Hornsby, Bruce - pianist/songwriter
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
For avid readers of TheCelebrityCafe, you know that Bruce has been somebody I've been waiting to interview for some time. Bruce talks with us about piano playing, his transition and music, and answers some of the questions that die-hard fans have been waiting to have answered.
DM) I've waited a long time for this.
BH) Why would that be?
DM) Why? Because in 1986, my mom asked me what I wanted to study after
school, and I said I wanted to learn the piano because I wanted to play "The
Way It Is" like Bruce Hornsby.
BH) Oh great, did you ever learn how to play it?
DM) Yep, on piano, and then I also learned how to play it on the guitar.
BH) (laughs) That's great.
DM) After that I just started to buy the CDs and tried to copy you note for
note.
BH) Oh, really. Well, it gets harder to copy me note for note as the record
goes on, because the stuff gets harder.
DM) I noticed. Thanks a lot! (both laugh)
BH) You got to keep up.
DM) I was starting originally with "The Way It Is", and the next one I chose
was "I Will Walk With You."
BH) Yeah, I could have seen that. That's one of the best songs on that
record. It should have been a single.
DM) Okay, just like in 1986 when I decided to play piano because of you, who
inspired you?
BH) (laughs) Oh, Elton John and Leon Russell. At the same time, I was
listening to Joe Cocker's records.
DM) And you named your children...
BH) Yes, Russell and Keith, after Keith Jarrett. I wanted to name one of my
sons Leon, since Russell was a first name too; that worked out well.
DM) As of late, you said that your vocals have improved. Who have you
listened to lately that inspired your singing?
BH) Well, mostly old soul music. The old gospel records of Sam Cooke with
his group the Soul Stirrers, Al Green, Marvin Gaye. I can't even touch that,
but that's the influence. To me that's the great singing. Oh, Ray Charles
too. In my concert I do some Ray Charles and Sam Cooke tunes: "That Lucky
Old Sun" or "How Far Am I From Canaan."
DM) Well, the only big question I always had was regarding the musical
change that you've gone through. I guess I subconsciously divide your
records into two stages, the first half and the second half, with the first
half going up to "Across the River Dan," and the latter half sounding much
jazzier from then to the present; and the two stages can almost sound
radically different.
BH) (laughs) Well, I'm a lot better singer now than I was then. That's one
major difference. That's just better, frankly. If you hear my new live
record and then you put on the first record, you won't even recognize the
people. You listen to the version of "Mandolin Rain" and then the original
record, and you won't even want to listen to the original record anymore.
They're that much different from each other..
DM) Somebody once described the difference as being, "Bruce Hornsby went
from being Bruce Hornsby and the Range" to "Bruce Hornsby and the Grateful
Dead."
BH) That's an easy thing to say, because I did start to play with them; but
the Grateful Dead was not so much about jazz music, and a lot of my more
recent music has really been influenced by the jazz language. Besides, I
don't sound anything like Garcia vocally. (laughs) My influence has really
been more from R&B... old Sam Cooke records. So that's an easy thing to say.
But there is some truth to it in that the records did get more adventurous
from "Harbor Lights" on--I guess actually from "Night on the Town" on. The
records did really get to be more about soloing and stretching out. Hell,
two of my biggest top 40 hits, "Valley Road" and "The Way It Is", have a lot
of soloing in them. Not your typical top 40 arrangement by any means, but
later on, I did start doing that more, and I think that was definitely
influenced by the Dead.
DM) But "Valley Road", "The Way It Is", and "Mandolin Rain" have much more
of a "pop feel", for lack of a better term, than anything recent.
BH) (laughs) Yeah, right. Now, mind you, there are a few things on the
last record that are very pop. But not in the same sense; once again,
they're a little more R&B, but there are songs like "Swan Song", which is
very much like an older song of mine, "Swan Song, Fortunate Son"...there's
always been a few moments in the later albums for people who wanted me to
make the same record every time. I could never do that, because I'm just too
restless musically, I'm just too interested in moving. If they want that,
they can hear those records. For the people who want an update on those
songs, they'll get a lot of that on this live record. There's "Red Plains",
there's "Road Not Taken", there's "The Way It Is", there's "Mandolin Rain",
and "The End of the Innocence"...and there's "Valley Road" and "Jacob's
Ladder", but they're radically different form the original record.
DM) I remember at about the point of the transition, there were articles and
articles describing the new Bruce and the old Bruce. Some people felt like,
"Wow, this is great" and others said...
BH) Why don't we do the old thing. That's just their taste. Some people
like the more straight pop sound, as you say, and others like it more
adventurous. That's just a reflection on what they like as musical listeners.
DM) But do musical tastes change as much, or do they grow and develop?
BH) I think most people's musical tastes do not grow. I think that they
stay very rooted to the music they like through the college years, and that's
it. There are lots of great exceptions to that.
DM) What are your current musical tastes, then?
BH) My thing is different. Music is my life. I'm an avid pursuer of new
music. If I made a record that illustrated the range of my taste, it would go
from everything from modern classical, very dissonant, to the most simple old
folk song. The mass populace would like the simple folk song much more, but I
can't always do that. I have to do what I like, and that includes a lot of
complex harmony. The later records from "Harbor Lights" on have reflected a
more dissonant consciousness in the harmonic language. I just try to do what
moves me, but a lot of what moves me does not move the mass of America. I'm
of the opinion that the greatest musicians in the world are the least well
known. Actually, that's not an opinion, that's just an absolute fact. Keith Jarrett, to me, is one of the greatest musicians in the world, and if you
walk through the airport and ask who's heard of him, you'll get a very low
percentage. This, to me, is a real crime. He probably doesn't care about
that, though. He's just following his artistic path, but to me it's a damn
shame. In fact, when you talk about the period of my music versus the old
music, the truth of the matter is that the greatest musicians of the world
are not appreciated by the masses. I'm talking about great musicianship
that's under-appreciated. I'm not talking about myself at all, this is a
different conversation. I consider myself to be over-appreciated, as
compared to the musicians that I'm talking about.
DM) It's interesting to hear you say that, because there are so many
keyboard magazines that will rate you as the best piano player out there, but
there are so many people who will say the best piano players are whoever the
most popular players are. Billy Joel and Elton John will win that chart.
When you ask musicians, Bruce Hornsby will win it.
BH) Well, I'd rather win that contest if it has to be a contest. I'd always
rather win the musician's contest than the popular contest. It's like asking
baseball players who's the best baseball player. I think the athlete prefers
the respect of his peers and the scribes than, say, the general populace.
Because the people that he's competing against are ones that really know.
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
