Tom Schuman Interview

[Docbop]

Have to say with my guitar background I knew of Spyro Gyra, but not the players so this interview was very enlightening for me.   Interesting  since the Nord Stage 4 and the know your gear threads going on hearing him talk about gear i was grinning.    Here's a guy been around forever on long lists of Spyro Gyro and his own albums and he says he'd like to have a Nord, but who can afford a $5000-$6000 keyboard.  They ask him about gear at about the 54 minute mark.    Also have to say I agree with him on the lack of dynamics in recorded music these days,  I'm of people mastering to try and make their tracks louder than everyone else.   

 

 

[Radagast]

I was dismayed to find out he recently retired from music and is moving to Europe.

[jazzpiano88]

I wish Spyro Gyra had stuck more along the lines of this (but I'm sure the money dictated otherwise):

 

 

[Steve Nathan]

2 hours ago, Radagast said:

I was dismayed to find out he recently retired from music and is moving to Europe.

I din't believe he's retiring from music, just retiring from the road/touring.  He'll keep making music from his new home in Barcelona, writing, recording, producing, etc.

I enjoyed this interview immensely.  Tommy's been a friend since we were kids practically, and I've always been blown away by his talent.  He could no more quit music than any of us.  It's a lifetime.

 

[stoken6]

6 hours ago, Steve Nathan said:

He'll keep making music from his new home in Barcelona

That's a lovely place to live. 

 

Cheers, Mike.

[analogholic]

7 hours ago, Steve Nathan said:

I din't believe he's retiring from music, just retiring from the road/touring.  He'll keep making music from his new home in Barcelona, writing, recording, producing, etc.

I enjoyed this interview immensely.  Tommy's been a friend since we were kids practically, and I've always been blown away by his talent.  He could no more quit music than any of us.  It's a lifetime.

 

Tell Tom to hook up with bass monster Gary Willis, and his pal, monster drummer Gergö Borlai...(check him out if you haven´t heard him)....both living in Barcelona.

That would be a super group   Great interview with Tom btw and happy for his new chapter in life.

[CyberGene]

I have never been a fan of Spyro Gyra, too smooth for my taste (even cheesy at times), however I had a cassette tape of Tom Schuman’s “Extremities” for GRP (Dave Weckl on drums and many other GRP stars) that I literally tore apart from listening. The sound is typically GRP and similar to Chick Corea Electric Band although slightly smoother and more accessible. The last track is my favorite:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=04mBcftf0SY

[Joe P]

I saw Spyro last week and was disappointed Tom was not there.  His replacement, Chris Fischer, was a great player but did not look as comfortable as Tom.  Tom was always visually engaged with the band and made it look easy, whereas Chris looked like he was working hard.  Of course, I can only imagine the woodshedding that went into getting that gig!

 

Great show nonetheless....

[ProfD]

Tom Schuman casually mentions that he can't afford to drop $4-5k on a Nord or $160k on a piano. 

 

Then, Tom says his main gigging KBs are a 1)Yamaha MO8 that he bought broken for $400 and fixed with a $50 motherboard bought off eBay and 2) Korg X50 being a toy that has great sounds in it.🤣

 

The ultra-baddest musicians always seem to be nonchalant when it comes to their KB rigs. They clearly aren't influenced or motivated by gear forums.😁😎

[Reezekeys]

3 hours ago, Joe P said:

His replacement, Chris Fischer, was a great player but did not look as comfortable as Tom.

 

I would assume that anyone playing the same gig for 45 years would look pretty comfortable doing it!

 

Chris is a fantastic player - maybe give him the benefit of the doubt for the first few gigs?! In addition to getting the music together, he has to deal with the fans' disappointment at him being "not Tom Schuman" as well? One could argue a band that's been around as long as Spyro has actually had less than the average number of personnel changes as other bands of that vintage. I speak from personal experience! Signed, "a replacement" 🙂 

[rogs]

I was pleased that Tom came up with 'Heavy Weather' as the 1st of his 'desert island' album choices (about 70 minute in).

Whenever I say that for my 1st 'desert island' choice too, most folk 'what? - who?' 

And if I do get the chance to play them a track or two they then say 'why?'

So maybe it's just Tom and me then? ..  🙂

Mind you, with Chris Fischer and Scott Ambush from Spyro Gyra both on this excellent Weather Report cover track'  I think there maybe more connections between the 2 bands than I had originally thought?...

 

[nursers]

17 hours ago, ProfD said:

Tom Schuman casually mentions that he can't afford to drop $4-5k on a Nord or $160k on a piano. 

 

Then, Tom says his main gigging KBs are a 1)Yamaha MO8 that he bought broken for $400 and fixed with a $50 motherboard bought off eBay and 2) Korg X50 being a toy that has great sounds in it.🤣

 

The ultra-baddest musicians always seem to be nonchalant when it comes to their KB rigs. They clearly aren't influenced or motivated by gear forums.😁😎

 

Well put - we have found this regularly doing the interviews. Even with the few rig tour videos we've done as follow-ups from the main interviews, the gear is usually pretty basic and the chat doesn't stay on gear for very long. I won't say who, but I recently spent 90 mins chatting face to face with a previous guest after one of their shows whilst touring Australia. Gear maybe made up 15 minutes of the chat. The rest was about playing  

[CyberGene]

10 hours ago, rogs said:

So maybe it's just Tom and me then?

Hmm, I've seen many people who are huge fans of Weather Report and especially "Heavy Weather". It's actually the opposite for me: I have to often explain why I don't like them. Although in reality I don't "dislike" them. I've often found myself enjoying their music genuinely but there's always something too directionless in it, starts off great but then never develops and doesn't go in any particular way, like an overextended intro to some other piece. As a reference, my favorite fusion band is Chick Corea Elektric Band where the compositions have almost classical-like structure and development.

[ProfD]

4 hours ago, CyberGene said:

Hmm, I've seen many people who are huge fans of Weather Report...Although in reality I don't "dislike" them. I've often found myself enjoying their music genuinely but there's always something too directionless in it, starts off great but then never develops and doesn't go in any particular way, like an overextended intro to some other piece. As a reference, my favorite fusion band is Chick Corea Elektric Band where the compositions have almost classical-like structure and development.

Admittedly, I'm a huge Weather Report (WR) fan and therefore unapologetically biased. 😁 

 

Having listened to entire body of work of Weather Report, there are definitely well structured tunes in their catalog.  Some of their tunes have made it into the Real Books.

 

IMO, after Miles Davis, Weather Report laid the foundation for every other Jazz fusion group.  I hear the WR influence in all of them.

 

I also dug the Chick Corea Elektrik Band. But, I doubt that Jazz musicians will be lining up to form tribute bands or play and record their tunes.😁😎

[CyberGene]

41 minutes ago, ProfD said:

IMO, after Miles Davis, Weather Report laid the foundation for every other Jazz fusion group.  I hear the WR influence in all of them.

I agree with that and as I said, I feel I'm more of a minority in being rather indifferent to WR because in my jazz/fusion years when we tried to play similar music, all musicians around me were mad about WR and it was only me, the keyboard player (🤣) who was not so much. Go figure. Having mentioned Miles Davis, I can listen to his (theirs? because so many of the greats were on those records) all day long too.

 

41 minutes ago, ProfD said:

I also dug the Chick Corea Elektrik Band. But, I doubt that Jazz musicians will be lining up to form tribute bands or play and record their tunes.😁😎

Well, admittedly that's true too and I could never understand why 🧐 I have one friend/musician/past-bandmate who once told me he didn't like CCEB because he found Eric Marienthal's sax too smooth and Keeny G-like which I find outrageous 🤬 I mean, yeah, the guy also had his own smooth records that were rather cheesy but his playing in CCEB was nothing like being smooth or cheesy.

 

But it's music after all, we're biased, opinionated, subjective, irrational 😉 With that in mind, it's important to note that I was introduced to jazz by a friend who gave me the solo piano albums by Chick Corea ("Expressions" and "Children's Songs"), he's my all time jazz hero, so I'm biased too 😀 Besides, for the most part of my life I've been mainly a classical (acoustic) pianist, that's my music, that's my instrument. And Chick is much closer to being called an acoustic (and even classical, yeah!) pianist than Joe Zawinul, so there's another bias here too.

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, CyberGene said:

And Chick is much closer to being called an acoustic (and even classical, yeah!) pianist than Joe Zawinul, so there's another bias here too.

Joe Zawinul was a classically-trained pianist too. He purposefully came to America to play Jazz with AfroAmerican musicians in order to absorb that musicality into his soul. 😎

[Steve Nathan]

Although I've been mostly a R&B/Soul/Country musician for my entire adult life, I have always found Heavy Weather in particular, to be a favorite.  I don't know many musicians who don't have a similar appreciation for it's deft combination of musicianship and musicality.  Great songwriting, great playing and so full of "hooks", I consider it a Masterpiece.  I couldn't paint a barn, but I can appreciate brilliant abstract expression.

[nursers]

On 4/4/2023 at 3:13 AM, Reezekeys said:

 

I would assume that anyone playing the same gig for 45 years would look pretty comfortable doing it!

 

Chris is a fantastic player - maybe give him the benefit of the doubt for the first few gigs?! In addition to getting the music together, he has to deal with the fans' disappointment at him being "not Tom Schuman" as well? One could argue a band that's been around as long as Spyro has actually had less than the average number of personnel changes as other bands of that vintage. I speak from personal experience! Signed, "a replacement" 🙂 

 

This is a great point. From memory, late in the interview Tom covers this off i.e. how gobsmacked Chris was to be asked to be a fill-in, let alone the full-time replacement

[Chilitopper]

I got to see Spyro Gyra last night in Minneapolis, I think opening night of their spring tour. I always loved Tom's playing but I have to say Chris did an amazing job on keys. To me he looked very comfortable and I loved his tasteful style and solos. You could hear the Zawinul factor in his playing and he kept it in style for the Spyro Gyra fan base. The whole band sounded fresh, locked in,

and excited to be performing. 

[GovernorSilver]

On 4/2/2023 at 9:44 PM, JazzPiano88 said:

I wish Spyro Gyra had stuck more along the lines of this (but I'm sure the money dictated otherwise):

 

 

 

oh yeah that's around the time they released the Fast Forward album.

 

I remember buying the cassette at Tower Records, putting on and thinking "this sounds nothing like Morning Dance!"

 

More of a Weather Report kind of sound