As you can see from the index below, George covered a lot of ground. As a great pianist and composer, George is a wealth of knowledge on a variety of musical topics, not the least of which comes from the long line of great musicians he’s played with over his long career including Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, and so many more.
2:00 The “flavor” George places on the music he plays of others
4:00 How has his playing evolved?
8:00 Discovering your musical voice
11:30 Moment when George discovered his musical voice?
13:45 Herbie Hancock as a model for impressionistic playing
17:20 Contrasting impressionistic from realism in music
19:00 Influence of classical music on his playing
23:30 Jazz influenced by 20th century composers
25:10 George’s biggest influence
26:00 His reaction to first hearing McCoy
29:33 The lesson from Dexter on the importance of knowing lyrics
33:30 Dexter’s sense of time
38:00 Talking about Lewis Nash
40:50 What clicked for George when hearing the Art Ensemble of Chicago
43:15 Advice on how to comp well
47:30 Giving the bass player support from the piano comping
48:30 Which horn player did you have the most harmonic freedom with?
49:40 What did you learn most from Max Roach?
51:30 His ideal drummer
53:10 His ideal bass player
55:045 His life as a learning experience
57:15 George’s writing process
1:09:45 Discussion of Richie’s book, The Lineage of Modern Jazz Piano
1:13 Monk’s influence as a piano player versus his writing
1:14:40 What George is doing during the lockdown
1:18:15 Advice for young players
1:24:20 If George was the Tzar of Jazz, what would he do?
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