BJ: It’s magical and it’s undergoing a resurrection in many ways now. I get called upon quite often to play that instrument. I’ve changed my sound a lot in recent years and have been using a different form of a combination of some electric piano sounds that are similar to the Rhodes but not the same and, nevertheless, I would definitely say that my favorite continues to be the purity of the grand piano.
Smitty: Really?
BJ: If I had only one instrument to use, I would certainly opt for that.
Smitty: Wow. What do you enjoy most about the grand piano?
BJ: It just has such a complete….well, first of all, it has the history. For keyboard players it is the instrument upon which all keyboards’ sounds are based, and there’s a dynamic range about the best of the grand pianos where the wood in the instrument, the strings, the vibration, there are so many subtle aspects of it that just make it the king of keyboard instruments, at least in my opinion. All electronic instruments in one way or another are, by their nature, electronic and the sound has to come out of speakers and there’s a more limited character, appropriate for some music and not for others.
Smitty: Yeah. Now, did you start playing piano at a very early age?
BJ: Yeah, I started when I was four.
Smitty: Did you play hooky from piano lessons back then? [Both laughing.]
BJ: I definitely did. It wasn’t totally accidental that I came up with that title for one of my records.
Smitty: I just had to play on words there a little.
BJ: I think that may have been what gradually started to get me to gravitate toward jazz because it always seemed to be that it had so much more freedom and the improvising part of it was very different from the discipline of practicing long hours of classical music.
Smitty: Yeah. You’ve just returned from Singapore and you were talking to some students and giving them some jazz education and music education. What about now with four-year-olds today and ten-year-olds that are grinding it out at the piano and wanna go out and play football, you know, what do you say to kids today that are in that situation now?
BJ: Well, I don’t think it’s any different basically now than it was during my era of growing up. I don’t think there are any shortcuts. The younger that you can get students to work on developing the basic skills, the better, because the older you get, the more distractions there are in life….
Smitty: True.
BJ: ….and the more unlikely it is that you’d be able to have that available time to practice and learn the fundamentals. But still I think it’s human nature that young people want to escape from those disciplines and find out things on their own, so I think it’s inevitable and it’s a big challenge for parents to put up with it and to be patient and to just keep plugging away. In my own case, I didn’t really learn the value of practicing and how much fun it is and how rewarding it is until much later on in life. For some reason, I had that feeling when I was young that practicing was a little bit like torturous and….
Smitty: [Laughs.]
BJ: ….I needed to escape from it. The older I got and realized that music was such a passionate part of my life, that practicing and developing new ideas and working with it is really the highlight of the day. It’s not something that I would think in terms of getting over with or avoiding. But certainly I didn’t know that when I was nine or ten years old, and my parents would not have been able to convince me of it.
Smitty: Yeah, absolutely. It’s just one of those things where kids have to trust their instructors.
BJ: Yes, as much as possible, and parents have to be patient and persistent and stay with it, particularly if they are perceiving that there’s a special talent or inclination toward it and just keep being as encouraging as you possibly can, and the more preparation, the better. Certainly there are stories of very, very successful musicians who had no formal training. But those are very much the exception, and for most of us it’s a highly competitive field, and the more prepared you are, the better.
Smitty: Yes. Talk about your first meeting with Quincy Jones. That must have been incredible.
BJ: Well, it was. When I first met him, he was, of course, nowhere near the big icon that he ultimately became. He was very successful, but he was an A&R person on the staff at Mercury Records and he was a judge at a jazz competition that I participated in when I was in college at Notre Dame University, and my group won the festival that year, at least partially because Quincy voted for us and liked the music that we were playing, and we became friends right at that moment and he signed me to what became my very first solo effort, called Bold Conceptions. And the friendship continued to grow after that, after I moved to New York City, where because of the fact that he knew so many people, he was able to give me introductions and make it possible for me to get some of my first important jobs. Maybe the first really important one being having the opportunity to work with Sarah Vaughan, and it was through his introduction that I got that job, which led to many other things, so I can count back very many opportunities that I got as a result of the recommendation, kind of like a business card or vote of confidence that I got from him that was very important to me.
Smitty: Yes. I think that is such an important and wonderful thing. Sometimes it gets lost in the shuffle of careers, but getting the breaks and getting the endorsement of someone has just opened so many doors for so many musicians. I think that’s a wonderful thing that we all should never forget so that when we see talent like that that we give them the props that they’re due and give them that opportunity to make the next level, the next step in their careers.
BJ: Absolutely. It’s vitally important. And, by the way, it ties into what we were talking about before about the preparation and the practicing and being ready.
Smitty: You’re so right.
BJ: Because I’ve said so many times that I think most people get some kind of a break at a key point in their professional life, and it’s whether or not you’re really ready to take advantage of it when that break happens or when that opportunity to be heard happens. If you’re really ready with all your guns and all your ammunition and can deliver the goods when that happens, then you can really take advantage of it, but if you aren’t ready and that opportunity comes along, then it’s not good timing and that’s why I try to encourage….and I think it’s so good to encourage young people to really make sure that they prepare themselves as well as they possibly can.
Smitty: Yes, very true. And you didn’t forget where you came from. I mean, you’ve given some artists some excellent opportunities and breaks in their careers. Most notably I think of Kirk Whalum. I still remember when you came into Houston and [laughs]….
BJ: Oh, that was a wonderful time and I have to say too, not in a selfish way exactly, but it certainly was very important for both of us. In my case, having Kirk join my band was a tremendous boost for me because his wonderful talent and his compositions that he contributed to my music and the camaraderie…it really worked on both sides and I’m very happy that I was able to make a contribution to getting Kirk heard by a lot of people. I think it was inevitable that it was going to happen to him anyway, but I was sort of at the right place at the right time and it was a mutual very good feeling that continues to this day.
