Bruce Hornsby Interview

INTERVIEW WITH BRUCE HORNSBY FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

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.

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