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Another Sound
Another Sound from KJazz Radio explores jazz without limits, uniting rising artists and legendary innovators through conversation and performance to reveal the genre’s creative spirit and boundless future.
Another Sound
Flowing in the Coltrane Current
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On this episode of Another Sound, we explore how the music and spirit of John Coltrane continue to move through contemporary jazz, not as a monument to the past, but as a living current. Joined by saxophonists Isaiah Collier and Lakecia Benjamin, the conversation traces the ways Coltrane’s legacy still shapes improvisation, composition, spirituality, and artistic risk today.
Rather than focusing on tribute or imitation, Collier and Benjamin reflect on what it means to inherit a restless musical language, one built on curiosity, discipline, openness, and transformation. Together, they discuss how Coltrane’s influence extends beyond technique or repertoire and into the deeper question of how artists pursue honesty and freedom through their sound. The Coltrane current is still flowing.
Hi there, and thank you for listening. Remember, this podcast is made possible by your support of K Jazz eighty-eight point one FM. Give now, become a member at jazzandblues.org. Jazzandblues.org. Thank you. I'm Greg Bryant. First of all, thank you. Thanks to everyone who streamed, shared, or texted a friend, or even reached out with encouragement. Thank you for helping us to begin building this community here on Another Sound. And if you're just joining us for the first time, welcome. We're glad that you found your way here. If you've been enjoying the podcast, we'd really appreciate it if you left us a review. That's really important. Five stars if you can, and a good rating wherever you listen to your podcasts, wherever you get them. It helps more listeners to discover us and helps to keep these conversations growing. Thank you so much for that. This is episode two, and we want to again explore the enduring legacy of John Coltrane during his centennial anniversary year, through the voices today of two dynamic saxophonists, Lakeisha Benjamin and Isaiah Collier. Lakeisha Benjamin shares how her connection to the Coltrane legacy first came through her admiration of Alice Coltrane. Lakeisha's 2020 album Pursuants paid tribute to both John and Alice Coltrane, with a remarkable lineup that included legendary bassist Reginald Workman, a former Coltrain collaborator, as you may know, and also one of Lakeisha's former professors at the new school. Since then, Lakeisha has become internationally celebrated. She's a touring artist, she's a multi-grammy nominee, and she's forwarding the spirit of fearless expression and spiritual intensity. Her newest album, We Dream, comes out June 5th on Artwork Records. And this fall she'll honor John Coltrane alongside Winston Marcellus at the Hollywood Bowl on Coltrane's birth date, September 23rd. We'll also hear from Isaiah Collier, a powerful and deeply expressive saxophonist. Isaiah and Lakeisha recently shared the bill at the inaugural Santa Monica International Jazz Festival here in California. And Collier is currently traveling the world celebrating John Coltrane's music with his new quartet, who will also perform at the Blue Note Jazz Festival in New York City June 16th and 17th. Isaiah's new vocal and multi-instrumental project, Joy, is available July 31st on Brownswood Recordings. As he travels throughout 2026, honoring the life and music of John Coltrane, I asked Isaiah what lessons he continues to absorb from Coltrane's artistry and spiritual pursuit. Here's what he shared with me.
SPEAKER_02He was around all the foolishness that existed now, and probably back then was even more unrestricted. The early eras of the music industry that was being formed here in America. There was they went through the trials that will become the thing that we know it to be. So they didn't have a they didn't have a map. Only a few certain people had the commercial success that each one of him and his contemporaries possessed. And also in a foreign new style within the style of music that was quote unquote too free. And then you look at it 50 years later, 60 years later, everybody's into this spiritual thing. Yet the fascinating thing is also realizing, man, this is a person who's really put their life and everything into it because we're not entitled to celebrate a hundred years of nobody. Ain't nobody that good. Without considering the other ones that were just as good and you didn't know about. But then for this one name to bypass so many other great musicians. Think about all the John Coltrane, you know, think about some other random cat that was hidden down in the south that just never got a recording deal. So the fact that a few of these these champions that managed to get through a whole obsesspool of you know what and still have a global impact that everybody on all five continents has heard and felt the vibration of his music. And everybody on all five continents since his passing has been influenced to still circulate his music. The newer genres that were born after, whether it was Jimi Hendrix and all those cats, was inspired. I think Stanley was just here the other day talking about how even with all the stuff we had going on, we're still inspired. And so this reminds me of a philosophy that uh my mentor Rosky Mitchell used to say, it's called the study of opposites. For everything that is, what isn't. John Coltrane was doing all this, but everything that became his legacy was everything that was nothing of what he was doing. If you see it as a musical corresponding link, but not in the sense of spiritually, not in the sense of intellectually, not in the sense of consciously, um, how it still derived derivative from the same um philosophy. Gil Scott Aaron, yeah, the godfather of hip-hop, is throwing nothing but all these great innuendos that allude to his influence. So, can we call him a godfather of rap as well? Wu Tang, all these cats are flows of derivatives of all the great jazz players that were coming out of there. Surely he's one of them, obviously, he's one of them. You know, and how do we contextualize it? And it's just kind of sucks though, because it's like this this great legendary figure is overly underappreciated in the place where this stuff progenerated from. This is a hard one because then this may make people who think they're appreciating something question if they really appreciate it. But there is a great question of do you appreciate it for what it really is at its base and core of it? Do you truly empathize with the uh inhumane origins that coagulated in order for this uh art form to be erected? Or do you just see it as well I just appreciate good music and I get to say I know what good music is because I heard this concert. There's still a bit of this form of social caste within being able to listen to music. And I think that's usually because most people lack an actual spiritual base. And a spiritual base is not a religious base. A spiritual base is a practical base. Are you in tune with the sounds of the world? Are you in tune with what it means to be alive, walking and breathing, and really taking it all in? These guys didn't have no choice. There was no headphones, there were no no no CD players, no, no iPads, no iPods, no, no YouTube music, no nothing. And back then, I was just talking about what made them so different was their ability to remember.
SPEAKER_01Because back then, if you had to write a piece, you'd have to run all the way home singing that same eight measures, four measures, three measures, even if it's just one little line. You couldn't forget it. Because if you did, it was gone. Exactly right.
SPEAKER_02Or you kept mus a piece of manuscript paper on you, or you kept a blank piece of paper and a ruler and a pencil on you. Either way, this has to get done because I'm hearing it. And if I let this go, yeah, you know, it's gone. And even the people who couldn't write music, who can still retain and remember it. Yeah, absolutely. We're not built the same way. No, it's different. It's it's different. It's different because we're allowing it to be different. Okay. It's a choice. If you decide, okay, I'm gonna go back to using a Nokia, a landline. It's a it is still basically technology still. I met a guy with out. We were in like uh Finland last year. This guy's like, oh, yeah, take my number down.
SPEAKER_01This cat pulls out a Blackberry. I said, I beg your pardon.
SPEAKER_02He said, Yeah, I still got five. I said, Why? He said, Well, when I don't get a call, I don't get a call. I'm not on the and I was just like, no. And it makes you start remembering days before we all had too much social media. Um, the thing is, even though technology exists, I give credit to European culture for being able to still have a socialization aspect to it. Yes, people do it in small pockets, but it is not it's not natural. It comes from a selection of, oh, I just want to be around these people. There is no natural approach to meet a person you don't know and really be able to fully gravitate towards them without fearing a hypothetical danger. It's like paranoia all across the board. Oh, did you vote for this? Did you do for that? Did what happens and just are you good? How's your day going? Exactly. You know, it don't it it all the stuff that doesn't matter becomes the primary focus, and it's maddening, man. And purpose is a very funny thing because it's extremely subjective, or rather, you can have more than one.
SPEAKER_05You can, you can. And I think about that when I think about John Coltrane, um not only was he, you know, an excellent musician, um, his philosophy has inspired people. Um his political activism, without being overtly political, uh is an inspiration. And I think we stand on his shoulders in a lot of ways. I mean, when I think about the world is on fire, your record, um explicitly titling, you know, a tune for Ahmad Aubrey and saying, you can't get away from this subject. Even with Coltrane, the connotations of the word Alabama in 1963 um immediately bring to the surface things that were um you know grotesque, you know, vulgar, and he wanted to to say something about it in his own way. As we talk about um purpose and popularity, you and I talked about this offline a few weeks back. He left his most popular configuration because he was hearing and feeling something different, not better, not worse, but different. And in a similar way, I think you've kind of done the same thing. I mean, you know, New York Times acclaimed artist, um, Downbee covers, other awards that my mind isn't bringing to the surface right now, but through your unit, the chosen few, and you've decided to kind of do something a little bit different, a little bit more permanent, following your purpose and the configuration that it's taken on now.
unknownGolly.
SPEAKER_02He's really never level seven questions, all right? It's weird. I could give you a whole bunch of reasons why I think stuff happened, but ultimately I'm being forced to grow. And about that, it's uncomfortable. Kind of realizations you have to start looking at a lot of but I'm not the same. I'm I'm I'm I'm nearing almost 30 years old. Where I started 10 years ago creating this concept of what I was hearing, life was different, experiences were lesser known, um, other different things, uh, empathy, all these different levels of stuff was at a whole different thing. Everything was like still this newness, and now you're in this reset phase, and I'm sure you've been there before as well, where you're just like uh where where what am I trying to do? I don't and and that's such a different question versus what do people think I should be doing? It's a weird balance of like you care what people think, but you really don't. Um more that I care, I'm interested in what people think. Don't necessarily care as it will make or break what I have going on, but it's always fascinating to see where people on the outside looking at versus being the inside looking out how to gain perspective. And then you ultimately have to make the decision of what you're going to do. But um as I look at it, um I'm just trying to find people that are more in alignment. Um, I understand even to look at those great relationships when we talked about those great bands and that that he had to let go, um, that was also because people had their own paths to walk too. Which was not easy. You know, you've been working on a sound for over five and a half years, and it's even weirder because this music is so impactful. Remember, we just make it, somebody was just brought this to my attention. I was like, damn, you ever notice that jazz bands don't last as long as like rock bands?
SPEAKER_05Good point.
SPEAKER_02Which is messed up because rock bands be the cats would be 70 years old. Still doing it, still doing it. And our musicians do that, but those bands do not necessarily return back to it. Um and it's just fascinating. Um, but everybody's got their own thing you're going on, and also sometimes you gotta also make sure you respect your own thing as well. You can't make apples oranges. Fair. You know? You just can't. Yes, they're both fruits. Yes, they both bear bear more fruits, but those gonna always be those those fruits. So you gotta go where where you're where you're curing for, and um, and sometimes it's not easy because nobody wants to feel like you're leaving me behind, but the vines have to spread out on both sides. Right. They both have to spread out, and then sometimes you never know, you may find them again. Um and but also where's this taking you? This path here is tailor-fitted for me. It wasn't tailor-fitted for anybody else. They not they're not if they were supposed to hear what I'm supposed to be hearing at all stages of it, nothing would change. But they're hearing things they're hearing, I'm hearing things that I'm hearing, and things that I'm feeling, and I need to have the vehicle and the right support in order to navigate and get to that thing exactly.
SPEAKER_05I think sometimes too about his um partners in his front line. There weren't many, but there were a few significant ones. Specifically, I'm thinking about Eric Dolphy, yeah, and also about uh Faro Sanders and how gracious and um curious train was uh and benevolent he was to have them for different reasons, obviously, but still wrapped in love, still wrapped in growth. Oh, yeah um, man, you play so much horn, but I know you found people along the way, either in Chicago or in Oslo or in you know California or wherever that you may consider for a time like that. Are there any replayers that you have simpatico relationships with that you would like to maybe try something at some point?
SPEAKER_02Man, one of the baddest alto players I haven't played with has been Mr. Greg Ward. G Ward, man. G Ward. A lot of people don't get that cat the credit he deserves. Um he is truly one of the main voices that helped shape shape the modern alto saxophone. But most people don't do their homework, so they just think, oh, it's just this guy, this guy, he was up there, same generation as Logan Richardson, and all those cats, and he was in New York just as long. Um, and just a man. The cat dances on that instrument, and he's one hell of a writer as well. Um uh who else? I mean, we have me and Tomoki Sanders, uh, we played together, I'm a good friend of mine, so we have our camaraderie with that. Um but I don't know, I'm also a person that's really into the dichotomy of multi-instruments being involved at this point. So, although you can play different reads, how does that translate over to these other different sounds, uh, world sounds and stuff? So um I'm interested in who who thinks they're fully interested, as long as we all know what we're getting ourselves into. That's good. Because people surprise you. They do. That's who you you who you would never even thought you would consider, but I think this has all been my thing. I've never been a never been a uh the guy to call the most well-known person. Because last time I checked, all the most well-known people were people you didn't know. But they became well-known at any period of time, no matter what, they became that. Indeed. Um, and so when it comes to developing a sound, you really gotta make sure that people are equally committed. You don't want people to got their too much of their own thing that they can't hear the thing. And I I'm not fighting nobody. Right. I got enough issues already. All right. Um other than that, this yeah, I just want people who can be amicable and understanding of um of of of this of where we're really trying to. I'm interested, it's not just the playing, it's in the writing, it's how we understand. It's really we're we're trying to challenge the perceived notion of how we execute this music. Um, a lot of involvement from other powers outside of the mainstream line of the culture has affected the presentation, the explanation, and also the nourishment of the culture. And you can nourish things correctly, you can nourish them incorrectly. But by the time they've gotten so used to it, they'll think the wrong nourishment is the right thing. And so, how are we how are we creating posing the the challenge to how we actually articulate and understand this full dichotomy of culture? And also knowing that we are to meant to push it, but you can only do that if you understand the foundations of it. You don't build a house from the top, nor the middle. It's always from the bottom up. That's it. Foundation.
SPEAKER_05That's it. No, that's great. That's great. Um, I want to talk about songwriting for a little while. Um I guess the spirit doesn't want me to let John Coltrane go right now. I remember him saying that Naema and Saida's song flute were two of the tunes where he most felt melodically satisfied. But nevertheless, he wanted to write more tunes that had that memorable melody that stayed with people. And when I think about your song, uh Peace and Love from the Almighty, um, not only do I find myself singing it to myself, some in good days, sometimes in bad days, but when I witnessed you leading the audience, even after the concert was over, I would hear these melodies, people walking through the lobby, still having that. What is it, how does it feel to have been given a song like that? And do you feel pressure at all to deliver or to give the audience a song that resonates like that from performance to performance?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but most importantly, no. It's not about you. If I was writing a song for the audience, that'd be Different thing, but what I'm doing is I'm sharing an experience, and the people who are singing those songs are the people who have been there. Those songs that we can't explain while we play them with repeat. The art the the author is telling you something that I wasn't written in the liner notes. I've been there. Um and all those these mantra songs, they're decisions. To your point, when the day is going great, when the day is horrible, when uncertainty is over overpouring and from all directions, what are you gonna choose to do? You don't have to listen to the music. I have to tell you nobody's I don't know. Nobody owe me nothing. Right, right. But the fact of the matter, we can truly appreciate and hear that goes to show that we're really making progress and really trying to transform. Um it's it's it's uh it hey, my job is to inform, uh-huh, not to perform, but to inform. And if information leaves you understanding what peace and love is for yourself, then I've done my job.
SPEAKER_03Peace and love and we need some love We need some peace and peace and love peace and love peace and love peace and love peace and love Thank you so much, have a good night.
SPEAKER_02You start looking into conceptualization, you start looking into authenticity, start looking into what is it, what are you really here to do? Um and my thing is I always believe that all music is spiritual. You can't Christopher Columbus culture, you know?
SPEAKER_01It's been your well we just g uh you wasn't making the juke joints. You didn't have the Congo Square, right?
SPEAKER_02Could enjoy it, but it was not in it, so it's yeah, you know, so I just think of what we're doing as music, and if I can call anything, I'll call it Cosme Black music. Okay, but you know, then they then people are gonna have all these questions. Well, why is it called fat, man? You gotta have all this. Just listen. Just listen. That's the hardest thing sometimes because it's uncomfortable. The unfamiliar, the unknown makes us go, well, this is I've never experienced anything like this in my life. Exactly. You don't even know you like a taco until you eat a taco. That's right. You don't even know until you spell you like, oh my god, that's cilantro? Is that an onion? What is that? Pico de guy? You don't even know that you like these things. So just be present in it. And then when they tell you what it is, believe them.
SPEAKER_05Just for us, that's Isaiah Collier on Another Sound, playing us an excerpt from his suite, The Story of 400 Years. Watch him perform this version on YouTube. Search Isaiah Caulier, Another Sound, or Isaiah Caulier, K Jazz. Also, watch for our full-length chats with NEA Jazz Master Stanley Clark, drummer and producer and leader of the Miles Electric Band Vincent Wilburn, and Emilio Modeste and Natasha Agrama's Instant Altar. See all of those chats on our YouTube page. Hey there. Thanks for listening. Glad you're enjoying the show so far. We've got another great chat coming up, but we wanted to make sure to let you know that this podcast is made possible by your support of K Jazz, 88.1 FM here in Los Angeles and all around the world at jazzandblues.org. You can also listen on the K Jazz Listening app. We're one of a few stations here in the U.S. and in the world that shares jazz and blues, both classic and current, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Show your love, show your support, give now securely at jazzandblues.org. Thank you. Once again, this is another sound. Next, we want to share another fun conversation with a great instrumentalist touched by the legacy of John Coltrane. This is multi-grammy nominee Lakeisha Benjamin. I asked Lakeisha about her initial experience encountering the Coltrain legacy, and her answer might surprise you.
SPEAKER_00The first, I guess, I Coltrane ever heard was Alice Coltrane. And I was just, you know, Joe Henderson on there, Pharaoh on there. So I was just like blown away to the point where I just, you know, started getting all her albums. And I started looking up some of the lining notes in the albums, and I saw for one of the albums she had said, you know, all praise and tribute to John Coltrane. So my initial thought was like, oh, she must have a brother. So I then I Googled the brother, looked them up, but then I was like, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. So at that particular time I had already listened to all of Alice Coltrane's work. So it gave me a chance. I decided to go back and listen to Coltrane's music in chronological order. So I feel like by the time I got to the end of Coltrane's lifespan, it kind of met up with her music. It really gave me a kind of yin and yang kind of feeling of what they both mean, the spirit behind it, the technique behind it, how sophisticated the harmonies and just the spirit and the message they were at the end trying to express.
SPEAKER_05Did you ever see Alice? Did you ever run into her?
SPEAKER_00I got to see her a couple times at the Osran. I had a very good friend of mine, George Ann Moldrow, that was friends with her, that took me down there. And uh I got to experience and talk to her and see some of the services and just, you know, young kid, just completely confused, banging her on organ.
SPEAKER_05You know, no, no common sense, but I got to really see, I guess, what the essence of the message she was trying to express was, a lot of artists these days are grappling with um tribute versus celebration. When you're called on to honor the memory of somebody so large that's impacted you so much, how do you see your presentation?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the first thing I think of, I guess, is that I'm a product of the of them, you know what I mean? So if I'm giving tribute to John Coltrain, Alice Coltrane, or Herbie Hancock, whoever it is, I'm a direct result of the lineage that they created. So I don't even think of it as, how can I play their songs the best they could? How could I rock this giant steps, you know, better than Coltrane didn't show that, you know? I take the me out of it. So it's not about showing my skills and what I can do. That's already on display. It's almost I try to think of it as if they were sitting there in the audience. What kind of gift could I give them to honor their lifespan? Like almost if they were alive, they were receiving an award. And they've called upon me to show what their music means. So if no one ever heard of John Coltrane and they saw me, what impression would they get that his music must be like? And that's how I approach how the show should go. They should walk away thinking, I need to go check out some Coltrane right away. Because I just heard this girl do it, and you know, I I rarely try to have myself in it. There'll be a time for that as the years go on, you know.
SPEAKER_05That's a great answer, Lakeisha. Um, and then again, when I think about you mentioned there listening to John Coltrane chronologically, I had a similar journey with his with his sounds, but I kind of cheated a little bit because I wanted to know what all the hoopla was about when they said he was controversial and being shunned for evolving as he did. I kind of jumped around a little bit after a plan. Yeah, but I'm curious, and I know this ch this answer could change from day to day, but what is the period of his playing, or maybe the album that has the biggest grasp on you stylistically?
SPEAKER_00The classic core cut, you know, Elvin, McCoy, Jimmy Garrison, I think for any co-trained lover is the perfect entry point. You know, the I would say giant steps, all that kind of stuff before, those are the classics. I mean, they really start to really get into the saxophone. But if you want to understand when somebody is trying to break out of a box and redefine all of the things they've learned and just put it out there with raw emotion and intensity, and they're gonna play this song for what, 25 minutes, sweat steam coming off of them, and they're all trying to figure, and each member of the band is trying to figure out who they are. It's not just cold chain trying to figure out every last person is defining in that moment the sound that we're gonna know them for for the rest of their lives. I think if you start there, and then you can move forward to the Rashid Ali, the Alice and stuff, and understand why he needed to go to that place and get rid of this group. But for me, I drop him right in the fire. Start right there.
SPEAKER_05Is the music and the presentation moving that way? Should more musicians be involved in um festival and series curation?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. They spend all their time being involved in it on Facebook, so they might as well get their hands, you know, in the fire. I believe that there is an art form in terms of budgets and sponsors and donors and a political element to it. But who better than the artists we know that can, like a Christian McBride, that knows so many genres and everything? But we have so many defining artists right now that are able to do that. Winton Marcellus, like I said, Terrence Blanchard, Jason Moran, that are showing the younger generation that we need your work and your voice and your message deeper for the younger generations that are coming behind. We need somebody to open the door for you know Emmanuel Wilkins or somebody to come and play these stages with more controversial music. So I believe not every musician, but I do believe your call for it, it's a great way to influence the scene that you're a part of.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely, absolutely. I want to go back to um the Coltrane uh legacy for for just a second. That was so awesome that you got a chance to to meet Alice and to see her up close. Uh there was another gentleman, I believe, that you got to work with too that was a part of his universe. It was Rashid Ali. Could you tell me uh about him a little bit and kind of the direction that he went when you were with him?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I can tell you, he might be the most one of the most influential people in my whole career. I met him at a jam session, didn't even know he was Rashid Ali. I was hanging out with him because the guy that runs the club would try to get all the young musicians to buy drinks and stuff, and we didn't have the money, so we're always scavenging around. And I saw a man sitting at the bar with a dinner, uh, a full glass of juice or whatever he was drinking. So I was like, This is my target. So I just sat with him, and he's like, Oh, you want to sell it? I was like, Yeah, sure. So that the guy would get off my back. And after talking to him for a while, he was like, Yeah, you sound good. Not sound good, but like having fun talking to you. I'm gonna go. And I said, Okay, I'm gonna go up there and play a solo. I'll catch you later. Nice to meet you, bro. He was like, Oh, you play an instrument? I was like, Yeah, yeah. He's like, What you play? I was like, Saxone. He's like, go up there and take a solo. I was like, okay, but you know, if somebody sold him right now, he's like, Guess you better get on it. So I went up there and moved the guy out the way. Like, I lit, I don't even I didn't even know it was my shit. Just my whole soul was like, he was soloing. I was like, Yeah, I'm so sorry, brother. He's like, What do you mean? And I was like, pushed him to the side. So the whole gym set is like, What you doing? And I took, I didn't even take two courses, I probably took four. Going crazy after the solo, and then he wasn't there. And the whole gym said they're trying to kick me out. Get this girl out of here. I don't know where she's coming from. But somebody handed me a car. It was like, yeah, that guy that was here said give him a call. So I called him the next day. He was like, Yeah, come by my house and play. So I come by his house. He plays the drums. I was like, Okay, you a drummer, you good? He puts a towel up over a clock and he says, Hey, just play something with me as fast as you can. I was like, as fast as I can, as fast as you can go. I start playing charity. We going, we going, we going. I take the head out. He keeps playing. I was like, he must have wanted a solo. After the solo, he keeps playing. So I'm trying to take the melody out. He keeps playing. I was like, I can't get around him. So I play another song. I think I play Johnny's. I play a bunch of songs until the point my mouth starts bleeding. I put my sacks down on the floor after, like, I tried to get through that, but after a while, I was like, I'm putting my sacks down. When I put my sacks down, it's almost like he felt the white flag. So he just stops playing, gets up, moves the towel. He's like, You've been playing 50 minutes. And I was like, Oh man, are you crazy? And he was like, Why are you calling me old man? You know who I am? I was like, No. He's like, You don't know who I am, and you in my house playing? I said, I have no idea who you are. I just thought you were a cool guy. He's like, My name's Rashid Ali. I was like, What? And we both just started laughing and cracking up. And I was like, So what happens now? He's like, I guess you in the band.
SPEAKER_05Yo he really taught me a lot about like just life.
SPEAKER_00We were listening to so many hip hop records down there, cold trained bootlegs, I mean videos. But he took me in and he really showed me stamina. Like he was like, You sound good, and whatever. I was like, Why did you make me play until my mouth was bleeding? And he was like, honestly, before that time, you just playing all the stuff you know. I had to wear you down to you had nothing in your brain left so I could find out who you really were.
SPEAKER_05Wow.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, Whoa. And he was like, Once I saw that, I figured out who you are, and I said, Yeah, I can help her. I thought it was crazy. It was the craziest initiation I ever had.
SPEAKER_05Gang initiation, you've celebrated the masters, and but but you have something in these last couple of records with Phoenix and Phoenix revisited that you've said all on your own. How important is it to be able to dream through the music?
SPEAKER_00You can't help to start to grow a voice. You can't help to start to grow your own message, and it's like almost like they pass it on to you and say, you know, good job, but go move forward. And you know, I was always taught by the great Didi Bridgewater that art reflects the times. And the situations that young people are going through now, middle-aged people, older people, everything worldwide. I'm traveling all over the world and I'm seeing people that need a reason to keep going, that need a reason to dream and to remember why they fell in love with music, why they fell in love with life, why they fell in love with humanity. We've we've lost like a lot of the brightness. And we're surrounded by a lot of just the day-to-day, mundane, you know, adversities that life brings. And I'm trying to remind people to get back to that joy that's inside them. When you come to a concert, how you feel excited, when you go to, you know, some club, you're dancing, meet the love of your life. These are moments that define the humanness in us. And I'm trying to bring that feeling back to people. Maybe they can see through how I'm living, how I'm playing, how I'm presenting myself on stage. They can remember that they too can have some type of joy amidst whatever kind of adversity we're going through as a society.
SPEAKER_05I'm curious, too, for young producers who may be listening, what is your process for um assigning the exact musicians to exact tunes? Because a lot of times you may have a core group of musicians, but you adorn them with, you know, different special, you know, people. How do you go about planning a recording?
SPEAKER_00Uh so I I don't leave anything to chance. I don't just say, you know, I'm playing now. It would be great to have Beyonce on the song. I sit there and I write the song for Terrence Blanchard. I think about what are the things that he's good at, what are the things that when you hear a sound, what what are those elements and things in it? So that when the guest comes in, they they don't even have to try to be themselves. When I show them what's going on and what the music is, they they already go, okay, great. Because it's the whole thing is designed around them, like the way Terrence plays, he's such a cinematic player. I was like, I want to start this album off like we're in the middle of a Spike Lee movie. So all he has to do is play what he plays. You know, if I get Bilal or something like that, I I try to think of why do I have them. And usually I try to get people that they're the only people that can do what they do. So if they can't make it, I get somebody else. If I get somebody, even if it seems like they're just a regular side man, I'm still thinking about what's the sound that they have. I try to make everyone around me comfortable and better, and then we can make some magic happen because everyone is comfortable. I always see music as a service job. You know, like if you if you could believe it, I'm scared of flying. Yet I'm having 200 dates a year.
SPEAKER_04You know? Wow, wow.
SPEAKER_00I see it as like I have a purpose and a calling, and it's sending me places and moving me places, and maybe I need to meet somebody here, and maybe I need to do this. So I'm just trying to follow the path that the creator has put me on. I don't have, I have within that, I have like, yeah, it'd be great to, you know, play with Stanley Clark. It'd be great to be at Santa Monica Jazz, it'd be great to be at Carnegie Hall. There's little things as a musician that your whole life you've dreamed of these things, but within that, I'm living the dream that the creator has given me. And I I I have I don't know when my day is up, when my numbers call, but I'm called to go forward. So wherever I'm called to be, I take every gig and everything as a deliberate. I'm supposed to be in this place, I'm supposed to be in this moment, and everyone around me, we've all been curated to be here. The more secure you get with yourself and what you can do well, what you can't do well, and what you want to do well, that's why John Colchain was out at the end of his gigs in the basement practicing 14 hours before the gig, practicing 12 hours. He identified it's it's too much, too many great people out here to be scared. It's almost a blessing to even be in the same space. I wish I could be in a timeline where John Colchain was alive and I could crash his gig and just sit there and see it. So I took that's my number one thing that to my students and anybody knows me. Write down what you're free, and that's the first thing we're gonna tackle.
SPEAKER_05A single featuring Chris Potter. Richie Good and Jonathan Barber. Wow, what a cast. It's available now, and as we mentioned, you'll also hear Flame Keeper on We Dream, Akisha's new album, due out on June 5th. Once again, thanks to the recording club Santa Monica, and also thank you to Leah Concildi at Champaign House Media and Lydia Liebman of Lydia Liebman Promotions. Our theme song and interludes are composed and produced by No Stress. Another sound is produced and hosted by yours truly, Greg Bryant, the Watchman. Find me on Instagram at GB underscore watchman. That's GB underscore watchman. K Jazz is on Instagram too. Follow us at K Jazz eight eight one. That's K Jazz Eight Eight One. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Keep doing that in the meantime, and very soon we'll circle back with you again. Take care and keep going.