summer Archives - Lisa Hilton Music

chandler harrod lisa hilton and al schmitt at capitol studios hollywood

COMPOSING

August 10, 2020 by Lisa Hilton

Al Schmitt, Composing Season, Sheet Music, summer

My recording engineer Chandler Harrod is on my left, and my mix engineer, Al Schmitt (who has 23 Grammys) is on my right. This photo was taken at Capitol Studios/Hollywood, last year.

As we enter August, we can all sense the end of summer coming: the days getting shorter, the scramble to enjoy a few more BBQs, and for me, the period of my heightened creativity will change. Every spring I begin composing, and by August the little song “embryos” have grown up into full- fledged compositions ready to be hatched and recorded with my band to take flight into the real world. How will they fare? Only days remain to polish and practice these new pieces, (often with my trusty Dr. Beat metronome at my side), so we will know soon, won’t we?

My thoughts are filled not only with the music, but in seeing my bandmates again and my engineer friends, too. (I’m working on my sixteenth album with engineer Al Schmitt!) I love recording in a studio, and I feel lucky we can be together and still work safely.

Every year when I begin composing it is a mystery what I will create. I understand that many artists write to a theme or concept, (Esperanza Spaulding comes to mind here). In her book Big Magic, writer Elizabeth Gilbert mentions she waits for inspiration to come to her, while still other artists work at their craft on a daily or hourly basis. I affectionately call my composing time a “season” – this year 5 months – where I let the music flow freely, then nurture the strongest ideas into compositions.

The emergence of a new piece is a rather euphoric experience – much like a new romance – but after that, it’s a lot of work trying new things over and over to get the correct balance. Most of my 9 new compositions are about 4 pages – each page taking several hours to notate. With over a dozen rewrites for each song, the math adds up to well over 1,000 hours. That’s a lot of piano time isn’t it?

The point could be made that as a jazz artist I can freely improvise without any tune or composition. This of course is true, and how all the songs begin, but the composition is where improvisors “hang our hat” as my mom would say – we normally improvise from a form or song and a well – balanced and interesting tune is a lot of fun to improvise with AND to play.

Enjoy your summer and please wish us luck as we record our next album!

– Lisa

S U M M E R ☀️ F U N

July 21, 2020 by Lisa Hilton

Jazz, Social Distancing, summer

Hmmm… so what is summer fun this year? We need to reflect on how we have fun, and where we will have it this year, so it takes a moment to decide, right? But fun is often FREE, EASY (and SAFE too). My favs are biking, hiking (early before the crowds), tennis (singles), beach walks at low tide (so there’s more room), and of course, playing the piano!

In fact, summer is the perfect time to get back to practicing if it’s been on your mind, or to get started. I think summer is the best time to begin – so parents/grandparents – if you have a family member who is interested in music, the longer days and relaxed schedule of summer reduce the expectations and stress that can happen for newbies. These days it’s even easier to order an instrument and sign up for classes online, so excuses begone!

We are safer at home – true – but please don’t limit yourself to that: take your wooden flute hiking up a mountain to play on top, or your guitar for around the campfire. I even have a small “travel keyboard” that I use in the car to play scales on road trips, (or when whoever is driving gets stuck in traffic). Time with an instrument is a lot more interesting than social media or most TV shows these days, so give it a try. Most of the time I don’t say I’m “practicing”– I most often refer to what I do at my beloved piano as “P L A Y I N G” because it’s so F U N.

Ok, so if you’re still looking for other entertaining ideas, please try the new SUNSHINE JAZZ playlist on SoundCloud, Pandora, YouTube or Spotify under Lisa Hilton to put you in a summery mood. And to top it all off, I have all CDs at a special SUMMER FUN price of $5 from now through the end of July at LisaHiltonMusic.com. (Simply use the code SUMMERFUN at check out).

Enjoy your summer safely!

Lisa

INDEPENDENCE

July 1, 2020 by Lisa Hilton

Holidays, Miles Davis, summer

Independence is an interesting concept right about now, don’t you think? Most of us are yearning for more than a day too – we like our freedoms and chafe at any idea of losing the liberty to go to a beach or a bar, to open our business for patrons or to visit our parents. This year Independence Day will be smaller and quieter. Fair enough. I might not make the fancy berry cheesecake for friends but a BBQ is still within reason, and I’ll go to the beach before they close for the weekend. Good enough!

Independence, and the feeling of freedom, always comes to me through creative pursuits. Whether it’s cooking, sewing, gardening, composing and playing the piano or listening to music, that is precious time away from earthly issues. Art, in all its forms, is a gift to our spirit – a lift from the ordinariness of life. So sing a song, write a poem, paint a picture, listen to Miles Davis, dance at dusk, or simply play your instrument and enjoy the freedom and fun this holiday weekend – and always.

Lisa

Summer 🌞 Reading & Viewing

June 23, 2020 by Lisa Hilton

Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, reading, summer

I love to read, and always indulge this pleasure in the summer. These days I only read biographies – mainly on musicians – because their lives can be more fascinating than any fiction! I think it’s really cool to interact with what you are reading in more than one way: when I read the excellent 700 page biography last spring on Frederyck Chopin by Alan Walker, I also played on the piano his entire collection of compositions – 900 notated sheets of music understanding more about his life and creativity as I did.

If you read “The Making of ‘Kind of Blue’” by Eric Nisenson or really any book about Miles, you can listen to the Miles Davis best-selling jazz album of course, but then watch the excellent The Birth of Cool documentary to understand the era, the man and his music even more. Other great book/movie combinations are the biography of Cole Porter by Charles Schwartz and the movie De Lovely; The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius by Bill Milkowski and the recent movie Jaco: The Film are perfect. The biography of pianist Bud Powell by his friend Francis Paudras called Dance of the Infidels inspired the movie ‘Round Midnight. Going back a few years, one of my favorite books, The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman was made into a multi award winning movie by the same name. When you read about these great artists and then see their performances and photos or to see them portrayed by actors well, (like in the Miles Davis movie), it adds depth and interest.

Of course any of the recent documentaries on living musicians and producers make fun combinations too – I loved the book on Clive Davis as well as the documentary that showed live footage from the Monterey Jazz Festival along with the amazing performance by Janis Joplin – you might have seen that too? The Quincy Jones book Q was riveting as I’m sure the movie on the life of my friend will be too. I saw the terrific documentary produced by another friend, Stephen Badger, Muscle Shoals after finishing the book My Cross to Bear on Gregg Allman’s life. That movie has a LOT of American music history beautifully shot along the Tennessee River and includes interviews with the many musicians including the Rolling Stones and The Allman Brothers.

Reading about jazz or other music in America is about our collective history and sometimes reading about the experiences of other musicians can help me in unexpected ways – Chopin lived through the cholera epidemic in Paris while suffering from tuberculosis for example. If he can survive a plague and continue to compose masterfully, I think the rest of us can keep at it don’t you?

What are my favorite books to recommend? (Yes there’s more!) I made a list on my website, because I love these books so much (recommended books link here) as well as my favorite pianists on that page too. Enjoy your Summer!

Enjoy!

Lisa