Jerron Paxton
speaker
135 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Jerron Paxton’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
One of my heroes is Fats Waller, and even a bigger hero than him is someone who's still alive, which is Mr. Dick Hyman. I kind of got drawn to New York because I heard, oh, there's a jazz school. I later found out this wasn't true, and Mr. Dick Hyman had moved to Florida at the time, I say. But I got...
New York got on my radar because I heard there were some schools out here, some jazz schools, where they'll find somebody who plays a style you love and get them to teach you. And I was like, oh, well, if I could study with Dick Hyman, I'd be great. Because I don't know if you know Dick Hyman, but he's... He's just a master of all the great styles of jazz piano.
And, you know, I was casually listening to an Art Tatum interview, and he was talking about all the great musicians he'd sit and listen to. And he'd say, oh, have you heard this young cat called Dick Hyman? He's just a fantastic musician. Now, when Art Tatum is singing your praises. You know you the cat's pajamas, you understand.
And so I'd say even more so than Fats Waller, who is, I'd say he's pretty low on my list of my favorite stride pianos. I think the first one I noticed was Willie Lyon Smith. I think my most favorite is probably Lucky Roberts. And then right after him would be James P. Johnson because James is just a master at a piano. And, you know, Fats Waller sounds like a human version of James P. Johnson.
So I figured if I wanted to sound like James P. Johnson and I, you know, shooting for the moon and missing, I'd land amongst Fats Waller and be able to write a handful of keys and ain't misbehaving and things like that.
Ain't that pretty good? He did better than his mentor, as a matter of fact. In certain ways, he was more famous and more known today than James P. Johnson, although I think James P. 's royalty checks outdoes anybody's.
Oh, yes. New York was a good town for the music I was getting into at that time, which was jazz. You know, there were some great musicians in Los Angeles, but very clearly not enough action down there for a person who, like I said, couldn't drive around town to support a livelihood. But when I got to New York City, boy, I... The culture for traditional jazz around here was absolutely amazing.
It still exists. New York City jazz is a part of New York's folk culture. As a folk musician, you often deal with the idea that folk music is something rural. But there are innumerable folk songs that are made right here in New York City. One of my favorite songs
It's hauled wood piled down that, you know, people think it's some ancient Anglo sea shanty or some country song from Georgia or Florida or something like that. But it's a Broadway song written in New York City in 1887.
But it became a southern folk song, you know, same with things like the chicken reel songs from Boston that, you know, tend to emblemize the South and folk culture of various city songs, you know. And coming here and just having this access of people that's like, oh, I play some James P. Johnstone.
Having people like Dalton Ridenour who plays that style and having Terry Waldo here that plays like a protege of Yubi Blake and just having that culture so palpable here, it was an amazing change.
I first heard it, I think the first person to play that for me might have been Frankie Fairfield or Mike Kiefer. Mike Kiefer is a great record collector and Frankie Fairfield doesn't need much of an introduction. And I think we were sitting around listening to Vitaphone shorts playing. which Mike Kiefer collects, and I might have heard it there for the first time.
But the first time that it really stuck with me is when Frank played it for me, and we watched it again, and he just fell in love with the song and the lady singing it, and he started playing it on guitar and singing it, and I think I picked it up from him and soon got to be one of my favorite songs.
Yeah, it was some of the early sound in theater process, I think, made by Fox Movietone way back in the 20s. And so there'd be a lot of shorts and things like that, comedic acts, and their first filming of things like Vaudeville, which later ended up killing the business.
Thank you, Sam.
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