Pablo Held Investigates

I enjoyed recording the audio commentary to my latest record “Ascent” so much that I made the plan to do this for each one of my albums. This time I’m talking about my record “The Trio Meets John Scofield” which was released on Pirouet Records back in 2014. It features my trio buddies Robert Landfermann & Jonas Burgwinkel + our hero John Scofield and it was recorded live at the Philharmonic Hall in Köln. When we got offered to play a concert featuring a special guest, Sco was at the top of our list and to our surprise he accepted to play with us! After 2 days of hanging and rehearsing we went on stage with our hero, in a packed Philharmonic Hall in our home town — a night I’ll never forget! We initially recorded it just for our own remembrance, but in the following weeks, Sco and me kept getting back to it and finally decided to put it out. It was nice to revisit this experience and share my memories and feelings about the music. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Talking to master bassist Ben Street was a great experience for me. Right from the start I felt a connection with him, which allowed for a very candid and in-depth exploration of Ben’s musical process and experiences. He also asked me a couple of questions, including some about previous episodes and the process behind this interview series. Our conversation went on for about 4 hours and it felt like it wouldn’t have been a problem for us to go on even longer. For days I was busy processing all the inspiration I got from him, and I guess I still am. It has been 2 years since I started doing these interviews. Together with my producer Till Moses Kammertöns we decided this would be an ideal celebratory episode for the 2nd anniversary. Here’s to many more! If you feel like supporting “Pablo Held Investigates” please consider becoming a member

I’m happy to share my interview with the great Aaron Parks. I first heard him sometime 2004 on Terence Blanchard’s “Bounce” album. Being very impressed by his playing I began to investigate more and came across lots of recordings that featured his playing. Too many to list here, but I’ll say that especially during that time “Bounce” and “Flow” by Terence Blanchard, Gretchen Parlato’s eponymous record and lots of bootlegs of Kurt Rosenwinkel’s bands with Aaron were particularly inspiring for me. I’ve closely followed Aaron’s music every since. As I tell him at some point during the interivew, I really think that Aaron introduced a fresh new approach to the piano that wasn’t there before he came on the scene. We also talk about what he’s working on at the moment, his relationship with Thomas Morgan and Ben Street, the different approaches in his trios with Ben Street & Billy Hart vs. Thomas Morgan & RJ Miller, finding a personal approach on the piano, different piano players who are on the scene today, his process of strengthening his musical foundation, listening habits, and daily practices… lots of things! It’s always great to talk to Aaron. I’m happy he agreed to do this interview and that we can share it with all of you. Enjoy!

I first heard about Lau Noah in a podcast with Larry Goldings where he talked about how much admiration he had for her work. (I always listen very closely when my heroes talk about music that they’re checking out. This was no exception.) I’ve been following Lau Noah’s music since back then. She has such a unique songwriting style and a very personal approach to accompanying herself. Hear for yourself: her Tiny Desk concert is a great documentation of her beautiful music. We first met when she performed at our KLAENG festival in Köln in 2019 and this conversation happened a a couple of months later. I’m glad I got to talk to her. Hope you enjoy our conversation!

I first became aware of Lionel Loueke’s playing on records by Gretchen Parlato, Terence Blanchard and of course through closely following everything that Herbie Hancock was up to. I was completely blown away and wanted to know more about him. That led me to check out his own record “Virgin Forest” and then when it came out I obsessed over “Karibu”– I still go back to that album regularly! All of the stuff he’s done since is amazing. In fact, his new album is released today! I really admire his unique approach to the guitar and his musicality in general. Lionel is doing things I never heard anybody else do – he’s a true innovator! I was very excited to talk to him. Hope you enjoy this conversation!

This episode is in German, for English subtitles please watch the video version. I’m excited to include Christian Lillinger, one of the most individual voices on the drumset in music today, in this series of interviews. Christian is a role model for me on a lot of levels. His no-bullshit/no-compromise attitude is admirable and I think it results in a crystal clear vision of a singular artist. As a leader & sideman he’s been involved with a lot of my favorite groups today: GRUND, Open Form For Society, GRÜNEN, Dell/Lillinger/Westergaard, Amok Amor, Ronny Graupe’s SPOOM and Gropper/Graupe/Lillinger, to name a few. Also, Christian runs an incredible label called PLAIST MUSIC, where he releases genre-free music by himself and other cutting edge artists. I have know Christian for a long time. We came up more or less at the same time and throughout the years I’ve have had the great pleasure of playing with him on different occasions*. I’m happy to share our interview which by the way features a little cameo (totally unplanned, although it looks staged) by a frequent collaborator of Christian’s. Enjoy!

Bill Frisell was on the top my list right from the start of this interview series. Through the help of Mike Gibbs, I finally got in touch with Bill and we had a lovely conversation. What is there to say about Bill Frisell’s music that hasn’t been said yet? I mean, I don’t know anyone who knows about his music and doesn’t like it – everybody loves Bill Frisell! Maybe it’s because he’s so eclectic, so there’s something in there for everybody? Or because of his unique approach to the guitar? Or maybe because he enriches every musical setting? Because of his great tunes? His many different bands? The classic recordings he contributed to as a sideman? I really don’t know… there are so many things to love about him, his playing and his music. OK maybe I should stop rambling… You have a 2 hour conversation ahead of you, and you’re in for a ride. Enjoy! For further listening, here are some of my favorite recordings with Bill: • In Line, Bill Frisell with Dave Holland & Elvin Jones, Sign Of Life, Gone Just like a Train, Where in the World?, Hemisphere’s (with Jim Hall), Quartet, Bill Frisell/Ron Carter/Paul Motian/, Have a Little Faith, Small Town & Epistrophy (with Thomas Morgan), Songs we know (with Fred Hersch) ALL albums by Paul Motian w/ BillALL albums by Jakob Bro w/ BillKenny Wheeler – Angel SongAmarcord Nino RotaMarc Johnson – Bass Desires / The Sound Of Summer RunningLyle Mays – Lyle Mays / Street DreamsPaul Bley – FragmentsJohn Scofield – Grace under Pressure / This meets ThatMike Gibbs – A Bill Frisell Set ListJoey Baron – Down HomeTony Scherr – Come AroundRon Miles – I Am A Man / QuiverScott Colley – EmpireAndrew Cyrille – The Declaration of Musical Independence

I was 7 years old when I first heard Wallace Roney’s playing on Herbie Hancock’s “Dis Is Da Drum”, a record that has over the years remained very important to me. I was always drawing to people that respect (and draw their inspiration from) the masters that came before them. Wallace was somebody who went all the way. Where some only deal with the surface, the cliché, the easy way out, Wallace went deep and found his own stuff. And this is why he was taken on by the masters. I mean – Miles’ ONLY student? Come on! When Herbie, Wayne, Ron & Tony could have chosen every trumpet player on earth, they chose him. And he was somebody who didn’t keep his gained knowledge from those masters to himself. He shared it with others. That’s a big lesson, right? To me, inspiration is like a trampoline. If you only jump into it with little energy and conviction, the jump will not be significant and likely not memorable. But if you go ALL THE WAY, jump into it with all you have, it will catapult you into heights where you’ll be able to see differently, see things more clearly. Plus, it will bring you away from the inital source of inspiration…. and then back again with a new perspective!! I think that’s what Wallace did over and over again with all the music he loved. Listening to him I can hear so much love for his idols, but he didn’t stop there. He took those lessons and applied them to his music. When I released my first interview of this series, my conversation with Wayne Shorter, Wallace Roney was one of the first people to send me a nice message via Facebook Messenger congratulating me on interviewing Wayne. I was really taken by that gesture, kept in touch with him after that and finally in 2019 I asked him if he’d like to do an interview with me as well. I’m so happy that we got to do this and I learned so much during this conversation. Yet, at the same time I’m really sad that we didn’t get to finish it. You’ll hear a pretty aprupt ending of our conversation which was due to a bad interview connection (hence this interview is audio-only) . We decided to finish it some other time and sadly we didn’t get around to it after all. However, I think there’s enough that we all can learn from the things Wallace has shared during this conversation. He will be missed by many. Thank you for all the inspiration and wisdom, Maestro Wallace! Supported by NICA artist development, a program funded by

This episode is in German. The video version has English subtitles. My story with Achim Kaufmann started when I discovered Paul Heller’s great albums “Kaleidoscope” & “Little Songs” as a teenager. I listened to them a lot, and Achim played piano on both. I really liked his playing, so I started to check out his own stuff. I started with his first album “Weave” — and it changed me forever! To this day it is one of my top 5 piano trio albums and I still listen to it quite regularly. The compositions, Achim’s chemistry with bassist Ingmar Heller & drummer Jochen Rückert, their playing, the sound — this record has inspired generations of musicians since it came out in 1998. To understand his journey better, I worked my way through Achim’s records in the order they were recorded. Next up were the amazing quartet records “Double Exposure” & “Gueuledeloup” . I got obsessed with them and totally loved the music but had some difficulties following it. I couldn’t tell what was improvised and what was written. So I got in touch with Achim to take a lesson. I asked him lots of questions about these records and he graciously explained his process to me, showing me the leadsheets while listening to the music together. He showed me other records that I didn’t know before and we played together a little bit, me on piano and Achim on Wurlitzer. After this lesson I was full of inspiration!! In the follow-up to that we exchanged e-mails and I asked Achim how he dealt with writers-block… I still look at his advice whenever I don’t feel inspired or I’m at a loss for ideas. When I l finally left my hometown Hagen to study in Cologne, I went to see Achim whenever he played in town. Every time I was in awe and I always tried to talk to him after the gigs, to ask him what he was working on or listening to lately. Many years later, after I started this series of interviews, Achim sent me a nice note, telling me that he enjoyed watching them. Naturally asked him if he would be interested in participating. Today I’m happy to share our conversation with you. Hope you enjoy! …. … OK, now I feel bad for not mentioning some other records that have been very influental to me so here’s another list: Achim’s Kyrill, Verivyr, Later, Mnemon Peter Bolte – Trio & Keeping Christian Lillinger’s Grund – Second Reason & Grund & COR Christian Weidner – Dream Boogie & Every Hour of Light and Dark Common Ground Robert Landfermann – Topaz all the records with Grünen “Furthermore” “Nothing Something” & “Something Nothing” with Michael Moore

Marc Johnson — one of my favorite bassists of all time. I was always drawn to his warm sound and fluid way of playing, always taking risks, always propelling the music forward. The first time I saw him live was in 2004 during a concert of the John Abercrombie Quartet at the Domicil in Dortmund — a night I’ll never forget! I often go back to my memories of this particular concert. It was a great pleasure for me to finally talk to him and I’m excited to share our conversation with you.