149 Sessions

Jen and Noah enjoy an in-depth conversation with award-winning pianist and composer Sumi Tonooka. Topics include race in America, the balance of career and family, the phases of life, the impact of geography on artistic process, race in America, and formation of identity as an artist and human. 

The latest in 149 Sessions conversations with guest musicians is Jen and Noah's chat with Grammy-winning saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and visionary Ted Nash. In this conversation held soon before the release of his landmark album "Transformation" (a collaboration with Glenn Close), they discuss that project, embracing a diverse range of musical activities, connecting with audiences, navigating pandemic life, authenticity, and more.  

Jen and Noah continue their conversations with guest musicians, this time Grammy-nominated bandleader, pianist, composer, record label head, and community organizer Orrin Evans. The three discuss community responsibility, the character-building of physical challenges, the future of live music, and hugs, among other things. 

Jen and Noah invite another guest, this time award-winning saxophonist and composer Caroline Davis, for a wide-ranging conversation about creativity, motivation, math, cognition, social activism, and more.  

Jen and Noah launch Season 2 with a conversation with Grammy-nominated saxophonist and big band composer Remy Le Boeuf, discussing his musical origins, approach to composing, illustrious family, and more.

Can you evaluate whether you are successful without first clarifying what metrics you're using to define success and working out the sincerity and relevance of that decision? Well, we've tried it, and it is not an ideal formula. Fortunately we have cultivated some other ideas along the way, which we discuss here.

Vulnerability is already a tricky subject, and here Jen and Noah explore the subtopic of being vulnerable in public by putting oneself "out there" as musicians or otherwise, including a look at different elements that add to vulnerability, ranging from one's inner state to the potential of sharing especially personal stories and/or emotions.

In Part 2 of this two-part discussion, Jen and Noah continue to explore what it is to experience music, particularly the physical experience therein and the elusive question of why we connect to the sounds that most move us.

In Part 1 of a two-part discussion, Jen and Noah earnestly take on the questionable task of unpacking what it means to experience music, exploring emotional, spiritual, and visceral aspects and what makes it so important for them.

Being uncomfortable. You dislike it, we dislike it, it's pretty much human nature. Yet forward motion internally, in relationships, and in society demands that we learn to sit with the uncomfortable moments that come up when we face certain truths without avoidance. Particularly at this time when many white people are reckoning for the first time with all the negative emotions that come along with recognizing their privilege, Jen and Noah thought it would be useful to have the uncomfortable discussion about being uncomfortable.

We all know intellectually that we can't predict the future and that any plans we make should be taken with a grain of salt given that uncertainty - that was true pre-pandemic and is all the more dramatic now. And yet deciding not to plan anything is impractical and often not helpful. So how does one find a healthy balance around making plans, especially in inherently uncertain times? Jen and Noah sure as heck don't know, but they have some thoughts on the subject, which they explore in this conversation.

Jen and Noah have their first socially distanced podcast discussion, an appropriate time to explore the idea of "letting go," including their own paths to loosening the impulse to cling to expectations.

Authenticity is complicated. What does it mean? How do you measure it? Is the conventional true that being authentic automatically makes your life better? Jen and Noah sure as heck don't know, but they do have some thoughts and you can hear them dig into those thoughts and some reflections on formative experiences at the basis of those thoughts.

Avoidance gets a bum rap. Kind of. In this episode Jen and Noah talk about the types of avoidance that are actually beneficial, the things that drive us to avoid (or postpone) things we really should be dealing with now, all the thorny gray area in between, and the perspectives and strategies they employ as they attempt to own and exercise agency over their avoidance rather than being passively at its mercy.

While this episode was recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak, this seems like a particularly opportune moment to think about what drives us to make music (hint: it's not the massive financial rewards). Though certainly not able to speak for all musicians, Jen and Noah contemplate and discuss their own core motivations.

The idea of "target audience" brings up visions of algorithm-driven marketing campaigns and whatnot, which we suppose is part of the world we now inhabit. As artists, though, it speaks to something more elemental: the question of who we are hoping to reach with our work and how that perception can trickle back down to the making of the work itself.

Legacy is a complicated idea, whether we're talking about the lasting body of work an artist produces or referring more holistically to what we've done as humans and/or how we're remembered for it. As artists, we need to grapple with that both with our own work/lives and with how we choose to engage and propagate the legacies of those who have inspired this. Jen and Noah do their best here to unpack some of this.

Stereotypically, comparing ourselves to others is a self-defeating mental exercise that we should avoid to the degree possible. And yet, a) we all do it to some extent and b) not all of this comparison is inherently negative (how, for example, can an aspiring artist or craftsperson assess their ability level without using others they admire as a point of reference). We dig into all of this and more, discussing how each of us seeks a healthy balance between rugged iconoclasm and acknowledging the potential good of looking at what those around us are doing.

In some ways the craving to be accepted is an indulgence of the ego that can hold us back from our most sincere pursuits, while in other ways it is a natural mechanism for social and professional survival in the world. In this episode Jen and Noah look at various angles of this phenomenon and Noah even shares his vision of the moment of reckoning when the late Phoebe Snow encountered St. Peter.

Jen and Noah have a winding discussion of fear, talking about the subject broadly, about their own biggest fears and relationships with fear, and about the helpful and not-so-helpful ways that fear impacts and motivates each of them.

Nobody enjoys living with doubts, yet for better or for worse they serve a function. Sometimes they are thorns in our sides that we need to learn how to overcome, and sometimes they contain useful information about things we need to work through or things about which we justifiably should be uncertain or cautious. Jen and Noah wade through some personal experiences and philosophies surrounding this complicated realm of thought and emotion.

Inspiration is central to both the reality and the mythology of being a creative artist. Sometimes we are flooded with it and sometimes the well feels as if it has run dry. Each of these extremes presents its own challenges - how to inhabit the moment and capture the "purest" form of the inspired ideas and also how (or if) to keep creating when there is a need to produce but we're not in the zone. Jen and Noah discuss these ideas and their own contrasting approaches to these scenarios.

Instrumental music allows for a high degree of abstraction, so unlike most music based around lyrics, a typical jazz composer has the freedom to just dig into the sounds without concern for the "meaning." And yet some creators of instrumental music seek that meaning anyway for some of their work (like Jen) or even most of it (like Noah). Jen and Noah dig into the discussion of how, when, and why this melding of abstraction and meaning occurs for them.

Jen and Noah talk about the people and experiences at the roots of their musical beginnings, from Jen's high school band teacher to Stevie Wonder.