E-mail a friendCyrus Chestnut
airdate March 29, 2007
Called a major force in the evolution of jazz piano in the 21st century, Cyrus Chestnut first studied piano at age 5. He went on to graduate from Boston's Berklee College of Music and has worked with some of the jazz world's giants, including Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Betty Carter. He's also appeared with many of the top symphonies in the U.S., performing unique arrangements of spirituals, standards and classical pieces. Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and recorded his first solo CD in '94.
Cyrus Chestnut
Tavis: Cyrus Chestnut began playing piano when he was just six years old at the Mount Cavalry Star Baptist church - don't you love that - Mount Cavalry Star Baptist church, in his hometown of Baltimore. He went on to play with dozens of jazz greats, including, of course, Wynton Marsalis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Chick Corea. This summer he's releasing a CD of Elvis Presley covers called "Cyrus Does Elvis."
This August marks the thirtieth anniversary of Elvis' death. I'm sure we'll be reminded of that a few times.
Cyrus Chestnut: Quite sure. I'm quite sure.
Tavis: (Laughs) Between now and August - quite sure of that. Later on, Cyrus will perform the Elvis classic "Hound Dog." But first, Cyrus Chestnut, nice to have you on the program.
Chestnut: Hey, man, I'm glad to be here.
Tavis: Good to see you. I know a lot of brothers right now are saying, "Cyrus. Why Elvis?"
Chestnut: Yeah, I know, I know. I even ask myself that question.
Tavis: Why Elvis?
Chestnut: I like the music. That's simply - some people will say, "Oh, that's a good marketing scheme" and all. But I was in the situation where I was reintroduced to the music, and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it to the point that it prompted me to go download from iTunes the collection of the songs, listen to it, and it started to speak to me. And from there, I started doing arrangements. I started doing arrangements. I says, "You know what? I think I'd like to record this." And here we are.
Tavis: So you say you like the music and it started speaking to you. What did you like about it, and what was the music saying to you?
Chestnut: Well, I felt the blues. I felt the gospel influence. 'Cause from doing some research on Elvis, that's where it is, and it comes off through the music. And it just - it's hard to explain, but the melodies just started speaking to me. "Don't Be Cruel," "In The Ghetto," "Suspicious Minds." They're beautiful - listening to the songs, very beautiful.
And I was, like, "Wow, this is very hip." And I've always liked to stretch the type of music, 'cause being a quote, unquote jazz musician, you're supposed to do just certain things. And honestly, to keep the true tradition - great jazz musicians such as Miles, he pushed the envelope. Wynton, various different territory. Now I don't - it's just different territory for me. To this day I ask myself, "Elvis? Why am I doing Elvis?" And - I like it.
Tavis: When you downloaded it from iTunes on your iPod, what made you believe, feel, that you could give - I've already heard the "Hound Dog" piece that you and your band mates are about to play, and I know the audience is gonna love this - but what made you believe that you could put a jazz treatment on Elvis' stuff?
Chestnut: I love challenges. And for - I like to call it divine intervention. So as I listen to the music, I started hearing the arrangements in my head. It was coming on - every time I looked at it and I looked at the melody, I looked at the melody off the music sheets, I started listening to the recordings, it was, like, and it started just to open up.
And as it opened up, I just started writing. I just started writing. I started writing. And I started road testing it in various places. I road tested it all over the country. And of course when you mention the word Elvis, people have this, like, "What?" But when they hear the music, it's, like, wow. I’m using - it gives me a chance to use all stops, because I've always been the type of person to - that thrives, that strives to use all influences.
And not just say, "Okay, well, this is just going to be a jazz performance, I'm going to do this, this is gonna be a gospel performance." What I do is sit and everything is at hand. And so, and in any piece, at any given time, you may hear a little Beethoven. You may hear Elvis, you may hear Mahalia, Richard Smallwood, even Biggie. Who knows? (Laughter)
Tavis: "Biggie's Greatest Hits" just came out - I just bought it the other day. So Biggie ain't the only one got hits coming out this year - Elvis been dead 30 years (unintelligible). Biggie's Greatest Hits" are out, and I got it, and it sounds good.
Chestnut: The point being is that I love music. I love music, and I'm influenced by music.
Tavis: Can you give a jazz treatment to anything?
Chestnut: Anything is possible. Anything is possible. And I think the greatest thing about jazz is you have freedom to just simply explore. Explore a lot of different possibilities.
Tavis: So you could jazz up Biggie?
Chestnut: I don't know. Who knows, maybe that's something that could work.
Tavis: That may be your next album, huh?
Chestnut: I don't know (laughs).
Tavis: "Cyrus Does Biggie." (Laughs)
Chestnut: I don't know (laughs). I don't know, but…
Tavis: Has anybody walked up to you in the project of testing this around the country before you put the project out, anybody walk up to you and said, "Elvis don't deserve to be given that kind of treatment?"
Chestnut: No.
Tavis: Nobody said that yet?
Chestnut: No. No. In front of audiences, I say, "Look, I want your honest opinion. Even gave them websites, said, "Send me email through the website." So I don't put people on the spot. And the response has been nothing but favorable. I got one e-mail says, "Wow, I didn’t think Elvis could sound like that." But once again, it's just my interpretations. I'm not trying to fix him. He did his thing, and so now I'm influenced by it, so I'm just bringing that into the camp and just sharing how I feel.
Tavis: I'm going to be honest with you, when I heard that you were doing Elvis, I kind of - you and I are friends, known each other for years - I kind of turned my head, like, "Cyrus is doing Elvis?" But then I thought, in a strange way, that for those who know their music history know that Elvis - how might I put this kindly? - was generous in taking stuff from folk who looked like us.
Chestnut: 'Tis true.
Tavis: And making hits out of it. Trying to be as kind as I can in the brother's thirtieth anniversary of death.
Chestnut: Well, he hung out in the community.
Tavis: But finish my thought, though, I thought it was cool, though, in my own way. I thought it was cool that you were taking it back. Does that make sense?
Chestnut: Put it on the take back, okay?
Tavis: Yeah, put it on the take back.
Chestnut: (Laughs) Put it on the tape back.
Tavis: That's kind of how I thought about it, yeah. One last question. I took piano lessons for years, as I've told you many times. One of the greatest regrets of my life is that I stopped playing. And one of the reasons why I started taking piano lessons is because there was a musician at my church that said, "Tavis, persons who have long fingers…" and I looked - you see where I'm going with this.
He said, "Folk who had long fingers have a greater propensity for being more proficient on the piano. You don't have the longest fingers, and yet - or the longest arms, quite - you got short arms, you got short fingers, and yet you make that thing work.
Chestnut: Well, all I can say is I'm just grateful for the gift from God. And so this is what I have, and I make it happen.
Tavis: All right. So we gotta let Cyrus take those little short fingers (laughs) and make it happen. You gonna love this piece. "Hound Dog," one of Elvis' biggest hits. Up next, Cyrus will be joined by drummer Neil Smith and bass player Desrond Douglas for a performance of "Hound Dog." Cyrus, nice to see you.
Chestnut: Great to see you, as well.
Tavis: Cyrus Chestnut, live performance in a moment. Stay with us.
From his forthcoming CD, "Cyrus Does Elvis," here is Cyrus Chestnut performing "Hound Dog." Enjoy. Good night from Los Angeles, and keep the faith.
[musical performance]
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