Margherita Fava
Good evening and welcome back to on keys here on WUOT, 91.9 FM, also streaming on wuot.org. Tonight's guest is a great friend of mine, pianist and educator Bijan Taghavi from California, currently residing in Michigan, who just released his first project under his name Cactus Session, a full album on piano solo. And the song we just heard was actually track number six of the record: Thelonious Monk’s Ask Me Now. Your first project is the daunting piano solo setting. Is this your favorite setting to express yourself?
Bijan Taghavi
One of them certainly. I mean, it's the scariest setting, because as you know, as a jazz pianist, everything's totally improvised. I mean, I used to do solo piano all the time when I was a classical pianist, and that was a lot less intimidating, I should say. But as a jazz pianist, I mean, everything's on you. You don't have the comfort of bass and drums, you know, whether it's time wise or rhythmically or harmonically or whatever, everything's on you.
So it's the most daunting, but I do find it to be the most expressive, because there's so many things that you can do with it that maybe you can't do with the constraints of the rhythm section. So it was a lot of fun for me.
And yeah, to do a solo piano album! I remember that was always like a long term goal of mine that I always thought, you know “I wish at some point I could feel good enough or comfortable enough in solo piano to be able to do a concert or an album or something”. So to do it as yeah, my first thing under my name is, is, yeah, more than I expected! So it's a lot of fun, and I do enjoy solo piano a lot.
And speaking about that, there's a quote from your liner notes that was really striking to me. You say at the very end “this album is a testament to the importance of resilience, the power of mentorship and the magic of a special piano in a special place”. Tell us more about that.
Yeah, well, as far as each of those points, I mean, they're all hitting on different aspects, as far as mentorship. I mean, it covers a few different mentors and areas of my life. First, I should mention Dan Delaney, who's just been a mentor of mine for a really long time in my life. And “the special piano in a special place” is referring to his piano. Because actually, when I started in jazz, I mean, I started as a classical pianist, but I was doing this “prodigy concert” at his real estate office. He's a jazz pianist and educator, but he dabbled in real estate briefly, and I always remember him saying that his piano is great for jazz. I was like “okay, yeah, I'm sure I could play a couple jazz numbers” you know, not knowing at all what I was doing!
He was very gentle with me in terms of, you know, he didn't tell me that I sucked. He allowed me to sort of do it and get my feet wet. And I didn't formally study with him, but he sort of got me started, suggesting that I listen and transcribe, and gave me my first real books, you know, and everything, yeah.
And that is that same piano that I recorded this album on, you know, which I actually didn't realize, it didn't hit me until after I recorded everything! Anyway, I feel like that piano, in part, is what inspired some of the tracks to be the way they were, you know, especially for solo piano, I would say that having a good piano is really not only important, but you know, can make or break how the performance comes along. And same thing with Dan's piano, just that alone, you know, inspired me to want to try different things and bring out different textures and things.
And that was another track from Bijan’s new album Cactus Session. That was his interpretation of the standard I'll Remember April. And since we are talking about pianos, do you have any favorite piano maker?
I don't have a favorite piano maker, because every piano, as you know, is totally different. My favorite piano, I used to always say, was a Baldwin SD 10, because Robert Estrin, who is another one of my main mentors, who without him, like, I wouldn't be a musician at all, he discovered me at like, nine years old, and I studied classical piano with him.
He taught me everything I know about, just how to play the piano, how to get a good sound out of the piano, all that kind of stuff, but he also runs the number one online piano store and the biggest online piano store. So whenever I would go in for a lesson with him as a kid, I'd always be spoiled, because I see this like bunches of pianos, like 30 pianos in his place, and I'd get to just try out different ones. And his personal piano was a Baldwin SD 10. So I was very spoiled piano wise, you know, because I was exposed to that, and I was always very picky piano wise.
And did you have a piano solo record for reference as you went into to record this project, or were you kind of approaching it in a blank state?
I mean, I've listened to a bunch of great solo piano albums. And I mean, Kenny Barron is also a big influence of mine, his Live at Maybeck. It's actually funny, though, because Kenny always talks about how he's uncomfortable with solo piano. He just doesn't like it, you know! Although the thing is, he's great at it, like I really enjoy his solo piano playing. But I remember talking to his manager, Karen Kennedy, because she would always put me on the guest list to see his shows when I lived in New York, she would always say that Kenny just hates solo piano because, you know, like I was saying earlier, it's just that you're naked, you know, you don't have the comfort of bass and drums.
By the way, I should say on the mentorship point, I was going to add just the idea of solo piano in general. I mean, Dan (Delaney) was a big mentor of mine. Bob (Robert Estrin) is a big mentor of mine. But in the jazz sphere, studying with both Fred Hersch and Phil Markowitz, they were the ones who really encouraged me towards solo piano. It's because of those two, you know, like all the things that they taught me throughout our time together and throughout studying with them, that at least gave me the confidence and the abilities to sort of be in the moment and be able to create in a solo piano situation. So, you know, I did get to see Fred a bunch of times. Every time that he would do a solo piano show at the Vanguard or anywhere else in New York, I would go see that.
And I've listened to all his solo records. Phil just put out a really great solo piano record. There's this one track in particular In a Sentimental Mood. Yeah, I've been inspired by a lot of solo players, but for this particular album, it's just sort of a culmination of all that, and I just went at it with just sort of a “let's just see what happens”, you know. And everything was one take, actually.
And that was an excerpt of the track Bijan was referencing Phil Markowitz playing In a Sentimental Mood, live in Rome. And speaking of takes, I'm wondering what was the process of choosing the tune list for this project?
It was a combination of some different things. One is that with my whole video teaching…how I teach my private students each lesson, whatever tune that my students are working on, I always like to send them a version of me playing the tune, just for them to check out and just for inspirations sake, in addition to the lesson material that they're working on the initial first session. What I went into thinking was I wasn't even planning for it to be like a serious album. I didn't even think I'd publicly post anything. I was just thinking “okay, let me do some tunes that I know my students are working on”, but it turned out a little better than I thought! So then I was like “okay, let me come back for a second session”, and it was the same idea “let me just record some tunes, just to have”. And then, then I was like “okay, well, maybe this could turn into an album”. So I came back for a third session, and I just wanted to add a couple extra things that I didn't feel like I had, like, an up tempo thing, an extra bossa, I didn't plan anything in advance, which, to be honest, I think worked out for the best.
And the sad thing is, I always find that to be the case. In a sense, I want to prepare, you know, but preparation is actually bad, in a way I find, for at least playing duo and solo piano, you know. I find that spontaneity is more important. It's a weird kind of balance, because you have to know the tune well enough so you're not going to fumble on the tune, but you don't want to overplay it or overthink about it, or think about what you want to do, arrangement wise, or anything. And by the way, that's also another thing, just studying with Fred, that's something he always preached a lot, just pure spontaneity.
And he would actually always get offended by comparisons to Bill Evans. You know, not that Bill Evans is not great. Bill is fantastic. Of course, he just didn't like the comparisons because Bill, I guess, always used to say that when he would like do his head, when he would play his melodies like his head orchestrations, he would say that like, 85% of it is basically worked out, and like maybe 15% of it is spontaneous, whereas Fred is the opposite.
Everything that he plays, you would think that it's worked out based on how, like, how perfect everything is, all the note choices, all the voice leading, like, everything is as like, as perfect as it could be, as if somebody composed it. But, I mean, I've seen firsthand at lessons, I'll just bring up a random tune, and then he'll come up and he'll play it, and it seems like it's like the most beautiful, like Ravel or Debussy composition, but it's just him, you know, on the spot, just playing it. So I really sort of got that approach from him, and that's sort of what I try to do on the album, is just try to leave everything in the moment. And I think it turned out best that way.
Welcome back to On Keys here on WUOT 91.9 FM. Today, we are speaking to Bijan Taghavi, pianist and educator whose song we just heard. That was entitled Changes off of his trio album, Triogram, featuring Will Lyle and Kofi Shepsu. What draws you to the American Songbook still today? And what do you think makes it worth studying and discovering even, you know, after all these years?
Yeah, it's funny. Because I was just working with a student and talking about Dick Oatts and how much Dick Oatts has meant to me and the lessons I learned from Dick Oatts, one of which is how beautiful these standards are, and the fact that why these standards have lasted the test of time and why people still play them to this day. It's because he would say that they're very “user friendly”, and I find that to be the case with the standards. They're just really beautiful melodies. They're “user friendly” progressions, “user friendly” forms, and there's room for creativity.
You don't want your tunes to be so specific to the point that there's no more freedom left to play over it. You know, like, if every chord is too specific, if you have A flat seven sharp five over C going to G major sharp five going to D major sharp five over B flat, there's less room to create over it. You want your tunes to be “user friendly” to the point that, like, other people should want to play them. The Great American Songbook, a lot of those tunes have simple forms, really singable melodies that you can also play around with an improvisation, and the harmonies are also very “user friendly”.
So I love the Great American Songbook. I did a couple Jobim tunes too. And that's similar too. I mean, it's almost Jobim’s Brazilian Songbook in its own kind of way. You know, in a solo piano situation, I really just like to allow myself to be really creative, which the Great American Songbook tunes really allow for.
And that was another track from Bijan’s album Cactus Session. This time it was Antonio Jobim’s Wave. You're a very sought-after educator, and you developed what I think is a very unique and very efficient way to share your teachings and I would like the people to know about this. So can you talk about your YouTube page and your website and how your system works?
The video lessons, actually, I mentioned Dan Delaney earlier…another way that he's been a mentor of mine and changed my life, is not just getting me into jazz, and not just, you know, suggesting that I record solo piano, but a third thing that he got me into was this video teaching system, which is really his innovation. And I've sort of tried to modernize it and do it in my own way, but it's based on his thing, which he still does to this day as well. He started this back in the 80s, actually.
So imagine this is like pre internet, pre all of that. It would all be just video exchanges, sending, at the time, VHS tapes back and forth in the mail. And I don't even know how he did it, he would have rolls of tape and things and receive the students' lessons, and he would receive their submissions in the mail, and then he'd watch it, critique it in his lesson video, he'd send it back, and he'd send other assignments and things and send, like, sheets in the mail along with it. But yeah, I do that model today too. I call it video exchange lessons, which is the same kind of idea.
And like you say, I find to be more efficient and it's more comprehensive too, because I still do a little bit of teaching at Hillsdale College in person, and I found like, I've had students who graduated there who switched on to my video lessons, and they all find that they progress a lot more, they're able to retain a lot more information this way. Yeah, I receive submissions from my students, either every two weeks or every month, and I critique them and I give them feedback.
These videos, they're able to keep them forever you know, that's the other great thing, is they're up on YouTube forever privately. The world can't see it, but they can go back and watch these forever and that's the thing. I have students who are in their 117th lesson right now, and sometimes they go back to lesson 20 and they're able to see some things. It's a really cool kind of thing. And I've had a lot of students also who don't even speak English. And the only way that that's possible is with this, you know, if I was with somebody in person or over zoom, and they don't speak English, like, we would just have that language barrier, that would just kill the idea of teaching them right there. But with this they're able to auto translate the videos and the PDFs. They're able to translate all that, you know, because I've studied with a bunch of different teachers who had different teaching styles too, in the jazz world.
So there's sort of a kind of two extremes of teaching: there's like a very methodical extreme, and there's also a very sort of more philosophical or or less teaching, but more coaching kind of extreme. So that's sort of what I've tried to combine with this too, is, you know, like being able to coach them very well and give them great feedback, like Fred would do with me.
But also, you know, to give them stuff to work on, so they know it's not just they leave the lesson and not know what to do, but they leave the lesson and they know exactly what to do, how to do it. They have PDFs of everything. They have videos they can reference. So anyway, that's a little bit about the video lessons and how I do that.
I think it is revolutionary, and I don't understand how somebody conceives that at first, but I'm so glad that you guys are doing it, because it's clearly working really well.
Well, I should also mention the Shorts also, because that's a whole different thing, and that's just a free thing that I do just on my social media channels. I'll tell you, what drove me for that was I had a student that I was working with. He would tell me every lesson “oh, I just learned this 2-5-1 lick from Tiktok”. And I'm like “that's not the way to learn! That's not how we learn in jazz, like you gotta know the history of the music, you gotta listen to the music! You gotta transcribe, you gotta learn from the legends, not like a 2-5-1 lick on Tiktok!” But, you know, I see this direction the world is going in. And then I thought to myself “well, if they're gonna learn on Tiktok, I'd rather them learn from me than from some random person!” So that's how I started that.
And, you know, also, I record all my gigs now for my students, also to send them the tunes, just for inspiration sake. But then I had somebody ask me for a transcription of one of them. And I'm like “well, this is improvised, like, there's no sheet music!” But then it just inspired me to start making it for people who wanted it. And then as a result, I started spotlighting, like, little moments and performances, like, some things that are also just hard to maybe convey to my students in a lesson. But that way I can direct them to the Short and say “this is what I mean by rhythmic interaction”. Or like “this is what's happening in terms of how I go about doing this, or comping for this person, or orchestrating the head here”.
You know, I just wanted a more effective way to teach. The fact that when I first started, it was difficult for me to learn. I found it to be very confusing, and I wanted to be able to distill it in a way for students. Once I became better at it, I wanted to be able to distill it so they know what to practice, how to practice, how to go about it. So that was really my motivation behind it.
Guys, unfortunately, that's the end of the show for tonight, but I hope you enjoyed our conversation, and I will see you here every Friday at 8pm for more piano music for you all.
