Pablo Held Investigates

Saxophonist & composer John O’Gallagher joins Pablo Held to talk about sound and projection on the alto saxophone, his PhD research on late-period Coltrane, and how pitch-class set theory shapes his music. Other topics include stories behind the making of his new album ‘Ancestral’, playing together at Pablo’s ‘Alice Coltrane Tribute’ concert in Cologne, recording on Joe Henderson’s big band album, memories of Andrew Hill, and much more.

Larry Grenadier joins Pablo Held to talk about composing, comping, and working on clarity and technique on the bass. Other topics include memorizing songs, playing in different keys, and his experiences with Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, John Scofield, Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings, Paul Motian, Masabumi Kikuchi, Billy Higgins, Guillermo Klein, Steve Swallow and Jack DeJohnette. They also reflect on Blossom Dearie, Paul Chambers, Jaco Pastorius’ ‘Word of Mouth’, Bill Stewart’s ‘Telepathy’, studying with Ron Carter, routines, self-doubt, and so much more.

Patrice Rushen joins Pablo Held to talk about composing for orchestras, films, and small groups; important orchestration lessons; and recording the ‘Joy Ryder’ album with Wayne Shorter. They also discuss witnessing a Weather Report recording session for ’Tale Spinnin’, a memorable meeting with Miles Davis, sight reading, her technique and touch on the piano, the Fender Rhodes, memories of seeing Herbie Hancock’s ‘Mwandishi’ band live, performing & rehearsing with Prince, singing and much more.

Drummer Kush Abadey joins Pablo Held to talk about mental practice, time feel, drum tuning, lessons learned from playing with Wallace Roney, Tomasz Stanko & Buster Williams, recording Melissa Aldana’s new album with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, the art of playing brushes, clarity, Miles Davis’ ‘Complete Concert 1964’ album and much more.

Saxophonist Nicole Glover joins Pablo Held to talk about her creative process, the stories behind her compositions, recording albums at the legendary Van Gelder Studio, working with Renee Rosnes & ARTEMIS, Christian McBride, Al Foster and studying with Mulgrew Miller. Other topics include practicing like a drummer, embracing mistakes, exploring the whole-tone scale and the unique form of Miles Davis’ “Circle.”

To celebrate the 7th anniversary of the podcast, Pablo sits down with singer/songwriter Chris Weisman for an epic and nerdy conversation. This episode marks Chris’s 3rd appearance on the podcast. They dive deep into his current process and the recording and compositional processes for his recent albums. They also discuss their shared love for the music of Wayne Shorter, the Beatles, Alice Coltrane, and the song ‘Rainbow Connection’, among other topics. Furthermore, Chris and Pablo look back at seven years of ‘Pablo Held Investigates’ and relive memorable moments from selected episodes. • Support ‘Pablo Held Investigates’ on Patreon and gain access to exclusive educational videos, lead sheets, music recommendations, and behind-the-scenes goodies from the podcast. • Pablo’s music — including vinyl, CDs, digital releases, and merch — is available on Bandcamp. • Subscribe to his monthly newsletter and receive an exclusive track straight to your inbox. • For more about Pablo Held’s musical world, visit pabloheld.com.

Pablo Held shares memories from the recording session of his latest album “Unity”, which features longstanding Pablo Held Trio mates Robert Landfermann & Jonas Burgwinkel,  guitarist Nelson Veras and Pablo on piano, mellotron, celesta & synths. ‘Unity’ is Held’s 19th album as a leader and the 7th on his own label ‘Hopalit Records’.Check out the album here:https://pabloheld.bandcamp.com/album/unity

Pianist and composer Albert Sanz sits down with Pablo Held for an in-depth piano hang. They talk about Albert’s compositional process, the art of comping for singers, memories from working with Billy Hart, Lee Konitz and Perico Sambeat, the importance of leaving space, Albert’s new Jobim album with Sara Dowling, their shared heroes Gil Evans & Federico Mompou and much more.

Master drummer Eric McPherson sits down with Pablo Held to discuss his idea of flow on the drums, lessons learned from jazz legends Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill & Pharoah Sanders, his relationship to bassists Ben Street & John Hebert and memorable moments in the studio / on the road. ___ • Support ‘Pablo Held Investigates’ on Patreon and gain access to exclusive educational videos, lead sheets, music recommendations, and behind-the-scenes goodies from the podcast. • Pablo’s music — including vinyl, CDs, digital releases, and merch — is available on Bandcamp. • Subscribe to his monthly newsletter and receive an exclusive track straight to your inbox. • For more about Pablo Held’s musical world, visit pabloheld.com.

Sharing memories from the recording session of my album “Elders”, which is dedicated to my parents. “Elders” came out on Pirouet Records in 2013 and features my trio mates Robert Landfermann – bass, Jonas Burgwinkel – drums and three guests: Jason Seizer – tenor saxophone, Domenic Landolf – alto flute & Ronny Graupe – acoustic guitar + me on piano.Check out the album here:https://pabloheld.bandcamp.com/album/elders

Talking to writer/jazz historian Ashley Kahn was an honor. We first met in 2024 when Ashley interviewed me as part of the Bologna Jazz Festival. We had such a good time on and off stage together, that we decided to continue our conversation on my podcast. In the weeks leading up to this I revisited many of the great liner notes Ashley wrote for many of my favorite albums. I also re-read all the books of him I had known before (his wonderful books on “Kind Of Blue”, and “A Love Supreme“) and read his fantastic book „The House That Trane Built“ for the first time. Immersing myself in this wonderful works inspired me deeply. I’m very thankful for Ashley’s contribution to the music of our time.

It was a great pleasure to talk to the amazing guitarist, orchestrator & educator Ella Feingold on the podcast. She contacted me a couple of years ago after I released the Blake Mills/Chris Weisman episodes and said she’d love to talk. I started checking out her amazing work and became an instant fan. I’ve learned a lot from watching her videos and even more from this wonderful conversation, which I’m delighted to be able to share with you all.

I’m very thankful to be on the the road with Tineke Postma quite often. She is an amazing saxophonist & composer, I’m learning a lot from her and she’s so much fun to be around. We talk all the time when we’re on tour with the band Re:Calamari and this conversation actually happened between gigs. We could basically continue where we left off the day before. Naturally, we focussed on many of the things I often ask Tineke about: her process as a bandleader & composer, her experiences with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding, Kris Davis & Terri Lynne Carrington, ideas & approaches for improvisation, finding your voice as an artist and much more. As always it was a big pleasure to hang out together and I’m very excited to share this with you all now.

Talking to the legendary Eddie Henderson was a dream come true for me. As I tell Eddie in the beginning of this episode, I’ve been listening to him for all my life: My father played Herbie Hancock’s “Mwandishi” albums for me as a kid and when I was 13 I saw Eddie with Herbie’s “Gershwin’s World” band in Düsseldorf. I’ll never forget it. Throughout the years I got more deeply into Eddie’s own catalog of records and learned a lot from listening to him. His sound alway touches me and I admire him on many levels. So to finally get to talk to him about his time with Herbie, about what he learned from Miles Davis, about practicing with Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, and how it was to play with Joe Henderson was an absolute honor. In this music theres a deep tradition of passing on knowledge orally. This way future generations can learn from the elders. Eddie Henderson is not only a “witness to history” (the name of his latest album), he’s also very generous with sharing his wisdom. I’m glad we can all learn from maestro Eddie together now.

The day before our interview I had the big pleasure of playing with Kanoa Mendenhall for the first time. After a long time of admiring her from afar, I finally got to know her through making music and hanging out together, which was really special for me. We zoomed in on Kanoa’s creative process, we re-evaluated what happened during our concert and we even played some more. It was a beautiful conversation and I’m glad I get to share it with you now.

A few years ago I took inspiring composition lessons with pianist/composer/arranger Guillermo Klein, which still resonate with me to this day. Guillermo helped me to break free from habits and find new pathways to starting the compositional process. Now I finally got to interview on the podcast, which, in a way, turned out to be another incredible composition lesson – but this time I get to share it with you!Listening to Guillermo’s unique music always uplifts and inspires me – the same thing happens when we talk.

Anders Jormin is one of my favorite bassists and composers. I got the chance to play with him in 2016, where we celebrated the music of my late teacher, the great John Taylor. Now, we continue where we left off and talk in-depth about his life in music. It was so great to pick Anders’ brain about his view on composition, voice leading, interplay, how we deal with influences, memories of playing with drum masters Paul Motian, Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, writing a symphony, his bass heroes and… we also played a bit for each other!

Talking to singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and interdisciplinary artist Jen Shyu was immensely inspiring and invigorating! After admiring Jen’s work for a long time from afar, getting to pick her brain for almost 3 hours was a big deal for me. As you know, I always love it when the artists bring there instruments and perform on the episode- Jen was all for that and brought a few traditional instruments like the moon lute and the gayageum and of course she sang quite a bit. You’ll see, this conversation went to all kinds of places. I’m very grateful to Jen for letting us into her unique world.

Talking to Joe Lovano was a dream come true. After so many years of listening to him I finally got to ask him about his process and get deeper insights into his musical journey. When our conversation ended I felt totally inspired and eager to dive into music– that’s exactly like we feel after we’ve taken a lesson with a great teacher, right? I’m glad we can all learn from maestro Joe together now.  Many thanks to the great Joe Lovano for taking the time to talk to me and to all of you for listening to our conversation. 

The great John Scofield returns to the podcast – and this time he brought his guitar! I absolutely love talking with Sco. To get ask him about his time with Paul Bley, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones and Jaco still is like a dream come true for me. And when he then takes out his guitar to demonstrate things from the music we talk about, like Carla Bley’s classic ‘Ida Lupino’ or a couple of my favorite Sco tunes, I’m in total fan-boy mode! I’m glad I get to share these moments with you. Thanks for watching & listening!