Gentleman of Jazz

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hello, ladies and gents. Welcome to South United Presents, a diverse and inclusive podcast featuring familiar names and new voices. In each episode, our guests candidly share their stories filled with triumphs, setback, humor, lessons learned, and of course, nuggets of wisdom. We're excited to share these stories with you. Now let's meet today's guest. Hey folks, thank you for hitting the play button and welcome to another episode of Sound United Presents in the friendly confines of Sound United Podcast Studio. And once again, I have an incredible guest in front of me. Someone that when you say the word gentleman, class, just all around cool, right? Very respected. This gentleman that's in front of me, Mr. Stan Miller, across from me, I should say, is our guest on the show. And we're going to be talking about not just music. We're going deeper than that. And so sit back, relax. If you're washing dishes and listening, or however you're listening, you in for a treat. So welcome to the show. Welcome to the show, Mr. Miller. I was a little nervous, you ain't say nothing.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Welcome to the show. Thank you, Deshaun. It's a pleasure to be here. Um I'm I'm enjoying the new uh experience here. Thank you. Is this your first first podcast?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

It is. Yo, okay. Yeah. All right. All right. This is good then. It's good. So it's all new territory, but uh you this is you you're comfortable. This would be like sitting in my living room and just having a conversation. You know what I mean? That that's all we're gonna do. We can do that. All right. So let me get started here. So for someone discovering you for the first time, who is Stan Miller and what do you bring to a room? So it's a two-part. Who is Stan Miller?

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Well, I'm I'm an entertainer. And uh that was one of the things that was most revealing to me over the course of the last thirty years that I've been a um uh performer. However, uh I've learned that uh there's a difference between being a performer and being an entertainer. Do tell. A performer uh will engage the audience audibly. An entertainer ga engages the audience on multiple levels. It can be visually, it can be of course it's gonna be audibly, it's gonna be mentally, and it's gonna be emotionally. And that is what is the big difference between a performer and entertainer. There an entertainer engages the audience on a higher level in multiple ways. And uh that was something that I gradually worked into, not not necessarily consciously, but just in the way that uh I approached performing and then being able to reflect on it and and realizing, okay, well, this is what's going on. And so I I looked at other entertainers like uh one of the in my opinion, one of the finest entertainers that ever ever stepped foot on the stage was Sammy Davis Jr. Because he could do it all. He could do everything.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Talk about multi-talented. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Absolutely. And so uh I I learned a lot watching uh those kind of individuals and uh analyzing what they're doing and how they do it and uh trying to incorporate it into what I do. So when I when I come out and get ready to uh perform, I want the audience to to uh feel get the sense that, well, this is gonna be something special. You know, because number one, I always dress for for uh whatever performance I'm gonna do. I'm I got this thing, I gotta be the best dressed guy in the room.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Okay, I heard that. Yeah, you uh, you know, when I first I first heard you down here, I think it might have been the speakeasy when I first kind of turned it. Okay. And then uh, you know, me and Erica, we had a a date night. I don't know what it was. It was just something like, hey, let's go out. It was up at Kava. And uh you were playing, because I was like, oh, you know, it's a nice setting. You know, I think they had they didn't just open up, they were there a while, but it was a nice, it was a nice scene, a perfect place to take your wife to have some you know drinks and some good food. The food was delicious. And you came out and and to your point, it was just it was very well done. And I, you know, I'm not a I don't judge that type, it was just classy, you know, the whole ambience. Yes, the restaurant was cool, they had that, but you brought an element to it, the music. Erica over there on her third drink. I'm like, I'm gonna score tonight again, you know, every everything is just going right. Just keep it real. But, you know, the music, it was just vibe, it wasn't all high, or it was just, it was just right. Your voice was there. And so it was it was really an experience, you know. But I've I've always noticed about you, and you just it's just, and I meant that in in the intro, just a classy, classic gentleman, you know, that just you you carry yourself, you know, you carry yourself perfectly. But absolutely, the stuff that you described, Kava seeing that and and just enjoying that and the in the ambiance and stuff, and that was just a terrific job. Now that was for me. What do you want people to say to you? You know, what do you want to hear after people have heard you heard you live? How do you want them to feel, or what do you want them to say?

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Well, some of the comments I get um go something like this uh uh after hearing you, I didn't know that I liked jazz. Or uh oftentimes I'll get a comment uh about uh the songs that I do. And a lot of the songs are from the 30s and forties. That's the core of uh the music that I do. I get a comment of a lot that that song that you did, so and so, that was my mother's favorite song. Another gentleman told me about a song I did, he says, That's a song I sang to my wife uh all the time that we were married, and his wife had just had just passed away like six months prior to that. There's another uh song that I do that was done by uh Perry Como. And uh I played it at a uh a retirement home. A small one. It's in uh Poland, and it's probably less than thirty residents here. And uh it's a very nostalgic song. And uh so I played it, it was a like the first time I had played it there, and I could see the handkerchiefs coming out and the ladies dabbing their eyes. And I apologize, I says I didn't mean to make you cry, and they said, Well, don't worry, they're they're happy tears. So when I went back again, that was the first song they said, Well, can you play that song again? They want to hear it again. So what I'm what I'm getting at is that the the songs engage people.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Yeah. What it's an interesting thing with instruments, because I feel like the saxophone and the piano, there's just certain instruments that get all the get all the glory. Xylophone's not up there, you know, as far as in my space. But you know, the saxophone, when I ask people, you know, about the saxophone, because I did like doing your questions, because for me the saxophone is it's sexy, it has this, it's distinct, like all of them, right? But this is something with the saxophone, because you know, I was talking to my cousin, I was like, hey, if you went to a concert and it was just like one instrument to be played, you know, what would you want to hear? She's like, the saxophone? It's on, you know, okay, TMI now. Let's let's stop and just that's all I want to know was the instrument, right? So the saxophone is is that. And then, you know, the trombone, I remember, you know, my son, I played the trombone, he played the trombone. Um, the reasons for both was um I they didn't tell me back then, way, way back then, but they did tell us uh at one time the reason they picked the trombone for my son, because he wanted to play the drums like his dad, was because his lips. He had lips for the trombone. He came back and I I think I said this on the podcast one time. Like he came back and told us that. I said, Did you get to play drums? He's like, No, sir, why? Well, the instructor said my lips were were big and the trumpet. I said, What? Because I didn't hear anything else. Lips big, you know, that's like let's go. We're gonna straighten this out. But you know, his the way his lips was formed, it was good for that instrument. So he doesn't play it now, whatever. And then for me, it was the drums. You know, I used to bang on pots and pans when I was little. So I feel like there's a gravitational pull to you know to certain instruments. For you, you know, when did it start? When did when did the saxophone become the the the instrument of choice for you?

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Well, I grew up on the southwest side of uh Warren on Miller Street, actually. And uh when I was nine years old, one of my good friends lived two doors down. And so uh one August uh early evening, kind of twilight time, I was gonna go over and uh to see him. And so, you know, those homes are those whole two-story uh homes with basements and so forth, and this was in August, you know, and if you didn't have air conditioning, then you had your windows open. So as I w was uh going around the side of the house, the basement window was open. And uh he had older brothers and sisters. So one of his uh older brothers was in the basement sitting down practicing the saxophone. And I was nine years old. I remember it like it was last night and I saw that horn and I heard the sound, and I was that was it. That's all it took. That's all it took. And so I uh told my I had I told my parents uh you know that I'd like to play the saxophone and and uh so they arranged for me to uh take lessons down over at what used to be Bell's Music Store over on High Street.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Remember that a little bit. Ludwig Ludwig uh yeah, Bell's, because that's where my mom bought my drums for a pair of Ludwigs, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

And uh they rented an old con silver saxophone uh just to rather than buying one, just to make sure I was gonna be serious about it. And um they never had to tell me to practice or anything. They had to tell me to come on down from your bedroom and eat dinner.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Did they ever did they ever say anything like, you know, like stop, quit making up making all that noise, or was it No. I think that's a drum thing because I was you know, I'd be up in the attic banging on it because I like marching bands. I can't hit the pedal and play drums. I gotta stand up and hit all of them. And what I would think sounded amazing wasn't quite the case when my mother would yell stuff upstairs to to stop, you know. So that's good. So when did you because it sounds like it just wasn't, you know, a hobby. You stuck with it. Because that was my question, like, okay, you you did the saxophone, you enjoyed it, you know, did you put it down, or you know, when did it become serious? It sounds like you just stuck with it. Was there ever a pause in between where you just was like, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Well, I never lost interest in it. You know, I was you know, through uh elementary school, junior high school, and and high school, I played in the uh bands and so forth. In high school I wanted to learn other instruments, so I I uh played the uh tuba in uh marching band and I learned how to play the uh uh string bass. I played that actually in jazz band because I had already gotten a guitar. So I played six six string guitar. You know, j it was more or less to learn chords and to make a attempt at writing songs. This is the reason why I had the guitar. So from that I could play the electric bass and then eventually the string bass. And I had a little electric piano in my room.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

So you've been exposed to and I do say this a lot, I think there's something about learning music, even if you can't read it, right? I can read music, you know, the the notes for the most part, but I I can also hear what chords sound well together. And I feel like there's just something about music, maybe it's the vibration, the harmony, whatever the case may be, that just gives you this extra strength of of sometimes even how can I put this like just your ways of thought, your ways of just doing things. There's just something about when you learn music that it just gives you an extra layer of death. You know what I mean? Um it's just it's hard for me to explain that, but I'm glad I went through that to learn. And you picked up different instruments for me. It was a trombone and drum, and I think the cymbals, but that was just so I could see how long it took to smash them together for them to bend. So that was a destructive habit there. But for you, it was learning just different instruments, the you know, the sixth string. I'm interested in the tuba too. So you was in the marching band. So where did you where did you go to high school? Uh Western Reserve. Okay. So let me ask this Did you ever march down? I forget when they would normally do it, but did y'all ever like they would get all the high schools together? Did y'all ever do marches down um uh Elm Road? Like any type of like I don't know, because I remember Miss Ohio. Frequently they would come down Elm Road, it'd be all of them beat Holland, McDonald, Reserve, Harding, and the marching bands, whatever time of year it was, I don't know, but they'd start somewhere in the city and then they would just go ahead and march down. But I was always impressed with the tubas because Reserve, Reserve had that, I think it was the W. Mm-hmm. Man, and y'all was in the back. And I like the drums. But man, I see them tubas coming and they'd be like, you know, going left and right. I was like, man, that's dope. So that it made me think of that. Was you did you march in uh in like city city thing?

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Not that I can recall, you know, just for the football games. Um I think that's primarily it, but uh I I uh remember that uh uh Clinton Foster was the band director and Richard Stagerwald was his assistant. And uh one year during football season they put together a routine called the lost tuba routine. And it was structured so that uh one of the tubas would kind of go the opposite direction from the entire band. And then he'd realize he was lost and he'd run around the the field trying to find find his place and so forth, and then he uh would kind of uh be the the cherry on top of a particular formation. I happened to be that lost tuba for that routine. And it just was a coincidence that it was the f first and I think only game that my mom happened to attend.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

And I didn't tell her about the routine. And so we started the routine, and uh Clinton told me, he says, no, when you get lost, you gotta you know really strut your stuff, accentuate it and high step and all that kind of swing that horn. So I'm I'm I'm all over that. So that's what I did. I went out there and I was I was just you know strutting it, and and then I'd stop and jump around and and run around the the field, and I finally, you know, got to the spot, and then I took my hat off and did a a bow with the horn. And and my mother was going crazy. She thought, oh man, what is wrong with him?

SPEAKER_00 17:09

He's lost, he don't know what he's doing. I was thinking that like, man, I want to, no, no, go the other way.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Oh wow. So it w it was fun. But yeah, playing the the tube and the marching band was a lot of fun because uh you know we just had a a close camaraderie.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Do you feel you know, sharpening, you know, there's more questions I'm gonna ask going to the saxophone, but how do you think playing all those instruments have has has helped you or helped you at the time, being able to go from a string and you know all that the wind and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_03 17:44

That's a good question. And it was intentional. I wanted to learn an instrument from every group. From the brass, woodwind, string. I didn't tackle the drums, though. Oh yeah. You didn't you didn't bang on the the tom tom or none of the snare and you know it's okay, yeah. But it it it made me a better listener uh for the the nuances of those different instruments and and the r and uh the role that they played and the overall sound.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Like a layer. Yeah, that's what I was trying yeah, like that the importance of each piece.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

Yeah, and and so playing the for example, playing the bass, the string bass in the in the jazz ensemble, it helped me to appreciate you know that the bass is the whole foundation of the of the ensemble. And the bass player he or she has to be in sync with the drummer. No if, ands, or buts. No. Must be. Right. Okay. And when I go to a concert, for example, um not necessarily on a you know, a pro level, but maybe a local band or something, before I even get into the room, I can tell if the bass player and the drummer are in sync or not. And if if they are, it's it's a great evening. If they're not, it's like torture.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Man, if I if I know you was coming, man, that'd be like somebody giving a speech and you got professional, you know, speakers in there, just that would be traumatic for me.

SPEAKER_03 19:29

Well, you know what? I I I I realize that if I'm going to a show and you know, I got someone someone friend or whatever going with me, I can't go in like I'm a professional musician. Because it'll ruin it for the other person. So oftentimes I'll just keep my observations to myself. Keep it close to the vest. And and uh because I don't want to be that guy just you know tearing the whole thing down, making it miserable for everybody else. So yeah, then you'd be like, where'd everybody go?

SPEAKER_00 20:03

They're like, we don't want to hang with Stan, he ruins it. Um I want to be clear on something too. So, you know, talking to the audience that it's not just that you play the sax, you have you have voice with this too. You sing. Beautiful, handsome voice, beautiful voice. Eric will say, beautiful voice. It's that pitch, you know. I mean, I only did choir, so I stick in one, you know, baritone and imagine I can go up to a maybe an alto or a soprano when I'm singing karaoke after three tequilas. I'm pretty good at that. But you know, you with your voice, when did you realize that the voice and saxophone, your voice and a sax could be a thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Well, I didn't start singing until I was in my mid-40s. Okay. And I didn't take voice lessons or anything. And it's kind of strange the way it came about. I got my first this was in the late 90s. I got my first regular gig at a place called the Mill in Garretttsville. It was a microbrewery. And uh they had heard about me from uh Do you remember the Patisserie in Hiram?

SPEAKER_00 21:17

The Patisserie.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Maybe it wasn't there when you went to school.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Was it a small little Yeah, it was a coffee shop. Okay, so I say that to say during my time at Hiram, that place changed over so many times. Right. So if it was called something else in like the early 2000s, probably, but no, I hadn't heard that. But I one of the things that was always said was like it changes over quite. Don't get used to what you're eating there, it's gonna be something else, which would happen. But I know we're exactly where you're talking about though.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Well, see, I I uh I was a uh construction electrician, and we were working on the uh library job at Hyra. And uh so the petisserie was Run by a husband and wife from Cleveland. And uh he he uh made great pastries. He had Palmiers, that French uh pastry, and those were to die for. So anyway, we got to talk, and he says, you know, why don't you what would you think about coming in and and you know, some uh uh evening, I'll I'll put together a special menu and you just do some music. I said, Yeah, that sounds good. So from that, someone heard me and recommended me to the people that own uh the mill in Gartsville. So anyway, it led to a a a regular Friday night uh engagement at the mill. And back then it was what I had was very crude. I was using uh cassette tapes. I had this old um used um sound system, and it it was It served a purpose though, right? It was the best I could do with what I could get. Bring back cassette tapes. Well, the problem with those is and I ran into this, they stretch. That changes the pitch and changes the tempo.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

So it created some interesting uh and and you don't have random access. You know, so if someone requests a song and I I had a catalog, and I had hundreds you know, dozens of cassettes, and I had them all catalog in which point a particular song was at. So if they wanted to hear a song, I found that cassette, put it in, and pressed the the fast forward button until they got to that that index, and then I could do the song. So that's how it was going. Anyway. Jeez, oh man. But you know, like I said, you just do what you got. You work with what you got. Because back then uh CD recorders were a couple thousand dollars. Yep. And that was not in my budget. So I got this regular Friday thing, and I I only played the auto sacks. I didn't play the uh the tenor. And uh after about three weeks, and I was excited, you know, I have a regular gig, but after about three weeks I got bored in the sense that, you know, something's missing here. And I had read a uh statement by um uh uh saxophonist uh named Lester Young. Okay, this was back in the forties, and he said he said uh and he was a tenor saxophonist, he said that uh you shouldn't play a song unless you know the lyrics, because the lyrics tell the story. And how can you tell the story on your instrument if you don't know the story? So I started, you know, s studying the lyrics to the songs that I was playing, just on, you know, I was not singing, I was just playing them on alto sex. And it dawned on me, you know, I'm really shortchanging the audience because they're not hearing these beautifully written lyrics. So those two situations kind of converged, and I thought, well, maybe I'll try singing. And I just started out with a goal of singing one song, one song per night. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

Throughout the performance. Yeah, like you would do but at least one song, right? I would sing one song.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

Yeah. And just because it was terrifying. You know, when I'm playing the sacks, you got the horn to hide behind. Yeah, but when you're just singing, this it's just you. All bare in front of the microphone. Yeah. And um, so as I got more and more comfortable with it, I started expanding it. Uh but that's how it came about uh through that uh that process. Just doing that. But I I'll say this though, because I had played the saxophone uh at that point for over 30 years, and like I said, I was I started when I was nine. Playing a wind instrument, you have to understand breathing, you have to understand articulation, you have to develop uh phrasing, you have to learn how to play in tune, so you develop your ear, and all of those things are also used whenever you're singing. And just in my mind, it made the transition from playing an instrument to being a vocalist, it made it a somewhat easier in that sense. I didn't have to learn all those things. I was already doing it, yeah. I was already doing that. But the real challenge came in answering the question, what is my voice? And defining what that is. And I'll never forget I w I uh got a uh a gig at a uh winery up in the Geneva area. And I was playing uh on the uh patio, it was in the summertime. And so I had you know been doing it for a f uh few years at that point. And a lady came up to me and she says, and and she was just sincere. So I didn't take it the wrong way. I was not insulted at all. She says, How come you look like that but you sound like this? Hmm. And I knew what she meant, you know, but I also knew it was just an innocent, sincere question. So I didn't I did not take it the wrong way. And actually, it was not something that I hadn't heard before, even in in school and so forth. Uh so I just told her, I says, Well, I didn't choose my voice. My voice chose me. So I had to work with what I had. I couldn't make it something that it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Wow. Did you um with that? So, because I first when you said I thought that, you know, you were impersonating, like you're trying to sound like whoever it was that, you know, whoever that song, you know, like a almost, and I've no disrespect, I'm not saying you were like up there trying to karaoke to sound like, you know, when I karaoke Madonna, like that's never gonna work. It sounds great in my head though. But you just you literally just what you had, you had. And again, because you knew the nuances between the wind instrument and your voice, you just you perfected that and made it easier. So that gave you the distinct sound that you have, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Well, the it I still had to to uh I still did a lot of listening to other vocalists, not just male vocalists, but vocalists like um uh Shirley Horn, Ella Fitzgerald, of course, you know, Nat King Cole and uh and uh Sinatra and Tony Bennett. I I still, you know, studied their their uh vocals in the sense of you know how they did their phrasing, were they before or after the beat or with the beat, all of those sorts of things. You know, I I uh spent a lot of time listening and evaluating and then figuring out what I wanted my sound to be like, and uh and and incorporating that into uh the song and what the song was about and how to convey that. And and that's something I still I don't think it'll I'll ever stop trying to do. Just continue to do that.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Yeah. What's the difference? Uh so I got two questions, instrument-wise. Um because I it for me, probably later in life, or I should say, you know, maybe in my 30s or somewhere around in there, I didn't know that there was, you know, I thought a saxophone was a saxophone. Well, you played a saxophone, but there's alto and tenor. So to us um and to some who don't know the difference, can you can you kind of briefly explain what the difference is between those two? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Um There's actually the soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, uh bass, and contra bass.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

For a minute I was following you like choir, and then you threw them other ones in, and now I'm like, okay, wait, it's what my head shook like, okay, wait, what? Okay. Proceed. I'm sorry. I just it was a learning moment there, like, oh.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

But I I started uh uh after I started doing vocals, I I reached a point again where I I wanted to add something else, and so I thought, well, I'll try maybe I'll try the tenor. The fingerings are the same, they're just in different keys. Like if I were to play a uh a C on the uh tenor, the corresponding note would be a G on the alto. But it goes deeper than that. And I didn't realize this either until I started playing the tenor. It's not a conscious thing, but they have different voices, they have different personalities.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Explain that.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Um there's some songs that sound better on the tenor than the alto. And vice versa. And then I found that the way I play the auto is different than the way I play the tenor. And it was not intentional, it's just a different voice. You can play both. Yeah. To this day. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I I do play both. Okay. Uh but sometimes, you know, I just feel, well, this song I think I'm going to play it on the tenor, or this one I want to play on the auto. Um and so they're they're they're similar, but they're two different instruments, I think.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

When so breakdown for me too, because again, for a long time, despite ban and all that, I always thought that the saxophone was a brass. It's actually wind, huh? It's a hybrid. Oh, see, now you've done thrown another wind all this time. I'm like, nope, it's it's the wind instrument, so it's a hybrid. And the only reason I chose brass was because it's the color of, you know, the trumpet and the trombone, the coronet and all that. But it's so you're saying it's a hybrid. So it doesn't. So overall, if it had to fit into one of those categories, brass or wind, it would be in the wind. It would be it's it is a woodwind.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Okay, woodwind technically, because it uses a reed. So it would be up there with the clarinet. Right. Okay. Right. All right. And see, that was what really uh confounded the uh music community when Adolf Sachs invented the saxophone.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Let's see, this is a this is like a history lesson. Adolf Sachs?

SPEAKER_03 33:48

Yeah. That was the gentleman who who invented the Sax. And uh it was viewed as a bastard by the classical music industry community.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

I could see why they wouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

They they didn't even write music, you know, for the saxophone. Right. But then uh some French composers uh were more adventurous, and uh they started writing music for the saxophone, and then just kind of took off from there. But um the non-classical music community was very enthusiastic about incorporating the saxophone into their music.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Do they like in classical music now, is the the saxophone is a part of it now?

SPEAKER_03 34:37

Yes, it can be. Usually what you have is you had wood you have woodwind players that double on clarinet, saxophone, and flute. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Um that that's a very uh popular thing. So I don't want to because I don't want to breeze over this, right? It wasn't like all your life, this is all you've done. Now, because you mentioned earlier like if I could be young again and someone pulled me to the side to get me into the building trades, of course, electrician would have been my you know, I would have been enthralled with that, you know what I mean, just for so many reasons. Um But in between this time, you you were in the trades, right? Like you you the electrician. Right. Like what was what was how was that, like doing that stuff, just out of curiosity?

SPEAKER_03 35:25

It was entirely different than anything I've ever done. Um, because I had mostly had office type jobs. But there was a very specific reason why I got into it, because uh I went through the um union apprenticeship program, which was a f a five-year program. And uh I was forty-two when I got into that. But you when you signed into the trades, forty-two. Yeah. I was at the time the oldest apprentice that they had ever had. Non-traditional student. Yeah. Yeah. So um, but the re there was a specific reason for it. What uh and that reason was that I knew that once I completed the training, once I passed the the state test, and once I got my journeyman's uh card, nobody could take that away from me. It was mine, I'd earned it.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

You can use it wherever you decided, like if you if you wanted to move to California, you can buy it. Right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

Right. So, you know, the work was not always plentiful, you know, in the Mahoney Valley. So I did, you know, travel to uh Cleveland to Lorraine, to Norfolk, Virginia, to um Fishkill, New York, to Boston, you know, and uh I had good experiences on the road, met a lot of really good guys. Um but you know, there were some some cases uh where the job was not ideal. And uh if I was of a mind and a position, if I didn't want to be on that job anymore, I just tell them get my money, I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

That's that is that that wisdom, because you went in at 42, right? You got your journeyman, so you were out at 40, 47. You didn't had some life, so you're like, nah, I ain't feeling this. Is that a little bit of it too? That you know you done paid your dues kind of type thing.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

Yeah, kind of sort of it it it it it deals with uh the way my dad taught me through his example. Do tell. Uh he came up here um after the war. He had you know was in the military. Uh he had a uh uh brother that was already uh living here in Warren. And uh his brother was uh missing uh uh part of a finger, so he couldn't uh be accepted into the draft. But uh so my dad came to this area and uh it was when the mill started you know going really strong. And uh so he started working at uh Republic Steel. And at the time, um any uh minority uh employees that they brought on, brought in were all part of the labor gang. There's a whole lot of stories behind that, but but to make it kind of uh succinct, you know, he had to deal with a lot of situations there. And so my dad always cut my hair. And when he cut my hair, he would talk about his life and his experiences, you know, from a young man down south in uh coming to Alabama or Florida or wherever, and his experiences at the mill and so forth. And he he was a very independent minded person, and he was not afraid to stand up for himself, you know, regardless of uh the impact it would have. And so he brought me up that same way uh through the stories he he was actually giving me an education. Wisdom. Yeah. And the funny thing, Deshaun, is that years later, you know, when I was in different situations, based on the experiences that he shared with me, I could see things coming before they got there. I knew this was lining up for this kind of thing to happen. So I was already prepared. Like I was on a job in uh in uh Fishkill, New York, working on an IBM uh chip plant. And uh I was in a crew that had um Hispanics from uh Texas, had Native Americans from North Carolina, uh, me and another uh fellow were uh the blacks on the crew, and the foreman um was this uh an Irish guy who oftentimes would spend his lunch periods out in the bar and come back all blurry-eyed. His name was his name was Tim. And then the the general foreman was this young, young guy named John, who had uh his own ideas, and so over the course of time John got rid of all the other minorities in the crew, laid them off. He's the general. He's the general. Okay, so he's the he he's the uh general foreman, yeah. Okay. He's the general foreman. Okay. All right. And there's certain procedures of certain uh uh layers of communication that are established, you know, contractually, you know, in the building trades. And one of those is that the general foreman doesn't have direct contact with the actual uh workers. The foreman does.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:27

All right. So the young just for clarification, the young guy was the general foreman? Correct. And then the Irish gentleman was the foreman. Tim was the foreman. Tim was the foreman, the one y'all rocked with.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 41:39

And so after I s after uh they got rid of all the other minorities, I knew I was next. I was the only one left. Wow. So the the fella that uh they always team you up in pairs. If you're journeyman, they they sometimes will team you with another journeyman, or in this case it was with a um an apprentice. But the apprentice that they teamed me up with was a guy named Carl. He was a veteran. You know, so he was a grown grown man, and uh they treated Carl very poorly, really poorly. But Carl and I got along real well. So on this particular occasion, uh I was working Carl and I were working in a water treatment uh building, and we were uh working on what we call a conduit run. Um and so Carl had gone out of the building to uh get something, and in walks Tim, the foreman, and John the journal foreman. And I'm up on the ladder. And so Tim he says uh he says, Is this all you got done here? And I came down off the ladder and uh so John jumped in on the conversation too, John the journal foreman. Now he's not supposed to talk to me. So I just uh in a non-threatening way leaned back against the wall and just you know cross my arms like this, and I looked at John and I says, John, you know what you want to do, go ahead and do it. And he got this surprised look on his face. And his words. I don't want to fire you.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

Now I didn't say anything about firing. Right. He kind of revealed, you know, the mouth has a way of bringing out what you're thinking, right? Involuntarily. So he just told on himself.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Yes, sir. Yeah. So this. Then, you know, my dad told me, you know, once you got 'em, y rub rub the salt in the womb. So I just hammered him. I said, John, you know what you want to do. Go ahead and do it. Just do it, John. You know? I kept going back and back to that. And see what happened, it it scared them. Because they realized they were dealing with someone that they were not going to be able to control. They were not going to be able to get me upset and make me do something stupid. Put my hands on them. They were not going to be able to do that. And it scared them. So all of a sudden now he wants to be my buddy. Y'all hanging out. Y'all kicking it. So they leave. And then Carl, the apprentice, comes back, yeah. And I told him what happened. And Carl says, you know, Stan, when I went outside, they were walking up. And John asked Tim, Do you have anything on Stan yet?

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

So see, I I you know I knew it was coming. My daddy got me ready for that s situation. Yeah. So I was able to handle it. I stayed on the job until mostly everybody else was uh travelers were all laid off, you know. But uh I I really appreciate that my dad and his wisdom, you know, shared his life with me because it taught me a lot.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Yeah. One of our um episodes, I was talking with Mr. Fred Harris, and we were talking about, you know, in general, the father and just like the principles that's laid by the dad and seeing the experiences that he went through. Wisdom was the key thing because we were talking about how knowledge and wisdom is two different things, you know, and so hearing you say that, you know, just it kind of really resonates. Especially me as a dad, where we, you know, I I try to, you know, I would always tell, you know, Eric or just family, I say it to this day, you know, I want my kids, you know, we raised them to be victors, not victims. And so, you know, hearing that, yeah, prepared you. And you've seen it like chess. You've seen the move coming well before they picked up their piece. Now you want to hang out with you and be a buddy and all that other stuff.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

And it it's even occurred in in the in the music. Um, I couldn't even imagine.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:28

Uh I'll give you an example. I I got um from playing the wineries, uh, I got a call from a woman who owned a um a pub up in uh Paynesville. It was called the Ryder Inn. Rider? Yes. Okay. Like R-I-D-E-R-I. R-Y. R-R-Y. Okay. Gotcha. R I like Ryder truck. And it was an inn. It actually had, you know, lodging. It was part of the uh Underground Railroad. It was, you know, uh certified and as a historical location. And the the owner, her name was Elaine. I can't remember her last name. But she used to own the apartment building across the uh across the bridge here. The apartment buildings across the parking lot.

SPEAKER_00 47:15

Yeah, the The Packer. Oh no, I know where you're talking about. Okay, okay. Buckeye?

SPEAKER_03 47:19

Uh no, not Buckeye, but um, what was those apartments called? Perkins. Oh, we could go on uh No, it's on on it's on Market Street, but it's uh Um after the the bridge.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

Market Street. Oh the Reeves building? Yes. Okay, so they yeah, they just knocked that down, but yeah, yep, absolutely. She owned that. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 47:44

Yeah. She was a uh a retired judge, and I found out later on that she had been uh disbarred. So she didn't really retire. So anyway, she owned the she owned the writer and voluntarily walked at the call from her, and uh so I I didn't know all of this stuff at the time. So uh we played, I played there a few times. And uh anyway, she uh embarrassed she confronted me in front of some customers after we had just agreed on uh a regular three-month engagement run there. And I was still an apprentice, you know, so I wasn't making a whole lot of money as an electrician. But anyway, um so she uh uh just came at me wrong right in front of uh some customers and uh the venue owner, which is the lady confronted you in front of customers about something, yeah.

unknown 48:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 48:47

And so uh I finished the night and uh I I uh walked up to her and to talk to her, and I said, Zelane, you know, all those dates we just booked for the next three months, cancel them all because I'm never coming back here again.

SPEAKER_00 49:04

I admire that.

SPEAKER_03 49:07

And I needed that gig. But yeah, you know, you you people can only treat you that way if you let 'em.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

My aunt says that all the time. Yeah. Do you you know, getting back to your music and kind of in the in the thing of work and impact, and before I even go into those, I do want to say Mr. Miller brought some delicious bourbon. I think it's a hundred. What'd you say, RD? 105 proof? Somewhere around. It's over 100 proof. Um, and it's delicious. So we are actually sitting here. This is the first time ever uh that I've been with a guest where I'm enjoying a bourbon or any type of fine spirit. But I will also tell y'all that I'm wearing a hoodie and a hat, and it's about the third drink in. I feel nice and warm. But I'm gonna stay on track with my questions and everything. But this is this is delicious. It's called Blue Note, right? You get it in Memphis. It's it's uh made in Memphis. So I'm very appreciative. It's actually delicious, you know. I mean, and that hunter proof for now in my life, that hunter-proof is is great. You know, maybe in a couple years I'll drop down to 80 or something or get me some Kinchaka or whatever and that, but for right now it's good. But you know, your performances, because you, you know, you do a lot of different venues, and and I feel like, you know, one may be better than the other, but when you the weddings and wineries and corporate events, when you do those, what changes how you read the room from those different venues?

SPEAKER_03 50:38

Well, the size of the room uh has a lot to do with it, the occasion, my role. By that I mean when I when I play a restaurant, I know it's not a uh concert. I'm there to add to the ambiance, to add to the you know, just the background, the mood, the vibe uh that I want to create. Um and so that impacts, you know, the the the song selection, it impacts uh the volume and so forth that I that I play at. All those things are are taken into consideration. And then there's also the energy level of the room. Okay. Um if it's a I I learned a long time ago that you have to meet people where they are where they are. So if it's uh a laid-back kind of uh relaxed vibe, that's where I'm gonna start at.

SPEAKER_00 51:48

So it's not like a DJ where you're trying to get everybody hyped and all that. You you start off where the vibe, where the energy is. Yeah, I start off where they're at.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

And so once I've connected with them, then I can take them up or down or wherever I want to go with it.

SPEAKER_00 52:04

But I've made that connection. Is there a venue of these that I mentioned, weddings and wineries and corporate events? Do you have a favorite?

SPEAKER_03 52:11

Um You mentioned Kava before. That sort of venue I missed that place. Is my favorite. The small, intimate. Yeah. And and here's another thing. Any place that I play at it has to have three things. It has to be clean, it has to have good food, it has to have good service. Because if any one of those are missing, there's nothing that I'm capable of doing to compensate for that. It's not going to be a good experience. No matter what I do. So I'll I'll I'll I will go to a place, if I'm not familiar with it, I'll go to a place and have uh dinner there or whatever, and look it over and get the feel for the vibe and so forth before I agree to perform there.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

And you don't even tell them you come in, you just go at a random just to get that smart little recon going on. Yeah. Like that. What do you look for in the first five minutes of these venues? Like when you after you've set up and everything, or maybe while you're setting up, whatever the case may be, what do you look for?

SPEAKER_03 53:24

Well, the actual show starts when I'm when I'm setting up.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

Okay. Not when you are set up and about to play. Soon as you cross the I like that. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 53:38

Because people are sizing you up. And uh I learned long time ago th that lesson. I was playing, I was uh doing uh my first engagement at a place called Blue Canyon in Twinsburg, a high-end steak place. And so I had my cart, you know, I was dressed, and uh the cases that I had at the time had the name of the sound system, which was Bose. And everybody's a lot of people are familiar with Bose. So I'm wheeling my stuff out and I'm starting to set up. And there was a gentleman and his wife sitting at a table nearby. And the guy says to me, he says, uh, what do you play? I and I told him, you know, music from the 30s and forties. He says, uh, I want to hire you for a job. And I said, Well, you haven't even heard me yet. He says, I already know you're good. Did he explain how? Did he No, I didn't ask. Just the way you carried yourself, just a whole Yeah. So the show actually starts, you know, whenever I get there. And and I I make a point of of showing respect, like when I'm when I'm uh setting up at a uh um a nursing home or assisted living or whatever, even when I'm setting up, I never turn my back to the audience. To me, that's just kind of disrespectful. So I'll situate my cart and everything so that I'm facing them.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

So you never gotta turn, do nothing, give them full attention, forget them all you. Yeah. Huh.

SPEAKER_03 55:19

It's just just those little and and I'm not saying that the way I do it is is the only way that should be done. I'm just saying that this is my way. Yeah. Even down to those details. They're important. And people one of the places I uh one of the uh nursing homes that I played at, the uh one of the residents came up to me and shook my hand, and he says, I want to thank you for treating us with dignity and respect.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

That's better than a guru, again. You know, just when people come up and say that you have your own meticulous style, own brand, not braggadocious about it, but people who get it and appreciate it, they do. What do you when you performing, when you're doing that, what do you do when people get kind of, you know, when there's distractions and all that other stuff? Like, what do you do? Do you s do you stop and be like, listen, sit down, and no, I'm just joking. What do you do when you got people distracted? Well, there's a couple different ways to address that.

SPEAKER_03 56:19

I was setting up at a uh at the lodge at Geneva on the lake and the lounge, and there was three ladies there that had just come back from a uh a little wine tour. So they were all kind of already kind of uh lit. And so the the uh the um one kind of vocal one, she walked up to me and she says, Are you gonna play something I can dance to? So, you know, in processing what that was about, I knew that there were gonna be trouble all night. Or she was. Okay. So I knew I had to, you know, deal with this finalizer right here now. So I I looked at her and I said, Well, sweetheart, that depends on if you know how to dance. And so her friends were like, Ooh, clap back. And they left in just a few minutes, and that's what I wanted. I wanted them to leave because they're not, you know, it's my show. They're not gonna intimidate me or try to try to you know control my show. And then there's other times when if a table is really noisy, I will uh get on my microphone, my wireless mic, and I'll put on a nice quiet romantic song. And I'll walk up to the table and sing to them. And it just brings them down. Or maybe I'll walk around the audience to kind of get them in get them on board with what's going on too. So there's different ways they handle it.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

Tell me about a time when the audience surprised you. And if you Yeah, kind of surprised you and would you have to shift in real time? Because I can only imagine it, you know, not always going to be the perfect thing. And that's not a good or bad question, but when they kind of surprised you and you shifted.

SPEAKER_03 58:20

It happened at a a uh retirement resort in Hudson called Hudson Meadows. And uh it's actually a retirement resort. They've got a wine bar, they've got exercise room, they've got two chefs on duty. It's a really remarkable place. So the late the young lady that is their activities director, she's a sweetheart. She's she's uh a really good person. She does a lot for them. So I think it was one time it was her maybe her birthday or something like that. And so I I uh for some reason I says I'm gonna do a uh a song for her. And I broke out the Commodore's brick house, and everybody just went crazy. They were getting up dancing around, and she she came down and uh uh she danced all through the the room, and it was like one big party. These 70, 80, 90-year-old people jamming the brick house.

SPEAKER_00 59:37

Did you learn anything from that?

SPEAKER_03 59:39

Like from that night? Yeah, not to presume anything about your audience. You know, not not feel that because of their certain age group, they can't they don't enjoy something different than than uh the you know American songbook. And so for a while, for months after that, every time I went, they wanted to hear birthday.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:05

You don't you done put that in your brand now. Um and this is to me, I I like this question here because music, you know, to me, um it's so into you know influential. Music has gotten me through grief. Uh it's a true story. I'm actually one of the top 1% of Spotify just because I constantly music, right, to get to get past that. So music is very important to me. Um and I contrast that to kind of some of the music that's out now. And I don't I feel like I'm I'm one of them old people back in the day when hip-hop came out. It was, you know, criticizing the music. So, you know, I contrast how important it is to me and how important music is. You know, music can music can heal. And that's, you know, it's a very important thing, no matter what genre, you know, you listen to. A moment on stage, one moment, and and this is more live music, so I'm not just hitting play and listening. This is this is taking it to live. What is one moment on the stage that reminded you why live music still matters?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:10

I thought about that question, and I can I could um relay, you know, different different experiences, but one of the ones that stands out to me is when I'm playing it, and it's mostly at a maybe a restaurant, and people will bring their their children. I'm talking about really sometimes really young kids, but kids in general. And there was uh I was playing at one of the wineries up in Madison, and it's been a only a few months ago, and the uh parents brought um an older child that had some disability and looked like, you know, maybe autism or something like that. And uh this uh uh a young girl. And it struck me that you know they felt comfortable enough to bring her out into a public environment like that, to a winery. So during a break I walked over and uh introduced myself and uh asked the uh the girl what what her name was, and I think her parents had the reply. And I asked her if she liked cartoons. And she shook her head and I said, Well, I'm I'm gonna play I'm gonna play a song for you from a cartoon. And uh so I started the the uh the next set, you know, with a couple songs, and I said, I'm gonna do this song for for and I relate her name. And so I did the theme from um The Pink Panther And she loved it, you know. But to me it was just like a uh my way of expressing gratitude for her parents bringing her out, feeling comfortable enough in an open environment like that to have their you know, have their child present.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

Live and on demand, just boom. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's beautiful. She she was excited, she was Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:22

Oh yeah. I can hear that song in my head. It it's an interesting song because no matter how young a person is or how old, everybody knows the Pink Panther theme song. Yeah, right. It transcends transcends every generation.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:39

Um some questions I got for you, and I'm gonna I'm gonna mix these up a little bit as we get get near. But for a young musician listening, and this is kind of like wisdom and things like that, uh, because I don't want to make light of, I'm sure you still practice, like you could probably do this in your sleep, but you still practice. And I always say that sometimes people see, no matter what profession you're in, like you know, they see the success and the ease, it may be, but they don't see that bottom of the iceberg. You know, they just see that top of you come out, you can, you can, you kill it, you do what you do, but they don't see the hours of practice or the sometimes the frustration, whatever the case may be. But for a young musician listening, what is one practice habit that actually moved you forward?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:25

Well, the level of uh music instruction today um is on a a much higher level than you know when I was coming up at nine years old. Especially when it comes to the jazz genre of things. And from what I've seen and observed, you know, these uh students come out of these um environments, you know being pretty good. Except when it comes to their stage presence. They uh I'll give you an example. Youngstown state when when Tony Leonardi was uh directing the jazz program, they would bring in guest artists and they would put on a concert, you know, uh in during the week. And uh because his background was the big band, that was the focus of a lot of their music. You know, the Tommy Dorsey, uh Benny Goodman, uh Duke Ellington, Cal that kind of stuff. And so what he attracted at these concerts were senior citizens. So I would sit at the back of the room and I'd see all these gray heads or bald heads and that was the majority of those there. So one one one occasion he brought in a gentleman uh by the name of Billy Pierce. Billy Pierce. He was the saxophone instructor at the Berkeley School of Music in Boston. Big heavy. I was gonna say prestigious. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Billy Pierce came out, walked up on stage, said nothing to the audience at all, countered down the song, and uh he and the YSU uh jazz band was was off and running. It was it was really great stuff. All right. Very complex, advanced type stuff. Not Benny Goodman, Count Basie, all that kind of stuff. And it was the first time I ever saw over the course of that show, first time I ever saw people get up and walk out. Walk out on one of the preeminent jazz instructors in the country. Because he made no effort whatsoever to connect with the audience. He didn't talk to them.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

It's almost kind of like, here I am, now listen to me. That's it. Who who was he playing for? Not the audience.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:00

No. No. See? So I mean he could probably play giant steps in any key at any tip you want. But who cares? He wasn't connecting with the audience. They got up and left. So you would say working on stage presence? Yes. Working on the things that inv get you to involve the audience. Talking to them, telling stories. Because, you know, whenever I play, i uh given the situation, you know, I always have a lot of stories about the songs that I do, because that's part of uh what ha what I do whenever I learn a song. I learn the history of the song if I'm able to find it.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:40

Who who wrote it, when, and what was the situation, whatever. So your process is thorough. Thorough is a key, is a word of when you learn in and prepping and preparing, it's very thorough.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:50

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I think that so to me that's the weakest part of of uh of uh jazz performers in general. You know, they know the music, they know the scales, all the techniques and modes and all that kind of stuff, but when it comes to really connecting with the audience, that's their weakest aspect.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:11

Hmm. What do you wish you learned sooner, or that you built sooner in in this journey of yours? I wish I had started singing younger.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:24

Single. Okay. So I got a this is more of a community and region question. I had built these in, and so I want to I really want to ask this question to you. And you built, even following you, if I didn't know you, um, you have a a nice following. And the way you engage the people to either let them know you come in or who you are, nice process, email marketing, and things like that. So you built, right? You wasn't just handheld, like you have you've been in it to win it, and it built this audience. Um so from that audience, Northeast Ohio, Western Penn, Pennsylvania, like what's so what's special? Because you could easily, like, and maybe you have, but you could easily just, yeah, you know what, I'm gonna I'm gonna try to do this in somewhere else or down south. What makes this place special when it comes to what you do?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:11

That's a good question, and um an easy one for me to answer. The Mahoning Valley, Northeast Ohio in general, is a very close-knit community. You can meet someone who's a total stranger to you, and after five minutes of discussion, you know a whole lot of people in common. We've all had that experience. Very true. Yeah. I don't know of too many places where that is actually the case. But it happens all the time here in the in the Mahoney Valley. So the close-knit aspect of the community has uh made it conducive for w for what I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:56

Has it shaped your sound, any? Uh your hustle, your grit, anything like that?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:01

Not not really. Not really. It's made me appreciate um and not take for granted the uh support that I get. And uh it motivates me to whenever I step on stage, it motivates me to never mail it in. Uh I'm never gonna do the same show twice. I've got over eight hundred some songs. Eight hundred? Yes. So give you an example. I was down at uh Jravasi um last year. Winery, right? Right. Okay. On the patio, and uh it started to rain. Not real heavy, but just enough to get people wet. People weren't moving, they were staying there. I mean they had umbrellas, you know, and so forth. Sometimes umbrellas doesn't cover everything. But they stayed. And I'm I'm on a stage that's covered over, so you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm good. And instead of going on with, you know, what I had planned, I have uh an app that all of my s uh music is on. So I just did a search for the the word rain, and about a dozen songs came up. So I I started doing songs about the rain. Right. Uh sing singing in the rain.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:26

That puts it in the mood, man. Like that that audience connection.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:31

Right. Yeah. And people got a kick out of it. It was it was fun for me, and and they enjoyed it. And I I was just trying to express my gratitude that they hung in there and stuck it out.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:41

You know, eventually it cleared up and we went back to the regular uh Could you imagine a a couple might be their first, second time out, and you know, it's raining and they're kind of a little bit sad, but they stay in there and all of a sudden, you know, you you pull out this this list and just make it, you know, comparable and perfect.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:01

Fit the moment. You you can't plan that, but you have to have the insight and and and be adjustable, you know, to whatever happens.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:11

So I had this this random segment of questions. Okay. I was thinking about Mr. Harris. You can ask me anything in this no, it's nothing like that. I'm not gonna ask you nothing personal, but it's just little questions I think about uh for each guest. I like that. Sometimes they're similar to the other guests. But um, so I'm gonna ask you these and you answer how freely you want. My first one though is if it wasn't the saxophone that you picked up, what instrument would it have been? I really wanted to play the cello. The cello? Yeah. That was totally I had like a list of what I thought the cello was not on there. Why the cello? Do tell. For a number of reasons.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:55

One where it's voiced at. Explain that. Voiced. Um the range of the cello. It can get high, but it can get also in the lower range as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:11

And one of the things I like most about the cello is the physicality involved in playing it. You wrap your arms around it. You're embracing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:24

Very romantic, I like that part, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:26

Not n not necessarily romantic, maybe just in t intimate. Yeah, yeah. You know? Yeah. And it's like you're a you're one with the instrument. And that to me, that just that that's for me, that's just the beautiful thing. So the cello.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:43

Yeah. What would you tell the let's go in the let's go 20, 21. What would you tell the twenty twenty-one-year-old Stan Miller? That look that you just gave. What would you tell the twenty-one old 21-year-old Stan Miller?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:05

I don't know. Um that's a good good question. Um, to uh believe in yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:16

That's all it takes. That's all it takes. You get handed a whole bunch of money, and I know you're an Amtrak writer like me, and your eyes just lit up when I say the whole bunch of money. But you get a whole a whole bunch of money, and someone says, Stan, you can go wherever you want in the world. Don't even matter. Here's the money for whatever it takes. Where are you going?

unknown 1:14:39

Hmm.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:41

I would like to go to Morocco. I've talked to some people who have gone there. I've been to Kenya. Um but for some reason Morocco seems fascinating because of its mixture of cultures. Uh and uh cuisine, and uh being located on the Mediterranean, uh, you know, that's just a place I would really enjoy exploring.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:10

You've been to Kenya, so that's on the eastern side of Africa, and the Morocco's up top, kind of right in there. I passed geography and social studies, not too many other classes, but homeck and that I did good in. Um this question wasn't one of the random ones, but before I get to your one-word question, I do want to ask you because one of the most powerful quotes I ever heard uh was from Howard Howe with the uh Howard and the point fives. I had him um, I think that was season three around in there, and he said, Music is a spirit. You know, that that's what he we hit. I can't remember what the question was. So I want to ask you, as as a musician, you in it, you know, you you've paid your dues, you've you've done things, um, you engage with music all the time, live, you practice it, your instrument, so it's not like Deshaun hitting, you know, a Spotify playlist and listening to music and saying, Oh, it feels great. What is music to you?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:08

Music is mus music is life. What I have learned and come to really appreciate is that uh number one, they've done studies uh on people that have uh Alzheimer's and dementia, that sort of thing. And I've even played in some uh nursing homes at the departments at the residents or in those situations. And even though they can't carry on a conversation, uh they might not uh know who their family is or even where they are. But when I play a song that they know, they'll perk up and they'll sing along right with me. Wow. I've seen it. And there's another uh uh a fellow that wrote a book about it and his name escapes me right now. But he did he uh done studies on that sort of thing. And here's one of the things that they found is that when they hook up electrodes to the uh to the um the head, you know, to m monitor brain function. And they know what parts of the brain controls what functions, you know. So it's what call it a E G electro or E K G or something? I don't know. I'm not sure the K is w for the for the heart. The E E G electros.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:43

I see R D R D shaking her head because she got that medical background, so I think we on the same we got approval.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:49

So they're monitoring you know the activity and many different parts of the brain. They found that whenever they have the person that they're monitoring, whenever they have them listen to music, it engages more areas of the brain than anything. I still believe that. My translation of that is that we are wired for music.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:15

Which was yeah, which like earlier in the conversation, how important music is. Yeah. And healing and uh just you know, life. Right in general.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:25

And and so Deshaun, with that the way I took that, and and again, I'm just talking for me. I'm not saying everybody has this view, but music is like a well with no bottom, a well of fresh water. And if you have a bucket, you can skim it along the top and have your thirst quenched. But if you drop that bucket as low as you can and you bring it up, you're gonna bring up some very refreshing reward for it. And so that's how music is. The the deeper you get into it, the the greater the reward. So knowing the physicality of music, the impact that it has on people, is another reason why I take what I do very seriously. I'm never gonna mail it in. Because music is that important and people connect with it. It I want people to to feel better after when they leave a performance than when they came there, because music is therapeutic. Say that one more time. Yeah. It definitely is. So and and uh for people uh I know bands that you know they're you know, maybe um tribute bands, or there was this one band up and around Madison, they they had 36 songs that they always played, divided into three sets of twelve. They played each set in the same order for every performance they did. And if they were comfortable with that, fine. If their audience liked it, fine. Okay. But they're just skimming the surface. They're not going down deep, they're not getting the reward that comes with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:13

So I have a random, this is part of the random question thing, but we call it the one word because I'm totally fascinated with with people's answers and their reasonings by it. What is your one word right now for to you know to define you and what does it represent in your life right now? So what is your one word and what does it represent? I'm gonna use a hyphenated word. So you're gonna cheat? No, I'm joking. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:40

Open-minded. Okay. And uh it it's something that um I s I still try and and and and keep as a mindset. Not just musically, but all kinds of of ways. For example, I had to buy a new computer because my my hard drive crapped down on me beginning of the year.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:02

Worse feeling, man. But go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:03

But I found a guy in in uh in uh canfill, an old guy, Fred Martin. And he uh he's been dealing with computers before there were computers, and he knows the stuff. So he set me up with exactly what I needed. And uh all of a sudden, you know, the Canon laser printer they had, they didn't make any uh updates to the drivers. So I had to buy a new printer. And uh best thing that ever happened. I I I bought an HP that has Bluetooth, and so I can print things from my iPad, from my phone, from my computer. But see, I I was there was a time when I would make that old cannon work. You gonna do you're gonna make that thing. You ain't trying to spend no money. Right. Well, it it was just being being um uh just of that caught in that mindset, not being open-minded. The opposite closed-minded sort of kind of yeah, yeah. So being open-minded, okay, yeah, let's do this and and a lot of benefits. And also with AI, you know, I didn't want nothing to do with AI, but I thought, well, let me see what what this you know there's a certain thing that I had to do on my uh on my desktop. But I was running out of uh memory on the desktop. And you know, this was been in the last year and a half, you know, before I got my new computer. So I started doing more on my on my uh iPad. So I found a program called Logic Pro that they just introduced a laptop version. And it streamlined a major part of my process and gave me better results, more consistent results.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:03

So don't shun technology, anything like that, keep an open mind. They open minded. Yeah. So tell our audience how can we engage with Mr. Stan Miller?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:14

Well, I have the website Stan Millerjazz.com. Nicely well done. And if you um go on the website, there'll be a pop-up where you can sign up for my newsletter, and I send it out, you know, every couple months or so. Very consistent with that. And um it has my calendar on it, so uh people can follow that. And also I have a Facebook page, Stan Miller Jazz, and um a um uh Google page. Actually, I get more activity from Google than Facebook, Stan Miller Jazz. No surprise on that. Yeah. I I'm not really fond of social media to begin with, but it's just a necessary thing. I have Instagram, I've never done anything with Instagram yet.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:04

I'll give you free consultant advice on that one from a marketing perspective because I I pulled a lot of our uh it's not United's on there, but I pulled a lot of our assets off just because I've always felt Instagram is storytelling and in the realm of public sector marketing for DeFi, there's no storytelling, you know. So, you know, am I gonna continue to have to manage all these channels and pay people to manage these channels and pump out content? That's stressful. So we just kind of, you know, we are where we need to be on that. But I want to thank you for coming on here. We we've talked about getting you on this and on this the podcast, and with this being season five, I thought no better time to get you on here. I didn't even think it was gonna be a season five. You know, some people don't know how, you know, we bootstrap, so there's no sponsors. And I was having that conversation with Mr. Harris, and um none of us do this for you know free or anything like that. I just really want to document good stories from good people. Some I know, some I don't, you know, but I'm I'm so glad that you're here and being a part of this. Thank you for the bourbon. You know, this is an official thank you for the bourbon, then we log off and then we drink some more bourbon. Like I'm just disconnecting disconnected with the audience here and listen to some music. But I do. I'm I'm I'm thankful, you know, for you for being here and I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:22

Well, also I was gonna tell you uh let me know when you're going to you know when the broadcast is gonna happen because I can uh make an announcement on my newsletter and and uh Facebook page.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:35

Definitely you'll be the first once everything gets gets cleaned up by KG. I do got to give a shout out to RD here. She is our new SoundTech. I I give everybody initials. Um doing a great job, a little nervous, but you know what? You you see the capability in people, and and I always say the sound tech is the first wave of importance, right? Because we need to have it recording, right, in a certain way. So she's doing great. But yeah, we definitely, before everything gets kind of put out, we engage back with our guests. Y'all need to be the first one to hear it. And so we do that. Okay. So, and on that note, folks, again, we don't have sponsors I said earlier, so I do my own sponsorship. If you have an idea for a podcast or want to do a podcast, and you need space or you need guidance or you need a team, so you can sit down and just do what we did and not have to worry about the hard work. You can visit www.thesound you. So it's thesoundletteru.com. Get whatever information you need, have a conversation with us, and uh we'll be you'll be well on your way. So thank you for tuning in. I greatly appreciate it. We are signing out. This episode was produced by the Sound United Podcast Studio, led by Kimberly Gonzalez. Photography and video content produced by the D5 Group. And be sure to visit our website, soundunitedpresents.com, where you can catch up on all the episodes and get some behind the scenes content. I'm Deshaun Scott. Thank you for listening.