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- [00:27]
Alison Stewart
This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Local duo Rachel and are back with another album of freshly original tunes with a retro sheen to them. You may know Rachel Price as the lead singer of Lake Street Dive, but with guitar singer and songwriter Vilre, the two of them put out songs that could fit right alongside the best of Cole Porter or Rogers and Hart. Their latest album, west of Broadway, draws from music associated with that famous street as well as jazz music from the opposite coast. Rachel and Vilre have a concert at the Town hall next Tuesday, November 18th. Doors open at 7pm we were able to get them in studio to perform a few stripped back songs. We started things off with the song Love Comes Around.
- [01:23]
Rachel Price
I never thought that love would come around again Rode with it once Then life stole it away but in his eyes there's some beckoning thing that I recognize and I'll ride wear a dress do you believe the joys of life can multiply? Because with him each day's the most sublime and he's so kind when he sings me a song in the morning time I resign to that sound of the love coming round I've heard each Joe gets just one go at paradise and when it's gone Move on and say good night but that's not right if a heart falls once again do it twice and it's nice I have.
- [03:55]
Alison Stewart
Found.
- [03:58]
Rachel Price
When the love comes comes around.
- [04:14]
Alison Stewart
Oh, that was great. Rachel and Vilre, I have to ask you, Rachel, when did you learn to scat?
- [04:23]
Rachel Price
Well, I mean, I feel like I, well, lifelong learner of scatting. I started learning how to scat from Ella Fitzgerald, but that was more of a memorization process. But I do think that memorizing solos is, is, can be the first step to learning how to scat because you're getting a feel for the vocabulary of certain changes which you're gonna come across over and over again. And. And then when I was at the New England Conservatory, I studied with a trumpet player named John McNeil. And he was really the person who taught me how to actually improvise with like some element of, you know, understanding the changes. And. But that was like 20 years ago. And then I stopped doing it entirely until Valerie and I started playing. So it's like still, I still. I feel like a little kid when I'm scatting. Every time I'm like, wow, I can't believe I'm doing this. It's ridiculous.
- [05:18]
Alison Stewart
Bill Ray, was the song written with the scatting in there or did it just happen naturally?
- [05:23]
Vilre
You know, when we play duo, it's a little bit. We don't have that many choices as far as soloists go. It's either Rachel or myself. And it could be a guitar solo, or it could be a whistle solo, or it could be a scat solo. Sometimes it's a scat solo on my end, but pretty infrequently. And so, I mean, I love the timbre and the effect of a scat solo, but it's, you know, it sort of depends on what the tune is calling for. I don't think I was particularly writing a scatting tune, but certainly it's served by that.
- [05:57]
Alison Stewart
It's so interesting to watch you do it because you have great hand movements and this great motion and, like, you're not saying anything, but I know what you're saying.
- [06:06]
Rachel Price
Yeah, well, usually I actually keep the whole lyric in my mind.
- [06:09]
Alison Stewart
Oh, really?
- [06:10]
Rachel Price
So it's kind of like that's how I try and guide it, because otherwise I think I would just get kind of lost emotionally during it. So I kind of think of myself as, like, expounding upon the lyric in my mind. So it's like a weird meditation when I'm doing it.
- [06:25]
Alison Stewart
That's very cool. Rachel and Vilre, Their new album is called west of Broadway. So west coast cool jazz and a little bit of Broadway. That's the way the music has been described. Vilre, what are those two sounds like?
- [06:40]
Vilre
Well, they're. I mean, Broadway music is just music. So it's sort of. It can be rock and roll, or it can be, you know, jazz inflected or even opera inflected. I just sort of recently got into listening to original cast recordings of classic musicals. And it's strange because I've been writing in this style of evoking the jazz catalog and the great American Songbook. But I just sort of started steeping myself in this beautiful world of musicals. And there are things that call to me from the musical catalog as far as lyricism and melodicism and humor. And then as far as the west coast cool jazz goes, it's very specific, and it's very dense melodic approach with many horns sort of sitting right next to each other. And if you listen to the Birth of the Cool, that's kind of sort of the gold standard, I would say, of it was made in New York, but it very much evokes this west coast cool thing. It's spooky and it's fluid, and it just got so. It evokes in me so much. So many different emotions. And I've been listening to it since I was 15 years old. And it kind of doesn't sound like anything else as far as jazz is concerned. I'm not sure I can fully describe it, like all good music, but people should sit down and listen to the Breath of the Cool. And you'll hear a big chunk of what inspired me for this record.
- [08:28]
Alison Stewart
What were you listening to? What Broadway albums were you listening to?
- [08:30]
Vilre
Oh, my gosh. Well, I've really gotten into Sondheim. That's sort of been my principal influence. A lot of the songs that I wrote for this were indirectly maybe inspired by a little night music. This music, this album doesn't sound like a little night music at all. But there's a lot in terms of sort of the literacy of the lyric that I think is that I found in A Little Night Music. I also really like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Just so much brilliant lyricism and fun melodies and just a great collection of styles and completely original. Of course, there's a million things that I've been listening to My Fair lady and I got into Gypsy. I went and saw Audra and Gypsy, and it was a religious experience for me. I'd never heard any of the music from Gypsy before. And then I was listening to Audra do it, and I just bought this Teddy Wilson Trio record where he plays all the music from Gypsy. And that's been a totally different experience. And it's just. It's. It's really a rich, rich world.
- [09:46]
Alison Stewart
Rachel, how does the album blend and combine the two, Everything that Bill Reese just talked about?
- [09:55]
Rachel Price
Well, all of the songs are like a character study. You really have to embody the person who's singing them in a really particular way, like this. You know, there's a song that's from the perspective of a lady who is, you know, wooing a man back to her place because she likes the lighting there. And she's, like, a little bit kooky and she's very funny. And, you know, gotta get into that character. There's a song from the perspective of somebody who thinks that the tortoise that they woke up next to in their.
- [10:35]
Alison Stewart
Home is a gym.
- [10:37]
Rachel Price
Yeah. Is a Jim. Exactly. Must be her lover who has now disappeared. So they haven't left her. They've become a tortoise. So it's like, you really gotta get into that person's. The character of that person. And obviously, there's no musical actually behind these songs. So I've had To sort of invent who they are. And sometimes it even changes by the day. You know, I'm like, oh, today she's sad, but tomorrow she's just kooky.
- [11:04]
Vilre
Confident.
- [11:04]
Rachel Price
Yeah. Confident. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, melodically and, you know, the instrumentation that Valerie was mentioning that's on the record is very much. Yeah, it's like a. It's. It's like a late 50s jazz sound. So I was thinking a lot about Sarah Vaughan, specifically when I was singing these songs. Cause I feel like that's who I really think about when I think about that time.
- [11:32]
Vilre
And we should mention our arranger, Jacob Zimmerman, who evoked a lot of this. You know, I'm just handing him tunes and saying, make it like the Birth of the Cool, you know, which is an outrageous request. But he knew just what I meant, and he does a beautiful job.
- [11:50]
Alison Stewart
I wanted to ask you about the song, the Stuff. Okay. Is it a vibraphone? Is it a xylophone?
- [11:56]
Vilre
That one is a xylophone. Warren Wolfe is on the vibraphone for most of the record on that tune. He's on the xylophone. And, yeah, the instrumentation on this record was also extremely inspired by this great Blossom Deer record called Soubrette, the Hits of Broadway or something like that. And it's. She's singing kind of obscurities. I mean, anyway, they're not huge, the main hits of Broadway shows in the 50s. But she's singing and that's got a lot of xylophone on it. And I loved it. Brings a cartoony element to things.
- [12:34]
Rachel Price
Yeah.
- [12:35]
Alison Stewart
Rachel, what does that instrument do to that song?
- [12:39]
Rachel Price
It highlights that. It's a very silly song.
- [12:44]
Alison Stewart
Will you play it for us?
- [12:45]
Rachel Price
The Stuff? Yeah, sure.
- [12:47]
Alison Stewart
This is Rachel and Jewelry.
- [12:53]
Rachel Price
They're young they're beaming they think a teeming spot is fit to kiss in saloons and stoops and shops and exhibitions too Art and to to be stopped by inhibitions they need love now in other words But I can't wait at home I got the stuff the stuff I need for love Conditions are conducive Back at home Five records on the hi Fi Are set to drop In a sequence I've devised To really stir me up at home I've got a wine A potent little hock the shops can't keep in stock this wine I've got It lingers on my tongue I hope it ain't the only one at home I got the stuff I need for love at home I've got a.
- [14:01]
Cat Don't Not a Cat a cot.
- [14:04]
Cuss twixt the door and bed A lady ought I have a place to put it to take the measure of a man out of the stuff I need for love let's talk about lighting perils this bar is half fluorescent, half obscure why do we endure it carols? We miss the twinkles in the eyes but get the wrinkles that's for sure at home each lamp has got a bulb of 60 watt it's joining 20 others in a plot to light me like I like it and stress the beauty of me and all the stuff I need for love including you among the stuff I need for love Us and all the stuff I need for love.
- [15:37]
Alison Stewart
All right. I couldn't believe this when I read this. You told Spectrum News that you and Rachel tried playing together early on, but it wasn't the right time. This is the quote. We tried once. It didn't work. And then I played a show, and Rachel came to that, and she was like, I think it would work now. And she was right. So, Vilre, what wasn't working at the time?
- [16:01]
Vilre
Well, I quit playing music for a big chunk of time after I left college, and I was working just a desk job, but Rachel was my pal, and she knew that I had been a musician. And she moved to New York and she was singing with Lake Street Dive, but hadn't been doing much jazz for a few years. And I think it was like, maybe a nice low pressure situation to sit with your friend and sing some standards, but I was so rusty that it was like I just didn't know what I was doing and really hadn't played for years and years and years. So we had one sort of embarrassing afternoon in which she brought over some charts, and I tried to read them and didn't really succeed. And then we kind of never talked about it again. And then a different friend encouraged me to play some music many years after that. And Rachel came and came to that show, which I worked out. I worked out that show for several months before I did it and did that alone. My embarrassing grunt work. And so she came and saw it, and it sounded okay to her. And she was like, maybe we could. We could do it again. And we did.
- [17:21]
Alison Stewart
That sounds like a really good friend, that Rachel. You were a really good friend to Vilre.
- [17:26]
Vilre
She's the best friend.
- [17:27]
Rachel Price
Oh, that's nice. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I was just really moved by his performance. And what Vilre didn't mention is that he did the grunt work in the subway. That's what he was doing all that time he was performing. He was just busking, which is actually a great way to just practice tunes, playing them over and over and over again.
- [17:45]
Vilre
Totally new audience, every.
- [17:47]
Rachel Price
Eventually, you were making enough in the subway that you were able to leave your job, right?
- [17:52]
Vilre
I think it was more that you and I were making enough. I was making so little at the desk job that we didn't have to make that much for me to say, because I was having to turn down some gigs because I couldn't take that much time off. So I was like, well, maybe. Maybe now's the moment.
- [18:09]
Alison Stewart
Rachel, why did you believe in him?
- [18:11]
Rachel Price
Well, I grew up singing jazz, particularly jazz from the. The 30s, 40s and 50s. And my experience trying to perform jazz was that it was a difficult, like, mountain to climb because you were dealing with people's relationships with the songs, them being. Because they were so familiar. And I was also dealing with, like, my own sort of imposter syndrome, you know, trying to, like, reinvent there will never be another you. And so I, for example. So I stopped and, you know, I had. I had Lake Street Dive, and we were doing original music. And so I found myself, you know, doing that full time. But so when I heard Bill re show, he just did a bunch of obscure songs that I didn't have any relationship to, but it was the music that I grew up and that I loved. And I do think that, like, the harmonies and the melodies from this time are, like. They're just extremely efficient for your emotions. They hit you really, really hard. And so I was so overwhelmed by how beautiful they were and to have this new experience because I didn't know any of the songs. I was like, oh, God, I can't believe that song you played. And he's like, yeah, that's an old Fats Waller tune. You know, things like that. And so it was that. That feeling of, oh, this can be fresh and new, that caused me to, you know, ask him to let me sing with him. And then I think the next gig after that, Vilrey had one. One new song. He wrote a song for us, and then he kept going and going, and now it's almost all original to Vilre.
- [19:44]
Alison Stewart
Was there any chance you were gonna work in any other genre?
- [19:48]
Vilre
Oh, yeah, sure. Tons of. I mean, I write country songs every once in a while.
- [19:53]
Alison Stewart
Oh, that's kind of interesting.
- [19:55]
Vilre
I mean, it's a little just like jazz. There's, like. There are forms and, you know, rules that you can conform to or break. And, I mean, I think Every style of music has. Has conventions that if you know them, make things a little bit easier to write in that world. And I love country music, but, you know, I think in some ways it's very. It's good for business, I think, to be a little bit pigeonholed and to say, well, you know, this sounds like something that you're familiar with, but, you know, it'd be interesting to experiment in a world that was like a little less easy to identify, you know, with the language of the music business.
- [20:42]
Alison Stewart
Okay. The last song you're gonna play for us is Off Broadway and it features Stephen Colbert.
- [20:47]
Vilre
Yeah.
- [20:48]
Rachel Price
Yes.
- [20:48]
Alison Stewart
How did that come about?
- [20:50]
Vilre
We were at his birthday party and Cash. Cash, yeah.
- [20:55]
Alison Stewart
As one does.
- [20:56]
Vilre
As one does. And yeah, you know, the night wore on and we put it in his ear that we were making a record and would he ever consider maybe guesting, you know, in a skit or in a song or what have you? We weren't. I didn't have a song in mind. And he said yes, you know, in a very non committal way. So, yeah, as we were preparing the record, the last song I wrote, I was like, well, I have to have a song that we could pitch to him. And so I wrote this song. That's like the idea. The joke to me is it's three people standing around saying Broadway is the worst. You know, you'll get your pocket picked. There's tourists everywhere and the theater sucks. You know, you can't listen to musicals anymore because they're bad. And so these are like grumpy people. Grumpier than I am or Rachel is, or Steven is. But I thought it was a funny joke to me that this guy who goes into work every day on Broadway is saying, get off Broadway. His character is. And so I wrote this song thinking that it would work for the three of us to sing it. And if he didn't want to sing it, we could sing it as a duo. And he was very generous to say yes a second time and come in and spend a few hours with us and record it with us. It was such a fun afternoon.
- [22:25]
Alison Stewart
And he might be a little grumpier next time when you come back to town. Exactly. For a little reason. So.
- [22:31]
Vilre
Exactly.
- [22:32]
Alison Stewart
Let's hear Off Broadway from Rachel and Vilre.
- [22:45]
Stephen Colbert
Broadway is the dream of a lifetime for kids of every age. When I was little, I'd hold my fiddle and bow as if on stage. Broadway is also a street and streets have a gutter and gutters trip feet. You could say my fiddle cracked and there's no second date get off of Broadway that bush and Broadway go find a little reprieve where no tourist tugs at your sleeve Asking you which way is Broadway? When he's standing on Broadway and Broadway's got a sign on it that he won't believe. Get off of Broadway that hide your walkway go safely show off your green Pay for drinks where you can be seen. You'd never do that on Broadway. Cause the rats on Broadway in broad daylight will pick your pocket clean Just off of Broadway. Well east of the prairie domes they do things God's way Far enough from fellas humming all the show tunes off of Broadway the slobs applaud a mediocre melody at best can't tell Richard Rodgers from the rest they ought to get off of Broadway hear the downtown jazz play and put these words of wisdom to the test. Oh yes, young men go west of Broadway or east of Broadway? Oh, off off Broadway is best. Sam. Oh yes, young man go west of Broadway or east of Broadway. Oh, off off Broadway is best.
- [25:55]
Alison Stewart
That was Rachel and Vilre performing a few songs from their latest album, west of Broadway. They have a concert at the town Hall Tuesday, November 18th. Doors open at 7pm.
- [26:08]
And that is all of it. Be sure and tune in tomorrow for an hour of two Handers plays with two people when we speak with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. They are real life friends and they are starring in Waiting for Godot now on Broadway. Kara Young and Nicholas Braun are starring off Broadway in gruesome playground injuries. They will join us as well and then we'll have an hour devoted to art. The late Wifredo Lamb is featured in a moment in a huge new show and we'll talk about an exhibition called Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.
- [26:56]
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