Aaron Diehl is a well known jazz player, but also well versed in a wide range of musics. On September 15, there’s a newly released recording of a chamber ensemble version of Mary Lou Williams’ Zodiac Suite featuring Diehl and the orchestral collective “The Knights” which we’ll share, soon (we also talked with Aaron Diehl about the project, to be heard, soon).
First, This visit with the pianist about the September 11th concert for Chamber music Pittsburgh.
(Transcript edited for length and clarity)
Scott Hanley, WZUM
Coming up for Chamber Music, Pittsburgh, a very special chamber music project that is paying tribute to a number of great American black composers and performers. It's called Songs of Black America. And one of the two performers on it is a wonderful pianist, Aaron Diehl, who joins us right now. And you'll be paired up with a very fine flutist for this date as well.
Aaron Diehl
Yes, Scott, thank you. Thank you for having me on. And I'm looking forward to performing with Brandon George in Pittsburgh on September 11th. And yeah, we have a very diverse set of pieces that we’ll be performing.
WZUM
What impresses me here is the wide range of things you're choosing from William Grant Still to very contemporary, Sullivan Fortner, and also close to our hearts here in Pittsburgh. Mary Lou Williams.
Aaron Diehl
Yes, we've been working on this program for well, we've done a few performances, different variations of this program over the last year or so. And we're going to start off with William Grant Still's suite actually for violin and piano. But Brandon basically just transposed it to flute, not really transpose. You don't have to transpose into a concert instrument, but it sits very well with the flute. Then we'll play for once price for a set of four, four songs, two pieces by Valerie Coleman was a wonderful composer - Fanmi Imèn - and we'll end the program with Wish Sonatine. And then you mentioned Sullivan Fortner, who I believe Brandon and Sullivan actually went to Oberlin together, if I recall correctly, and that's how they met. And they're very good friends. And so, Brandon asked Sullivan to write a piece for the two of us. It's called Time in Circular Motion, and it'll be a premiere. And then I'll play a piece by Mary Lou Williams that she wrote for Father Peter O'Brien, who was her manager for the last roughly quarter century of Mary's life. And it's entitled Blues for Peter.
WZUM
Tell us how you came to have this multi-varied career where you're branching into so many different genres of music and sharing different sounds and different aspects of your of your talent?
Aaron Diehl
Well, I think this program is sort of reflective of the fact that when you're talking about black music, it's not a monolith. And of course, many people think when I think of black American music, they think of what would we call jazz. And that's a very, very small fraction of the contributions that African-Americans have made musically.
I think for me, I have a very fond love for the European classical tradition. I played that quite a bit when I was younger, and although I sort of made a career, if you will, as a quote unquote jazz pianist, I have really been spending time to reflecting on some of my influences, especially growing up and my interests in terms of sort of quote unquote concert literature and I think, you know, so many musicians, I mean, not just me have many, many influences and diverse sources of inspiration. And I'm sort of trying to bring that out in myself lately. And Brandon definitely has challenged me with these various pieces, some very, very difficult and, you know, trying to even with all of these various approaches, thread a kind of a storyline, if you will, in this program and story in, you know, the diverse nature of black music in America.
WZUM
The concert is September 11th at 7:30 in the evening at the PNC Theater at Point Park University downtown. Check out the Jazz Central calendar for more details.
Brandon George, Aaron Diehl