Greg Kurstin, as a jazz pianist?

[sgcim]

I was listening to NPR yesterday, and they played some Christmas rock and/or roll music that came out this year. One of the cuts was by an electro-pop group started back in 2006 called The Bird and the Bee, which recorded for Blue Note for a while. I was surprised by the harmonic content of the song, and the vocalist, Lowell George's daughter, was pretty interesting- that is both pretty AND interesting. However her stuff apart from the keyboard player, Kurstin, wasn't that interesting.

I did some searching on Kurstin, and before he became a very busy pop producer and musician, he studied with Jaki Byard at The New School, and worked with people like Bobby Hutcherson, George Coleman and other jazz groups. Other than an album with Terri Lynne Carrington (the drummer), I couldn't find any other jazz albums he played on,

Has anyone heard any jazz playing by Kurstin, or heard him on the TLC album "Jazz is a Spirit"? Anything worth listening to?

Edited December 23, 2020 by sgcim

[sonnymax]

Might I suggest:

[sgcim]

Wow, thanks! That was back in 1993, when he was only 24 years old. He can sure hang in the idiom. Very versatile musician.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i knew his name as a jazz piano someone years before he broke a leg in pop stuff, he even produced for McCartney, but hes like a hipster now, hes like junior-david foster or something in the biz

it was greg and pamela kurstin jazz band

Edited December 24, 2020 by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez

[sgcim]

2 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

i knew his name as a jazz piano someone years before he broke a leg in pop stuff, he even produced for McCartney, but hes like a hipster now, hes like junior-david foster or something in the biz

it was greg and pamela kurstin jazz band

I looked it up on Wiki, and she is a theremin player, who is able to use that instrument to walk bass lines! They were married for a while, but then split up.

He'[s definitely big in the 'biz' right now, but he's not as cornball as that David Foster dude, who had a special on Netflix that was so nauseating, I had to turn it off five minutes into it. Not that Kurstin doesn't do pop garbage too, but at least he tries to take it some different places than DF does in the group he has with Lowell George's daughter. Here's a cut from an xmas album they recently made:

 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

my favorite part is the Lowell George part.  on couch tour jamband streams ive seen his son chats sometimes

[sgcim]

16 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

my favorite part is the Lowell George part.  on couch tour jamband streams ive seen his son chats sometimes

His daughter improvised the melody to that Christmas tune when Greg Kurstin sent her the piano part, and then she put lyrics to it. Talented family, those Georges!

Edited December 24, 2020 by sgcim

[JSngry]

17 hours ago, sgcim said:

Here's a cut from an xmas album they recently made:

 

Stevie, Stevie, Stevie!!!

[jcam_44]

He’s also on Dawn Muhammad’s “In The Hood” from 1994 and rereleased a couple years ago as Smoke Signals. It also features Billy Higgins and Phil Ranelin. 

[sgcim]

1 hour ago, jcam_44 said:

He’s also on Dawn Muhammad’s “In The Hood” from 1994 and rereleased a couple years ago as Smoke Signals. It also features Billy Higgins and Phil Ranelin. 

Thanks! They spelled his name wrong (Kirsten), and listed it under Billy Higgins' name. Sounds good, from the excerpts.

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Stevie, Stevie, Stevie!!!

Better than David Foster.

[jcam_44]

2 hours ago, sgcim said:

Thanks! They spelled his name wrong (Kirsten), and listed it under Billy Higgins' name. Sounds good, from the excerpts.

Better than David Foster.

Haha, I just looked in the book of the cd and they sure did. 

[JSngry]

Okay, once again - who the hell is David Foster? Sounds like I don't really want to know, but I got to ask anyway.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

dawg JANE LYNCH's xmas jazz album is AMAZING i also wouldnt of expected that but you wouldnt believe how good it sounded on the philco there playing a whole bunch from the cd but they just did up on the rooftop click click click, probably the best jazz version ever.  five downbeat stars

[sgcim]

20 hours ago, JSngry said:

Okay, once again - who the hell is David Foster? Sounds like I don't really want to know, but I got to ask anyway.

I dunno, but I turned that Netflix special off on him before I could find the vomit bags..

[JSngry]

So he's a guy.on Netflix, that's all?

[sgcim]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

So he's a guy.on Netflix, that's all?

That's about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster

[JSngry]

Okay, I see. He's somebody who has done a buttload full of stuff that I never wanted to to know who did it.

[sgcim]

18 hours ago, JSngry said:

Okay, I see. He's somebody who has done a buttload full of stuff that I never wanted to to know who did it.

Yup.