--:-- Ryan Hanley: One thing that grabbed me about jazz, freedom, liberty, and how I was raised and taught is that one band, one sound. To know your place, not to outshine or try to outdo one another.
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--:-- Ryan Hanley: Let's go. Yeah, make it look, make it look, make it look. The Ryan Hanley Show shares the original ideas, habits, and mindsets of world-class original thinkers you can use to produce extraordinary results in your life and business. This is The Way.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous conversation for you today with Jesse "JT Jazz" Thompson, a multidiscipline composer, pianist, keyboardist. In this episode, we relate working in a jazz band to how we operate as leaders inside of a team, how we manage the flow, and how we integrate different ideas in a kind of real-time nature. We talk about the business of music and we dissect the differences between Jesse's solo career to being part of a band, what that looks like and how you take both the kind of self-oriented nature of being a solo artist and integrate that into and how you can use those skills to be a better member, a more productive member, a more integrated member of a band.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: All of this relates back to how we operate our businesses, how we operate our life. And it is so much fun for me when we're able to bring in individuals who come from disciplines such as the music industry and take their stories, their ideas, their insights, and apply them back to how we improve our business and our life. Jesse is an exceptional guy. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I know you will too. If this is your first time here, make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you're listening or if you're watching on YouTube, if you have thoughts, comments, if you want to just give Jesse a shout out, leave that in the reviews or in the comments. If you're on YouTube, appreciate the hell out of you for listening to this show. I love you for listening to the show. Let's get on to Jesse Thompson.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Jesse, phenomenal to have you on the show, man. Excited for our conversation. What's going on?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Thank you, man. I'm blessed to be here. Thanks for having me. It's an honor.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah. So we, you know, my, I mentioned my good buddy, you know, we're friendly competitors, Mick Hunt, you were on his show, Mick Unplugged. So, you know, we got to find some space in here where we can, we can one up, one up your conversation with him. And for all the listeners at home, you guys know that Mick's a buddy of mine, and I highly encourage everyone to listen to Mick Unplugged show, too, which Jesse was on. And my first question for you is, why jazz? Like, what was it about that particular genre of music that just grabbed you and said, you know, this inspires me. This is a place that I want to put some time in.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Well, you know, first of all, it started, believe it or not, it started with gospel church because my mom was a church working pianist. And then my dad, by him being a retired professional jazz drummer, he was deeply into the church as well. So I did a lot in the gospel area there with church. But my dad, by him being a professional jazz drummer, that kind of like leaked me into that field, right? That playing field. And so we would always listen to, you know, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Richard Groove Holmes, Jimmy Smith, Charles Rowland, all these different type of LPs back then and eight tracks, believe it or not.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yeah. So as a kid, we're sitting there listening to stuff and he's having me study stuff and I just enjoyed it, as well as we had other genres in the house playing. But it was something about jazz. One thing that grabbed me about jazz, one word I can say is freedom, liberty. With jazz, you're able to go different places without maybe, for me anyway, without feeling constrained or without feeling like, oh, I got to keep it right here. You know, it allows me to express myself a little bit more. So that was one thing that really grabbed me. And then I also found out that it also involved a lot of different other types of genres, kind of like a melting pot full of ingredients. Yeah. You can trickle into jazz, whether it be some gospel, classical, you know, and then, you know, different forms, maybe some rock, little R&B, whatever. So I really like jazz, and I like the way that it allows me to express myself. So it really grabbed me.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Well, it's the original American art form. I mean, we invented the genre. I mean, that's one of the things that I love about it. And I love, you know, the other thing I love about jazz and I, so, you know, I am, I have this enormous and wide ranging appreciation for music yet. I am one of the least musically inclined humans.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: You don't sing or nothing? You don't play anything?
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I mean, I sing, but not well. I have a guitar that I have tried to learn how to play many times and just never seem to make it make the sounds. But I have this appreciation for it. And one of the things that has always, and I enjoy jazz, I won't say that I have as deep a knowledge as I wish I did. but I've, I've always been enamored by the blues and particularly the deep South blues. I love it. And, um, uh, I, I fell in love with like Taj Mahal and, and, and some of these other guys and, and all of them come back to being inspired by and spent spending time in jazz in some way, shape or form. And, you know, I guess my, I'm going to ask you a bunch of esoteric questions. I'm just so interested in this and your creativity, like, you know, how, when you're taking in, say, another genre, like maybe you hear a blues riff that someone plays, you know, it feels to me like the beauty of jazz is that it allows you to have this form and then pull in these other forms as they fit and as you're inspired to do so. And that's a very unique quality. Is that, am I describing that properly?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yeah, no, yeah, you're right on it. You know, with jazz, like you said, you can pull different pieces, right, from different other elements, if you will, music elements, and you can really make it work. So, for example, like the different types of instruments that are out there, you know, I mean, of course we have the piano, but then we have different type of woodwind instruments that we can incorporate in there. And it's almost, it's really like orchestration, right? We can orchestrate different things to make it work, to make it have our freedom of expression musically. And, you know, plus we can add in the different syncopated rhythms, which is a lot of fun. Mixed meters, then stuff is like, wow, that it doesn't make sense, but it does, you know. And so it's just, yeah, you're right. It's it's allows you to pull in different things and just do things created to, you know, very in a creative form and have fun with it, too.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah, I was in New Orleans a few years ago. And, you know, one of my favorite things to do after probably having a few too many cocktails is finding like the most like back room jazz, you know, live jazz that I can find. I try to stay off. I mean, there's there's great stuff on Bourbon Street, but, man, you get some really cool stuff. If you you ask the right person, you know, that looks like they've been there for a while. They can usually point you in a good direction. So I did that and went with a couple of friends and we sat down and we're listening. And what someone like me, who is not musically inclined, appreciates but struggles to understand is how a group of musicians in a jazz band can play off each other. Like as much as you can, I would love for you just to explain how you guys work off of each other because you'll hear, say, the pianist will, bam, it goes off and he's doing his thing. And you can tell he's got the lead and everyone's just kind of following him. And then some moment that I can't understand, but obviously the band can, the trumpeteer will take over or then the saxophonist. And then now the guitar will take over. And then the pattern, it's not like a pattern. And then then maybe it'll bounce back over to the Trump. And you're like, it's brilliant. I mean, you you you appreciate it so much, but I have no understanding of how you're able to do that.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yeah. So, you know, you say the key word band and and how I was raised and taught is that one band, one sound, meaning to to know your place, not to outshine or try to outdo one another. There's a time to step out. There's a time to step back. And one way of making sure that that's done creatively is where, you know, like you were saying, we're bouncing off one another. It's a form of communication. And one word I love to use is called connection, right? So we're connected. So musically, we can feed off of one another. We communicate. And it's just sometimes it's indescribable because it's such a vibe that, you know.
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--:-- Jesse Thompson: If it's a tune, let's say it's a tune I'm leading off playing piano. I got bass, guitar, you know, and drums and sax, something like that. and so I may be leading it off and then it's like everyone knows their place so maybe the saxophonist will come up and do a little solo riff off or whatever and then it goes off, pan off to whoever else and then it may be like a free pool as I call it and that's when you really get the vibe going off of each other. It's just amazing it's really just another form of communication and being able to bounce off of one another is so key and and listening you know part of really listening is key too so i mean it's it's it's a lot of fun and uh it allows you to to know one another even more and you know the funny thing about with music is it's it like i tell people it's a universal language it's a way of bringing people together so i may not know you from adam or from whenever but if we sit down and we're playing something together and this has happened quite a bit automatically we connect it's like music is that nucleus it just attracts and it just make things cohesive and it makes it work and it's it's amazing uh it's it's amazing to me
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah, I joke all the time that answer the question but no no you definitely did. So I live where I live, the greatest horse racing track in the entire world, Saratoga, is in you know for anyone who lives in Kentucky, Churchill Downs is a dog track compared to Saratoga now. No, I just joke but I make this joke all the time that there are only two places that you can see a woman dressed to the nines in worth of clothes sitting next to a guy with a pit wife beater that he owned for 20 years. And that the horse track and a really good live music performance. Like that's the only two places, right? Like it doesn't matter where you're from, what you believe in, you know, the horse track and a live music performance, everybody's just there to appreciate and share and feel the vibe and the energy and everything. It's so wonderful.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So, you know, another thing I love about conversations like this with people like yourself is that you could replace everything you just said with a business context, with a sports team or a community group context or a not-for-profit or any type of thing. That connection, listening, knowing where you fit in, understanding when to take the lead. You know what was that like in like when COVID hit and you guys weren't able to play together? Did you feel that loss of connection? What was that like for you?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yeah, so when COVID hit at that time, that was before that was before I decided to become a solo artist so I was playing with a lot of different other artists and different bands you know like Eric Darius, Nick Coleone before he passed, you know, Jeff Koshua out there, Renee, just to name a few. And so when that happened, I actually had a show that was scheduled to play with Eric Darius. And it was like, yeah, this show was canceled. I'm like, okay, canceled. All right. And then the next one, the next one, the next one. And it just, it was like, oh, wow. And then that's when the announcement came about, you know, COVID. So at that moment, everything was at a standstill. at that time I was still working a nine to five. So I really wasn't impacted as much as a lot of my other fellow musicians and artists were. So I was fortunate, but however, you know, it still was a major impact. It was just like a ghost town.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: So at that moment, that's when I was led, you know, it was like, I was just telling me, and I was saying, I got to do something that's like make you happy, make people inspired, to kind of get their mind off of this craziness for now. So that's when my first single "Weekend Groove," that's how it was created. And it was just about energy, about promoting good stuff, taking people to another realm and positivity. So during that time, that allowed me to become more involved with doing things as an artist and doing more online things.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: So the other thing is, although it was a catastrophe, it wound up birthing or illuminating virtual connection for artists and musicians. So it allowed us to become more interactively involved remotely and virtually. So at that moment, it was like, hey, I need to add this base. Can you add this baseline? Yeah, send it to me. Right. Email it to them or whatever. They do it. They send it back. We were still able to create and get things done, which was really, really beneficial without leaving our homes, without paying for a plane ticket or, you know, or a transportation company. Right. So that really allowed us to really grow and to do things that way.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Did you see was the creative process different? Did you see any new aspects of creativity coming out of the limitations of not being able to sit in the same room and create together?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: I think it brought about another level of boldness of being able to do something that you always wanted to do without feeling restricted. And it also allows you to have more versatility and diversity in dealing with collaboration. Right? Because there are some people who may not have been available, but guess what? Hey, Ryan's available. I'm going to hit up Ryan. Ryan said he'll love to do it. I'll have Ryan do this part, right? And then it allowed us to grow. So it also brought, to me, it helped strengthen relationships a lot. So although I may not have been able to hang out with whomever, by us doing the things together as a collaboration, it really strengthened the relationship and built it even more.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The availability and access probably because everyone's looking for something for some place to play and and contribute and work on projects. I watched Pink Floyd, probably most people do like that genre.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Oh, yeah. Pink Floyd.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: I was watching the "Dark Side of the Moon" documentary and what I found... Okay, so in "Dark Side of the Moon," the actual song, there's that saxophone part that is just, you know, it's like you're going through this song and the buildup and they're changing keys and I'm going to butcher some of this. They go from like a four tempo to an eight or an eight to a four or something, which is very unique for rock and roll. And then this saxophone hits, right? And it's like this epic saxophone. You hear it, you know exactly what song it is, exactly what band it is. The guy that did that solo for that song was like the sixth guy they called. The guy they wanted wasn't available. And they started going down this list and they just got to the next guy who could come into the studio. And you think about that and you're like, wow, would that song be different? Would it have sounded different? Would it be as epic if this particular individual who they had no intention of being on the record was just available, showed up and played it the way he played it. And now it's this epic, you know, one of the greatest albums ever created, probably. Amazing. And you're just like, man, being available, being open, your word networking, like these are core aspects for everything, not just a business context where it tends to sit. It's like, man, in your world, just people knowing that, hey, man, if I need a track on the piano, someone who's really going to think about it and get me something back, man, Jesse's there. I can just send this over to him. He's there. He's available. We can get this done. That's a wonderful thing.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yeah, yeah, it is. It's a great thing. And then it also, like you said, it's networking and collaboration and you learn off of one another. And it's like another classroom model. I mean, you know, I was to say it, you know, you learn off of each other and you learn some things to do what not to do. And you also learn some new techniques and skills, which is really cool.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: So, oh, yeah, it's I think the COVID thing. I hate to use the term blessing and a cursing, but I think it was a good lesson that helped us all to become stronger and to persevere through things and to bring us all together, unify us more and to let things go. You know what I mean? And just say, hey, you know what, we're human. And unfortunately, that experience with COVID, it kind of dehumanized us as far as the sensitive, emotional touch type of feel. So that's why now it's, you know, things are coming back, which is good. But you have some people who are still reserved in shaking hands, giving a hug, because of that. And really, that's what we were born to do. We were born to interact with one another. We're born to feel one another emotionally and say, hey, you know what, can I do to help you out? Oh, this person's going through something or hey, I'm so glad to see you. Uplift one another is so key. And to have that kind of shut down for what, two years or three years or whatever, it's pretty tough on us. It's like, wow, what just happened? But fortunately, things are starting to come back and we're able to go out more and do more things together as a human culture, which is really good.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Talk to me a little bit about the experience of creating your first solo single and then an entire album. You created, you ended up being an entire album. Like, what was that like having never gone through it before? Did it feel like a grind of filling up the tracks or were you just, was it just pure inspiration? Having never created something like that before, what is that process like?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: I had already had libraries of tunes that I just didn't do anything with and didn't know what to do. But this project, so the single "Weekend Groove" was definitely something that was inspired by what was going on, what we're going through. To take some people, get their minds off of the stuff and just say, hey, let's do something that helps to promote a good time. You know, of us going out, hanging out, doing whatever. So that was definitely an inspiration and then the rest of the songs on the album were also inspirations. I think there was maybe only one song on there that I had in the library but the rest of them were really all fresh.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: So to go through that as an artist was kind of different for me at first because I was so used to being the guy behind the scenes or on the sideline and it's like, wait a minute, all of a sudden now you're the quarterback in football, right? It's like, oh man, you're the quarterback. But it was fun. And it also showed something about myself as a leader and as a people person and as someone who loves to orchestrate and put things together. Because on my project, I've pretty much collaborated with almost, I think every song was a collaboration with someone. And I love doing that because to me, I feel like, Ryan, we're in this together and it allows us to help one another in so many different ways.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: And so, going through that process was different, but it was fun. And I did have a couple of challenges dealing with limited technology or with the instrument, the virtual instruments. But I was able to overcome it and then work with other people who were able to help me out. So that worked out really good. But the number one thing for that, I think the cause for that was money. Right. The finances as an indie artist can be financially challenging at times. But when you have the love of the people who love music and who support you, that's a blessing within itself. So that goes a long way. But yeah, that experience doing my own project, it definitely wasn't anything just to fill up space. It was something to say, hey, this is my first coming out, my little inauguration of who I am, the man behind the keys. Welcome.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah, yeah. What does the like like how do you get that out into the market? What is the process? How do you market your own album? What does that even look like, especially when you're an indie artist?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yeah, yeah. So internet is really good. You deal with different distribution companies. I don't know if I'm allowed to name some, but there's some distribution companies out there you can look up and research. As well as having social media is so key in having that presence and helping you out and having a website and definitely word of mouth. But getting that out there marketing-wise, it can be a little bit challenging depending on what your funds are like. But thankfully, we have different tools online now with different social media outlets that can help us do ads, can help us do stories, can help us do video clips, that sort of thing, which is really good. But once you land into a distribution, whoever that might be, they all hit all of the major stores, online stores. So that's key.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: You can still, I still get CDs printed today and USBs because a lot of people still want something tangible. I am thinking about doing a vinyl of some sort because I love vinyl. And vinyls are still hot over in the UK. I mean, they never left. And so are cassette tapes.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Really?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: I mean, yeah, cassettes are even coming back more because you can put more on a cassette tape. And it has that little nostalgic type of organic vibe, right? So it's really a cool thing. But yeah, it's amazing how things are like revolving back to what they used to be.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: So, I mean, but it's also good for us artists because streaming is okay. It gets you a presence, but you get better pay when someone actually purchases the actual material. That makes sense. So that helps out a lot.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah. Obviously, my kids being 10 and 8, they've grown up with Spotify and they've built their own Spotify playlists and they add songs to it and all this kind of stuff.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yep.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: But I was explaining to them the other day about how we used to make mixes when I was growing up in the 80s. I was like, you used to sit by the radio with a cassette tape and you're waiting for, trying to figure out what the song was as the host is bringing it in and then you'd press the button real quick and every song had like was kind of cut off at the front, kind of cut off at the end and you'd always have the DJ's voice on it in between songs. I was like, and then you'd have these mixtapes that you created. And hopefully one of your friends had one of the dual cassette players that you could then transfer the mixtape and copy. I was trying to explain that and they're looking at me like, what are you talking about? That sounds awful. I can just press my finger on this little piece of glass here and play any song that I want.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: It's funny. But see, that's what made our generation so unique and able to do multiple things at once and able to look forward to building something with our hands, because we were mixing this, putting this here, putting that there and flipping this. And then, like you said, I think it was a part of engineering. It was another level of engineering. Right. I mean, we're able to listen to the radio. You got a cassette tape. You hit record. You record that. And then you try to hit pause or stop it before the radio commercial comes on. And then the next song comes on. You hit that. And then, like you said, you make a mixtape. And we used to splice our own stuff back in the day. And it was a lot of fun. And it kept your mind going and thinking, what can you do next? Or how can you do it differently? So it was really cool. It may seem like busy work to our generation today, but man, in our day, that was the way to do it.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Sure. That was fun.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: So we didn't have...
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So when I was growing up, which kind of sucks, I loved hip hop, even from the early, early stuff. But obviously the 90s hip hop is epic. And I remember someone had a cousin who lived in New York City. So they had Hot 97 and they got "Juicy" from Notorious B.I.G. on their cassette tape and then dubbed, copied it and got it to my friend. And he walks into, I remember I was like, I can't remember what grade I was in. I don't even think it was high school. It was like middle school or whatever. And he walks in with this cassette tape over his head going, "I got Big on cassette!" Like you would think he was the king. Like people just swarmed him. Everyone wanted to, "Hey, can I get a copy of that?"
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Like, because he had this one song on this cassette tape that his buddy had dubbed off Hot 97. And it's just like those experiences, they'll just never understand what it means to, you know, this song exists, you've heard of it, but like, you can't get on the radio where you live. And oh my God, it's amazing.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: They were talking shit one day. And I have a, my dad gave me his record collection. And then I've kind of built my own over time. I remember one day they were talking, they always like to bust my chops like I'm old and I don't understand. I was like, all right, I'm going to play you.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: So parenting decisions aside, I decided to introduce my kids to what I would consider good music very early. The first band that I introduced them to, really the first three bands, were Pink Floyd, Taj Mahal, and Wu-Tang. So those are the first three sets that I went through. I wanted blues, and I love Taj, so I went with Taj Mahal, and then Pink Floyd for rock, and then Wu-Tang for hip-hop.
--:-- So they're talking shit one day, and I said, okay, put your favorite Wu-Tang song on Spotify, play it right now. So they play it, and you know, whatever, it's great. And then they didn't know that I had Wu-Tang vinyls. So I go and I put the gold Wu-Tang Forever on vinyl, and I turn it up, and I hit play. And they're like, "Holy shit." Literally, my 10 year old, that's what he said. And again, I'm a single dad, so I let my boys swear a little bit. My 10 year old goes, he was nine at the time, he goes, "Holy shit, that sounds so much better."
--:-- And I was like, "What have I been telling you?" I was like, this is the closest that you get to being with the artist. And then I played him all the rest. I was like, "Bohemian Rhapsody," you haven't heard it until you've heard it on vinyl. You haven't heard these guys. You haven't heard Muddy Waters until you've heard them on vinyl. Unless it's in person, you have not heard them until you've heard them on vinyl. It's just so much different.
--:-- Plus it's cool. And they like flipping the albums and they think that's cool too. They get bored of it after a little while, but they like that too. So man, it's a cool look. I mean, that's what's going on now with the vinyls. You capture the true authentic sound. Analog, you know, it's like that sine wave. You're getting everything on the sine wave, on the rise and fall. Digital is super clean, but digital is square. So what you normally get in that curve has been squared off by ones and zeros.
--:-- That's why I love tube mics and tube amps and some of the tube keyboards. Definitely, well behind me is a B3 organ, right? Tube. I love that because it has that warm, sensitive feeling. It bends that sound in a certain way. It's just great. So you get that on the vinyl, and I love it.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: I was watching a documentary on rock and roll in general, and there was a section on amps. I don't remember the lead, if I told you the band name you would know it, but I can't remember it. It doesn't matter. The lead singer, lead guitarist, was talking in this documentary, and the question was really, "Why does music sound different today?" One of the things that he said was, "We do not make amps the way that they used to be made." He said, "I don't even know if we can make them the same way. I don't know that the tech, like the manufacturers are set up to even do it."
--:-- He now doesn't do big shows anymore. He only does small shows. And he brings his own amp gear with him because he's got all these old sixties and seventies amps. He's like, "Because I don't like the sound out of the new amps." And I was like, that's wild to me. It makes sense, but it's wild that the era that you're producing music in is not just the culture or whatever in the moment, which obviously impacts it, but literally the technology available to you at the time impacts what you're able to create so much as well.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Absolutely. The technology and then the materials. The manufacturers may not even have access to some of those different types of materials that we used to have back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. Because you gotta remember, now we're living in an age where they're trying to cut down on certain metals, they want certain plastic things that are cheaper to make and maybe easier to break. So it's a total different mindset now. People want to make things super fast, fast, fast. It's about quantity versus quality. So they want to get a huge stuff rushed out for production.
--:-- I don't even know if we really have the true capability of recreating what we did back then because the times are different, the material, the availability of materials are totally different. Processing is different now. So I get where they're coming from. There are some things that are still somewhat available, but it's kind of like one of these historical classic cars, a collector's item. They really can't get a lot of the original parts anymore. They come close and it looks good, but it may not be the actual original part that it was designed for from back in the day. So it's kind of like that with the music and material and speakers and instruments and everything. That's totally different.
--:-- So what was it like? You spent this period of time where you're forced to create on your own and you do your own solo album. And now you're starting to play again in groups and bands. Did your style change at all? Did anything change going from having that period of solo time to coming back in and working with a group again?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Yeah, it changed a little bit. When working with groups, there's a certain style or puzzle piece that has to fit for that group. Even if you're backing up another artist, there's a certain style you have to have because you're accompanying the artist or the lead of that group. The genres may be very similar, but the actual seasoning of that genre is different.
--:-- With me, with what I do, my household had everything from gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, the Sugar Hill hip hop stuff. All that stuff was going on in my house. Plus my brother who played keys for one of Dayton's hottest groups like Slave, and then he went on to play for Parliament and stuff like that. So I'm getting all these different sounds in my head. Those things that I have in my head, I like to somehow put them out as a solo artist. I may not sound exactly like those things I just named, but it's a part of me and it's a part of what I want to express. That's where the seasoning is different on that genre for me versus me playing with someone else.
--:-- So it was different, and it's still different. Even today when I get called to play with other artists as an MD or whatever, I have to make sure that I adapt to their sound and to what they want. That's their brand. I can't go up there like, "Oh, no, I'm Jesse. I'm JT. I'm doing my way." No, no, no. For one, you're out of order. For two, you're not being a team member or band member. For three, that's not a leader. That's just not possible.
--:-- So what you do is you make sure that you understand who you're playing for and understand their concept, their brand, their style, and do everything that you're supposed to do to help keep that and even polish it even more. You're helping them, and at the same time it's helping you as well because it's helping you to be more versatile. Also, it's a good look because they say, "Hey, if we're on keyboards, we got Jesse JT Jazz Thompson, who has a project out." Some people may not have heard of me. "Oh, he does. Okay, cool." So it goes a long way. It's kind of a two-way street.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: That's phenomenal. I appreciate this conversation so much. I just have a couple more questions. Answer however you want. I'm just intrigued. So many rich artists, and I don't mean rich in wealth, I mean rich in music, have come out of gospel. Why do you think that is?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: You know what, I hate to sound biased, but go ahead. When you go through different hardships and you realize there is a spiritual connection, and you realize that within that connection you're feeling something, there's a spirit there. First of all, in music, if I played a C7 chord right now, it doesn't matter if it's a C7 chord in jazz, classical, blues, or gospel. The question is, what is the intent behind the C7? What kind of spirit am I pushing behind that C7? Am I pushing something that's telling people to go crazy and bang their heads on the wall? Or am I pushing something that says, "Hey, peace, love, harmony, uplifting, positivity"? So there is a spiritual connection regardless.
--:-- A lot of musicians and artists were born and raised in a church and started there. I also think it has a lot to do with our culture. It has a lot to do with hardships, struggles, overcoming, blessings, things that just impacted people so closely. Because of that connection, they're able to really elaborate.
--:-- There's also a thing where when you play in the church, it's kind of like your first audition. You got some people in the church that may say, "Oh yeah, that's okay baby, you did a good job, you do better next time." And although you're like, "I really sucked," it encourages you to go ahead and keep going. Eventually, boom, you get there.
--:-- I think it has a lot to do with a spiritual connection and a lot to do with the fact that when you're in there, you're able to expose yourself musically in an emotional kind of way that is received in all areas. It also helps you and encourages you to keep going. At that moment, you may connect with other musicians or other singers in there, and then it just becomes harmonious, and it gets greater and greater.
--:-- Now, as far as when musicians leave the church and never come back, or if they're still there partially, that's some kind of personal thing. A lot of times it may be because they want to do something outside, something different. They may feel like they're being restricted from expressing something differently. Oftentimes they may feel like, "I need to say something else," but because of the walls or the borders that are put up or the standards that are in place, they're not able to.
--:-- I think it has a lot to do with those variations. It's really amazing. I see young kids that are five and six years old sitting on a Hammond B3 organ, killing it on the piano, on drums, on bass. And it's like, wow. I think church also gives you the opportunity to feel invited and to be able to feel a part. You may be clunking along, but eventually if you keep at it, something will come out of it.
--:-- I have a friend of mine that was part of a group of kids when they were growing up. They had their trumpets and their congas or bongos, and they would sit on the front pew and just make noises while the real musicians are playing during services. But now these guys are phenomenal. They're playing all over the place. One of them is Sean Jones. He's one of the best trumpet players out there. He's played with Marcus Miller, he played with Wynton Marsalis Orchestra. He was one of the ones that sat on the front pew. And now he's a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, a music conservatory. You just never know. I think it's a way of just encouraging. So I love that.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Yeah. I'd like to close actually with a personal anecdote that you shared before we went live. I'm just interested. I now kind of can see how it all ties together. But you said you recently sponsored a student and that it was an experience that you found tremendous joy in and that you want to expand as part of your life. I'd love to know what maybe the impetus was to take on something like that because not many people are willing to do that, and it's a wonderful thing. And maybe how that fed your soul.
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Good question. Yeah, man. I was blessed to be able to mentor the student. For one, they're getting rid of music from schools. They're trying to close the programs out there. They're firing the music teachers or making music teachers become teachers of some other subject. And music is everywhere. Sound is everywhere. Frequencies are everywhere. Even for those who are deaf, they can go off of the frequencies or they can just feel the vibes. Getting rid of music is like saying we're getting rid of a language to me. And this is a universal language.
--:-- There are a lot of students. For myself, when I was coming up in Dayton, music was one of the things that helped save my life. It kept me off of the streets. It kept me from being involved in trouble, gangs, and stuff like that. It kept me away from maybe even being beat up by gangs. Those times back then helped me. And I want to restore and to extend those times for today and for tomorrow.
--:-- I've noticed where there are a lot of students who are discouraged in school and they're discouraged in doing anything like music. I was very blessed and fortunate to team up with the Childwood Madison City Schools and the Virtual Academy there around the country, which is right there by my home city in Dayton. We were able to partner and we came up with a mentoring program. I was able to mentor a student. They were having some difficulties in school, some challenges academically.
--:-- What we want to do is make sure that we are there for the students to help them with tutoring, with learning, for academic stuff, any financial assistance that is needed for the school program. Because it costs to graduate. You got to pay for your robe. You got to pay for the graduation fee. You got to pay for this fee. And some families just are not in a financial position to do that. So my goal, our goal, is to be able to help out with that as much as possible.
--:-- Being able to do that, man, it really allowed me to see things on a whole new different level, a different platform for our kids, our youth. That's what it's all about. One of my purposes here on earth is to help, and especially help young people. I love helping young people. I love talking to them, doing clinics. And I also love this mentorship program that we just launched. It's really inspiring to me. Hopefully it's inspiring to others.
--:-- What we want to do is be able to get as many students as possible to impact their lives and their family lives. And to let them know that it's okay. You're not alone. Don't stop. Don't quit. You may have to pause, and pausing is okay. That's allowed. But don't quit. Don't hit the stop button. You're allowed to pause, but you cannot stop. You got to keep going. As long as we can get that message into the kids and help them understand that they are the future, they are tomorrow, that they can do it and to stay positive, then I think we're going to be on the right track.
--:-- That was a good drive for me in getting this thing going, to be able to reach out to students and just be an impact to them and help them out as much as possible. If we're not helping one another out, man, I don't know, what are we really doing? That's the question. If I'm not able to inspire, what am I here for? So I'm right there with you. I love it. I absolutely love it.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: This has been such a pleasure. I am so glad that we had a chance to hang out. So you have your album. We'll make sure that's all linked up in the show notes and everyone can check that out. I know you're working on a new single that's going to be coming out soon. Where can people maybe get on a waiting list for that, get more of what you do, maybe buy your album? Where do you want to send them?
--:-- Jesse Thompson: Absolutely. They can go to my website, jtjazz.com. I'm on social media as well. Facebook is JTJazz. I also have a fan club, so you can go out there and sign up and we'll get you all the secrets and all the behind-the-scenes stuff that you can get as well. I'm on Instagram as well. But to buy my product and to get autographed copies, and I'm sending different stuff in addition to what they buy as a thank you gift, just go to jtjazz.com. Sign up there on the email list, and I look forward to seeing you all there. Appreciate you so much, man. Thank you.
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Let's go. Make it look easy.
--:-- [Outro music fades in]
--:-- Ryan Hanley: Thank you for listening to the Ryan Hanley Show. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts.
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