Pablo Held Investigates

Pianist and composer Albert Sanz sits down with Pablo Held for an in-depth piano hang. They talk about Albert’s compositional process, the art of comping for singers, memories from working with Billy Hart, Lee Konitz and Perico Sambeat, the importance of leaving space, Albert’s new Jobim album with Sara Dowling, their shared heroes Gil Evans & Federico Mompou and much more.

Master drummer Eric McPherson sits down with Pablo Held to discuss his idea of flow on the drums, lessons learned from jazz legends Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill & Pharoah Sanders, his relationship to bassists Ben Street & John Hebert and memorable moments in the studio / on the road. ___ • Support ‘Pablo Held Investigates’ on Patreon and gain access to exclusive educational videos, lead sheets, music recommendations, and behind-the-scenes goodies from the podcast. • Pablo’s music — including vinyl, CDs, digital releases, and merch — is available on Bandcamp. • Subscribe to his monthly newsletter and receive an exclusive track straight to your inbox. • For more about Pablo Held’s musical world, visit pabloheld.com.

Sharing memories from the recording session of my album “Elders”, which is dedicated to my parents. “Elders” came out on Pirouet Records in 2013 and features my trio mates Robert Landfermann – bass, Jonas Burgwinkel – drums and three guests: Jason Seizer – tenor saxophone, Domenic Landolf – alto flute & Ronny Graupe – acoustic guitar + me on piano.Check out the album here:https://pabloheld.bandcamp.com/album/elders

Talking to writer/jazz historian Ashley Kahn was an honor. We first met in 2024 when Ashley interviewed me as part of the Bologna Jazz Festival. We had such a good time on and off stage together, that we decided to continue our conversation on my podcast. In the weeks leading up to this I revisited many of the great liner notes Ashley wrote for many of my favorite albums. I also re-read all the books of him I had known before (his wonderful books on “Kind Of Blue”, and “A Love Supreme“) and read his fantastic book „The House That Trane Built“ for the first time. Immersing myself in this wonderful works inspired me deeply. I’m very thankful for Ashley’s contribution to the music of our time.

Ella Feingold, a talented guitarist, orchestrator, and educator, shares her vast musical insights and experiences. She delves into the emotional power of compositions by legends like Debussy and Ravel, emphasizing the nuances of orchestration. Ella discusses the complexities of crafting guitar parts, balancing creativity with structured learning. The conversation also touches on the significance of community support in music, the challenges of online negativity, and her personal journey of self-discovery, highlighting the transformative impact of music.

I’m very thankful to be on the the road with Tineke Postma quite often. She is an amazing saxophonist & composer, I’m learning a lot from her and she’s so much fun to be around. We talk all the time when we’re on tour with the band Re:Calamari and this conversation actually happened between gigs. We could basically continue where we left off the day before. Naturally, we focussed on many of the things I often ask Tineke about: her process as a bandleader & composer, her experiences with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding, Kris Davis & Terri Lynne Carrington, ideas & approaches for improvisation, finding your voice as an artist and much more. As always it was a big pleasure to hang out together and I’m very excited to share this with you all now.

Talking to the legendary Eddie Henderson was a dream come true for me. As I tell Eddie in the beginning of this episode, I’ve been listening to him for all my life: My father played Herbie Hancock’s “Mwandishi” albums for me as a kid and when I was 13 I saw Eddie with Herbie’s “Gershwin’s World” band in Düsseldorf. I’ll never forget it. Throughout the years I got more deeply into Eddie’s own catalog of records and learned a lot from listening to him. His sound alway touches me and I admire him on many levels. So to finally get to talk to him about his time with Herbie, about what he learned from Miles Davis, about practicing with Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, and how it was to play with Joe Henderson was an absolute honor. In this music theres a deep tradition of passing on knowledge orally. This way future generations can learn from the elders. Eddie Henderson is not only a “witness to history” (the name of his latest album), he’s also very generous with sharing his wisdom. I’m glad we can all learn from maestro Eddie together now.

The day before our interview I had the big pleasure of playing with Kanoa Mendenhall for the first time. After a long time of admiring her from afar, I finally got to know her through making music and hanging out together, which was really special for me. We zoomed in on Kanoa’s creative process, we re-evaluated what happened during our concert and we even played some more. It was a beautiful conversation and I’m glad I get to share it with you now.

A few years ago I took inspiring composition lessons with pianist/composer/arranger Guillermo Klein, which still resonate with me to this day. Guillermo helped me to break free from habits and find new pathways to starting the compositional process. Now I finally got to interview on the podcast, which, in a way, turned out to be another incredible composition lesson – but this time I get to share it with you!Listening to Guillermo’s unique music always uplifts and inspires me – the same thing happens when we talk.

Anders Jormin is one of my favorite bassists and composers. I got the chance to play with him in 2016, where we celebrated the music of my late teacher, the great John Taylor. Now, we continue where we left off and talk in-depth about his life in music. It was so great to pick Anders’ brain about his view on composition, voice leading, interplay, how we deal with influences, memories of playing with drum masters Paul Motian, Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, writing a symphony, his bass heroes and… we also played a bit for each other!