Pablo Held Investigates

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

My third album GLOW was my first time leading a bigger ensemble with my longstanding trio at its core. Recorded in 2010, it featured multiple harmonic instruments (Kathrin Pechlof on harp & Hubert Nuss on harmonium & celesta and me on piano), multiple basses (Robert Landfermann, Henning Sieverts & Dietmar Fuhr) and multiple horns (Niels Klein & Sebastian Gille on woodwinds and Menzel Mutzke on trumpet & flügelhorn) and Jonas Burgwinkel on drums . For these musicians I wrote little sketches to be explored freely by their creative minds. Collectively we came up with stuff that I could have never imagined on my own. Another lesson in the power of the communal spirit. Playing and recording with this group of people was an important stage of my development. I’m happy to share some memories of the process with you. Enjoy!

I grew up listening to John Scofield through my parents who are big fans of his music. So each time we’d go on holidays or just went for a little trip in the car there’d be a cassette with Sco’s music playing at some point during the journey. “Still Warm”, “Hand Jive”, “What We Do”, “I Can See Your House from Here”, “Quiet” and also his records with Miles Davis like “Decoy” or “You’re Under Arrest” are are deeply ingrained in my childhood memories. When I was ten years old my parents took me to see John Scofield for the first time. He was touring with a great quintet (Seamus Blake, Kevin Hays, Larry Grenadier & Bill Stewart) playing the music from the “Quiet” album. This was an unforgettable experience to say the least. Since then I’ve seen him live countless other times, collecting his records, looking for bootlegs, reading his interviews and transcribing lots of his songs. In 2014 my trio got the chance to invite a special guest for a concert at Philharmonie Köln. We expressed our desire to play with Sco and to our surprise he accepted! That first concert became a record (The Trio Meets John Scofield on Pirouet Records) and after the release John asked us to come on tour with him through Europe in 2015. You can imagine how surreal all this felt, but getting to know John, playing and hanging with him has been one of the greatest experience of my life. He’s the nicest guy you can imagine, a musician of the highest order and I’m thankful to call him a friend.

This is my conversation with the great sound engineer Rob Griffin. He worked with so many incredible artists: Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Paco De Lucia, Chick Corea… and he also mastered my last album „Ascent“. Rob is one of a kind and I think that really comes across in this conversation. He is full of enthusiasm, he loves to learn and always searching for new and better ways to capture and enhance the music, and he really enjoys to pass on his memories of all those tours with Wayne, Herbie and all my other heroes. We talk about his approach to mixing and recording, his unique up-close insights into how some of my most favorite bands, like the Wayne Shorter Quartet, work on and off stage. And above all else: his deep love for the music.