Podcast

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#5 Justin Faulkner

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#5 Justin Faulkner

Today I sat down in the ever lively Clark Park, home of the Annual Community Unity Festival, with Philadelphia Jazz Icon Justin Faulkner. Brought up in a musical household, extremely gifted, and infinitely motivated he began his professional career at thirteen. Since then he has played with Jazz royalty such as Jimmy Heath, Orrin Evans, Sean Jones, Tim Warfield, Pharoah Sanders, Terence Blanchard, Jacky Terrasson, Christian McBride, and perhaps best known as drummer for the Branford Marsalis Quartet.


We had a great conversation about a variety of topics including: the origins of The Community Unity Festival, fashion, his acting debut in the film “Bolden”, the joy of listening, coming up in Branford’s band, advice for students and much more. 


I hope to see you all at this year’s Community Unity Festival on August 3rd at Clark Park in West Philadelphia. It’s always a blast, supports a great cause, and it’s free.


http://communityunitymusicfest.wedid.it/campaigns/6489

#3 Tim Warfield

#3 Tim Warfield

My guest today is the man. Tim Warfield. Legend. He’s shared the stage with everyone from Donald Byrd, to Marcus Miller, to Christian McBride, to Shirley Scott, to Nicholas Payton, Charles Fambrough, Terell Stafford, Stefon Harris, Orrin Evans, and that is the extremely abridged version.  But what is most impressive to me is how he encourages, energizes, and leads the next generation.


Our conversation was super inspiring as we jumped around from various topics including fashion, conquering fear, dealing with the business of music, his unique take on ear training, as well as some nuggets of wisdom from a life spent among the masters.


If you haven't checked out his work, I highly recommend his albums Gentle Warrior, Jazzland (his most recent release), and my personal favorite Spherical, his deep dive into the work and genius of Thelonious Sphere Monk.


#2: Dariel Peniazek

#2: Dariel Peniazek

Today’s guest is guitarist Dariel Peniazek. Since graduating from Temple University last year, where he studied with Warren Wolf, Bruce Barth, Tim Warfield, Dick Oatts, and Peter Bernstein, he has quickly become one of the most in demand guitarists in Philadelphia. His responsive comping and deep knowledge of afro-cuban, central, and south american styles has developed over the past few years and has added to his arsenal. This year he was chosen for the prestigious 2019 Kimmel Center Jazz Residency. Where he collaborated with his sister “poet, playwright, and lyricist Maya Peniazek, to create a piece that explores, his experiences of discovering his cultural identity as a Latino-American.The world premiere of this work can be heard at the Kimmel Center on June 8th 2019. This something you definitely don’t want to miss. Tickets and more info can be found at Kimmelcenter.org


Our conversation was recorded on a south Philly rooftop, on a beautiful spring day, with coffee in hand, and all the sights and sounds you might expect. I’ve played a lot with Dariel over the years and I’ve always enjoyed his insights into a life of music. We bounce around a bit in this conversation covering an array of topics from coffee to travel to weird gigs we’ve played to building guitars, but we always come back to the ultimate goal;  building community through music.