BASSIST KYLE EASTWOOD HAS BEEN BUILDING UP AN IMPRESSIVE CAREER AS A JAZZ BASSIST. HIS MOST RECENT ALBUM, TIME PIECES, IS FILLED WITH TRIBUTES TO THE BLUE NOTE ERA OF HARD BOP, WITH TIPS OF THE BERET TO HORACE SILVER AND HERBIE HANCOCK. HIS COMPOSITIONAL SKILLS HAVE BEEN NOTED, AS FOR THE MOVIE ‘LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA,’ BUT IT IS HIS WORK WITH HIS HARD BOP BAND OF BRANDON ALLEN, QUENTIN COLLINS, ANDREW MCCORMACK AND ERNESTO SIMPSON THAT SHOWS HIS LONG TERM COMMITMENT TO MAINSTREAM JAZZ.
GROWING UP AS THE SON OF FAMED MOVIE MAN AND JAZZ FAN CLINT EASTWOOD, KYLE HAS CARVED HIS OWN NICHE, AND IT’S AN IMPRESSIVE ONE AS WELL AS AN INDIVIDUAL ONE.
HOW DID YOU FIRST GET EXPOSED TO MUSIC?
From my parents. I grew up listening to a lot of jazz around the house. My parents were both big jazz fans, so that’s what was always playing around the house. Some of the first live music that I saw were jazz concerts. I was always into a lot of different kinds of music, but jazz was what I was exposed to a lot at an early age. That was what got me interested in playing an instrument.
My parents listened to a lot of big band stuff; Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Stan Kenton. Records like that. There were a few Miles Davis records around along with Dave Brubeck. I remember really enjoying the Miles Ahead record and Dave Brubeck’s Time Out. Those are some of my earliest musical memories.
I had a few friends who were musicians, so they like jazz and helped me appreciate it and there was also a jazz band in my high school. But, I’ve always been into music that’s been before my time (laughs). I was also into the older R&B and soul music from the 50s and 60s. I’ve really liked almost any kind of music as long as it would move me. It really doesn’t matter to me what label they put on it.
WHY DID YOU PICK THE BASS?
I don’t know; maybe it chose me! I started on piano and took lessons when I was young. My dad played and he taught me a little bit. Then I learned a little bit of guitar for a film I did for my father when I was about twelve. I had to play, or at least look like I was playing on Honky Tonk Man. When I was in high school I picked up the bass started teaching myself. I took what I learned from the piano and turned it into bass lines. I had a lot of friends that were musicians, but none of them were bass players ; they always needed a bass player to play with. There were always drummers and guitar players, so I picked up the bass and got into it.
YOU ALSO TOOK LESSONS FROM BUNNY BRUNEL
I studied with him for quite awhile. I saw him with my father when I’d come down to visit my father in LA. We’d usually just drop by the local jazz club, and one time in 78-79 we went over to Donte’s in North Hollywood and Bunny was playing there with (trombonist ) Bill Watrous over there. That’s when I first saw him play and it kind of got me interested. I had never seen anyone p lay electric bass like that before. After high school I looked him up and he started giving me lessons.
THEN YOUR FIRST RECORDING WAS A TRIBUTE TO YOUR DAD
In Carnegie Hall. I was part of it. It was organized to perform music that he liked as well as music from his current films. It was very fun to play at Carnegie Hall.
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR FIRST STUDIO JOB?
After studying, I started playing in orchestras. I put down the electric bass for a few years and just started studying upright bass. I started doing sessions for orchestras. Film stuff, either for my dad’s films or for other ones. That was my introduction into doing film music.
YOU DID ONE ALBUM ‘FROM HERE TO THERE’ AND THEN HAD A 7 YEAR GAP BETWEEN RECORDINGS. WHAT CAUSED THAT TO HAPPEN?
After that record I moved to New York and put together a band over there and started touring and getting into the scene in New York. Just kind of getting out there and playing, and when you first come to New York, it’s a matter of getting your butt kicked! I went there and just played around a bunch. A had a couple different bands and was playing some different things, and we’d go to Europe and play. I focused on that more than making another album.
HAS HAVING A FAMOUS DAD BEEN MORE OF A HELP OR A HINDRANCE TO YOUR CAREER?
It’s kind of a mixed bag. It has its advantages and disadvantages, but that’s with most things. Obviously, the name can get attention sometimes, but that can be good or bad, depending on the preconceived ideas of who you are. I try to let the music speak for itself and let the people give it a listen.
CAN A GUY LIKE YOURSELF “MAKE A LIVING” TOURING AND PLAYING JAZZ ?
You can do it. I’ve been living in Europe for the better part of eight years or so. I get a lot of opportunities to play over there in a lot of great festivals. There’s a wider appreciation of jazz in Europe. I also enjoy playing soul music, so that helps as well.
YOU ALSO WRITE FOR A NUMBER OF SOUNDTRACKS, SUCH AS “LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA.” WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS AND YOUR JAZZ CAREER?
It’s a big difference. Making jazz is all about freedom in the playing and interaction between the musicians. Film music are a lot more rules that you have to follow and you have to do a lot of sitting at the computer and editing things, so it’s a totally different process. It’s also fun and challenging.
DO YOU EVER ANALYZE THE MUSIC FROM YOUR DAD’S MOVIES AND THINK “I COULD HAVE DONE IT BETTER”?
He’s had some great scores done for some of his films, especially those films that Lalo Schifrin did. Of course my favorites are the Westerns that were scored by Ennio Morricone. I don’t think I could have done any better; those were incredible scores.
ON YOUR OWN ALBUMS, YOU DON’T DO THE PREDOMINANCE OF THE COMPOSING.
(Pianist) Andrew McCormick and I do a lot of it. For the new album (Time Pieces) I wrote a bunch of little pieces and put them together for a song and then brought them into him to finish some of them. Then some other ones I just brought into the whole band and we banged around with them in rehearsals until we got what we wanted. We’ll work on them on and off for a few weeks and then finish them off as a collective effort.
YOU’VE HAD MCCORMICK AND TRUMPETER QUENTIN COLLINS TOGETHER FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS. IS IT DIFFICULT TO KEEP A BAND TOGETHER THESE DAYS?
They are really great guys, and I look for guys that want to be part of a band and part of a collective thing. They do other stuff to make a living as musicians; Quentin has another band of his own that he plays with, and Andrew has a piano trio of his own, but they like being part of the band.
THIS LAST ALBUM SEEMS TO BE A TRIBUTE TO THE VINTAGE BLUE NOTE SOUNDS OF THE 50s AND 60s, PARTICULARLY OF HORACE SILVER
I saw Horace Silver play a few times; I saw him at Ronnie Scotts in the 80s. My father took me there, and I saw him a later in LA. He was great; remembered an album of his that my father liked a lot and I really got into that one. So, I started playing (“Blowin’ the Blues Away”) in the set last year and it worked. Then, Herbie Hancock’s “Dolphin Dance” is one of my favorite compositions as well. Then, while we were in the studio making the album, Horace passed away. So, that was the reason why we dedicated the other tune (“Peace of Silver”) to him.
YOUR ALBUM ALSO INCLUDES YOUR MOVIE THEME “LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA.” IS THIS THE FIRST JAZZ ALBUMOF YOURS WHERE YOU’VE DONE ONE OF YOUR SONGS FROM A SOUNDTRACK?
Yes, it’s actually something that I’ve been playing on and off during a set with the band. It’s a scaled down version of the tune. It was music from the film that I was very proud to have worked on, and I think this version came out real well. I just kind of scaled it down for it to be a piano and bass duet.
YOU’RE ONE OF THE FEW “YOUNGER” GUYS OUT THERE PLAYING WHAT USED TO BE CALLED “MAINSTREAM” JAZZ. IS THERE A MARKET FOR IT THESE DAYS?
There are still quite a few jazz festivals in Europe, and there are a lot of great clubs there. You’ve got a wider spectrum of the audience there as well. You’ve got younger and older people there coming to hear you. They seem to appreciate our kind of music more than in America. People there aren’t as regimented into listening to only one or two styles of music as we are in the states. They are exposed to more.
ARE YOU PASSING ON THE MUSICAL LEGACY TO YOUR DAUGHER?
Yeah. She grew up hearing a lot of it. She’s a bit more into the R&B and funk side. She’s at Berklee College of Music right now.
WAS YOUR DAD PLEASED YOU PICKED JAZZ FOR A CAREER?
He loves my music, and he’s happy that I found something to do that I love. He would have been supportive of whatever I wanted to do. What I’m doing is really what he wanted to do when he was in his twenties; he wanted to be a jazz pianist.
IS THERE ANY PHILOSPHY OR RELIGIOUS BOOK THAT KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED?
Music is really my spirituality. Music is the most important thing to me; it’s what inspires me. Travelling a lot and going to other cultures and hearing their music and hearing these musicians from other countries has always been inspiring to me. I’m of that mindset that you can really incorporate anything into jazz if it’s done well.
ANY WEST COAST SHOWS COMING UP?
We’re doing the Monterrey Jazz Festival in September, and hopefully something in LA, but it’s pretty slim pickings there right now.
AS ANY CHILD OF A FAMOUS ARTIST OR ATHLETE WILL TELL YOU, EVENTUALLY YOU HAVE TO STAND ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET. ANYONE REMEMBER THE SONS OF MICKEY MANTLE OR YOGI BERRA? ONCE IN AWHILE A SON CAN IMBIBE THE LESSONS OF THE POPULAR FATHER AND CREATE HIS OWN PATH, AND THE FACT THAT HE CAN PASS THAT HERITAGE ON TO HIS OWN CHILDREN IS A LEGACY THAT GOES BACK TO SOLOMON, WHO SAID, “A RIGHTEOUS MAN LEAVES A HERITAGE FOR HIS CHILDREN’S CHILDREN.” THE LOYALTY TO AMERICA’S CLASSICAL MUSIC IS FAITHFULLY BEING PASSED ON, THE WAY ALL TRUE LEGACY’S ARE HANDLED, MORE CAUGHT THAN TAUGHT.