Artist Interview by: Jim McElroy
August 2006 - "I am a simple carpenter of tunes" is how Joshua Bayer introduces
himself. Like many gifted musicians, his modest description is a grand
understatement, but one look at his resume and another version comes to life.
Musician, composer, performer, educator, husband, father and son, Joshua Bayer
is a very unique individual with a very unique sound. The master of the stand up
bass, Bayer has just released a new CD entitled New Voice: Old Voice,
in which his artistry and singular vision come wonderfully to life.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Bayer spent most of his growing up years in
Cleveland, Ohio, and still considers himself a "Clevelander" even though he now
resides in College Park, Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C. Growing up,
the main musical influence on Bayer were the Beatles, a group he listened to
almost exclusively until junior high school. In junior high, he took the next
step and joined the school's jazz band, it "seemed like the logical extension
from playing guitar and bass and piano," says Bayer. Musical talent comes
naturally for him as well, "My dad is a ragtime piano player, so I kind of heard
music growing up. And the Cleveland Zoo had a great free concert...Maynard
Ferguson and a lot of other cats that I got to see for free," he
says. "It was really very cool and our jazz band director was in one of the
bands, I can't remember which, if it was Ferguson or Stan Kenton, anyway, he was
a real heavy hitter before he gave it all up to teach public high school.
He always took us on some very cool field trips. I definitely was in the right
place at the right time. I went to a good school, got to study and play
with some good people and just kept building from there."
Those lessons from the past have really made their mark on the musician of
today. When asked how he creates a song, what inspiration does he need to begin
a a tune, there again is another sign of his modesty. "I like to think that
in this point and time in my life, once you develop skills and tools to craft a
tune, I like to think that I just write music for music sake. Sometimes I just
sit and say, 'OK, I am going to write a tune.'" For this man, it can really be
just that simple--sit down and knock off a song. This is not to say that there
cannot be the same struggle to find just the right note or right lyric. It's
just that sometimes when it comes, it can be as easy as opening yourself to the
music and just listening.
"There are so many starting points in my life and I compose. I compose for
orchestra and jazz band. I have had things for string quartets published and so
forth. So if there is inspiration, thank God. If not, get to work." Although
even some of Bayer's talents still have their moments, "Believe me the garbage
can is filled with great ideas."
So once the ideas are there then what? In the case of the latest release,
there were some numbers he just wanted to do. "Nostalgia" always loved that
tune. "Skating" always wanted to do that one. I have always loved "A
Charlie Brown Christmas." "Off Kilter," that one I wrote for one of my student
groups. I coach a group at a couple of schools and they needed something that
was an example of a minor blues, so i had twenty minutes and I wrote the tune.
Give me twenty minutes and when I am finished, I am just twenty minutes
older. Mr. Bayer, however, can turn out some amazing music that makes you feel
younger just for hearing it. "The song 'New Voice,' I had never written a Latin
tune before so I just sat down and wrote that one. Same thing with "Old
Voice."
It can make your head swim how easy this all sounds, but when you hear these
numbers, when you hear the gentle sway and swing to them, feel the emotion that
they conjure up, you begin to wonder if this simple "carpenter of tunes" is not
pulling your leg. It really cannot be that easy and sound that good. It also
helps that this musician is a teacher. For one thing, there is the almost daily
practice of the rudiments of music. Then factor in the idea that he writes
charts for many of his student groups, so there is the constant need to deliver
professional quality charts on demand, quite the workout for anyone. Joshua
Bayer seems more than up for the challenge.
The educator helps the musician. Even if he plays what his students might
consider "weird stuff," this is not out of the ordinary. "I had a piano teacher
and once he started to play some really weird stuff and I asked him about it. He
said that he had to play it on the road in about a month." So the teacher helps
the student and the student becomes a makeshift audience for the teacher,
but it all works out in the end.
What makes Joshua Bayer stand out from the rest is easy. He simply knows what
he does and he knows how to do it better than anyone else around. When he
records, he is a one-take kind of guy and he is not really a fan of recording to
start with. In fact, he "hates it." "It can really wear on your chops after a
while," he says.
Old Voice:New Voice first saw the light of day as a concert done in
Washington D.C. "Then we recorded it the next day," says Bayer. "That was
three, eight-hour days in a row doing the same thing." Performing live is after
all "the whole point of what we are doing." The interaction of player and
audience is one part of what makes this complex and very gifted musician
work and we the listening audience, benefit from it the most.
Joshua Bayer is the sum of his parts. Those who get the chance to hear him
either through his recordings or through the interaction of a live
performance will soon find out what many others already know. Joshua Bayer is no
simple carpenter of tunes, but a master craftsman, skilled and driven to deliver
to his audience a level of satisfaction others only dream of.
For more information: http://joshuabayer.com
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