kids, we had a snare drum/field drum part in that piece. We did that for a long time. Basically I did on and off work with the Symphony for 14 years.

GC: Wow! That’s amazing. So you went to school for the arts, and then you went to Berklee.

WW: Yep. Fall of 1997.

GC: How old are you?

WW: 33. Just turned 33.

GC: So what was Berklee like for you? Did you feel advanced?

WW: Um...Berklee was cool. I feel I learned, like any serious musician, I learned more outside of the school. I learned some things in the school, how to write music, how to notate it, certain things about harmony. But a lot of the things they teach at Berklee, I was just like “what’s the point of this?” Like in Harmony 4, we were analyzing pieces of music and putting brackets around chords and indicating whether or not it was a ii-V, and I used to always think “what the hell, why would I ever use this?” Basic stuff in Harmony 1 and 2 was what I needed, then I was cool. Same for Ear Training. I think any college that has a music program is going to have pros and cons. Some things are good, some aren’t. A lot of those classes at Berklee I think were just designed just to take your money.

GC: Ugh, and that’s a whole other conversation.

WW: (laughs) Yeah.

GC: As an educator myself...well, maybe we’ll come back to that. Berklee used to be a place where people would just come through. Most people didn’t finish Berklee - the joke was that if you actually got a degree from Berklee you were probably sad cause no one come through and took you away. But I think times have changed, I think people want their degrees and it’s not quite the same in the industry.

WW: I don’t think so. I mean, I finished the school.

GC: Did your parents want you to get the degree?

WW: Yeah, but I mean...I got a Performance degree. I didn’t really need to go to Berklee to get a Performance degree because with the type of work that we do, it’s like... who cares if you have the degree? It’s either you can play or you can’t play. It’s not like I can just go to Christian McBride and say “hey, I have a Performance Degree from Berklee, get me in your band!” I mean - I do think it’s necessary for other types of things, like if you’re doing Music Education or Music Therapy, of course you need that. Berklee has all of those. Everything else just depends on how good you are.

GC: So did you start hooking up with the cats you play with now at Berklee?

WW: Yes. One of the first people I met at Berklee who really helped me out was Jeremy Pelt.

GC: While he was a student?

WW: Yeah.

GC: Is he your age?

WW: He’s about 4 years older than me. You know, being a new person on campus a lot of people just start talking about you. Actually one of the first people I met up there was Jaleel Shaw. I just happened to be walking around the hallways, because that’s what freshman do, and I met Jaleel and a friend of mine, Rashawn Ross, trumpeter for Dave Matthews. All these guys were in the room, just playing, and there’s a set of vibes in the hall. So I’m seventeen years old, just walking around I asked to play with them. They said “sure, come in!” And we played for maybe an hour and a half or two years. Jaleel must have gone around telling people “check out this cat on the vibes, he’s the guy!” So word starts getting passed around and Jeremy finds me. It was easy to find me because I lived in the dorms. He asked me to do a couple of cafe shows - Berklee had this thing where students would perform in the cafeteria, just give us a little bit of experience being a leader. So I did that, and my name eventually got passed on to Wayne Escoffery. He gave me my first gig as a leader at the club Wally’s. John Lampkin was another part of that, him being from Baltimore and he’s always trying to look out for the guys, you know, like “yeah that’s my boy from Baltimore, you gotta give him a chance!” I remember my first gig at Wally’s, John wanted to give me the chance to play. I never got paid for that gig.

GC: (laughs)

WW: But the gig was like 50 bucks for 4 hours. They let me play everything that I knew. So I called all the tunes that I knew from Baltimore...”Sugar”, “Stolen Moments”, “Ornithology”, “My Little Suede Shoes”...songs that they don’t play at the club. So they said “oh yeah, you sound good, come back tomorrow”. So I come back the next day and they start calling tunes that I now think everybody should know but at the time I had no idea what they were. Like...”In Your Own Sweet Way”, “You Stepped Out of a Dream”. So instead of writing all this stuff down, cause at this point I had perfect pitch, I figured “well I don’t have to know the melody right now, I can at least hear these changes out.” So John, Jeremy, Darren Barrett, Jaleel Shaw...those were the main ones that really got me started in Boston.