Jazz Monthly.com Interview with chris brubeck and taylor eigsti

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Chris Brubeck

& Taylor Eigsti

Smitty: Well, I am totally excited to have at JazzMonthly.com two of the most exciting musicians on the planet. They have individually and collectively created some of the most fantastic music I have ever heard. Please welcome Concord Music recording artist, the incredible Mr. Taylor Eigsti, who is a two-time Grammy nominee and, in my opinion, should be a two-time Grammy winner, and Koch recording artist, Chris Brubeck, representing the Brubeck Brothers Quartet. They have two great projects out. Taylor has produced Let it Come to You and let me tell ya, there is an incredible story behind this great CD. And Chris Brubeck with the Brubeck Brothers has a great CD. It is called Classified and trust me, I understand the title but we can’t keep this classified no longer. It features special guests, the Imani Winds. (All laugh.) So please welcome these great musicians, Taylor and Chris. Hey Guys!

Taylor Eigsti (TE): Hi, I’m doing good.

Smitty: All right.

Chris Brubeck (CB): And Chris is doing good too and we’re lucky because my central air conditioning is working and it’s 95 outside right now.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Let me tell ya, you guys have got some heat. And it’s sort of an interesting thing with these hot new titles you have and these great projects, and now you’ve got the heat to go with it.

CB: Yeah, that’s true.

Smitty: Wow, now, Taylor, I first heard about you when I did an interview with Chris with the Intuition project and he told me this fantastic story that just blew me away and I thought, in fact, in some ways it was kind of comical but, man, he said in that story that he knew that you were going on to bigger and better things, and he nailed it.

CB: (Laughs.)

Smitty: Yeah, Chris, talk to me a little bit about that. Can you reveal that story again for the fans out there?

CB: Yeah, I just hope I remember it correctly. But I think pretty much that Taylor was about 11 years old and his mother Nancy, who had come on to be a good friend of our family, brought Taylor back up a mountainside at the Paul Masson Winery. They used to do concerts up there. And Taylor, if I’m wrong, jump in and correct me because we’ll have two memories and your brain works better than mine, I think.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

CB: And I think that’s where I met you, but then I also remember we got a CD—or a cassette at that time—of your playing and so we knew there was a lot of talent and amazing, you know, someone who was very far in his journey to becoming a great piano player even at a very early age. But I think it was about when you were 14 that I did the first gig with you and Dan. And I should back up a step because Taylor’s first record Dan played drums on, right?

TE: Yeah.

CB: The thrust of it is when we played that gig together, when I think he was about 14, then, you know, sometimes you hear someone that plays piano really well and you think they have a lot of technique and they’ve listened to a lot of Oscar Peterson records or whatever their influence will be, and sometimes they play great but it’s sort of a set and limited amount of licks that they know, but in this case, we were rehearsing charts that I know he had never seen before because they were little tunes I’d just written and we were throwing them at him and boom! He was playing his butt off just right away, and every time we were rehearsing or whatever, every solo was completely different and I’m going “Wow, does this guy have the goods!” So that’s when I really, really knew that he was a very exceptional talent at that point, and there’s a long history of integration with promoters in the Bay Area recognizing that Taylor and one of his early idols, David Benoit, then Dave (Brubeck), they would promote concerts. There were three generations of jazz piano players: Dave, David Benoit and Taylor. And then sometimes Dan and I would be the rhythm section for all three groups, so…

Smitty: Wow.

CB: Taylor, you should take over from here if you have anything to add.

TE: Oh yeah, well, no, that was definitely some of the first times I got to play with you guys and, yeah, it was really fun. I guess maybe that was how it was. Maybe Dan was on the CD and then it wasn’t until after that that I did a gig with you guys and then I’ve been kind of off and on a part of the Brubeck Brothers Quartet when I can and when it works out for everyone and all that, and the new CD is really great. In fact, my mom was just calling me yesterday to ask if I had heard it yet and, of course, I had, but she was just raving about it. She says it’s the best yet. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Wow, well, hey, when you get Mom’s endorsement, man, that’s it.

CB: Well, this is especially peculiar because this is a record that Taylor’s not on.

TE: (Laughs) Oh, my mom just really loves this record and it’s the one that I’m not on. It’s like, well, they’re making some improvements here. (All laugh.) Some things are going in the right direction. But no, but Classified is such a great CD. I have to say this because I got to see this music live too and with the Imani Winds and it’s pretty incredible to see how well they lock up with everyone and just how everything is just so well arranged. I really, really enjoyed hearing that project.

Smitty: Wow, hey, you got an endorsement from Taylor, Chris. How good does it get?

TE: I don’t even have to lose all my super delegates to endorse that record. (All laugh.) So I give it my full stamp.

CB: No, that feels great and I should reciprocate because, Smitty, back to your original question, one of the things I probably told you is one of the reasons that the last record that we did do with Taylor is called Intuition is because Dan and I had this intuition, which you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that Taylor has so many talents that he was gonna have a really big career and he already showed so much ability as a composer that I knew that that was gonna drive him and take him into places and that he really had to have his own band, have his own career and all that kind of stuff, so we really wanted to have him on Intuition as sort of a documentation of the kind of fun and energy we had and then I knew he was gonna go on and get attention of really bigtime managers and they’re gonna wanna pair him up with this guy and that guy, and all these things that I knew was gonna happen happened, like on the new record is Joshua Redman and Taylor plays with all these guys and just sounds great. So it’s a cool thing and we’re both very happy for each other’s successes and I think his record is spectacular.

Smitty: Yes, it is. Man, let me tell ya, both of these projects are the type that you can’t put down. In fact, I put them both in the changer and just kind of flipping back and forth through both of them, it’s like “This is overload!” (Laughs.)

CB: Well, there’s a lot of musical thought in both of them, you know?

Smitty: Yeah, and I can feel that. I mean, I felt the discipline of the compositions and just the love and the fun, and there are a lot of emotions and elements in there that are so clearly defined that the listener can gravitate to very easily and get really just caught up in it and just immersed in it. It’s very cool.

CB: Well, good. I’m glad it’s working out that way.

TE: Well, I think one of the things that I learned by getting a chance to play with a bunch of great musicians, especially getting a chance to travel and play with the Brubeck Brothers too, their music is music that’s complicated and complex but yet it doesn’t abandon the listener. It brings the listener along with them where there’s a melodic statement where people attach themselves to and then they can kind of see where people go on their journeys and that sort of thing. Because sometimes, as we all know, I think sometimes jazz music can get a little brainy occasionally.

Smitty: Yeah, that’s so true.

TE: And occasionally it leaves even musician listeners a little puzzled or left behind, that kind of thing, but what I’ve really tried to take myself from situations like the Brubeck Brothers or just other people that I really respect musically is just kind of a concept of trying to put the melody first and just….if you’re telling a story to someone, you would set up what kind of a story you’re telling and just shape it the right way and everything instead of just kind of launching into something you were working out at home along, that kind of thing. I mean, I think there’s a lot of really, really great music being put out nowadays, but occasionally I’ll go to a concert when I’m just very confused.—I think what you were saying was the emotional thing, I think that’s always an important thing to focus on. That’s what I really enjoy because it can be a great reflection of those kind of things, emotions in general.

Smitty: Yeah. Taylor, take us back to….you’re 16 years old and Marion McPartland couldn’t make it and you stand in as an emergency backup at a concert. Do you remember that?

TE: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was at Filoli Gardens in the Bay Area. Woodside, I believe, Woodside or Portola Valley, one of those cities. But it was a really great situation. It was recorded for this radio show that they had and everything, and I can’t remember if I met Marion before that or after it or something, but that was the start of a great friendship with Bud Spangler, kind of an epic Bay Area radio host and drummer and jazz promoter. So that was a really fun opportunity and also led to a really nice friendship with Marion.

Smitty: Had you ever done any kind of emergency backup last minute thing? Especially in this kind of setting?

TE: Well, maybe not in that kind of setting, but I guess it’s possible that it happened before, a lot of random different, you know, so and so can’t make it and do the gig. A lot of times, too, when you’re just coming up, that’s how you get a lot of gigs too, you know, so and so can’t make it, so hey, I’ll take it. I just want to get an opportunity to go out there and perform and that kind of thing.

Smitty: Yeah, and it was a live recording, right?

TE: Yeah, yeah, it turned out that there was such great energy with the audience there that we were able to actually get a really nice full recording out of it.

Smitty: Wow, unbelievable. And, Chris, talk to me about when you hear of all these things that Taylor’s doing after he left the fold, how does that make you feel when you had already said you knew that he was going to be a star, and he truly is. How does that make you feel when you hear all the wonderful things he’s doing?

CB: Well, it makes me feel proud and also reminds me that I’m not an idiot (all laugh), that I could hear everything that was going on. I mean, it was always remarkable when I first heard him and yet I knew that there was potential for him to do even more. One thing you were just saying, Taylor, you mind if I repeat what I said to you when I got out of the car?

TE: Oh, yeah. No, that’s fine.

CB: Because I was telling him about in one of the tracks on his CD, he wrote a suite and I think it was I was saying that it was the second movement of the suite, and is that right, Taylor?

TE: Yeah, I’m not lost yet.

CB: But I was thinking, on the surface it almost feels like a funky smooth jazz kind of thing.

Smitty: Yeah.

CB: In terms of like it’s got a high phat back, you know, piccolo snare drum thing going, and it’s got this calm thing going on, but I said there’s so many layers of deep intellectual things going on beneath it and melodic content, and I said it’s really interesting that you’ve got that texture on the surface, which is sort of a comfort lure, but if anyone actually turns their brain deeply on, they’ll see there’s so much information going on underneath there.

TE: I try to give them some options. (All laugh.)

Smitty: And that’s the cool thing, you’re so right, Chris because you don’t hear that every day, and I especially gravitated to that entire suite because the movements are incredible.

TE: Oh, thank you.

Smitty: Yeah, and then when I read the liner notes about the brick steps, it’s like, okay, this guy’s got a fetish for bricks. What’s going on here, you know? (All laugh.) But I truly get it when I listen to the music and then reading your story and how you go back to those things that really comfort you and help to reassure you about your life and where you’re going and those different directions and letting life come to you. I totally get that and I think you interpreted that beautifully in the music.

TE: Oh man, well, thanks. That suite was kind of created—I always have like hundreds and hundreds of song fragments that are just scattered about the floor or in stacks or whatever else, just little songs that I can’t finish, and I had these three songs that I really wanted to do on the recording but they all kind of had a similar theme, similar instrumentation and vibe and everything, and I hadn’t named any of them yet too, and once I figured out a goal and a direction to kind of take the meaning behind those tunes, that kind of solidified their purpose as a suite and the song “Let it Come to You” is a ballad that I wrote, it’s right before the suite on the record, it’s kind of an honorary part of the suite. Because it came out of the same kind of meaning, the same source and everything, and has the rhythm piano faded way back in the mix in there as well, but we just decided to not include that as part of the suite, so it’s just three movements.

Smitty: Yeah, but it’s a great connection, a great sort of a lead-in, you know?

TE: Oh, thanks.

Smitty: Yeah, and it reminds me of Chris on Classified, “Friends Beyond Time.”

CB: Yeah, we were just thinking that. I’m thinking like, yeah, I have a ballad that’s the connective tissue to “Vignette.”

Smitty: Yeah, and when I hear the horn, it reminded me of Sinatra taking a break and saying “Chris, can you do the lyrics on the trombone?”

CB: Oh, well, thanks. That’s a nice compliment.

Smitty: Yeah, man, it’s beautiful. I mean, it’s like if ever the trombone did say a word, it was then, you know, it’s talking to you, it’s like a romantic kind of “come into my parlor” kind of thing, you know?

CB: Oh yeah. Well, or definitely to have one last Scotch with me tonight.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

CB: As the bar is closing. I mean, that’s what we were kind of after. And we’ve all kind of probably done those gigs where there’s just the band who are just so tired on their third or fourth set and just the real diehard fans and everyone’s quite well lubricated and in the jazz zone and then just that kind of intimate thing can happen.

Smitty: So true.

CB: So yeah, that’s what I was going after, so I guess it worked. I mean, when I was a kid I listened to lots of Louis Armstrong and Trummy Young, who was an influence for me as a trombonist, and also hearing tons and tons of Paul Desmond, and they were all players that put emotive content way above technical flash.

Smitty: Yeah, Trummy was great, still remember his hit version of “Margie”.

CB: And that certainly has influenced my feelings about music, and the older I get, the more I see it played out that the ability to have a connection with the audience.

Smitty: Mm, yeah.

CB: Well, this is very true in classical music too, not just jazz. I mean, either could be an incredible display of craftsmanship, but that doesn’t replace just connecting as a musical spirit in some way. That’s the most important thing for an audience.

Smitty: I agree, yeah.

CB: And actually ultimately as a musician it’s the most important thing. When people want to come out and see a musician, like many of them might appreciate “Wow, this guy has blazing technique” or “Wow, is that guy inventive,” but on a certain level, what they really think is “Wow, this guy has this musical spirit that I really want to be around and enjoy.” And it’s not necessarily “spiritual,” but that’s that sort of, you know, sometimes we say “That player’s got a lotta soul,” that’s all part of the same way of giving a different name to the same kind of musical essence that I’m talking about.

Smitty: Yeah, it develops such a common ground, such a connection when you’re listening to both of these projects, actually, because it has something, it has an appeal that you don’t get with every project. It’s that good. And “Dance of the Shadow,” whoo, what a great track, man!

CB: Oh, man, thank you. I’m glad you liked it.

Smitty: Yeah, and is Dan around? My Gosh, is he a bad boy or what?

CB: (Laughs.)

Smitty: Whoo!

CB: Yes, he is. Yeah, he’s up in Canada at the moment. Actually, he’s on a river. He’s Kayaking or something, river rafting with his son Trevor in the wilderness.

Smitty: Wow, man, well, when you see him again, you tell him I said he is a beast. Man, he is incredible, and I still brag about Dan from the first time I heard him a few years ago. I tell everybody when we get on the subject of drummers, it’s like, man, wait, you haven’t heard a drummer yet until you’ve heard Dan. My Gosh. (Both laugh.)

CB: Are you thinking of that 7/4 funky tune “Parade du Funk” from the Intuition project…

Smitty: Yeah, and the first time I heard Dan was the solo he did on the live version of “Take Five.”

CB: Uh-huh.

Smitty: Whoo! It was like “Play that again,” you know?

CB: Yeah, well, he’s been around Joe Morello and studied with Joe and Alan Dawson, two great jazz players and teachers, and heard that all of his life and has been hearing like how you mess around with an odd time signature and how you stretch it and polyrhythmically overlay it, and that’s sort of his—kind of his specialty as a drummer.

Smitty: Let me tell ya. And talk to me about Classified. Why the title Classified?

CB: Well, it was just because I wanted some way referring to the fact that—we’ve mentioned this earlier in this interview, but for your readers, “Vignettes for No Net” is kind of a classical piece. I mean, it was commissioned by classical forces: the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra Society, and Bay Chamber Concerts of Maine, and it was like one of the best phone calls that a composer can get and I hope it happens to Taylor someday where a guy calls you up and says “We would like to pay you a nice amount of money to write a woodwind quintet and jazz quartet piece work that’s really challenging and difficult because we have some of the best players in the world and we want you to figure out how to integrate those two chamber music forms.”

That’s woodwind quintet chamber music and then stretching the definition a tiny bit, although it’s getting more and more common to look at jazz as chamber music. And so that’s what that piece is all about and when we first did it, it was very successful and that was about four years ago and we’ve been trying to find a way to record that, and because it’s a classical piece, we said we were gonna call this record Classified just so many people, even when they pick it off the shelf, might think that there’s something going on here than a typical jazz record.

Smitty: Wow, well, it’s not just a normal jazz record, that’s for sure. And what can you say about the Imani Winds? My Gosh.

CB: Well, you haven’t had the pleasure of working with them too because besides being great musicians, they’re really fun and they’re classical musicians that understand the jazz world. Even though some of them improvise a little bit, but several of those beautiful women in that group are dating jazz musicians, so I know they know what’s happening.

Smitty: Oh, man.

CB: And it was funny. This is a statement that came from the oboe player. She said to me “You know, there’s this note here at this certain spot in ‘Vignettes.’ Do you want me to put the stank on it?” So I said “The what?” And so like that was her way of just saying that she was gonna do something beyond notation, you know, kinda just give it a dip and a twist and an inflection.

TE: That’s putting a stank on it.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

CB: But the point is that they’re very good to work with and Wayne Shorter wrote a piece with them that they premiered in Montreal.

Smitty: Yeah.

CB: Recorded for Paquito de Rivera. So they’re really what the future of music, I think, is about, is dropping these barriers and integrating more in the same way that string quartet did it for the string quartet world and San Francisco Quartet and some other great groups. Yeah, it’s like “Let’s break down these walls.” Or Yo Yo Ma and Silk Road. Let’s go on there and have the musicians get together and create this new kind of music that’s both jazz and classical working together.

Smitty: Yeah, man, and it’s just fantastic. I mean, it just opens up your mind and your heart when you’re listening to it. It’s just a beautiful, beautiful movement.

CB: Oh yeah, well, thank you. And I hope that there are jazz listeners like yourself that will allow themselves to get sort of sucked into that world where there’s parts where it really is just classical for a couple of minutes, then it starts turning you on and integrating again to being a jazz experience too. But they’re great players and they can bring off the emotions of those sections.

Smitty: Yeah, well, I tell ya, it just rounds out this project. And, of course, “Blue Rondo,” I mean, what can you say about “Blue Rondo”?

CB: Yeah, well, I’ll tell ya, that whenever we play “Vignette,” it was so popular that we had to have an encore and so that’s how that came to be. We had to give the people a button on this whole experience, so I’m glad that worked out good.

Smitty: Now, you’ve been called a 21st Century Leonard Bernstein. How did you feel when you first heard that?

CB: I felt like that’s a good thing. (Both laugh.) I liked it, especially when it came from a very respected and tough reviewer and critic from the Chicago Tribune.

Smitty: The Trib.

CB: So anyhow, I was very excited. How people react to your music can happen on a whim. I was really excited because Taylor just got a great thing in Downbeat Magazine about his new record.

Smitty: Oh yeah.

CB: And he was comparing him to a lot of other young pianists and he said basically words to the effect that he was the cream of the crop there with his new effort. So anyhow, anytime anyone says anything nice about you, believe me, you’re thanking your lucky stars.

Smitty: Well, speaking of great compliments, Taylor, Dave Brubeck himself, the legend, says that you’re the most amazing talent he’d ever come across.

TE: Well, that theoretically happened, I think, when I was 12 and sat in with him for the first time. I think that might’ve been—who knows when? Maybe that was where I met Chris. (All laugh.) It’s highly possible, actually. But I can’t remember. Someone remembered that he said that or something like that, and I couldn’t remember it either way. I was just really cold and kinda nervous, so that’s all I was really thinking about at the time, but someone somehow came out of that concert with that quote.

CB: When you said “cold,” you were meaning that the weather was cold?

TE: Oh, we were both freezing. Yeah, we had two heaters out there. It was a big outdoor—it was at the winery, the Paul Masson Winery.

CB: I didn’t want anyone to think out of context that he was just like “Oh yeah, I was dissing Dave. I was cold.” (All laugh.)

TE: Oh yeah, no, no, no. Yeah, no, of course, no, I was freezing cold. I was turning navy blue, but yeah, that was what was on my brain, I think, was “Why aren’t these hand warmers working?”

Smitty: Well, there are some fantastic quotes on your Web site, Taylor, in the quote section where there are some seriously notable musicians that speak very highly of your musicianship, so it just stands to reason that you have created such great music and it is recognized by those that truly know what great music and great musicians are.

TE: Well, thanks, man. I’ve been really fortunate, especially with this new album. It’s luckily gotten like a whole lot of really good reviews and people have been so supportive, which is cool. This particular record, too, I think there’s a lot of stuff, I mean, I feel like this particular music was a lot more in tune with kind of the direction that I’m going musically and personally and that kind of thing, and I hope to kind of continue in that direction, but to do so, I’m not necessarily going out and playing “Stomping at the Savoy” at every concert and things like that, and it breaks away from a certain thing to try some different things and take some risks, but I’ve been really fortunate that people are supportive enough to at least let me record, for the most part, stuff that I want to record and all that, so I’m just thrilled that people like it—because it’s almost like two records, really, this particular project. It was so hard to sequence because we have all this straight ahead stuff and then, you know, it’s like the stuff that we do live and then the suite is kind of its own other thing. We kind of thought of it as like two albums in a certain sense, but the suite is a lot more kind of the direction that I’m going.

Smitty: Yes, and you know what I love about the suite is the integration of the piano and the Rhodes.

TE: Oh yeah, I love just the texture the Rhodes provides because I always think of Rhodes as an acoustic instrument just because it’s got its own authentic sound in and of itself. It is technically an acoustic amplified instrument. There’s metal being hit as opposed to just a sampled sound being signals. I can’t understand that stuff. I feel like I was better suited to live in like the 1920s, which is really funny. I don’t understand anything about that stuff. I can barely get through that music notation software. It kills me. There have been so many different times where I’ve nearly thrown my computer out the window.

Smitty: (Laughs) But it’s such a cool integration of sounds that it’s just really like I go back to the word “emotions” because it just piques the emotions. It really does.

TE: Well, thank you. Yeah, there were some fun textures. Also I messed around with some flutes. I wanted there to be kind of three or four-part flute harmony throughout. It’s kind of like I never wanted them to break up into individual like one flute taking the melody for a second, that kind of thing. I wanted them to be kind of like the sirens, the three-headed singer that’s always singing in harmony kind of.

Smitty: Yeah, and let me tell ya, the tenor saxophone works very well. Wow, I really love that on “Brick Steps.”

TE: Thanks, yeah, that’s Ben Wendel. He’s incredible. He’s the lead—he kind of started this band called Kneebody, which has a gigantic, gigantic cult following, and Dayna Stephens is the other saxophonist and sounds great, and Joshua Redman on the other on “Timeline.”

Smitty: Yeah.

TE: I’m a big fan of the tenor sax. I think it’s a very human sound. I haven’t been as into, I mean, there are so many greats of alto sax, but I guess for my own sound I tend to hear tenor a little bit more.

Smitty: Yeah, do we want to talk about your snowboarding?

TE: Well, that was just at the beginning of 2006, I tried it out for the first time. My friend didn’t really inform me on how to stop. (All laugh.) He said something about falling, so I did fall and I fell forward, then I just picked Door No. 2 and that wasn’t it and, I mean, it sounds like I’m exaggerating, but there actually were little kids that were zipping by me. It was really embarrassing. But yeah, no, I’m actually a really, really—I will just say that I am a really good football player and good basketball player, but yeah, anything that you could put in some kind of sporting event with like the X whatever.

Smitty: The X Games?

TE: You know, I mean, I can’t do it. No boarding. I can’t do it.

Smitty: Well, basketball is one of my favorite sports, so one of these times we’re gonna have to get together and shoot some ball, man.

TE: Oh, man, it’s on, it’s on. Consider it done.

Smitty: Oh!

TE: I’m down any time. I always tell people, you know, I’ll cancel out of anything if there’s a good game going on.

Smitty: Oh, very cool.

TE: Okay. Hey, it’s all good, man. I’m gonna let it rain.

CB: I’ve always said philosophically that basketball is the most like jazz because it’s five different cats with different individual skill sets and, believe me, they’re improvising. I mean, there are some set plays.

TE: Oh, totally.

CB: A lot of the teams—like it always struck me that the guy that used to—I think it was Frank Layton or something, he used to coach the Utah Jazz?

Smitty: Yeah.

CB: And they were saying “So tell me about your playbook when you’re going in against this team” and they were interviewing the other coach like “How do you defense them?” And he said “You can’t defense a team that has no set plays.” He just had these five guys that were great and he’d say like “Okay, go up there, man, and do it.”

TE: Yeah, kinda like the Suns and the Warriors of the last few years, just where you go down and just kinda figure it out based on whatever defense they set up in.

Smitty: Yeah, I’ve never heard that before, but you’re so right. Wow, I’ll have to remember that.

TE: I think that’s a much better comparison than—I did a TV interview in Luxembourg a few weeks ago and the only two guests on the show, or three guests, were myself and these two cyclists who had won some important race, something in Europe, but I was going on about zero sleep and about 48 hours straight of being awake, bunch of train transfers, everything, get in there, and everyone’s speaking German and I had no idea what was going on, and they asked me about “Well, Taylor, what do you think of cycling?” and so I made some awkward comparison of cycling to improvisation that didn’t work half as well as what Chris just said about basketball. (All laugh.) I said “Well, yeah, you gotta steer and in music I guess it’s just like a bicycle” and blah-blah-blah-blah, you know.

Smitty: Laughs.

TE: But that’s actually a really good analogy, basketball and music. Football too, I think.

Smitty: Absolutely. So going back to the music, it’s gotta be a treat to get together and do a gig every now and then. It’s gotta be a treat for you. Talk about getting an opportunity, after going full circle in some sense, to get together and say “Hey, let’s do this gig together.”

TE: Yeah, I mean, shoot, I always have fun any time gigs come up with the Brubeck Brothers. I mean, we usually do like at least a handful a year.

CB: Yeah, a couple for this reason or that. You know, it was interesting. I would be remiss if I didn’t say that, although we were joking about Taylor’s mom liking the record that he’s not on better (all laugh), but hopefully she might be really embarrassed when we do this, but we did say that the regular pianist in the Brubeck Brothers Quartet at this point is Chuck Lamb and also the guitarist is Mike DeMicco, and Mike, Dan and I were, on the record, on Intuition, and on this record and on future records, Mike, Chuck, Dan and I are what the group is, but there are different conflicts. Sometimes Chuck is really busy and working and then, of course, Taylor is too, so it just happens, but we just all really enjoy each other’s new projects. In fact, soon I’m looking forward to listening to Taylor’s first foray into the orchestral world, which I hope he brought the CD I keep pestering him to bring. (All laugh.)

TE: It’s a really bad recording, man, let me tell ya. I hope you’re not looking forward to much.

CB: Yeah, but anyhow, it’s like that’s another world of discipline and I think when Taylor puts his mind to it, that’s gonna be another avenue for him to be exploring. The suite is the tip of a big iceberg, I think, for using other instruments with his vision of music.

Smitty: Yeah, a great vision at that, let me tell ya. And we were talking about the snowboarding accident and everything, which really was a serious thing. Some things you can kinda laugh about, but this was a very serious thing, but what I noted about you telling this story in your liner notes was, you know, we all in this world can run into an accident or a problem, but it’s not so much the problem, because the world is full of problems, but it’s how we approach the answer to that and how we view it and how we deal with it, and I think what you did afterwards is what I noted was so impressive because you took that time to really analyze your life, where you wanted to go, how you wanted life to treat you and thus the song. What is it? “Let it Come to You,” you know?

TE: Yeah, I was trying to control too many elements of my life. Logistically it was like every little thing. I was trying to force different things to happen, but then I realized that the only thing that we actually have control over is our own personal happiness pretty much, so as long as I could get that in check, I would let the rest of the stuff, you know, just try to work as hard as I can and let whatever happens happen because it’s gonna happen anyways whether I like it or not.

Smitty: Yeah, well, I gotta tell you guys, these two projects are just incredibly good and I’m just so happy that my ears were able to stand all the greatness of these two projects because they’re that good, I tell ya, and I’m so thankful, Chris, that you turned me on to Taylor’s music, you know?

CB: Gee.

Smitty: Because, Taylor, this record, I hope everyone gets a copy because if they don’t, they’re missing something, and the same with Classified. My Gosh, Chris, how often can you hear the Amani Winds in this kind of collaboration? I mean, what you and Dan and Chuck and Mike did with these great players is just almost a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

CB: Well, yeah, I think it’s a pretty special concept and I know it’s kinda new and I really hope that the jazz community stretches their ear to embrace it. And also, importantly, I hope the classical community will get off their tuxedoed podium a bit and embrace it.

Smitty: Yeah, because it is—

CB: Because I don’t know about any classical people that are writing about this thing yet and yet I know whenever we do it for a classical audience they are really thrilled because it’s like “Oh my Gosh!” It’s music, it’s composed, but it’s really alive and vital, and it’s got this presence and energy that we’ve been waiting for in classical music. And it’s there sometimes, but it could be there all the time. And that’s why I’m hoping a piece like this, besides working in itself, will kick that door open a little wider, that other people have been working on that.

Smitty: Yeah, I would like to see this kind of music being introduced in the school systems for the kids to really embrace and see that they can stretch out their minds, and I think music generally as a whole really opens up the minds, the young minds, to new explorations and journeys of music, and I think this would be fantastic for that.

CB: Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, I agree, and music opens up their minds and just helps the brain to get working and even in non-musical ways.

Smitty: Yeah, on some positive things.

CB: The key to get people to be thinking about creativity. Each individual’s different. For some people it might be the thrill of a chess game or the basketball tournament or whatever, but that’s why it’s so important to keep music in the schools because there are some kids that don’t really come alive or shine until it’s music, and that’s their thing.

Smitty: Absolutely, yeah. So now tell me, the drop dates for these two records, they’re already out, right?

CB: Yes.

Smitty: All right, so they’re available in stores and online and all that good stuff?

CB: Yes.

Smitty: Absolutely. All right, so I just want to once again congratulate you both. Taylor, I’ve been talking to Chris about you for the last few days and we were just discussing how great this record is and how far you’ve come in such a short period of time. Man, you have got a seriously cool vibe and I would say to you continue to do what you do and keep your flava strong and, Chris, I don’t have to tell him much. He’s just a genius anyway.

TE: Well, thanks, man. I’m really glad you dug it, man, and thanks a lot for taking the time to check out all the different stuff and do this.

Smitty: Yeah, and I want to come out and catch you at a live gig, you know, and really get the full import of this great music.

CB: Yeah, well, we gotta keep each other informed and then you can play hoops. Probably after the gig would be a good idea. (All laugh.)

Smitty: Yeah, we’ll probably kill each other! (All laugh.)

TE: Yeah, it would get intense.

Smitty: But it’ll be a fun game and I know it’ll be a fun gig to come out and catch you cats and hopefully catch you cats doing a gig together, you know? That would be really cool.

TE: Great, yeah.

CB: Well, either way it’s gonna be a cool thing.

Smitty: And that Scotch after the gig sounds good too, you know?

CB: Yeah. (All laugh.)

Smitty: All right, we have been talking with Chris Brubeck, representing the Brubeck Brothers, the new record is called Classified with special guests, the fabulous Imani Winds! And Taylor Eigsti. His new record is called Let it Come to You and you must do just that because it is a fantastic project, great music, great movements, and you must hear this great record. Both of these great projects I highly recommend. Taylor, Chris, thank you so much and all the best to both of you in 2008 and beyond, my friends.

CB: Well, thank you so very much and the same to you.

TE: Thanks a lot.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.brubeckmusic.com and www.myspace.com/bbqclassified and www.kochentertainment.com www.tayloreigsti.com and www.myspace.com/tayloreigsti and www.concordmusicgroup.com