[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] grades.

>> one thing i will say about this is i learned from playing a rae brown when you don't know it when in doubt layout like if you don't know the changes, just lay out if you know the routes, you know, you just play the routes until it can, joe, you know, center.

>> kareem, i'm just so thrilled that you're here.

welcome home.

thank you.

and i'm really excited that you're a sitting in this chair this year for the detroit jazz festival.

what is your earliest recollection of the jazz festival?

>> i would frequently come to the festival every year.

my dad, some kind of show.

so i just remember as early as maybe seven, eight years i got a chance is run from state since age two to kind of peek in on what was going on.

>> jazz, if you're going to talk about a genre, i think is the broadest and most inclusive tenth because it's always evolving.

and i think a lot of that evolution follows technology that i'm curious how you're going to put all this together.

what are your thoughts for the festival this year?

>> well, one thing i want to speak on is talking about the jazz people, jazz, please.

i i really could care less about what people think is has been not because it's what comes from here and and sometimes will come from here.

you can put a label on something from the heart.

so so that is something that was instilled in me from the beginning is haven't my background and groups to help out, you know, and i will listen in to does so.

all these different genres, i feel like you the the more you read, the more articulate you are and expressing yourself and i feel like listening to music is the same thing and the more you listen to different things, you can bridge those gaps and it becomes one thing, you know.

but for me, i feel like, you know, integrating all these different instruments.

they're going to use my voice, you know, loops, finding different moves.

it's a starting point.

and sometimes we arrive at a different place from just being a loop.

so that's where everything is kind of and the melting pot together, psycho a gumbo soup that you make in so many different elements in that it makes us special.

>> i thought really interesting.

in one interview you were talking about how with common working on his record, it was all beats that.

i mean, take a lot to put together.

but then with august green, as you comment and robert glasper, you're playing all that live.

so, you know, there's that kind of interaction, a back and forth.

you know, so, so who are you going to bring the festival to?

>> i it's going to be quite a surprise.

no, you're not going to tell us.

i don't really have a anything to say now at this point.

but i will say that, you know, is it will be some of the people that i've been calabro collaborating with over the years.

i would be surprised that fog a screen doesn't make it okay with that.

i want to definitely do something that i haven't done before.

and that is takes a little more effort and work.

you know, so that's what i want to bring to the city, something special.

and it's not just a city because, you know, this millions of people who get to to watch this festival.

and i just want to make sense a big, huge statement.

[MUSIC] much better.

i feel like, you know, just that little space makes a big difference.

>> how do you feel you are working with the kids today here?

how are they evolving and how do you think the music is evolving for that generation?

>> well, i could just hear, you know, this becoming more of a thing now because people listen to so much different kind of music, you know, spotify and tidal and all these digital streaming platforms have so much you can just jump from here.

you can listen to maria's with and you can go to fund his newborn and you can go to okay to not a matter of myself, you know, and >> i feel like you can hear those influences and that you play it.

>> you went out with credit card when she was seven.

when you were seventeen.

what did you learn playing with with betty?

what was that like?

>> well, what i do with betty carter was a jazz ahead where she flew out.

i think it was like five musicians from detroit and i think like seven other cities, she had a lot of musicians come in and we all wrote music and we all have to interpret each other's music.

and i think that she was looking for us to play and the original and be cliche.

so she heard seen anything that was chris say she would like, you know, do your thing.

you know, and i feel like that kind of push means to be original and not to follow any kind of cliche, as you know.

yeah, no copy playing at last june.

when you went into those foods, you should definitely like zone in on those fields and play you be you.

you know too well, the first two.

yeah.

the first throughout like setting of those fields in those specific setting up certain fields.

but i know you can do it in your own way when you speaking with your voice.

>> and that's hard to do.

i mean, if you're just playing with the numbers on the scale, but the way you can express them, but with all the different sounds and combinations of sounds.

>> i think now it's a lot easier creatively.

you know, to see this hour on the screen, you can find the downbeat because in some big bubble and you say, oh, that's something they're instead of using numbers.

i think back when the mpc three thousand was around using those numbers, we'll kind of take up the space of you in the flow of being creative.

i feel like there's more room for creativity now because their workflows is faster.

so it's all about getting the idea out and being prolific move on to the next.

and that's why i really want to achieve just being prolific in create as much as i can while i'm here on this earth.

>> you're the you're my my favorite kind of driver.

i mean, it's like in the right like in the right place.

i mean, i love art blakey, but he's out front that you've been described as skeletal.

but i and i think that's a positive thing.

i mean, it's the it's the bone i best, which all the you know, flesh can be can be grown.

>> so i strive to achieve the practicing, trying to find the right thing, play to make people feel the drummers was making dads and feel something.

and that is what to i want to achieve.

every time i play.

i think i've just learned just from being around a great musician.

is that less is more like the simplicity in it and speaks more.

you save more by leaving room, leaving space.

>> and just play in the groove.

so work so much, i think by just being simple and plan to.