Pharrell Williams on Trane

[trane_fanatic]

http://www.allhiphop.com/features/index.asp?ID=1503

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AllHipHop.com: Taking it back to the music, when you deal with so many different genres from Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop, or even something like Coltrane what’s the one thing that's remained constant throughout it all?

Pharrell: You know what…I just love all kinds of music. Speaking of Coltrane, “Giant Steps” is a very generic track in comparison to his whole entire catalogue. But “Giant Steps” in itself was brilliant because the steps he decided to take were incredible. That song is based off of an exercise [The Chromatic Scale] by this brilliant Russian scientist and composer by the name of [Nicolas] Slonimsky-it’s incredible those exercises, and I only know because Quincy Jones told me. I love it, I can recognize it but I can’t read the keys, I can only read percussion. I was classically trained as a percussion player, that’s how I got into music to begin with-when I was in seventh grade. He [Quincy Jones] challenged me like, “Yo, you should really be able to read it, because if you can read it then when you’re on a plane you won’t have to do what you do.” Right now I have to remember it or hum it into my phone until I get to a piano, and then when I’m at the piano I play it out. Once I can play it out I can remember it until I can get in the studio. He’s telling me that I can write it on napkins, you know just write down like F-sharp, [laughing] I don’t even know if there is an F-sharp.

AllHipHop.com: So this is like transcribing music?

Pharrell: Yeah. You can just go into different keys-it’s amazing. I know this is like getting off of Coltrane but that dude was incredible. I love classically trained piano players, the ones that I know of--I don’t know them all, but the ones I know of are great. That s**t is just inspiring to me.

[7/4]

Sounds like he knows what he talkin' about.

[Chuck Nessa]

[Noj]

[JSngry]

If I had a dollar for every musician (of all genres) I've known (including myself) who knew, really knew, the technical specifics of musics other than their own, I'd probably have less money than I do now.

[Chuck Nessa]

Have you ever felt the need to expound on this in public?

[Rooster_Ties]

If I had a dollar for every...

...I'd probably have less money than I do now.

Wait, what??

[JSngry]

Well, it's just that most pop musicians don't know shit about the specifics of how jazz is made, most jazz musicians don't know shit about how pop is made, most classical musicians don't know shit about how anything else is made, and everybody thinks that hip-hop musicians don't know shit about anything, yet they couldn't lay down a phat groove if their lives depended on it. Hell, most chefs are more "versatile" than most musicians. They respect the vastness of the world's various culinary cultures. Musicians tend to tribalize themselves. Why that is, I don't know, but I don't know that it's ultimately a good thing, not today. Maybe in the times when localized tribes were essential to survival, but those days are rapidly approaching being over. Live in the old world, die in the old world. If that's what works for you, fine. But I'm not ready for that just yet. To use Oliver Lake's "all my food on the same plate" analogy, when my plate starts getting full, I'm just going to get a bigger plate. What I finally end up eating in quantity is another matter altogether, but dammit, I want at least a taste of everything.

Most of us learn what we need to know to make what it is that we want to make, and, at best, the basics (or a little more) about that which we like but don't make. That's probably how it should be, but I'd no more expect a hip-hopper to know the specifics of "Giant Steps" than I would expect Sonny Rollins to know how to effectively put together a collage of samples that gets your attention, or for Yo Yo Ma to know how to layer a rhythm track that forces you to move your body whether you want to or not. Those are distingly different skills for a distinctly different music with distinctly different motivations, means, and ends. And no, not everybody (much less anybody) can do it.

We're talking "craft" here. Craft is part of the beginning of art, not the end of it. You don't have to respect it for more than it is, but to dis it entirely is just wrong. I give this guy credit for at least having his mind open to Coltrane, and for at least keeping it on his "things to keep getting into" list. That's more than most pop musicians do, and, turned the other way, it's more than most musicians of any type do.

Edited August 24, 2006 by JSngry