Margherita Fava
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to a special episode of On Keys here on WUT 91.9 FM, also streaming at wuot.org. I'm your host Margherita Fava, and today we're dedicating this episode to the first edition of Silk Jazz Festival, happening this Sunday on Market Square with non-stop lectures and music from 11 a.m. on. The festival is free entry, and is dedicated to the legacy of pianist, composer, and educator Donald “Silk” Brown, and it will feature both local and international talent, including the two pianists I got the pleasure to interview for this episode: Alex Murphy and Matt Twaddle. The track you just heard was an arrangement by Alex Murphy of the classic standard “Alone Together”. Hope you enjoy our conversation.
Today we are talking to Alex Murphy, a pianist originally from Chicago, who went to DePaul University and is now residing in Nashville, where he's super active on the scene, playing with all sorts of different projects. And you'll be able to hear him in Knoxville this Sunday at Silk Jazz Festival (September 27th), playing alongside the Miguel Alvarado Quartet. Thank you for being here, Alex. Jumping right in, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what it was like growing up in Chicago and falling in love with jazz piano there.
Alex Murphy
Yeah, Chicago. I mean, as as as you know, is one of these cultural hubs in in the U.S. and it's got a long storied history of jazz being at the top of the corridor of the Mississippi River that brought so many traditions to it, and so growing up there is really a really diverse cultural experience, and the jazz scene there, although not often looked at as the same as maybe New York, has some really incredible players there. And actually, my high school band director was second or third in the Thelonious Monk competition in the '90s. Like it was a lot of really strange, just like you know, people who used to be super active who have made Chicago their home. So the culture for growth and learning was the perfect combination of nurturing, but also learning how to be a pro at the same time, and seeing what that looks like, and it's modeled all over the place. You know, you can go and, and so, yeah, that really set me up. But the other thing about Chicago, back to the culturally diverse part that we were that I was just talking about, I came up with a young crop of musicians who were really interested in hip hop and really interested in more commercial, if you want to put it that way, music, which is one of the reasons I ended up moving down here (in Nashville).Post pandemic I just kind of I got into a place where I was very interested in what life could look like beyond just being a jazz pianist who plays five times a week locally and teaches at two different places and has a private studio. I was very interested in exploring other things.
Margherita Fava
Is there any other name that stands out as a pivotal musical figure or non-musical figure in your development?
Alex Murphy
Definitely, a great drummer, composer. He's an ethno-musicologist. His name is Dana Hall, and Dana's amazing. He, you know, he was a student of Jeff Tain Watts and played with Branford Marsalis and Nicholas Payton at a young age before he moved to Chicago, where he really has become a really crucial part of the scene there, but his perspective on music really shaped my ethos on on the bandstand and how I prepare, and the standard of excellence at which I try to hold myself. If we have time, there's a story I'll share with you. I don't think I had even turned 19 yet. I think I was 18, and this was right around the time that Trayvon Martin was killed, and I didn't really know Dana at this point. They were playing this one song, and I didn't really understand what I was seeing on stage. But there are tears coming down his face on stage, and all of a sudden he you know he just lets out this - it wasn't super loud - but he let out a scream, and and a few years later, I I was able to ask him about it because that was my introduction to him, this unbelievable musical moment that was emphasized instead of with a cymbal with a scream, you know, and he just opened up about that, being a black man and watching that and it really put into perspective for me kind of the emotional side and living through your music and and using it as a way to communicate. And then Ron Perillo was my piano teacher. My first two and a half years there. And Ron is kind of this unknown mad genius. He came up in Miami, playing in salsa bands and Latin fusion bands, and then a friend of his convinced him to move to Chicago, and he immediately got picked up by Chico Freeman, who is a legendary tenor saxophonist who you know spent his time or resided in Chicago, and that kind of set Ron up locally to be you know one of the guys, and in addition to him being kind of like a harmonic mad genius (which as pianists, like we can really get in the weeds on that!), I would say the more helpful thing was really the approach that he tried to instill in me. But those would be the two: Dana Hall and Ron Perillo.
Margherita Fava
Let me ask you this: so now that you say most of your work, although you're still very present in the jazz community, is related to other sides of the music business, what do you think it's a unique point of view that you can bring to the table having jazz being your background.
Alex Murphy
People have a stigma about jazz, specifically on piano. Actually, guitar has this a little bit too, but specifically on piano, there's this stereotype I've run into here of doing “too much”, playing inappropriate chords, you know, showing off chops and things instead of focusing on parts, right? And you know, it wouldn't be a stereotype if there wasn't some truth to that. I mean, we all know people who overplay. Actually, there's a great keys player here named Bobby Steinfeld who is killing it. He has a jazz background. Bobby and I were at a keyboard players hang in Nashville, and he was asking me just in a super vulnerable way why I liked playing standards and you know, my thoughts on why jazz was helpful outside of the obvious of like it's a craft that you have to take seriously, and it requires you to have some sort of technical facility that you work towards. It requires having some rhythmic fluency and harmonic fluency and all different kinds of language, but the thing he and I kind of settled on was that there's a sensitivity that our favorite jazz musicians have to space and picking the right moments for ornamentation or or or the right…
Margherita Fava
Texture.
Alex Murphy
Yeah, exactly. And and I think as we get there, as I have kind of stepped into playing more pop music, some of the choices I make and the in the avenues that I try to create in that style for me are rooted in you know “okay this has to be the part because I'm not trying to get fired” but it has to be the part and then it also needs to feel authentic to me you know.
Margherita Fava
After coming from a jazz background and now being in a different scenario, after some years have passed between your education and your adulthood, what are some records that you still find yourself going back to, even after all these years and all these changes in your taste in music?
Alex Murphy
I find myself putting Soul Station (by Hank Mobley) on a lot. There's something infectious about how that record feels, how the way it's recorded, the way it sounds too. So apart from that, you know, I think Wynton Kelly, for me, is kind of this, you know. He's this interesting in between someone who definitely was playing way too much blues, like he's playing the mess out of the blues.
Margherita Fava
If there is such a thing as playing too much blues!
Alex Murphy
Yeah, right, right, right. And he sounds so good. There are so many times where I find myself playing a simple, you know, song that's maybe just got a little bit of soul, pop song with a little soul, and I just kind of, I kind of default to hearing Wynton Kelly. To be honest, you know this artist Anomalie? I had the chance to hang with him. He did a master class here in Nashville, or a residency, I think, maybe at the university that I teach commercial piano at, and he was telling me that his articulation, which is very distinct, he learned a lot from the articulation of Sonny Clark and Wynton Kelly. Very like even and kind of short, to be honest. Like, like on the shorter end. Eddie Harris, The In Sound. Cedar’s (Walton) playing on that to me is just you know. And then Freedom Jazz Dance is like, for me, I you know I kind of go there that recording of Freedom Jazz Dance for you know pocketed kind of bouncy things.
Margherita Fava
How you can play the same thing for eight minutes straight, and please! Give me 16 more!
Alex Murphy
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Yeah, no kidding.
Margherita Fava
And that was Blind Spots, an original by saxophonist Miguel Alvarado, who will be playing here in Knoxville for Silk Jazz Festival this Sunday (September 27th) at 3:30 p.m. on Market Square, featuring Alex Murphy on keys. Now let's talk a little bit about Sunday. You're gonna be here with the Miguel Alvarado Quartet. What can you tell us about the music that we're gonna hear and that band in particular?
Alex Murphy
Yeah, so I have had the pleasure to play with Miguel a few handfuls of times now. The past few times, though, luckily, have been all of his original music, he has a residency at Rudy's Jazz Room, a once a month thing. First of all, the writing is amazing. It kind of strikes this balance between some like looped vamp sections that have really fantastic just like listenability, you know, for anyone, you know, it doesn't need to be a jazz head. The pocket, it's really pocketed. He generally hires drummers that can flip between pocket playing and tipping, swinging, really well, you know. He programs a lot of loops via his MPC, and so he's like layering different re sound designed and pre-produced loops into his songs. A lot of his music has hip hop influences. He's a big hip hop fan, and the programming in particular, it takes a certain style of playing that's a little bit a little bit more like you're in a sample, than you are you know comping in an interactive way. But then when he starts blowing, you have to get into that too. A lot of mixed meters. So it'll be a lot of fun. You know, Rob (Linton) and I've been playing together for almost four years now. Rob and Miguel know each other through Dave Potter and all of that. So the music will be fun. There's a little bit of everything there for the listener. I mean, there's lush harmony and you know your modern jazz stuff. But then there's some really beautiful, really beautiful moments as well.
Margherita Fava
I'm really, really excited to hear you guys. And yeah, I remember that night because we were still on the search for a couple extra bands at the festival, and that night Taber (Gable) sent us a text in the group chat just like, "Look no further! I found it! I got the band!”
Margherita Fava
And welcome back to On Keys with your host Margherita Fava. We just listened to an original by pianist Matt Twaddle, entitled 12 TB. You can hear Matt play with the Sofia Goodman Group this Sunday (September 27th) at 12.30 p.m. on Market Square for Silk Jazz Festival.
Yesterday, I was listening to your album Subsequential Happenings, and you can definitely hear a lot of different sounds on that one. Great job! And I wanted to talk to you a bit more about that album, kind of like the process of it. Also, there's a lot of collaborations on it, and one that stands out is drummer Dennis Chambers, who people might not know is like an iconic drummer, played with Don Blackman, John Scofield, Parliament Funkadelic. So, as you talk about the album could you also explain your connections with Dennis as well?
Matt Twaddle
I was still in the army actually when I recorded that, because I put out my debut album I think in 2017 when I was in college, and earlier during COVID I was just writing a lot and eventually like I just had compiled enough stuff I was like okay, maybe it's time to put out another album. So yeah, I've always been like really into collaboration you know, it's cool to like sit in your bedroom or your studio or whatever and make stuff on your own, but when you can bring other people in and have them put their own voice on on things, I think it really can like enhance the music and and just bring so much more out of the music. So yeah, I guess I was just trying to think of people that I wanted to have on it, and as far as Dennis goes, he and my dad have been friends for a long time. They they met back in the early '90s, and my dad like used to tech for him a lot whenever he would play gigs like in the Baltimore DC area, so yeah, I was around Dennis a little bit growing up, and I had a chance to like go into the studio with him when I was like 13. I was just hanging out. I wasn't playing with him or anything, but my dad, you know, got the call to bring a drum set for him, and he was like, "Hey, you want to come hang at this session? And I had just figured out who he was. Like I was like going down the rabbit hole on YouTube and watching all these videos of him, and I remember him walking in the room and just being like, "Oh my God!” you know. So yeah, I always wanted to collaborate with Dennis, and then it just kind of happened. I was back home visiting my dad, and he called my dad to wish him a happy holiday or whatever. And I was like, you know what? Maybe I should just ask him and see what he says, you know, because he's a busy guy, but so I asked him. He's like, "Yeah, send me the track. You know, I'll listen to it. If I like it, then I'll give it a shot. So he really liked it, and he ended up cutting it. We did it all remotely because I was coming out of the pandemic, and he was dealing with some health stuff at the time. But yeah, I think he listened to it one time and then just cut that track. He's crazy, yeah, dude. Dude can just like hear something once and just…yeah.
Margherita Fava
You are actually the first musician that has served in the military that I get to interview in my show, so I'm really curious about that whole experience, and I wonder if you could tell me a few lessons that you learned from that, like in a musical sense.
Matt Twaddle
As far as lessons I learned, I mean, discipline is like the biggest thing that they drill into your brain, you know. So just just maintaining that discipline and just showing up and putting your best foot forward, you know, just not giving up. Honestly, that was the biggest thing. Musically, it was interesting because I came in during COVID, so there was that weird period of time where you know we really weren't doing a lot, and I mean that that forced me to like get back in the practice room and just start working on things again and start writing again. So I did a lot of that, but then once things started to pick back up, it was you know just a mix of stuff like a lot of a lot of ceremonial stuff, and I would march bass drum, and then I led the jazz combo, and I did a lot of like solo piano stuff too. Like the general would have social gatherings at his house, and I would come and play solo piano while everyone's hanging out and drinking cocktails and eating hors d'oeuvres or whatever. Yeah. But yeah, no, it definitely taught me the value of working hard and yeah, just just maintaining that discipline, I suppose. And I feel like that set me up pretty well when I moved to Nashville because I was just ready to hit the ground running as soon as I got here.
Margherita Fava
And speaking of Nashville, what was the thing that first attracted you there?
Matt Twaddle
Well, I had a few friends from undergrad that had moved here, so having like a bit of a community already, I guess, and I had already always heard really good things about the scene, so I think it was 2021 when I made my first visit to Nashville, and it was coming out of the pandemic, so it was like wasn't what it is now or what it was before the pandemic, really. But there was still a lot going on, and I just liked the community, and everyone was really friendly, and a lot of great music just everywhere, you know. So I kept coming back, and then, yeah, eventually, when my contract was about to end, I was like, "All right, I got to figure out where I want to move to”, and I kind of had my eyes set on Nashville. I was also thinking of you know New York and L.A. and Atlanta too, but Nashville I don't know it just felt right to me. So I ended up making the move and honestly it's been great. I don't regret it at all. You know, it's a great place.
Margherita Fava
And I can see from what's behind you. I see a Juno, a DX7, and a Nord. I can tell that you're more than your average jazz pianist. Like you have a lot more interests than just your average jazz piano repertoire. Can you describe a little bit more what other genres of music you're into?
Matt Twaddle
Yeah, I mean, I grew up listening to a lot of rock music, like I was really into Yes and Rush, Van Halen, you know all those all those rock bands. Jimi Hendrix, he was like a huge influence when I was first growing up. So I always had those in the back of my mind, and then of course like in the jazz realm, I guess you know Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, those guys were always like experimenting with synthesizers and whatnot. So it always interests me, and I always wanted to learn more about it. And and I guess since I've moved here, you know, I like I do a lot of jazz gigs, but I do a lot of non-jazz gigs too, where you know I'm having to play, you know, more specific parts, or I'm like coming up with parts and having more like more sounds at your disposal. Right? It opens up a whole new world of possibilities, I guess. So, yeah, just finding where each keyboard, I guess, has its own niche. You know, like the Nord does a little bit of everything. But I feel like what it does best is like the piano, EP, organ stuff, and then the DX7 is like you know that iconic like '80s tine sound, you know it's got some nice pads and and like brass sounds and stuff too, and then the the Juno you know is just your typical analog synth, you know pretty customizable, so yeah, been trying to get more into like creating my own sounds. It's got a lot of cool presets too, but just yeah, just using that subtractive synthesis and trying to create your own.
Margherita Fava
Was this something that you've always been into, or was there like a moment that you shifted into “Oh, I'm really gonna figure out how these people created these sounds”?
Matt Twaddle
Yeah, I mean it was always something I was interested in. Actually, my Juno was my mom's. She bought it.
Margherita Fava
Coolest mom ever! Like what?
Matt Twaddle
It's like because she used to gig, you know, back in the day, and it was her like her main gigging board. She had like a brain or whatever that she hooked up to it, so she wasn't really using it to its fullest potential, but she had it. And so yeah, I mean, I remember messing around with it in middle school and being like, wow, this thing's like the coolest thing I've ever put my hands on, you know. But I feel like, I guess the last last few years, I've I've been really like deep diving, just trying to do more of my own research and learn more about how it works, you know, both, you know, from the synthesis side of things, and just like going inside of it and taking it apart, and just figuring out how all the components work, you know. So, yeah, I guess it's always been something I was fascinated by, and. And now I'm actually like putting in the work to learn more about how it all works.
Margherita Fava
And that was an original by drummer Sofia Goodman entitled Gratitude from her latest album, Receptive. Let's talk a little bit about this Sunday (September 27th) here at Silk Jazz Festival. You're playing with Santino Tafarella on bass and Sofia Goodman, who's the band leader. Can you tell us a little bit about you know the music we are about to hear and your connections with this band?
Matt Twaddle
Yeah, so Sofia and I have been playing together now for about three years. We actually met through Alex (Murphy), which was kind of kind of funny! But yeah, she's getting ready to record her new album, which is dedicated to the life of butterflies, so each song of the album is kind of like a different part of the life cycle of the butterfly's life, and we got to perform it at the Kennedy Center back in July. Santino was on that as well, so yeah, I think we'll be playing a lot of the tunes from that upcoming album, and then maybe some of her past songs from her previous couple records. But yeah, that's essentially what we'll be performing.
Margherita Fava
What sounds or like what players are you channeling when you play with that band?
Matt Twaddle
That's a good question. I guess because it kind of goes all over the place. You know, she's got a tune that's in seven, and it's kind of got more of a Latin feel, and then it goes to like during the solos, it switches to more of like a swing, like minor blues. So on that, I don't know. I guess I'm kind of trying to think like McCoy Tyner. Um, you know, I definitely feel like I draw a lot of influence from Chick (Corea). So there's definitely elements of that. You know, she's got like a more fusiony tune on the album, and there's another tune. It's kind of more like it's almost metal-esque, you know. There's like a bunch of meter changes, and and just yeah, she's just kind of going for stuff, you know. It's got a bit more of a heavier vibe to it, so yeah, definitely definitely thinking of like Chick and Herbie there. I would say maybe a little bit of Tigran (Hamasyan), you know, because he definitely draws a lot of influence from that stuff. So yeah, it's kind of all across the board, really, and still trying to maintain my own voice. You know, I don't, I don't want to like, I don't want to sound too much like those guys because they're their own musicians, you know. And I wanna, I wanna have my own voice on it as well. But yeah, I guess that that's definitely like where I am drawing influence from, I would say.
Margherita Fava
What are some things that you try to channel through your music? Like, what is something that you think is unique to the way that you make music?
Matt Twaddle
That's a good question. I guess, like any musician, I'm always chasing that flow state, you know, where I can kind of just immerse myself in the music and just kind of let everything just kind of go. So when I'm playing, I guess I just try to channel the good things within me and and just try to be expressive and hopefully move my audience and just play things that I like to play and hope that the audience feels the same way, you know.
