>> From the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. [ Silence ] >> Larry: Good evening everyone, welcome. My name is Larry Appelbaum, I'm a Music Specialist at the Library of Congress and it's a great pleasure to be sitting on this stage with these two stares of Jazz. If you want to get an idea of what's happening today in Jazz, you would do well to sit and listen to them in concert and to listen to some of their recent recordings. What we're going to do is talk a little bit about music. We may open it up for some questions and then we will have the concert at 8:00. For now I hope you will help me welcome Gretchen Parlato and Gerald Clayton. [ Applause ] Welcome back to D.C. >> Gretchen: Thank you. >> Gerald: Thank you. >> Gretchen: I love D.C. >> Larry: Really, what do you love about it? >> Gretchen: I love you guys, I love the people, I love the energy, I love really what is not to love about D.C. it's such a vibrant city and every time I've played it's like firing crowd, it's just a great response and a great welcome. >> Gerald: Yeah, really it's a soulful city. It's like everybody has got that vibe you know, and they bring that to the venues when you're playing for them. It's sort of like a conversation with the audience, which I guess it always is but its special when the people listening kind of have that rich soulful culture. >> Larry: So you're doing a double bill tonight. Some people may be assuming that they're performing together, but they brought their own groups, yes? Who did you bring with you for this event and tell us some things that we should be listening for in the concert? Gretchen? >> Gretchen: Well I brought a quartet, so including myself I have Taylor Eigsti on piano, and Allen Hampton on bass and guitar and voice, and then Kendrick Scott playing drums and singing a little bit too. So you know I say this all the time but the band, and sometimes it is Gerald actually which not tonight but musicians that I play with are really like my family. It's like there's a lot of respect a lot of love, it feels very much like brother, sisterhood that's up there and everybody is very supportive and very inspiring so there's a sense of feeling like very safe and comfortable but then not knowing what to expect. So we might play the same repertoire, the same even order of the songs but every time we play them, there's a sense of this risk taking and anything is possible and you might hear something or play something that you've never sung or played before, or heard before. So hopefully that's we will share with you is just this energy of being very connected and very in the moment and just sharing music. >> Larry: You both worked with a lot of musicians over the years. What do you think makes a good leader now that you lead your own bands? Gerald? >> Gerald: I think some of the best leaders know how to lead without actually saying anything and sort of lead through example. You know, always play at their highest level and at a very inspired level and for me, it's been a process of, I mean it's a trio so it's piano, bass, and drums and traditionally the piano sort of takes the leader role and for me it's been a process of trying to get out of that mindset and look at it as three leaders that the bass and the drums are just as equal in sort of dictating where the music can go. And you sort of have to let go but I think in the end, it pays off. It's like Gretchen said, there's a lot of risk-taking and sort of managing these risks. So for me, that's what a leader means now besides just playing the melody and sort of saying okay we're going to the next section. It's also saying I'm not in charge here. I'm not always the captain of the ship and being open to what the music tells you to do. >> Larry: So it's more collaborative? Yeah, Gretchen said who is in her group. Who are you working with tonight? >> Gerald: Joe Sanders will be on bass and I'm steeling Kendrick Scott on drums. So he's got double-duty tonight. Yeah, this whole art form basically you just seek out likeminded people and as Gretchen said, I play with her and all the people that she plays with so it does feel like a family and it's sort of a mix and match art form so Kendrick fits right in and he's done some trio stuff with me before so it's going to be fun. >> Larry: When did you two first meet? What were the circumstances? >> Gretchen: Well we're both from L. A. We're both California people. >> Gerald: The Jazz Spot? >> Gretchen: Do you remember? >> Gerald: Was it the Jazz Spot, one of those early jam sessions? >> Gretchen: Maybe, club that does not exist, surprise, surprise, sadly. Yeah this could have been 15 years ago or something? >> Gerald: That would be like probably the year 2000, maybe 2001 somewhere in there. >> Gretchen: Yeah, we actually both went to the same high school but different times. Arts High School, L.A. County High School for the Arts, but you know there's just a Jazz scene in L.A. that's very much like any scene in any city where it's small, doesn't even matter if it's a big city or a small city, but the Jazz scene is just this group of people that you see all the time and that you meet and you end up interacting with and hanging out with and playing with. So we just met through the scene of musicians in L.A. and then both eventually came to New York too. >> Larry: I'm going to put you both on the spot and ask you what you like about each other's music. Gerald, why don't you start, what do you like? And I'm not going to ask just about vocals because Gretchen's not just a singer. She's a musician. So what do you like about her music? >> Gerald: Well you kind of answered it for me. I think that's really what I love most about Gretchen in comparison to other vocalists that I've worked with is that she's definitely got more of a musician's ear. It's not so much about her being in front and people accompanying her but rather she's part of the mix and I think that's really the best quality there is but I mean the tunes are all funky and the changes are I mean, it's challenging stuff actually. Like, there's not a lot of vocalists gigs that you have to practice for, but Gretchen's is one of them. You get the music, you're like, man, there's a lot of stuff. Partially because it's not written out very clearly, Gretchen. >> Larry: Uh-oh! >> Gerald: No, I'm joking. [Laughter] No but I mean there's a lot of details in the music harmonically and rhythmically that it's not the usual singer gigs. >> Larry: Can you give an example of a song that you found you need to rehearse or need to really-- >> Gerald: Blue and Green, she's got an arrangement of Blue and Green by Robert Glasper that is rhythmically and all right, Robert Glasper didn't do any of the arrangement, it was all Gretchen. >> Larry: Is that true? >> Gretchen: Collaborative. >> Gerald: Collaborative. >> Gretchen: Definitely. >> Gerald: Yeah so they have this arrangement of Blue and Green where the rhythm is complicated and the harmony is complicated, there's a lot going on and if you don't spend, depending on who you are, a good 3-4 weeks checking it out, then you're in trouble. >> Larry: Well that's part of the mythology of Jazz is that people can just show up and improvise. And one of the things I want to ask you both about, well even before I do. Gretchen, tell me about Gerald. What do you like about his playing, about his sensibility? >> Gretchen: I think many things come to mind, but there is-- you said sensibility and that is similar to the word I was thinking of is being sensitive and there's a sensitivity of literally a sensitive touch that Gerald has with what he plays and everything is really thoughtful and kind of carefully played, you know? And it has this mix of being kind of that trigger in your intellect of how you would feel and hear music and then also there's something that it triggers just emotionally and kind of in a more emotional, spiritual kind of sense. And to me that's the greatest kind of art. Something that has all those elements, it taps into many different layers that we have as humans, as like listeners, and observers to art you know. I love the intimacy of what Gerald, how the actual trio sounds where everything is very specific, everyone has a role and it's very precise, but it really it's going back to the word that you said in the beginning, like just soulful, there's something that people can connect to you know, without trying. And his charts are equally bad. >> Larry: Why, in what way? >> Gretchen: I'm just kidding. I don't think I've ever seen his charts. No I'm totally just messing around. I don't even know. But I think there's a sense of, you might have the same sensibility with a band. The charts are very, very basic and very kind of skeletal you know? >> Larry: [Inaudible]? >> Gretchen: Yes, yes and so at least for me, my excuse with that is because it's really I'm allowing the band to completely be themselves. And to give who they are and what they do to the music. And that really can't be written down or that's an excuse, or I don't know how to write that down because it's just this brilliance that happens and actually every time we play, somebody might change the harmony just a little bit and so I like to just kind of give basic structure and then allow the people that I ask to play with me just go. And a lot of it is by ear too. A lot of it is like just listen to here's the album, here's some tracks from live shows and just get a vibe and a feel for stuff. >> Larry: There is this mythology about Jazz and Jazz musicians that they just sort of show up, they improvise and it swings, right? But as Gerald was alluding to, it involves some preparation and because Jazz does involve being in the moment, I wonder how you both prepare to be in the moment? >> Gerald: Yeah I think for me what comes to mind as the most successful ventures therein are when I'm able to clear my mind before we start to play so that I'm not thinking about what happened earlier in the day or the travel schedule and all that. Or even people in your life just really clear, blank and then you're truly open to let yourself go where you need to go. >> Larry: Yeah, but how do you get to that point? >> Gerald: Yeah I mean it's different for everybody but meditation and just really just trying to calm yourself and breathe deep and that sort of thing. But it's one of those things that there's not really a formula, it's just something that you it's trial and error you know through experience I guess it becomes a little easier. >> Larry: Gretchen is there an approach you use to get in the moment? >> Gretchen: Well, Gerald mentioned meditation; it's for me it was find yoga and meditation. So it was first finding yoga and the meditation is something that comes a little bit later, is still a little more challenging perhaps and the yoga is actually something physical that you can get caught up in so the meditation part of just sitting still can be a little more difficult, but that is the practice. It's a practice. It's the same way that I would practice singing, practice anything with or even exercising it's just a discipline of being like okay this is my time to do this certain thing. So it's getting use to sitting still and use to being quiet and being comfortable with that and doing something physical that can just literally exhaust your whole body so that your mind, it's easier to be clear-headed. Like if you're caught up in something and you go out for a walk even, it doesn't have to be something that strenuous. So maybe the trick too is to actually step away from the music and the task and not get-- I actually have enjoyed a big balance. I don't spend hours and hours practicing; I'm not that kind of an artist at all. It might be just some minutes or hours a day if that. Sometimes it's just even thinking about music or listening to it. So it's getting in that zone and then singing actually becomes the meditation for me. It becomes the same kind of feeling as meditating or getting on the yoga mat and standing there and just being ready to present something or ready to fall into a certain kind of cycle or routine. So in all those moments it's all the same kind of mental state and I always feel really lucky that we're able to use our art as some kind of healing and like transformative tool. Because I always feel it's the same thing like if I said something's on my mind, let me go for a walk and clear my head. I could have something happen and it's like just let me just do this gig and then you perform and by the end of it I feel completely transformed. So that's how I feel, hopefully that's how the other people on stage feel and that's how listeners might feel too. >> Larry: You've done so many gigs over the years, have you ever been in a position where it just wasn't happening on stage? And if so, what do you do to turn that around? Gretchen? >> Gretchen: Yeah I'll think of general feelings of maybe yeah you don't feel like the mood is right or there's something going on between the stage and the audience or maybe the sound is funny, or the music something falls apart. I think my first reaction is definitely to get caught up in it in my head, but then the method to get out of that is to really connect with the musicians on stage. And thankfully these are people that I love to be with and that make me laugh and laughing is the best medicine for anything so sometimes we just laugh about it. Where it's like this is really not happening right now and I'll just look over at Taylor and make a goofy face and then he'll do something funny and it just connects us in a seemingly silly way but actually in a pretty deep way because that's letting go of it. And then all we can do is just try to create and try to listen harder, you know and maybe end up being quieter and more intimate. So that connects with your whole thing of stillness and getting into that meditative state. It's like if something's not right, it's usually because something is chaotic and something is off balance. So, trying to really come back to like being able to focus and connect with both the musicians on stage, and the audience too. Like if someone is talking during a show, which sometimes happens, and people have different methods of dealing with that, but sometimes to me, I'll just look right at the person and sing right to them and eventually, not in all cases but they'll actually realize that they're being sung to. And then they'll kind of be like oh yeah, where am I and it kind of forces them to be in the moment and for me to be connected. And it's not really-- it's saying a lot more and not causing a big scene about it you know. >> Larry: Gerald, how often does it happen where everything falls into place? When it just feels so right for the entire evening? >> Gerald: I don't know, I would say maybe less than 50% but close to 50%. I mean there's always going to be something, but that's sort of what we end up kind of enjoying. Like Gretchen said, making a joke out of something that's sort of puts a different type of reality into the situation. It's the music. But yeah, I don't know, I think a lot of times, like her answer had a lot to do with being selfless and taking your own ego out of the equation and when you do that, you are too busy digging what the other person is doing to really know what's going on and then you get off stage and it's like oh my God that was amazing. What was that, what were you doing? I don't know I was checking them out. They sounded great, I know he hit the drums in that special way that made me feel that special way, but yeah it's kind of hard to describe or exactly pinpoint what's happening all the time when we do this. But I would say that the perfect scenario of amazing piano, amazing sound, amazing audience, amazing musicians is probably less than half the time but nonetheless it's really an enjoyable process for us even to juggle some of the elements when it's not always all together. >> Larry: Before we go too much further, I'd like to congratulate Gerald for his Grammy Nomination. >> Gretchen: Yeah! >> Larry: Yes, did you hear that? [ Applause ] Gretchen you should have gotten one. [Applause] But I wonder, how important is recognition to you? How important is it to be acknowledged either by your peers or by the industry or by the audience? >> Gretchen: That's a good question and I think there's the answer that you want people to hear and then the real-- you know what I mean? >> Larry: Tell us the real, the real! >> Gretchen: If you want everyone to think like this doesn't matter. You know it doesn't matter at all. But of course you want people to like what you do and it feels good to get an award, you know when I won Thelonious Monk competition, that felt amazing and it will always feel amazing and there's people that well, it's not about competition, it's not about an award or the same thing with the Grammy's where it's like, well it's this and this and this and they have their criticisms of it but I'm sure Gerald can say it feels pretty awesome to get that recognition and it's you know, when I think when it's something that's deserved, that's the point. So, you know I think we all as artists, we've learned, at least I have, because I was in school for ever, then had good teachers that as part of the art world to be criticized and you have to get used to people giving you constructive, hopefully constructive criticism or get used to the fact that not every is going to like what you. There's people that will like it, but there's always going to be someone that's very vocal about not getting it and not liking it and that's just the way that it is. And it's a little bit, I don't know if we've learned that as much being musicians. I know like in other art areas like friends of mine that are visual artists, it's part of the whole process to present a piece and have the whole class critique it and deconstruct it and they're being constructive but it's getting used to that feeling of presenting something and having people tell you what they think of it even if you don't like what they say. >> Larry: I'm very curious what you hear when you listen to music. Do you analyze, do you just feel, what are you listening for, for example when you listen to a pianist? >> Gerald: Yeah, I mean it's easy to sort of get swept away in the analytical musician mindset and immediately when you listen to some say okay well let me figure out what key it's in and what that chord is and all that stuff and get into sort of the details. But music is still that same gift for all of us and it has the ability to sort of transcend those technical, those literal sort of interpretations of what sound is. It's just sound and sometimes it can just move you. So you can sort of try to get outside of that mindset and just sort of listen and see how it affects you. >> Larry: Give me some examples of things that really move you in sound? >> Gerald: Honesty of expression, you know when you see Herbie and Wayne and you may not know what they're doing because they've been able to build on these harmonic concepts and the music the repertoire that they're playing. They find a way to discover new things on it every time so they're out in Pluto in terms of like theory and technically what they're doing is really some tricky complicated stuff but a little kid can understand the emotion behind the way Wayne plays those notes and that's sort of what I'm talking about is just that. >> Larry: Have you ever talked to them about those notes? >> Gerald: Gretchen probably has. >> Gretchen: Well, when I was in the Thelonious Monk Institute, Wayne spent some days talking with us so, if you've ever heard him speak or been in his presence I mean he says things that you might not comprehend or understand in the moment. >> Larry: For example? >> Gerald: He speaks in parables so he'll say like, "Well, you know it all starts in the clouds." I don't know maybe that's a bad example. But you know what I mean it's-- >> Gretchen: No that's a great example because that's perfect. >> Gerald: It sort of makes you say well what does he mean by that? Well I guess it does-- >> Gretchen: Right and all of it makes sense and all of it is super deep and super simple at the same time and stuff that could be applied to anything. >> Gerald: I heard Wayne turn the lamest interview question into a golden answer. The guy asked him, "So, we're here at the piano competition and you know you play Saxophone. So what is it like being here at a piano competition for a Saxophone player?" I'm like are you really asking that to Wayne Shorter? You couldn't think of anything-- but anyway so Wayne's like, "Well, you know the instrument isn't really what's important, you know, play piano, play saxophone, what it is, is the mind behind the instrument and what we need is people to think like astronauts." You know and it's like what, how did he get that from-- anyway, that sort of thing. >> Larry: He's into science fiction. >> Gerald: Yeah. >> Larry: And movies. You mentioned something about art and artistry. Are musicians by definition artists? >> Gretchen: Yeah! Yeah! >> Larry: So if you play in a wedding band, that's artistry. >> Gretchen: Sure. >> Larry: If you're playing a commercial on TV in a studio band, that's all artistry? >> Gretchen: I think so. I think so. >> Gerald: It's one of those conversations that can get more and more esoteric and existential because what is art really, and the idea that life is art. I took a world music class in college and the first region that we studied was Africa and he said you know that Africans don't actually have a word that is a distinction between life and art. It is, so when you wake up and the sun shines on the field that certain way, you pick up the drum and you play it this way because that's what it means to you. And you say play that again. Well I can't because the sun isn't shining on the field the same way; it's just a different experience. So you know, it's all art and a musician in a wedding band can express beauty of life the same way anybody at Carnegie Hall or something can. It's an idea. >> Larry: It is. I wasn't making a value judgment about wedding bands or studio musicians. You both have a number of sort of overlapping, some similarities in your background. You mentioned you're not only from L.A. you were involved with Monk Competition, Gretchen won, you were a finalist. >> Gerald: Yes. >> Larry: And it's interesting to me that you are both the children of father's who play the bass. >> Gretchen: Yeah. >> Larry: I wonder how does your family background inform your musical choices in your life? >> Gretchen: I think for me it was really, it wasn't just my father. My father is a bassist but it was every single person in my family. It was his father who was a trumpet player and a singer. >> Larry: He was with Lawrence Whelk? >> Gretchen: Yeah. >> Gerald: Yeah. >> Gretchen: Yep, and a recent discovery was that he was one of the background singers on You Send Me, on Sam Cook on that track. >> Larry: Really! >> Gretchen: Yes, he was a tenor. A little tiny guy like my height, adorable Italian man but it was everyone on my father's side of the family. I have another uncle, Dennis, who's an actor and everyone is involved in the arts. On my mom's side, she's a visual artist, she's a web designer, her father was a recording engineer that built his own studio and recorded Ella and Louie and the Beatles and my grandmother, she has a radio show in the 40's, it was very influential as well in sharing music, Jazz specifically early on. Playing Ella and Sarah Vaughn was her favorite, you know, Nancy Wilson, Frank Sinatra, so hearing music, hearing Jazz early, it just gave me this foundation and this knowledge that art is a valid career and profession and that it's not-- I know other people as artists who had families and parents that would tell them that line of like you need to get a real job and what about money and all this stuff. And for me it was always just learning by example that success is not about how much money you make. It's really following your dream and being passionate and maybe it's being an artist or maybe it's not, but it was that realization that kind of what Gerald mentioned of art just being a part of every day, a part of life. So it just gave me this love for art whether it was going to be a hobby or whether it thankfully turned into a career. I had that bug, so it's a nature nurture thing, it's then having good education but it was never, it wasn't like my family said you should go into-- you should be a Jazz singer and you should play this kind of music and I'm going to help you and this is how it's going to be. It was really like this is what we do. Find what you want to do, and then I did and then they've always been supportive and not just supportive, but you know helped me get to where I need to get just by being there and well, that's support I guess, love. >> Gretchen: Yeah. >> Larry: So do you believe you were fated to become a singer or a musician? >> Gretchen: I do, yeah especially thinking of the feeling of-- I think anybody can relate to that. Having that realization of finding what you love to do and realizing that you have no other-- there's no other way that you could live. It was the feeling of maybe in elementary school or junior high where I was in a production and on a stage and that feeling like, oh this is what I need to do with my life. And then that feeling where it's not even a choice, where it kind of like grabs you here and you're just like this makes me feel completely alive and I just love this and I want to do this for the rest of my life. >> Larry: Gerald, do you feel the same way? >> Gerald: I think I do. I think it's one of those words that's hard for me to completely understand or grasp, but I definitely believe in what Gretchen is talking about, a sort of awareness that we all have internally of like a deep truth of what makes you who you are and what kind of gets your wheels rolling every day and we're so blessed to be able to make careers out of and sort of build our lives around and pay our rent around that innate feeling, that fate, that sort of awareness. >> Larry: Okay, I want you both to talk just a little bit about some recordings that changed your life, things that you may have heard over the years? >> Gerald: The first song I ever loved and fell in love with was Don't Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin. >> Gretchen: Yeah! >> Larry: Why, what did you like about that? >> Gerald: I was just a little kid and for some reason I wanted to hear that over and over. It was just so happy and I loved it. >> Larry: I'm sure you're not the only one. >> Gerald: Yeah, everybody loves that song, right? So there's that and then from then on it was Oscar Peterson, Night Train was a huge record in my life. Oscar Peterson plus One Clark Terry was huge, every note, still know that. And from then on there's a whole string of other records but those are sort of like before I even thought of myself as like let me check out music to understand it and to play it. It was just they moved me. It was that stuff. >> Larry: Gretchen? >> Gretchen: Bobby McFerrin was another that was a huge influence. I think at another time in my life I just back tracked and thought what was the first ever recording or some hearing of his voice and it was actually the Cosby Show Theme song, when he sang that. I think that was even before Don't Worry Be Happy, but then when that came out, I think yeah there was something that just hits you and triggers you because it was all his voice. It was all him layering his voice and then you go and do your homework and get all the other recordings and continue to follow this amazing singer, amazing musician. And something that really shifted my whole life was [Inaudible], Joe Beams, Dan Getz and hearing that album, it was probably the first track was probably like The Girl from Ipanema or maybe Corcovado. But hearing [Inaudible] voice and his guitar and just something that's so intimate and so, I use this phrase a lot, like such a quiet intensity and so like simply profound that was just like, what is this? And it just hits you and it affected me and it made me really, I was so aware of how powerful it is to be intimate and that you can really just think of your art as like an offering instead of like throwing it in someone's face. And you can throw it in their face too and it's just as effective, but there was that moved me and I didn't know what language he was singing, I didn't know anything about what was happening but it was just the whole mood of Bossa Nova that really freaked me out and I was imitated and phonetically just learn it all by ear and it sounded crazy. Like there's recordings from that time, it sounds just like-- I don't know I would never want to hear it again, but it was kind of cute that I did that all by ear and you can't understand a word that I'm saying in Portuguese at all. But just to react like that in such a way, I think is that means something and it affected me and will always affect me. >> Larry: So if [inaudible] was here today with us, what would you want to talk to him about? >> Gretchen: Wow! That would be deep. I'd probably be one of those like speechless, star struck people. But I've thought about that because I thought he is somebody that I would love to just ask him about what I mentioned, like that affect and was that something just how he came to that, you know. And I'm sure you've been asked that too, we all maybe have been asked that about what we do, like how did you come to be where you are now? And I would be curious to know because he's had such a life and has worked with so many different artists and is so hugely influential that it would almost just be a very open question of like tell me about your path, really. >> Larry: I'd love to know about his guitar style. >> Gretchen: Yeah. >> Larry: Because he's got that whole buchacoda [phonetic] thing and it's like-- >> Gretchen: Right yeah, how did you come up with this, how did you apply-- >> Larry: It didn't exist before, amazing. So we're talking about things that really moved you when you were coming up. What are you listening to today? >> Gerald: I'm really floored by Gonzalo Rubalcaba's command of the instrument and his creativity and compositionally and when he solos, his phrasing I mean that, Gonzalo's really high up there, along with Herbie and Wayne who we mentioned and sort of all the greats that we still have to listen to. And then it's sort of different every day, it depends on the mood. >> Larry: Today, what would you listen to? >> Gerald: Today? I listened to Geoff Keezer. this record, actually I have a bootleg of this trio concert he did, shh. Don't tell anybody. I think he gave it to me-- oh no he gave it to my dad and my dad gave it to me so it's okay. >> Larry: That's legit. >> Gerald: Legitimist, legitimate bootleg, no. So yeah I was listening to that. Oh yeah we were in the car, we listened to a bunch of stuff. We listened to that [inaudible], I think it's called [inaudible]. >> Larry: That's from a while back. >> Gerald: Yeah, that's some bad stuff. >> Larry: Some heavy stuff. >> Gerald: Yeah I mean you know, you could just put it on shuffle but there's really a long list and it totally depends on what we're in the mood for. What I-- >> Larry: That's interesting. You mention the word shuffle, that's part of what's different about music for this generation. So how does that impact the way you perceive music? The fact that, well I don't even want to put words in your mouth. How does it influence the way process what you're listening to? >> Gerald: Maybe it's a more honest reaction to what it is that you're checking out. If you press shuffle and then put the iPod away and you don't see what it is, then you don't have sort of this preconceived notion of oh I'm going to put on this record that I really love for these reasons that I've established weeks ago. Instead it's just here's some sound, how do you react to it and say oh right now I'm really digging that or right now let's go to the next track. So maybe it's a little bit more honest. I mean the flip side of this generation, sort of the iPod generation is that it's easy to spread ourselves thin and maybe not get really deep into one recording. I mean there were the days where people were transcribing records and they had to put the needle right at the right spot and it was-- >> Larry: Did you do that? >> Gerald: I didn't do that. >> Larry: Yeah of course not. >> Gerald: I mean I had tapes and CDs. >> Gretchen: I'm old, yeah. I don't think I'm part of the iPod shuffle. >> Larry: Which records did you transcribe? >> Gretchen: Charlie Parker I did. >> Larry: Which one? >> Gretchen: Well this was like, you know college years of like learning Bebop solos, so learning like rhythm change and stuff and learning Donna Lee for example. And it was either a record or it was a cassette so you were like rewind! >> Gerald: You had record players when you were in college? >> Gretchen: [Laughter] and see the whole thing of like I might be on the other end of this shuffle, iPod thing. I actually prefer to hear the whole album. >> Larry: Me too. >> Gretchen: And hear how the artist, it's like a work of art, it's like a painting. It's like this complete thing. I know that is, it's like every album that I've done is like no I want people to have whole range and a spectrum of an experience from the beginning to the end and it's very-- I take some much time thinking of the order of the songs. It's like a set list, you know you think of when you listen to our shows tonight, it's like we've-- I'm sure you have too, unless you just think of it in the moment, which works too. Or I know for me well let's do this song here and this one here and you really have a shape. So I do like that and especially thinking of like album days, like back in the day like Stevie Wonder albums were like everything, every song leads into the next one and it's just this seamless thing. So if you were just to hear the track, you'd be like no, no, no but this comes from somewhere. You know it's almost seeing someone's history there or it was fun when I was younger to hear the end of a song and then be able to sing the first note of the next song just because you've heard together like that so often. And I've thought of that for my own albums too. It's like what sonically is going to make sense for people to hear, what key are we in and what's that next first note and how is that going to match up? So I'm kind of a little more old-school with how I listen to music and I don't even have an iPod anymore and it's just kind of-- >> Larry: Why not? >> Gretchen: Because someone stole it. [Laughter] I was at a wedding and I went to Valet-- I don't ever Valet anything, I'm really like I'll just park my car, whatever. And I think-- why am I telling this? >> Gerald: This was supposed to be celebration of love. This [inaudible]-- >> Gretchen: And then it fell out of my-- [Laughter]-- the iPod fell out of my purse, and now I know that that's what happened and it fell like in the bottom of the passenger side seat because then when I got back in the car it was totally gone. But the karma is that I had stolen a lot of music from, my friends gathered a lot of stuff that I had not actually bought so the karma, I was completely actually okay with the fact that it was gone and now, I try to buy and support my friends. >> Larry: So Gerald told us what he's listening to lately. But you haven't yet. >> Gretchen: In my head I segue into that by saying friends. We have a lot of friends that are incredible musicians and artists so. >> Larry: For example? >> Gretchen: For example Alan Hampton actually is an incredible singer and songwriter and I listen to his stuff all the time. Moving Sidewalk is the name of his CD and even he'll play me new stuff that's he's working on or stuff that hasn't been recorded, but he's really a brilliant singer and songwriter. Becca Stevens is another one, just incredible, gorgeous. Rebecca Martin and it's great because these are like my favorite people, my best friends in my life too. But stuff that I just bought; I just bought [inaudible] Album and Kim Burrell's Album which I believe have been Grammy Nominated too. So a lot of, it's funny some people are always like, surprised that I really resonate and listen to much bigger voices than my own, but I've always have learned and been so influenced by singers that just have this incredibly big, round resonant tone and it's really about tone because it's not about volume, because I try to get that same resonant tone but my voice can only get so loud. But there's a lot to learn from voices like that even older generations of voices like that, like Stevie and Donny Hathaway and stuff like that and so those are probably staples. Someone like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, those are probably like, Bobby McFerrin, kind of the everyday listening-- [inaudible] too. I listened to her that first album of hers, almost every day. >> Larry: I have one last question I'm going to ask them, but first before I do, I wonder if anybody out here has a question for Gretchen or Gerald and if you do, yes. [ Inaudible audience question ] >> Larry: Okay let me repeat this just for the cameras. The gentleman in the audience was saying how much he enjoys your covers. He wants to know what draws you to certain repertoire. >> Gretchen: I think I like to think of this opening up the genre Jazz even though I think I'm considered a Jazz singer, I'm really not very traditional Jazz singer at all but the genre and the repertoire of that music I think can be opened up to just material that we've heard in our life and heard growing up and so the song, you mentioned SWV and the track Weak, that was something that I heard, I was in high school when that came out and I was just like I love this song and then later on I met Robert and we collaborated on other music stuff and it was an idea of like can you help me do something with this song, I would love to sing it and I always tell the same story. It's like he laughed, he was kind of thought I was kidding, but then sat down at the piano and he just made up that vamp and then said, yeah you probably should just do that vamp in the other section just keep the same because it doesn't need anything else. And from there we just turned it into what we do now. So it was with that or any kind of Pop cover because I've done a few now. It's really treating them the same way as a standard. I also came up learning Jazz standards and singing more traditional stuff and at the same time I was an 80's kid, MTV generation and heard all kinds of Pop music, so it's thinking of the material in the same way and thinking of it as just, it's a song, it's a melody, there's chords, there's a structure and there's a story. There's lyrics of what, how can I sing this and the same thing with a standard that might have been sung a million times like if I were to do Misty, it would be like okay, everybody has sung this song but what can do with this that might be-- that could allow me to tell my own story. So, it's the same thing you want to honor the original version and then maybe twist it a little bit. >> Larry: Who else? Yes sir. [ Inaudible audience question ] >> Gerald: Well, that's on the first one. [ Inaudible audience question ] >> Larry: The gentleman is asking Gerald about the emphasis on feeling, especially feeling good, versus trying to impress people technically. >> Gerald: I mean it's a really important thing for me and I think it's just a natural extension of what it is that I love about the music that inspired me and I grew up listening to really swinging big-band music by my dad and you know, Ray Browns, Oscar Petersons and so much of that is more about the spirit and energy that you put behind the feeling of the music. So you're right, that's sort of at the core, at the foundation. And since then, I've just sort of been naturally curious about different ways to do things and sort of other colors and textures and ways to push and pull on a chord or a melody and rhythm, so it's a matter of manipulating it in a way that to me, it is the right balance and is still tastefully musically and still honest and maintains my integrity or whatever. So, that's sort of what I'm thinking about is just being honest and making sure that what I'm playing is a really, truly representation of what I'm hearing in the moment. But that's where I'm coming from for sure, that's home base, it's just making it feel good. >> Larry: We have time for one last one. Yes sir. [ Inaudible audience question ] >> Larry: He is asking about, again forgive me if I'm paraphrasing too much but he's asking about the balance of sound and feeling and memory and the language that we draw from and how do you reconcile all of these things or keep them in balance? >> Gerald: Just for again, my answer is going to be as weird as your question, but as far as memory is concerned, you know you can memorize how something looks visually on a page and say oh yeah, that's that chart that looked like that and this were those chords, so when I'm going to go play I'm going to think about oh yeah, what did that say, it said C minor and I know C minor is here with these notes. But we don't really want to think that way, it sort of gets in the way of the sound. So if you can develop your ears to a point where you're listening to the language and all the important things that you want to pay tribute to in a way that's just sound, it just is. Then you don't really have to think about the technical stuff. I feel like those things are a tool to put sort of like an educational methodology on art, like make it possible for a teacher to stand in front 20 people and say this is how we're all going to hear this, by calling it this. But the fact is, the sound is the most important thing, it's just the sound. I don't know if that's really a way of answering it but even with the language it's just a matter of listening to it enough and loving it enough that it becomes part of your own expressions. Like a conversation, it's like any other language. We're not really thinking about the words, although you know you've had that period where you learn the words, blah, blah, blah, blah but it is just throwing it around. I don't know that was a very strange answer as I warned you it would be. >> Larry: Gretchen, take a shot at that. >> Gretchen: I'll give you a stranger one, yeah. And I don't know if this is really what you meant but reaction is it makes me think of lyrics of the song. Of being that kind of fine-line of being in the moment of telling a story of the song and being present like I'm speaking to you right now and we're all here in this moment. But then if there is a story behind a song, lyrically, you're going to go back to the memory. You're going to go back to the past and kind of gather what your story is. An exercise I share with singers that has helped me is to write lyrics to a song. Write it down as if it's a poem, read it out loud, and read it as if it's conversation. Read it so that you're able to speak it the same way that you would if it was just speaking, not like reading a poem. And then try to apply that to singing so that you're singing it the same way that you would speak it. And then write down the story. What are these lyrics even about? In a very general sense, and then write down your story, write down how do you connect to this song and what is this song about to you? What does it remind you of? What specific event and person, interaction happen that you think of so that when you sing it, this is what now I'm relating to what you were talking about. You have that fine-line of gathering the memory of your story but then also sharing that and being very present with everybody else. You know, and that's kind of a bigger picture of just how we are in our lives too of like that fine-line of being present and just reacting to something in the moment but then also gathering what you've learned. You know we're realizing we're all just humans, that we have this learn behavior and learn reaction and maybe as your speaking we're listening to you but we also in our head, we're gathering all of our answers and thinking like, oh well I know what to say. That's going to make think of something that happened to me in the past, so there's my memory. So it seems like we're always just kind of on the edge and balancing and going back and forth between being in the moment, being in the past, and then even worrying about like well, wait, but so tomorrow, where do you go tomorrow? And then, what time is your flight? And, how am I going to get home? And then, what's happening tomorrow? And, we go to Paris in a week. Okay well, what do I need? All those things-- so you can think of how you are in your own life and then apply that to your art which kind of wraps up the whole theme. >> Larry: It does. >> Gretchen: It's all the same thing. >> Larry: In fact there's no need for this final questions. I think we've done it. >> Gretchen: So thanks for coming, yeah. >> Larry: Yeah, no really thank you all for coming, thank you for your questions and thank you to Gretchen and Gerald. >> Gretchen: Thank you. [Applause] >> This has been a presentation of The Library of Congress.