(lively jazz music) - Hi, I'm Eric Funk.

Tonight on 11th and Grant, Adam Platt anchors three acclaimed jazz trios, showcasing his original work.

(lively jazz music) Adam's trios take listeners on endless musical journeys with their adventurous style of improvisation.

(lively jazz music) - Trying to kind of A, B between different styles, in sort of an erratic maybe way, unexpected ways.

That's the best.

I like the feeling of a little bit of fear, keep you awake, you know?

And stretching a little further than you ever stretched before.

(energetic music) - Pushing boundaries and ever evolving, (energetic upbeat music) it's Adam Platt, next on 11th and Grant.

(energetic upbeat music) - [Narrator] 11th and Grant was made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends and values of importance to Montanans, Montana State University, office of the president, Quinn's Hot Springs Resort, the Gillhousen Family Foundation, Donna Spitzer-Ostrovsky, in loving memory of Jack Ostrovsky, the godfather of the 11th and Grant, Iris M-L Model, Sanderson Stewart, enduring community design, Music Villa, proudly offering Gibson acoustic guitars, Bill and Jane Gum, Sal and Carol G. Lalani, Poindexter's, inspired technologies for a more vibrant life, Bob and Karin Utzinger, Mary Routhier, the Rocking R Bar, Stockman Bank, and by these generous donors.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (soothing music) - You kind of did a biography or an autobiography of yourself through the music that you play, taking pieces that you wrote as a little kid, you know, up to more current things, but also jumping sort of stylistic approaches so that when we get to your Dance Fight stuff, it's so completely different.

And suddenly we've got the thing that's kinda slapping you around a little bit.

Take us on a verbal narrative, an excursion of Bozeman, Montana, to New York City and points in between.

And you know, how you're sort of representing that through a soundtrack of your life.

I mean, it's kinda what it is.

- Yeah, I thought it was like a good way to maybe try and make a varied episode that involves some of the things, I couldn't get all of it in there, but sure, growing up in Bozeman, and then getting into jazz, seeing local jazz scenes like yourself and Michael Blessing, Craig Hall, fantastic, Rob Kohler, all these wonderful musicians that we met.

My parents, they came home one summer and I'm playing a blues riff from an Elton John record I think, you know, just was bored and didn't have anything to do at the summertime between school.

It was like between first and second grade or something.

And they said, that sounds bluesy, that sounds jazzy.

And they said, do you want some jazz lessons?

I was like, sure, I didn't even really know what it was.

And then, yeah, so then they did the greatest thing, was take us to gigs.

And so that brought us together, my brothers, so we could start playing together 'cause he was doing drums.

And so yeah, so then we could finally play together.

That was, that was it.

You know, I mean 'cause then Rob Kohler probably stepped in and Craig Hall in different times and played with us.

From there was the Leaf and Bean once a month, and started to grow, and then there was some rock bands, 'cause my brother and his friends, obviously a little bit older, were into rock bands.

And so I was like getting into some keyboards, and all of that stuff happened between probably age, you know 10 and 12, 13 until... You know, 12, 13, I was gigging three times a week or four times a week playing restaurant gigs, and doing solo piano stuff and doing trio and quartet at the Holiday Inn, and that formative part of my life, I think then just sent me into sort of...

I just had all these sort of avenues.

I had my own rock little band thing going, and different stuff.

I had psychedelic bands and I had, you know, trios and quartets and different things.

And we were recording with Rob Kohler, and it was, you know, Platt Kohler Trio was definitely named that, and we played a lot of shows.

For me, Platt Kohler Trio is, it's very organic to this place, to Montana, and to family.

Then, you know, moving to Boston to go to school, and went to New England Conservatory and Berkeley, both very different schools, but really grateful for getting both sides of it I guess.

'Cause NEC has sort of a mystique.

The curriculum is like what curriculum, you know?

Each teacher is kind of doing different things, but they're all brilliant and really interesting.

So that was one thing I got, and then the Berkeley method was very pragmatic, you know.

And yeah, I'm studying with Joanne Brackeen who is a monstrous musician, but she's perfectly happy to hold every student accountable to these really, you know, bullet pointed kind of things that you've gotta do technically, and even, oh, I tried to impress her right, and my assignment was play a standard in front of me, in time.

That's all my assignment was, for the whole semester, other than the technical stuff right, it took me 12 weeks.

Every week I'd come in and play for her.

She say, "Well, you dropped two beats in the second chorus, and you know, you dropped another one later, and you know, rushed the tempo," or did something, you know, that she said wasn't quite in time.

(chuckles) And I kept playing all this creative stuff and thinking I'm so hotshot piano player, I've done all this work in my life.

Like this should be a piece of cake right?

And that was just so humbling, 'cause finally, when I finally did it right, and she said you did it right, it was just because I simplified my playing.

She never asked me to knock her socks off, she just said play in time.

But it had to happen first, that foundational thing had to be, and she said, "No one's gonna hire you If you drop beats," you know.

It's different than how creative you can be or anything, this is real working stuff.

(bright music) - AP3, you can tell, they know you really well just because of the way that they punctuate.

They know how to go into dialogue with you.

They know, you know, when they can interrupt and how they can run alongside you and it's pretty cool.

- Julian on bass, especially with the AP3 is like sort of a master of staying out of my way, while simultaneously like thumping and playing super loud.

He's not being shy, you know, and yet he sort of disappears into the background somehow in this crazy way.

And every time I have a thought like "Maybe I won't go to the bridge," he already like hears me thinking it.

And he's like ready, 'cuz he's like, "Mm-hmm," 'cuz I like to extend forms a lot of times, especially when we're live and we're not like on a time crunch, we're trying to fit things into an episode or something, but just form to me is like really malleable.

And I find myself just doing this, like no stay on that part.

And then like, okay, take the bridge fine.

He will roll with literally anything that happens, which is like the same thing as what I do in the band, and how he's just, that's nothing for him just finding common tones and pedal tones and little things.

He can do little tricks.

- Well meanwhile, your drummer with AP3 is so melodic.

So he's building and not only is he building counterpoint with one voice from his whole set, he's got all of the different registers, who are also in dialogue with himself, in dialogue with both of you guys.

- I like how he incorporates the entire drum set in his phrasing, without ever like sounding like he's trying to take a drum solo.

- Yeah.

- You know, 'cuz a lot of drummers will just like it's like one or the other, right?

You keep time or you fill.

But no it's like, no, this is a blend all the time of us always keeping time and always filling and always waiting for each other to have the right moments.

And it takes special people to come together that way.

- And I notice that you rely sometimes on those guys, so that you can float.

- I have to.

- And then you just can get completely in your own world.

And then they've got these reminder things, where you just can be able to drop right back into the groove.

- Because I mean, we all want to prove to each other that we have like some sort of of like amazing musicianship, right?

We're just like tracking the groove in all these amazing ways.

And I have no doubt that we all can do that.

But is that the most important thing?

Or is it that we really listen and make sure that we sound good together?

We're not like playing music on the stage at the same time, but we're playing music on the stage together and making it, I can feel the texture.

I can feel like a textural, I don't know how to describe it exactly.

It's like when we are all actively feeling, it's a kinesthetic feeling almost.

During the time in college in Boston, meeting many of the people that are still some of my best friends, couple of which were here for the shoot, Ben, Benjamin Wright and Ian Miller, both I've known since the Boston days.

Electronic music was really big at that point in time.

So I think that really paved the way for me not to think of myself as an acoustic piano player all the time, but rather really like getting an identity for the FX units and things that I was into and what's my voice on a synthesizer?

What kind of music would I come up with?

And then when we solidified the Dance Fight that we've had for the last, I don't know, 15 years or something, trying to kind of A-B between different styles and sort of an erratic maybe way, unexpected ways, take as many different things and sounds that I could come up with.

That's the best.

I like the feeling of a little bit of fear to keep you awake, you know, and stretching a little further than you've ever stretched before.

And then getting comfortable with that and then stretching further and getting comfortable with that.

And you're just always pushing that.

- You are a risk taker.

You always have been, you get out where you don't belong, you're always trying to scramble for high ground or not.

You go, "I'm drowning.

I think I'll just keep drowning."

- I think I'll go through the center of the earth and see what happens.

(Eric laughing) Why not?

- Exactly.

- Because it's music, you can't have those kinds of physical rules to be scared of.

So I think Dance Fight was trying to rebel actively trying to represent something that no one had really thought of, or it was just kind of pointed in a direction that was kind of just slap you and wake you up, you know.

(solemn rock music) - [Narrator] 11th and Grant was made possible by the Greater Montana Foundation, encouraging communication on issues, trends and values of importance to Montanans, Montana State University, office of the president, Quinn's Hot Springs Resort, the Gillhousen Family Foundation, Donna Spitzer-Ostrovsky, in loving memory of Jack Ostrovsky, the godfather of the 11th and Grant, Iris M-L Model, Sanderson Stewart, enduring community design, Music Villa, proudly offering Gibson acoustic guitars, Bill and Jane Gum, Sal and Carol G. Lalani, Poindexter's, inspired technologies for a more vibrant life, Bob and Karin Utzinger, Mary Routhier, the Rocking R Bar, Stockman Bank, and by these generous donors.

(upbeat jazz music)