Lessons in Leadership and Jazz | Jesse "JTJazz" Thompson

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Speaker 3 One thing that grabbed me about jazz freedom, liberty, and how I was raised and taught is that one band, one sound. To know your place, not to outshine or try to outdo one another.

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 2 Yeah, make it look, make it look, make it look easy. Hey, stand up.

Speaker 3 The Ryan Hanley Show shares the original ideas, habits, and mindsets of world-class original thinkers you can use to produce extraordinary results in your life and business. This is the way.

Speaker 2 Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous conversation for you today with Jesse JT Jazz Thompson, a multidisciplined composer, pianist, keyboardist.

Speaker 2 In this episode, we relate working in a jazz band to how we operate as leaders inside of a team, how we manage the flow, and how we integrate different ideas in a kind of of real-time nature.

Speaker 2 We talk about the business of music and we

Speaker 2 dissect the differences between Jesse's solo career to being part of a band, what that looks like and how you take both the

Speaker 2 kind of

Speaker 2 self-oriented nature of being a solo artist and integrate that into and how you can use those skills to be a better member, a more productive member, a more integrated member of a band.

Speaker 2 All of this relates back to how we operate our businesses, how we operate our life.

Speaker 2 And it is so much fun for me when we're able to bring in individuals who come from disciplines such as the music industry and take their stories, their ideas, their insights, and apply them back to how we improve our business and our life.

Speaker 2 Jesse is an exceptional guy. I really enjoyed this conversation and I know you will too.

Speaker 2 If this is your first time here, make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you're listening or if you're watching on YouTube.

Speaker 2 If you have thoughts, comments, if you want to just give Jesse a shout out, leave that in the reviews or in the comments.

Speaker 2 If you're on YouTube, appreciate the hell out of you for listening to this show. I love you for listening to this show.
Let's get on to Jesse Thompson, Jesse. Phenomenal to have you on the show, man.

Speaker 2 Excited for our conversation. What's going on?

Speaker 3 Thank you, man. I'm blessed to be here.
Thanks for having me. It's an honor.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, we, you know, my, I mentioned my good buddy, uh, you know, we're friendly competitors. Mick Hunt, you were on his show, Mick Unplugged.
So,

Speaker 2 you know, we got to find some space in here where

Speaker 2 we can one up, one up your conversation with him.

Speaker 2 And for all the listeners at home, you guys know that Mick's a buddy of mine, and I highly encourage everyone to listen to the Mick Unplugged show, too, which Jesse was on. And

Speaker 2 my first question for you is, why jazz? Like, what was it about that particular genre of music that just grabbed you and said, you know, this, this inspires me.

Speaker 2 This is a place that I want to put some time in?

Speaker 3 Well, you know,

Speaker 3 first of all, it started, believe it or not, it started with gospel

Speaker 3 church because my mom was a church warden's pianist. And then my dad, by him being a retired

Speaker 3 professional jazz drummer, he was deeply into the church as well.

Speaker 3 So I did a lot in the gospel area there with church.

Speaker 3 But my dad, by him being a professional jazz drummer, that kind of like leaked me into that field, right? That playing field.

Speaker 3 And so we would always listen to, you know, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, uh, Richard Groove Holmes, Jimmy Smith, Charles Erland, all these different types of LPs back then, um, and eight tracks, believe it or not.

Speaker 3 Yeah, so as a kid, we're sitting on there listening to stuff, and he's having me study stuff, and I've just enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 Um, as well as we had other genres in the house playing, but it was something about jazz. One thing that grabbed me about jazz, one word I can say is freedom, um, liberty.

Speaker 3 It With jazz, you're able to go different places

Speaker 3 without maybe, for me anyway, without feeling constrained or without feeling like, oh, I got to keep it right here. You know, it allows me to express myself a little bit more.

Speaker 3 So that was one thing that really grabbed me. And then I also found out that it also involved a lot of different other types of genres, kind of like

Speaker 3 a melting pot full of ingredients

Speaker 3 that you can trickle into jazz, whether it be some gospel, classical, you know, and then, you know, different forms, maybe some rock, little RB, whatever.

Speaker 3 So I really, I really like jazz and I like the way that it allows me to express myself. So it really grabbed me.

Speaker 2 Well, it's the original American art form. I mean, we invented the, invented the genre.
I mean, that's, that's one of the things that I love about it.

Speaker 2 And I love, you know, the other thing I love about jazz, and I, so you know, I am, I have this enormous and wide-ranging appreciation for music, yet I am one of the least musically inclined humans.

Speaker 3 You don't sing or nothing? You don't play anything?

Speaker 2 I mean, I sing, but not well. I have a guitar that I have tried to learn how to play many times and just never seemed to make it make the sounds.

Speaker 2 But I have this appreciation for it. And one of the things that

Speaker 2 has always,

Speaker 2 and I enjoy jazz, I won't say that I have as deep a knowledge as I wish I did, but I've always been enamored by the blues and particularly the deep south blues. I love it.
And

Speaker 2 I fell in love with like Taj Mahal and some of these other guys, and all of them come back to being inspired by and

Speaker 2 spending time in jazz in some way, shape, or form. And, you know, I guess

Speaker 2 I'm going to ask you a bunch of esoteric questions because I'm just so interested in this and your creativity. Like, you know, how

Speaker 2 when you, when you're,

Speaker 2 when you're taking in, say, another genre, like maybe you hear a blues riff that someone plays, you know,

Speaker 2 it feels to me like the beauty of jazz is that it allows you to have this form and then pull in these other forms as they fit and as you're inspired to do so. And that's a very unique quality.

Speaker 2 Am I describing that properly?

Speaker 3 Yeah, no, yeah, you're right on it.

Speaker 3 You know, with jazz, like you said,

Speaker 3 you can pull different pieces, right, from different

Speaker 2 other

Speaker 3 elements, if you will, music elements, and you can

Speaker 3 really make it work. So, for example, like

Speaker 3 the different types of instruments that are out there, you know, I mean, of course, we have the piano, but then we have different types of woodwind instruments that we can incorporate in there.

Speaker 3 And it's almost, it's really like orchestration, right? We can orchestrate different things to make it work, to make it have our freedom of expression musically.

Speaker 3 And, you know, plus we can add in the different syncopated rhythms, which is a lot of fun, mixed meters.

Speaker 3 Then stuff is like, wow, that it doesn't make sense, but it does, you know?

Speaker 3 And so it's just, yeah, you're right. It's, it's allows you to pull in different things and just do things creative to, you know, very in a creative form and have fun with it too.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I was in New Orleans a few years ago. And,

Speaker 2 you know, one of my favorite things to do after

Speaker 2 probably having a few too many cocktails is finding like the most

Speaker 2 backroom jazz, you know, live jazz that I can find.

Speaker 2 I try to stay off of, I mean, there's great stuff on Bourbon Street, but man, you get some really cool stuff if you ask the right person, you know, that looks like they've been there for a while.

Speaker 2 They can usually point you in a good direction. So

Speaker 2 I did that and went with a couple of friends and we sat down and were listening. And

Speaker 2 what someone like me, who is not musically inclined,

Speaker 2 appreciates but struggles to understand

Speaker 2 is

Speaker 2 how

Speaker 2 a group of musicians in a jazz band can play off each other. Like, as much as you can, I would love for you just to explain how you guys work off of each other because

Speaker 2 you'll hear

Speaker 2 the pianist will, well, bam, it goes off and he's doing his thing. And you can tell he's got the lead and everyone's just kind of following him.

Speaker 2 And then at some moment that I can't understand, but obviously the band can, the trumpeteer will take over, or then the saxophonist. And then now the guitar will take over.

Speaker 2 And then, and then they'll, then the pattern, it's not like a pattern. Then maybe it'll bounce back over to the trumpet.
And you're like, it's brilliant.

Speaker 2 I mean, you, you, you appreciate it so much, but I have no understanding of how you're able to do that.

Speaker 3 Yeah.

Speaker 3 So, you know, you say the key word, a band. And, and, and how I was raised and taught is that one band, one sound,

Speaker 3 meaning to know your place, not to outshine or try to outdo one another. There's a time to step out, there's a time to step back.

Speaker 3 And one way of making sure that that's done creatively is where,

Speaker 3 you know, like you were saying, we're bouncing off one another. It's a form of communication.

Speaker 3 And one word I love to use is called connection, right? So we're connected.

Speaker 3 So musically, we can feed off of one another, we communicate, and it's just sometimes it's indescribable because it's such a vibe that,

Speaker 3 you know.

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Speaker 3 If it's a tune, let's say it's a tune I'm leading off playing piano. I got bass, guitar, you know, and drums and sacks, something like that.

Speaker 3 And so I may be leading it off.

Speaker 3 And then it's like everyone knows their place.

Speaker 3 So maybe the saxophone is to come up and do a little solo riff off or whatever. And then it goes off, pan off to whoever else.
And then it may be like a free pool, as I call it.

Speaker 3 And that's when you really get the vibe going off of each other.

Speaker 3 It's just amazing. It's really just another form of communication.

Speaker 3 And being able to bounce off of one another is so key. And listening, you know, part of really listening is key too.
So, I mean,

Speaker 3 it's a lot of fun and it allows you to know one another even more. And, you know, the funny thing about with music is it's it, like I tell people, it's a universal language.

Speaker 3 It's a way of bringing people together.

Speaker 3 So I may not know you from Adam or from whenever, but if we sit down and we're playing something together, and this has happened quite a bit, automatically we connect. It's like music is that nucleus.

Speaker 3 It just attracts and it just. make things cohesive and it makes it work.
And it's amazing.

Speaker 3 It's amazing to me.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I joke all.

Speaker 3 Did

Speaker 2 no no you definitely did um so i live uh where i live uh the greatest horse racing track in the entire world saratoga um is

Speaker 2 and you know for anyone who lives in kentucky uh churchill downs is a dog track compared to saratoga now um the no they i just joke but i i make this joke all the time that there's only two there's only two places that you could see

Speaker 2 a woman dressed to the nines and ten thousand dollars worth of clothes uh sitting next to a guy with a pit-stained wife beater that he's owned for 20 years.

Speaker 2 And that's the horse track and a really good live music performance. Like that, those are the only two places, right?

Speaker 2 Like, it doesn't matter where you're from, what you believe in, you know, the horse track and a live music performance.

Speaker 2 Everybody's just there to appreciate and share and feel the vibe and the energy and everything.

Speaker 2 It's so wonderful.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 another thing I love about conversations like this with people like yourself is that you could replace everything you just said with a business context, with a sports team or a community group context or a not-for-profit or any type of thing that connection, listening, knowing where you fit in, understanding when to take the lead.

Speaker 2 You know,

Speaker 2 what was that like in

Speaker 2 like when COVID hit and you guys weren't able to play together? Did you feel that loss of connection? What was that like for you?

Speaker 3 Yeah, that, so when COVID hit, at that time, that was before

Speaker 3 that was before I decided to become a solo artist. So I was playing with a lot of different other artists and different bands, you know, like Eric Darius, Nick Coleone, before he passed,

Speaker 3 you know, Jeff Koshua, Althea Rene, just to name a few. And so when that happened, I actually had a show that was scheduled to play with Eric Darius.
And it was like, yeah, the show was canceled.

Speaker 3 I'm like,

Speaker 3 okay, canceled. All right.
And then the next one, the next one, the next one. And just, and it was like, oh, wow.
And then that's when the announcement came about, you know, COVID.

Speaker 3 So at that moment, everything was at a standstill.

Speaker 3 At that time, I was still working a nine-to-five. So I really wasn't impacted as much as a lot of my other fellow musicians and artists were.

Speaker 3 So I was fortunate. But however, you know, it still was a major impact.

Speaker 3 It was just like a ghost town. So at that moment, that's when I was was led.

Speaker 3 You know, it was like God was just telling me and I was saying, I got to do something that's like make you happy, make people inspired, kind of get their mind off of this craziness for now.

Speaker 3 So that's when my first single weekend groove, that's how it was created.

Speaker 3 And it was just about energy, about, you know, promoting, you know, good, good stuff, you know, taking people to another realm and positivity.

Speaker 3 So during that time, that allowed me to become more involved with doing things as an artist and doing more online things.

Speaker 3 So the other thing is, although it was a catastrophe, it wound up birthing or illuminating virtual connection for artists and musicians.

Speaker 3 So it allowed us to become more interactively involved remotely and virtually. So at that moment, it was like, hey,

Speaker 3 I need to add this bass. Can you add this bass line? Yeah, send it to me, right? Email it to them or whatever.

Speaker 3 they do it they send it back we were still able to create and get things done which was really really beneficial without leaving our homes without paying for a player a plane ticket or you know or a transportation company right so that really allowed us to really grow and and and to do things that way

Speaker 2 did you see

Speaker 2 was the creative process

Speaker 2 different?

Speaker 2 Did you see any new aspects of creativity coming out of the limitations of not being able to sit in the same room and create together?

Speaker 3 I think it brought about another

Speaker 3 level of boldness of being able to do something that you always wanted to do without feeling restricted. And it also allows you to have more versatility and diversity and dealing with collaboration.

Speaker 3 Right. Because there are some people who may not have been available, but guess what? Hey, Ryan's available.
I'm going to hit up Ryan. Ryan said he'll love to do it.

Speaker 3 I'll have Ryan do this part, right? And then it allowed us to grow. So it also brought, to me, it helped strengthen relationships a lot.

Speaker 3 So although I may not have been able to hang out with whomever

Speaker 3 by us doing the things together as a collaboration, it really, you know, strengthened the relationship and built it even more. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Yeah. The availability and access probably, because everyone's looking for something, for some place to play and contribute and work on projects.
Is you know, I watched,

Speaker 2 I like, I like Pink Floyd, probably most people do like that genre. Oh, yeah, Pink Floyd.
And I was watching the Dark Side of the Moon documentary. And what I found, okay, so

Speaker 2 in Dark Side of the Moon, the actual song, there's that saxophone part is just, you know, it's like you're going through the song and the buildup and they're changing keys. And they're, you're,

Speaker 2 I don't, I'm going to butcher some of this. I, they go from like a four tempo to an eight or an eight to a four or something, which is very unique for rock and roll.

Speaker 2 And then they and then this saxophone hits, right? And it's like this epic saxophone. Every you hear it, you know exactly what song it is, exactly what band is.

Speaker 2 The guy that did that solo for that song was like the sixth guy they called. The guy they wanted wasn't available.

Speaker 2 And they started going down this list and he, they just got to the next guy who could come into the studio. And you think about that and you're like, wow,

Speaker 2 would that song be different? Would it have sounded different?

Speaker 2 Would it be as epic if this particular individual who they had no intention of being on the record was just available, showed up and played it the way he played it. And now it's this epic, you know,

Speaker 2 one of the greatest albums ever created, probably.

Speaker 2 Amazing. And you're just like, man, being available, being open, your word networking, like.

Speaker 2 These are core aspects for

Speaker 2 everything, not just a business context where it tends to sit. It's like, man, in your world, just people knowing that, hey, man,

Speaker 2 if I need a track on the piano, someone who's really going to think about it and get me something back, man, man, Jesse's there. I can just send this over to him.
He's there. He's available.

Speaker 2 We can get this done.

Speaker 2 That's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, it is. It's a great thing.
And then it also, like you said, it's networking

Speaker 3 and collaboration. And you learn off of one another.
And, you know, and it's, it's like another,

Speaker 3 it's a classroom model. I mean, you know, I was to say it, right?

Speaker 3 You know, you learn off of each other and you learn some things to do, what not to do, and you also learn some new, some new techniques and skills, which is really cool.

Speaker 3 So, oh, yeah, it's, it's, I think the COVID thing,

Speaker 3 I hate to use the term blessing and a cursing, but I think it was a good lesson that helped us all to become stronger and to persevere through things and to and to bring us all together unify us more um and and to let you know let things go you know what i mean um and just say hey you know what we're human and and unfortunately that experience with covet it kind of dehumanized us as far as the sensitive emotional touch type of feel so that's why now it's you know things are coming back, which is good.

Speaker 3 But you have some people who are still reserved in, you know, know, shaking hands, giving a hug, you know, because of that. And really, that's what we were born to do.

Speaker 3 We were born to interact with one another. We're born to feel one another, you know, emotionally and say, hey, you know, what can I do to help you out? Right.

Speaker 3 Or this person's going through something or, hey, I'm so glad to see you. Uplift one another is so key.
And,

Speaker 3 you know, to have that kind of shut down for what two years or three years or whatever, it's pretty tough on it. It's just like, wow, what just happened?

Speaker 3 But, you know, fortunately, things are starting to come back and, you know, we're able to go out more and do more things together, you know, as a human, human culture, which is really good.

Speaker 2 Talk to me a little bit about the experience of creating your first solo single and then

Speaker 2 an entire album, right? You created, you ended up being entire an album. Like, what was that like having never gone through it before?

Speaker 2 You know, did it feel like a grind of filling up the tracks or were you just, was it just pure inspiration? or you know having never created something like that before what is that process like

Speaker 3 i had already had libraries of tunes that i just didn't do anything with and didn't know what to do um but this project so this the single weekend groove was definitely something that was inspired um by what was going on what we're going through um to take somebody some people get their minds off of the stuff and just say hey let's do something that helps to promote a good time you know of us you know going out hanging out doing whatever so that was definitely an inspiration uh and then the rest of the songs on the album were also inspirations um i think there was maybe only one song on there that i had in the library uh but the rest of them were really all fresh so to go through that as an artist was was kind of different for me at first because i was so used to being the guy behind the scenes or on the sideline and it's like wait a minute all of a sudden now you're the quarterback you know in football right it's like oh man you're the quarterback.

Speaker 3 It's like, what, you know,

Speaker 3 but it, you know, it was, it's fun. It's fun.
And it also showed something

Speaker 3 about myself as a leader and as a people person and as someone who loves to orchestrate and put things together because on my project, I've pretty much collaborated with almost, you know, I think every song was a collaboration with someone.

Speaker 3 And I love doing that because to me, I feel like, you know, Ryan, we're in this together and it allows us to help one another in so many different ways.

Speaker 3 And so, you know, going through that process was,

Speaker 3 it was, it was different, but it was fun.

Speaker 3 And I did have a couple of challenges, you know, dealing with, you know, limited with the technology or with this, with the instrument, the virtual instruments, but I was able to overcome it and then, you know, able to, you know, work with other people who were able to help me out.

Speaker 3 So that worked out really good. But, you know, the number one thing for that, I think the cause for that was money, right? You know, the finances, as an indie artist,

Speaker 3 it can be financially challenging at times.

Speaker 3 But when you have, you know,

Speaker 3 you just have the love of the people who love music and who supports you, I mean, that's a blessing within itself. So that goes a long way.
So, but yeah, that experience doing with my own project.

Speaker 3 It definitely wasn't anything just to fill up space. It was something to say, hey, this is my first coming out, my little inauguration of who I am, the man behind the keys uh welcome yeah

Speaker 2 so yeah what does the like like how do you get that out into the market like what what's the process how do you market your own album like what does that even look like especially when you're an indie artist

Speaker 3 yeah yeah uh

Speaker 3 so

Speaker 3 internet

Speaker 3 uh internet is really good uh you deal with different distribution companies um you know

Speaker 3 i don't know if i'm allowed to name some but there's some distribution companies out there you can look up and research,

Speaker 3 as well as having

Speaker 3 social media is so key,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 very key and having that presence and helping you out and having a website and definitely word of mouth. But yeah, getting that out there marketing wise is,

Speaker 3 you know, it can be a little bit challenging depending on what your funds are like.

Speaker 3 But thankfully, we have, you know, different tools online now with different social media outlets that can help help us do ads, can help us do stories, can help us do

Speaker 3 video clips, that sort of thing, which is really good. But once you land into a distribution,

Speaker 3 whoever that might be, they all hit all of the major stores,

Speaker 3 online stores. So that's key.

Speaker 3 You can still, you know, I still get CDs printed today and USBs because a lot of people still want something tangible.

Speaker 3 I am thinking about doing a vinyl of some sort because I love vinyl.

Speaker 3 And vinyls are still hot over in the UK.

Speaker 3 I mean, they have, they never left. And so are cassette tapes.
Really?

Speaker 3 I mean, they're, yeah, they're even like cassettes are even coming back more because you can put more on a cassette tape and it has that little nostalgic type of organic vibe, right?

Speaker 3 So it's, it's really a cool thing. But yeah, it's amazing how things are like revolving back to what they used to be.

Speaker 3 Yeah, so I mean, but it all, it's also good for us artists because streaming, streaming is okay, it gets you a presence, but you get better pay when someone actually purchases the actual material.

Speaker 3 That makes sense. So, that helps out a lot.

Speaker 2 You know, I was some obviously my kids being 10 and 8, they've grown up with Spotify and they've built their own Spotify playlists and they add songs to it and all this kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 2 But I was explaining to them the other day about how we used to make mixes when I was growing up in the 80s, where like, I was like, you used to sit by the radio with a cassette tape and you're like waiting for the, you know, trying to figure out what the song was as the host is bringing it in.

Speaker 2 And then you'd like press the button real quick. And every song had like, was like kind of cut off at the front and kind of cut off at the end.

Speaker 2 And you'd always have like the DJ's voice on it in between songs. I was like, and then you'd have like these mixtapes that you created.

Speaker 2 And so hopefully one of your friends had one of the dual cassette players that you could then transfer the mixtape and copy.

Speaker 2 I was like trying to explain, and they're looking at me like, they're like, what are you talking about? Like, that sounds awful.

Speaker 2 Like, I can just press my finger on this little piece of glass here and play any song that I want.

Speaker 2 It was funny.

Speaker 3 But see, that's what, that's, that's what,

Speaker 3 that was one of the things that made our generation so unique and able to do multiple things at once and able to look forward to building something with our hands because we were we were mixing this putting this here putting that there and flipping this and then like you said um it's i think it was a part of engineering it was another level of engineering right i mean we're able you you listen to the radio you got a set cassette tape you hit record you record that and you and then you try to hit pause or stop it before the radio commercial comes on and then the next song comes on you hit that and then like you said you make a mixtape and you kind of and then we used to splice our own stuff back in the day um and then it's just it's just it was a lot of fun and it, and it, and it kept your mind going and thinking, what can you do next?

Speaker 3 Or how can you do it differently? So it was, it was really cool. It may seem like busy work to our generation today, but, but man, in our day, that was the way to do it.

Speaker 2 I mean, yeah, I remember,

Speaker 2 so we didn't have like when I was growing up, which kind of sucks,

Speaker 2 I loved hip-hop, even from, you know, like even the early, early stuff, but obviously the 90s, hip-hop is epic um

Speaker 2 and i remember someone had a cousin who lived in new york city so they had hot 97 and they got um uh juicy from notorious big big on their cassette tape and then dubbed you know copied it and got it to my friend and he walks into i remember i was like i can't remember what grade i was in i don't even think it was high school it was like middle school whatever and he walks in with this cassette tape over his head going i got big on cassette like you would think he was like the king Like, people just like swarmed him.

Speaker 2 Like, everyone, like, wanted the, hey, can I get a copy of that? Like, because he had this one song on this cassette tape that his buddy had dubbed off a Hot 97.

Speaker 2 And it's just like those type of experiences, like, they'll just never understand what it means to like, you know, this song exists, you've heard of it, but like, you can't get on the radio where you live.

Speaker 2 And oh my God, it's amazing. And

Speaker 2 they were talking shit one day. And I have a, my dad gave me his record collection.
And then I've kind of, I, I've built my own over time. And I remember one day they were like talking,

Speaker 2 they always like to bust my chops like I'm old and I don't understand. And

Speaker 2 I was like, all right, I'm going to play you. I go, you, so

Speaker 2 parenting decisions aside, I decided to introduce my kids to what I would consider good music very early. And the first hip-hop band that I introduced them to,

Speaker 2 really the first three bands that I introduced them to were Pink Floyd, Taj Mahal, and Wu-Tang. So, those are the first three.
Wow, this guy, you know, first three sets that I went through.

Speaker 2 So, I wanted blues, so, and I love Taj, so I went to Taj Mahal, and then uh, uh, Pink Floyd for rock, and then Wu-Tang for hip-hop. So, they're talking one day, and I said, Okay,

Speaker 2 put your favorite Wu-Tang song on Spotify, play it, play it right now. So, they play it, and you know, whatever, it's great.

Speaker 2 And then they didn't know that I had Wu-Tang vinyls, so I go and I put the gold Bu-Tang Forever on vinyl and I turn it up and I hit play. And they're like,

Speaker 2 holy shit.

Speaker 2 Literally, my 10-year-old, that's what he said. And again,

Speaker 2 I kind of agree. I'm a single dad.
So I let my boys, I let them swear a little bit. My 10-year-old goes, it was nine at a time.
He goes, holy shit, he goes. That sounds so much better.

Speaker 2 And I was like, what have I been telling you?

Speaker 2 I was like, this is the closest that you get to being with with the artist you know and uh and then i played him you know all the rest and stuff like uh i was like bohemium rhapsody like you haven't heard it until you've heard it on vinyl like you haven't heard these guys you haven't heard muddy waters until you've heard them on vinyl like you haven't heard these guys

Speaker 2 unless it's per in person you have not heard them until you've heard them on vinyl it's just so much different so i'm completely with you there plus it's cool and they like flipping the albums and they think that's cool too they get bored of it after a little while but they like that too so um,

Speaker 3 man, it's a cool look, man. I mean, that's what's going on now.

Speaker 3 I mean, vinyls, man, and it's you get you know, the vinyl is you capture the true authentic sound, yeah, analog, you know, it's like it's like that sine wave, you're getting everything on the sine wave on the rise and fall, you know, and you know, digital is super clean, but digital square, so you know, what you normally get in that curve has been squared off, right, by ones and zeros.

Speaker 3 But, but you get, you know, that's why I love like the tube mics and stuff like that, you know, tube microphones and tube amps and some of the tube keyboards, and definitely, well, behind me, Hammond B3 organ, right?

Speaker 3 Tube, I mean, it's like I love that because it has that warm, sensitive feeling, and you can and it bends, it bends that sound in a certain way. It's like, oh man, this is great.

Speaker 3 So you get that on the on the violin, man. I love it.
I love it.

Speaker 2 I was watching a documentary on

Speaker 2 rock and roll in general. And there was a section on amps.
And

Speaker 2 I don't remember the lead.

Speaker 2 If I told you the band name, you would know it, but I can't remember it. It doesn't matter.
And the lead singer, lead guitarist is talking on this documentary in there, talking about how

Speaker 2 the question was really like, why does music sound different today?

Speaker 2 And one of the things that he said was

Speaker 2 we do not make

Speaker 2 amps the way that they used to be made. And he said, he said, I don't even know if we can make them the same way.
Like, I don't know that the tech, like the manufacturers are set up to even do it.

Speaker 2 He's like, so this dude,

Speaker 2 and it's crazy, he, he now doesn't do big shows anymore. He only does small shows.
And he said, he brings his own amp gear with him because he's got all these old, like, 60s and 70s amps.

Speaker 2 He's like, because I don't like the sound out of the new amps. And I was like, that's, it's wild to me.

Speaker 2 And it makes sense, but it's wild that like the era that you're producing music in is not just the culture or you know whatever in the moment which it obviously that impacts it but literally the technology available to you at the time impacts what you're able to create so much as well

Speaker 3 absolutely absolutely the technology and then the materials so now the manufacturers may not even have access to some of those different types of materials that we used to have access to back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, right?

Speaker 3 Because you got to remember, now we're living in an age where they're trying to cut down on certain metals. They want certain plastic things that are cheaper to make

Speaker 3 and maybe easier to break. You know what I mean? So it's like, you know, so it's, it's a total different mindset now.
And then people want to make things super fast, fast, fast.

Speaker 3 It's about, you know, quantity versus quality. So they want to get up huge stuff, you know, rushed out for production.
But I mean, you're absolutely correct.

Speaker 3 I don't think, I don't even know if we really have the true capability of recreating what we did back then because the times are different, the material, the availability of materials are totally different.

Speaker 3 Um, and you know, processing is different now. So, I get what where they're coming from.

Speaker 3 Um, there are some things that are still somewhat available, but it's kind of also like you know, think of it like one of these historical classic cars,

Speaker 3 like a collector's item, right?

Speaker 3 They really can't get a lot of the original parts anymore. They come close

Speaker 3 and it looks good,

Speaker 3 but it may not be the actual original part that it was that really it was designed for from back in the day. So it's kind of like that with the music and material

Speaker 3 and speakers and instruments and everything that's totally different.

Speaker 2 What was it like?

Speaker 2 So you spend, we'll call it this period of time where you're forced to create on your own and you do your own solo album. And now

Speaker 2 you said you're starting to play again and play in groups and bands and stuff.

Speaker 2 Did your style change at all?

Speaker 2 Did anything change going from having that period of solo time to coming back in and working with a group again?

Speaker 3 Yeah, it changed a little bit.

Speaker 3 With when working with groups, there's a certain

Speaker 3 style or puzzle piece

Speaker 3 that has to fit for that group.

Speaker 3 Or even if you're backing up another artist, there's a certain style you have to, you know, because you're accompanying the artist or the lead of that group, right?

Speaker 3 So there's a little different genres may be very similar, but the actual seasoning of that genre is different.

Speaker 3 So then with me, with what I do, you know, like I said, my household, we had everything from

Speaker 3 gospel, blues, jazz,

Speaker 3 RB,

Speaker 3 you know, the Sugar Hill, you know, hip-hop stuff, right? All that stuff was going on in my house.

Speaker 3 Plus, my brother, who played keys for one of the Dayton, some of Dayton's hottest groups, like Slave, and then he went on to play for Parliament and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 So, I'm getting all these different sounds in my head. So,

Speaker 3 those things that I have in my head,

Speaker 3 I like to somehow

Speaker 3 put them out as a solo artist. Now, it may not sound exactly like those things I just named, but it's a part of me

Speaker 3 and it's a part of what I want to express. So, that's that's where it's different.
That's where the seasoning is different on that genre for me versus me playing with someone else.

Speaker 3 Um, so it was different, and it's still different, you know, because even today, when I get called to play with other artists as an MD or whatever,

Speaker 3 I have to make sure that I adapt to their sound and to their, to what they want, their product, because that's their brand, right?

Speaker 3 I can't go up up there like oh no i'm jesse i'm jt i'm doing my way you know i'm you know no no no that's for one you're out of order for two you're not being a team member or band member and for three that's not a leader that's just just not possible so what you do is you have to make sure that you understand who you're playing for and understand their concept their brand their style and do everything

Speaker 3 uh that you're supposed to do to help keep that and even polish it even more so that you know you're helping them and at the same time it's helping you as well because it's helping you to be more versatile.

Speaker 3 And also, it's a good look because they'll say, you know, hey, and over here on keyboards, we got, you know, Jesse JT Jazz Thompson, who has a project on it, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 3 Oh, you know, some people may not hear of me. Oh, he does.
Okay, cool. Right.
So it goes a long way. So it's kind of like it's a two-way.

Speaker 2 That's phenomenal. That's phenomenal.
I appreciate this conversation so much. I have just a couple more questions.

Speaker 2 One, answer however you want. I'm just intrigued.

Speaker 2 So many like rich artists, and I don't mean rich in wealth, I mean rich in music, have come out of gospel. Why do you think that is?

Speaker 3 You know what? I hate to sound biased.

Speaker 2 Go right ahead. But,

Speaker 3 you know,

Speaker 3 when you go through different hardships and you realize there is a spiritual connection and you that within that connection, you're, you're, you, you know, you're feeling something.

Speaker 3 There's a spirit there.

Speaker 3 First of all, in music,

Speaker 3 if I played a C7 chord right now, it doesn't matter if it's a C7 chord in jazz, classical, or blues, or gospel.

Speaker 3 The question is, what is the intent behind the C7?

Speaker 3 So what kind of

Speaker 3 spirit am I pushing behind that C7? Am I pushing something that's, you know, telling people to go crazy and bang their heads on the wall?

Speaker 3 Or am I pushing something that C7 that says, hey, peace, love, harmony,

Speaker 3 uplifting, right? Positivity.

Speaker 3 So that there's a spiritual connection, you know, regardless. And

Speaker 3 a lot of musicians and artists, I mean, they were born and raised in the church. It started there.
And then I also think it has a lot to do with our culture. It has a lot to do with mainly

Speaker 3 some hardships, some struggles, some overcomings, some blessings,

Speaker 3 things that just impacted people

Speaker 3 so

Speaker 3 closely. And again, because of that connection, and then there, and they're able to really elaborate.
And then there's also a thing where when you play in the church,

Speaker 3 it's kind of like your first audition.

Speaker 2 Because

Speaker 3 now, you know, you got some people in the church that may say, oh, yeah, it's okay, babe. You did a good job.
You do better next time. And although you're like, I really sucked.

Speaker 3 But it encourages you to go ahead and keep going. Right.
And then eventually, boom, you know, you get there. But

Speaker 3 I think, you know,

Speaker 3 it's a lot more than what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 But just to get the nuts and bolts of it, I think it has a lot to do with a spiritual connection and a lot to do with the fact that when you're in there, you're exposed or you're able to expose yourself musically

Speaker 3 in an emotional kind of way that sometimes it's taken from an all-level of, of, or I should say it's received in all areas.

Speaker 3 And it also helps you and encourages you to keep going and keep going. And then at that moment, you may connect with other musicians or other singers in there, and then it just becomes harmonious.

Speaker 3 And then it just gets greater and greater and greater.

Speaker 3 So, you know, I think that's where it starts. Now, as far as when musicians,

Speaker 3 if they leave the church and they never come back, or if they're still there, but partially, you know, that's some kind of personal thing.

Speaker 3 but a lot of times it may be because they want to do something outside something different they may feel like they're being restrict restricted in and being able to express something differently oftentimes it may be where they may feel like

Speaker 3 i need to say something else

Speaker 3 but because of maybe the quote-unquote walls or the borders that are put up or the standards that are in place, I'm not able to, right?

Speaker 3 Because, you know, you have some situations, it's just like that. So

Speaker 3 I think it has a lot to do with those variations. And

Speaker 3 it's just, man,

Speaker 3 it's really amazing. I see young kids that are like five and six years old that are sitting on a Hammin B3 organ, killing it on the piano, on drums, on bass, killing it.
And it's like, wow.

Speaker 3 And I think church also gives you the opportunity. Again, it's an audition.
It gives you opportunity to

Speaker 3 feel

Speaker 3 invited

Speaker 3 and to be able to feel a part.

Speaker 3 And, you know, you may be clonking along and clonking along, but eventually, if you keep at it, something will come out of it, right?

Speaker 3 And I do have a friend of mine that he was part of a group of kids when they were growing up and they had their trumpets and they had a

Speaker 3 congos and or bongos and they would sit on the front pew and

Speaker 3 just making noises while the real musicians are playing, doing services. But now these guys are like phenomenal.
They're playing all over the place. One of them is Sean Jones.

Speaker 3 He's one of the best trumpet players out there. He's played with Marcus Miller.
He played with Wynton Marcellus Orchestra.

Speaker 3 He's, and he's one of the ones, he was the ones that's sitting on the front pew,

Speaker 3 and then now he's just, he's a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, a music conservatory. I mean, he's, you know, so you just never know.
And I think it's a way of just encouraging.

Speaker 3 So I love that.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'd like to close actually with a personal anecdote that you shared before we went live. And I'm just interested.

Speaker 2 I now kind of can see how it all ties together, but

Speaker 2 you said you recently sponsored a student and that it was

Speaker 2 an experience that you've found tremendous joy in and that you want to expand as part of your life. I'd love to know what.

Speaker 2 what maybe the impetus was to take on something like that, because not many people are willing to do that. And it's a wonderful thing.
And and maybe how

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 2 how

Speaker 2 how that died your soul

Speaker 3 good question yeah

Speaker 3 so

Speaker 3 you know i was i was blessed man to be able to mentor uh this student and uh

Speaker 3 so for one you know they're getting ready music getting rid of music excuse me uh from schools

Speaker 3 they're trying to close the programs out they're they're firing the music teachers or making music teachers become teachers of some other subject.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 music is everywhere. Sound is everywhere.
Frequencies are everywhere.

Speaker 3 Even for those who are deaf, they can go off of the frequencies

Speaker 3 or they can just feel the vibes, right?

Speaker 3 And it's like Getting rid of music is like saying we're getting rid of a language to me. And this is a universal language.
So there are a lot of students who,

Speaker 3 for myself, when I was

Speaker 3 coming up in Dayton, music helped was one of the things that helped save my life, kept me off of the streets. It kept me off from being involved in trouble, gangs or stuff like that.

Speaker 3 It kept me away from maybe even being beat up by gangs.

Speaker 3 And so those times back then helped me. And I want to like restore and to extend those times for today and for tomorrow.

Speaker 3 And so, you know, I've noticed where there are a lot of students who are discouraged in school and they're discouraged in doing anything like music.

Speaker 3 And so I was very blessed and fortunate to team up with the Childwood Madison City Schools and the Virtual Academy, their Ram Country, which is right there by my home city in Dayton.

Speaker 3 And we were able to partner and we came up with the mentoring program. And so I was able to mentor a student.
They were having some difficulties in school, some challenges academically.

Speaker 3 And so what we want to do is we want to make sure that we are there for the students to help them with tutoring, with learning, for academic stuff,

Speaker 3 any financial assistance is needed for the school program, because it costs to graduate. You got to pay for your robe.
You got to pay for the graduation fee. You got to pay for this fee.

Speaker 3 And some families just are not in a financial position to do that. So my goal, our goal is to be able to help out with that as much as possible.

Speaker 2 That,

Speaker 3 being able to do that, man,

Speaker 3 it really allowed me to see things a whole new different level, a different platform for our kids, our youth. And that's what it's all about.

Speaker 3 You know, one of my purpose here on earth is

Speaker 3 to help. and especially help young people.

Speaker 3 I love helping young people. I love talking to them, doing clinics.

Speaker 3 And then I also love this mentorship program that we just launched off.

Speaker 3 It's really,

Speaker 3 it's inspiring to me. Hopefully it's inspiring to others.

Speaker 3 And what we want to do is we want to be able to, at some point, be able to get as many, as many students as possible to impact their lives and their family lives and to let them know that

Speaker 3 it's okay. You're not alone.

Speaker 3 You know, don't stop, don't quit. You may have to pause, right? And pausing is okay.
That's allowed, but don't quit. Don't hit the stop button.
You're allowed to pause, but you cannot stop.

Speaker 3 You got to keep going.

Speaker 3 And as long as we can get that message into the kids and to help them understand that they are the future, they are tomorrow, that they can do it and to stay positive, then I think we're going to be on the right track.

Speaker 3 So that was a good drive for me in getting this thing going is to be able to reach out to students and just be an impact to them and help them out as much as possible, man. And, you know,

Speaker 3 you know, if we're not helping one another out, man, I don't know, what are we really doing? You know, that's the question. You know, if I'm not able to inspire, what am I here for?

Speaker 3 You know what I mean? It's just, so I have to amen to that, brother.

Speaker 2 I'm right there with you. I love it.
I absolutely love it.

Speaker 2 This has been such a pleasure. I am so glad that we had a chance to hang out.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 so, so you have your album. We'll make sure that's all linked up in the show notes and everyone can check that out.
I know you're working on a new single that's going to be coming out soon.

Speaker 2 Where can people

Speaker 2 maybe get on a waiting list for that, get more of what you do, maybe buy your album? Where do you want to send them?

Speaker 3 Absolutely. They can go to my website, jtjazz.com.

Speaker 3 And I'm on social media as well. Facebook is JT Jazz.

Speaker 3 I also have a fan club, so you can go out there and sign up and we'll get you on all the secrets and all the behind the scenes stuff that you can get as well. And I'm on Instagram as well.

Speaker 3 But to buy my product and to get autographed copies and I'm sending different stuff in addition to what they buy as a thank you gift, just go to jtjazz.com and man, sign up there, sign up on the email list there.

Speaker 3 And I look forward to it.

Speaker 2 Appreciate it so much, man. Thank you.

Speaker 2 Let's go.

Speaker 2 Yeah, make it look, make it look, make it look easy.

Speaker 3 Thank you for listening to the Ryan Hanley show.

Speaker 3 Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts.

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