"Keyboard Player Hears Song for the First Time" - Justin Stanton Edition

[nadroj]

I'm sure we all remember the "Jordan Rudess hears Alicia Keys for the First Time" thread. Well, they're back with a new one. This time it's Justin Stanton (of Snarky Puppy) hears Dua Lipa for the first time.

As you might expect, it's...very different to the Rudess one. In fact, if you know Justin and Snarky Puppy, it's about exactly what you'd expect.

 

In order to foster a broader discussion, I'll refrain from posting my opinion for now.

 

Suffice to say I think it's super interesting hearing first hand what both musicians hear in their heads, and seeing how they put it into practice (and in both cases, how similar the end result is to their wider work).

 

Let me know your thoughts!

 

 

[ProfD]

Excellent. Justin Stanton *heard* the song and played it idiomatically with added harmonic sophistication. I would have approached it similarly.😎

[Adan]

This one's more interesting, though I'm still confounded about what we, the viewer, is supposed to take away from it. With enough talent and fresh ideas you can turn a pop hit into a Snarky Puppy fusion thing. But then it's probably no longer a pop hit.

[CyberGene]

I hadn’t heard the original song, I’m not even sure who Dua Lipa is but I think I’ve heard the name before and thought it was some modern BS. I am pleasantly surprised and actually like the original song. What’s interesting is, Justin’s rendition is not very different than the original, it’s like a bit more jazzy version but I’d say even the original is already pointing there and they are in the same ballpark.

 

The Rudess video was about a song that is completely orthogonal to Rudess 😀 Besides, as I said in the other thread, leave it to jazz guys to improvise. Rudess is a shredder (that’s not a bad thing though!) but not an improviser. IMHO.