The next generation's well-earned realism about recording

I had a quick chat with young vocalist and current CapU Music Therapy student Michelle Escudero this week. It produced a window into how our young (maybe around age 20, or early-twenties) musicians think about what they should do next, and I think you'll find it interesting whether you're a professional musician or an enthusiast.

On October 28th, Michelle went to The Infidels' first show at the boxing Gym All-City Athletics and reported back to me about it, because I was tied up at Ironworks – I refuse to not cover the launches of new series in town!

Thanks to Michelle for doing that; you'll see our chat about the show in the free weekly email this coming Tuesday.

But there was a quick sidebar that she and I had, talking about pianist Quincy Mayes – who played at All-City with bandleader Gordy Li – which I wanted to bring to you here:

WILL CHERNOFF: Because you mentioned Quincy [Mayes], I was thinking of what I first played with Quincy – probably over ten years ago – and the kind of stuff that we were up to. We were really focused on recording, and we all had the goal of making recordings and starting to put out recorded music.

I sense two things from like the times that I've heard, not just Gordy, but maybe a lot of your friends. One, recording is not such a big goal for everybody, not until maybe you've spent a lot of time playing with the same band. Maybe it's not something you set out to do right away. And two, instead you focus on, "How much fun can we have live? How can we express ourselves live?"And maybe that's more interesting. Do you have any thoughts on this?

MICHELLE ESCUDERO: Yeah, I think I would actually agree. I haven't really heard much talk from people my age about, "You know, I want to record this album soon." It's not really that. It's more like finding your niche and finding how you want to play [live], which is also something that I'm still on the track of. And the reason I haven't asked Tim Reinert for an Infidels gig is I don't feel like I've found my voice or my sound yet. I think that was more of the goal.

That's what Michelle said; here's what I think:

It makes total sense, if you think about the conditions. In my early twenties just under a decade ago, there weren't nearly as many Vancouver jazz gigs as there are now. In 2023 – and with no signs of slowing yet – there's so many different gigs, where Michelle and other musicians in their early years have opportunities to express themselves.

In the back of Michelle's mind, there are performances that she could set up and grow through. She's just waiting until she's ready.

So there's this lack of desire to make albums. I thought I understood it back on the first-ever Rhythm Changes Podcast guest episode with lhan Saferali in 2020, when he was 18.

But I was misinterpreting it as anxiety or pessimism about the prospect of recording. I recorded an album when I was 20 (no regrets!) and in the years following, I built up some hubris, like I had overcome some anxiety-driven challenge that my friends were grappling with.

Ilhan and I said (around time 23:33):

WILL CHERNOFF: Is it a natural thing for young musicians to have this recording anxiety and avoid committing their playing to a project intended for release, and maybe delay that to a later age – any more thoughts on that?

ILHAN SAFERALI: I haven't talked to anyone about that. I don't know anyone who has recording anxiety [...] As far as committing to projects goes, I think there comes a certain point in one's musical maturity when they feel comfortable to represent themselves as an artist, and I'm definitely not there yet. But there are people my age who are definitely there.

Ilhan mentions the pianist Joey Alexander. I know some of you who are subscribed and reading (thanks!) have found success in your musical career at a young age. But as for Ilhan, he basically said, "I don't need to record, at least not now." (He still hasn't released an album three years later.)

After talking to Michelle, I get why Ilhan didn't feel the urge that I had felt. He had gigs available to him.

I really didn't play many jazz gigs as a leader in my early twenties, and when my friends called me to do a couple of them, it was lost of me how they had received the opportunities. Don't get me wrong, it's not only that there were fewer gigs. I had pretty poor social skills and was too distracted by a variety of things to really take advantage of opportunities as a young bass player.

Maybe that's why I was more interested in going into my friends' living rooms, jamming or writing tunes, and dreaming of making albums. That's what I thought I needed to do as a first step – the conditions have changed since then.

There is also of course the increasingly popular, straight-up pessimism about releasing albums into the marketplace: criticism of Spotify and the like. That's not something I agree much with and is a topic for another time.