Vibraphonist Jalen Baker recently joined Tilles Center for an interview that touched upon Tilles Jazz Fest, composing, and influences (musical and non-musical). Baker is a vibraphonist and composer whose early training involved both classical and jazz. Jalen received his BA in Jazz Studies from Columbia College Chicago. In 2019, he graduated from Florida State University with a MM in Jazz Studies.
Baker has been a performer with the Jonathan Blake Quintet, Ulysses Owens Trio and Quartet, Jeremy Pelt Quintet, Tim Warfield Sextet, Michael Mwenso, Paul Cornish Group, Leon Anderson Quartet as well as leading his own band in venues all over the country.
In 2021 Jalen released his Debut Album “This Is Me, This is Us” which was chosen as the #4 best Jazz Debut of 2021 and in 2023 released his second album “Be Still” that made it as high as #24 on the international jazz charts.
Jalen Baker will perform at Tilles Jazz Fest on July 20.
Do you want to start by talking about your background in music? How you started playing the vibraphone and what got you interested in jazz?
Sure, I started playing music pretty early I guess. I went to a performing arts elementary school, so in Third grade you have to pick an instrument. I chose percussion so through I guess about third grade to about my senior year of high school, I was a classical percussionist, and I thought that that’s what I was going to do.
I guess maybe in the summer of my junior year, I got more interested in playing jazz vibraphone after hearing some guys like Stefon Harris and Milt Jackson. It just kind of went from there. I decided to make the switch and I ended up going to my undergrad for jazz studies as opposed to trying to do classical music. And that took me to Columbia College, Chicago for undergrad. And then I went to Florida State University for my master’s program. And I’ve been trucking away at the music thing ever since then.
You mentioned Milt Jackson and Stefon Harris as influences. Are there any other musicians, maybe vibraphonists or musicians of other instruments that have been big influences on you?
Yeah, a ton. I love Miles Davis. Gerald Clayton, I’m a big fan of his. I like a lot of popular music and other contemporary music like Gospel, like Kurt Franklin and Earth Wind and Fire. It’s just kind of anything that I grew up listening to, I feel like it has left its mark and still shows up a little bit in what I do now.
I’d be here all day if I was gonna name everybody. But I guess some guys that are around now like Warren Wolf. I’ve been playing with Jeremy Pelt. He’s been a big influence on what I do nowadays.
What do you think are some of the things these people have left you with?
Relentless perseverance. When you look at a lot of these guys’ careers from beginning to the end you kind of see that there was never really a finish line for any of them. They’re constantly pushing towards the next thing. They can be satisfied with where they are but I think artistry is kind of a lifelong journey. It’s fun to see that with some of the more seasoned or veteran musicians that I’ve been fortunate to be around nowadays.
Yeah, I feel like I’m at the very beginning of my journey. I study jazz bass at Oberlin. I’ve just finished my freshman year. So I’m very much at the beginning.
Oh, dope man, that’s great man ,
But It’s good to hear your advice and just like, who are your influences.
Oberlin always has a lot of great musicians coming out of there like Sullivan [Fortner]
Yeah, I mean, that’s a crazy example.
Pivoting a little…what or who would you say are your greatest non musical influences and how have they impacted your music?
That’s probably my family. None of my immediate family are musicians. My mom doesn’t play, my dad doesn’t play, my sister doesn’t play, but they’re big music fans. And I think that they’ve always kept me around good music. My Mom loves Earth, Wind, and Fire and anything Motown. So I think growing up around that kind of in one way or another trained my ear to like jazz. Because I think a lot of that music is heavily influenced by it [jazz]. I also consider my mom and dad and sister to be very good people. I think it’s hard to play jazz if you don’t have a certain level of empathy. We’re constantly having to communicate with other people and work with people that maybe we might have just met five minutes prior to the gig. So I think that that has really helped me.
Do you think that Earth Wind and Fire, Motown and some of that kind of music has influenced your compositions?
Yeah, man. When you look at that era of popular music or whatever you want to call it, a lot of that stuff is really heavily arranged–heavily orchestrated and really intentional and specific. If you can go back even further, like prior to Motown and listen to things like Nat King Cole and some of the other singers from that era…they always have these elaborate string arrangements. It’s been fun for me to listen to that era of music because they didn’t have things like logic and downloadable plugins to create an ambiance.
Every note was written down. Guys came into the studio and just had to knock it out. And they were writing this stuff without being able to really hear it first. So I think knowing that has kind of helped shape how I do things in a sense. Obviously I still use my resources now.
But I do think that era of music is really inspiring to me. It’s fun to listen to because even though I play vibes, I still end up playing quite a bit of pop music. You’ll think these songs are easy and you go home and try and learn a Stevie Wonder song and you realize that it has just as many chords as Giant Steps or something.
It’s fun. It’s inspiring. I think it’s helped shape me a little bit.
Again, pivoting a little. When you’re composing, are there certain attributes you want your songs to have? Do you want to leave the listener feeling a certain way?
I probably used to care a lot more when I was in school. But now I just want people to feel something. Since I write mostly instrumental music, everything is kind of at that point, everything’s up to interpretation.
It is hilarious, the things that people think you’re writing about. Most of the time it’s nowhere near what I maybe had in mind, if I had anything in mind at all. Sometimes I just write something because I think it sounds cool.
Somebody will be like, oh, this is clearly about just the most random philosophical thing. But I think that’s great, too, because it’s fun for me to hear what people had in mind.
Yeah, it’s cool.
So unless it’s something that’s very specific, like I 100 percent am writing this song for this reason, I don’t really give it too much thought. I just want people to be able to relate to something when they hear it.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I haven’t really composed anything yet, just curious.
You should. Everybody has a song in their heart
As a bassist I’m curious to know what you look for in a bass player? What are some of the attributes or just the things that you think make a good bass player to play with?
I was just talking to somebody about this too, funny enough.
First off, I just like playing with really nice people. So just starting there, and I actually do find bass players to be very just kind in general. I think you kind of have to be very kind and selfless to play that instrument. In a more musical sense, I like really, really clear players.
But also, it’s person to person, I like a little bit of chaos as well from time to time. I like people who play with a high level of intentionality, if that makes sense. They’re doing things because that’s what’s gonna serve the music in that moment, not just because they’re bored and they wanna play a low E for no reason, you know what I mean?
I got to play with Larry Grenadier recently and I didn’t really know what to expect. I was kind of surprised by how little he moved away from the chord changes that were set in stone. It was incredible, because when he did stray away, it was at the perfect moment every time. He’d go chorus after chorus after chorus of really just laying down whatever the chord changes were. But then when he made any slight adjustment, the whole room could feel it.
My teacher is always telling me that the bass has to drive the ensemble and stuff like that.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. It’s the foundation, right?
Is there anything you’re looking forward to musically this year? Any gigs maybe?
I’m looking forward to playing out there in Long Island.
That weekend is fun or that whole week for me, because I’m doing Jazz Fest. And then the next day, I’m with my full band at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Underground.
And then the following weekend, we’re playing in Chicago at the Jazz Showcase. That’s all with my actual quartet that I’ve recorded with. That will be our first time playing together since the beginning of the year. So that should be fun. I also have some things back in Houston that I’m looking forward to. And then a really, really long tour with Jeremy Pelt in the fall.
Where is your tour with Jeremy Pelt taking you?
Some of it’s in the States, some of it’s in Europe. I think in the States we’re doing Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and maybe Indianapolis. And then overseas it’s always everywhere: the UK, we always go to Paris, we always go to Poland.
People are always surprised to hear that we go to Poland. We go to Poland probably more than anywhere else in the world. We actually just got back from there yesterday.
Are there just tons of jazz fans in Poland?
Yeah, they love music and art in general. And that’s probably some of the best crowds that I’ve ever played for. They really, really appreciate what it is that we’re doing maybe because not a lot of people go through there.
It almost makes me take what I do less for granted because of how much they are enjoying it.
Moving back to Jazz Fest, I saw that you’ll be performing as part of a duo at Tilles Center
Yeah, funny enough, with the bassist in my band, Gabriel Godoy. We’re gonna play some of the stuff from both of my albums, but we’re gonna do a duo. That’ll be the first time we’ve done that. It’s gonna be fun.
Are there instruments you prefer playing duos with?
I like playing duo with almost anybody because It makes you play so differently.It is a little bit easier with bassists and pianists from my angle. I guess guitar too. I really like playing duos with bassists because you can just hear them better. In a bigger group, depending on the sound and the room, the bass might get washed out a little. But this will be fun because people also will be able to really, really hear what the bassist role is.
And Gabe is an incredible musician, one of the best young bass players around. So it will be a good time.
Yeah, well, I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be here, so I’ll be watching.
Oh, great. Great.
Is there anything else you want to share with the Tilles Blog audience?
Continue to please support live music and young musicians. It really, really helps. There’s a lot of people doing some really incredible things that should be heard and should be supported
Jalen Baker will perform at Tilles Jazz Fest on July 20. Produced by Tilles Center for the Performing Arts in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center. The one-day event will take place on four indoor and outdoor stages across the beautiful Long Island University Post campus, including Tilles Center’s Concert Hall, with performances starting at 1pm and swinging into the night! Get tickets on our website, over-the-phone, or in-person through our box office.
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