Pablo Held Investigates

If you like this series, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Billy Hart. What can I say? This guy has given us all so much through his music, his playing, his energy and wisdom. It would take forever to list all my favorite recordings of him, so I’ll spare you that. In 2019 my dream came true and I got to work with him in the studio. Let me tell you, I have never experienced anything like it before — feeling his beat up close is otherworldly! During the breaks I kept asking him questions and he took his time answering all of them in great detail. I was struck by his humility and honesty. We kept in touch after that and also talked about doing an interview. One day in September of 2020 I called him up to ask him if we could schedule a date for it. His reply was: “Well, how about NOW?” That wasn’t exactly what I had expected, but I told him I needed to bring my kids to bed and then I would call him. Normally, when I’m about to interview somebody, I spend days listening to that artist exclusively. Reading interviews & books, watching videos, going back to my favorite albums and also discovering new ones – all that is part of my process. Well, this time was different. But I had to remind myself that I have been preparing for this interview for all my life. I still remember those moments when my father played “Crossings” for me for the first time…

Niels Klein, Jonas Burgwinkel & Robert Landfermann join me in the studio to talk about my ninth record GLOW II. It was fun to dwell on our memories from the recording sessions and share our individual perspectives on how we dealt with the music. This album was released in 2018 on Pirouet Records and it features big ensemble configurations consisting of outstanding musicians like Hubert Nuss, Ronny Graupe, John Schröder, Christian Weidner, Philipp Gropper, Niels Klein, Henning Sieverts, Claus Stötter, Robert Landfermann & Jonas Burgwinkel.

If you like this series, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Terri Lyne Carrington’s energetic & fluid way of playing deeply resonates with me. It has a searching quality which always moves the music forward. She always keeps me engaged and wondering what’s going to happen next. When I first saw her live in 1999 with Herbie Hancock’s “Gershwin’s World” project. I still remember that magical feeling of really digging the music, yet having no clue what they were doing. To this day I can still tap into how that felt. That says something about an artist: if their art can sustain a feeling over decades – that’s powerful! It was a pleasure to finally get to talk to her and I’m excited to share our conversation with you now!

If you like this series, please consider supporting me on Patreon. When my dear friend and trio comrade Jonas Burgwinkel showed my Ben Monder’s incredible album “Excavation” sometime in 2005 my musical world got turned upside down. Ben’s music has had a major impact on me and my writing. When I look at certain compositions of mine I can clearly see his influence ( i.e. “Meta”). Whenever there was a rumor of an upcoming Ben Monder record I awaited each one with great excitement and checked it out as soon as it came out. I’d say I’ve spent the most time with his own records “Excavation”, “Oceana”, “Flux” and “Hydra”. Though I also listened quite a bit to his records with Theo Bleckmann like “No Boat”, “At Night” or “Origami“. I also love his sideman work on records by Jochen Rückert, Paul Motian, Maria Schneider, Bill McHenry, or Tony Malaby. In this conversation we talk about his process of finding new harmonies, composing, influences, working with Paul Motian, his relationship with Theo Bleckmann, memories of special concerts he attended when he was coming up and much more. I was very excited to talk to Ben and I’m happy I can share this with all of you here.

Sullivan Fortner never ceases to amaze me. Whenever I listen to him I feel really inspired. It was around 2011 when my friend Can Olgun hipped me to Sullivan and I’ve been following him ever since. I love his work with Cécile McLorin Salvant, Peter Bernstein, Roy Hargrove, Lage Lund, Guilhem Flouzat and of course his own stuff. Right from the get-go, I noticed that Sullivan’s persona is quite similar to how his playing always sounded to me: honest, open, humorous, deep, creative, spontaneous and full of ideas. I’m very happy to share our conversation now with all of you!

My friend Till Kammertöns hipped me to the music of Gabriel Kahane sometime in September 2018 and I immediately got hooked. I couldn’t stop listening to his wonderful album “Book of Travelers” for a month. While checking out all of his other wonderful works I noticed an urge to interview him for this series. I was really happy that he accepted my invitation. Great to talk to him about his music and his process. Enjoy!

(German only – english subtitles available on YouTube) I got to know harpist Kathrin Pechlof sometime in 2008 when she moved to Cologne, we quickly became friends and started playing together in various groups. I was very fortunate to have her on my album GLOW which we recorded in 2010 for Pirouet Records. Furthermore we played together in Niels Klein’s project LOOM and with the EOS Kammerorchester. In recent years Kathrin has done wonderful things with the Kathrin Pechlof Trio (with Robert Landfermann and Christian Weidner). They just released their second trio album  “Toward The Unknown” on Pirouet Records. (Highly recommended!) Kathrin constantly pushes the envelop of what a harpist can do in Jazz & Improvised music. In a way there’s no precedent for what she’s doing, Kathrin is a true musical pioneer! I deeply admire her music and I’m very thankful to include her in this interview series.

Kris Davis was on my radar ever since I heard her on Tony Malaby’s “Novela” in 2011. I was blown away by Kris’ arrangements and playing on that album and started to check out more of her work. She’s one of my absolute favorite pianists out there and every time I listen to her I get inspired. When I started doing interviews, Kris was on the top of my list. I’m so happy that we finally got to talk. Enjoy our conversation!

Joey Baron has been one of my biggest heroes since my teenage years. I saw him live for the first time in 2004 with John Abercrombie’s quartet at the Domicil in Dortmund and I’ll never forget this concert! During that time I was listening a lot to Abercrombie’s quartet album “Class Trip” and John Taylor’s record “Rosslyn” (my favorite JT album). There are so many records I love that feature his infectious drumming… too many to name them all. Also, I went to see Joey’s fantastic band “Killer Joey” lots of times when they came to play in Cologne, which was always a memorable experience, to say the least. He’s one of my all time favorite musicians for sure!! I was amazed of how open Joey was to share all of his memories and to give insights into his process. And he was so generous with this time: After two hours of talking to him I said: “I hope you know that you don’t HAVE to keep talking to me! We can stop if you like, OK?” He just smiled and see “No it’s fine, I made time for this” – we kept on talking for another two hours!!

This conversation took place one day after Skúli Sverrisson’s group SERIA appeared at KLAENG Festival in Köln in November of 2019. I hope I’ll never forget what I felt when I heard Skúli’s music that night. As I tell him in the beginning of our talk, this concert reminded me what I love about music. As a longtime fan of Skúli, it was great talk to him about about his work with Allan Holdsworth, Ben Monder, Oskar Gudjonsson, his compositional process, the recording process of his own records and much more. Hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did. Supported by NICA artist development, a program funded by