Well, thank you. While it kind of sounds funny, I think what first got me into music when I was very little was probably some television shows from the 1970s, the Monkees and the Partridge Family. I started on drums, and I actually thought there were gigs for seven-year-olds. I knew the Partridge family wasn’t real but I was like, “Hey that actor kid got the gig playing drums. He doesn’t seem that good, so maybe I have a shot!” And I loved the Monkees because they were funny. Interestingly enough, a few of these factors have still remained in my musical vocabulary – in terms of television music which I’ve written lots of at this point, and also the idea of trying to add some humor. Anyway, eventually, I was also involved in a serious school jazz program. We were voted the best high-school jazz ensemble in the country by Downbeat magazine. It was a little intense but gave me opportunities to do things like record in New York and tour Europe at a very young age. Many great musicians came from my town, perhaps due to that program – Joel Frahm, Brad Mehldau, Patrick Zimmerli, Peter McGuinness, and Alexa Tarantino. The list goes on.
You studied with artists Bob Moses, Dave Samuels, and David Friedman, and were mentored by American jazz bassist Steve Swallow and composer Anthony Davis. Can you share your as experiences as a young musician and your time at Yale University?
Sure. Meeting those artists you mentioned was probably the most important thing in my musical development. Not just for what they taught me about music but because of the type of people they are. Steve Swallow’s photo should come up when you search the word “artist” in the dictionary. His music speaks for itself and has had a wide influence. Steve was extremely generous to me and we spent time just talking about music and other topics. He had also been at Yale and was interested in my thesis project which explored parallel developments in American music and painting. Also to this day he and Bob Moses are maybe my favorite modern jazz rhythm section, especially the band with Gary Burton and Pat Metheny.
Moses I met a bit earlier through my first vibe teacher Bob Gatzen. I describe studying with him as dropping a puppy in the ocean to teach it how to swim. He made me understand what a big difference it was from us suburban jazz kids to someone who had really lived the music – I think he grew up in the same building as Max Roach and others. Just being around him in those days was a trip. Anthony Davis was one of my professors who taught a class on Duke Ellington, which was wonderful and something that every jazz musician should be required to take. Finally, Dave Samuels was my real vibraphone mentor and became a good friend. He was a remarkable musician whose passing was certainly tragic. I started with him at about age 16 and would go into NYC for an occasional lesson during college. When I moved there, he helped connect me with some people in the session world. A lot of that was as a synth programmer and composer, which didn’t really compete with what he did. I also worked on many projects with him in that capacity and helped him program sounds for recordings and gigs. Of course, this is what I’m still doing today, there are a lot of synthesizers and electronic mallet sounds on my new album.
You have recorded with artists such as Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Ornette Coleman, Pat Martino, Regina Belle, They Might Be Giants, Roberta Flack, and SpyroGyra. The list seems to be endless. Has your career developed the way you envisioned or have there been some surprises along the way?
I don’t think I ever had a vision for my career other than to try and make a living in music. And I don’t think the business quite works that way, in terms of knowing how things might develop. I think it’s more about hoping for a bit of luck, then nursing opportunities and making the best of them. Even given all the technology and streaming sites and social media, I think it still mostly functions this way. So there have been plenty of surprises. It’s not exactly like going to law school. But being close to Samuels who was one of the most successful mallet players at the time, I got a good sense of what life was like for a vibraphone artist. He definitely didn’t always like being on the road. So that was one of the things that made me want to point my career toward the session world.
I was also a big Victor Feldman fan, who basically became an LA session guy. Given this, when I got some exciting opportunities such as to produce and arrange for Disney projects, I understood to never drop the ball and to never miss a deadline. My attitude was always to make them feel like no one else could ever do a better job for them. It was certainly a lot of pressure, however, it paid off with decades of work, on really successful projects like all the Toy Story movies. And it basically helped subsidize my career as a jazz vibraphonist. Unlike today, every session back then was AFM union-scale with pension and health benefits. I could be in the studio all day and then at night go play a jazz gig downtown at the 55 Bar and not really care about what that paid. However, the biggest plus was getting to work with some of the greatest session musicians of all time, players like Michael Brecker, Lou Marini, Will Lee, Lew Soloff, Andy Snitzer or David Spinozza. So I have no regrets whatsoever in how things turned out.
You’ve received several accolades, including awards from Berklee College of Music and IAJE. Of your many achievements, is there one you’re most proud of?
Actually, all of the awards you mentioned were from my student days, so they weren’t all that important. The thing I would say I’m most proud of was playing on Two Against Nature, the reunion album from Steely Dan that won four Grammys including Album of the Year. I have a nice framed platinum record award from that. Those guys are definitely heroes, I grew up on their music and it influenced me a lot. You can hopefully hear that on the new album. I learned a lot just doing one session with them, seeing firsthand how they made the musical decisions that shaped all their classic albums. Even though my contribution was small, being on their short list of vibe players alongside Victor Feldman was definitely a musical dream for me.
You’ve composed music for films, TV commercials, and trailers, and are a long-time producer/arranger for the Walt Disney Company. These appear to be very different requirements for some composers. Do you apply particular methodologies for various commissions?
Every project is different. Film and TV work is very different from something like a jazz album project in many regards. First of all, you are usually creating a work-for-hire. So you are abiding by a contract and trying to give the client what they want. You get to use your creative skills, but only within the framework of what their goals are. It’s very important that musicians and composers keep this in perspective. For me in general, commercial work all goes back to that stuff about trying to hit it out of the park, which means coming up with something they like, and not missing deadlines. When it is your own creative work, hopefully, there is nobody to satisfy other than yourself, the other musicians, and the listener. There is usually more room for experimentation and more motivation to take chances and express your own personal vision.
Congratulations on your latest project ‘Plan to be Spontaneous’. Please tell us more about the origins of this project and the selection of musicians who contributed to the album.
Thanks. I guess the project originated mostly due to the pandemic. I realized that I had some original music that had not yet been recorded and that there were a lot of musicians who I wanted to work with who were probably sitting around wishing they were busier at the time. So I took it as an opportunity to say what I wanted to say, with some guests who I thought were really interesting and would serve the material well. I knew that remote collaborations were going to be a sign of the times, so that meant I wasn’t confined just to New York musicians.
I called upon my longtime collaborator, guitarist Pat Bergeson, and also saxophonist Jeff Coffin, both in Nashville. Jeff is usually very busy touring as part of The Dave Matthews Band, but I knew that he was home because of the lockdown. I also had been playing with New Orleans guitarist Shane Theriot, who had moved to the New York area as musical director for the group Hall & Oates. We had played some gigs with bassist Mark Egan and drummer Joel Rosenblatt, and I wanted to capture that band. One thing that I’m proud of on the project is the lineup of amazing guitarists, which also includes Oz Noy and Bob Lanzetti. They had both caught my ear as some of my favorites in New York. Then I really had to search for someone right to sing the very first tune on the album and decided to call Lucy Woodward. I’ve been a big fan of her work and she actually sang on some advertising spots I wrote many years ago. So I got in touch and she jumped right in and totally nailed it. She has been living in Europe so recorded her parts there. Now that it’s all done, I feel very lucky to have so many great guest artists onboard this recording.
What projects are you currently working on?
Right now I’m playing around New York with a funky electric group called TRi/O, which is a collaboration with bassist Dave Anderson and drummer Tyger MacNeal. We get into a lot of unusual territory, and I’m using an electronic mallet instrument called a Xylosynth. That’s been fun. Then I may do some recording with an old friend, LA pianist Scott Hiltzik. Beyond that, there are some television background music gigs, mallet clinics, and other stuff on the back burner that I hope might develop further down the road. The journey continues.
Where can our readers find out more about you?
ARTIST LINKS
NEW ALBUM!: https://ffm.to/p2bs
WEBSITE: http://www.vibraphonic.com
https://www.facebook.com/steveshapirovibes
https://www.instagram.com/stvshap/
https://twitter.com/Steve_Shapiro
http://www.youtube.com/VibraphonicMusic
iTUNES:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/steve-shapiro/id1008420308
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/steve-shapiro-pat-bergeson/id313035096
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2A7ycL92e6kWOMvGGraUAn
Image Credits:
SS Live: ©Jill Cooper
SS Studio: ©M.R. Slavin
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