Hello and welcome to applause performances.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Amanda Rabinowitz and host of our local music podcast Shuffle.

I'm joined today by a rising star in the northeast Ohio jazz scene.

Ava Preston.

I'm happy to be here.

We would love to get things started by hearing one of your songs.

Can you tell us about the first song you're going to perform?

This first song is about what happens in your past, doesn't define your future.

And if it's not helping, you, just throw it out and move along.

It's called Move Along.

Okay.

Footsteps that echo in the hallway, the memory of a moment that's passed.

And words that I never could say.

I see you standing reflected in the sky.

Lined with seven little prophetic take comes the thought that should never be my how anticipation.

So who will make the next move?

It doesn't matter if I've got you in check.

If I've always been set up to lose.

And though it's painful, it's tempting just to let it go.

For every bad mistake that you've made, did you honestly think I won't know?

Because when the tape plays up, colors fade, the light comes on.

Use it in the wrong.

I notice that my stock draw the line.

The salute can't keep going on.

Cause I'm wicked, wicked Just to say good to see the good static is when it fades.

The show rate is low.

That's enough to do.

Your smile is two faced a living contradiction.

Forgive me if I seem to one rebel, but why stay when you've almost won this chapter is ending.

I wonder if you'll ever regret.

Cause I've accepted.

I can forgive.

But believe me, I'll never forget.

Because when the tape lights up colors faith light comes on in the wrong.

I know it's not my start.

Draw the line.

The salute.

Can't keep going on.

Go on.

Cause I'm breaking up with you just to see you go.

never say the first.

The last song Out of case plan phase A sure rate is going to stop.

That's left to do long on.

great.

Move along.

Your new single, Fantastic Start.

Thank you so much, Ava.

Start by telling us a little bit about your band mates.

They're joining you today.

well, on Keys, this is Wilson Woods and Ahmed Macklemore on the bass.

Okay, Welcome.

Thanks for being here, guys.

Kayla, you just got back from California.

You were at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival where you were with the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

Yeah, it was it was an amazing experience.

Pretty big crowd to perform in front of.

I think it was like around 7000 people.

So the biggest crowd I've played for.

It's incredible.

Talk a little bit about before the festival.

You got to play at a gala with some of your heroes that was so much fun.

So we walk into a gala, right, All 20 students and in like the foyer or like the opening, it's it's Herbie Hancock and it's Christian McBride, Dianne Reeves.

I about fell over when I saw Dianne Reeves, but I met them all.

And some of them I already knew.

But I mean, they were really nice people.

It was so much fun to play for them because it's like, it's like a handoff to the next generation.

That's what they were telling me, and they were excited to see where jazz goes.

So I think that's the biggest compliment anybody can give you.

Did you get asked or invited to perform?

I auditioned for the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

Wow.

It must have been incredible.

It was amazing.

It was beautiful out there, too.

I know that a lot of it was just meeting friends and getting to connect with people there.

Yeah, it wasn't so much.

And this is what John Clayton said.

It wasn't so much networking as it was building relationships and making friends, because that's just what the music world is like.

It's not all business, it's because it's an art of the heart and the soul.

So you have to connect.

And I, I think I met some friends that I will play with probably for a lifetime, and that's been such a fun experience.

It was so much fun and whoops, the best part of it, The best part was probably learning that jazz is a very small world and music in general is a very small world.

You're going to run into people again and again and again.

And the most important thing is you do it for the music.

That's that's what I learned.

Everything is for the music.

It's not for the ego, it's for the music.

And like you said, you made some lifelong friends from that experience.

I think so, yeah.

Yeah.

So what happens after you go to something like that?

After we get off the stage?

I mean, like some some people get high fives, some people get hugs and stuff, but it's just like we did it and then just like the after show depression or like, now we got to get back on the plane or now we have to go to the next gig.

But it's like you're still very inspired.

And when I got back from this trip, I was really inspired and I wrote a song, a new song on the plane, actually, that I haven't talked about with anybody yet.

But I did.

I did do that.

Wow.

So you were really inspired?

yes, completely.

I mean, and the performances at the at the jazz festival, they were just incredible, top notch, great musicians.

Well, we look forward to that new song whenever.

Whenever that comes to light.

Yeah, but for now, I know you're going to play another song for us, and it's a ballad.

Can you talk a little bit about it?

It's the feeling of knowing somebody for a really long time.

And no matter how hard you try, they're not reciprocating that friendship and how, how frustrating that is to keep giving and giving and giving.

And they're just taking.

Okay, so this one's called NA now?

Yep.

Here's to find out the answers to all the questions you just don't know how to ask.

Used figuring out the reason something about you makes it so hard to move past.

I chose myself and it was good enough.

I wanted help.

So sick of being tough.

no.

I can explain the little touch you can't contain and I waste time but never change.

You weren't your way inside my brain.

Go tell me why you're running through my head.

Cause let a don't know how to feel.

And I know what road you're taking Not care.

I got too much to lose.

Take a picture.

Perfect moment.

Now the snapshot in what could might have been falling prey to the illusion.

Talking to you was like a game that I can't win all these years.

It's such a long time gone.

I thought that we were close.

But then again, I don't even know the real you.

The conversation's mostly guesswork in the way for my coach.

Maybe I'll cue you in.

I want your.

not just a little bit.

You run, but you can't hide.

I'm still right here.

You can't deny it.

When push comes, come down to shove.

We fight, we talk, we spit out blood All tell me why you're running through my head.

Cause let me.

I don't know how to feel.

And I know whatever road you're taking not cancer.

No, I've got too much to lose.

It's always not now.

Some other time to talk.

I'm sorry.

It's not now.

It's up and I'm on the road again.

It's always not now.

Some other time can't talk.

I'm sorry.

It's not now.

It's not something.

You're on the road again.

I'm the.

So tell me why you're running through my head.

Cause lately limits all is not now.

Some other time can't ask.

Sorry.

It's not about some other time, You dog.

I'm sorry.

It's not now.

Some other time to talk.

I'm sorry.

I'm not now.

That was fantastic.

You can really hear your range on that song.

thank you.

When I was.

When I was writing it, I was like, Is this going to be too high?

And then I just kept rehearsing it.

I'm like, No, I can get it.

I can get it.

I'm not moving it down the key.

Yeah, apparently not.

It's not too high.

I want you to go back to when you were really, really little, because that's when you first discovered that you had perfect pitch.

And it started with some Disney DVDs.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

yeah.

From what my mom says, I used to rewind the DVDs, the Disney DVDs on a player and teach myself all the songs.

And when I started singing them and when I started doing piano with a piano teacher, he he recognized that I had perfect pitch that I could that I could hear the notes and understand what they were and name them no matter what pitch it is.

Wow.

So that's that's what perfect pitch is.

Yeah.

And you were, what, like four years old?

Yeah, three or four were four years old.

And then that developed.

You moved on from Disney DVDs?

Yeah.

What did you start listening to and singing and emulating?

Then I initially found jazz in.

Okay, so you remember those.

Those, those iPods?

Yeah.

When they actually used to have iPods, I would scroll through just just the music library that was on there.

And I found Diana Krall, and that was my introduction to jazz.

I'm like, Whoa, what is what is this?

Because I'd heard pop music, I'd heard rock music.

I still love rock music and I love pop to a degree, but jazz is just what stuck out to me.

Like, this is awesome.

And so I just started listening to it.

I didn't start really seriously singing jazz until about seven.

Jazz has always been in my life.

That's so fascinating that that's what you attach to like, Ella Fitzgerald, too, right?

Yeah.

Ella Fitzgerald.

Sarah Vaughan.

I found Carmen McRae a little later, but it was just like, what was it like trying to emulate them?

Difficult.

Yeah, difficult at first.

I mean, especially the, like, the scat singing.

But now I feel like I've really improved on that front.

Like improvising.

That was.

That's probably the most it's one of the most fun parts of jazz to me, honestly, improvising, because that's the gist of music about freedom and it's very represented in the way that you play the music.

Yeah, I know.

In school one of your favorite subjects, social studies and that influenced your songwriting.

Can you talk a little bit about.

yes, I've always loved history.

My social studies teachers always found a way to make everything like so much more intriguing and interactive.

And I was learning about, you know, Malala and things like the Holocaust, a lot of wars, a lot of terrorism.

And that really influenced me to write a song about like genocide is the way I put it, when I was 11.

And I and I gave it to somebody and they're like, is this a love song?

Like, what's this about?

I'm like, genocide.

So that's the kind of kid I was and still kind of am.

But I wrote that song Ashes just to be a message of hope that there's that there's something out there that is bad, but there's something out there that's going to guide you, help you, whether it's, you know, a religious figure or just, you know, somebody who helps you on the street, Just there's there's something out there that's good.

Yeah.

And you wrote a song about opioid addiction.

Yes, I did.

For my generation, when the opioid crisis really hit, like a few years ago, and it was coming to the news and everybody was hearing about it, I realized just how many people for my for my generation, everybody's affected by the opioid crisis.

Not that we are taking opioids, but every single one of us knows a brother, a sister, a friend, a parent, an uncle, anybody who's influenced by opioids.

And it's really a struggle.

And it's so unfortunate that it's that widespread.

And I decided to write that song as a sort of wake up call, like, these people are hurting.

We need to help them, not try and shun them to the outskirts of society because one day it will affect you so powerful.

I know that you also went to a lot of songwriting camps.

Is that how you kind of honed your craft?

Yeah, I went to I went to a couple songwriting camps.

The first one I went to is what inspired me to write songs.

The first song I ever wrote was a song I think was called Like For You or something.

It was it was a little cheesy, but I did this songwriting camp with Steve Bogart at the Civic and they told me, Write a song.

And so I wrote it and they're like, This is good, This is good.

I want you to come down to Nashville.

So I did, and I met a lot of a lot of mentors down there.

I went to spring training, the songwriting camp, and it's just it sparks something in me.

It's like I got to write.

That's what I have to do.

Wow, that's incredible.

And all those big topics that you've taken on your songwriting, the next song you're going to perform, Toy Soldier, is about bullying.

yeah, that one is very I mean, obviously I get fired up about things like the opiate crisis and genocide, but bullying is very, very near and dear to me because I was bullied heavily for about seven years.

It was difficult to feel like and this is a common occurrence I've found for a lot of artists and creatives, you just don't fit in, you don't fit the mold.

And this was a very homogeneous community in general.

And it was it was very difficult, but I feel like it made me the person who I am today.

And I wouldn't I wouldn't do it over.

And that's what this next song is about.

It's about, you know, something's you need to leave behind, but others you can keep as a part of your identity and not let them influence you in a negative way.

It's great that you have that outlet to put some of that into your songwriting.

I look forward to hearing Toy Soldier, so my feeling is around and the crowds have died down.

I gave it a shot.

What more can I want?

There's nothing left now.

And those little toy soldiers that you saw when you're older because you want to move on when you play days, don't be the person you should've become and broke him in pieces and parts of myself, hoping someday you'll learn how to fix them to make something more than I was with my heat up to the burning regret that I carry you because I can't face the thought of forgetting.

The cuts will still bleed even if you ignore them.

So you block out the pain, hoping others will stay.

Get you out of your head.

Head, head and left broken and pieces and parts of myself Hoping someday I'll learn how to fix to make something more than I once more than I was with my you up to the burning regret that I kill every cause I can't face the thought of forgetting.

So my feeling is around because I want to move on.

And this little toy soldier is that you?

So when you do, I'm so.

That was an incredibly moving song.

I could just feel all of the emotion that went into that.

Thank you so much.

That's probably one of my favorites.

I wrote it when I was 12, and I mean, I still really love it a lot, but 12 years old, that's incredible.

You know, we talked a little bit about, you know, some of the camps and songwriting camps that you've been to.

And you mentioned one of the best is right here, Northeast Ohio, Tri-C Jazz Fest Academy director Dominic Fennessy, who's your mentor?

Yeah.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Tri-C is honestly one of the best camps that I've been to, the way it's organized and directed and the opportunities that were given have really been like no other.

We may not be the biggest camp or the most famous camp here in Cleveland, but it's worth people from other states flying in to come to because there is so much love in that community and there is so much that I've learned everything I've learned about being a leader and figuring out how to do gigs, figuring out how to balance my schedule, how to just, you know, get through life in general.

I've learned from there and I've learned from my mentor, Dominic Farren, Archie, who is, I don't know, just a really all around great guy.

And he won't like that I say this because he doesn't think he hates to think that he's old, but he's really like a second.

He's like a second father to me sometimes.

Like we call him the Jazz father in our circle of friends.

But yeah, he's really been an influential person in my life, and so have the other teachers like Joe Hunter, Chris Coles, Evelyn Wright Definitely.

She's one of my favorites.

I love her to death.

my gosh.

But this community of local artists that they bring in to teach these camps, what they really do is they help young jazz musicians and musicians in general.

They're passing the torch.

They're not they're not saying, no, no, you can't play it this way.

You can't play it that way.

They're they're giving you the foundation to go off and do whatever you want.

And that's really, really helpful.

And Dominic Donachie was, you know, an up and coming jazz star in the spotlight at a young age, just like you.

What's advice that he's given you?

I think the best advice he gave me and I didn't say it like this, obviously, but like as Nike would put it, just do it.

Don't think about it too much.

Just do it.

Be organized in what you do.

But just go for it.

I mean, there is no what if or, you know, maybe later in running a band, being a bandleader, getting your own gigs, being an entrepreneur in general, you got to do it right now and you got to do it fast and you got to do it good.

That's fantastic that you have him, because I know he came up very similarly to you.

So I'm hearing that's pretty cool cause it's like he knows what it's like to be a young musician.

Just trying to figure it out.

Well, yeah.

And when Dominic turned out he was your age, he went off to Juilliard in New York.

Yeah.

Do you plan to follow in his footsteps?

I'm applying to grad school right now, and Juilliard is a very, very high contender, along with MSM and Miami Frost.

There's.

And Berkeley, of course.

There's just so many great schools that.

And I just want to throw my name in the hat and just see what comes out, you know, see who wants to, you know, teach me.

Yeah.

And just keep furthering your career wherever it takes you next.

How exciting.

You play one more song for us of course.

Yeah.

Antifreeze.

Right.

Tell us about this track.

I wrote this track to be, like the personification of an anxiety attack in the lyrics.

It's, like, two and three.

I mean, it's just like when you're up and you.

You can't quite get to sleep, but you're just tired and it's all these thoughts.

I spin in my head a lot.

So I just wanted to take that and dump it out on the page and it made me feel better after.

But it's about an anxiety attack and just the racing thoughts in your head that don't seem to go away, even when it's the early hours of the morning and you're like, I need sleep, I have stuff to do tomorrow.

And it's just like, No, no, you can't.

Yeah.

So hope you enjoy any free last month.

It wasn't last week.

No, I can't remember what day you set your alarm.

They say things are looking up for next November.

Lose track.

Better look on your arm.

Still straight.

Read the headlines from the next town over still fresh in the back of your mind.

great.

This seat's occupied, but you move on closer.

No, stay home.

I really don't mind to him again.

I want.

I've done a couple of any present.

Ever want to sit through all the static on your TV, sitting on top of it off the border, like old on the inside three.

Am I going to want to dust us up?

And gasoline strike.

Imagine being a mother to you ever said to me the temperature that that the take one off, one fall apart could do that at four just close enough to try to tell what my eyes behind those by when I was your perfect poisonous keeps playing on my mind hey thought I saw you but I can't remember my dad.

I hoped you would leave.

It's sad, but it takes one to know one daily.

It's tough.

That's.

You're just like me.

You're just like me to him again.

I want to don a cup of antifreeze.

I never understood.

The real static on your TV is a section of the border.

Like old on the inside.

3 a.m..

I don't want it does have a gasoline strike.

And that you burn up all the things you ever said to me.

The temperature that that the dark 104 and Paula, part one and four and fall apart for you.

I'm the spinning in the screaming isn't stopping the five so I can figure out most of the monotony of six, but I don't really get seven like it's in there in the desperate, just close enough to try to channel one through my eyes.

Behind those violet eyes.

You're the perfect poison that gives play.

You can my mind try to tell what ever lies behind those five lies.

You're the perfect poison that keeps playing on my mind.

Playing back.

All right.

Fantastic.

I think that was my favorite one.

Thank you.

I enjoyed it so much.

Ava, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

This has been really, really fun, and I'm so happy to have done this.

Yeah, We look forward to continue following your journey and look forward to what happens next.

My guest has been Northeast Ohio jazz vocalist and singer songwriter Ava Preston.

Joining her today were Wilson Woods on keyboards and and Macklemore on upright bass.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Amanda Rabinowitz.

Thank you so much for joining us for this edition of APPLAUSE performances.

And be sure to continue to follow Northeast Ohio's independent music scene with our music podcast Shuffle.