In honor of wrapping up a successful first round of auditions for the Monday Night Band this week, we thought we'd shed a little light on the musicians that made up the band in our inaugural season. Today we feature
Robert Kennedy. We interviewed Kennedy to get an in-depth recall of his experience with the first session of the Monday Night Band (MNB).
Meet Robert Kennedy!
Question: When did you start playing jazz? Why?
Robert Kennedy: In my late teens and early 20s I had been playing classical, pop, and rock for years and I felt stuck in a rut, having a hard time growing my musical vocabulary. I noticed the players who seemed to have much richer vocabularies than mine had all studied jazz, so it seemed clear I should study jazz, too. I tried listening to jazz records recommended by friends, but the struggle to appreciate them was too much for me. I liked some fusion but I just couldn't develop a taste nor an emotional appreciation for what I was hearing in jazz.
Finally when I came to the Bay Area for grad school -- this was in 1988 -- I signed up for
Jim Nadel's jazz theory class at Stanford not for the music theory nor the ear training but because I had heard, rightly, it turned out, that its weekly listening assignments were killer. At the same time I auditioned for the Stanford Jazz Band.
Bill Bell was directing the band at the time and he told me I was in, but only if I would get some private instruction to catch up on the jazz idiom. One option he offered was for me to be his private student at a very low rate that I now realize was an incredible deal. Luckily for me, I took him up on it. My other good fortune, as I've already mentioned, was that
Jim Nadel's listening assignments were masterfully laid out, starting with music that was at once accessible and very substantial (like Kind of Blue) and branching out from there in many directions. Finally, with all that help, I was able to begin understanding and appreciating jazz at an emotional level that would motivate me to work at learning to play it.
Q: Who do you look up to as an artist?
RK: What an incredibly long list this would be! I have no idea how to answer, except to list a few of the myriad players that I try explicitly to steal from whenever I can: Larry Goldings, George Cables, Tony Monaco, Clifford Brown, Hank Mobley, Hampton Hawes, and many, many more.
Q: What inspires you? What was it like to work with Adam Theis?
RK: Surprises that stay within the idiom, striking just the right balance between the expected and the unexpected. Being a small part of something really big. Feeling relaxed on the bandstand and knowing I'm helping make a good noise. Being part of a tight rhythm section. Seeing and hearing truly great players. Meeting and hearing great players who are under-appreciated. Seeing time and again how much more music is out there than I ever could have imagined.
Working with Adam is a pleasure. He brings in great arrangements, he's personable, he gives praise whenever he can and gives criticism -- always gentle and constructive -- most of the times it's needed.
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