Laurin Talese is the first guest of the new MusiQology Podcast hosted by Dr. Guy. Their episode, which launched Monday, April 2, featured the two musicians in conversation around influences, histories, and expertise.
The MusiQology Podcast is available at the following podcast platforms:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-musiqology-podcast/id1366597827 (Also available on the Podcasts app)
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/musiq…/the-musiqology-podcast-episode (Also available on the Soundcloud app)
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-musiqology-podcast/e/53924828?autoplay=true (Also available on the Stitcher app)
Give a listen, leave a comment, and let us know what you think!
One of the best things about music is that it can fulfill so many conversational holes among close friends or total strangers. You might see a passerby wearing t-shirt of a band you like and strike up a conversation. Lovers might bond over musical tastes while on a first date. Musicians might talk chord changes and solos in between jams at a session.
This constellation of conversations around music gives it meaning—as professional jargon, common ground, shared passion, collective experience, and more. When you have a conversation with Laurin Talese (as our editor John Vilanova did), the first guest of the new MusiQology Podcast, these resonances and meanings spring from her—she takes seriously the vocation and calling of musicianship.
“I first learned about Laurin on social media, which led me to her music, which is just so luscious, warm, and creative,” Dr. Guy says of the podcast’s debut guest. “She just has it all. And when I finally got to meet her, she had a gig at South and I checked it out. Her stage presence is amazing; she has this kind of throwback charisma that is elegant and graceful. You can’t help but be engaged.
“When I sat down with her, I learned she was a really truly studied musician, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in jazz vocal performance from the University of the Arts,” Guy continues. “She’s a student, teacher, and practitioner of the craft of music — and she’s dynamic and successful in all three roles.”
Here’s our conversation with Laurin Talese.
MusiQology: How was your experience recording the podcast with Dr. Guy?
Laurin Talese: I had never been on a podcast before, but it was great. It was a very warm setting. I felt like Dr. Ramsey was just so…His questions were great and you could tell that he really just understands music. It’s great talking to somebody who has a deep understanding, appreciation, and working knowledge of the art form. It was a great experience.
MQ: What separates an average conversation around music from a great one?
LT: In this case, there’s a certain level of respect that develops when the person who is asking the questions actually cares about it beyond that surface level. That is huge. Talking to people who haven’t necessarily studied or thought through all kinds of music or haven’t gone deeper, you wind up having a shallow experience. But when the person on the other side of the microphone knows the many genres and has references that are steeped in history, tradition, carefulness, and thoughtfulness, it just makes for a more natural and exciting conversation overall. It was great talking to someone who respects musicianship in general and to know what that is.
MQ: What gets in the way of the kind of conversational depth you’re describing?
LT: Even with a lot of interviewers who work in the industry, it might just be a job for them. Or they may just be a journalist and they have general questions that they would ask somebody but not get to the heart of things.
MQ: That totally makes sense. It becomes almost like painting-by-numbers, when music is not just lyrics and notes on a page or words and sounds sung, and it’s certainly not just an mp3 file. It seems like the person who knows this and applies it to the craft is someone who takes seriously the job of being a musician. What is a musician to you? What is music, for that matter? And why does it exist discursively and socially and emotionally? What is a musician’s job?
LT: Music is all of those things, but it is also very spiritual. It’s not necessarily religious always, but it is spiritual in that you are communicating feelings that can’t be put into words often. There’s emotion in melody. There’s emotion in chord progressions. Sometimes that message is, “Get hype, get happy, and celebrate.” Sometimes that message is healing. It says, “I understand. Let this soothe you as you’re going through this and that.” It can bring clarity and communicate.
It’s the job of the musician to get to the heart of the matter – to be open, clear, and vulnerable enough to communicate those things that they naturally have inside of them. And to communicate them as honestly and openly as possible. Depending on what genre you’re working in, your frame of reference, and who you’re working with, doing that job can be really easy when you have a lot of room to move and express yourself. But maybe sometimes you’re not experienced enough to know what the heart of the matter is and what you have to communicate. Maybe your journey is still happening. Either way, it’s the job of the musician to get you there.
MQ: What is it about talking about music in this way that makes it the type of conversation that can wind up being vulnerable and intimate?
LT: When you talk about music, you talk about yourself. You have a very unique perspective. The songs you listened to when you were growing up may be different from everyone else in a room. The way you are brought to a song will be different than everybody else in the room. When you talk about the things you love the most, if you really love it, it’s hard for you to hide your true emotions, excitement, and feeling. You can play it as cool as you want, but when someone talks about…When was the first time you knew you could sing and what happened around that? It naturally brings you to such a place of joy…me speaking specifically about myself, I love to do it so much and it’s so much of a part of me, that to even talk about the genesis of that is so…It’s really genuine and authentic joy I experience. When you let people in there, you can’t help but to go there and stick around.
Laurin Talese is a jazz vocalist and performer. Her recent album Gorgeous Chaos is available at Amazon and other web retailers. See her perform with Bilal on Thursday, April 19 at the Ardmore Music Hall in Ardmore, PA.
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