The JOI of Jazz

Wesley Knight 0:00
You're listening to local programming produced in Kun V studios. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Donny Thompson 0:18
You're listening to 91.5k U, N, V, jazz and more. And this is jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz. I'm your host, Donnie Thompson, and this program is underwritten by d'agostinos Trattoria, a small, local, family owned Italian restaurant at the corner of West Flamingo and buffalo, specializing in classic, always scratch Italian favorites, handmade pastas and desserts. For more information, go to d'agostinos lv.com

in studio today, I'm excited to welcome pianist, composer and producer, Uli geissendorfer,

Uli Geissendorfer 0:55
Donny, it's wonderful to be thank you so much to have you, sir.

Donny Thompson 0:58
We're going to be hearing some great music today from his deep catalog today, and a little bit about a man himself, welcome Uli assendorfer to the joy of jazz.

Uli Geissendorfer 1:07
Donny, it's wonderful, as I said, to be here. I'm originally from Munich, from Germany, but living the states for some 35 years. I went to North Texas to study jazz there, then lived in Connecticut for a minute, and then lived most of the time, actually, in New York City. Came out to Las Vegas, Cirque du Soleil, actually, for the Viva Elvis production at the ARIA some 15 years ago, and never left. Yeah, one thing or another kept me first. I was doing the production. Then Dave was a short lived venture actually, for Cirque, and I started teaching at the university. Dave Loeb reeled me in first Latin ensemble and the kinds of classes. And as a matter of fact, I took a two year break from it, and I'm just starting again this

Donny Thompson 1:44
semester. Like many of us, Uli, you've had early exposure to music, probably through family members and so forth. Tell me a little bit about some of your earliest influence from family members, friends, eventually, anyone later, who you crafted your personal style

Uli Geissendorfer 1:57
out in my mom's family, it was very normal to play two three instruments like she played as well, piano and cello. Not that she was the best musician, but it was, you know, just the thing everybody played. And the grandfather had his String Quartet every Sunday until he was 80, earnest. So music was in that part of my father's family was less musical. As a matter of fact, I think the most musical thing he ever did is selling his violin to full bread during the war, and but he understood when he heard some he was moved, and so he had an innate feeling for it. But so the musical side of my family, the mother's side, and my grandfather, her dad, actually bought our first piano at home to a house, and then couple years later, he bought me a snare drum. Was that still in Munich. Yes, actually, that piano is still in Munich. And then the snare drum, and then for the next celebration, I got a symbol, then I got a high hat. So after two years, I had the whole set together, and that set I sold, but then I got another one for confirmation when I was 14, and that said, actually still.

Donny Thompson 2:58
And you mentioned you had some artists that you sort of have built your style around, who influenced you, would you say the most well?

Uli Geissendorfer 3:05
You know all the great jazz pianists, if you study them, they all leave a mark on you in one way or another. But the first one heard that just blindsided was Oscar Peterson. I was eight years I just had started playing piano, and in the afternoon program, I remember one good friend of my mom's was there. They had afternoon tea. And I just like, okay, me switch on. That was bored, but let me switch on the TV. Is there anything? And there was an afternoon program with Oscar, and I just was, I was floored. I couldn't believe play piano, much less than I would ever, you know, even possibly come close or anything like even inches or meters of it. And so Oscar was definitely very defense, and he still is. I listen to him, and I go like, man, he sits right to heart. That's part of my musical DNA. So to

Donny Thompson 3:44
say, yeah, what would you say your What was your biggest musical break when you say, Okay, I'm officially in the music it's

Uli Geissendorfer 3:50
a good question. Well, once you get out of college, you are in the music business and and I've played professionally already to have my whole time Texas and in Munich, I was more studying, but when I went to Texas, immediately, actually, I started playing at gigs. People asked me play. So it was a seamless transition. The first time I went on tour. Probably, you know, later he saw, actually, mid 90s, 90s, I would say that, remember what show that was just smaller. Well, I started playing with this trombonist, William sepera, and played with Dizzy and any others, and he started his own brand of jazz, African jazz, at the time. And just before I moved to New York, I made contact with a friend of mine, and then we made contact, and so we're still in touch. We just texted yesterday, and then I've played on the sixth selfies albums, and we toured the world. So that was definitely one of the earlier ones. And groove collective just, you know, in New York, you play everything. It's, it's, you know, I mean, you can try to just focus on one style, but city is so rich, and there's a pocket of music for anything. Amish polkas, you will find something.

Donny Thompson 4:52
Well, you brought some great recordings for us to listen to, and the first one is themed, I believe, around a wedding. You want to tell us a little bit about the wedding song?

Uli Geissendorfer 4:58
Absolutely, that's fine. My first album that I did in New York actually has William on there on some other cuts. And this is quartet cut featuring Bobby Franceschini on saxophone and Mark walk on drums, Mario Rodriguez on bass. And that tune actually came about after I went home and my girlfriend, later my wife, we had a very interesting, very intense car ride. And then I said at the piano, I was sort of, you know, just getting into it. It was all very modern, 20th century. And she comes over yesterday. I said, No, no, no. I just was working on something and and I went like, but I can say, play something pretty too. And I started that. And that became the song, the wedding song that has been played for many a wedding by now. And there was on my first album, as I said, it was actually a whole Latin jazz album. We can jazz, Cuban, jazz, Brazilian, and that was more actually my hit, so to say, at times, almost a smooth jazz kind, except the solos go places. All right. Well,

Donny Thompson 5:51
let's get into it. Uli geisten dorfers Wedding Song.

That was the wedding song from Uli geissendorfer,

Uli Geissendorfer 12:06
yeah, I hope you all out there enjoyed it. And I tell you, we just re recorded that song, because now a local singer, wonderful singer, by the name of Laura Taylor, who is also in doing a lot of work with the University, has just some written some lyrics. So a couple months we recorded it, and it's going to be released next

Donny Thompson 12:21
spring. I love Laura Taylor, and she's a really huge fan of what's happening at UNLV, and big supporter as well. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about Vegas records, because you created this record company based, obviously, in Vegas. So how did you end up forming the label, and what draws you to specific artists that you choose to work with?

Uli Geissendorfer 12:39
The way it came about is I was on an interview, actually, at the Spencer lounge where play, and somebody mentioned it, and I said, Well, I have plans. I'm thinking about doing a label. Now, Dave was picked up and suddenly came on the air in an NPR show. Sorry, no. And somebody mentioned, yeah, oligarse starting a label. And I'm going like, Oops. Now I'm tied to it. So that's how it actually started, really finally. And so then I looked for a name, and I was going like Vegas records, and it wasn't taken. There were some older labels that had a name, but nothing that really survived. So I just labeled Vegas records, because I'm here. It started as a 501, 3c as a non profit organization, because I wanted to reel money in to help all the local artists, my students that just came out, as in university, and really make a local jazz gather to the forefront. After years, I realized it's it didn't quite work. I had problems finding the right people with the board, and so I finally discarded that idea and just made it a record label, and supporting still the same people like on the label is Carlos, Marta, Julian, Tanaka, all the first records out there. I have jobeonelli on there. All the UNLV jazz CDs are coming out there. My own records are, of course, are on there. And so I support, I produce people. The last thing was, Linda Woodson, that's working with you enjoy our

Donny Thompson 13:56
show with that album Exactly. Oh

Uli Geissendorfer 13:57
yes, you did. That's wonderful. So yeah, I'm trying to help local artists, and there's a I have four more productions coming out next year, actually, for the for the label. Well, let's

Donny Thompson 14:07
take a break and listen to some more of your music. The next one I believe you brought is called monks mouse. Tell us a little bit about monks mouth.

Uli Geissendorfer 14:13
Monks mouse is an older tune I wrote that when I was actually still in Munich, going to the Munich jazz school there. I was just smitten with monks music. I heard it. I loved it. Dave, so the jarring this, you know, monk has such a strong voice, and he's such a prolific writer, almost, you know, in the way, stylistically he went everywhere, almost like justice. Dave, as it took Elling for me, and his music is very inspiring, and his piano playing is so different than anyone else. You know, when you listen to his older recordings, he's like, he was a stride layer, and then he took some time off and really started finding himself. And so I just started studying jazz and learning the first tunes by monk. And go like, Man, I gotta write song for it. And that's how it came

Donny Thompson 14:50
about. So we're gonna list a monk's mouth from Uli geissendorf. And by the way, that's available if you want to hear it any more of this@bandcamp.com Here's monk's mouth from Uli geissendorf. I.

Don Welcome back to jazz outreach initiatives, the joy of jazz, underwritten by d'agostinos tratoria. This is your host, Donnie Thompson, and I'm joined again by pianist, composer and producer and educator, Uli geissendorfer. Uli, I'm interested to know how your approach to music. A composition as an artist is there's a process. Do you use a process for building melody around a chord structure, or do lyrics come around phrasing? Or how do you generally work? Well,

Uli Geissendorfer 20:10
it's all of the above. But the way I write, you know, I often take an inspiration from a family, from a friend that I know from and then that I have witnessed from anything that's going on with and I take it like shades of emotion. You have a sort of a go in a bubble of a sound, of a sound on the piano or in my head, and then you develop. You go like, Okay, what do I follow? Now, okay. Now the melody needs development. Now the density needs develop. Now I need some chords. So it's over the years, it's you acquire a lot of tools, compositional tools, and you apply that to foster the feeling that you created and stay in that bubble,

Donny Thompson 20:49
keep a scratch pad next to your pillow at night. No, some people do that. No, I

Uli Geissendorfer 20:55
I'm waking up and going to the piano and and sometimes, actually, last couple things. I wrote. I wrote in my head. I had ideas on the piano, and then I was on the plane. I'm just singing sweet. Okay, now we're gonna sing. So I'm starting to hear the music in my head, so I play. It's been a long time coming. It's getting better,

Donny Thompson 21:13
but we're gonna get into another track of music here before we introduce it, I want to make sure the audience knows where they find you and your music if they'd like to explore more of your catalog. So where social media pages, all that kind of stuff. If anybody wants to look you up,

Uli Geissendorfer 21:25
sure, I, of course, I'm on Facebook. That's probably the most. Facebook is only music. Simply I have only music.com. Is my website. Then my record company of Vegas records, is on Bandcamp, and you finally see these on there. I'm on Instagram too and Tiktok, but I'm just starting to get a little more traction with that, so stay tuned for updates. And I'm actually hiring a social media manager for myself. We're going to put out much more kits about as especially because I have my Bucha out the natural hand and the art of practicing candle hunt, which is already used, and I want to foster that, because they're formal parts so well, you

Donny Thompson 22:02
know, these these shows always fly by so quickly, I think partly because we have such interesting guests such as you. But before we play this out, I want to first of all thank you for joining the show today and sharing your music with us. Uli, thanks to our listeners for tuning in, and to all of our friends, of course, here at KU and V 91.5 jazz and more especially our producer Wesley Knight and the whole team. And if you'd like to hear more about jazz outreach initiative, the jazz Vegas orchestra and our many youth music programs and ways you can participate, you can find us easily@jazzvegas.org Okay, Uli, give us a quick intro to your song. Hand in hand. Let us know a little bit about the song and what we're going to be hearing.

Uli Geissendorfer 22:40
So hand in hand came about through 911 I was in New York, downtown Brooklyn, and saw the events firsthand myself. I saw the towers going down line. Was one of the most amazing, negative, amazing things I've witnessed and heard. And then in the following days, I was stranded. I was caught an island Brooklyn suddenly, or Long Island, you couldn't go anywhere. And after five days, you could go back to the city. And I went and was able to go to the site right for all the news, even little further. I just was lucky in a way. And so I went all around the city, and Times Square and Union Square, where they built memorials and muriels for them were looking for it was unbelievable as well in the wakes. And it was actually great place to be everywhere there was nothing, race, religion, nothing. Everybody was the same for a while and and so I told much of my things I've experienced to a good friend of mine, singer Karen Kohler, who I worked with at the time. And she knew I was improvising. She said, man, you gotta, you gotta put this in music, you know? Why don't you start with this and that? And so two weeks later, I went to the store downtown or house that was called, it's normal. I'll think of it in a second. And for two days, and I couldn't even think of what to do. I just sat at the piano. I had the images, and I played. It ended up being like, 22 vignettes of the events I've seen, 22 pieces all improvised. And then afterwards, I was like, Okay, now hold. I have one more piece. Let me do this. And I muted the bass string. When that just became like a house. And over that I improvised, and that is the two one to listen. It's called hand in hand, and it's actually dedicated to the two people that I saw news at that time jumping hand in hand. 97th burning building. I imagined that after opposed to the buildings, the two light beams going up always for the anniversary. So I imagine the soul basically traveled

Donny Thompson 24:20
on that. That's a profound image. Let's go ahead and listen to hand in hand. By the way, hand in hand itself as a title is really profound. I think that's really wonderful to hear. Yeah.

Uli Geissendorfer 24:30
And so it wasn't just hand in hand, but also I felt like it should be a hymn. So that's one of the most accessible. Some of the music is very jarring, very intense, and I put stuff piano and but this one, I felt it just was a for them to ascend. Eventually that low will stop, just inside, just just and

Donny Thompson 24:47
as we think about even today's times, I think we could all think about being hand in hand. Let's hear some of

you. That was hand in hand from Uli. Geisten Dover, my guest in the studio today. Uli, thanks again for coming. Oh, it

Uli Geissendorfer 28:29
was wonderful being here. Thank

Donny Thompson 28:30
you for having me, Donnie, for a jazz outreach initiative and the joy of jazz. This is Donnie Thompson, we'll talk to you again next month. Make it a joyful day. And Uli, I think we're going to do a one more song before we close out the show. Yeah, we have a

Uli Geissendorfer 28:41
little sting out. This one is called 341, it was like my big hit from album colors, the first one I recorded in Vegas. Actually.

Music 28:48
You.