Jazz Bassist Steve Haines On A Newfound Lyricism And His Latest Album

Greensboro jazz artist and educator Steve Haines has just released his fourth album, with music that will appeal to more than just jazz fans.

Steve Haines and the Third Floor Orchestra is an ear-friendly mash-up of familiar and original songs, sparkling musicianship and orchestral romance. There will be a CD release party and performance Friday, April 26th at the UNCG Auditorium in Greensboro.

WFDD's Neal Charnoff sat down with the bassist to talk about the album, which features vocalist Becca Stevens, saxman Chad Eby and drummer Joey Calderazzo.

Interview Highlights

On adding orchestration to the compostions:

The biggest thing is I just wanted to learn how to do it. What we say in jazz is that the rhythm section comps the soloist, and comps means "accompanies," we accompany the soloist, and I just sort of thought, "well, what if like the orchestra comped the soloist?" So instead of it being just a jazz rhythm section, I'd have this full orchestra. The other thing is I wanted to write something that a musician would enjoy, like myself, and also a non-musician, like my wife, would enjoy. So the full orchestra is easy because the sounds are so pretty. Particularly this one. A lot of the folks in the orchestra are colleagues of mine at UNCG and they're mostly on the third floor which is why I call them the Third Floor Orchestra.

On writing original songs:

I'm definitely late to listening to lyrics. I think most musicians are like that. We hear the melody and it takes us to a different place, or we hear the instruments and we just sort of swoon over that. And the last thing we think about are the words. So as of late I sort of got into that, and I just couldn't believe the entire side of lyricism that I had not heard before. At that point my imagination sort of took over and I started just writing things down for my own ideas, my own lyrics. I'd get a little book and I just scribble something down, or if I didn't have that I would I would just take my phone and just say something into my phone ... and eventually a lot of songs came to me. But the two on the record are the ones that came a little more recently.

On thinking in terms of groups rather than individuals:

That's a funny thing, because in the jazz culture there's a lot of record labels that pulled together All-Star jazz musicians, if you will, and then they play and it doesn't sound very good. You would imagine these incredible titans of musicians getting together and obviously it would sound good because of their talent. But it doesn't, and it's because they don't have any history together. So for me it's hard to imagine John Coltrane without Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. And it's hard to imagine Louis Armstrong without the Hot Five. So for me the history of the musicians together is very special.

On teaching his students to be "more active listeners": 

In our jazz program (at UNCG) we teach our students about being better, more empathetic, more active listeners. I think instead of going to textbooks, or even us, sometimes it's better to go to the music directly in order to find out how to be a better musician. And I think in general, just to take a step back from that, the more we can listen to other people's point of views, I think the better off we'll be.