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00:00Hello, everyone. My name is Tyree Boyd-Pates, and I'm a Los Angeles-based museum curator and
00:11historian. But I'm really excited for this opportunity to talk to multi-Grammy award-winning
00:17Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin for Afropunk Festival. This conversation is going to be super
00:25lit, because these two gentlemen have not only inspired generations to come, but they've
00:30been inspired by generations before them. So we're going to dive in to talk about how
00:35jazz is punk and kind of dispel the myths surrounding both of the genres from two of the greats before
00:43us. And I just want to say hello to you both. How y'all feeling today?
00:49Oh, good. Can't complain.
00:50We good. We chilling, man.
00:51We chilling.
00:53Y'all look good. Y'all look really good.
00:54Well, very well lit.
00:57Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:59Yeah, man. So the reason why we're here together is because, like both of your work, jazz and
01:08punk have always had anti-establishment protests at the core. And it's always been anti-rules.
01:17And I'm curious to hear from you both about how you guys continue to bend genres through jazz
01:23and how you continue to use the genre to remake our notions of what music is altogether.
01:31But before we get into that, I want to know something, because you two have been rocking
01:39with each other for a long time. But I don't know if many people know how you guys came together
01:44to collaborate. Can you share that story with us?
01:46Oh, the story. The story.
01:49I met Robert in prison.
01:52I met him in prison.
01:53I had the top bunk. He had the bottom bunk.
01:56I had the bottom bunk.
01:57Times were weird.
01:58Yeah, we, you know, it was a rough time.
02:01So I met him in prison and we, we was cool. You know what I'm saying?
02:05I was in there for parking tickets.
02:07And I was in there for accidentally stealing snicker bars.
02:11Yeah. So, uh, now the funny thing is, you know how people say, one time in, one time in band
02:18camp, one time in band camp, we really met in band camp, in jazz camp. We were 15 years
02:24old. We were 15 years old. And there was a jazz camp. I always forget what part of Colorado.
02:30Vail, Colorado.
02:31Vail, Colorado.
02:33The air that was thin.
02:35Couldn't breathe. Vail, Colorado, they had a jazz camp and they like, that year they chose
02:40like, you know, a few students from every, in the United States, like the best students
02:44at certain, from some certain areas or whatever, and brought you together to Vail, Colorado for
02:52like a week or two and you just, you, you, you, they made groups and you played with each
02:56other and you got to know all these cool young musicians. You know what I mean? And that's
03:00literally where we met. We were, we were, we were 15 years old, like 11th grade or something
03:04like that.
03:05Yeah. And we stayed in touch. We, we just, we, we, we, we never, we never just, you know,
03:10moved away from that energy.
03:11Yeah. And I'm from Houston and he's from out here in LA. So when I, when I, when I went to
03:17college to, when I moved to New York, we kept in touch because Tara started calling me to play
03:22with Snoop Dogg, you want to do these gigs? And I couldn't at the time, I couldn't at the time
03:34because I was playing jazz, jazz gigs with like, we're at Hargrove. And can you get, you know,
03:39all these different jazz cats. So whenever he would call me, the timing never hooked up where
03:43I was free to do it, but I wanted to do it. Cause I was like, oh man, you know, Snoop Dogg, you know,
03:47he's like, and then we just kept, we just kept, kept in touch after that. And, you know, I started
03:54coming out here and doing music with him and he would come to New York, you know, so it just became
03:59a long, you know, a, a, a thing we never, we never stopped, you know, since 15 years old, that's epic.
04:07That's epic because I know you guys have been in the game for over 20 years, right? And can you,
04:12can you talk to us and probably tell us way before the age of 15, when was that moment you fell in
04:18love with music or fell in love with jazz? Like, can you pinpoint that moment? And I'm sure it was
04:23way before Colorado. So yeah, like what was that moment? I mean, I mean, like, man, for me,
04:30can we cuss? Oh, can we cuss? I don't have an issue. I mean, I better be able to cuss shit.
04:38All these damn kids, I got homeschooling all damn men and everything. I gotta be able to cuss
04:42by the time I'm interviewing with y'all shit. I don't want to cuss shit. Talk about music.
04:48These kids ain't talking about no music, man. I mean, you know, I think for, for me, Rob,
05:04and I mean, pretty much what, what, what, what I think is just, we all grew up in the true
05:09black experience, which means like, you know, in, in, in our culture, nothing is separated.
05:15I mean, like, you know, we have all these genres and everything, but we just know we
05:18didn't do that. They, they did that. You know what I'm saying? So music, food, love, church,
05:25mama hitting me upside. It's all one shit. It's like one thing. And we all, and we all have
05:33it. You know, I learned, uh, I learned something from a dear friend of mine, man named Christian
05:39Scott. We actually all have a band together called R plus R equals now. Uh, uh, the
05:45but he, he taught me something called ancestral recall. And I used to be like, what does that
05:51mean? And he would say, man, you know, that's how come a cat can play music in his family.
05:56Nobody else play. He like, he the first one Christian, like, nah, he ain't the first one.
06:00That's ancestral recall from somebody. That's just, that's, that's, that's what we are is
06:05African as a people, you know what I'm saying? So like, I, I, I can't even separate when I
06:10fell in love with what, but I can't separate when I heard certain things, but I don't, I
06:15don't, I can't even remember life without music. I don't even know what that's like.
06:21That's true. I never thought of it that way. When you said we didn't separate it, because
06:26we didn't separate it. Black people didn't separate that.
06:28We didn't learn that shit until after college, college separated.
06:32College separated. People who admire the music need to separate it because it's not in their
06:37cultural, it's not, it's not in their cultural surrounding to have, um, so many styles of
06:44music that the world needs. Gumbo. We, we created the gumbo and you, you, you know what I mean?
06:49And it's this, yeah, for sure. And we created the turkey taco. The turkey taco.
06:55That's from LA. That's LA. That's LA. That's LA. Come on.
06:59But it's a real thing because while that hot cone was on the stove, I didn't know what I was
07:05going to hear playing in the background. It's going to be between Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson,
07:11Shirley Caesar, uh, um, Aretha Franklin. You never know. Anita Baker. You know, you never know
07:18what was going to, because that, that, that was, that was the black experience. Most people,
07:23when their culture pretty much for the most part has the one kind of music, like that's this music.
07:29You know what I mean? That's this. We have so many genres that we didn't even, I don't know if we
07:33even deemed them as genres, but it's just that that's what they are that we came up with. That
07:39is just like, you know, that, that, that's just what it is. Yeah. You know? And, and when people
07:44say, how do you separate or how do you mix those two? It's not mixing. It's just like, you don't ask
07:49somebody why, why they're your brother. They're just your brother. You don't know why they're
07:53just your brother. That's it. You know, that's how it is musically. It's like, yeah, that's it.
08:00That's why everybody, that's why everybody, you know, everybody, somebody's cousin with us as a
08:06people. Oh, that's my cousin. You know, we know him for three hours. He, he, he, the cousin.
08:11Exactly. You know what I'm saying? That's tribal. That's tribal. That's tribal. That's tribal.
08:18Right. Right. Right. And you, and you said that's called ancestral recall. That's, that's a powerful
08:29theory, man. And I've heard similar things like ancestral retention where we, we, we retain what the
08:36past. I think it's actually the same theory and it's, it's the same. We connected and we're
08:43interconnected and we can't be broken. Right. That's powerful. And in that power of our, of us
08:49being linked together, you, both of your works, your catalogs, your discography remind me of punk
08:57music, but particularly because of like this fearlessness, like this, this renegade spirit you
09:03by you both kind of evoke whenever you guys are on your instruments. And I want to know,
09:07like, what is that courage? What is that bravery? Is it, is that bravery and courage coming from
09:13or the ancestral retention? Like what keeps you so emboldened about your craft?
09:19Um, for me, it's the, the, uh, the overwhelming need to create the want to create. It's not
09:32necessarily. I want to break down certain barriers. I never came into it wanting to break down any
09:39barrier. You know what I mean? This is just what I love. I love this. I love this. I love
09:45this. And I love this. So I'm going to do them all. And they're going to intertwine with each
09:50other. It just becomes, it's just my love of creativity. I think it with black people in
09:55general, we just, it's our love for creativity. You know what I mean? And our love for, for
10:00creating. So we create one thing, but then we, and our love for breaking rules. You know what I
10:05mean? It's like, you're not supposed to do this, but we're going to do this. And then we're
10:09going to do this. You're not supposed to do that. But if you break that rule, then that
10:12becomes, you know, and, and that's how the world works. You know, one, one, one thing
10:16is set and then you, people say, you can't do that. And then you do it. And then that
10:20becomes a norm. And then they say, you can't do that. And then you do it. And that becomes,
10:23you know, and I, I, I feel like it's just, uh, in our nature to just want to keep creating,
10:30you know, that's, that is simple as that really. It's not, it's not hard for me. You know,
10:36when I was coming up in church, you know, we was playing church songs, but at that point
10:41it was being mixed with, you know, how shout out to Kirk Franklin, you know, it was being
10:47mixed with R and B songs and we would have church songs, jazz songs and, you know, mixing
10:53church songs with, with Latin music and, you know, all, all those things. And, and, and,
10:58and it, and it became something for everyone. You know what I mean? And that, that was just
11:04the normal thing, you know? Yeah. And Terrence, you used to play in God's property. If I'm
11:09not mistaken. That's right. Yup. Yeah. I used to, my life is in your hands. I used to play
11:15with God's property. Hey, hey, hey, hey. I mean, you know what too? Uh, you got some
11:21God's property stories. Shout out to Spud. Shout out to Spud, not the choir. But, uh,
11:28We here. What was that? Oh, yo, we're here. Yeah. No. Share any stories you'd like. Yeah. I, I thought
11:35about the gospel stories is those Kirk Franklin stories. It was like part of it, but, um,
11:40I, uh, something that's similar. I feel right. Right. To me and Rob's movement that is very
11:48running coincide with how the punk movement was ran. Right. Cause you know, being, being
11:54from Los Angeles, we hands down had one of the strongest punk scenes. That's where you
11:59have, that's where you have red hot chili peppers come from. You know, you know, that's
12:03where you have fishbone come from. You know what I'm saying? Uh, you have all these,
12:07these monumental punk things like, you know, that, that was going around. And I, I, I think
12:13the main thing that me and Rob got is respectfully, we don't give a fuck about all these rules and
12:18barriers that motherfuckers throw at people. But that's, we feel like that about life.
12:22See, we not art like our music is how we move is not really separate. We're very respectful.
12:28We just want to create and just keep pushing. So it's just like the punk thing to where,
12:32Oh, we can't, we can't express over there. We're going to express over there. Or you want to tie
12:37two hands behind our back. We're going to do it with whatever else. So it's like, I think we have
12:41a very, uh, whether it's piano, saxophones, drum machines, computers, whatever it is, it's going to
12:48come out, you know, even if it's through cooking, even if it's through, you know, I'm hugging somebody
12:53you love or doing anything like that. I think just creating comes in so many different kinds of
12:57values. I truly believe if me and him was on a graveyard shift at 7-Eleven, I'd be security.
13:05I'd be security.
13:07I'd be making the wings.
13:09He'd be making the wings. But I feel that we, we, we would be the kind of guys that would rush
13:14home and do this. I always tell people in the music game, you got to let it good with the bad,
13:19the bad with the good. You got to love, you got to love all the stones that come with it.
13:23Just like all the Grammys and everything else that come with it too. It's like you, it's
13:27like, like we don't, it's not separate really. We just know how to talk about it like that.
13:32But as I get old, I realize it's one, like even with music, like we know music, even you,
13:37I can guarantee you and anybody looking at this, Rob, anybody, we remember songs by moments.
13:44That's why those songs in our childhoods with our mamas and our daddies and our uncles are so
13:52memorable and we probably hated them then. But we, as a, as, as a people, we are so tribal and
14:01everything is touching, feeling, and everything is so, so in tune spiritually. We associate music
14:07with time. So he grew up in Houston, right? His mom, great bass singer. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
14:14I grew up in LA and the Crenshaw district where it was, it was, I look out my window. I'm
14:19hearing John Coltrane, but it's all C's and B's and blue rags and lolos and all kind of fly
14:25shit going on. You know what I'm saying? So it's like music, music is how we remember it.
14:30He was just telling that story, man, about your dad. Was it a Luther Vandross?
14:34Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, as soon as I hear, as soon as I hear Luther, I, my dad, every Saturday,
14:40my dad will open up the garage door and put his car out into the driveway and wash his car.
14:46But he was blasting Luther. Even with the car owned by his being washed?
14:49All that. Windows rolled up.
14:51Do you remember the song? Do you remember the song? Do you remember the song?
14:56Do you remember the Luther song? Oh, it was a bunch of, it was a bunch of, like, oh,
15:00Superstar, Constance Matter Home, Never Ten Month, all of them, all of them, all of them.
15:05Bad boys. Bad boys. Bad boys. Don't creep out your window.
15:12Look at the sun. Everybody see. Yeah. Come on.
15:16You got me in the middle. On the radio. Yeah.
15:19I know. Yeah. Okay.
15:21Might have a look. We got to call Margaret Miller.
15:23Right, right.
15:24No, this is, this is a powerful segue that you both are bringing up because it sounds like you guys are stating what black folks,
15:35how black folks chronicle time is through music. It's like, that's our historical timeline.
15:40And I know this intimately, both as a museum curator and historian that, like, that's how I tell our stories.
15:47It's like, that's the best way to connect us. And it's, it's funny because when I, when I look at the larger tree of what connects black music,
15:55whether it's, you know, bebop, bebop or rock and roll, and you see the branches of, of, um, punk and, and jazz and all these many iterations,
16:04like each of them speak to how black people were suffering underneath oppression, but still remain resilient.
16:13And that's what y'all are saying. Like, whether it's the C's, the B's, the, the gospel choir or, or the low lows,
16:20like these are the things that graft us together. And also we know what time of the week it is based off of what is being played on a record player.
16:29Like for me, Anita Baker.
16:32I, I, I, I watch this shit. I remember a time in South Central LA before crack cocaine hit, everybody, everybody had a house and there was a lot of musicians.
16:43Living in, uh, in LA cause it's, it's Los Angeles. So all the black musicians lived in the Crenshaw, a lot of them lived in the Crenshaw district.
16:50Everybody had a home.
16:52Everybody had a home. And I, I, I used to ask my dad, why is that? He said, because the seventies, because funk music made brothers rich.
17:02Hmm.
17:03Funk.
17:04There was so many rich black people off of the session world and funk music in the seventies.
17:08That's why when you listen to that music is so many people having a good time.
17:12It's not that much heavy protests in the seventies music.
17:15It's good times for black folks. Cause brothers was rich. Everybody had, and rich, rich is whatever you, however you could rich.
17:25I'm good.
17:26So that's what I'm saying, but it's like that seventies music.
17:30And I mean, man, I remember going over everybody's house.
17:34I went over, had a house in the heels.
17:36And then I remember 87, 86, 87, when the guns changed, the hood started getting semi-automatic guns and crack came in.
17:45And I remember in 89, everybody having nice duplexes. I remember in 90, everybody home is living in motels.
17:53I remember this whole thing with that. Then I remember new Jack swing emerging and gangster rap emerging and just coming through from all that.
18:00So I, I, I, I, and shit is deep. Like when we talk about how music, music is the best, music is the best photographer in the world to me.
18:11Right. I couldn't agree with you more than anything in the world, more than anything in the world.
18:17For me, I believe music captures a true level of history that nothing could ever capture.
18:21Yeah.
18:21How powerful, powerful. And it's funny you say, you say this because in, uh, in the eighties and gangster rap, what were they sampling?
18:30It was all, it was all fuck.
18:35That's amazing.
18:36It was all fuck. It was all good time music. Cause that generation, the Dr. Dre's,
18:40the battle cats that grew up in like from 80 to 86 DJ and parties and everything.
18:46That was the funk music, Roger Krautman. Then they was jazz influenced by Patrice Rush and everything else.
18:51That's all good feeling happy. Roy errors in the sunshine, black people, smiling, living good in the hills.
18:58But then you got Dr. Draymond that emerged from the whole era of like, damn.
19:02So, okay. They tried to wipe us out, but guess what?
19:04They didn't wipe out the motherfucking records.
19:06So we was able to take them records, those roadmaps and get back out the ghettos, bro.
19:12And so on this, on this trajectory of roadmaps, right?
19:19You all have been using, you, you, you, you all have been using roadmaps, particularly throughout
19:25your career. And you guys have seen both the good, the bad, the ugly. And you've also seen the ways
19:32of music, whether it's chronicling the beauty of blackness or the struggle of blackness is still
19:38speaking truth to power. Like, and like punk, your music does that as well. How do you all, like,
19:45use your music to bring the smiles, but also to bring the protests, to bring the, the, the, the courage
19:52again, you know, about the moment over and over and over again? Is it just that road map?
19:57It's the road map. And it's, it's also understanding that to, to do that, to, to bring protests,
20:10to, to make music specifically, to, to help other people, to lift other people up. There's a certain
20:16amount of unselfishness you have to have with the music. You know what I mean? Because if you're too
20:23consumed with yourself, then you're not caring about any of that other stuff. You know what I mean?
20:27Instead of, instead of us getting a poet to speak about things that are happening or getting a rapper
20:33to rap about things that are happening or getting a singer, there could be saxophone solos on every
20:37track. There could be piano solos on every track. I could be exerting myself on every track. You know
20:42what I mean? Like, look what I can do. Like, you have to take out the look what I can do,
20:46you know what I mean? And, and, and put in, hey, listen, listen to this. And, and then there's a way you can
20:52do it that's not annoying. You know what I mean? Some, some protest music, and they mean well,
21:00so not a knock against it, but sometimes it could be too much. You know, you want to listen to music
21:04to listen to music. You don't want to listen to music to always feel like you're being preached at,
21:09or, you know what I mean? Or anything like that. So sometimes you put on music, if, if there's a way
21:14that you can, you can put in the right message in the music, and it's still good music, and it still has a
21:21certain vibe. I think that's the, it's definitely another way to go with it. You know what I mean?
21:27It's definitely another way to relay a message and, and, and to get people to understand certain
21:32things without it feeling like you're like, sit down, listen, let me show you. Nobody wants to put
21:37on a record and that they don't, you know what I mean? So it's just that balance. It's just finding,
21:43it's just finding that balance and finding the right person to say it, keep it cool.
21:47Got to keep it flying. Yeah. You know what I mean? Got to protest flying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
21:53Are you both surprised that like, uh, to Pimple Butterflies, you know, Kendrick Lamar's, uh,
21:59All Right is being used at protests in order to like, get everyone on the same page? Like,
22:05what are y'all thoughts about that? I know he was, he was talking to, um, he's in, uh, ID today,
22:11uh, talking to his, uh, protege. And I know, uh, that was one of the points that they made. Like,
22:15and you guys were involved in, I'm sure that song, the album, like, are you guys surprised that
22:20people have carried that, that song in particular to the protest? No, no, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm,
22:28I'm not surprised about that because we was, we was aware of the people we were speaking to as we
22:34were doing that record. So we were talking to a direct kind of human being that is sick of suffering,
22:41that is sick of hurt, that is sick, that is sick of pain, that is sick of being lied to,
22:45that is sick of all these things. We, we were talking to the person that was looking to be healed.
22:50And as long as this world keeps going, we always going to be healing. So that, that, that this is,
22:55is, is, is not surprising to me when that song does what it does. Cause man, we, you know, we,
23:00man, we prayed over that album, man. You know what I'm saying? It would speak to a certain kind of
23:05person. You know, it wasn't, and whoever don't get it, they not supposed to get it. That album is,
23:09is that album is, is, is, is a scroll of roadmaps for years to come for other young people,
23:15sisters and brothers of all walks of life, all colors, just to get on the right side of the
23:19motherfucking planet and know that the system is not for you. And what I mean for you, I mean,
23:25if you understand open-mindedness and love and growing, and we are all one, it's not for you.
23:29It's based on hate. So that album is just a documentation of, this is how we get through
23:36shit. Maybe this will help out the world. Boom. So when it stops, like I seen that album stop.
23:41I've literally seen that song stop police from getting shot in the face at a March on Crenshaw.
23:48I saw that. I saw that with my own eyes, but we ain't tripping on the police in South Central LA,
23:56never have it, never will. And I saw, I saw that song, calm down the energies of young
24:03people that were sick of being lied to, ready, burn it up, ready to go. But I saw when that song came
24:09on, everybody started dancing. You know what I'm saying? I'm so happy. I didn't want no shots
24:13while I was down there. So I'm happy everybody started dancing. Everybody started dancing.
24:18And I said, we're going to be all right. I got all right to my car, but we, we was all right.
24:22Right. Right. Right. We was all right too. We need you to be all right.
24:28So as long as look, I don't want to see nobody get popped, bro. You feel me? I don't want to see
24:33no police, no bias. I don't want to see, I want everybody to be cool. Listen to this Robert
24:39Glassman, these Terrace Martin records, you know, smoke, and just love, man. That's all we want everybody
24:49do is love, man. You know, and so vote. And vote. And please vote. Please vote.
24:56Oh, please vote. You know, well, you know, you, as we were talking about the roadmaps,
25:01I want to get your thoughts on this, both of y'all. As we're talking about the roadmaps that
25:04have worked and saved black folks from, you know, the police and every other force out there,
25:09there's been other communities who've also looked at our roadmaps, right? And, and some of those
25:14individuals who looked at those roadmaps become famous and have been part of punk and rock bands.
25:19And like, I, I did my homework in preparation for this conversation. And I looked up like Iggy Pop
25:24and the Stooges, like mentioned that a Love Supreme was his, was one of his major influences, right?
25:30And that Lou Reed of Velvet Underground was inspired by Ornette Coleman. And like, can you, I know we
25:38don't like separate him, but the dominant group has always kind of peered in to jazz, peered into these
25:44greats. And why do you think they, they use them as reference points? Um, and do you think rock kids
25:50are using your lyrics, uh, punk kids are using your music in the same way today, like they did Ornette
25:57and, uh, um, I love Supreme. Everybody want to be a star, man. Everybody want to be a star. John
26:07Coltrane and them dudes, they not jazz musicians to me. These are superheroes who don't want to be
26:15Superman, who don't want to be Batman. So it's not shocking that these other, that these other cats
26:21felt like that. I mean, we, we all felt like, I mean, man, I want to be the dude in Knight Rider.
26:26What's the dude in Knight Rider? With the tight-ass leather jacket. How do we save the girl?
26:32And he can't be like, oh, make a left on Figaroa, make a right on Floss, and she right there.
26:37You know what I mean? But so we, David Hasselhoff. David Hasselhoff.
26:41And look, I'm in the head. I wonder how I get my hair like that. All kind of
26:45fucking other shit going on. So it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not shocking. You know,
26:50I mean, it's, it's all good because that's why, that's why the creator made those stars
26:56so we could all pull from that energy. Like I love, like I love John Coltrane. I love Supreme,
27:02man. That was his, that was his acknowledgement. That was his acknowledgement to the heavenly father.
27:06You know what I'm saying? That was that, that, that's why I really, that, you know, we,
27:11we play a lot of songs in the jazz world, young and you come, I never, I never play one of those
27:16songs off there. Cause I always look at that album, like a sacred thing, like, like a sacred thing.
27:22I just always grew up and my father, my father's such a deep jazz guy, but he always painted that
27:29album to be just as powerful as the Holy Bible in the house. Because he was like, if you can't
27:34understand all the words, you're going to understand how this make you feel. And he,
27:38so he was like, so love Supreme was like that. So it's not shocking that, you know, them cats,
27:43you know, pop, you know what I'm saying? You know, I mean, John Coltrane was live. He was with
27:49Alice. Ornette coming out here from South, coming to New York, 1958, killing in 1959.
27:59You going to dig me? Everybody was talking about Ornette West Coast. Everybody was talking bad
28:05about him, but everybody only was able to talk bad about him because they was in his motherfucking
28:09front row, looking at them at the five spot with Ornette Coleman, Billy Higgins and Don Terry. So
28:14why not be with a, why not look up to a trailblazer that Miles Davis had to come and look at you
28:19and say, I don't get it, but I'm rolling. Cause you fly. You better want to be like Ornette.
28:30Why are you on Love Supreme? I'll never forget. I bought the Love Supreme album when I was in
28:35seventh grade on my way home from school. I got home from school. My mom's still at work. I got
28:43home from school and I put Love Supreme on and I jumped in the shower. I had to go somewhere.
28:49Something had to do. I jumped in the shower. I did not know that they chant Love Supreme.
28:54I love Supreme. Yeah. Scared the living out of me. I jumped out the shower. I almost slipped out the
29:02shower. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know it was on the album. I thought somebody was,
29:06you know, the house. I was like, what is going on? That's literally my introduction to Love Supreme.
29:11Like, scared as hell. Wow.
29:15Yeah. For sure. For sure. That's an amazing story. That's an amazing story.
29:23And I would be afraid too. I love Supreme.
29:25Yeah. I love Supreme. I was like, what the hell? You know.
29:29Who's that? Who's in the shower right with me?
29:34No, no. That's real. You know, this is a good segue to like a region-based question because
29:41Terrace, like you, I'm from L.A. all day, right? And I want to know.
29:45Where are you from, dog? What part of L.A. are you from?
29:50I'm from Koreatown, actually. Born and raised. Born and raised.
29:53Really? Yeah. I'm one of the people. I've never heard you by your favorite.
29:58I've never heard in my life. No, no. But through the 92 riots though.
30:03Through the 92 riots. So we can break bread on that later. We can break bread.
30:08Damn, that's deep. But you know. Yeah, yeah. So, so, so, which is a good segue because
30:13it allows me to ask how much did Crenshaw shape your view on, the Crenshaw district in particular,
30:22shape your view on jazz? Like for, for, to the same question that I want to ask Robert about
30:28Houston because, you know, jazz, you know, it comes out of New Orleans and then it gets,
30:34it gets popular, popular during the Harlem Renaissance. But you guys have made and staking
30:39claim to jazz in your own home, home basis. I want to know how pivotal are those places for you?
30:47Moreover. I mean, they, they very pivotal, you know, I mean, Houston and Los Angeles
30:54has a high, high level jazz history. Both cities individually have a very thick jazz history and
31:00a thick jazz history mixed with hit record history. You know, so it's not too far that, that we love
31:07playing the music. We love the art and we love fly. That's not too far off because we from those
31:13places that it was, it was cool to be high level, black educated, know your music, know the history
31:19and still go buy a bottle of champagne and go hang with the president. You feel me? It was, it was that,
31:25that was all part of being like, oh, that's, that was all part of one. So it was like, that's our roots,
31:32you know? And then for me, just the Crenshaw district is just so powerful for me because,
31:36you know, I, I, I grew up at my earliest memories was the mid eighties. So I grew up seeing all that
31:43into the nineties. So it's like the Crenshaw district has always been my everything. Cause for
31:4818, 19 years, that was just all I really not known, but I didn't have to go above the 10 freeway
31:53for a motherfucking thing. I didn't have to go fuck with them at all, bro. You know,
31:58we had ballers in the hood. We had bomb ass food. We had educators. We had brothers that loved you,
32:04you know? And at the time I grew up wanting to be a Crip. So it's like, that was my, I want to,
32:09you know, like I grew up in the sixties, which is the Crenshaw and Slauson area. You know what I'm
32:14saying? So yeah. And that's my village though. That's my village. Like it ain't no, I used to go,
32:21like, that's my, that's who I speak for. So it's like, like that is all played into the music.
32:28It's all played in the Jags at the same time. Yeah. I grew up in the sixties,
32:32but two blocks away on the breath, my neighbors is Billy Higgins and Dexter Gordon pulling up to
32:37his crib and Cedar Walton and Jackie McLean and Charles Lloyd and Jack DeGeney and Elvin Jones.
32:44And then it's the homeless Crip walking over there. I'm like, I'm hanging with the homies.
32:50But then when I got 14, homies started getting killed. I was like, I'm hanging with Mr. Higgins.
32:55Cause ain't nobody even shooting at him. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
33:00Right. Your jazz upbringing is better than mine.
33:09Tell him your favorite jazz artist when you was a kid.
33:11Huh? Please.
33:12Tell him your favorite jazz artist when you was a kid.
33:14Oscar, who was his? Kenny.
33:16Oh, my first favorite jazz artist. Why are you going to bring, don't, don't,
33:20don't try to blast me out. He tried to blast me out.
33:24Look, look, I love Kenny G. I played clarinet.
33:29I played clarinet, um, throughout junior high school. Right.
33:33In one year of high school.
33:35But Kenny G and I got his album silhouette to be specific.
33:42Shout out to Kenny G.
33:47I used to try to play my clarinet like Kenny G to play a soprano saxophone up here.
33:54And at the side of my mouth. And the band director used to be living with me. Robert,
33:58stop playing like that.
34:00And I used to try to play all these licks.
34:02I was trying to play all, that was really my first, like, my first real, like, trying to play jazz,
34:08really, was playing clarinet, trying to play like Kenny G.
34:12And then, uh, Kenny G and Michael Bolton had a song together on that album.
34:20So then I started, I started trying to sing like Michael Bolton.
34:24As soon as I tried to sing like Michael Bolton, my mom, being a singer herself,
34:28said, you will not sing like Michael Bolton in this house.
34:30And not in this house, you won't be doing that.
34:36Not in this house, you won't.
34:37You will.
34:40Here's some Sam Cooke.
34:43Here's some Marvin Gaye, here's some Sam Cooke.
34:45Here's some Ball Ball.
34:47Here's some Bruce Avanza.
34:48Here, you know, it was like, you know, but, but, but that, that was so funny.
34:53But then what really sparked me, what really sparked my jazz, my, my, my jazz thing was that,
35:00but then my mother was a singer and her piano player, they used to have rehearsals at the house
35:04all the time.
35:05And her piano player, Alan Mosley, this cat, you know, uh, he used to show me stuff.
35:10I used to watch them rehearse and sit down the next to him on the piano, just watch him play.
35:14You know, then he used to show me stuff, little stuff, you know, after we finished.
35:18And so he showed me this one thing that he told me how to play the, the Spider-Man theme,
35:23uh, on the piano, walking the bass, like a minor blues.
35:27And I, and, and that's, so when I, I auditioned for the high school for performing arts in Houston,
35:33and when I auditioned, I only knew that jazz tune.
35:36I knew that.
35:37And I knew, and I played three church songs.
35:41That's how I got in.
35:43Wow.
35:43You know what I mean?
35:43That's really how I got in.
35:44And then once I got into the jazz school, that's when I started learning a lot.
35:49And now I'm around other kids who like jazz and boom, boom, boom.
35:52And then, you know, I had somebody to look up to the Jason Moran was, had just left my school.
35:57You know what I mean?
35:58So all the teachers were like, you could be the next Jason Moran, you know?
36:01So it was, it was a thing that, that was my training ground.
36:04Yeah, yeah, yeah.
36:06You know?
36:06And aside from, you know, Joe Samples is, Joe Samples is one of my heroes, rest in peace.
36:11And he's from Houston.
36:12You know what I mean?
36:13So I kind of had him to look up to, and you know, the crusaders.
36:16That whole crusader, the early crusader records?
36:18Oh yeah, for sure, for sure.
36:19Oh yeah, yeah, definitely.
36:21Wilson?
36:21Yeah, Winfelder and yeah, Sticks Hoof problem.
36:24That's, that's, that's, that's, that's all.
36:28And shout out to Houston, shout out to Crenshaw for like cultivating you all.
36:33Um, we're at the end of our discussion, our conversation between brothers.
36:37And I, I just want to ask and really give you both the floor.
36:40Like what is one piece of advice, practical advice that you want to leave the audience with?
36:45Because we, we've pretty much covered how black folks don't see or separate the musical genres.
36:51We've always been interconnected.
36:53We see the cultural attention.
36:55Um, what, what's something you want to leave with the, with the, with the Afropunk audience?
36:59Um, and, and that'll be our sign off tonight and today.
37:05Be open, try new things, welcome all challenges, expect the unexpected, mind your own fucking business,
37:17pay your phone bill on time, be careful, look both ways.
37:22If you black driving, stop driving Uber, Uber.
37:30Other than that, Hey man, honestly, right now, bro, my main push is spend time with your family,
37:36love your family, get to know yourself in these trying times more and vote as a black person.
37:43That people have died for us to be able to vote that people that are wrongly incarcerated,
37:47that cannot vote that we stand on the shoulders of everybody else that can't vote.
37:51So even if your punk ass don't want to motherfucking vote, think about the motherfuckers.
37:55I got, they got killed, kidnapped, raped, all kinds of things to vote.
38:01You know, vote is important from your, from local voting to the main stage of the shit.
38:06Well, we know the main stage is whatever, but for your own neighborhood, I tell everybody,
38:11you better vote your own people in follow, get the vote.
38:15A lot of times those are, those affect you more than impressive.
38:17You know what I mean?
38:18Yeah. Yeah.
38:19You feel me?
38:19Yeah.
38:20During this pandemic, you should definitely come out of this pandemic doing something better
38:25than you did before the pandemic.
38:28Whatever it is, if it's working on your craft, if it's learning a new craft,
38:33something, you should be better at something than you did before.
38:35If you come out of this pandemic the exact same, then you wasted the fucking time.
38:39You should be better at something, 100%.
38:43On behalf of Afro Punks Festival Jazz's Punks panel, this is Tyree with the, the notorious
38:53Terrence Martin and the notorious Robert Glasper.
38:55Thank you for this evening, this afternoon, this day.
38:59And thank you for dropping all the jams.
39:00I think everyone's better for it.
39:02Y'all take it easy on Harry.
39:03Appreciate it.
39:04Love you, Afro Punks.
39:05Let's go.
39:06Afro Punks.
39:06I got so high on the Afro Punks in Brooklyn.
39:09Oh, yeah.
39:09Yeah.
39:10I walked in.
39:11It was, I was with Sisson.
39:12Yeah.
39:12I was there.
39:13You was there?
39:13I was there.
39:14I ate a wee brownie.
39:15I'll complain.
39:16I got there and I got, I got lost in an absolute.
39:19I got lost and I couldn't find anybody.
39:21And then Sisson was going on stage.
39:22I started panicking and then I went to the, you was there.
39:25I was there.
39:25And then I just got in the cab and went back to the hotel.
39:27Remember that?
39:27Yes.
39:28I was tripping.
39:31Greatest panel ever.
39:33You know what?
39:33There needs to be a whole, there needs to be a whole separate panel on just Afro Punks experiences.
39:38I know.
39:39Right, right.
39:39That's right.
39:40We met up here.
39:42Yeah, we met up there.
39:43That's right.
39:44Yeah.
39:44Y'all are the GOATs.
39:45Y'all are the GOATs.
39:46Y'all are the GOATs.
39:46Thank you so much, y'all.
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