Jazz is evolving. While rooted in tradition, today’s young jazz musicians are pushing boundaries by fusing genres and reaching new audiences.
In this exclusive interview, rising jazz fusion bandleader Noah Brooks gives us an inside look at his collaborative songwriting process and mission to blend jazz harmonies with pop melodies.
Learn how feedback from his bandmates shapes his compositions, and how sampling techniques inspired by hip hop producers find their way into modern jazz compositions. For an enlightening perspective on where jazz is heading, read on.
Interview Highlights
Starting His Own Band and Booking Gigs
“So first it was just looking for gigs. I really had no experience writing any sort of music before. So I was just trying to find, trying to find gigs my groups could play. And I’m just like, all right, I like this song. Let’s play this song. Oh, I like this song too. Let’s play this song.
And slowly I realized, man, if I want to start making a name for myself, we’re going to have to have our own music. We just can’t keep doing other people’s music. So I just kind of threw myself headfirst into writing and it took a long time before I kind of figured out what works best for me when writing music for this group.”
Developing a Unique Jazz Fusion Style
“I’ve kind of been struggling with the idea of what type of sound do I want my group to have. And in order to figure out how I’m going to write for this group, I had to figure out, alright, what’s our sound going to be so I can write for that sound. And so we slowly come into this sound where it’s almost like pop jazz. It’s not exactly jazz, it’s not pop, but it’s kind of a mix of two.”
Incorporating Pop and Hip Hop Ideas into Jazz
“Maybe I’ll find a single melodic device that I like and I’ll bring that over and I’ll expand that into an entire song. And so with this writing process, I’m really trying to morph the boundaries between what’s jazz and what’s not jazz by expanding on ideas from non-jazz music and turning it into something that maybe jazz musicians would recognize as jazz music.”
Reimagining Jazz as an Interactive Concert Experience
“You’re watching an actual show and that’s influenced me so much as a performer and as a musician that, seeing that jazz music doesn’t just have to be a sit down and watch and listen. It can be a whole show that really engages the audience the whole night rather than just sit down, listen to a song, clap, let’s watch the next one.”
Why Kanye West Inspires Noah As A Jazz Artist
“If we ignore the person and we’re taking a strict look at the music and the musician, for me, the stuff he’s done for hip hop is by far one of the most influential artists of our generation. But more so what interests me about his music. I kind of talked about this earlier that I started doing with my music, the way he takes samples and he puts them into his music to create something new.”
Deconstructing Kanye West's Sample-Based Production
“The way he takes samples and he puts them into his music to create something new. And so many people don’t even, you know, they think, Oh, this is just a, you know, this is just a beat made. No, this is like three or four different samples that he put through the mixer and you got this beat that sounds like a beat, but no, he’s drawing, he’s drawing from this song, he’s drawn from that song, and the way he uses his samples to create music really.”
Expanding Brief Musical Moments Into Full Songs
“It really just starts either way with a tiny melodic idea that I like. I’m like, okay. Let me see how I can build upon this. So once I build upon that, then I go in about throwing in the chords. And after that, I’m like, okay, I think this is going to sound good. So I have, I like to call that like the skeleton of the composition, like it’s fully written out, flushed out, but it’s not going to be the final product.”
Knowing When to Loosen Control Over the Creative Process
“I’m more so that way with this group because I know what they can bring to the table and what they have to offer. you know, maybe if it was, if it wasn’t this group, if it was other people who, you know, eh, maybe not, maybe it would be, you know, hey, no, let’s, let’s, let’s play as written. I like what I wrote. But with this group, I know they can just improve the music so much that I’m more than willing to go in open minded to have what I wrote changed.
I’ll bring in an idea that I really like and I might think, Oh man, you know, this is really cool with these chords. Then our piano player will be like, maybe not. Let’s try this chord. And I’m like, he plays, I’m like, dude, let’s roll with that chord. That sounds so much better. He’s like, you like it? And I’m like, yes.”
Noah Brooks' Bio & Music
Bandleader and composer Noah Brooks along with his band “The Noah Brooks Coalition” aim to create a sound of original pop music presented in a traditional jazz setting.
The Noah Brooks Coalition presents their own unique sound of original music that they believe appeals to not only jazz listeners, but to all music listeners of different genres.
