{"id":4934,"date":"2011-10-12T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/jacob-wendt-hooked-on-art\/"},"modified":"2011-10-12T11:19:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T11:19:00","slug":"jacob-wendt-hooked-on-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/jacob-wendt-hooked-on-art","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Wendt: Hooked on Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"

9:35am | <\/strong>This Saturday evening, October 15th, from 8 to 11 PM the Mirage Cafe<\/a> in Bixby Knolls presents the Jacob Wendt<\/a> Quartet, featuring Anthony Shadduck<\/a> on bass, Dhiren Pannikker<\/a> on keyboards, and Alex Sadnik<\/a> on saxes. The Quartet is putting the finishing touches on a CD of mostly original compositions, mostly penned by Wendt. <\/p>\n

The backs of Jacob’s ears are barely dry, but the beauty and sophistication of his writing belies his lack of years. On the new album, his playing is fluid and precise, with luminous performances by all of the soloists. In fact, I was surprised that the individual players seemed to defer graciously to the tunes, rather than flex their massive chops (which I know they all have). <\/p>\n

I asked Jacob about how his love of music began. <\/p>\n

“My earliest exposure was when I was a little kid,” said Jacob, “and my dad played a ton of Frank Sinatra. I mostly heard that big band stuff, Benny Goodman and the like. <\/p>\n

“I grew up in Sebastopol, this little hippie town in Northern California, and the only music I remember hearing was Motown, the oldies\/doo-wop radio stations, The Temptations, The Supremes, the Beatles, The Byrds, Mamas and the Papas, and Frank Sinatra! I never heard any Jazz that was post-1945-ish, anything in the ‘modern jazz’ style, until high school. <\/p>\n

“My first instrument was piano,” Jacob continued. “I started around kindergarten, taking lessons with Jim Corbett, also known as ‘Mr. Music’ in Sebastopol. He really got me into playing by ear, and figuring things out by trial and error. There wasn’t a lot of music reading going on, but good exposure to good music. <\/p>\n

“I started playing guitar on my mom’s old acoustic in elementary school and, when I got to middle school, I had to switch to bass because they didn’t offer a guitar program. In High School, they owned only 4 basses, but we had about 10 bass players so, almost as a joke, someone said ‘there’s an extra tuba over there if you want to play that!’. I went to the practice rooms and started messing around with it until I was comfortable on the instrument. <\/p>\n

“The music director at my high school, Mark Wardlaw, loved Wayne Shorter, and let me borrow a copy of ‘Speak no Evil.’ That was one of the first jazz records I’d heard that wasn’t big band, and it totally blew me away. Wardlaw then gave me some great advice: ‘Go to Amoeba Records and pick out anything that says Blue Note Records.’ <\/p>\n

“I think I must have been the luckiest kid there,” Jacob said. “I went up to the discounted stack of records and, totally at random, picked out 4 CDs. I had no idea who they were, or what the sound was. Some of them were Blue Note, and some weren’t. They happened to be Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ ‘Mosaic’, John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps,’ The Hank Jones Quartet With Kenny Burrell And Barry Galbraith, and Dexter Gordon’s ‘Go.’ <\/p>\n

“That Messengers album with Wayne, Freddie Hubbard, and Curtis Fuller… I heard that sound, and I was hooked. I had my portable CD player with me, a little Sony Walkman. I carried that thing with me 24\/7, playing one of those 4 records, especially Mosaic and Giant Steps. <\/p>\n

“I got really hooked on Art Blakey,” admitted Jacob. “I think the next week I was in the record shop and found his album with Thelonious Monk. I got another, and another and, literally within a month or so, I had almost the entire discography for that group. Right now, I have 35 of their albums on my shelf, and ripped into iTunes! <\/p>\n

“So, I was listening to this music, and I was playing guitar. I joined the Jazz band at my high school, but I couldn’t grab onto the Jazz guitar playing. It was so complex and intense. I was more of a rock\/funk player. I had a sweet Rickenbacker 360 Fireglow and my little Vox amp, and I played The Beatles! We had a rock band and we did their covers non stop. I started a trio with my friends. Bass, piano and guitar. We were like a Nat King Cole kind of thing, but without the vocals, chops or the right tunes. <\/p>\n

\"\"“Again, as a joke,” Jacob continued, “my friend said ‘Hey, I just got this old drum set that my Grandma gave me.’ I think it was his uncles’ who never learned to play. It was a sweet 1964 Ludwig 3 piece with all original heads, stands, and cymbals, but everything was totally trashed, moldy, warped, and bent. <\/p>\n

“I sat at the drums, and we started jamming. I tried my best to get that Art Blakey groove, which was not an easy task. We had 1 or 2 gigs with that trio where I was on drums, and we though it was better than having a guitar. I liked it, too. <\/p>\n

“In my senior year of High School,” recalled Jacob, “since the previous drummer had graduated, I started playing drums in the Jazz band. I took lessons, studying mostly jazz but included a bit of everything since I had never played before, really. I had to get the basics, and the coordination! That’s what really stumped me at first: All the limbs playing at the same time! It was fun and challenging. <\/p>\n

“By that time, I knew playing Jazz was what I wanted to do. I would get home from school and start practicing in my garage until dinner. After dinner, it was too late to play, so that’s when I’d start whatever homework I had to do.” <\/p>\n

After High School, he had his heart set on attending CSU Northridge which he’d heard had the best Jazz program in California. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for him. <\/p>\n

“I had never heard of Irvine before,” Jacob confessed. “With the UC online application you just fill it out once, and you click on all the schools you want to send it to. I think I just happened to say, ‘what the hell’ and sent it to Irvine, too. Maybe they had good reviews on some college website I was searching through, but that one click changed my life forever. <\/p>\n

“I thought I’d go to Irvine for the first semester or so, and transfer over to Northridge during the school year. Before I started at UCI, and even before I gave my intent to enroll, I got a phone call, out of the blue, from Kei Akagi<\/a>.” <\/p>\n

Akagi is the Chancellor’s Professor of Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology in the Department of Music & Media at UCI, and is perhaps best known for his stint on piano with Miles Davis. <\/p>\n

“I had no idea what that meant at the time,” admitted Jacob. “He personally asked me about my audition, and if I wanted to come to the school. He was the only person from any school to actually contact me directly like that, and I think that really helped me make a decision about where to go. We talked about the jazz program, the facilities, and ensembles. It all sounded good to me! I just wanted to play and learn. <\/p>\n

“One of the most important things I did while I was there was to join the Open Fifth group in my sophomore year. They have a pub on campus called the Anthill Pub. The Jazz majors would always jam there, and just hang out. Some of the seniors wanted to start a regular group up that would play original tunes, and have rehearsals. It was supposed to be like our laboratory of music experiments. We’d write stuff, rehearse, see how it sounded live, and if people liked it. <\/p>\n

“Originally, it was James Garritson’s group,”said Jacob. “He was a tenor player, two years older than me, and also from Santa Rosa! We went to rival high schools. Stefan Talmadge was on bass, Scott Sommers on trumpet, and the piano\/guitar spot was a revolving door of different people, mostly pianist Dhiren Panikker, who had just started his first year at UCI in the MFA program. <\/p>\n

“James was all business about it. He actually got us some funds for the shows, scheduled rehearsals, and wrote charts. We all had original stuff that we’d bring in. They all had taken a jazz composition class with Kei the previous year but, as the year went on, people got more and more busy. <\/p>\n

\"\"“At the end of the year,” Jacob continued, “all the seniors graduated and left. I was the only returning student, so I inherited the group. Eventually, I met Anthony Shadduck through Dhiren, and got him to come out and play at the pub. We started doing casuals, jamming, and recording demos and stuff just for fun. <\/p>\n

“I studied for all four years with Jason Harnell<\/a>, one of the most in- demand drummers and teachers in Southern California. I’m still trying to process everything he taught me. I would go to some of his gigs, and he would introduce me to the band and let me sit in on a few tunes! One night at Steamers, he did a quartet with Mike Scott on guitar, Roger Shew on bass, and Chuck Manning on sax. That’s where I met chuck for the first time. I sat in and tried to get through the tune. Later on, I just emailed him, asking if he’d want to play at the pub with us. He said ‘yes!’ I couldn’t believe it, but he came out from Pasadena to play.” <\/p>\n

In case you don’t know, Chuck Manning<\/a> is an important contributor to the Los Angeles Jazz scene, having worked as a side man with countless luminaries, and is a celebrated composer and band leader. Kye Palmer<\/a>, who will be introduced in a moment, is also a heavy hitter, with a vast and diverse professional career. <\/p>\n

“The same thing happened with trumpet player Kye Palmer. He and Manning knew each other, too, so that helped the group dynamic a lot. Having those amazing players really makes a different. I’m always trying to play with people who are way above my level so I can soak up as much as I can. With these two guys, who really know what they’re doing, there was a lot of learning going on within and outside of the music. <\/p>\n

“One of the greatest things was that Kei would actually come out to our gigs there! He would listen, hang out, and even sit in with us! So, there I was with Kei Akagi, Chuck Manning, Kye Palmer and Anthony Shadduck. Wow! Honestly, besides my lessons with Jason and any class that Kei offered, that was the most fun, work, and educational thing I did at UCI.” <\/p>\n

The new CD will be available in early November. For availability, audio samples, and information about upcoming shows, visit JacobWendt.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In support of their new CD release, the Jacob Wendt Quartet, featuring Anthony Shadduck, Dhiren Pannikker and Alex Sadnik, is performing this Saturday night at Mirage Cafe in Bixby Knolls. In this interview, Jacob speaks about his childhood, and experiences at UCI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":69904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4934"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4934"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}