Matt Traum: 0:02

Welcome to the Aerophone Academy podcast with me, Matt Traum.

Alistair Parnell: 0:06

And I'm Alistair Parnell. Join us each month as we discuss the wonderful world of wind controllers and you get the very best information and answers to your questions.

Matt Traum: 0:17

The Aerophone Academy podcast is the source for accurate information on wind controllers, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast.

Alistair Parnell: 0:26

And while you're at it, why not check out www. isax. academy?

Matt Traum: 0:32

and patchmanmusic. com.

Alistair Parnell: 0:35

Welcome back everybody. This is episode 14, and we're going to do a continuation of our fascinating interview with Mr Tom Scott. So welcome back again, Tom. Nice to have you.

Tom Scott: 0:47

Well, it's nice to be had. Thank you so much.

Alistair Parnell: 1:19

Once again, we've got a really exciting episode ahead for you with this one. I'm Alistair Parnell, coming to you from Nottingham in the UK, and let me introduce to you Matt Traum, coming from Ohio in the States. And Matt, how are you? Welcome, take it away.

Matt Traum: 1:37

Thanks, Alistair. I'm doing great here and chuffed to bits, as they say over there. Dubly chuffed even. You might even go as far as to say I'm over the moon. Looking forward to talking more with Tom Scott and his wonderful, amazing musical career and his use of wind controllers. So let's carry on, shall we, Tom? I wanted to ask you, uh, the Yamaha WX and the Akai EWI came out about the same year, around 87 88. I was wondering, did you ever you ever experiment with the EWI or Nyle Steiner's version of EWI before before that?

Tom Scott: 2:19

I, I tried, I tried and it just it. It just didn't feel comfortable. I mean the WX5 or whatever, the first one I played which I really liked, it just fits.

Matt Traum: 2:31

The 7 was the first.

Tom Scott: 2:32

Yeah, 7. It just fit. It just fit in your hands in a normal woodwind player kind of way.

Tom Scott: 2:41

And listen, I've got to tell you my dear, dear departed friend, Michael Brecker, God bless him. He played some stuff on the EWI. I went to see him one night at the Hollywood Bowl with Paul Simon and Paul graciously, because I know it was like probably half the audience didn't know or care but he gave Michael a solo spot and he had that thing and I'm sure Judd Miller Judd Miller was his programmer, so I you know, but he so he played a couple of notes or two, or a couple of notes and I think some of them was meant to trigger other stuff, so. So he had this like kind of African drum loop going on and then some kind of bass line that kept repeating and then he was playing over that. It was the most stunning EWI performance you'll ever hear in your entire life. Wow, yeah, he had it down. I just couldn't get it.

Alistair Parnell: 3:33

Interesting. So you stuck with the WX7?

Tom Scott: 3:36

Yes, I did.

Alistair Parnell: 3:37

Yeah, so then am I right then? The transition then is on to the Roland right?

Tom Scott: 3:43

Well, yeah, because I didn't really play, I didn't really use the electronic wind instrument for a while, I mean it, just I didn't use it. Then I decided, God, it would be great to get a Lyricon again, because I'll never have a sound that's like that. Yeah, I called Bernardi's- I think his son- right who apparently has a warehouse full of this stuff, and there was another guy who actually helped with the sales and I can't think of his name now. Anyway, I ordered a Lyricon Wind Driver and I got a module I think it was a Behringer some module, some little module I thought could reproduce. And once again, we got another filter thing.

Tom Scott: 4:23

Once I tried it, it just didn't have the sound. It wasn't a kind of sophisticated filter that the Moog ones were, and so I ended up and, plus, I forgot all the things that were not so fun about the Lyricon, which is the pitch drifting and you know, and it was kind of finicky and I, I just, I just said I'm sorry and I said it all back at a refund. So then, what was that? What? What happened? Where I had seen some, probably some cheap MIDI there's a couple of MIDI saxophone things that I was thinking, mulling over and then then I saw the uh heard about the Aerophone. From who did I hear about it? From uh, Bob Mintzer or I can't remember now.

Matt Traum: 5:11

Maybe maybe Tav, Steve Tavaglione?

Tom Scott: 5:13

No it wasn't Steve. Anyway, somehow I've read about it or found out about it and, uh, I you know. Then I got in touch with the, with Roland, and then I called you for that Lyricon sound, and boy, I'm so grateful.

Matt Traum: 5:28

Anyway using it. That's great. Yeah, sure. Might have been Bob Mintzer. They were trying to get Bob to play it.

Tom Scott: 5:35

I have a memory of Mintzer in the back of my head.

Matt Traum: 5:38

Yeah, it just didn't work for him either. I mean, he's the opposite, he likes the EWI, you know the touch sensors and it's. It's all personal, right?

Tom Scott: 5:47

Go for it, baby. Uh, it's very personal. Yep.

Matt Traum: 5:49

Alistair, we have to put one more Lyric on solo in here. 1979, Herb Alpert, my hero, my musical hero, besides Tom Scott. Yeah, you played on a, a track called Aranjuez on his Rise LP the big one, 1979 his big one.

Tom Scott: 6:01

Oh, Aranjuez uh, yeah, yeah.

Matt Traum: 6:04

So how was it to work with Herb? Herb Alpert, my hero?

Tom Scott: 6:07

Lovely lovely. Herb was a is a great guy and you know, uh, say what you will about I mean, I, I've. I've thought in the beginning like this what's this corny Tijuana Brass stuff? You know, being the again the hip jazz guy that I perceived myself to be at the time. But Herb Alpert ended up doing something, and I've told him this. I said you did something in 1966 or whenever that was, that no one else succeeded in doing. You helped reintroduce horns back into pop music. You know, because he was first.

Tom Scott: 6:42

Then I think the next big deal was Blood, Sweat and Tears and then that led to Chicago and you know Earth, Wind and Fire and all the great R and B bands with horns, which just was such a great new dimension. But listen, Herb was a delightful guy. You know. He and his partner, Jerry Moss, founded A&M Records. You know, out of a suitcase, I mean, they were. They had nothing starting and they turned that thing into a behemoth of a record company. And they also did it on a handshake. They had never had a formal agreement between the two of them except shaking hands. I thought that was really cool, yeah.

Matt Traum: 7:21

And you interviewed Herb on your podcast, one of the early guests of yours.

Tom Scott: 7:28

I did indeed, I did indeed, and he signed me to A and M signed back in 1970. I did one album for him and, uh, then I moved on then. Then Lou Adler wanted me, which was great because that was old records, that was carol king and cheech and chong and a very sort of the tiffany of of record labels within the A&M family. So I lucked out there.

Matt Traum: 7:48

Well, can we play a little of that track? Alistair, the Herb Alpert?

Alistair Parnell: 7:50

Sure!

Matt Traum: 8:42

I assume that's you on top, right?

Tom Scott: 8:43

Yeah, that's me, and I'm the one doing the little turns. Right, yep.

Matt Traum: 8:49

It's so cool.

Tom Scott: 8:50

That was my East Indian training.

Matt Traum: 8:52

Such a cool track. Yeah, great stuff. Thank you for commenting.

Alistair Parnell: 8:56

You've got an Aerophone but you could do with some help. Getting information from the internet or finding a great teacher just isn't happening, and you know how important it is to make the best possible start. Let me introduce you to the Aerophone Basics course from the iSax Academy, A brand new online course for the beginner to intermediate player. After you've learned how to set up the instrument, we'll look at hand position, breathing, articulation and sound selection. There are 20 videos to help you learn every note on the instrument, plus the alternatives with detailed explanations and playing tips on how to get the best from each sound. There are sessions on improvisation and help with reading music, downloadable PDFs and backing tracks for each lesson. Start playing great tunes from day one and see great results in just 90 days.

Alistair Parnell: 9:46

Regular live webinars with me, Alistair Parnell, to get your questions answered and join a whole community of players. Visit isax. academy for more information.

Alistair Parnell: 10:06

So I get the feeling, Tom, is this is this kind of a fair observation you you seem to have, for you know quite a lot of your career, like you said about your car boot, and you know your trunk, should I say you have? You know this arsenal of equipment and the wind synth has always been or for a lot of your period of professional playing, it's been another tool in your box and you've used it kind of equally, like a saxophone or the bass clarinet or the flute or whatever it's. Just whenever it suits out, it comes right?

Tom Scott: 10:40

That's exactly right. What is the music? What would best benefit the music in terms of what I can do, what I could bring to the table? And whatever that answer is, I'll do it.

Alistair Parnell: 10:51

And something that's come up before in our podcast is this like Matt said earlier, you know anything you play is going to sound great, but did you ever get any reaction where people you know what are you doing with that thing? Or or was there any kind of like you know, um...

Tom Scott: 11:06

What in the hell is that? No.

Alistair Parnell: 11:09

Yeah exactly, you know, did you ever feel that was a little awkward in in any situation? Or you were just like look, I...

Tom Scott: 11:17

I didn't. I didn't, because, look, I always introduce it by saying, look, this is this thing, I'll play it for you. If you don't like it, I'll put it away. Yeah, but you know, I didn't wait for them to say what, what? I didn't force it on anybody, so nobody was in the position of having to say get that thing out of here!

Alistair Parnell: 11:34

Yeah what about, like now? So you're obviously doing your um social media stuff and you're playing the Aerophone. Are you using it? Still doing some like all the recording bits and things, or what's? What's what's happening?

Tom Scott: 11:48

Yeah. Well it's funny that this month, a little later this month, I'm doing a concert actually two concerts of the same material. It's mostly dedicated to Quincy Jones, or a big part of it- and I'm doing the encore, coming out and doing Velas, which is that beautiful tune by Ivan Linz which Toots Thielmans, played using the harmonica. Yes, uh, a setting on the Aerophone. It was a beauty. That's a beautiful tune too. It's too. It's on Quincy's album, The Dude. It's absolutely gorgeous, and Johnny Mandel wrote the strings. I miss the days when people were allowed, had the financial resources to just get all the best people like Quincy. You know, man, classy, classy stuff.

Alistair Parnell: 12:49

The other thing I get from you, Tom, I think, is you know, you've not been perhaps one that's experimented with a vast amount of kind of computer-based soft synths or whatever for your wind synth playing. You seem to have chosen sounds that you really enjoy playing, and there may be not many of those, but you've learned and played them extremely well. Is that fair?

Tom Scott: 13:14

Well, the extremely well part. I won't take credit for that. I do the best I can. Yeah, no that's, but I will say, yes, I'm only interested in sounds that I think I can, you know, express myself we talked about earlier expression the ones that allow me to, you know, to do things I want to do. And and, for example, I mean I don't mean to slam the lovely people at Roland Aerophone, but of the 600 sounds on there, people at Roland Aerophone, but of the 600 sounds on there, there's maybe 50 that I care about, if that many. But the ones that I do care about are great, lovely.

Alistair Parnell: 13:54

Yes, yeah, I think a lot of people would agree with you. It's interesting from our podcast point of view because having spoken to someone like Judd, where I mean he's got like a zillion different sounds on computer and soft synth and that's what he's into, and he's spent a vast amount of time developing his own sounds and things. So it's interesting seeing the two quite different approaches. You know?

Tom Scott: 14:15

I'm not particularly interested in breaking new ground in terms of sounds and stuff. Let Judd do that. He's very good at it, far better than I would ever be.

Matt Traum: 14:26

Speaking of Judd, shall we play the Short Visit? Sure, it's called A Short Visit. It was a composition by Judd Miller. I don't know if Judd plays on it. It sounds like he's doing his chord thing in the melody also with you. Maybe

Tom Scott: 14:38

He's not playing on it. No.

Matt Traum: 14:40

Not? Okay, but it's his composition.

Tom Scott: 14:42

It is indeed Okay.

Alistair Parnell: 14:43

Here it comes. Yeah, yeah, see what you mean about the chord thing though, Matt. It does sound a bit like Judd Miller with that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Matt Traum: 16:06

Very reminiscent, yeah.

Alistair Parnell: 16:08

So, and GRP, I mean, what a crew to work with right?

Tom Scott: 16:13

They left me alone to do what I want to do. You know, and you never make... Some albums turned out better than others, or more listenable or more popular. You can't predict that. You just do the best you can, one album at a time, and if you're lucky enough to be in the business as long as I have, I have a catalog.

Matt Traum: 16:35

If you are enjoying this Aerophone Academy podcast, please consider visiting patchmanmusic. com for your next wind controller related purchase. Patchman Music offers the largest library of highly expressive, professional quality breath controlled sounds for numerous synths and soft synths. The popular Patchman Music Turbo VL upgrade chip for the Yamaha VL70-m sound module, developed over 20 years ago, is still a staple with wind controller players worldwide. Patchman Music has worked with the very best in the field, including Tom Scott, Michael Brecker, Judd Miller, Bob Mintzer, Jeff Kashua and Wix Wickens keyboardist and music director for Paul McCartney, and we are happy to help you make your wind controller experience as fun and productive as possible. In addition to our wind controller sound libraries, Patchman Music is also the leading dealer in the US for new and used wind controller hardware products- including the Roland Aerophone series, the Akai EWI series, the Berglund series of instruments including the NuRAD and NuEVI, the Yamaha YDS series, and the complete series of Audio Modeling SWAM virtual instruments for the Mac and PC.

Matt Traum: 17:42

If you are looking to purchase a new or used wind controller, need a repair, or are looking for some world-class expressive sounds to take your wind controller experience to the top, why not support this Aerophone Academy podcast and visit patchmanm usic. com for your next wind controller-related purchase? Thank you.

Matt Traum: 18:18

Well, I just want to maybe ask Tom what he uh, where he sees the future going with wind controllers. What he'd like to see in the Aerophone. A new model maybe that comes out or firmware upgrade or something. What do you like, and what are you missing?

Tom Scott: 18:18

I would like to see some of the sounds that you can create that aren't on that incorporated.

Matt Traum: 18:25

They're coming!

Tom Scott: 18:26

Oh, they are. Yeah, oh, that's great.

Matt Traum: 18:28

I did some of the factory presets, some of those big chords and some of the others, but I'll do more.

Tom Scott: 18:33

Yeah, no, those are fine, you know, in their place they're just. I wouldn't normally find a place for them, but that's me, that's, but they're great to have them. It's great to have them. I don't begrudge having it all.

Matt Traum: 18:44

Um yeah, there are definitely things coming in the pipeline.

Tom Scott: 18:48

That's great cause I think, frankly, I think both the, the, uh, the, the, the sound, the quote unquote, quasi uh Lyric on sound that you created for me, uh, it is wonderful and...

Matt Traum: 19:04

Thank you.

Tom Scott: 19:04

And and I took the other one, the second one that you sent me, and tweaked it and made it more like kind of the sound on hard, Heart Hotels a bit more edgy.

Matt Traum: 19:10

Right, yeah, yeah.

Tom Scott: 19:11

And uh and uh. Once you showed me how to use the yeah the app, I was thrilled that I could actually do that kind of stuff right on my phon e.

Matt Traum: 19:18

Yeah, Tom called a couple times and it's like can I do this on my Aerophone? And the answer is usually yes, but it's like you know, to be able to do. It's a little complicated sometimes because you have all those features and there's you got to dig down a couple levels of menus to get in there. But yep, we did it,

Tom Scott: 19:32

Yeah, and I thank you for that.

Matt Traum: 19:34

As far as the hardware, do you like the key layout like physically? Does it feel good in your hands or?

Tom Scott: 19:39

Uh, well, now this is okay, this is a good point, because, uh okay, um Corey Fournier This great, the great guy at Roland, he's a wonderful guy great guy he had me meet him at their um office in Burbank and there was one of the Japanese uh tech guy I guess you know. He had a clipboard and he wanted it and I would say stuff and and he would, you know, try to write it down what I was saying, what my my main objection to it was there are a lot of keys on there that are sort of programmed like a saxophone, and by that I mean if you're playing, like you know, using the top three fingers, say, and you want to go half step down, you know you normally you'd have to use two fingers to do it on a saxophone, which is in this world of. I mean, the bottom line of this. What I'm saying is every key should do something all the time. Let me learn, you know, maybe a half step, a whole step, a trill, I don't know. Make them do stuff, because they're just sitting there.

Tom Scott: 20:41

is, there's a lot of unused keys that are only that, are only good for one specific fingering, and I would love to have see that change happen. Now I haven't. Now I know that there are some fingering systems that the the aside from saxophone, like there's one called e-Wind, e-Wind, yeah, now is that. What does that have more? I haven't even tried it. Does it have more stuff going on?

Alistair Parnell: 21:04

Yeah, it does. That does have a little bit more flexibility because it tries to go more towards the, the. What was the really the the Akai electronic wind instrument, um sort of fingering system...

Matt Traum: 21:16

... like an additive system where every key either adds a half step or subtracts it, and it doesn't matter what you're doing, it just adds together, right?

Tom Scott: 21:22

Yes, well, yeah, well, that's kind of what I'm talking about. I guess I should just try that and see what. See what it's like. Would I like it, do you think?

Alistair Parnell: 21:31

Yeah. It takes a little while to to to dig into it, you know...

Tom Scott: 21:35

But but you can't wait, wait, wait, just before you go on, can't you just? Can you play it just like as if it were the saxophone one, or is it going to react differently?

Alistair Parnell: 21:44

Well, the beauty for me is that you've got your own. You've got your own user fingerings. But there is also a setting on it where you can dedicate, say, you know, like your side key B flat or your side key C fingering, you can say you always want that fingering to give you a half step up or a whole step up.

Tom Scott: 22:07

You can yes, where the hell have I been? Good Lord.

Matt Traum: 22:11

You guys should get together and talk.

Alistair Parnell: 22:13

I'll give you a lesson, Tom. I'll give you a lesson, no problem.

Tom Scott: 22:18

Is it on that app? Is it on the phone app?

Alistair Parnell: 22:22

Well, it's right on the Aerophone. It's right on the Aerophone.

Tom Scott: 22:25

On the Aerophone itself?

Alistair Parnell: 22:26

Yeah, you go to the menu, you select the key that you want, say, like the side key, B flat, and then you can say, okay, I want.

Tom Scott: 22:33

Wait, you can select the side key B flat on that menu.

Alistair Parnell: 22:36

Yeah, you go to the setting Key Function. It's called Key Function.

Tom Scott: 22:42

Key Function, Okay, yes, yes, I've seen that.

Alistair Parnell: 22:45

You go to Key Function and you press whichever side key or pinky key that you want.

Tom Scott: 22:51

I see, and then it says what do you want it to do?

Alistair Parnell: 22:52

And then you say, right, I want that always to produce a semitone higher than I'm playing. So if you want to, I...

Tom Scott: 23:00

Ah...

Matt Traum: 23:01

There you go.

Alistair Parnell: 23:02

I realize a man of your caliber would never need to do this, but for instance...

Tom Scott: 23:06

Yes, I would. Yes.

Alistair Parnell: 23:08

... if you want to play a kind of. If you want to play a riff, you know, in F sharp major,

Tom Scott: 23:13

You just hold the key,

Alistair Parnell: 23:14

But you actually want to just finger it in F, you can add your little pinker thingy and it's going to do everything for F sharp, for you.

Tom Scott: 23:23

Listen, I love all the tricks.

Alistair Parnell: 23:23

Yeah me too!

Tom Scott: 23:24

Come on, come on.

Matt Traum: 23:26

By the way, I did that on the brass fingering that we did. There's ways to hold a key down and then I can play in C sharp, like I'm playing in C and I sound great. And I was like, oh...

Alistair Parnell: 23:34

Yeah, yeah!

Matt Traum: 23:36

I call it a cheat key.

Tom Scott: 23:37

That's awesome! That's why you know, because why should it be so difficult?

Alistair Parnell: 23:46

L et's cheat.

Tom Scott: 23:48

And the other thing is. The other thing is when you're playing in those hot you know, know, many sharp or many flat keys, yes, the, the, the possibility of little glitches between the fingerings, as you're, you know

Alistair Parnell: 23:55

Exactly

Tom Scott: 23:55

That that is a problem. And I, even on the things you played me Heart Hotels and and uh, Do That To Me One More Time I hear a couple little finger glitches. I got away with them. They're, they're, they're okay, but I know what they are. They're because I didn't, you know press the, save the right keys at the exact time you know.

Matt Traum: 24:15

Another one of those things where can you do it, yeah, yes, you can.

Alistair Parnell: 24:18

Key Function is your friend.

Tom Scott: 24:20

Thank you very much for that.

Tom Scott: 24:25

Amen amen

Matt Traum: 24:26

And so also I wanted to ask Tom about the. Is it the called the left? I'm a trumpet player, but the left hand palm keys some people have said it's kind of short, it's kind of hard to access. Do you find it? Are you able to do it, Tom the upper left hand palm keys.

Tom Scott: 24:39

Oh, these guys, the left hand or the right hand,

Alistair Parnell: 24:42

Left

Matt Traum: 24:42

Little short?

Tom Scott: 24:43

The left hand, they're, they're, yeah, they're a little, they're a little iffy. I, I, yeah, I've had to, I've, I've had to practice to you them work and I still screw up. Thank God I'm doing it here at home when I'm recording, so I just go back and do it again until I get it right, but they could be better, they could be somehow easier.

Matt Traum: 25:05

Some people were asking if they could be or maybe extended longer, slightly more maybe.

Tom Scott: 25:11

Something, yeah, yeah, maybe something, because it's just, yeah, yeah, that's a problem, and on this side, these guys are okay, all this is okay. Um, I still, you know, still have a problem with the, with the bend, uh, the, you know this, this little key right here, that's the.

Alistair Parnell: 25:29

Yeah, it's a little high up?

Tom Scott: 25:30

Well that, that's, it's a little high up. Well, that's true, yeah, it's a little far away. But aside from that, when you go to bend the pitch, what I would like it to do is just like a keyboard synthesizer with a pitch thing where it gradually goes down. You ., What if I, if thing, want it's it to, what happens with this thing? It's, you start, you start to move that, move that lever and it, it, it stays the pitch the same, and then it suddenly shifts into the. It's not gradual. Do you know what I'm saying?

Matt Traum: 26:07

s. Right Right, Alistair, you could set a curve to make it less or more sensitive.

Tom Scott: 26:12

Well, I just want it to be a pure, a pure linear gliss, not a da or da. Yeah, there's a point, kind of a node, where it goes down.

Alistair Parnell: 26:24

Yeah, there is a thing called a curve setting that, basically, rather than it being what should be, you know a linear setting which you might not be liking, or you might not be liking how that's working. So you could change it to the curve setting, which is a more gradual one and then picks up more towards the end of the movement. It's just whatever works for you. To be

Matt Traum: 26:46

I think that's possible.

Tom Scott: 26:47

Okay, and what is that called? What is that menu item?

Alistair Parnell: 26:54

That's in the curve settings.

Tom Scott: 26:55

You set it you set it something about curve?

Matt Traum: 26:58

And now this is adjustable per patch- or globally, so that's another layer.

Tom Scott: 27:02

You know you well I, if I had it all the time, I'd be fine. So global is fine.

Matt Traum: 27:07

Allister, you should hook up with Tom and get and, just kind of you know, give him some button pres ses.

Alistair Parnell: 27:12

Yeah, we could probably go over some of that.

Tom Scott: 27:14

That was could that suffice as my fee for, for for a?

Matt Traum: 27:18

couple of free lessons from from Alistair.

Alistair Parnell: 27:21

I would be absolutely honored to offer some of my time for you, Tom, absolutely. Oh, that's awesome, awesome. All right, you just say and we'll get together for an hour and we'll work through some of those settings. I would love that, gosh.

Matt Traum: 27:35

Alistair, he's the best guy to talk to.

Tom Scott: 27:37

Okay, great.

Alistair Parnell: 27:39

As long as you, let me put it on my resume that I helped Tom Scott play his Aerophone.

Tom Scott: 27:45

I will, I will. I swear.

Alistair Parnell: 27:48

Anytime, Tom, we'll do that.

Alistair Parnell: 27:50

Um, listen before we wrap up, though, we'd like to make sure people know how to find you, Tom, with your social media channels, and you do your own podcast as well.

Tom Scott: 28:52

Okay, so let's go over them one at a time, please. The podcast which I've done over 50 of them with a whole raft of people, not necessarily in music, I'm very fortunate. Over the years I've met a lot of people in actors and actresses and a couple of people in politics, in the military actors and actresses and a couple of people in politics. In the military I've I've done a a a interview with uh HR McMaster and uh Chris Matthews and Michael Steele and a guy named Steve Squires who is currently the head scientist at blue origin. Uh, he was the guy at the head scientist at NASA that launched the two rover.

Matt Traum: 29:30

Wow.

Tom Scott: 29:31

Uh missions to Mars. Wow, cool, a wonderful guy. You know, I see these. I'm, fortunate enough I'm in a thing where I get to see these people live from time to time, and the ones that I like the most are the ones who have the same sort of almost childlike passion about what they do as I do, and he's one of them, he. He says I've been dreaming about the star since I was a kid and you know, and now he's like a rocket, so literally a rocket. You know, they say it's not rocket science.

Alistair Parnell: 30:00

Well, yeah,

Tom Scott: 30:01

Yeah this is rocket science. And, of course, a bunch of actors Billy Bob Thornton, a great podcast, funny as hell. Malcolm McDowell another funny podcast. Great Angelica Houston. And then musician Sheila E, oh my gosh. Eric Church

Matt Traum: 30:19

Herb Alpert, Lou Adler

Tom Scott: 30:20

Herb Alpert, Lou Adler, on and on. Yeah, so, anyway that. So that's what that is, and it's called Tom Scott's Podcast Express and it's available wherever you get your podcast, or on my website, tomscottmusic. com.

Alistair Parnell: 30:34

Brilliant!

Tom Scott: 30:35

There's that. Then I am on TikTok and Instagram, both at the at Tom Scott Jazzman, right @Tom Scott Jazzman, on either Instagram or TikTok. And then my Facebook page is I think it's, I can't remember what it's called Sax Thom S-A-X-T-H-O-M, I think.

Tom Scott: 30:58

And then what did I leave out? Oh well, I also have a radio show once a week, every Tuesday night here in Southern California on KJAZZ at 9 pm. It's called Hang Time with Tom Scott. We've done almost 200 shows.

Alistair Parnell: 31:14

Wow

Tom Scott: 31:16

For an hour every week. We like to break it up. Tonight, actually, we're breaking from the jazz tradition which we do. We're like heretics when it comes to playing pure jazz. We don't care. The owner of the radio station doesn't seem to care either. He likes it. Tonight we're interviewing Tonight we're interviewing the director of the Yacht Rock movie and talking to him about that era, and I think it's so funny that there are people who just resent. I was sort of like that when I first heard the term Yacht Rock applied to this wonderful body of music in which I was a participant, because it made it sound like, oh, this is just music for rich people. Yes, but it really was just kind of a joke. And even to this day I still get things because I was in that documentary, the yacht rock documentary on HBO. And occasionally I still see people complaining about the title Yacht Rock, and it's a travesty and all this. And I would say to them look the creation of that term, whether it's just a comedic you know, it's a throwaway title or whatever or whether you think it's serious, what it did was bring it to reintroduce a lot of people to this great period of music, and so in that sense, I think Yacht Rock did a tremendous service to pop music.

Matt Traum: 32:42

was looking around your different sites and stuff and I think that if you have to remember one thing, it's tomscottmusic. com, because you have links to all these other things from there.

Tom Scott: 32:52

That's right. That's true, toms cott music. com. That's my website. Yeah, yeah.

Matt Traum: 32:56

And there's lessons, and there's your, your touring. You know your gigging schedule and things. So, um right, that's yeah, but it's and then you were mentioning your radio show. It's kkjz. or g. And they stream from there and they also have archives, right? You can listen to older shows?

Tom Scott: 33:15

They do, that's right. You can listen to them anytime on the archives.

Matt Traum: 33:16

Yeah, great stuff, highly recommended, just great.

Tom Scott: 33:18

Thank you.

Alistair Parnell: 33:25

Before we wrap up then, is there anything else, Tom, you feel we could have covered that you would have liked to have put in? Then there anything we can easily feed you a line if you wanted to say anything else?

Tom Scott: 33:37

No, I just want to say I appreciate very much you guys carrying this thing on this wind synth thing, because it is let's face it, it is a kind of a niche market, but I'm incredibly loyal to it and as clearly I think I've proved that over way too many years, and I'm grateful to you for continuing it on and keeping it in the public eye.

Matt Traum: 33:58

Yeah, Well, we're grateful for the interview and we can't think of anybody in the world that is bigger, more of a pioneer and more of out there with wind controllers. You've brought it to the public more than anybody that I can think of, so thank you for everything you've done over your whole career.

Alistair Parnell: 34:16

Absolutely.

Tom Scott: 34:17

Well, lucky me.

Alistair Parnell: 34:24

Yeah, yeah, this has been really fun, Tom, and I feel, more than perhaps you know, it's been such a nice atmosphere to do this with you. It's just felt like we're just friends chatting away and you know it's just been such a fun time. So thank you so much for giving your time.

Tom Scott: 34:41

Should I have been more cold and businesslike? Do you think?

Alistair Parnell: 34:44

Absolutely. Yes, no, it's been great, Tom, so thank you very much.

Tom Scott: 34:48

Of course, thank you.

Alistair Parnell: 34:50

Don't forget. Join us in the next episode, where I think what we're going to do in the next one is talk about some practicing tips. Matt and I will be discussing how we do our practicing tips. That might be helpful for you.

Alistair Parnell: 35:04

So for now, I'm going to say thank you so much to our regular co-host, Matt Traum, and particularly, once again, huge thanks to Tom Scott for a fascinating interview and everybody, take care, we'll see you in the next one.

Matt Traum: 35:52

Thanks so much. Bye, bye, everybody.

Tom Scott: 35:55

N o, no, no, no. What do you think I am? Kenny G? For God's sakes!