Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Spencer Evans on Ray Charles
82 Plays10 days ago
Spencer Evans is a working musician in Kingston, Ontario. He joins Mark and Joe to discuss the influence that Ray Charles had on him as piano player and entertainer, as well as the impact that Charles had on the history of music in America and the world.
Spencer is an old pal of Mark’s, back from their days at Queen’s University (in Kingston, ON), when they were both members of the cabaret group, Queen’s Players.
“I know for a fact that Spencer can play the hell out of a Ray Charles song. And sing the hell out of it too!” Mark says of Spencer’s choice of musical pick.
“He embodies everything that music is to me. The passion, the artistry, the individuality, the fighting against chaos,” Spencer says. He talks about how many facts of Ray Charles’ early life were stacked against him, yet did not prevent him from becoming an incredibly influential figure in American music.
For more information, check out the show notes for this episode.
Re-Creative is produced by Donovan Street Press Inc. in association with MonkeyJoy Press.
Contact us at joemahoney@donovanstreetpress.com
Recommended
Transcript
The Signature of Spencer Evans
00:00:08
Speaker
Did I read this?
00:00:12
Speaker
Does that sound like something you would have written? It sounds like something I could, yeah. yeah When Joe did that as our sting, I'm like, that sounds like something Spencer would write. Really? You didn't tell me that. ah Yeah, no, it I never said that. yeah If you told me to come up with a five-second piano bit, that probably sounds something like that, yeah. Oh, wow. Exactly.
Introducing Spencer Evans
00:00:32
Speaker
yeah So we should introduce our guest right away. it' Spencer Evans, welcome to the podcast.
00:00:37
Speaker
a So obviously a musician, Spencer. Yeah. Yeah.
Spencer's Musical Journey
00:00:45
Speaker
Full time, full time. 35 years. Okay. Now, Mark, do you want to ask your question or do we just want to hold off the question? No, I want to ask my question because I think Spencer has an awesome answer for it. And actually, I feel like as I've been listening to Canadian media after the election in the US, I feel like we need to throw a little love their way. And I want us to talk about our favorite American cities.
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah. Is that the question? what are Do you have you have a favorite American city? I have one. I know, I know Spencer does for sure. but you know Because this is Spencer, just so you know, i'm also I'm trying to get to know Joe better on some of these questions too. Okay, all right.
00:01:28
Speaker
You know, I honestly haven't been to that many American cities, but, uh, the ones that I have been to, I mean, I've been in, you know, uh, I've been to Washington, I've been in New York, I've been in, uh, cities in Florida and on the way to Florida, had one memorable 20 something hour drive to Florida back when I was 22. But, uh, I really liked, uh, Washington, what I saw of Washington. And I want to go back to to Washington, but not for at least another four years.
00:01:58
Speaker
see what happens and then maybe decide. We're trying to throw the Americans some love. Come on. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. Well, I could throw the American cities some love. And there's plenty of Americans that I love, obviously. Yeah, of course. Absolutely. Yeah, because I love them. Yeah, mine would be New York, I think. New York City, because I've been a bunch of times and I always just have so much fun when I'm there. Yeah, I love that
Why New Orleans?
00:02:25
Speaker
town. It's really fun. The music's great.
00:02:28
Speaker
Lots of Irish music, which I love. Lots of Irish drinking, which I love. So that would be mine. How about you, Spencer? Oh, New Orleans, Louisiana. Yeah, of course. OK. Yeah, I'd love to get to New Orleans. Oh, yeah. The stories I could tell. Oh, my God. Yeah. Amazing. It's just that city. And I knew the second I played there for the first time in 1992 that it was going to have a huge impact on my life and it has.
00:02:58
Speaker
in many ways. Wow. Okay. Well, we'll have to hear more about that. But at this point, why
A Career in Music
00:03:03
Speaker
don't you tell us who you are? My name is Spencer Evans. I am a musician who plays a piano and other keyboards. I'm also a c clarinetist and a singer and a band leader. And I've worked with live music full time for about 35 years and done just about all of the performing types of jobs that you could imagine from theater to television to being, ah you know, in a part of a movie shoot, touring, of course, all over ah Canada and America and Europe with various bands, ah recording a bunch with so many different people. and Of course, I have my own record out too on Spotify, you know, of course, and and other streaming platforms. Yeah, you know, music has just been my passion and and my job for forever. And I just keep doing it. And now you and Mark went to went to school together, right? Oh yeah. We should get that. Yeah. Full disclosure here. Yeah. That's that's new that's why I'm here. Yes. Because me and Mark did hang out at Queen's University in Kingston, which is where I still am. I did to move around. I was from very humble beginnings in Picton, Ontario, but I did end up in Kingston.
00:04:27
Speaker
in 1985 and did four years of university here where I met Mark and a host of other fantastic individuals. And and after moving around, ah I came back to Kingston in the mid-90s and Oh, you know, did the usual, but bought a house and had a couple of kids and a minivan and, you know, and but that certainly did not squash the dream. I i
Musical Legacy: Father and Son
00:04:52
Speaker
kept playing and I've played nonstop since. so Yeah, you've made a good one. My son is an amazing musician. He's really, really hot. so What does he play? He started out as a drummer and then evolved into bass playing and then he evolved into trumpet playing and studied at humber
00:05:10
Speaker
in toronto to get serious jazz sensibilities and jazz education with some of the top musicians in Canada. wow so Did he play with the, do they still have the Humber Jazz Ensemble? Well, things have changed at
The Ray Charles Influence
00:05:23
Speaker
Humber as of late. I mean, he he's 25 now so his fourth year was COVID-ed out and cancelled and I've heard that since then it's become more of a musical theatre program and that the heavy emphasis on jazz isn't really there as much.
00:05:38
Speaker
Because I have to say, one of my favorite pieces ever is Stella by Starlight, played by the Humber Jazz Ensemble. I feel like I'm pronouncing ensemble a wrong. Ensemble. Ensemble, yeah. Ensemble what? But it's amazing and you can't get, I've never been able to find that recording. I heard it in my late teens, early twenties and I've never been able to find it since.
00:05:59
Speaker
Yeah, I bet if you go to the Humber archives or get in touch, because what they did was they would record all of their jazz ensembles and all of the students when they graduate in fourth year, they have to produce and compose and arrange and record a record in their studio, which is a beautiful $10 million dollars studio. Wow. So that was probably done there. And it's probably on a CD somewhere, but I bet you you could find it.
00:06:25
Speaker
I mean, there's so many great, Stella by Starlight is such a phenomenal masterpiece of a song that you really won't find a bad version of it anywhere. No, but this is stunning considering it was done by students and the trumpeters ah hitting those high notes. And yeah, it's, um, and you don't even know who it was, like who the trumpet lead trumpet, like as obviously it was a student who yeah probably arranged it and, and put it together and hired other,
00:06:52
Speaker
You never know. These could be giants of jazz trumpet nowadays. like there are That's true. They are out there. like Kevin Turcotte is a major Canadian trumpet player. You never know. it Maybe it was him as a student or something, and he's gone on to you know be in Miles Davis and all kinds of other things. Mark, I have to warn you. I have thousands of questions for ah Spencer, so good luck getting it worded and edgewise. That's great. That's fine.
00:07:20
Speaker
Well, actually I wanted to jump straight into your your musical pick. You wanted to talk about real Ray Charles, and I think that will actually open up this conversation quite a bit, because I know for a fact that ah Spencer could play the hell out of a Ray Charles song and sing the hell out of it too. Well, I don't know about that. oh yeah yeah Really, I just wanted to start with Ray Charles just because He embodies everything that music is to me, the the passion, the the artistry, the individuality, just the fighting against. There's a great Albert Camus quote about how when when there's chaos all around, there's an order pushing back from inside of me. When there's hate all around, there's a love pushing back from inside of me. you know there was you know If there's confusion, you know there's there's clarity. and like
00:08:13
Speaker
whatever is bad, there's something better inside of me that is pushing back. And Ray, of course, you know grew up with nothing, like poorer than poor. The man lost his brother. He lost his vision. He lost his mother. He lost you know he didn't really know his dad at all. So many things were stacked against him. and you know And I could go on about other great American icons who, Elvis and James Brown and so on and so forth,
00:08:43
Speaker
basically came from nothing. Anyway, I grew up in a in a very, you know, white-angle Saxon Protestant home with lots of classical music. Both my parents loved music, but, you know, they it was more like choirs and, ah you know, operettas, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rodgers and Hammerstein, old show tunes. And I don't know where I heard Ray Charles for the first time, but it it changed me and it just just to see him. I think it might have been him singing America the Beautiful on television, like just, yeah everywhere um and then the piano is like raising up and then and there's a blind guy and he's 20 feet in the air on this little piano platform and there's fireworks going off all around him and he's just he's just singing the hell out of America the Beautiful. and And it was just the first time you hear so many of his iconic songs like Drown in My Own Tears and It's Crying Time, the country tunes that
00:09:37
Speaker
What did I say? The Georgia on my mind that I got a woman. It's like, I just go on and on. It's like the first time you hear those songs, you know, you'd have to be like just completely non-musical to not get a thrill out of hearing. Ray Charleston, of course, as a kid, I'm hitting record stores and I'm buying every Ray Charles album I can find. And there are a lot. I discovered his early, early recordings way before he was famous and very jazzy. A jazz piano, guitar, bass, trio. So no drums, just really smooth, jazzy, kind of Matt King Cole style vocals. That was a big influence on him because that he was a big star when Ray was coming up. And so and then of course, you know, the big bands thing, these lush ballads, these incredibly orchestrated blues songs like, Oh, we're gonna send before we met. And this the band just kicks in. is a Whoa. And you know and i'm I'm a teenager surrounded by Gilbert and Sullivan records. And I'm just
00:10:37
Speaker
listening to this going, oh my God. And you know that was just that was just my intro into jazz and blues and improvisation and gospel and just real, real music to me. And that music has guided me through my life. it just I can always go back to it. And it's obvious it unlocked something in you. Yeah, it did. it did Yeah, a spark went off and Ray Charles was that spark. And of course, you know so so were many others to follow.
00:11:07
Speaker
But Ray Charles was the first time I could sit behind a piano and feel a connection, like a real heart connection. Because there's so much reading. You know, as like five years old, I'm in a choir, and I'm reading whatever, Psalms and ah various services. and and And then, of course, all through school, you know, you're doing piano lessons, and then you're playing clarinet and band, and then you're in choirs, and you're in orchestras, and you're It's reading, reading, reading, watching, learning. And and and you're trying to create an art, but none of it is coming from inside of you. It's on a page. And Ray, you know, obviously, I don't know if whether his blindness touched me somehow. You know, I'm thinking, well, there's this guy and he's he's blind. But he, you know, so obviously he's not reading anything. But he learned how to read music ah through Braille. So I learned that later. But the fact that
00:12:05
Speaker
You can't describe soul, like what makes James Brown, what makes Aretha Franklin, what makes, what is the sound? Otis Redding, you know, these are soul artists. It's very hard to describe. It just hits you like lightning. And when you hear that music, I mean, when I heard that music, it it changed me. And
Connecting with Audiences
00:12:26
Speaker
then, you know, other things happened in my life, which really affected me in terms of soul, you know?
00:12:33
Speaker
We are souls. We're just trapped in the human body. So there you go. So what were those things that, that, that changed your connection to that music then? Cause you were like, you got it. You kind of were like into it, but then yeah stuff happened in your life that you understood it better after that happened. Yeah. Well, yeah, we, we travel, you know, we, we meet musicians and we have experiences, uh, in life, like say, uh,
00:13:00
Speaker
Things like death, you know, that's a big one. When people people around you die, people who are close to you. Also, when when you are performing, when you really find that connection. And I mean, we had that to a certain degree when we did our shows at Clark Hall. When the audience was truly into the show and you could feel that energy coming back. Mind you, they weren't into it because we were playing really soulful, groovy music.
00:13:27
Speaker
they were They were surely enjoying all of the harmonies and all the things we worked on and crafted for them. And of course the jokes and the timing and the goofy choreography and everything else that we did. Ray Charles entertained. He wasn't just an artist. as He knew which side his bread was buttered on. You had to go in front of people and entertain them. And I've always been that kind of a guy. Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to just kind of ham it up and do something funny and do something kind of show offy on the piano and show show people what I got, you know? I don't know why, but when I started performing music, I was just so into it. I just, my head was going and my my everything, my body, I was just feeling this music, like electricity through me. And I was like, this is just how I connect to music. And if if other people are into it too, then and great. and
Diverse Musical Experiences
00:14:23
Speaker
Well, people still are. I can still go up, and I've i've had some great musical moments, and ill I'll remember them. But it's really just music, and it's going to happen whether or not you've got a huge concert hall with thousands of people being very quiet, listening to every note, and then huge applause afterwards, which has happened a few times, or whether you're in a noisy bar. Most of the people are really drunk, but they're really giving her. They're just giving her.
00:14:52
Speaker
and It's, you know, it's there's nothing like that. Like, you know, you know, that's because of the music you are bringing that and the groove and the things you are doing for them. They are responding in that way because that's, you know, that's what it's all about. It's connection. And I love it.
00:15:09
Speaker
If anyone's ever in Kingston, Ontario and you have a chance to go to the Toucan and check out Spencer playing, there is nothing better. He's like, he's like a live action Muppet just up there on a keyboard playing his heart out. And yeah, I mean, you're great, man. You've always been great. Thank you, Mark. I love you too.
00:15:28
Speaker
ah Sorry. wow So I got a couple questions in before you got there. jo okay Well, I hardly know where to begin. I mean, so you studied at Queens. Is that where you learned music or did you learn it kind of on your own on the side or how did that work? yeah Yeah, you know, music was just it's a calling. And, you know, it was certainly a lot of musical knowledge was gained before I even went to Queens because I was in these church choirs and orchestras. So I was I was playing a lot of piano, I was playing clarinet all through high school, and I actually studied clarinet at Queens in a classical, it's a very classical program. So if you were making any music up, improvising, as we call it, it was wrong. Do not improvise ever. You must play what the masters have written for you. so But improvising is what I do, and it's what I've always done. I've sat behind a piano, and I've come up with ideas, and i've just toyed with every sound that that comes into my head, and I've i've made it happen. So if it's if it's pretty chords, or if it's like a theme, or if it's funky and it's digging in, if it's rock and roll, if it's reggae, if it's soul, if it's salsa, samba, you know, if it's bosa, nova, as I hear these sounds, and they just come to me, and i and and if I can't do it, i I start decoding. I start trying to unravel what is the mystery of this chord, or this rhythm, or this melody. Why is it affecting me?
00:16:55
Speaker
So i I get right inside and I work at it. So that's just very self-directed. So my musical knowledge is is really, it's on me. Classical clarinet and composition and analysis and conducting, it didn't really play into my my musical career at Queens. but when I left Queens, songs degree, I might add, just because I, I was gonna say, did you manage to get a degree? because I don't, know I don't see you actually yeah vaulting over that need to there's no, no at the end of my name. But yeah, anyway, but it didn't matter. It so it doesn't matter you matter. By the time I finished Queens. Yeah, I was playing in a in a bunch of bands. Yeah, we're working all the time. And and You know, Kingston was a very healthy music scene yeah for people like me because I could play in this blues band on Tuesday night. I could play with this rhythm and blues band every Wednesday night. We could play with our wild funky soul band on Friday night. We could do weddings and parties on weekends and and play variety gigs, you know, where you just have a bunch of people who just want to have a good time. So it's like, okay, and we'll do these
00:18:08
Speaker
fun medleys of songs, mashups, and things like that, and just keep people drinking and having fun all night. And sometimes we'd play these gigs and they'd go till, if they were private gigs, they'd go till four in the morning. You
Life in New Orleans
00:18:20
Speaker
know, we play eight hour gigs, you know? It's like, here's another hundred bucks, keep playing. And I was like, okay. That was a lot of money back then. So it it was very healthy. And then in 1991, I met a songwriter named Pat Temple. It was my first original.
00:18:36
Speaker
music Like, um you know, we played covers. we didn't We weren't into, like, writing songs that just wasn't our jam. So this guy was writing cool songs that really suited my clarinet style. It was kind of a hillbilly jazz, western swing style, and plus a piano. He was writing all kinds of different songs. We ended up touring across Canada, and I had my first experiences of that, which was really neat, playing original music every night, also making zero money.
00:19:04
Speaker
ah which is always exciting, you know, it's the it's sort of life on the road in Canada as an indie band. And then the Cowboy Junkies, who were very big at the time, 1992, they hired me because we were on their label. They had a little record label. And so I ended up touring the big time with them and lots of really cool things like playing the Tonight Show and traveling with John Bryan for months and he was part of our our tour and we would split up our our our gigs with him and yeah and just lots of really great experiences that led me through so many other things, you know, travels and working with the so other
00:19:49
Speaker
Amazing artists, you know, holy cow. I want to ask more about that but first I want to explain that you're borrowing a setup from a friend's place Who's also acquainted with that mark and to the rustling around that we heard in the background I don't know what George was doing, but it was very loud Yes, yeah we apologize George. Sorry for that. He's no no, that's that's okay He wrestled and he has left but he may be back and that's that's what it will be if it is what it is No no more wrestling. Yeah, we went So, okay. Yeah. So you, ah you you kind of, uh, had a little bit of a taste of the big time there with, uh, the cowboy junkies and playing a Johnny Carson and, and like, and it was Jay Leno actually. Oh, it's a Jay Leno. Okay. thenno Yeah. He'd just taken over. Yeah. It was just, you know, when you're on the road, it's just another big gig. Yeah. You get off the bus, yes. Your tour manager tells you where you are and you're like, where are we? Oh, we're in bird bank. Okay. Uh,
00:20:43
Speaker
Here's, it follow this guy. But when you're at it at a gig and if you're doing a big show, and I've done a few big, like we're talking like 10, 20,000 people out there. If you're doing a big show, you just walk out and you just play your music and then you go back and you, know you know, whatever. So you're not nervous at all when you do that? No, no. Because you just, you know your stuff so well or? Yeah, you know your stuff so well. And really all these gigs, I'm the piano player.
00:21:09
Speaker
or the clarinet player or whatever. i'm i'm My job is to support whoever is out front. So if it
The Philosophy of Entertainment
00:21:15
Speaker
was Margo Timmins or Sarah Harmer or you know Jill Barber, I've worked with her, Good Lovelies, these people, Canadian musicians, Jeff Healy, these are musicians that I've got to share stages with. It's not about me. I've just got to play well. And so I'm focused on that. And you can't really distract me from that task. It's something that i'm I'm good at. you know i can I can nail it down a part in the studio if I have to, or i can if I'm on stage, I can bring the right energy and and just yeah just do the thing. you know It's all just a laugh. you know You just sort of go, oh, that was interesting. Because it goes by so fast.
00:21:55
Speaker
You know, it's a half hour or an hour at the most. or I have an anecdote about this. I got to share this because spz you probably don't even remember this, Spencer. But I mean, he's a genius. Like ah he's a musical genius. I remember we're out of rehearsal. So this would have been our fourth my fourth year.
00:22:10
Speaker
I was directing the show and Spencer was the musical director and rehearsing, so we rehearsed a lot. And most of the rehearsal was musical rehearsal, right? Is that fair to say, Spencer? The lines were pretty easy to remember. It was mostly the music, and the music was, I think we did a pretty good job for what we did. Oh, we had great songs. We had about 20 great songs, though, so we had a lot of things to rehearse. Yeah, a lot. Anyway, so Kim, do you remember this? Kim Kudible came in and she was really frustrated because she had this crazy instrument she was trying to learn. I don't even know what it was. The thing was like, it was a woodwind instrument. It was probably three and a half or four feet long with a little tiny bell at the end of it. Like a bassoon? No, it wasn't even a bassoon. It was a soprano something.
00:22:59
Speaker
ah Soprano did you? And so she's like, what's wrong? is that I just came from my lesson and i I can't I can't get this thing to play. And and she'd been at it for a weeks. And Spencer said, do you mind if I try? And I don't know what you did exactly, but you played some kind of jazz thing on it, like just boom, like that. You just started playing it and you could see the look of Kim's face. It's like, oh, what am I doing? I should just stop.
00:23:29
Speaker
And that is Spencer. in thathell he I don't think she ever learned how to play that instrument. I don't think she did. No, but you can play it, but you were able to play. it i I mean, you are a virtuoso on the clarinet. I can play some, I can play some pretty good clarinet and I'm pretty good piano player, but that is it. And it's probably the same principles. That's why you could play it, right? Well, you know, those are, those are kind of like, they're very soft. They're pretty easy instruments, you know, a drum set, an acoustic bass and a trumpet.
00:23:58
Speaker
which are the three instruments my son has mastered. Those are way harder instruments. Drums require just so much patience and inner inner timing, which I don't have great inner timing, as my son tells me all the time. We just play in time. And I'm like, I'm trying here, man. I'm like, geez, give me a break.
00:24:19
Speaker
But, you know, so those are those are like master instruments, you know, like a concert harp, like, ah you know, those are those are really meaty instruments. And, you know, piano, I played my little piano for the last 50 years of my life. But, you know, the and the clarinet, too. Those are I haven't branched out into a lot of things. I'm not a
Musical Influences and Genres
00:24:38
Speaker
studio guy. You know, I get called in for sessions. But it's I know keyboard players who they can do a remote track, they can just sit, do a track, send it off.
00:24:47
Speaker
There are high-level professional musicians out there. I don't really consider myself one. I'm a professional musician in the sense that I make a living at music, but I'm not like one of the the go-to guys that you know your average Toronto musician would call for, I think. Even though I love Toronto, and I love going to Toronto to sit in with with bands and and do things with my Toronto musician friends. but i mark I feel like he's ah underselling himself. I think he's totally underselling himself. yeah mean You can also you know you could play you could play any style. that's i mean That's something that not everyone can do. like you can play like You can sit down and listen to something and then play it and play any kind of style of music too. but now So how do you compare to ah Ray Charleston? have you
00:25:39
Speaker
You can probably do his repertoire. I love i love Ray Charles' repertoire. His style, the way he his his his his inflections, his his ah accents, is is just his is rhythmic approach, everything about his style kind of spoke to me as soon as I heard it. You know, like the opening of, what did I say, for example, you know, and i I think of kids who want to learn how to play piano and they Either they can go, found don and bed you know, it's like either they can do that or they can't. It's just like, I don't know what these three notes are, but I can't do it, you know, because the requires a certain thing. You got to either have that in your soul or it's like, you know, kid, I can't really teach you how to do this. You have to just like find it. And ah jazz piano is very much the same when you're when you're learning how to do proper voicings and chords and rhythms.
00:26:36
Speaker
You have to find it in in yourself. You have to really forge some kind of ah creativity out of yourself and really, really glycate. you know You have to burn and cook and figure out what it is that you are doing. and that's That's a life's journey. you know It is. it's just You have to do it. and If you want to be ah somebody who's playing gigs for a living, which is what I do. so Are there any moments in your career that that stand out where you felt like you really captured something or or treasured that moment to this day? Yeah, yeah, there there's a lot, you know, there's a lot. Just give
Memorable Performances
00:27:22
Speaker
us 15 or 20.
00:27:23
Speaker
um Take us back to New Orleans. Yeah, New Orleans, the first gig I played in New Orleans was with Cowboy Junkies, and we're at a place called Tippetinas, which is one of the legendary music halls in the United States. And it's no seating place. It's all standing two floors with a balcony on the second floor. And Alan Toussaint is in the audience. I didn't know this.
00:27:49
Speaker
I mean, it was a real hard decision between Alan Toussaint and Ray Charles in terms of starting points. I discovered Alan Toussaint's music much later in terms of my first, you know, so I went with Ray just because that was my thing. But but Alan Toussaint, Professor Longare, Tippetina is named after one of his songs. And Professor Longare apparently was a janitor in this building and during his sort of dark times where he had his fame had somehow waned.
00:28:17
Speaker
And his musical genius had somehow been left behind, but of course he had this huge resurgence at the end of his life with the last few years of international touring and everybody going, oh, first of all, all all through the 90s, you know, I was touring, I was playing, I was doing these amazing shows and, you know, and then, you know, life, you know, kids, you know, it's not like my music stopped, but I became much more Kingston based. And i've done I did a few little tours. I toured with but Sarah, of course, she's also a Kingston area.
00:28:47
Speaker
ah person and we played some fantastic shows and you know from New York to l LA and all over Canada. But there are definitely moments that you just really feel a connection with an audience. And this happens at the Toucan when I'm playing with my band, Ghetto Express. We are playing some badass, very early 70s-inspired funk.
00:29:11
Speaker
and you know, so the keyboards are flying or guitar players wailing, you know, or everybody is just in a pocket. They're in a zone. There's a band called Greyboy All-Stars, Carl Denson. and And we're kind of like that. We're just like old guys playing funk. And the audience you are not old guys. The audience are like a lot of Queens age people and just out on a Friday or a Saturday night. they They don't know who we are. They don't care. They won't even remember being there probably, but They're having a time. They are hearing this music for the first time that isn't current pop music. This is like 50 year old funk and it affects them. You can really see it and and i and I love that. And I love doing shows at churches, you know, for benefits and things like that where you'd have an audience that's really listening and you can really just sort of
00:30:05
Speaker
play beautiful sparse things, you know, it might be like a Christmas concert or a Christmas benefit for something altruistic and and wonderful. Like, and you know, I did something for AIDS in Africa for grandmothers who had lost their children and were raising their grandchildren because of the AIDS epidemic. And I had written a piece, a suite. And so I had my veteran bass player and my veteran drummer And I had written that and written it out. I'd composed it all. And we'd done a couple of rehearsals for this thing. But the feature musician was my seven-year-old at the time. He's 25 now. But he was my seven-year-old son. And he was playing this beautiful djembe that his grandfather had brought back from Kenya. And so he's he had he had it that time. And this is a packed church, probably 500 people packed into the Chalmers Church. and
00:31:02
Speaker
and you know and i had set this thing up for a big djembe solo where we're just and we stopped and Oscar just went on this djembe and it was perfectly in time and he was just cool as a cucumber like he wasn't nervous he wasn't he was just on top of it and when he when our piece stopped with a big flourish you know 500 people stood up and cheered and clapped and and Oscar was just like yeah and they made he immediately started undoing his djembe from the strap. Completely nonchalant, you know, and me and the other guys are standing up and we're bowing and the bass player says to me, says, you know, that applause isn't for us, you know, right? You know, and there's just so many serendipitous moments, like, of course, you know, they tragically hit the guys, well, not Johnny, the drummer, but the other guys were all Queen students. And we
New Orleans and Its Challenges
00:31:58
Speaker
knew each other back then. But I was in New Orleans.
00:32:02
Speaker
You remember Manoj manga, right Mark? Yes, it is. oh yeah yeah Okay. oh yeah So when I, when I played in New Orleans, he was living there. He was doing his residency at Tulane Hospital. Oh, wow. i did not know that He did that. Yeah. So we met that night and he said, you should come back and visit me and, you know, and stay at my place and come to jazz fest. I was like, Oh, okay. So I go to jazz fest and it blows my mind and his,
00:32:30
Speaker
neighborhood and his hospitality were amazing. And at that moment, I knew I had to live there. So he set me up, let me stay at his place until I found an apartment. He let me borrow his MG, his British convertible, and I'm bombing all around New Orleans with this in this car, driving across the Pontchartrain Express across the lake. And It was amazing. I found gigs. I was able to work as a solo piano player in the this oldest, one of the oldest bars in New Orleans called the, well, one of the oldest bars in the United States. It's called Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. And it was the blacksmith shop owned by Lafitte Brothers, who of course were slave traders and contraband and weapons. They defended New Orleans from the Northern troops when they invaded during the Civil War. They were,
00:33:25
Speaker
scoundrels, you know, at least. But their blacksmith shop has been a bar since forever. And since everything else in the French Quarter burned down and being a blacksmith shop, it didn't burn down. So it's been around since I think the 1700s. Anyway, there's a piano bar and I'm in the back and I'm playing piano and I'm making my money $100 a night, all in $1 bills from tips. I had run of the city. I had, I had great friends and I ran into the hip on the street.
00:33:54
Speaker
just one day I was walking down the street to my gig and they're like, what do you got? What are you doing here? wait that Tragically. ah yeah tragedy okay Yeah. So anyway, yeah, this is like 1993 or four or whatever. But they said, well, shit, you should come in and, you know, check out our our recording studio. And they're in Dan Lanwa's recording studio at the edge of the French Quarter, this amazing manner. And Steinway grand pianos, and two or three of them and, you know, different floors that you know, this whole thing, this whole setup. So I laid a track down on Day for Night, which is the album they recorded down in New Orleans. And I played it like a little whirlitzer. I wanted to play the Steinway, but, you know, grand piano in a tragically hip song didn't really work, you know, back then. So I used this little whirlitzer electric piano. I don't really think you can hear it on the track, you know, it was kind of like a ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah, it was the song that goes,
00:34:51
Speaker
and make me feel the same way an inch an hour to feed a day. and maybe maybe maybe And I don't know what I was doing, but it didn't really matter. But we smoked a lot of joints and we had a great time. But the city of of New Orleans, it's got a lot of problems. And it's much like the rest of the world. the Poor
Diverse Styles and Influences
00:35:11
Speaker
people are just getting poorer and more and more disenfranchised. And the wealth in that city, the billions of dollars that they they have access to from oil and gas industry, to gambling, to just the tourism industry, and how they just don't seem to to ever you know support the infrastructure that's crumbling in that city. like Just the roads, the streets are just incredible. You drive your car anywhere in that city, you could be dealing with a major accident, you know just your your car getting
00:35:45
Speaker
driving into a massive pothole. like You just he just wouldn't see that in most places in Canada. but And you know it's it's it's a tough town, and but I love it. And all of my musical heroes, outside of Ray Charles, who was born in Florida, Alan Toussaint, Professor Long hair, James Booker, who is also known as the Bayou Maharaja. These guys played piano and expressed themselves through piano and through their writing and their creativity in ways that they're like the holy trinity of piano players in in New Orleans. And i' I've done a lot of work on their style as well. And as a clarinet player, the clarinet players from New Orleans, you know, from Pete Fountain, of course, everybody knows, but George Lewis and Irving Fisola, and there's a guy, Bruce Brackman, who I love.
00:36:40
Speaker
Evan Christopher. I mean, these guys, they're just names that most people don't know, but to clarinet players and piano players, especially people who are into jazz and into those really funky piano sounds, they're so important. they're They're vital, you know, they're just, and that it's my heart. it just Music affects my heart, and that's why i I have to constantly do it. And I have to work hard, especially with my son, who's a rather advanced jazz musician and we work together and he's he's on me. He's tough. He'd tell you he's get it together, man. you know I know this is a really unfair question, but I got to kind of ask this because do you have one genre that does it more for you? Like, is it jazz? Is it funk? i i your Your version of spinning wheel
00:37:39
Speaker
is for me the definitive version? Well, you know, okay. So it's definitely, I mean, jazz came from blues, right? Yeah, of course. So you have blues and blues is the bedrock of all of these forms of music. Yeah. So none of us could live without blues. None of us, even country fans could not live without blues because it all came from that. So really, it's all blues to me. Okay.
00:38:09
Speaker
my My piano style, my sensibility, it's not a sophisticated jazz. Even though, hey, I love Duke Ellington, I love Oscar Peterson, but when you listen to those artists, you can hear a lot of blues in there. And when when jazz got funky in the 1960s with the Boogaloo and you know guys like Horace Silver wrote these. so just dirty, nasty, funky. Like he didn't sing or or write lyrics to any of his songs. They're all piano instrumentals. But they yeah, something that that's a real switch clicker for me, because that's, that's where that's really where my brain, all of these musical styles and it could also be very manalo or you know, it could be it could be it could anything like I mean, there's just 1000s of songs and styles
00:39:04
Speaker
that live, as they say, rent free in my brain all the time. So if we had a piano here and we were like hanging out at at Spencer's Piano Lounge, we'd be like, hu shoot me some of that you know stuff. And I'd be like, yeah. and and you know It's a conversation that you have. I would imagine that, yeah, your repertoire at this point is probably such that you're rarely stumped. I get that a lot. then the Oh, you know you can't stump me. But honestly, any music from the last 35 40 years and probably I don't know what it is. I mean I like some new songs, I like some new artists and sometimes you know in my in my dance forward bands we might have to play something oh I don't know by Daft Punk or I don't know some something like that. I don't know like we do some some songs that are kind of groovy and and fun but all of that music from the 1920s jazz and the
00:40:03
Speaker
the cab Callaway, you know, era, the jive, the the big band, the swing. and when When the big bands they became smaller and and jazz became more compact, you know, all those classic ah Dizzy Gillespie and and Miles Davis tracks and all those really fun Nat King Cole songs all through the 50s, 60s, 70s, the disco, the funk, the 80s. We remember the 80s pop to a certain degree. And then it's just like blank.
00:40:32
Speaker
And then to me, everything just became this. And yeah,
Evolution of Music
00:40:36
Speaker
and when the 1990 hit, it was just everything became the 70s again. It's like everything in the 80s was the 60s. Everything in the 90s was the 70s. I just felt like there was a huge throwback to 70s funk bands and everything. And then obviously in the 2000s, everything became 80s. And basically we've been in this relentless cycle. I find that a lot of young people that I know they really like the older music. They kind of wish they had proper music to listen to. It's out there, but you do have to do some digging. And I do have some favorite new artists that I really like, but they're, you know, mostly middle-aged guys like ourselves. I'm sorry, music to me has to groove. It has to groove. yeah I have to hear bass lines. I have to hear keyboard parts. I have to hear funky drums. yeah i have and So yes, I have to hear a band jamming.
00:41:30
Speaker
That's just what I've always loved about music, is that conversation that you with the musicians. Yeah, okay, and a good singer, Tay Tay, good singer, you know and yeah and good writer. But you know who's the keyboard player? Who's the bass player? Who's the drummer? Who are who are these guys? It didn't matter. Probably a different guy every night. It wouldn't matter. you know As long as you can do the job, read the chart, do the part, you know whatever. You're not gonna get a keyboard solo out of those guys. You're not gonna get something that's super cool jamming, you know. One guy I love is John Batiste, who's a New Orleans guy who, of course, was famous in playing Stephen Colbert. And he's, you know, he does, he he's touring and doing things now. But he has this wonderful bridge between badass funk and blues and the history of of black music in America.
00:42:23
Speaker
to Rachmaninoff and Beethoven. and And he can just bridge these things, you know. And he's just got this stellar talent. And he's super funny and cool guy. So and that's a new artist. But, you know, that's just what I emulate, too. I go into the music. And I really, the packaging and the the success, it doesn't mean anything to me. And what I love about the music, especially when I'm playing it, which is what I get to do quite a bit,
00:42:54
Speaker
iss that It's happening. It's on. yeah and yeah There's a great song called It's On by George Duke, who is an incredible keyboard player who worked with Frank Zappa and had a bunch of his own groups. and But if you go to YouTube and look for It's On, it's Marcus Miller plays bass on this track and he's also amazing. But anyway, music is on. and And when you're on stage with people, even if it's a small band or a big band or a small crowd or a big crowd,
00:43:21
Speaker
That music is happening, whether people are listening to it or or getting it or not, because the guys on stage are getting it, and they are creating this thing. And we know, unless it's being recorded, that it's gone after this moment. And ah you know the other night at the Toucan, our drummer had a little digital recording device, and he he recorded our our funky yeah set for the first set or whatever.
00:43:50
Speaker
and It sounds cool. It's like, yeah, that's us. And then we're, it sounds like it just, as you imagine, you're on stage with the band at the Toucan and, and you know, we are little jokes and a little banter in between songs, but, uh, that's, it's just, it means so much to me and it means so ah so much to my, my people that I play with, especially getting a chance to play with my son. I feel sorry for people who are,
00:44:16
Speaker
original artists who are really trying to get their music out there and trying to make a living on playing their music. Paul Schaeffer once said you know that people who just play covers, they are just as important. They they are just as important as people who are songwriters because somebody's got to play the music. and Exactly. Somebody's got to entertain. like Ray Charles was not really known for his, I know we're going back to that guy, Ray Charles. no why not yeah but But, you know, he, sure he wrote a couple of songs. I think he wrote Hallelujah, I Love Her Soul, which is kind of and a medium well-known hit. But all of his great songs, and what did I say, of course, he wrote, which is basically just a 12-bar blues done with it with a little keyboard lick that I was singing to you earlier. You know, his music, he just, he he found lyrics he liked, he found melodies he liked, and he just,
00:45:12
Speaker
He may made them his own. he he had the He was just so brilliant at just doing his thing. And I think that the great
Music as a Universal Language
00:45:22
Speaker
musicians just do what they do, and they're so good at it. And I could i could name off a hundred musicians that I just admire, idolize. I love them for how they do what they do.
00:45:37
Speaker
and I think that's all we really want as musicians is for people to see us and go, wow, that's, that's old Spence doing his thing again. As you know, Mark, like I haven't changed.
00:45:47
Speaker
You know, listening to you talk it, um, like I'm thinking of the, the moments of musical connection that I've experienced ah in my life. And I keep thinking of this one night, you know, close to 40 years ago in a bar in, uh, in Summerside. And, uh, I don't know why I was ah alone at this particular time. And there was one guy on stage playing the guitar, no idea who he was playing this version of Walton Matilda, you know, the, Oh, yeah. Extended Australian. Oh, the band played waltzing material. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I just remember being so touched and moved by that performance in that song at that time. and It was just, yeah, there's there's connection between the musician and and one guy me still thinking of it 40 years later. Yeah, it's what an incredible story. And I mean, because you had had you seen the movie Gallipoli at that point, you know, that that story,
00:46:38
Speaker
you know, that that song lays it all out there. And when it gets to the end, and it's like, well, you know, it's, it's beautiful. It's Eric Bogle is this beautiful songwriter because he also wrote, uh, Oh, the green fields of France and yeah, some other songs. One of the things that Mark and I talk about occasionally with people on this podcast is the purpose of art. What do you, what do you think about, what is the purpose of music to you? Well, music is first and foremost, the original language, really.
00:47:08
Speaker
hello People communicated without words. People communicated with rhythms and they communicated with sound. And and then you throw in the element of, well, now now we're were we're creating something together. like You know, like the Three Stooges, if I go, hello, and you go, hello, and Mark goes, hello, and he's like, oh, we just saw the major triad, oh. You know, there's humor, there's there's this's instant connection there. there's and And when it gets into rhythm and dance and ritual and just the beauty of it all. And and and you think of every everything that's going on in the world right now that is is just so God awful.
00:47:57
Speaker
But somewhere there's a concert happening. Somewhere there's a guy arranging for an orchestra. someone Somewhere someone is composing something that's, or maybe it's being performed right now. It's a world premiere of of this, who knows? Is it a string quartet? Is it ah is it ah is it a big band with it with a clarinet player and he's wailing? And it's, you know,
00:48:22
Speaker
it's People are connecting to music all over the world right now. People are feeling all the feels about it, and some people are dancing. And it could be, you know, hey, it could be a DJ, it could be some kind of EDM the concert where there's like 100,000 people all on ah whatever party drug they're on. But, you know, they're still feeling it. Daniel Leviton, a great Canadian music scholar wrote, this is your brain on music. and for lot There's a lot of research into you know how how it affects your brain. And the beautiful thing is, especially in Kingston, I know a lot of people, like my friend George, whose place I'm at right now, and many other people who come out, they are not musicians. They do not play anything and have never really played an instrument. But they love music. They research it. They they get into it. they they they They feel what I feel when I listen to
00:49:24
Speaker
whatever It could be a piece of classical music. like It could be anything. But were we're together. We're looking at each other. We're listening to this music. And, oh, you know, you don't have to say, did you hear that? You know, we did the can tell just by listening to it together. We don't have to discuss it. And, you know, talking about music is, you know, like dancing about architecture, as they say. You know, you're just, you're, there's the disconnect.
00:49:48
Speaker
i I saw that in a bathroom stall, I think. agree one Now you said that you have an album out. If there's one truck of yours that you've recorded from your album that that we can play at the end of this, so what what would it be? Oh, wow. that's That's a really good question. It's an interesting story about this record because I did all this touring with a lot of these bands and musicians and I'm a session guy and a keyboard player in in
Ongoing Projects and Legacy
00:50:18
Speaker
funky dance bands and jazz and and blue is in all these things. And if I'm singing and performing and entertaining at ah at a bar ah sometimes by myself or with a trio or whatever, you know, I'm singing, of course, I'm singing all the Elton John and all the Billy Joel and all this stuff people want to hear. You know, they just want to hear some good music and stuff and rock and roll and whatever. So it took me years to come up with an idea for an album.
00:50:46
Speaker
And then it took me a few more years to really make the call to the studio. And luckily, I had one of the best recording studios around, which is the tragically hips studio called The Bath House, which is this old 1850s manner outside of the village of Bath. Beautiful grand piano. Beautiful Hammond organ, which is the classic organ. The B3. The B3, yeah. And drum sounds.
00:51:16
Speaker
amazing, like beautiful mics on the drums, this gorgeous room so you can hear the drums. And I had about three or four different drummers, three or four different bass players in different tracks. Some of it is solo piano with I overdubbed some clarinet on. There's only one vocal track and I got my old buddy Sarah Harmer to sing a vocal track. Wow. Nice. Oh, God, it is so good. I love her voice. a greek voice yeah It's ah it's a blues in the night. We did a couple of blues in the night. Oh, God, it's beautiful.
00:51:46
Speaker
And anyway, there's some kind of fun, whimsical, funky, very 60s inspired tunes. But there's one song that I really i thought of as an ode to, ah new well, a couple of very strong New Orleans themed songs on it. One of them is called Back to the Big Easy. And it was inspired by, I just kind of came up with this kind of cool top to bottom a bluesy piano lick.
00:52:15
Speaker
but da re baby be bad And it features that classic, what they call the second line a shuffle. A second line is is in a funeral in New Orleans. There's there's the funeral procession, the family, and and then everyone behind is partying with the umbrellas and they're doing the dance down the street. And that's the second line. So it's part of a second line, but it also features a gospel, a little gospel break, like you're in ah in a Baptist church in New Orleans and you can hear that really strong two and four. And you can hear that clapping and you can see it. You can see the bodies raising and jumping and giving praise. And on that back to the Big Easy track, I got to do the grand piano and the organ. And when you listen to the the like the band, lot that's a big part of the sound. It's Garth Brooks and Richard Manuel, the piano and the organ happening at the same time and sort of interplaying with each other.
00:53:10
Speaker
so that's That's a big part of the sound. It's like there's parts of the organ comes forward and the parts of the piano comes forward. And I had a great rhythm section on that track, identical twins from Westport, the Cowan brothers. So they they played great. And that's kind of a fun track that features ah or some cool organ. And I mean, I never get to play a B3. There are no bars with B3 organs. in them and It's kind of an instrument that I only would get to use in a fancy recording studio. And I really got to use it because it was my record. It was my time. I was paying well ah by the hour for this record to be made. And so it was my baby and I got to do it. I was so exhausted by the time this record was finished that I've never done a second record, even though I am actually recording an album tomorrow wow with my myself with my son.
00:54:03
Speaker
That's so cool. He has booked the room and the recording engineer and the equipment and has hired a professional guys. I'm going to be playing some piano and some clarinet on my son's record tomorrow. And he's not playing bass or drums. He's just playing trumpet. That's what he wants to do. This is just one of his things. So so you can look for Oscar Evans. He hopefully he will be in the headlines soon sometime. You know, I don't know how these young musicians are going to make make it work.
00:54:31
Speaker
you know, but he'll find a way. I think he will. He will. Spencer, any final thoughts then on Ray Charles or the subject of music? Well, Ray Charles is music. Ray Charles is great. Ray Charles is so important because he, much like in Quincy Jones, of course, the late, great Quincy Jones, he said, you know, when I'm in a studio and whenever question of money came up. As soon as money comes into it, God leaves the room. and Because, you know, he would be doing these multi-million selling records. But at the time, it was just music, music, music, music. And Ray Charles was like, he didn't care if a million people bought his records. He just wanted his music to be great for himself. And I love that. We're not around here for long. We're gone.
00:55:28
Speaker
music.
Conclusion and Appreciation
00:55:29
Speaker
There's so much more music to be made. Long after we're dead and there will be great music. It will be great if if people want it to be. And I know my my son, who is also blind by the way, ah has an incredible ah gift and he really wants to represent himself as best he can whenever he gets a chance to get on stage. So he's He, I think he is great, but I think he will be great. And ah because he ah he he believes in the greatness of music and it doesn't have to be a fame thing or a money thing. It's just what makes music great is those moments that we have, that we share with other people or maybe, you know, you've just had a terrible breakup and you're driving around in your car and you're listening to love, don't love nobody.
00:56:25
Speaker
by the Spinners. Listen to that one if you've got a breakup. And it's like, oh, you know, just the way he sings it. It takes a fool to learn that love don't love nobody. And you just, oh, it's so, it just, the pain and the sadness, it sets you free. The blues sets you free. Jazz sets you free. Rhythm sets you free. Melodies that you can sing in your head and and the earworms that we have.
00:56:55
Speaker
That's it's all setting you free. That's taking you out of your life. It's taking you out of your body. And when you can dance and seriously get down to music and feel feel uninhibited and just just shaking it and letting it loose, that is what music does. And that is what it will always do. I'm just part of that continuum, it just which is a now ah experience. It's not the past or the future. We're just in this moment. It's all quantum physics, man.
00:57:27
Speaker
That's great. Okay. Spencer Evans, thank you very much for being ah on our podcast, Recreative. Thank you, Joe. And thank you, Mark. Great to see you. We'll see you in Kingston. I'll see you at the toucan or Carnegie Hall. I'm not sure. you know yeah or Whatever happens, I'll play the Capitol again. I'd love to. but yeah i I think, I don't know if I will be working with anyone famous for a while. It seems like it's been a couple of decades since. i so Are you kidding? After this podcast, they're all going to be reaching out to you. They're going to be calling me. Hey, you never know. I know so. Hey, Spencer for hire, man. Spencer for hire. All right. And now I think to take us out, Spencer Evans and back to the Big Easy. Yeah. Okay.
00:58:28
Speaker
so
00:59:41
Speaker
so
01:01:59
Speaker
You've been listening to Recreative, a podcast about creativity and the works that inspire it. Recreative is produced by Mark Rainer and Joe Mahoney for Donovan Street Press, Inc., in association with Monkey Joy Press. Technical production of music by Joe Mahoney, web design by Mark Rainer.
01:02:18
Speaker
You can support this podcast by checking out our guests' work, listening to their music, purchasing their books, watching their shows, and so on. You can find out more about each guest in all of our past episodes by visiting recreative.ca. That's re hyphen-creative.ca. You can contact us by emailing joe mohoney at donovanstreetpress.com. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening.