Q&A Archives - Lisa Hilton Music

silhouette of lisa against a sunset with the words a musical experience like an album, or art you hang on your wall, continues to add to your life for a long time, or maybe forever if it’s a favorite."

Life is Beautiful Q+A

March 1, 2022 by Lisa Hilton

Life is Beautiful, Lisa Hilton, Q&A

Q & A WITH COMPOSER/PIANIST/BAND LEADER, LISA HILTON ON HER NEW RELEASE LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL OUT APRIL 1, 2022 WITH BANDMATES RUDY ROYSTON/DRUMS AND LUQUES CURTIS/BASS

Q: Congratulations on your latest release: how many does this make?

LH: I’ve recorded twenty – five albums now!

Q: Congrats – that’s quite a few! You must enjoy the process…

LH: I do! Ever since I was a little girl I have enjoyed creating art, music and experiences too.

Q: Yeah, I read your liner notes and saw that you started composing very young.

LH: Well those were very simple tunes – I was not a Mozart! It wasn’t until I was a teenager that my composing really started to improve – I’d play a bit for my friends and they were always encouraging.

Q: What do you mean when you say you “like to create experiences?”

LH: I love to compose individual tunes, but the CD or album to me is something you experience over and over. A book, concert or movie you experience normally once, but a musical experience like an album, or art you hang on your wall, continues to add to your life for a long time, or maybe forever if it’s a favorite. Yes, recording an album is always a lot of work, but I enjoy crafting and collaborating on a new experience every year for the listener – it actually energizes me. Someone told me that our music has become “the soundtrack to his life” – I like that!

Q: Nice! Speaking of collaborators, you’ve got your same trio back with Rudy Royston & Luques Curtis. What’s it like working with them?

LH: They are terrific players of course, but they are also nice, and have the highest work ethic. I think all musicians right now are hungry to play, so it feels really good when we have the opportunity to get together all day in the studio when we record. Despite the masks and other challenges, musicians need to create music. It sounds simplistic, but that’s how we thrive.

Q: How long have you worked with Rudy & Luques?

LH: Hmmm… I think the first time I performed with Rudy was probably 2011 or 2013 in Hollywood with our quartet including JD Allen on sax, and with Luques we first played together at the Smithsonian in D.C. in 2018. We’ve had some great times performing – I think we’ve played together at Carnegie Hall/NYC two or three times – the last time was in early 2020 with a very nice ovation!

Q: Were your writing to a concept for life is beautiful?

LH: As the pandemic continues on, like most of us, I wish I could do something positive that would help others. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make everyone well, but that’s not the way this world, or science works.

Q: Yeah, I hear you.

LH: The only thing I thought that might help others, is for us to create jazz that is an uplifting experience wherever you might be listening: working at home or driving to work, having a picnic or a fancy dinner, being in nature or at the gym – an experience or playlist for our lives. We all need a break from the news, and a reminder that no matter what is going on in our world, we can still find or create beauty around us. So this music is a collection inspired by different genres, eras, and cultures: it’s jazz for the twenty first century, and it’s based on enjoying the often forgotten beauty that is around us every single day.

Q: I like that. It was interesting to me that you mentioned women like Lil Hardin Armstrong, Joni Mitchell and Clara Schumann in your liner notes, who were/are great leaders as musicians, but who are often overlooked for all the contributions they’ve made.

LH: It has been implied by some that there hasn’t been leadership by women in classical, jazz or opera, but that isn’t true. We might not hear music by women composers in our great theaters, performing arts centers or jazz clubs very often, but we should! These women, and many others led inspiring lives and made plenty of cultural contributions – their stories should be told and their work honored.

Q: Last question: the album photos are very unique – how did you get those?

LH: We were hiking, and it was a little wintery and cloudy, but there was a luminous late afternoon sun still glowing off the ocean. The photographer, Aaron Regan, spotted a lovely random moment and had me stand on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The photos actually remind me of this time in our world too – it’s a bit cloudy, but if you are looking… life is beautiful.

lisa hilton transparent sky album overlaid on an image of lisa on the beach

Q & A For Transparent Sky

August 17, 2021 by Lisa Hilton

Billie Holiday, Q&A, Studio, Transparent Sky

Q & A with composer/pianist/band leader, Lisa Hilton on her new release TRANSPARENT SKY out Sept 3, 2021 with bandmates Rudy Royston/drums and Luques Curtis/bass

Q. You, Rudy & Luques recently came out with the acclaimed 2020 release, More Than Another Day. How soon after that were you back in the studio for Transparent Sky?

A. We recorded More Than Another Day in August 2020 and Transparent Sky in May 2021- so about nine months apart. We all had a bit of extra time on our hands since there has not been any touring, so it was wonderfully normal to be playing again! I felt incredibly happy to be together and we had a much better experience than we did last August when we were anxious and awkward wearing masks and staying apart. This year, post vaccines, we could be ourselves and enjoy things. I have been very thankful that More Than Another Day has been so successful – one of the top recordings at Jazz Week so far for 2021 – but it was a bit stressful to create. Transparent Sky is very uplifting and has a lot of energy, so we hope listeners will like this one too.

Q. Is there a concept behind the title?

A. I think the title refers to how many of us are feeling right now: If a sunny sky connotes a good future, and a dark sky represents where humanity was in 2020, Transparent Sky has a sense of taking the moment for what it is – and to cherish what we can here and now. We don’t have any promises for tomorrow, do we? Today looks pretty good though.

Q. There’s a lot of different kinds of swing and movement on this album – was that intentional?

A. I always let the music emerge as I compose: I don’t know what I will create and I don’t try and force a direction or try to control it. What developed was a LOT of movement and richer chords and harmonies this year – which makes sense when you consider how static last year was and how we had less activities – as musicians we need to challenge and entertain ourselves too, so I think that’s why I subconsciously wrote in so many rhythm changes and multiple harmonic directions. Then of course, it was great fun to have Luques and Rudy add all their ideas and textures too. Our engineer, Chandler Harrod, did a great job recording and I love hearing all the cool bass and drum additions to the compositions. This music really gets me moving and I love that!

Q. Was this recording a new direction for you and your trio?

A. I began working in the direction of splicing different rhythms, genres and eras compositionally with our 2014 album Kaleidoscope. I feel that music of today should have genre mobility – that we prefer multiple ideas and references musically from any era or style, and like the colored pieces inside a kaleidoscope, that life/humanity/music is more interesting because of variety. Transparent Sky, my band, and our music are examples of this approach: that beauty in our world is created through inclusion – if there were only red squares in a kaleidoscope, it would have no appeal.

Q. That’s true! I’m curious, do you bring sheet music scores to the studio or do you just wing it? Do you rehearse?

A. When I first began recording, I didn’t use any written scores at all – I just played the tune a couple times and then we recorded – a la the Miles Davis Kind of Blue approach. But I think it’s kinder to have the sheet music, so now I do all the scores ahead of time in Sibelius: being self -taught it took me a while to master notation software, but now it’s fun for me to create the scores – of course there is always room for improvisation too – the scores are more like skeletons for the band to work from. We still don’t rehearse though – jazz has never been about perfection – it’s supposed to be a bit loose and capture the energy of the moment, whether it’s partially written or improvised. In classical music you shoot for perfection, but jazz has the energy that anything can happen at any moment, and for jazz lovers we find that much more engaging and dynamic.

Q. You included the cover God Bless The Child that was popularized and sung by Billie Holiday. Tell us about that selection please.

A. For a long time I’ve been trying to record cover songs by women who were composers, because there is very little attention paid to them in jazz – they are normally identified as singers or instrumentalists. I’ve recorded tunes by Joni Mitchell, Ann Ronnell and Janis Joplin, and I was surprised that I hadn’t even realized that Billie Holiday had written/co-written several songs. She is one of the most well – known and enduring jazz recording artists, yet we seem to know a lot more about her love affairs and drug habits than we do about her talents, right?

Q. That’s true! Did she write God Bless The Child?

A. Yes, she was the co-writer with Arthur Herzog Jr. I’ve read two books and seen a movie about Billie Holiday, and they never highlighted the fact she was a composer! I think it’s important to give women recognition for all for their talents, and by promoting these talents maybe we will see less discrimination in jazz/classical/opera music. Thankfully we see more women as bandleaders, producers, instrumentalists and recording engineers, but performing arts centers, opera houses and jazz clubs around the world are still almost entirely focused on presenting music of male composers. Billie Holiday should be recognized for her skills as a songwriter – it’s a great tune!

Q. Ok, last question that’s on everyone’s mind – do you and your trio plan to perform at all in 2021?

A. We had planned something for this fall, but we realized there are a lot of restrictions that some venues feel they need to require for performers, staff and audience too this year. Everyone wants to get back to “normal” but we are not quite there yet, so we are going to be patient for now. So I’m sorry everyone – we want you to have fun and we don’t want anyone excluded, so we are going to wait a while longer for a live show.

Transparent Sky is available for pre-order August 3^rd, 2021 and out Sept 3^rd, 2021 at Amazon, Apple Music and LisaHiltonMusic.com

lisa hilton at the beach in a white dress and tan hat, in the studio with her band mates, and playing using sheet music at the piano

Photos by Aaron Regan. Band photos by Leigh Shane.

lisa hilton holds white roses alongside a quote

A New Year… 💫🎉

December 30, 2020 by Lisa Hilton

Holidays, New Year, Q&A

More Than Another Day Q&A PART II with Lisa K. Hilton

Q: Happy New Year!

Lisa Hilton: Thank you – and to you too!

Q: Your new album More Than Another Day, is quite upbeat, which is really nice to hear right now, but I’m curious how you composed this music during the first few months of the 2020 lock down?

LH: Our tour had to quit in March of course, and that was troubling – actually everything in March was troubling – remember? My intuition told me that I needed to stay home, so I just started composing and the creativity flowed. Originally though, yeah, there were honestly, some dark tunes from those dark times. But I knew the album would be out in December and we’d be all healthy and enjoying life by then, right? So I tried to focus on the everyday beauty in life: despite any pandemic in our world the sun rises and the sun sets with majestic beauty. I tried to focus on what is good, right, and freely available everywhere. Of course I was completely wrong about that timeline: the pandemic was much worse in December than it was in March! But that upbeat vibe we recorded is translating to people everywhere. We are collectively all adapting and it’s nice to have music to keep our spirits up, so I’m happy with the results even if my assumptions about the pandemic were completely wrong!

Q: Now that 2020 is now behind us, how are you feeling looking back on the music, recording during a pandemic and the year in general?

LH: I’m glad to see 2020 in the rear view mirror like everyone else. More Than Another Day, was probably the easiest album I’ve ever done, yet the most difficult too. The year was extremely challenging yet the outpouring of positive response the last month on the new music has been a wonderful gift to us coming as the year has ended. There’s just a big mix of emotions on this one.

Q: It has been an unusual time, but what do you mean by the “easiest, yet the most difficult?”

LH: Trying to arrange a recording session is always difficult with everyone’s conflicting schedules and busy studios too. It takes about two months to finalize a date. When I started setting up the sessions, the east coast was being hit hard by Covid, so we made the decision to record in West Los Angeles, but by the time the August date arrived, California was in bad shape! I booked a studio, and then lost a studio – that kind of thing. Everyone was really thankful, and proud too, to be working again, but we were nervous to be in a work environment after five months at home. When we record an album the hang is one aspect we all enjoy, but we had to eat our meal at separate tables and it felt awkward and isolating. We all had to create workarounds too – like creating a video from existing photos rather than have a photographer in the studio. Ryan Nava has been photographing us for a couple years, and did a great job on the slideshow style video for the track More Than Another Day, and it was a much safer solution. Despite the difficulties, we all felt lucky to be there and emotionally we really needed to play. I think you can hear that good energy in the recording – there was a propulsive drive that we had in the studio, and that was captured.

Q: Are you planning to tour in 2021, or are you planning to live stream any shows?

LH: I am not planning to tour in 2021: I don’t think venues will be able to be at full capacity and although our band will be safe on stage, I don’t want to put anyone going to our shows, or working at our shows at risk. I have been asked a lot about live streaming and I’m not leaning in that direction yet. There are some artists that have really done cool things with this concept, and venues too that are stepping up here. But I always want to think about the “big picture” – a performance involves maybe 10-15 people working on that event. If I were to live stream, I don’t feel I’m being supportive of the venues, the ushers, the box office personnel, the lighting and sound engineers, the maintenance staff – everyone that works every day for musicians. It doesn’t seem fair to me that I can perform, but the support team is on furlough. I want to be supportive of the people who support artists, so it doesn’t feel right to live stream for now.

Q: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I understand what you’re saying. Ok, so what are your hopes and plans in 2021 then?

LH: I hope in 2021 our music continues to lift spirits around the world day after day after day. It’s cool to hear about how the album touches lives around the world – we love hearing these encouraging words! This is also an amazing time for creativity, and I’m excited what will emerge next musically. We have a new year, a new president, new health vaccines, a new decade, new music, (and I’ve got a birthday this week too), so we can all feel optimistic. Happy 2021 to us all!

collage of sunrises and sunsets, playing at carnegie hall, and getting ready for a new decade

Top Row: sunrise in Big Sur, Jan 5th, sunset in Malibu
Middle Row: Luques Curtis, myself and Rudy Royston will miss playing Carnegie Hall this year
Bottom Row: getting ready for a new decade!