Jazz Trio and Future Projects

Pushkin The magic of Bruce Hornsby isn't just that he's one of American music's great piano stylists, or that he wrote one of the most unlikely poppets of the eighties, a song about racism with two improvised solos that nobody at his label thought should be the single. It's how he relentlessly has kept moving, long after he had any commercial reason to. Hornsby grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, got discovered playing a stake in ale joined across the street from the Hampton Coliseum by Mike McDonald of the Duby Brothers , grinded for years as a staff songwriter at twentieth century Fox before finally getting signed , then the way it is blows up in England. And suddenly he's lip syncing on top of the pops and getting bear hugged backstage by Elton John and Atina Turnerwig. What followed was a long , restless second act, teaching himself two handed independence by scheduling benefit concerts just to give himself a hard deadline, making jazz records with Jack De Janette and Kristin McBride, bluegrass records with Ricky Skags, and going deep into Shostakovich's fugues that now shape everything he writes . On today's episode, Bruce Heldon sat down with Bruce Hornsby at the piano to talk about all of it . But they started somewhere unexpected , the Stakinale restaurant in Hampton, Virginia in the fall of ' seventy eight . This is Broken Record Real Musicians Real Conversations This is an IHART podcast guaranteed human . I just got back from an amazing family vacation in Northern California. It was the perfect reset for our busy lives. Now if you're planning on any upcoming trips, you could be listing your space on Airbnb. It's a smart, practical way to make use of your place while you're away and earn some extra cash at the same time. And with the cohost network, you could hire a local cohost to hand le everything like managing reservations, guest communication, and even styling your space. Find a co host at airbnb dot com slash host . The future won't wait and neither should you. That's why American Public University offers master's programs designed for momentum , affordable , high quality, and flexible, so you keep moving forward. With career relevant programs in business, healthcare , education, IT and more, you can gain skills you can use right away and the confidence to power your next move. American Public University for what's next .xt Le, learn more at apu. apus . edu . If you walk into a room and can't remember why , it could be nothing or something more . If you confuse a familiar recipe, it could be a slip up , or it could be associated with amyloid plaque buildup in the brain. Amyloid is a protein that your body produces naturally, but a buildup in the brain could lead to memory and thinking issues. To see what may be behind your memory and thinking issues, talk to your doctor about getting a full assessment. It's never too early to start the conversation. Visit amaloid. com to learn more. Here's Bruce Hadlam with Bruce Hornsby We were discovered or I, we with the band. We were discovered by Mike McDonald, the Dubbrutter's beautiful, beautiful soul, great person, incredible talent . We were big fans . We were playing the Steak and Ale , the Jolly Ox Restaurant across from the Hampton Coliseum. The Duby Brothers were playing the Colosseum . We were doing our gig . So we decided that we'd go we knew where they were staying the Sherican Coliseum . So my drummer, John Molo and I, two big guys, he's a big strong guy. He's just a big bony ass, but still tall. We went to the Sheraton Coliseum and we walked in looking for Mike and he's standing right there in the lobby. So we go up to him and we're sort of towering over him and we say, Hey, Mike , we're the baddest one of the fuckers in this town and we're playing at the steak and ale over there. Of course those two staminers don't go together against them really . So sure enough, he did come. It was their night off and the next night they play'ingre at the Hampton Colise um and we'd saved all our what we called the originals, my songs that we had played. We'd actually pulled off a pretty difficult trick as lounge entertainers . We were starting to we'd started maybe sixty eight months before this two slip songs of mine in between Brick House and Shake Your Booty and we acquired an audience gradually who wanted us to to wanted just hear those songs and not the top forty dance material . So that was great. It's a good , it's hard to do. So we saved our rituals. He came in , he brought a couple of his rodie friends in the crew . And we just wore it out and he came up and was a little blown by it. He said, Hey that was really something. Come over and join me at the Sheritan. Let's just hang out . So we did . And then we're sort of sitting around whatever bar and the colosseum . And while we're hanging, he says, Hey, come on up to my room. We got our new record coming out tomorrow. I'd like to play it for you. It's called minute by minute . It says okay, sure. So we go up there and he's playing what a fool believes in minute by minute. And it's fantastic. We're just kind of blown away by the whole experience And he started talking about turning us on to his producer, Ted Templeman, and I drove home just going, Oh my God, is this it? Is this the big thing? Next night he came back after the gig, sat in the place was packed, the word had gotten out. He sat in with us on a song and a couple nights later we sat in with them at the Richmond Colosseum and we're going, wow, is this Is this the big break? So that was say december one, nineteen seventy eight , and I got signed in April of nineteen eighty five . So no such l.uck We went out and slept on his floor for ten nights in February of ' seventy nine, Molo and I . And he was at that point he was singing on every record under the sun in LA so many so many great moments of Mike being a background singer on great records . He would take our tape, which was pretty bad, alas. It was not great. He would take our little reel to reel and give it to producers . From that, we got some producer interest. That tape got me a songwriter deal and a year and a half later I moved to LA as a staff songwriter for twenty seventy Fox in nineteen eighty and was grinding away again five years after that, which was a year and a half after Mike after we met Mike , I got my record deal. And so that wasn't luck. It took me a while to find my own voice , something that was unique to me in some way. Before that, I guess I'd probably sounded kind of like a Duby Brothers copy or a Steeley Danish copy . But finally I've similated a bunch of different influen ces that were always influencers that I loved by featured some more sort of Americana or folk or Appalachian instruments. We got the great David Mansfield playing fiddle mandolin . So the range, I was playing accordion . The range was sort of our version of the band . And we were going for that kind of feeling . So then but but then we didn't get signed with that. I was frustrated with the way my song sounded with the with the band. So I went in with a drum machine and a piano and made about four demos and that's the tape that didn't get passed on . And the former rhythm guitar player of the Zombies who was the head of RCA and R, beautiful man named Paul Atkinson , he came forth and offered . And so then there was another company, big company Epic that came in as well, but we were feeling Paul signed with him and then okay, then the record comes out and this is the luck part . Everyone several most people in powerful positions thought that the way it is was a B side . For it makes sense. It's a song about racism with not one but two improvised piano souls. That's hardly the formula for pop success So that's what they thought. They released another song every little kiss. It got up to seventy two with an anchor on the billboard high one hundred and then plummeted away the poor embattled and embittered BMG promo rep in London went to his friend who was a disc jockey at radio one BBC, said Mickey me boy, we got this record. We don't know what to do with it. We really like it . It's kind of country, kind of jazz. We don't know what to do with it. Would you give it a listen? So this guy, Nick Villcoych is his name , put it over the weekend, played the record, picked this one song, put it on the radio Monday , blew up throughout the UK , and there we were. So that's the luck part . Could have easily happened as happened. The good old days when one DJ in one city if it happens to have that kind of effect, yes , it has to really make a mark. And so the way it is did. And we were over there quickly making a video in London and lip syncing on top of the pops and the Terry Wogan show, which was the Johnny Carson of the time. It's where I went met Elton John. He was on the W ilg showen when I when we fledglings were also on , and I hear I'm getting made up before I'd learn how to say no to such things . I'm in there getting makeup put on and I hear this unmistakable voice, where's Bruce Holmespee? Where's Bruce fucking Holmespee? Where is he? I'm thinking, well, I think that's Elton John because I'd heard he's on the show. He walks in with a Tina Turner wig on , which is how he appeared on the show and just threw his arms around me. He's the most beautiful person and a supporter then and all the way through until now . So great, beautiful mom ents like that continued to happen . And he was a big early influence on you. You didn't really start the piano seriously until no quite no, I was a hooper. I was a joc . So right, Elp , what is it Amarina , my brother played it for me from the Tumbley Connection Record. We're riding down the colonial parkway from Williamsburg, Virginia to Yorktown, Virginia , and he puts on this eight track and it just blew me out. It just moved me so deeply. I got the record and every song was amazing. Burned down the mission, you know what? Anyway , so great. Now what do you are there parts of his playing that showed up then? Not really playing, really? No, not really. And my other influence was Leon Russell . And I never wrote a thing that sounded like that's the end You know, I didn't do subsequently I've been influenced by Leon . I have a song called Country Doctor that goes like this is necessarily on the That's my stuff . That's something I developed later's two handed independence thing. What was it about Leon Russell then? Well, Leon Russell, what I was just playing, the letter . And I loved it. And I thought I'd really grocked it, really sort of ingested all the Leon until I started working with him in the early nineties , then I saw at the foot of the master, oh yeah, no I don't have it, but then I was able to learn it. From just standing here watching that, you have relative pitch . Yeah, that's right. If I hear I can hear basic pop harmony. If it gets too chromatic , then I'm kind of probably out of it. Probably probably done, but yeah, definitely not. So I can sit in with a band. I went in off the street with no rehearsal and started winging it with the grateful dead at Madison Square Garden . So that sort of relative pitch allowed me to I didn't play too many chords on one because I didn't know the song . But I could go hm, okay. Yeah, okay, I'll think of the song Oh yeah . So I consider playing on the day when I was born that he went style die So I would know that I knew that when I'm just something that came into my head. So they're if I didn't know it, they the day I was okay, got that daddy went down and cried her but it's not at all So yeah all that when you say things like I love the tense in this hand, I love these kinds of chords . How did that develop? Were you just at a piano all the time . Well , I guess so more than most, I guess. It's just exploration and going with what moves you with my favorite my favorite people were people who gave me chills or on a groove level like Leon Russell just sat so deeply in this thing that I wanted to try to replicate that. I'm sure I'm not sure if I did or do, but that's the intent . So I guess I'm just following following the goosebump, following the chills . And if I play something , now I kind of know what gives me chills . And there are the chords like this . I have a song on a record three or four albums ago called My Resolve and the chorus goes In My Resolve I Rock Maybe fall down trying my ineptitude stares me down in this face I cow . I try to stand above the frame , stand up hard night behind , then I move on up above the hill to maybe fully fly our I just like I just love that sound and so that's what gets me going. One of the things that and were you did you know theory back then? Did you could you say, Oh, I'm about to play a, you know , I was learning it quickly. I was I was totally involved in it. Totally immersed in knowing the harm the the theoretical aspect of harmonic movement chords . We'll be back with more from Bruce Hornsby . I just got back from an amazing family vacation in Northern California . It was the perfect reset for our busy lives. Now, if you're planning any upcoming trips, you could be listing your space on Airbnb. It's a smart, practical way to make use of your place while you're away and earn some extra cash at the same time. And with the cohost network, you could hire a local cohost to handle everything like managing reservations, guest communication, and even styling your space. Find a cohost at airbnb. com slash host. The future won't wait and neither should you. That's why American Public University offers master's programs designed for momentum , affordable, high quality, and flexible, so you keep moving forward . With career relevant programs in business, healthcare, education, IT and more, you can gain skills you can use right away and the confidence to power your next move. American public university made for what's next . Learn more at apu. ap us edu . If you walk into a room and can't remember why , it could be nothing or, something more . If you confuse a familiar recipe, it could be a slip up , or it could be associated with amyloid plaque buildup in the brain. Amyloid is a protein that your body produces naturally, but a buildup in the brain could lead to memory and thinking issues. To see what may be behind your memory and thinking issues, talk to your doctor about getting a full assessment. It's never too early to start the conversation. Visit amaloid dot com to learn more. So I'm talking about earlier in your career, when you , for example, went in, we were talking earlier about the song you did with Bonnie Wright. You've done many songs with her, but the most famous . Yes . I changed that . Okay, I changed that. So when you given all these influences you had, all these people you had heard, when you went in, you heard the song, I don't know, were you given sheet music? Were you given ? They gave me a casset te. Okay. I was staying at some hotel in Hollywood. It's a big one right on Melrose. It's changed names By the way, we should say the name of the song which is I can't make it. You love me. right Yes. Gorgeous song . Yeah, fantastic. Mike Reed and Alan Shamlin, right ? The two guys who wrote it hats off, sitting O for them . So right, I heard they gave you this cassette. Was it a bare bones? I guess bare bones enough, I guess my memory has it being played on an electric piano, but I couldn't have that wrong. So rightright, I think it was basically So I changed it to So that chord that you substituted in that first , what did you turn it into from what it was? That's what I turned it into is yeah, yeah. So it was it was just it was straight yeah very churchy Yeah and when I first played I played the electric piano , the intro and I played it like that so it'd have some place to go when I came in four bars later . So I was pretty faithful to the original for the first four bars when I'm playing some sort of electric keyboard. Okay, so now what tell me what sound you wanted when you started in the piano? Just that. I mean Not really Bill Evansy, but sort of lush in a stark way rather than you know, that's very Klaus Ogreman or Revell is . And I like that, but I like the other more. That moves me more. So I'm just always looking to feel something emotional . And all this thing, everything that I'm doing for you, whether it's that or tent . It's all something that has something deep to me, a deep soul is what I'm going for. That version of the song also has a wonderful surprising chord at the end . Yeah, well, I think that was there. I think that was there. That was there. I don't remember. I can't remember precisely but it but it's the major downside if sharp Yeah . Yes, yeah Yeah, yeah. That's that thing. Yeah. Which is wonderful because that is that is such a beautiful song. It deserves to fade out. And then just as it's fading, you hear this. Oh, is that right? It fades out like that. It fades a little bit a little bit, but then you hear that beautiful chord in the end. It's got such a it's got such power at the end of that song. Well, it's very nice for you to say I wouldn't give myself too much credit for that. I think the song is so great and her v ocal is so great . That's what really to me makes it. But I don't know. But to me , what's interesting for me is of course you do have these influences and you probably have other influences we haven't talked about, but they all informed somehow . Yeah, sure how you came to that piece. Were there are there different influences on your song writing back then? I'm sure there were . It depends on what record you're talking about. I've gradually moved on. Each record was a little different from the previous I'd say you're early, you know, if I think of ended the innocence or Valley Road, you love your suspended chords . Yeah, okay, right. But I don't think saying to the Innocent Valley Road have a lot harmonically in common . One's just as straight ahead . And a cord . That's a cord . And in the innocent is just a lake . You know, it's not that That's so they're very different. You know, the one's just kind of a groove thing, a sort of a Steve Miller ish idea Valley Road. But they both have the guess particularly suspensions. Yeah. Yeah , they have right. That same chord that I was singing my song my resolve over that's in Ballet Row. That's kind of the first little harmonic trick, I guess. We've talked about And you don't love it , what people say is the Bruce Hornsby sound. Sound style piano, which everybody's saying, I got to play like you now. Then you completely changed your style. They might people might not know what you're referring to because you're referring to a story I told you about running into Nashville piano players who would come to me running into them at airports or wherever . And they'd come up to me and say, man , all day long , people were asking me, hey, can you give me can you play a little more like Bruce Hornsby ? And I would always say, man, I'm sorry . Yeah, I'm not really I'm not 're probably not a fan of it either because you get asked to do it. And I'm not really either. It's too bright for me . It's just something that happened. But as I told you before we were you should probably tell them yeah my record company says the same thing to me . What do you mean? Well your record company would like you to play more like the Bruce Horns be hind which you did . Well, but C is an interesting story that was lucky for me . So Paul Atkinson, the ex ombies rhythm guitar player who signed me at RCA , he and a lot of others thought that the way it is was a B side. They said because of the unexpected massive success of that record , the big shots said, well , we don't know what to do with this. We didn't predict this. We predicted the opposite . So they left me alone . They did not pressure me in that way because again, the song that really blew up was a completely unexpected piece of music. So the next record of the scenes from the south side , we had this you mentioned Valley Road. And that was also unlikely. It's a song about a young city girl, society girl who gets involved with a young country boy and he puts her in the family way and they send her away to the school for unwitt mothers , which is an old notion. I don't think that exists anymore, but it may, but it's again hardly it's sort of hardly standard pop fare lyrically . And again, I'm soloing like crazy on that when I'm playing McCoy Tyner , you know , what's called chordal harmony , you know, that sort of thing. Can you give us a quick definition chord chordal harmony ? It's chords and force, yes . Yeah, the interval of the forth , four . So there's an extended wow, that sounds like my song Laun Tall Ku one So that's a different one. So right . So it was chordal harmony on the radio. What the hell? So I got away with this sort of thing twice away at this Valley Road . And then I guess it was kind of I think of those records in a certain way as novelty records because they were in the best sense , novelty because they were so different sounding and it was a sound that was not off putting. It was not incredibly it wasn't like it wasn't like that . And but that was it. That was that was all I was going to get out of the out of the morning zoo crowd Then later with I think hot house , spirit trail. Right. You're changing takes your playing takes a very different . That's right. Direction. Yes, I was I turned forty years old in the late fall of nineteen ninety four . And I thought to myself, okay, what are you going to do? You're going to rest on your laurels like most of your pop star friends or they're just kind of not really deeply involved in moving forward as a player, as a creator and kind of riding along with the same stuff that you've been doing. Are I going to do that or am I going to push to a new place? Well I took the second road . Back to Keith Sherritt, he was incredible he had an incredible gift skill development that I call two handed independ ents . And he could play something in the left hand and then play something very rhythmically opposed to that. Sounded like two people playing the sort of thing . And I'd always open that door to a piano technique and go too hard , close it up. But this time I just decided to try to deal with it in my own bone headed way. And so I did that and I would get I would I had a song on spiritual record So that's what I'm that's that's the thing that independence I'm playing very rhythmically freely in the right hand while hopefully keeping this left hand ostinato real solid. That took a long time. How did you go about that? Was it by writing the songs or was it no made me write songs like that. I wrote there's that song that's called Sneaking Up on Brew Radley. of course you know the song you know that? You're not going to believe it, but what do I have written right there? Sneakin' up on Bruley. So what made you write it down? I love the song. Okay I heard the kind of Keith Jarrett left hand. I didn't know . Well , I didn't know it came out of this exercise. Well, you were right on the track . It's a song about growing up in a small town with a mental hospital in which a lot of the patients were allowed to just walk around town. And when we were little nine, ten year old dumb asses, oh, we thought they were just hilarious with their crazy walks. And so we made fun of 'em. And it's very much like to kill a mocking bird with Robert Duval's character and the way the kids were alternately scared and freaked out by them and also made fun of them . So I wanted to write this song because this was part of my upbringing, part of my past in Williamsburg, Virginia, Eastern State Hospit al . I would say I would get this in Watch me screw it up then You got to crawl before you can walk, before you can run Now what I did in that fifty seconds , it took me many, many months to go from the whole note to free playing like that probably about seven, eight months of dealing with it, doing it intensely. My wife said to me, I'd been doing this for about a week and a half. She said , Man, what are you doing out there, meeting in the studio? You spent enough time out there as it is, and now you're spending three or four hours more . I said, Okay , I understand Here's what I'm asking if you, Kathy Ornsby . I said, Okay, first of the year came , and I called the Virginia Special Olympics and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to great philanthropic concerns. And I said, Hi, this is Bruce Hornsby. I'm just calling you because I'd like to do a benefit for you. And I'd like to do it in early May , can we schedule one for may fifth and one for may seventh? And so they said, yeah, okay, fine. We'll take we'll take the mighty. We'll do that . I wanted to schedule that to give me something to shoot for a signpost down the road that would make me really deal with this because I wanted it was a solo concert. I hadn't done that much at all because I wasn't ready. I couldn't do it. I said to my wife, okay, I've scheduled these two things , these two concerts . Give me this four months and then after the first one just come back and we'll talk about this . So I did the first concert for special Olympics in Richmond . It was a two setter . I did one set. She came back with tears in her eyes and went, Oh my God, I'm so happy you did this. This is so beautiful, so great. So she's a very musical person. And so she got it. She understood and was moved by it. So that was my that's how that's what made me deal with it. It's always good to have some public forum where you are charged with really having something together that you've never dealt with . So that's so that so that's what I've been doing for years. Yeah. But spiritual was the first one. So good for you for understanding that King of the Hills You know, that sort of thing. So not doing it very well, but that's another version of it. Spiritual trail chakal blocked with independence When we started and I said is it all just good luck or good fortune, I think we're seeing some insight how you navigate these things. You like throwing yourselves against these yourself, pardon me, against these challenges. Well, I was just , for instance, in this case, I just was always blown away by when I would hear someone do something like this in an improv improvisatory forum . And so I wanted to be able to do my own version of it. And it's simple as that. Look, all this work that I put in with that , it leads you to a place that guards against popularity because this stuff is not what the average person wants to hear in the popular forum . People want to hear a good song sung well with a nice great production, hopefully . This isn't that at all. This is something completely obscure and obtuse and off putting to the average listener. So I know that I've what all this time I put in wasn't about becoming a bigger deal but playing arenas . This sort of thing doesn't work in arenas . It's kind of like jazz music by the very nature of the way the drums play , it's hard for that to translate in a large space . Nobody's going to cop, don't cop . They're just going, don't boom boom, boom , so you know, it's very free, it's very open and if you're sixty yards away , you're hard to feel that. So yeah, it didn't help me in that way. But it's not what it's ever been about. This is about a singular pursuit. But you've also you do play songs like that in your concerts. You've been able to bring your crowd? Oh , I do. Well, yes and no. I've lost a lot of people who want to have a nostalgic night out. I understand it too. I get it completely. I'm like anybody else. If I go to a concert , I'm probably going to that concert, well if it's a pop concert or a rock concert because I love more than a few of their songs . So I guess I'm hoping to hear their songs. I'm maybe more open than the average person to something else because it's what I do. You know, it's easy for me to want that. But most people do go to a concert for that nostalgia that stroll down memory lane and I get it. I don't dismiss it one bit. It's just a it just can be a bit of a creative prison to feel like you're in a situ ation where you say to your band, here's the set list for the year . You know , because that's what a lot of a lot of people do at the hotel. Yeah , right. It's just basically you're hoping you're not phoning it in There are people who are just great at doing that same set and they mean it every night, and that's beautiful . It would be kind of hard for me, I think The other thing you did during that period, I think starting with Harbor Lights is you really you brought in really challenging players to play with . Well, you're right and people that's the popular notion, but it actually if you look at it, it really started with the third range record where I had Wayne Shorter who had gotten to play on end of the Innocence. That's how I know him . Charlie Hayden, Bailaile Fleck Garcia on that night of the town. It's a good record. I love several of the songs on it. Bearing ground is great. Also using that same chord . It's I guess I'm repeating myself. Nashville are going to come up and say, everybody wants that chord. Yeah, this one that wants that A over D . So that's where it really started where I really started stretching out Sean Colvin saw on that record . I think I've named five or six . And so but yes, the next time somehow made more of a mark with the guests . I don't know why Pat McFine was a huge guest on that Harbor Lights record play so fantastic. In fact, I love that when I got to know the great Justin Vernon from Boniver , I learned that he at age say thirteen had transcribed the entire Pat McTheni Harbor Lights guitar solo. Some of it playing over these crazy He's playing over the head It's to do . He just nailed it because he's a freak of nature and I love him . And then I can't remember the record that's on White Wheel Limousine has him trading with Bayala with Bailea Fleck who we've had in here. Bailey. Yes. Yeah, which is a kind's just an amazing section of that of that record. Love it, yes. They both are just killing it The cover of that record was a depiction of Bruce's dream, which had Dol Monroe and Charlie Parker of course . Yeah , so and so Baila Fleck and Pat Mctheni are modern archetypes of each guy. And that's two guys who like you just keep pushing it. Like Bayla Fleck's new stuff just keeps going. Yeah, yeah, right . Absolutely kindred spirits . Did you learn from playing with those guys? Did it change your playing? I was on this other thing where it's sort of not applicable . The two hand independence thing is not something that they're dealing with. They're dealing with their own difficult issues when they're pushing the envelope . So I wouldn't really say that 's true. I don't think any I think I was just in my own world with this, yeah . two thousand seven and I had to I kept staring at this thinking, Is this real that you did two albums that year? Yes. Very disparate. One with the great Ricky Skags, who, I think, plays every instrument but the piano . How did you adapt ? I'm not sure if you adapted the piano to bluegrass or bluegrass to the piano. It's not it's not considered a piano is not a bluegrass instrument. No, it's not, but it can be made to sound very banjoesque . Sometimes the piano doing something like it can sound like banjo so it fit in pretty well . Oh it was so challenging because the tempos are insane . It's a bit of a little bit of a little bit of a bit of it. You know, just sit ding ding, ding ding And these guys , Ricky's bands have always been freaky great. He gets the killer pickers of Nashville . When I was playing with them, he had these guys, Andy Leftwitch and Cody Kilby and Jimmy Mills on Banjo . So I was just hanging on for dear life. Every time I'd had a Skags Orangeby tour coming, I would take a metronome at and put it on dang ding ding ding bing ding duh I'm not even gonna try it now because I'm totally out of practice with that. But if I did it, then I would do it. I loved my time doing all that. We made two records two thousand seven, the studio record in twenty thirteen , this crazy Jamin live record . And so what's he like to play with? What's he what kind of joyous soul a beautiful soul and just warm person , funny too, ready for ready for a laugh . Some of that country humor. It's nothing quite like it . Often a little blue but great . Very fun . So yeah, but just a consummate player, musician, one of the great singers , and also like Garcia, in his own way , a true walking encyclopedia of that music of old time . I probably mentioned this before we went on the air . He turned me on to Doc Boggs and Roscoe Holcombe and Clarence Ashley, again, the Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music . It's such a deep well . So I learned so much from him in that way he was very open . One time in the middle of a jam in Medford, Oregon in about two thousand two, one and two, one or two were in a sort of a minor keys , spacy thing with this kind of chords . And all of a sudden this came to me fully formed. The song came . I like the times that we spent hiding out from the rain under the carnival tent Laugh and she smiles and will last for while . You don't know what you got to lose it all again . Listen to the melody rain . Listen to the music on line . Listen to my heart break every time every time runs away , listen to the band a sad song drifting low . Listen to the tears roll down my face as she turns to gold So I played that for him and he went, son, we have to record that and because it was something about it. It has that sort of deep mountain soul with the with the with that too. You know, it's a com bo that I would do. We're coming right back with More Bruce Hornsby . I just got back from an amazing family vacation in Northern California . It was the perfect reset for our busy lives. Now if you're planning on any upcoming trips, you could be listing your space on Airbnb. It's a smart, practical way to make use of your place while you're away and earn some extra cash at the same time. And with the cohost network, you could hire a local cohost to handle everything like managing reservations, guest communication, and even styling your space. Find a co host at airbnb. com slash host. The future won't wait and neither should you. 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Visit amaloid. com to learn more To me, it's interesting because so much of what you're doing with jazz and a lot of dissonance is the sort of thing that you have to really be careful in bluegrass music. It doesn't you know, Western swing can do a lot of that stuff. But Bluegrass, did you find it was not confining? But no, not confining. I feel like there's just some people coming to these skays want to be concerts who wish I was not there . But I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for the groove, Ricky and the guys . And they've responded so deeply to that . And so we record and it's okay, very beautiful version of that. So that was and then there's the other one, two thousand seven. Same year. Yeah . You did your jazz trio. Yes, camp meeting. Christian Christian McBride Jack DJ . DJ . What was Alt? So this is the origin story . I would run into run into those guys. I would go hear the Keith Jarrett trio at Car negie Hall with Gary Peacock on bass and Jack playing drums. And I'd run into Jack backstage and he would say, Okay, man, when's the hit I'd say, Well , I'll let you know . Running to Christian around somewhere and he'd say, Okay, man , when's the hit? It's as if they'd conspired . So I said to them to Christian, I would say to Christian, well , when I figure out a way to do this to make a jazz piano trio record that is not just me doing my Bill Evans or Chick Korea or just filling the names Red Garland, Winton Kelly, whatever, Bud Powell, it's not me just doing my replication , then I'll let then yeah, I'll call you. Then the hit will happen. We'll schedule the hit . So it was a bit of a project backburner project that I would gradually work on over a three or four year period and come up with certain things that felt fresh, felt original. And that's the word okay. So I came to them, I called them both up and said at a certain point two thousand six or maybe late two thousand five, hey, I think I've got an idea. And they said, Okay, please send us stuff. And so I did , send them both the recording of me playing these seven or eight nine songs. Some were origin als, some were reworking of old jazz chestnuts . And it took them a good month to get back to me. It's a loud silence , loud silent months, something okay, they don't like it. It's fine . Well, they called me up, but together and they said , Man, we really like this. It's very fresh. It sounds original. It sounds like an original take on this music . I said, well, okay, thanks a lot. That's great . But they said , you're not making you're not making on our playing level . And so there's that . I said, Okay , I humbly replied , I gotcha . We've got five months between the time between now and the time we're slated to do this down at my house in Virginia . So give me those five months and come on down there. And if you still feel the same way about my lack of ability , then we'll just shake hands and call it, call it a day . So I dealt with it. Luckily I didn't have a ton going on and they came down and we started hitting and they went okay . You've done the work. You got to back up. What was the work? Oh the work, was just learning how to, okay to play well. Here's a perfect example. So we played giant steps, which is insane . Sure Hallmarks of the literature So I'm reharmonizing it in my own way , almost him like Okay , so what I was just I was just soloing over those my reharmonized semi reharm ization . And I had to learn how to do that but do it well. I haven't done that in years so I tried to keep it real simple so I wouldn't just completely blow it . So that was okay. It wasn't great, but so yeah, so if I was going to make a record of doing that, I need to do that times fifty and really get it so it's very it's you have to ingest it and 'cause if you that's a slow tempo, we went a little bit of