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Hello and welcome to the Insights and Sounds podcast, a podcast centered around classical music. Join Dr. John Sinclair, and explore composers past and present, their works, and an occasional classical music informational episode.
Insights & Sounds Chuck Archard
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Dr. Sinclair: [00:00:00] Hello, good people. Welcome to today's episode, and it's a little different than most of our episodes. Let me introduce you to a dear friend, but a musician's musician. I know him as a composer, arranger, jazz bass player, jazz musician extraordinaire. I could read a long bio, but it would just embarrass him and make him maybe mad at me before we do this interview.
So let me introduce you to Chuck Archard.
Chuck Archard: Thank you, John. I could also have a laundry list of all the things you've done.
Dr. Sinclair: Yeah. Let's not do that. Let's not do that. Let's not do that. But thank you for having me. Yeah, well, thanks for being here. So, we have a project we're working on right now. Actually, he's doing all the work and I'm just getting a chance to enjoy it.
But I wanted to start our conversation off today a little bit about talking about [00:01:00] Bach's influence in jazz. Mm hmm. It seems to me I'm asked often if Bach were alive, what would he be doing? And I always answer he'd be a jazz musician. So the reason he would be a jazz musician is Chuck, why don't you tell them why you think he'd be one?
Chuck Archard: Well, um, I'm teaching a jazz vision class this semester, and we just went over the, uh, the major stylistic characteristics of this music and it's the big I improvisation. And so if there are compositions in jazz, uh, when they went orchestral, where they had very minimal or maybe no improvisation, but that's an anomaly, our main component, our main stylistic characteristic.
Is improvisation and. Uh, the, the correlation with Bach, I mean, you know, it still amazes me that he can improvise a fugue. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I, I can't even wrap my head [00:02:00] around that. Uh, one of the things that, that we find with, with Bach and, and, and in jazz where, where the worlds really collide, not just the technical stuff, which is great.
Like those long ba ba da, those long flowing lines, which is very. The beboppers, if you hear it, they change the rhythms, but those lines are very similar. Um, but it's, it's the progression we call the 2 5 progression. 2 5 1. And so, ba ba da ba do bee ah ba da ba da ba do bee ah ba da ba da ba do bee ah ba da ba like
Dr. Sinclair: you're doing Bach right there.
There you go. And
Chuck Archard: it's like. So you hear it and you can, and I've done it, the two part inventions and even though there's never been, there's not a full chord in, in the music, but because they're implied by even in the unaccompanied stuff, you can hear the chord changes, if you will. And we've analyzed those and it's like, Oh my God.
You know, you can find major sevenths and ninths in Bach's music and every [00:03:00] Telemann I remember analyzing that and it was like, well, Baroque is just this or that. It was in the chromaticism of, uh, of Bach. When you get further into jazz of the last century, like in the forties and into the fifties where we started getting into bebop and more chromaticism and those kinds of things.
The, the influence is undeniable. Yeah.
Dr. Sinclair: Well, we, you know, you and I have talked about this over the years.
Chuck Archard: And Bach was a great improviser. I'm sorry. Yeah, I was going to say. I forgot to mention it. He was the
Dr. Sinclair: guy that, that instilled fear in any competition regarding improvisation. Yep. Um, and then I was thinking of other.
Jazz musicians that actually talked about Bach. Oh, you said Keith Jarrett did recordings. Yes Miles Davis talked about Davis
Chuck Archard: Bela Fleck there as I said I forget the name of the documentary but has a lot of disparate musicians from all different genres and then Uh, they used, Baila wanted to do [00:04:00] that because he had recorded those unaccompanied violin, uh, you know, the Bach, yeah.
And so he had a lot to say about it. Uh, it's all there. If you want, I mean, just playing those, the, the single note unaccompanied sub, you can learn so much about movement, about harmony. All done on a single line. And then you get the two part and the three, you know, and it just gets more and more, uh, chromatic and more and more, uh, developed.
Uh, yeah, I think he would have been, and just the list of, uh, I mean, even local players, everybody, we, if you can play Bach. You can get around on your instrument. I mean, it's great for your technique. What I would call facility, you know, uh, because it's all there. It's and it's so, uh, uniform without boring you, but it's just like, it's so perfectly written.
I don't, I don't know how one person, I sometimes
Dr. Sinclair: [00:05:00] look at the orchestra when I hand out Bach. And after one rehearsal, I looked at one of the players. And I said, you have a smile on your face. She said, I'm playing Bach.
Chuck Archard: Right. That's it's in my hand. Absolutely. And all the, uh, Bill Evans, great jazz pianist, uh, probably his style was when you hear it more influenced by the impressionist, he was very much into Ravel and Farré and all, but he was a classically trained pianist.
And when it's time to show what he can do, there's the Bach influence. And, um, the, uh, Marian McPartland, Piano Jazz, I think he does a little example with Bach in that I remember that. So, yeah, lots of jazz players carry around the little two part inventions.
Dr. Sinclair: Well, you, you, you quoted to me a Béla Flé, uh, Béla Flé line.
Yeah, yeah. He said, he said what?
Chuck Archard: , it all returns to Bach. There we go. Talking about music. If you want to, and I think Chick [00:06:00] Corea said this. I've seen that in many different players, you know,
Dr. Sinclair: well, you know, you don't have to convince me. I've always been a believer of this. And that's why years ago we did this project of a big band with box music and we should return to that.
But let's talk about what, what you're working on right now. Right. And it's going to be on this year's Bach festival. Um, and it's big band spirituals is what we're calling it. And I thought, boy, there's sure some similarities between, lots of similarities between spiritual and jazz.
, and so it will be on February 13th at 30. Now, tell us what we have in store for us here.
Chuck Archard: Okay. Well, . I'm going to do a jazz rundown. Okay. Okay. And uh, I'm going to go chronologically. These are all people that have either recorded spirituals, use them quite extensively in their repertoire, et cetera, et cetera.
, plus I looked up last count, there's [00:07:00] close to a hundred different versions of Wade in the water. Oh my goodness. Just, you know, by different jazz and jazz adjacent folks, R and B. And so Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Mahalia Jackson, more spirituals and gospel, but recorded, uh, with Duke Ellington doing it.
John Coltrane literally had a tune called A Love Supreme, which was a chant, and then he recorded spiritual. He also did Dear Lord on a recording. Charles Mingus, Mary Lou Williams, Max Roach, Oscar Peterson, Horace Silver. , Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepard, Archie Shep, Albert Isler, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor. One of my favorites is Charlie Hayden and Kenny, uh, Charlie Hayden did liberation, , music orchestra, and they did some spirituals with a, with a big band and then, , down by the Riverside, , Oliver Nelson did this really great.
And that's why I didn't do that tune this because I just couldn't, [00:08:00] but it, but it, but it, but it, and I just couldn't, I couldn't, Oh, please. It's Oliver Nelson. Yeah. All the way up to, , Cassandra Wilson. , a gentleman I saw last week, Kurt Elling, great singer, , Terry Lynn Carrington, the great jazz drummer, Esperanza, Spalding.
And then my favorite album, Charlie Hayden and Hank Jones. They did two albums of spirituals. And , so I'll just give a little lead for one of the tunes in the concert. , a Per Danielson, one of our arrangers, , I asked him to do a duet and, , once again, the Charlie Hayden record is so great. So it's going to be, , piano and guitar, not piano and bass.
Cause it's like, yeah, it's like, , you can't
Dr. Sinclair: go back and rework that,
Chuck Archard: but I was so Bobby Coble is going to play the guitar part. So, so it's really neat if it's okay, I can give you a list of tunes and kind of give you the idea of, of. This is right from, , because I asked the arrangers to kind of tell me, , because [00:09:00] we're working, we have a rehearsal next week and we're getting everything together.
And, and, , by the way, kudos to the Bach Festival Orchestra Society. I mean, these folks, these are commissioned original arrangements. So these have never been heard before. , and we have. Some of the best play, , they're just great. We're so deep in this town. Trombones, trumpets, we've got a great ensemble.
, and what's really unique, I think, , which was great. We were able to, uh,, have two keyboardists on this program. So we have a synth player to do really cool pads and organ. So a para is gonna be dedicated to the piano, uhhuh, , but then we got all these layerings with the synthesizer too, and, and roads, and electric piano.
So folks are gonna take it in lots of directions, so it's gonna be cool. I haven't even listened to, they, they put up little audio references. I didn't wanna listen to 'em. Okay. I'm practicing my parts, but I wanna Sure. Kind of hear what they're doing. Sure. So, , we've got, nobody, , [00:10:00] knows the trouble I've seen.
, acapella vocal at the beginning, and then we go into a 3 4 kind of jazz waltz thing. , that's a DMACC, Dave McKenzie arrangement. , Go Down Moses, , he's got a brass chorale at the beginning, and then it's this fiery ka ding ding ding ding ding ding ding, you know, , really cool thing that he's got down on that.
, Perry Danielson's doing Didn't My Lord Deliver. That's the piano guitar duet. , it's Me O Lord, , big band with S. A. T. B. Choir. And then John's gone down the island, , spoken word. There's some narration and I believe, , that's just big band. And then Marco's doing arrangement on a group called, , song.
One of the spirits was called hold on here. I know. And he put male vocal lead at the end, as many vocalists as possible for the outro group sing out. So he's got this big ending. And it's orchestral progressive jazz. Way to go, Marco. So that can mean anything. I don't, I don't know where that's going to be.
I'm looking forward to it. I am [00:11:00] too. , I did a deep river, , a trombone quartet and then , let us break bread together multiple grooves new orleans zydeco funk funk swing straight ahead bassy shuffle ending i did a one more time oh yeah And then Steal Away, which is going to feature one of our students and one of my bass students, but she's a great singer too.
So I got Akina singing on, uh,, that's a rhythm section feature, Steal Away. And then, , Oh Freedom, which is, , we're going to do that as a. Nice shuffle with the big band. And that's going to feature, , Elodie, , uh, you got it. , and no, no great singer in town. They're going to each get a spot on that and they both improvise.
So. We're going to open it up. And by the way, a lot of these tunes are going to be, , once we get into the rehearsal and we get the timings, we we've got the sort of the timings now, but if we have time, , every arranger, [00:12:00] except for orchestral progressive, I'm not sure about Mark, we've got a typical jazz where it's open.
Solos a la carte, whoever. Yeah. Hey, somebody, you know, so we're going to, we'll start figuring all of that out. , but all the arrangements are in, everybody has their parts. These are, like I said, All new arrangements, , plus, , we have Darrell, , Briscoe, Dr. Briscoe, the, , Dean of Religious, , Life, and he's gonna, , do some narration, and then, , I'm having him pick two songs, , two of the spirituals.
He really knows these, these pieces. So he's going to take two that he's very familiar with and give us a little synopsis of the overview of the song. So yeah, I really, you always, you always,
Dr. Sinclair: uh, I always am so impressed when we come up with a project, we talk about things like this, and then I. I feel a little bit guilty because I, I think, okay, this is really a great idea.
This is going to be a lot of work. Here you go, Chuck. [00:13:00]
Chuck Archard: Here's where my guilt comes in. I love doing this and you should see the texts from Pear, Marco, and they're, they're in the middle of writing these arrangements last summer. Cause we started in October. Just, we had a meeting, a meeting, a restaurant hung out.
It was, yeah, I get it. But they were like, This is so much fun, you know to be it because it it was there were no rules. I'm like, let's Honor the, if you're going to do lyrics, let's honor what the song is, what the piece is saying, but there's no parameters. It's not that you have, I did look at Marco and a couple of they're doing doublings.
They got alto flute on a tune. I mean, they're really doing some cool stuff. So the guilty part on our side is we're getting paid for this. Yeah.
Dr. Sinclair: This is exactly what an organization. Like the Bach Festival should do, you know, we, we're on our 90th anniversary and [00:14:00] I was asked the other day by an interviewer, so what makes this year particularly different for you?
And I said, well, I'm doing the pieces of music, the B minor mass and the Brahms Requiem, the pieces of music that got us to those 90 years, but I'm also hopefully pointing the direction to what's going to get us to the next 90 years. Absolutely. , because the music now by our ability to access it so easily.
And to hear all these styles, we have got to be thinking about quality of music and all music is, is on the table for the future. It has to be.
Chuck Archard: It's been so great and not blowing smoke or anything, but you know, being able to, uh, be malleable and, and hey, this music will work in, in this situation, you know?
Sure it will. And, and as we've said with Bach, I mean. That was a no brainer writing those arrangements, because, like I said, it's so formatted, and I don't mean in a banal way, I just [00:15:00] mean, his stuff is so logical, it's so, you, You're going to mess it up. You should never mess that up. Absolutely. And speaking of folks, checking stuff out, a lot of my classes, I teach to the general population and I have played Bach.
I just did it the other day in my jazz class. Because we're talking about harmony and, and interplay and, and every time I play Bach students, , I, it happened to me, , this week. Hey, what was that again? Could you tell me, it was a non major, you know, what was that piece? You know, what was a two part invention?
You know, because they hear something in it and it relates. I get it. Absolutely. You
Dr. Sinclair: know, years ago I was, brought a musicologist here that I studied with for a number of years, a guy named Dr. Alfred Mann, who was a brilliant musicologist. And we were sitting one day at lunch and I said, who do you like or who [00:16:00] sings Bach fugues the best?
Hmm. And he kinda smiled and he said maybe the s Swingle singers . And, and, and I was, first of all, I was floored. He knew who the s Swingle singer Right, right. Was, but then I thought, wow. But what he's saying is that they get the idea of those fun lines and Yep. Dancing melodies. Oh. And uh. I'll never forget.
I was, I was just floored. I expected him to give me some austere European group or
Chuck Archard: some real unknown singer that only the insiders, whatever. Yeah. I'm swing singers. Thank you.
Dr. Sinclair: And I thought, well, that kind of says it.
Chuck Archard: And look how that introduced a lot of people, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, you know, and it was recorded so great and you know, the, the voices and, and people are like, never heard
Dr. Sinclair: Bach.
What
Chuck Archard: is that? Yeah. And it's like, well, it's Bach. Yeah. Yeah. But we. We put a rhythm section behind it or whatever, but it's pretty much what it is. Ward
Dr. Sinclair: Swingle took those charts and just wrote them for voices. His voice is singing. You [00:17:00] didn't have to change anything. So this has been to hear this loving jazz and loving spirituals.
And then realizing they actually work together, I thought really well, I can't wait to hear what this sounds like. There's a lot of things I love about this program. I love the creativity. I love we're going to hear new arrangements. I love spirituals. I love jazz. And I love it's a program I don't have to conduct.
There you go. There you go. So it's a win win for me. Well.
Chuck Archard: We may call on you. No, no, no. No, there's a couple endings where we need. Okay. So I think maybe.
Dr. Sinclair: Pear can do it. Okay. But if you need. That'd be pretty cool. If you came out of the
Chuck Archard: audience and just conducted three notes. I can do that. All right. That would be fun.
I'll show you where it is. That would be fun. Cause there's a, uh, definitely on one of mine, I think Pear is too. The very end of Oh Freedom. I have this really little big thing, you know, and then, uh, the grand pause and then Oh [00:18:00] Freedom. And then. Actually, you have four notes you can do, then you got to give, then you got to give the band.
I've seen you do it. Yeah. I think I'm getting the score to you this weekend, man. Okay.
Dr. Sinclair: That's okay. I'll just, I'll come to the rehearsal.
Chuck Archard: It, like I said, it, it, and the correlations between this, uh, and I'm, uh, Burley, you gave me that book, right? With the spirituals and some are, he took the traditional, which he didn't compose, but there were a lot that he composed deep river and all these, which I was totally unaware of.
And I start looking at them now, these folks, these are not, um, in jazz, we have what's called a lead sheet, which is the, yeah, it's the. Words the melody and the chord changes on the top, right? This doesn't have the chord changes It has the piano grand staff and then the the vocal lines, right? So I'm analyzing it looking [00:19:00] and there are some Really cool chords in when we say cool chords Complex chords.
There's a 13th chords. There's ninth chords Some of the melodies you're singing, the flat nine. I mean, these are very jazz and these were things done.
Dr. Sinclair: These were done around the turn of the late 1800s.
Chuck Archard: Yes. Yeah. And I, so I, I'm not as familiar with some of his compositions. And I was like, This is pretty heady stuff.
You know who's biggest fan?
Dr. Sinclair: Most people were not aware that one of Burleigh's biggest fans was Dvorak. Uh, as a matter of fact, Dvorak said when he came here and started the American Conservatory, he said Americans should look at the African American music for inspiration. And he became friends with Burleigh.
And then that ba dum in his Ninth Symphony is an original Uh, piece that Dvorak wrote inspired by Burleigh. He wanted his attempt to write a spiritual. [00:20:00] And so he stuck that in. So, I mean, the influence to classical music, it was, was strong, strong.
Chuck Archard: And if we're looking at through the, the, the black American, African American prism, you know, these songs have a lot of weight too, and they were used to uplift.
You know, and, and, and there are blues elements in the tunes too, where you're flatting the notes to bring that, that pathos into it also, which, you know,
Dr. Sinclair: when people ask me why I like spiritual so much, I, I have a pretty easy answer because it is maybe the most heartfelt, sincere music I've ever heard. And it was also purposeful, right?
It could have been a code. Yes. It could have been a way to communicate. Yep. It was a way to, to work. Mm hmm. Uh, and it also spoke to their faith that, you know, this life here is not good, but Yeah. We have a promised land. Right. Um, and it is the [00:21:00] most heartfelt music that I know. And so now to hear it in, in styles that I love.
Right. Oh, I can't wait. This is going to be so much fun.
Chuck Archard: Yeah. And, and, you know, I went, didn't just do the jazz thing. I went back and, and actually listened to a lot of, believe it or not, Joan Baez. Oh, I love Joan Baez. She recorded a lot of spirituals, which, you know, it tied into the civil rights movement and everything.
And, and I found a fairly recent on Spotify. Uh, a record. No, a stream. What, what are they? Of some really, and she had a great band and a full choir. I was like, this is cause I only know her from the guitar strumming. You know, I'm not a big Joan bias. I mean, I like her, but I, so I was just doing a cursory look and, and then I went deeper and deeper and so many of these songs.
Show up at the freedom marches at the, you know, the rallies, the [00:22:00] Vietnam rally, not just the silver, you start hearing some of these tunes and then they
Dr. Sinclair: speak to, they speak to a whole life of, of, of oppression and of hope, right? And so
Chuck Archard: it can come through any prism, wherever, wherever you are in your life and you can find solace in this music, you know?
And that was the thing about the blues too. When you sing the blues, part of it is, uh, I heard Brantford Marsalis talking about this, he goes, it's, it's, it's kind of like a therapy, you know, you're singing, Oh, I'm going to put my head on that railroad track and I'm not, I'm not. And then he goes, but when that train comes, I'm going to pull it back.
You know, it's like the whole first part is I'm, I'm, I'm woe is me, but. You know, the sun is shining and maybe it'll be better tomorrow. So I'm going to pull my head off the track, the railroad track. It's just such in 12 bars, it can really say a lot. Well, these spirituals are all,
Dr. Sinclair: you know, they're so profound and [00:23:00] yet.
You know, it's about as much fun as you can have legally. Right. I mean, they're fabulous to make music to.
Chuck Archard: Absolutely. And, and that's what I found. That you can, you can go and, and, and I really tried on a couple of the tunes, uh, you know, we've got these jazzers, uh, Bobby Coble and Perry Danielson, you know, no, it's a triad, guys.
I don't want to, I really, and I think on one of the tunes. Just play the track because, you know, I definitely reharmonize and I know Mackenzie's gonna, you know, reharmonize. We call him Spock, you know, he's gonna get in there. He's fabulous. Yeah. So, but just a, a simple triad. It, it, it makes the music work.
So it, and when, when I hear these, I was like, you know, I really, I reharmonize a few things, but a couple of things I just left and I did one of the SATBs, I tried to just do a real. [00:24:00] Straight ahead, spiritual, you know, with no crazy chord changes. And so when they're singing, it's just that very nice block with the voice leading and everybody's in unit 2d, you know, with the harmony and it.
It was just so much fun to, to, to learn about this and get deeper with it. And it's
Dr. Sinclair: great music. And, uh, and, and I know that the Bach Festival is, is so grateful to you for, for pulling this off for us. This is going to, this is going to be to me, one of the real highlights of our festival. Well, before you get
Chuck Archard: too crazy, these are jazz musicians.
We're hoping they show up. No, I have no, I have no doubt
Dr. Sinclair: that they'll show up.
Chuck Archard: You know, the old joke, the guy makes it, the jazz musician makes it to every orchestra rehearsal and then he goes, he goes to the conductor. Hey pops, I can't make the gig though. He makes it. Yeah, no, every it's been great. And what I did was each.
The trumpets had a liaison trombone, so instead of, and [00:25:00] then I did the mass emails, but no, it's been, you're working with pros. No, no, no. It, it, I'm kidding. It does make it easy. And I did get some responses already. From the players. They're like, Ooh, this looks fun, man. This is good. Yeah. Good. So, and they're only checking out their part.
So they tell the year together when we get it all together. So
Dr. Sinclair: I'm looking forward to the first reading. I might bop in if you don't mind. And I'm just, I'm just, I wanted to kind of at the end of this quote, I was reading a book called listen to this by Alex Ross, who is a longtime writer for the New York times.
It's kind of a ties it in beautifully said, I hate classical music. It's not the thing, but it's the name. It traps a tenacity living art in a theme park from the past. It cancels out the possibility that music in the spirit of Beethoven could still be created today. Then it goes a little ways on, and he says, I envy jazz people who speak simply of the [00:26:00] music.
Some jazz also call their art America's classical music. I propose a trade. They can have classical and I'll take the term music. I love it. So that's, he lays it out truly and I love that about jazz too.
Chuck Archard: Absolutely. And it's funny though a lot of jazz, sometimes when you use the J word it's almost like a four letter word too because It's many of the artists are not driven.
Look, we all need to make a living. Uh, yeah,
yeah.
Chuck Archard: But a lot of times with, with, and these, this is true of classical players and, and, and folks that, where it's art, where they're really trying to create a lot of jazz players. It's, it's the music first. And I'll figure out a way how to make a living later.
Right,
right. Because
Chuck Archard: when you say jazz, it, it, it, it's, I mean, we're in 2025, it's gone. If we're saying 1900 is kind of the beginnings of it. And then the first recordings. Around 1918, 1919, we have about a [00:27:00] hundred years of recorded music of this. And it's hard to put a, and that's the drag with classical music.
You can, what do you mean? What do you mean the actual time period of what we call it? Or do you, are you including Baroque, Romantic? And there's something for everyone. And same thing with jazz. I always say. Well, maybe they listen and I'm not bagging on Ornette Coleman or the avant garde that that's a tricky music to, to wrap your ears around, but if you listen to Joe beam, a boss, a Nova with Stan gets playing a killer solo, a lot of people can relate to that and, and jazz gets this, Oh, if you use the jazz word, we, we won't be able to sell as many, you know, streams or you, because people have a, A preconceived notion.
Dr. Sinclair: I know classical music, it's a struggle forever. And yet, there, we're just talked about this, jazz can be so fresh and, and we have a hard time getting people to be convinced that coming to listen to Bach could actually, [00:28:00] It could change your life
Chuck Archard: without being, you know, I'm not trying to be too, you know, obsequious, it'll change your life, but absolutely look, I did this the other day in class talking about, uh, quality maintains you quality exists and will always be around folks out there in podcast land, go check out box streaming numbers on Spotify.
Dr. Sinclair: Yeah.
Chuck Archard: He has millions of monthly listeners. His, his, yeah. Uh, and so quality left. Why are we still listen to this music? Why is it still? Uh, I listened to I've been, I've been on a far a kick lately and, and I listen to these melodies and they're beautiful. They would sound great on it. Uh, and I don't mean to demean far, but you hear all this beautiful music in, in, in soundtracks and movies.
That music would be, yeah, it's, it's just, it, it, it's not, uh, too detached or it's [00:29:00] a, you can get it, you can receive it, you know,
Dr. Sinclair: you know, the, uh, great thing about music foray. I don't know if people are well, this, you know, a fabulous composer, but do you know, he was an organist was his instrument. He never wrote a piece for organ, but he put out the first definitive.
Not transcriptions, but first definitive editions of Bach's organ music. So he was tied right to
Chuck Archard: Bach. All roads lead to Bach. See what I said? All roads lead to Bach. I mentioned that. You can, yeah. Yeah. I always do a thing with the six degrees of separation on jazz. I say, tell me an artist and I'll, you know, because I can, because jazz influenced R& B, rock and roll, you know, all these different, so you can, you can find that.
And it's, it's, it's, I would say you can receive music on so many levels. It's a great way to say us. Musician nerds go, did you hear those chords? Did you hear the harmony or the way this worked? But sometimes you, you could just let, you don't [00:30:00] have to know what the mechanics of how this was put together.
Just let it wash, let it wash you around. Yeah.
Dr. Sinclair: Let's surround yourself. Jump into. Yeah. And
Chuck Archard: it's such a treat to have this. You know, right across the street from us. And I tell students that orchestra rehearses over there and like non major music. I said, any, just pop your head in and go listen, go listen to 10 minutes.
When are you going to get to hear a big, an orchestra with a hundred piece plus choir? You know, and, and I have had students do that and, and they say, I really liked that. I didn't think I would. And I said, I know it's nothing to be afraid of or, you know, it's, it's, it's just music.
Dr. Sinclair: It's uh, you're right.
It's just music. And you know, maybe that should be the name of an organization. It's just music. Yeah. And, and my hope is with programs like this for the Bach Festival. That, like I said, the, the, the festival has a variety of the [00:31:00] pieces that got us here, the B minor mass, the standards, but we also, uh, uh, whole program on jazz and,
Chuck Archard: uh,
Dr. Sinclair: we brought in a guitar
Chuck Archard: player, Muriel, or, uh, no, who was the guitarist you brought in?
Oh,
Dr. Sinclair: Gigi.
Chuck Archard: Yeah.
Dr. Sinclair: Fabulous. That's
Chuck Archard: the, and, and, uh,
Dr. Sinclair: Edgar Meyer, Edgar Meyer
Chuck Archard: and his music. Trio for, uh, violin, cello, and bass. Uh, you could hear folk stuff. You can, he's got country influences. He's got, uh, you know, the reels and one of
Dr. Sinclair: those musicians that. You couldn't quite pin him to any singular style. There you go.
Frankly, he's probably the best at anybody, as anybody could be on all those styles. Sure. And he, and he melds them together.
Chuck Archard: Amalgamation
Dr. Sinclair: of all the, which
Chuck Archard: brings us back to when you, when you have to sell something, you have to quantify it and say, it's this. [00:32:00] And, and that's the problem with music because you re.
Stevie Wonder, okay, R& B, funk, soul, it's got jazz, he's got The answer is yes. Yes, so what, yeah, it's hard to, there's so many, and it's even, it's just gotten broader. Because we have access, I hear kids on Instagram all the time and I'm like, Good Lord, where did they, you know, and it's like, well, listen to what they're doing.
And it's just this amalgamation of all these influences that they can draw from because they, they can get, they can view it on the daily. Doesn't that make,
Dr. Sinclair: doesn't it make you wonder, put ourselves 20 years from now, we see the, we see as musicians and particularly educators. How far it has come because of technology and people can now hear all these stuff.
Right. You don't have to go and find an album and put it on. Right. You can click and hear it all. You can find
Chuck Archard: what you want. What are we going to hear 20 years from now? Now that's Well, that's the thing. Well, we can go two ways with it. One is [00:33:00] folks that are actually playing instruments and that kind of stuff.
And I'm not anti EDM and I think being a DJ, there's a skill set there. Uh, basically what's happened with the last generation is there's, I'm talking digital native things. There is no genre, which is great. There is none. Because, and I'll do a survey with students, non majors, and say, 10 people that you listen to and Billy Joel's on there and I'm like and there's my parents and then others I found this Artist or Led Zeppelin from a movie.
I didn't know who the band was, but I went and looked at so Wow Because they have access they don't have to go to I'm talking old school folks I don't have you a record store spend money too They can just search or they use this thing Shazam, right and go, you know Oh, that's what that tune is. And then they can go find it.
So there's literally articles you can find online that says who killed the genre, because what, uh, Lil Nas X, uh, old country, old town road, [00:34:00] country music played it, the country stations played it for a while, but he's kind of hip hop too, and then they took him off. Then they brought him, but they're Billy Ray Cyrus is on it.
They're like, what, what is this? Is it. Hip hop. Is it country? Is it country? Hick hop? So it became and there's so many genres now that have melded and blended So many styles because these young artists can draw from so, and they have instant access to this music now. So in 20 years from humans, it's going to be interesting as far as AI, who knows that they're already, you know, there's all this music that is already being flooded on the streaming sites that are not, uh, created by humans.
Cause if you think about music. 12 Western music, 12 notes. It's, it can be quantified and you can't say, what are the most popular progressions used in pop music? Write me a tune using that, you know, and it will spit out a tune, [00:35:00] you know? So I think. saying is it always returns to the organic. So as soon as we start, we get so far with the technology and then somebody with an acoustic guitar that can sing, you know, Adele,
Dr. Sinclair: you
Chuck Archard: know, she'll come back with just piano voice and bass guitar and kick drum and have.
Eight billion streams in her first three weeks. So, you know what I mean? I agree. Well, I'm with you.
Dr. Sinclair: Quality is going to stay. Absolutely quality. And whatever
Chuck Archard: that is, wherever that is and wherever it goes.
Dr. Sinclair: And so speaking of quality folks, you don't want to miss this big band spirituals on February 13.
This is 7 30 PM, 7 30. Thank you. And talk about original charts with, with stylistic, uh, all music. You're going to love. You're doing some of my favorite spirituals. And so. Let's wind up by first of all telling you thank you Chuck for coming to talk to us. Thank you for doing this project. It was a pleasure.
It's a pleasure. Well, you're, [00:36:00] you're, you're being kind. I know how hard this work this is. But, uh, everyone's going to get to be the benefactor of this great project. So, thank you so much. Thank you. And, uh, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening to the podcast. And as I always end with, telling you that the power of music always belongs to all of us.
And go and listen. And enjoy what you're listening to. Try to not quantify it. Just enjoy. So till the next time. Thank you, Chuck. Goodbye, everyone.