Kiefer

Kiefer goes record shopping at Amoeba Hollywood in this "What's In My Bag?" episode. The pianist and producer talks about one of the most important jazz drummers of all time, a beloved album by Brazilian musician Airto Moreira, and Immanuel Wilkins' mastery of his instrument. Kiefer's Blue Note Records debut,  Memory Bomb, is available now.

Kiefer's picks:
• The Tony Williams Lifetime - Emergency! (LP) 
• Brad Mehldau - Largo (LP) 
• Airto - Fingers (LP) 
• Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges - Clube Da Esquina (LP) 
• Immanuel Wilkins Quartet - Live At The Village Vanguard Vol. 1 (LP) 
• Oneohtrix Point Never - Good Time [OST] (LP) 

Featured Artist: Kiefer

Editor: Michael Cruz
Executive Producer: Rachael McGovern
Producer/Director: Craig Miller
Assistant Director: Derich Heath
Cameras: Jacob Gray, Derich Heath
Audio Recorded by: Patrick Emswiler
Assistant Editor: Patrick Emswiler

Watch Kiefer's "What's In My Bag?" episode on Amoeba.com

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hi, my name is Kiefer. I'm at Amoeba Music and this is what's in my bag. This is Tony Williams' lifetime. I'm sure all the jazz heads are rolling their eyes right now because everybody should know this record. Tony Williams, obviously, one of the most important drummers. This is his fusion group. Super explosive. Like late 60s, like classic fusion record. This record kind of represents jazz musicians in the late 60s trying to do the Jimi Hendrix thing, trying to experiment with a different instrumentation. This is an organ trio. All the musicians in Miles' band all started fusion groups around this time. That would be Herbie shortly thereafter with Headhunters, Tony Lane's Lifetime, Wayne Shorter later on doing Weather Report, everyone kind of branching off and doing their own thing. And then this was Tony's contribution to that. So Tony, maybe the greatest jazz drummer of all time, maybe his best record. Now for some piano, let's talk about Brad Meldow. This is Largo. This record's incredible. Produced by John Bryan, who also did the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack. This is also probably arguably his greatest record as well. One of my favorite piano albums, beautiful instrumentation. There's a more orchestral sound on this, woodwinds and things like that. Brad Meldow at his peak. Maybe the best jazz pianist from like 1990 through to the 2000s as well. And still today, one of the best in the world. The track When It Rains is probably the one that everyone knows. Next I chose IR2 Moreira. I actually had the opportunity to play with IR2 back in like 2016 when I was in Abraham LeBore's band. And we played some of this music off of this record. We played Parana. Super beautiful album. San Francisco River Kills Me. So beautiful. Yeah, deeply spiritual, incredible musician. IR2. This is him on the back there. Yeah, very special. Milton Nasimento. Milton, incredible. I first found Milton because uh he was singing with Wayne Shorter and Herbie on a lot of those records in the 70s. Beautiful vocalist, beautiful songwriter, incredible harmony. Lil Borges is on this as well. Clube de Esquina, incredible album. It might be Milton's one of his best known beautiful record, like some of the best of like Brazilian fusion from the 70s. Just amazing. Lots of 70s today. I'm gonna talk about Emmanuel Wilkins a little bit. Emmanuel Wilkins to me is like the gold standard of musicianship today. The word spiritual gets thrown around a lot in music, but I think to achieve the highest level of spirituality in music, one must be industrious, one must be hardworking. In Buddhism, they say chop would carry water. I do think there's an element to mastering your craft to the highest ability that you are capable of and doing it every single day. And there are a lot of people who claim spirituality and I think do not achieve that. This person does. Emmanuel Wilkins has achieved a level of master artist instrument that is totally insane to me, and also everyone else in the band. Micah Thomas, particularly on piano. Micah Thomas is making a real statement today as like one of the best pianists on the planet. Unbelievable. This band changed the way that I hear time. Just absolutely incredible band. Also, a blue note, a blue note artist, Emmanuel Wilkins. So there you go. We are label mates now, whether he likes it or not. Final one for today. Oh okay, yes. Soundtrack to Good Time. Good Time is a super fucked up movie by the Safety Brothers. 10 Tricks Point never did the soundtrack for it. Super heavy synths, really stressful music for a stressful movie. Masterfully done, incredible sound. Yeah, also inspired me to step up my game sonically. There it is. Yeah, really looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Thank you so much for coming in today.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Yeah, thank you. It's my pleasure.