Additional Information
As this neologism suggests, also the name of a jazz quartet invited to the FIJM, makes perfect sense: Upendo pulls out all the stops, indeed! The Baltimore quartet is made up of Brandon Woody, trumpet and leader, Troy Long, piano, Michael Saunders, double bass, Quincy Phillips, drums.
Jazz coolness will soon be back, thanks to artists like these who pick up the style where it’s left off.
Sunday night on the Pub Molson stage, two sets by Brandon Woody and his colleagues reminded us of the virtues of African-American heritage. The cultural foundations of this black jazz remain glued to soul, R&B and gospel, while exploring new avenues in today’s jazz territory paved by the great innovators of previous generations.
Dissonances and atonal trajectories are limited here to the soloists’ improvisations (especially the trumpet), while the rest is consonant and very strong in rhythm. The melodies of the themes reassure music lovers disinclined to explore, and this is the dosage generally desired by FIJM: adventurous but not too much so, strong in emotion, contagious enough to revive the form.
And that’s exactly why PAN M 360 offers this on-the-spot interview with Brandon Woody.
PAN M 360: I listened a lot to your music recently, preparing this interview, and there’s, well, all the African American experience is in it. You have the gospel, you have the soul, you have the modern jazz, you experience new harmonic issues, so you’re really in the lineage of your culture. You are really connected with your ancestors, your parents, your grandparents, etc.
Brandon Woody: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think I have a choice. Anybody that’s black, you know… I don’t even to be connected to the lineage of my ancestors. No, no, it happens. It’s in my blood, you know. you said, gospel, jazz, soul or funk. It’s even more than that. I’m inspired by all music that exists in the world.
PAN M 360: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it’s honestly hard to describe it.
Brandon Woody: I’d rather you not try to describe it. Like, just let it be what it is.
PAN M 360: Yeah, well… we have to put some words, we know also that words are not exactly describing what happens. For sure. But at the same time, we talk about it and we chose some words to do so.
Brandon Woody: You know, this music means everything to me. Every time we get on stage, I give it my all, you know. I play like it’s my last time playing in life, you know, every time. The whole world is inspiring this music.
PAN M 360: Let’s talk about the evolution of your sound, the way you lead an orchestra, the way you developed your own craft, your own signature.
Brandon Woody: I played drums when I was like, what, five, six years old. And just for one year, and I was in elementary school, and I had did this talent competition, and I sucked, and I lost. I didn’t win it, and I quit drums after that. And then I got into the next school year, and my two options for instruments that I could play were saxophone and trumpet. And I just fell in love with the trumpet. I thought that was going to be the easier instrument because it only had three keys. So that’s why I picked it. Yeah, and I couldn’t make a note out of the trumpet until like, for like two weeks.
PAN M 360: And I finally… It’s a very hard instrument to play with.
Brandon Woody: Yeah, I finally got a note out of it, and then he let me take it home, let me rent the instrument, and I just fell in love with it, man. I remember at a young age, me and my mom and my brother, we were living, moving to a lot of different apartment buildings. And I remember the folks at the apartment buildings would always be mad. They were like, yo, stop playing your horn. Stop. You’re too loud. All of this different stuff. My mom was so good with it because she would just tell them like, no. She was just like, no, these hours of my son practicing right now are more important than you having a quiet evening. So I really appreciate that.
PAN M 360: Your mom protected you !
Brandon Woody: Yeah, she protected me and made sure that me and my brother, my big brother, were in all of the great music programs in Baltimore and outside.
PAN M 360: What did you study in Baltimore?
Brandon Woody: There was this program called the Eubie Blake Jazz Institute. That’s how I met Craig Austin, one of my OGs. I went to the Peabody Preparatory program. They have a whole thing called the Tuned In Program there for youth, for underserved youth in Baltimore. And then I went to the Baltimore School for the Arts. I also went to Brubeck Institute in Stockton, California. Then I went to Manhattan School of Music in New York. I dropped out after. Then I moved back to Baltimore in 2018. And that’s when I started building my band up.
PAN M 360: And how about the building of this band?
Brandon Woody: Yeah, friends, family. Yeah, family. I mean, we were living right down the street from each other. We didn’t even know it. We linked up. I saw Quincy one day playing and I was like, yo, I need his sound. Met Mike. We had this monthly gig at An Die Music and we were able to truly just be ourselves, just experiment and make mistakes. That was like eight years ago, so the sound has been built naturally, progressively with the same family.
PAN M 360: And it happened naturally. You don’t question it. It happens.
Brandon Woody: Yeah, yeah. Literally, before you know it, it’s like, wow, we got our own sound, you know, that nobody else has. It’s like our DNA, you know. I’m very blessed to have just a group of supportive band members. You know, everybody puts something into this. Yeah, my name is up on the stage or whatever, but like, this is a band. It’s a collective. This is a family. So we all put something into it.
PAN M 360: And if we try to be a little more specific, what makes it distinct?
Brandon Woody: I mean, just the unique experiences that we have growing up in the same city. That’s why we’re able to connect with each other the way that we do. But also, I think everybody from my city, in some ways, I feel like I’m an ambassador, like spreading positivity. I feel like in some ways I’m a ambassador just because Baltimore gets looked at in such a negative way worldwide. You know, a lot of people talk about the violence. And I’m just like, man, I want to be a positive light.
So when we’re out here together, it’s like, man, I think anybody from Baltimore that leaves the city, we all just want to put a positive light on the city, man. You know, and I do think like not just, you know, I know there’s so many excellent artists out here for sure, but I think just us being ourselves is the most courageous thing we can do. And like me just showing up here right now, you know, with my with my band members.
PAN M 360: So you draw from this daily experience.
Brandon Woody: YeahI think I think something that’s been freeing for me is to like know and also trust that me and my band just showing up is enough. That’s literally more than enough.You know what I’m saying?
That’s as big as it gets and it’s powerful. It’s so powerful. I’m so wrapped up with the music itself, the experience. You just got to feel this music. You got to come to a show. You got to shake my hand. You know, you got to just come have some fun with us and move and dance because it’s like I think right now in my life, I’m doing so much like interviewing and like talking and stuff. And I’m like, man, y’all just need to come see us.
PAN M 360: The final answer is to listen to the music.
Brandon Woody: Yeah. We’re able to be as honest as possible and vulnerable as possible is because we spend all this time developing with each other. And I do feel like, you know, when we’re traveling out here throughout the country, it’s like, man, everything that I’m doing is going back on to my city. So I’m like trying to make sure that what we’re doing is positive. But I’m just so grateful the way I was raised. You know, it takes a village to raise a man. OK, it takes a community. I was raised good, man. I’m respectful. I spread love.
PAN M 360: About the music again: can we talk about very strong influences or it’s not relevant?
Brandon Woody: Valjohn Harris from Baltimore. Craig Austin from Baltimore. Mark Harris from Baltimore. Quincy Phillips from Baltimore. Gary Thomas from Baltimore.Tim Green from Baltimore. Tim Green from Baltimore. Clarence Ward from Baltimore. Yeah, a lot of my biggest influences come from the city of Baltimore. However, I have other big influences as well. Very inspired by Freddie Hubbard, Booker Little, Clifford Brown. More recently O’m very inspired by Terence Blanchard, Ambrose Akimusire, Keyon Harrold, Christian Scott. All of these trumpet players.
PAN M 360: Do you have some challenges as an instrumentalist to develop your own style?
Brandon Woody: Shit, man, I got to keep practicing the horn every day.
It’s hard. I got to breathe. I smoke weed sometimes to relax. I get up and I practice my warm up routine. So my warm up routine is some chromaticism, some flexibility, some major scales, some articulation. All of that has to happen every single day.Of course, that’s not happening. I’m not doing my job.
PAN M 360: You have to keep your chops at its best level and also and put an emphasis to do your own evolution.
Brandon Woody : Yeah, and it’s not just about the technique, but a lot of it. The technique allows me to remove the boundaries from my plan. If I’m not worried about my technique, I can play whatever is on my mind.
