Contemporary jazz pianist and trombonist Brian Culbertson is about to make his debut on the historic stage of the Apollo Theater. Brian is on tour in support of his Trilogy project, a series of three albums that follow the arc of a love affair. We connected and had a great conversation about Trilogy, the tour, playing the Apollo and more. Listen in and check out Brian's show there on Thursday April 6. Learn more about the show here.
Watch our conversation here:
Interview transcript:
Pat Prescott: You’re on tour, right?
Brian Culbertson: I am on tour. We are just getting started. We're going to be all over the Northeast during the next few weeks. This is the beginning of the Trilogy Tour, a totally new show, from top to bottom. You've seen me a million times and let me tell you something: You have not seen any of what we're about to bring. We are very excited about this. We threw the old set list out in the garbage and we're starting over. It's all new. It's so exciting.
Actually, that is the case with Brian Culbertson’s shows anyway. You never know what is going to happen, except that you're going to hear a lot of great music. I know that for most artists appearing at the Apollo Theater is a pretty big deal. Is this your first time at the Apollo?
To answer your question, yes, this is our first time there. We’ve never been there. In fact, we always end up in midtown somewhere. When we were able to book this show, I was just freaking out, let me tell you. I immediately called the whole band and everyone's freaking out. Just to be on such a historic stage, I don't know if there's a more historic legendary stage in all of America.
I have to be honest, I don't think so either.
I just go back to thinking about James Brown and Prince and Michael Jackson…everybody that's been there, it's amazing.
And that audience, one of the greatest audiences in the world, is totally knowledgeable and really engaged in whatever it is you're doing. I know that's a very important part of the Brian Culbertson experience.
It is. I don't know what to expect from the audience, but if they're what you say they are, I'm even more excited.
I know that 2021 and 2022 were years that you didn't let get away from you, despite the pandemic. Instead, you released a trilogy of albums that were all connected. I'd love for you to talk about The Trilogy Project. How did this idea come to you?
Honestly, it started from my streaming show. Every Friday night I started going live in April of 2020. I turned it into this weekly show. I call it the hang because we were hanging out, drinking wine, playing music every week. From there I ended up starting to write new music kind of on the spot while people were watching. At first it was sort of an experiment on my part. “Hey, let me see what happens and how it goes.” Honestly, before I knew it, I had 30 songs I had written this way.
For the first time in my life, I had written all these songs with my biggest fans watching and honestly putting their stamp of approval on it. If I played certain things, I could read the chat as they were listening, like, “Ooh, thumbs up emoji, hot fire emoji.” I'm like, “Ooh, I think they like this one.” But if they didn't like something, the opposite would happen. Okay, I'm not going to do that, so let me take that out. It was really tgus interesting collaboration between me and thousands of people watching every week.
The interesting thing about that too is that then they also become vested in this project. This is something that they’ve watched happen from its genesis. It's a chance for ordinary people to get a chance to peek behind the curtain, as it were, and see how music is created. I'm sure that was a big thrill for them too.
I think it went both ways. For me, it was getting that instant feedback from people that know the rest of my catalog so well, and know what they want to hear and get excited about. For both of us, it was a cool new experience. I think there is some excitement about this tour as well to hear how these songs will come to life in a live setting.
It's going to be great. Red, blue, and white. Are the colors for each of the trilogy albums?
Red is the sexy music.
We always start a relationship with it. It is so exciting. It is everything. Then we turn blue.
The middle of that relationship can be sad. You have some problems. Maybe you break up for a while. Blue is about melancholy, about sadness. I think sometimes you need that in your life. Then the white is the happy, hopeful music. It was this arc of music. That's why the 30 songs got split up into three. Initially when I was writing them, I didn't have a trilogy in mind, but they naturally just kind of went in three emotional directions. And I just went with it.
Was this concept in any way a spinoff from your Colors of Love release? Because that came out a few years before this.
It really wasn't, but in retrospective, production wise, there are similarities. Because, for both of those projects, the majority of the music I was creating just by myself. I wrote all the songs by myself. There were no collaborations. There were just a handful of musicians added to it. Both of these projects have that in common.
You really made good use out of the pandemic. I was just kind of curious how the isolation of that period inspired you to use technology to get even closer to your audience. Because at the time that we really were kind of isolated, it’s interesting how we also engaged in a different, almost more meaningful interaction, where you're actually paying attention to each other because nothing else is going on.
Of course. That's why I initially jumped on the streaming of Friday nights. It was a way to stay connected when all the concerts I had—I think I had 70 shows on the books for that spring of 2020—obviously went away for that year and the following year. To have that streaming ability, it was just crucial and amazing. Now that I'm back on the road, I'll hear from everybody after the shows, “Brian, I have to tell you, you saved our lives during this time.” That's pretty damn heavy. Think about that. So many people in isolation and having something to look forward to every week. I purposely didn't even talk about what was going on in the media because I wanted to have everyone to get a break.
Let it be an escape.
Exactly. Let it be music and let's have some fun together. That was my vision.
I was in on some of those hangs, and my 97-year-old mom was checking you out too. For you personally, what are your takeaways from that interlude, both personally and professionally, now that you're back to touring again?
You have to take a look, you take a step back at the way our lives were and that we were just going, going, going. I think it was a good time to reflect and think about, “What are your priorities?” Immediately, certain things didn't matter anymore. I think everybody was in a similar boat with that, and it made you reevaluate. Okay, let me take a little more time for myself, on self-awareness, self-healing. Let me try to feel better. Because when you're going, going, going…I ran into this where I’m not exercising as much as I should. I took that away from it. It was like, “Wow, I just turned 50 and I need to take care of myself here.” Because it's easy to go and go and then steamroll through. But with the forced break, I think there were certain good things that came out of that.
When you take away all the noise that life brings along with it, then you start to hear some other things and start to get closer to how you feel about some things. I think we all definitely have changed.
I spent time in the country too, and I got out in the woods and walked around for a little reconnection with nature. I think that's a good thing too. When you're just sitting in the middle of the city, it’s a little nuts.
I bet it was kind of fun for you and Michelle too. If you don't know Brian's wife is a pretty amazing person. An incredible classical singer. And she's also one of the best cooks that I have run across.
Hello. I always say she is seriously my muse. Her being around, because she's always the first one that I'm kind of throwing musical ideas off of. She'll come down into the studio and I’ll be like, “What do you think about this? What do you think about that?” I'm always throwing stuff at her. If she starts bouncing, I know it's all right.
I know that everybody knows all about your popular contemporary jazz albums and your engaging performances that go all the way from smooth and sexy to raucous and funky. I know we'll hear a lot of that at the Apollo, but I recently discovered a little gem from you that shows off some of your straight-ahead sensibilities. I'm talking about Winter Stories. What a lovely record.
Thank you.
Tell me a little bit about that record.
Honestly, that was not a planned album. You may know I recently had moved back to Chicago from Los Angeles. I spent 17 years in LA and we decided that we did our time in LA. We missed the city. The first Christmas really that I spent back in the city, I was walking around. Every day I came back into the studio, inspired to write. It wasn't necessarily a Christmas album. It's more of a winter album. It was the idea of walking through snow and those smells and feelings. I don't know, that whole thing just made me write music. So for ten days straight, I wrote one song every day. That turned out to be Winter Stories. An acoustic trio with just me, drums and standup acoustic bass. I had never done anything like it, as you know.
I tell you what, it is outstanding along with all the rest of your work. Before we go, I would love for you to just talk a little bit about the experiences that you have created for fans to be able to get a little closer to you and some of the other artists, and also to create this wonderful community that's traveling all over. I'm talking about your Jazz Getaways.
We started this jazz festival up in Napa Valley, and now it's going to be our 10th anniversary this June. Can you believe that? 10 years. It’s really about hanging out in wine country, drinking great wine, listening to great music and getting together with friends and family. Like you said, people travel all over for this and it's a beautiful way to get together and share this music and great wine, two things that I love. We've expanded it too. Now we have one in Chicago and next year we're starting one in New Orleans. There was a void of contemporary jazz being performed in New Orleans. There was every other style of music was going to Jazz Fest. But none of us in this style of music were getting shows in that area. I decided, you know what, let me just start my own and invite my friends. So we're doing that next March, a year from now.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
For information about Brian Culbertson's tour, music and Getaway events, visit his website brianculbertson.com.
