THE LIFE OF A TENOR SAXIST IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, PARTICULARLY IN THIS TIME OF DRACONION LOCKDOWNS DUE TO THE COVID 19 DISEASE.
THE FIRST CHALLENGE ANY SAX PLAYER HAS IS TO CARRY THE GIANT TORCH PASSED ON BY THE LIKES OF COLEMAN HAWKINS, LESTER YOUNG, SONNY ROLLINS AND JOHN COLTRANE, JUST TO NAME A FEW. HOW CAN ONE NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY THESE FOUNDING FATHERS, AND WONDER IF HE OR SHE HAS ANYTHING ORIGINAL AND CREATIVE TO CONTRIBUTE?
SECONDLY, HOW DOES A SAXIST FIT IN TO A MUSICAL WORLD THAT IS NOW DOMINATED BY GUITARISTS? DURING THE HEYDAY OF JAZZ, THE TENOR SAX WAS THE COCK OF THE WALK, EVEN UP THROUGH THE EARLY DAYS OF R&B AND ROCK. THINK “ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK” WITH IT’S CLASSIC SOLO.
BOB REYNOLDS HAS BALANCED HIS CAREER AS A SIDEMAN FOR THE BLUES ROCKER JOHN MAYER, AND THEN TEAMING WITH THE SUCCESSFUL JAZZ-JAM BAND SNARKY PUPPY. ON HIS OWN, HE’S RELEASED A HANDFUL OF IMPRESSIVE ALBUMS OF HIS OWN MATERIAL, AND WHEN NOT ON TOUR, HE’S A REGULAR IN HIS HOME TOWM LOS ANGELES, CREATING SOULFUL MOODS WITH HIS OWN BAND AT THE BAKED POTATO.
RECENTLY, REYNOLDS HAS RELEASED A SERIES OF EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS, SOME OF THEM TEAMED WITH FELLOW TENORIST CHRIS POTTER. THE DISCUSSIONS HAVE RANGED FROM CREATING YOUR OWN SOUND TO DEVELOPING A VOCABULARY WITH THE STANDARDS. HE’S BACK IN CONCERT CIRCULATION AS WELL, PERFORMING AT THE RECENTLY RE-OPENED BAKED POTATO MAY 6 WITH MUSIC GIVING TRIBUTE TO THE TENOR SAX ICON HANK MOBLEY.
BOB GRACIOSLY SHARED SOME OF HIS TIME TO DISCUSS HIS MUSICAL AND LIFE’S WORLD VIEW, BALANCING PERSONAL AND MUSICAL LIFE AS DEFTLY AS AN 18 BAR SOLO.
HOW DOES A MUSICIAN BALANCE A CAREER OF TRAVEL AND STUDIO WORK WITH A FAMILY LIFE?
I’ll start by saying that I don’t feel that I do it very well, or at least as well I can.
It ebbs and flows for me. I try to not have long stretches, so that I’m not gone for a month at a time, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
Last year it happened at least twice where I was gone for a month or so at a clip, which is challenging. Two weeks is more of my comfort zone.
One time I came home on a Monday night from something, and my four-year-old was super-excited until I revealed that I was leaving the next morning. I then come back from that and he goes, “Yeah! You’re back!” but I have to tell him “Yes, but I’m going to Europe tomorrow.” That’s challenging.
The upside is that when I am home I do everything I can to focus it all around them for breakfast, dinner and going to the park.
Being gone is one thing, but leaving the other person alone with it is a whole different thing. I’m amazingly blessed to have such a great wife. It’s definitely a team effort.
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“I had no interest in taking formal lessons; I was just interested in making music”
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YOU GOT INTO JAZZ NOT THROUGH ALBUMS, BUT THROUGH MOVIES. WHAT HAPPENED? DID YOU HEAR PLAS JOHNSON PLAY “THE PINK PANTHER THEME”?
Jazz came as an accidental byproduct; it was never jazz in movies, but the actual movie scores.
I grew up watching a lot of those classic John Williams/Steven Spielberg collaboration, and I was inspired by the effect that music had on the story telling, in a sort of visceral way. So, it didn’t have to do with the saxophone or jazz, it was just the music paired with visuals that had a strong effect on me.
Because of that, I was drawn to different sides of movies. I first thought I might want to go the path of a director like Spielberg. That caused me to figure out how to make music for myself, because I had some home recording equipment like a camera and an editing machine.
I was in that world a little bit, doing acting and local commercials, mostly to buy surfboards and more equipment (laughs). But when I was on the set, I just wanted to hang around the cameramen, so music was just a line item of things that I was trying to align myself with.
So, I would sit at my grandfather’s piano…and he played things like Frank Sinatra’s Great American Songbook. I had no interest in taking formal lessons; I was just interested in making music, so I would sometimes turn the TV on, put it on “Mute” and just sit at the piano and play to figure out how music created and affected the emotions.
I was in Jr. High and for electives I had three choices: Home Economics, Wood Shop and Band. I chose Band, but the instrument didn’t really matter to me; I just wanted to learn how to write my own music.
They passed around all these different instruments, and through a series of events my mom was talking to my neighbor, who had a saxophone lying around, so that’s how I got my first saxophone!
Because I was motivated not to play the saxophone but to write my own music, I felt I had to learn to play this thing as fast as possible. so that I could write my music.
I was really naïve in a wonderful way. I thought “A couple weekends of this and I’ll be producing music!”
But once I got my hands on the saxophone and started tinkering with it, it led to what I now do. I was coming to music from an improvised way since the beginning. I had no skills in reading music; it all came from trying to externalize sounds that I was hearing internally. I had music inside that was trying to come out, and I was just looking for a way to facilitate that.
That predisposed me to making up my own music as opposed to reading other peoples’ music. I struggled in Band when I had to sit down and play the Concert Band part on alto sax. It didn’t interest me at all, so I would just use my ear to make up my own parts, until the Band Director would stop and say “What’s going on here? I’m hearing something that’s not in the score.” I would say, “That was me” and I’d get demoted. (laughs)
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“I would just use my ear to make up my own parts, until the Band Director would stop and say “What’s going on here? I’m hearing something that’s not in the score.” I would say, “That was me” and I’d get demoted”
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WAS THIS PART OF YOUR JAZZ EDUCATION?
This was all years before I heard the “J” word.
A friend in band with me grew up with classical piano lessons, and he also could play on the alto sax whatever you put in front of him. But, as soon as you turned the stand around or removed the music, he had nothing. You could say “Play something” and he’d say “Put some music in front of me”. I’ve always held on to that as an incredibly stark example of the two different ways of coming at music. I couldn’t read anything, but could play all day with an endless stream of ideas, and totally vice versa for the guy that I sat next to in band
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A friend in band with me grew up with classical piano lessons, and he also could play on the alto sax whatever you put in front of him. But, as soon as you turned the stand around or removed the music, he had nothing. You could say “Play something” and he’d say “Put some music in front of me”. I’ve always held on to that as an incredibly stark example of the two different ways of coming at music.
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IT SEEMS THAT YOU’VE NOW COME FULL CIRCLE, AS YOUR LATEST VIDEO WITH CHRIS POTTER IS ALL ABOUT STANDARDS.
I’ve ended up very much in that world now. It’s the meat and potatoes of what I practice and work on.
IN JAZZ, THERE SEEMS TO BE A HIERARCHY OR PECKING ORDER AMONGST MUSICIANS WHERE THE ONES WHO FOCUS ON STANDARDS (GUYS LIKE ERIC ALEXANDER, HOUSTON PERSON, HARRY ALLEN AND SCOTT HAMILTON) ARE NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY BY “JAZZ FANS” AS OPPOSED TO ARTISTS LIKE YOU, CHRIS POTTER OR JOSH REDMAN WHO PLAY ORIGINAL MATERIAL.
I know exactly what you’re saying. Since I’ve been doing this since high school that dichotomy is one I have been aware of, and have tried to figure how to navigate it.
I really enjoy playing standards, but the entire reason I’m even here is because my first motivation was to create original music, outside of any genre label.
For me, the standard is a vehicle that has continued to teach me how to navigate music in a narrative form in a spontaneous way. Those songs are classic for a reason; they are sturdy, stable, elegant, and the melodies and harmonies work and function so beautifully. You can do infinite things with them and arrange them; they are incredibly malleable.
The “problem” for me is that when you switch gears a little bit to talk about being artist who is putting something out into the world in a recorded form, it has felt (at least up until now) that going into a studio to make a new record, it feels like I’m with “rented” material, and not my own material.
It’s something there that many before me have done better than I ever will, so I want to study it. But if I go into a studio and say “I’m going to go into a studio and play ten standards” it’s super daunting, because you carry with you the knowledge of everyone that you’ve been studying for decades, and how amazing that is. To shake that off and go “I’ve got something new to offer on ‘What’s New’ feels a little heavy.
By the same token I can’t imagine being the player that I want to be without studying that material and work through it.
I just recently recorded this album of music that is associated with Hank Mobley. it’s called A Message For Mobley with Larry Goldings on Rhodes, Charles Ruggiero on drums and a great young bass player out here in LA, Alex Boneham. It’s the first thing I’ve ever put out under my name that has covers, like “Someday My Prince Will Come” .
I never thought I’d do that; the project wasn’t even my idea; it was Charles’. I had a lot of fun doing it; the response to it was great and we’ll probably do a follow-up in the future.
But for me, there are a lot of personal things that I have to get out of the way. I’m carrying the memories of all of the people that I know who have played it. How do you record “The Way You Look Tonight” when you know what Stan Getz and Chet Baker did with it? That’s the thing for me.
So, practicing standards is great. There’s always something to shoot for; there’s a carrot that is moved that you’ll never be able to catch. That’s what feeds whatever I do when I’m improvising in my own band or with Snarky Puppy or John Mayer where you’re not playing the Standards. But I’m using what I’ve learned from them and using them with other influences I have.
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“the standard is a vehicle that has continued to teach me how to navigate music in a narrative form in a spontaneous way. It’s the meat and potatoes of what I practice and work on”
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HOW DOES BEING WITH SNARKY PUPPY FIT INTO YOUR MUSICAL AND CAREER PATH? 1722 DOES IT HELP WITH YOUR WRITING, IMPROVISING, YOUR “JAZZ BONA-FIDES”?
That band is unique in many ways, with people straddling lots of different influences.
I can only answer what I get out of it; certainly the camaraderie.
As someone who spent ten years living in New York, the jazz scene is mercenary in its landscape.
Before I played in John Mayer’s band, I spent five years travelling around the country and Europe with a guy named Jonah Smith, a prolific singer/songwriter. That was a small band, at that time I was thinking “Boy, maybe Jonah will get as big as Dave Matthews, and I’ll be with him in that situation.”
The camaraderie element of a rock band was there, and it was something I really liked. With jazz, you’re on a new gig with new people, and the mercenary thing was in terms of you’re not going to be in New York and hear “Let’s get a bunch of guys together and get in a van and start playing gigs. There won’t be any money, but we’ll build something.” No one in New York would say “Yes” to that; no one who’s trying to be in the jazz scene.
When I met the Snarky family, they had already been grinding it out for ten years. I had an instant kinship with them because I had done similar things in my own separate situations. I knew what they were doing; I loved the music, enjoyed the people, and I respected their work ethic and that they were in it to win it as a group, sticking with it for so long. I really admired that and knew what that took: sharing hotels, sleeping on floors…they are a classic example of the “ten year overnight success” story.
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“How do you record “The Way You Look Tonight” when you know what Stan Getz and Chet Baker did with it? That’s the thing for me”
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I ALWAYS THINK OF SNARKY PUPPY LIKE MY 1971 VW VAN-IT’S NOT A VEHICLE AS MUCH AS A LIFESTYLE
(laughs). Yeah, for me it was intriguing because I feel like my entire viewpoint of music as a player in the band could be wrapped up in a title that one of my friends (and mentor) stole. Joshua Redman had an album called Freedom in the Groove and that’s the statement of the band to me.
Snarky embodies that: strong songs and melodies that are almost pop in terms of having a hook and structure with ***something that people can sing along to and expect, and therefore then be surprised by it in a “live” setting when the band goes left because they were expecting us to go right.
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“Snarky embodies that:…something that people can sing along to and expect, and therefore then be surprised by it in a “live” setting when the band goes left because they were expecting us to go right.
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With Snarky, you get this thing that you’re not likely to get by a jazz quartet at the Village Vanguard, which is a high level of predictability.
For me, it comes down to this balance and marriage of predictability and surprise. If something is too predictable, it will get boring. The same thing every night. That’s what you can possibly fall into in pop settings.
I’ve been involved in the type of pop work that is completely structured to the T, every light is the same, every musician’s position, every person’s dance move. John Mayer’s thing was much more loose and interpretive; super fun.
If something is too predictable and repetitive, it gets boring for me.
Conversely, if it’s all surprise, like the lower Manhattan avant garde kind of trope: all surprise, no melody, nothing to grasp on to, constantly wondering what to hang on to, no anchor, what am I supposed to be listening to…that, too, isn’t likely to do it to me for very long. I will end up bored for opposite reasons.
For me, it’s the balance of the two elements that creates the most intrigue and excitement in both the music I enjoy as a listener and as a player
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“I had no skills in reading music; it all came from trying to externalize sounds that I was hearing internally”
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YOU HAVE TO BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT AS A JAZZ BAND TO SELL OUT TWO NIGHTS AT THE ACE THEATRE IN LA. THEY CLICK WITH THE AUDIENCE, WHEN MOST JAZZ CLUBS HAVE ONLY 25-50 CUSTOMERS A NIGHT.
Our bandleader Michael League describes their oeuvre as “music for the brain and the booty” (laughs)
WHEN YOU FIRST JOIN THEM, DO YOU GET ANY MUSICAL INSTRUCTIONS?
Nobody gets any instructions ; you either get it or you don’t.
It’s all unspoken. The band never rehearses. If you want to call it a “rehearsal”, it’s when we are recording a new album, and we’re just shaping the song in the studio, fleshing out whatever the composer brought in.
I’ve contributed one song. Generally, for the recording of the album, people bring in stuff and the band all works together to shape it. At the end of the day, it’s going to be Mike League’s say, but it’s very open.
Back to regarding the balance of the pop and jazz thing, every night we’re going to go out in that concert with that sold out audience that knows they are going to hear things that they want to hear. They are going to hear songs that they already know; you’re not going to hear that at the Vanguard.
In jazz, you go for the recognition of the players and go “Wow! Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano are magnificent. I love them.” But you’re not going to hear Frisell or Lovano deliver even the hint of the melody of the song the same way two nights in a row.
With Snarky Puppy, you’re totally going to get the song recognition, but you’re also going to get completely different approaches, twists and turns, solos with rarely having the same person do the same solo on the same song two nights in a row.
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“For me, it comes down to this balance and marriage of predictability and surprise. If something is too predictable, it will get boring. The same thing every night. That’s what you can possibly fall into in pop settings”
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WERE THERE ANY INSTRUCTIONS THERE WITH JOHN MAYER?
No instructions other than that when I joined the band there were already existing horn parts that Roy Hargrove had laid down. That was the reason I was there anyway, because there was a horn section due to that he had put Hargrove on an album or two.
John and I went to Berklee together, and we’d recorded one time as freshmen. By the time I joined his band it was ten years from when we’d first met at Berklee. He knew me by reputation, and he said “Just do your thing”. I respected that.
By that point I had been in Jonah Smith’s band for five years, and I knew that you to play music that respects the context that it’s being created in. I’m not going to go into the John Mayer thing and think “Now, where am I going to take my John Coltrane ‘sheets of sound’ solo?” (laughs)
You bring what you have into the situation and look for the best way to elevate the situation with whatever you can offer. Sometimes, the best that I can offer is nothing; not playing is the thing to do.
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“You bring what you have into the situation and look for the best way to elevate the situation with whatever you can offer. Sometimes, the best that I can offer is nothing; not playing is the thing to do”
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WHAT DO YOU LISTEN FOR WHEN YOU’RE WATCHING A SAX PLAYER?
The two basic elements are sound and command of time/feel.
The guys that are heroes to me certainly have that in common; some sort of distinct sound and tone that you would know instantly, and then the time/feel way of delivering whatever it is that they do which is just so infectious. That can be in a way of a Brecker, or Josh Redman, Chris Potter or Branford, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt or Stan Gets…they all do it differently, but they all do it. They have distinct sounds, and the feel that they play with is infectious; they ‘re never rushing. It’s just perfect.
YOU’RE ONE OF THE FEW “YOUNGER” PLAYERS THAT PLAYS WITH THAT BREATHY TONE.
It’s not something that I ostensibly aim for. It’s like Oscar Peterson said about Art Tatum, “I’m just a stale version of trying to copy my idols” (laughs)
It’s my failing to sound like Stan Getz that results in that breathy sound.
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“It’s my failing to sound like Stan Getz that results in that breathy sound”
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WHAT’S THE LONGEST MARATHON PRACTICE SESSION YOU’VE EVER DONE?
Never historically more than four hours .
YOUR WEB SITE SAYS YOU WANT TO MAKE “CONFIDENT IMPROVISORS”. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
This can go back to the standards
When I was in high school there were a lot of people that I could play with, and felt I was pretty decent for a young kid.
But it wasn’t until years later that I tried to play a standard all by myself that I realized that I didn’t know what I was doing. If there was a band backing me up, or a play-along track, I know I could be in my comfort zone and use my ears to kind of find my way through the song, even if it was in unfamiliar territory.
But if it was missing, I felt very self-conscious.
It was like going into a music store to try a saxophone or a mouthpiece. All of a sudden, there are twelve people in the music store listening to you try something. Ego comes in and you feel like you have to play the baddest stuff ever, wanting everyone to turn around and go “Who’s THAT guy?!?”
But I’m not a fan of shredding3028. I hate gratuitous, flashy stuff just for the sake of it.
So, the confidence thing came for me during standards when I said to myself “I thought I knew these songs”. I realized I didn’t know the standards as well as I should; I don’t understand the harmonies, etc. The confidence thing is about doing the things when I practice that lead to me being confident when I perform so that I never feel that I have to go to some trick or flashy thing. I always want to be in the present moment when I’m making music, but I want to have as many skills and tools as I can. That’s the confidence thing.
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“I always want to be in the present moment when I’m making music, but I want to have as many skills and tools as I can. That’s the confidence thing”
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YOUR OWN BAND THAT PLAYS AT THE BAKED POTATO IS MORE OF A SOUL GROOVE FEEL THAN SNARKY PUPPY OR JOHN MAYER. DO YOU CONSCIOUSLY PLAY DIFFERENTLY IN A SMALL VENUE AS OPPOSED TO A GIANT ARENA?
Not at all. I can’t think of one way; I’m looking for the same thing in both environments.
That was a huge realization for me that I was afforded because of the John Mayer experience. That was the only time I was able to play in front of thousands and witness it. I don’t change my mouthpiece or mindset.
There was a moment I remember at Giant Stadium where you had Dave Matthews and a lot of other big people like Bon Jovi and The Police on a reunion tour. It was an Earth Day concert, with something like 45,000 people at the stadium for the whole day. It was an incredibly large sea of people to be facing.
I remember during a solo just experiencing “ I could get this large group of people on board with this too!” without pandering, if I play something that’s engaging and has those qualities I was talking about, the time/feel and the tone.
For me, a player’s timing as an improvisor is akin to a comedian’s timing; it’s everything. If your timing sucks, the audience is going to be uncomfortable. If the delivery of the timing is great, the audience can relax and you can trust the person on stage; they’ve got this.
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“For me, a player’s timing as an improvisor is akin to a comedian’s timing; it’s everything. If your timing sucks, the audience is going to be uncomfortable”
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WHO WOULD YOU PAY $1000 TO PERFORM, LIVING OR DEAD?
It would be Stan Getz.
I’ve heard and read the horror stories of him as a person which is sad. My dream version would be that I see him perform and secretly find out that he was super cool, at least to me.
WHO’S BRAIN WOULD YOU LIKE TO SIT AND PICK?
I feel I could go so many different directions with that one…
If it were a musician it would have to be Pat Metheny. That’s a challenging question.
YOU SEEM VERY WELL BALANCED AND HUMBLE. IS THERE ANY RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY, TEACHING OR BOOK THAT HAS GUIDED OR INSPIRED YOU?
I grew up raised in the Christian tradition by my family, but I’m not a practicing church goer right now. That’s my background. Also, just by nature growing up with a single mom raising two kids on her own
An old college friend of mine said this to me because I recommended a book to him, called Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday, who fancies himself a Stoic. He said, “It seems like you’re always into these Self-Help books. I don’t get it, because you’re so together.”
I told him “I’m so broken; that’s why I read these books!” (laughs)
I’m not an “Anything” but with Buddhism, Stoicism, Meditation…it’s like music-I’ll never play one of these songs the way Stan Getz played it, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t help me to try.
WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO SAY WHEN THEY PUT YOU SIX FEET UNDER?
It would be nice to have as many people as possible say that their life was made better by something they got from me, whether it was from hearing me play, or when I sometimes meet people on the road and they’ll mention how impactful the Youtube videos or blogs I’ve made have been for them. When I hear these stories about little kernels that they got out of them, whether it was a book recommendation or just the way I approached something I said that helped them move towards something or past something , that’s really gratifying to me.
WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE GOALS FOR MUSIC AND/OR LIFE?
Musical goals are tricky ones because I’m always just going. I have some goals but they’re always vague. I want to continue to be a cleaner channel for what I’m supposed to be. I want to get out of my own way, and do the thing for music that I’m supposed to do, and not the thing that I think I “should” do.
In regards to “life”, I just want to be more “present” and enjoy it. For me, what I’m dealing with now at this stage of the game, after a life of chasing things, how do you start to balance being grateful for what you have right now while still aiming towards the future.
With kids and everything you have to appreciate life as it’s flying by, because you can’t get it back
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“I want to continue to be a cleaner channel for what I’m supposed to be. I want to get out of my own way, and do the thing for music that I’m supposed to do, and not the thing that I think I “should” do”
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WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF WITH THE LOCKDOWN DUE TO THE COVID 19 VIRUS?
Every day I’m trying to figure out the answer to this one. (laughs)
I’ve learned how being important with my family is right now. I just came off a pretty long stretch from being away from them; I was in Europe just as this whole thing was going to hell, and I was really glad to be back.
As many musicians who have families will say, ”When you’re gone, you can’t wait to get home, but after being home awhile you can’t wait to get out again.” So, I’m just trying to really make the most of this time. It is a kind of freaky time, but I know that one day this will be in the rear view mirror, and one day I will ask “Why did I do this or that? I should have been more present.”
THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE, AS WELL AS MUSICIANS, THAT YOU JUST ENJOY LISTENING TO.
BOB REYNOLDS HAS A MIX OF CONFIDENCE AND HUMILITY THAT MAKES HIM A VALUABLE ASSET AS A SIDEMAN FOR ARTISTS AND BANDS AS POPULAR AS JOHN MAYER AND SNARKY PUPPY, BUT IT ALSO HELPS HIM TO IDENTIFY WITH THE STRUGGLING MUSIC STUDENT AND ARTIST, OFFERING INSIGHT AND ENCOURAGEMENT THROUGH VIDEOS AND PERSONAL DISCUSSIONS.
IN AN AGE OF SAX PLAYERS VYING FOR THE MOST CACOPHONIC SCREECH, THERE IS STILL ROOM AT THE INN FOR PEOPLE AND MUSICIANS SUCH AS BOB REYNOLDS, WHO CONTINUES TO LEARN AND IMBIBE FROM SAGES BOTH MUSICAL AND SPIRITUAL, AND ENCOURAGE THOSE WHO ARE ALSO ON A PERSONAL AND MELODIC PILGRIMAGE.