Join me, Marco Ciappelli, as I dive deep into the world of music and storytelling with the accomplished classical guitarist, Jonathan Taylor.
Guest:
Jonathan Taylor, Classical Guitarist
Website | https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/5R2b8Hv3U7p4r?
On Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/JTclassicalguitarmastery/
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Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli
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Episode Introduction
Hello, everyone. I’m Marco Ciappelli, and welcome back to Audio Signals Podcast, where we explore storytelling and the storytellers behind them. Today, I bring you a conversation that’s music to my ears – both literally and figuratively – as we explore the art of storytelling through music with the renowned classical guitarist, Jonathan Taylor.
The Art of Storytelling Through Music
In this episode, Jonathan and I embark on a journey exploring the intricate connections between music and storytelling. As I always say, we’re all made of stories. Storytelling isn’t confined to pages in a book; it transcends through various forms of creative expression, including music. Jonathan Taylor, whose illustrious career spans many years and a range of achievements, shares his insights on how he captures emotions and tells stories through his music, enchanting listeners worldwide.
Jonathan Taylor: A Musical Odyssey
Jonathan’s musical odyssey began at the tender age of four with a humble ukulele, influenced by his grandmother, a silent film organist. This early exposure to live music was crucial in shaping his musical journey. From there, Jonathan began exploring numerous genres and eventually became a master of the classical guitar. His journey is filled with moments of creativity and innovation, including his unique adaptations of film scores like The Wizard of Oz and the James Bond themes. His career is rich with experiences, from global tours to unforgettable performances, all while compiling a vast catalog of recordings that spans classical masterpieces and more contemporary pieces adapted for classical guitar.
Embracing Technology in Music
Our discussion veers into the evolution of technology in music, from analog to digital, and Jonathan’s pioneering embrace of digital music in the ‘90s. He recalls his first analog album, recorded on vinyl, and his eventual shift to digital as the industry began changing. Despite the challenges faced by artists in adapting to technological shifts, Jonathan’s perspective highlights the opportunities these advancements present for creativity and innovation in music. He speaks about digital’s influence, comparing the warmth of analog to the precision of digital, and discusses how both formats have shaped his work.
The Universal Language of Music
Perhaps the most profound insight shared is music’s role as a universal language that resonates deeply with humanity. Jonathan recounts a powerful story from a concert he performed in India, where a member of the audience, struggling with personal issues, found solace in the music and credited that experience with saving his life. This moving story is a reminder of music’s healing power and its ability to connect us across cultural and linguistic boundaries. Like storytelling, music unites us in an experience that resonates universally, tapping into emotions that words alone often can’t express.
Inspiration and Interpretation
Our conversation circles back to how classical music is not only about precision but about the experience it creates for both the artist and the audience. Jonathan’s passion for adapting various musical styles reflects in his interpretations, offering audiences a unique piece of himself in each performance. He shares how the process of adapting a piece involves capturing its emotional core, which requires both technical mastery and a deep connection to the material. His approach to music—bringing a piece of his soul into every performance—illustrates how storytelling can be both intimate and transformative.
Final Thoughts
As we conclude this episode, I hope our conversation inspires you to embrace your creativity, whether as a seasoned musician or someone strumming their first chord. If our discussion has sparked something in you to pursue or appreciate artistic expressions of storytelling, then we’ve succeeded in our mission.
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Resources
Jonathan Taylor on SoundCloud | https://soundcloud.com/user-75630746-880803498/albums
Jonathan Taylor on Apple Music | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jonathan-taylor-official-app/id6448588105
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Exploring Music and Storytelling: A Conversation with Acclaimed Classical Guitar Player Jonathan Taylor | Audio Signals Podcast With Marco Ciappelli
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
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[00:00:00] Marco Ciappelli: Hello, everybody. This is Marco Ciappelli. Welcome back to Audio Signo podcast, where we talk about stories and those that write. Or create those stories as you know, I like to say we're all made of stories and uh, it's not just books It's not just writing. It's actually any form of creative, uh, Endeavor that for me, it's telling a story.
You can be a photographer. You can be a painter you can be a filmmaker or like in my case today, my guest you can be a musician and uh, Jonathan Taylor is on the show with me. He has a career that Span many many years a lot of achievement and he's a classical guitar player and uh, he is going to share with me I guess what is the connection between music, what he does, what he has done, and storytelling, sharing stories and capture emotion in, uh, in the people that listen.
So enough, uh, with me talking. Jonathan, I'm so happy to have you on the show and I love music. So thank you. I, I'm very excited about this conversation.
[00:01:17] Jonathan Taylor: Same here.
[00:01:18] Marco Ciappelli: Perfect. So how about we start with My favorite question. Who is Jonathan? A little bit of right. Go as back as you want.
[00:01:28] Jonathan Taylor: Okay. I'm a classical guitarist that started at a very young age, 10 years old, and, uh, I have a large, um, solo classical guitar.
catalog, 32 albums, 325 tracks that contain music, not only the masterpieces, which one would expect, you know, the Chaconne, Laienda, the Spanish masterpieces, Bach, et cetera, but also transcribed hitherto for never, uh, adapted music to the solo classic guitar. For an example, for example, uh, I adapted the film score of the Wizard of Oz, which, uh, kind of a magnum opus reduced to, um, its components.
And, uh, another film score is the James Bond themes or American folk songs from the 19th century, Stephen Foster. Also music from many different genres. So I've just mentioned film score, but also, Uh, take the old psychedelic pop songs and adapt them, believe it or not, in coherent arrangements. And, uh, I have done that.
Actually, it was predicted that I would do that many decades ago. And toured all over the world. I've toured in all sorts of strange places, not just, you would think Europe and America for a so called classical musician, and we'll get into that in a minute. But, uh, I toured in the Amazon, in the Philippines, Romania, um, India.
In other words, many, I even have on my that you told me you downloaded. You can, if you want the Jonathan Taylor app, it's free. Just type Jonathan Taylor, no break in the name, in, uh, Apple Store or Google Play, depending upon your phone type. And it's a free app for you. There's many, uh, there's a series that are called Adventures in Touring, which means, uh, what?
Well, when you step out of your house, uh, and you go into the world, You're going to have adventures, whether you like it or not. You're going to have all sorts of things happen. And so, uh, I've been recording over 30 years to compile the catalog that I, uh, just mentioned, and I'm, uh, right now filming here in Orange County or having filmed of me, uh, performance videos on my YouTube site.
JT classical guitar mastery. There's over 200 videos of me playing, you know, different pieces. And, uh, so that, uh, kind of is a brief intro.
[00:04:18] Marco Ciappelli: Well, it's good enough for me to start the conversation. That's for sure. Many questions already that I had in my mind to start asking you, but I want to, I want to start again from the beginning.
So your story is you say you started to play when you were 10 years old.
[00:04:37] Jonathan Taylor: In all truths, the 100 percent disclosure is I really started playing when I was four, but they don't put that in the bio because it's not believable. It sounds like a bunch of P. S. But when I was about four, I would take a ukulele, because my little fingers, right?
Right, right. And
[00:04:54] Jonathan Taylor: I would run around the house and sing and pick out tunes. My grandmother was a, Silent film organist. So therefore, I have that influence in the background. People say, why do you think he became that? And I go, well, I think that, uh, you kind of absorb. all that music you imbue it or burnish it into you just because it's in the environment.
So
[00:05:23] Jonathan Taylor: my grandmother played in the time period, uh, of all the stars, you know, that silent film era. Charlie Chaplin. She did many gigs with Harry Houdini. Uh, gigs with, um, Lon Chaney Sr., Man of a Thousand Faces, etc. The Keystone Cops, Charlie Chaplin, etc., as I said. And, uh, so I kind of have, you know, that musical legacy or background.
[00:05:53] Marco Ciappelli: I know, I know a few story about that. And, uh, and, um, many people, I think the younger generation don't think in that way. But when, when there was no music in the movies, a pianist and an orchestra sometimes will play or the organ in your case will be in a movie theater, playing the music for you live. So imagine that the, the treat that, you know, it's, it's a live concert pretty much while you're every night.
It's every night
[00:06:23] Jonathan Taylor: and I can give you an example. So everyone knows who Houdini is, even as a historical figure, but he's revered by magicians in the public renown for a hundred years, right? So think about him getting in that tank with those chains on. Oh, he's going to die, right? I mean, that's the suspense.
And, uh, she would be going, uh, you know, to dramatize. You know, yeah, he's been in there four minutes, you know, and uh, so I mean, that was the environment. Also, you know, I'll tell you something about Houdini. He was so good. Uh, he was a tremendous showman and a great locksmith, right? He would hide the wire in his hair because they'd be, he'd be naked in a cell, you know, the police department at Milwaukee or whatever would say, he can't break out of here.
And so his show stunt would be he'd hire wire in his hair because his body would be naked. They wouldn't, he's got something in his pocket, right? So, uh, many times when Houdini would come down to LA, he got a contract for a film for to stay in LA for one year and he hated it. And the reason I'm telling this story, Is to show you, he was so popular, he would fill those auditoriums in the Pacific Northwest, East Coast, wherever the hell it was, Indiana, Central, you know, America, the center part of America, and They gave him a contract for three films in LA.
I can't remember who it was, RKO or Lowe's or some of the, one of the old studios and he hated it. And why is that? There's actually a house in LA that he rented for a year. The studio rented for him, uh, that you can go see because, you know, they try to put on seances and all sorts of stuff during Halloween, but he, they rented that house and he did the films.
And why did he hate it? Here's why he hated it. Because he was so popular, he could fill those auditoriums and he made a ton of money doing that. And when he was with the films, they didn't make that much money. Uh, he was strapped to that daily schedule of, you know, filming and, and, and doing that. And so it's just an interesting thing.
So my grandmother who came down to Los Angeles from the Pacific Northwest, originally from, South Dakota. Uh, she opened the, the theater there on Wilshire Boulevard for Mr. Fox. And Mr. Fox, as he was starting his 20th Century Fox Studio, actually owned the Orpheum Circuit, which was the silent film, uh, and vaudeville venues that, uh, people would do.
Charlie Chaplin was a vaudevillian. That's what he did in England, uh, before he came over here and started doing films with Mack Sennett. So that's just a little history of, uh, uh, you know, some of the performers she, uh, played with. And, you know, you get to know them well, because think about Lon Chaney Senior, Phantom of the Opera, right?
That image. Uh, I go, well, he would be there on a red carpet premiere in Minneapolis or Grauman's Chinese in LA, you know, something. Right? Wherever it was. And what would you do? I'd go, well, the whole, you know, the dancers would be there, and then there'd be my grandmother, then there'd be, uh, you know, Harry Houdini, or Charlie Chaplin, or Lon Chaney, or the Keystone Cops, or Ed Wynn, or Harold Lloyd, you know, all those people of that time period who were the, uh, Glitterati, so to speak, and then, of course, talkies came in and things changed, right?
[00:10:28] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, there's been a movie about that as well. Yeah. Movies that explain how things really got different. Sure. And that's why I wanted to share with the audience this piece of story, because if people are, you know, interested in movies or in any other kind of art, uh, it It's not always been the same especially in technology change I like to talk a lot about technology and society my other podcast is people that follow me knows but you know, it's really been a driver for a lot of changes and even now with streaming and and No ai we can go there.
Sure I know that you've been one of the first artists that actually jumped on the digital way again
[00:11:10] Jonathan Taylor: in the 90s I you know, tell me about that. Sure Um You know, I had friends, my first album was analog, of course, on an LP, on a, you know, vinyl, and after that there's, you know, tapes and CDs and so forth, eight tracks, and then also other audio tape formats, and, but then, uh, digital starts to Now, at that time, I was considered more of a classical musician.
I'm really a crossover artist with all the different styles and that that I do. And we'll talk about that later, but with regard to the digital stuff, here's what happened. So analog has a warmer sound than let's say the cold metallic sound of digital. Now, you know, some people don't like that. Uh, there were artists that would refuse to record.
on digital media. And at that time, they had direct to disk digital stuff. They had all sorts of beginnings, right? All sorts of ways that they began that. And somebody would say to me, Jonathan, this sound is not as warm. I go, but it doesn't matter. You don't live in the 18th century. You don't have a powdered wig and stockings and you know, you don't dress like George Washington, you know, you live in the 21st century,
you know,
[00:12:34] Jonathan Taylor: you live now, so, you know, you're trying to, uh, I believe new technology.
You know, AI, for example, when people say, what do you think about AI? I go, it's one of the greatest upsides and one of the greatest downsides that humankind has ever created. I go, I think it will be way more significant than atomic energy. Uh, and I go, it has an upside that you can find out, you can map proteins in the body with AI in minutes, where it would take a man five years.
And so medicine will have a tremendous. Uh, upsurge. And what's the downside? I go, you don't know what is real. You don't. And doesn't Drake have a, um, a lawsuit with one of the record companies cause they AI'd some of his material or something. I think there's something like that. And, uh, so I, people say, what do you think AI will do the music industry?
I say a lot of lawsuits.
[00:13:37] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, but I think you're going in that direction where, um, You are the kind of musician and artist that, beside the fact that when people think about classical music, again, you may think into a Mozart with a, with a wig and playing on the, on the clave cymbal. But you actually saw that technology It was changing things.
Maybe like, you know, maybe your grandmother, so that when, when the,
[00:14:05] Jonathan Taylor: you know, I'll tell you, she died right as the time I should put her in the ground when she is one hundred and one half years old, and she died just at the time it was coming out. And I'll tell you something when the first MP3 site. This is even before Napster was in San Diego.
I was the number one artist on it. And, and number one download in that people say, Oh, isn't that good? I go, I didn't get a penny and I go, it'll destroy the music industry. And it did because, uh, everybody downloaded everything for free. So all the artists that made money from their albums, like Kiss and all the pop groups and that, I go, Oh, that's gone.
That's a vestige of history now.
[00:14:50] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah.
[00:14:51] Jonathan Taylor: Uh, so what is the streaming done? I go, well, it's made available. I always say follow the money and who's making the money. And the artist now makes a fraction of a cent per stream.
[00:15:04] Marco Ciappelli: How do you feel about the opportunities, right? So I am more on the writing world and, and I can say, you know, on the creator world and everybody can display.
And create art, right? Movies with an iPhone. You can film. I mean, you can do, you can do graphic design. Of course, now there is AI, so you don't know who really did that or not. And music. I mean, I've played with, with AI that create music and, uh, it's come out pretty good. But again, It's not a masterpiece, in my opinion.
I don't know if it ever will go there because it doesn't have the emotion that you put into the music. So I want to go, I believe
[00:15:49] Jonathan Taylor: AI will take us to many places, but I also believe that one human being, whether they're playing the cello, the violin, the classical guitar, the piano, whatever is not ever going to be.
Uh, destroyed or put on the shelf and the reason why is any computer can play more accurately and faster than any human being, but there's nobody there. And what you really want is that musical experience. That is what's important. I'll give you an example. There was a great, and still is, a great Asian cellist, I won't mention his name, who all his life thought, I've got to play perfectly.
I've got to play perfectly. Well, as he got into his 60s, he said, you know what, that's the most boring performance I ever heard. I'm, I need to focus on the experience. And his playing opened up. So in other words, it is not that you're perfect. It's not when people say, Oh, you played that perfectly. I say, I don't want to be perfect because if I'm perfect, that means I can't grow.
And it means I can't change. And I go, if I think the same thoughts at my age 21, I've wasted a lot of years because I haven't acquired something to put me on. a larger path, a bigger panorama.
[00:17:18] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, I agree. I see a lot of difference between those musicians that are amazing. They're technical. They can play anything they want.
But I'd rather get, you know, a Jimi Hendrix that is not trained, but it put a lot of passion and a lot of invention in his music. So my way of saying things is, it's not really how you play, what you play, but it's how you play it. You put a piece of yourself into that. And I want to connect with what you said.
You, you've done a lot of adaptation. And so when you change one piece of music into kind of your own interpretation. What happened there as an artist?
[00:18:02] Jonathan Taylor: Well, now there's one part that you're arranging and okay. So one level of understanding that is you're adapting a piece from the piano or from orchestra or whatever to this kind of, as Segovia used to say, a miniature orchestra in itself is the classical guitar.
And also, You're adapting whether that fits and some things don't fit. It's like chemistry. There are some elements that do not combine. They do not combine. Now, the noble gases are complete in themselves and do not want to combine with anything, so to speak. But other elements do want to combine. So it's like that, and it's part of that is, how is nature?
I'll give you an example of what I mean in a very abstract way. So, nature directs things, whether we know it or not, And I'll give you an example. I was extremely surprised years ago when they sent up the Cassini probe to Saturn to find out they took the light waves from the rings of Saturn and translated them into, Because, you know, they're just frequencies, right?
One's a light frequency, one's a sound frequency. And I found out that the planet Saturn hums to an A minor chord. Now, what the hell does that mean? And I say, what it means is that the major minor system is a part of nature. And we derived from nature that system and then kind of directed the way our minds are and that, but I go, there it is.
Nobody knew that was going to happen. And I go, the, the major minor system is literally part of nature.
[00:19:57] Marco Ciappelli: That's really cool.
[00:19:58] Jonathan Taylor: Talk about music of the spheres, right?
[00:20:02] Marco Ciappelli: Makes me think about Vivaldi right now.
[00:20:04] Jonathan Taylor: Oh, I love Vivaldi. I, you know, I, um, Heard a performance of the seasons there at the church that he worked at.
I stayed at the Metropole in Venice, which, you know, it's a wonderful, wonderful hotel, but that used to be part of that church and used to be the quarters of, uh, Antonio Vivaldi. And then the other churches right alongside it, you know, next to it. Cause the configuration was different and mixed use buildings, right?
There. Different than way back then. But, uh, uh, and it was a wonderful virtuoso violinist playing. It's great. Um, and, uh, I really love Venice and you're from Italy, so you ought to know. I love Venice.
[00:20:51] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, it's incredibly beautiful. The only problem with Venice is the same problem with Florence and Rome is that you don't get to see the real city because it's so packed with tourists all the time.
Oh, that's true. And, and, uh, it's like going to a museum. My dream is to be able to go in a museum when a night when nobody's there. And the few times that I found myself in a museum, even the Getty here in L. A. On a downtime where I turn around, I'm like, Oh my God, I'm the only one in this room. Looking at this piece, it's a different experience.
It's so much more poetic and meaningful. So, but yeah, Venice definitely inspired music. And it's, Greenwich is a
[00:21:35] Jonathan Taylor: great place to get lost in those streets with your girlfriend, with your lover, to get lost in the streets of Venice. Because you have no idea. I don't know where I'm going. .
Yeah. Yeah.
[00:21:48] Jonathan Taylor: And it's just wonderful.
And then stop at a cafe and you know, have some food. I tell people that you've never had a tomato until you've been to Italy. nobody. You haven't even eaten a tomato in your life unless you've been to Italy. I go the first bite of that tomato. I thought I could live off the nutrition for five years, , you know?
[00:22:12] Marco Ciappelli: That's amazing. Let's. Let's talk about inspiration because I am a very visual, uh, creative. So I see things when people tell me story, I see scenes. So I just saw you walking in, in Venice and, and it make me think about something we mentioned before we start recording, which is, uh, the, It connects you with your grandmother too, like with the soundtrack, right?
The music that he used to give flavor to a certain scene in the movie. That is
[00:22:46] Jonathan Taylor: a great question. And
[00:22:47] Marco Ciappelli: I love that. That
[00:22:50] Jonathan Taylor: is a great question. I think That when you grow up in a certain environment and in mind it's music, sonically that something happens to you. And they've proven that classical music, you know, ups your intelligence a few percent.
And I think that what happens is that you become so saturated with the sound and also the timbres, the colors, the meaning of the sound, the construction of the I'll give you an example. So, because our cultures shape us, and I'll show you what I mean. You know, in the East, the five note pentatonic scale, da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da.
That's pretty much the basis. of their repetitious music. But in the West, that's not what occurred. What occurred was a form that permeated all of literature and all of music. It's called exposition, development, and recapitulation. Exposition is, in music, exposing or playing the themes. Let's say it's an A and B theme.
Then you develop that theme. They go on a journey. In literature, it would be like presenting your characters. Then they go, you know, down to Bath in England, or they go on an adventure. Then they come back, recapitulation, and they tell the tribe, or they have learned something, and they have changed from that journey to being a different person.
The hero's journey is another, you know, the same idea. So, It's not. So in Western music, that music is developed. Real Western music is developed. And what does it mean? I go, it means that it creates a story, just like what you're talking about here. It creates a story that changes the storyteller, as well as those who hear.
[00:25:06] Marco Ciappelli: I love that. It inspires and to connect it again with the, with the music. Sometimes I've seen. People, you know, on Instagram or YouTube play this experiment where you watch a suspense or a mystery movie or a horror movie and you take the music away. It's not that scary anymore.
[00:25:27] Jonathan Taylor: Right, right. It's not that
[00:25:29] Marco Ciappelli: dramatic.
[00:25:30] Jonathan Taylor: It's not that dramatic anymore.
[00:25:32] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. And you're telling a story. And again, I keep going towards your, you know, thinking your grandma inventing the situation where maybe Udineet is simulating that he's late and he's not coming alive. What is she going to do? Is she going to go up the scale there or lower?
Marco, I
[00:25:49] Jonathan Taylor: think you're absolutely right. And I also think that those, those chord structures, Got into me from my grandmother and therefore In some way I'm reflecting
[00:26:03] Marco Ciappelli: them. So tell me a little bit more As we get towards the end, but I don't know Maybe you can come back and we can keep having this great conversation because I'm having a great time And I don't know maybe you can even play something if you want to um your kind of music uh, my My question for you is we know that you play and you adopt and you transcript classic and score Wizard of Oz one of my favorite story anyway ever written You What other kind of music a classical guitarist likes?
[00:26:39] Jonathan Taylor: What is that
[00:26:40] Marco Ciappelli: inspire you other
[00:26:41] Jonathan Taylor: than
[00:26:42] Marco Ciappelli: that?
[00:26:42] Jonathan Taylor: So originally, you know, the Spanish masterpieces, Bach and so forth, Segovia. Uh, but then as time goes on, I said, okay, how many more versions of Recuerdos de la Alhambra do we need? I've already recorded it. How many more versions of Leyenda? How many of the Chaconne?
I've recorded all those. So now where do you go? Well, I wanted to add materially to the repertoire of the classical guitar, because It's not that I don't love the Spanish masterpieces or Bach. I do. On the other hand, I am an American. And so how much American music is adapted for the classical guitar? Not that much,
right?
[00:27:25] Jonathan Taylor: Very little. So I set about doing American folk songs, you know, for instance, Duke Ellington, who, uh, you know, that's jazz, uh, pieces there. And he's, uh, my grandmother worked with him, by the way, too. Really? Yeah. She was, uh, Older and he was younger. Is that right? I think so. And, uh, because, uh, he was in those same venues or in that town, you know, there are many places people don't know about in America.
I go, well, Kansas City was a big jazz place. You know, and there are many, uh, areas like that, just like Hay Dashbury was a big psychedelic music, uh, place, right, for Jimi Hendrix and so forth. Uh, I have a couple Jimi Hendrix stories too, but we'll leave that for next time.
[00:28:12] Marco Ciappelli: Okay, sure. Make a note for that.
Yeah. You know, you, you, you went into, uh, Duke Ellington, lately, well, I listen to a little bit of everything. Um, except for, I'm not going to go there, but there's certain music I can listen. I know,
[00:28:31] Jonathan Taylor: I know which one it is too.
[00:28:33] Marco Ciappelli: Make it, if you want to make a guess, I'll tell you. Rap. Exactly. Yeah,
[00:28:38] Jonathan Taylor: I
[00:28:39] Marco Ciappelli: know. I liked the initial one.
They've got one
[00:28:41] Jonathan Taylor: part down. They've got the rhythm down. But now they have to have melody and harmony in order for it to be considered music. And the
[00:28:49] Marco Ciappelli: original rap was beautiful. I mean, I could see something in that. The first hip hop and all of that. Yeah, well, the kids wanted
[00:28:57] Jonathan Taylor: to learn music. And they had taken all the music out of the school to music courses for the youngsters.
And so they had to find a way to create. And I laud them for that. I think that's great. I go, well, what were they supposed to do? If you didn't have a violin or a bassoon or something, you know, what do you expect them to do? They want to make music.
[00:29:17] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah.
[00:29:18] Jonathan Taylor: You know, don't you want to have your kid do that?
And also it's a way out of poor circumstances. And I admire anybody that gets out of poor circumstances.
[00:29:30] Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, yeah. I was going to get also into. The adaptation of changing, playing music in a different way. I want to finish with that. And I want a little bit of your opinion, although you already kind of went there, but I was going to, when I was saying all the kind of music that I like, I, I, I've seen Guns N Roses Metallica and I can listen to You know, jazz and, uh, and blues and all you want.
But lately I'm really much into the standard of jazz. And I, my favorite is Thelonious Monk plays Duke Ellington. Right. And I, I don't know what you think about that, but I think it's great. I think it's great.
[00:30:18] Jonathan Taylor: As well as the Duke Ellington stuff, I do George Gershwin stuff. So I think it's wonderful Thelonious Monk doing that.
And I think all of it is great. And Duke Ellington was a fine human being too. People don't know a lot about him. He was a Freemason. He was a lot of things. I go, he was a very fine human being
and
[00:30:36] Jonathan Taylor: gave a lot of people, uh, you know, that Satchmo was raised by Jewish people and he was Jewish. People don't know that.
I go, well, he was raised by them. And I go, he became one of the big stars of that era.
[00:30:54] Marco Ciappelli: He sure did. Sure did. So what, what piece of yourself, as the last question, what piece of yourself you put into the music that you play? I mean, as your, as your, Persona, but does it change depending on the mood that you're in when you play something or or there's more of this?
I think I
[00:31:15] Jonathan Taylor: try to feel what is the intention of that music and try to communicate that to the audience and Yes, I have technical mastery and you have to have that to play right? I mean, you know, of course but on the other hand It's all about the feeling and what's communicated. And to me, that's what music is all about because I really believe music can heal people that are ill.
I know that's true. And I can tell you a quick story because I know we're getting off here. No, no, please take the, yeah. A quick story that when I was in India and I was playing at the National Theater in Bombay, they call it Mombasa now, uh, and I was playing a concert there and a man I found out later from a letter that was written to my, to me and my manager back in California and one in New York, had two of them, uh, that, um, He had come into the concert and he was going to kill himself.
He was going to, he had suicidal thoughts and he said, after I hear this concert, I'm going to go, you know, jump off the bridge or whatever he was planning. And he did not do that. And he wrote me a letter saying that that concert had healed him enough to save his life. And the top of the letter said shanti, which is like peace and, you know, that idea.
And so I honestly believe that music can heal people. It doesn't matter your economic status, rich or poor, middle class, doesn't matter your physical status. I go, that music speaks to humankind in a way that nothing else does, and it's a very unifying thing.
[00:33:06] Marco Ciappelli: It's very much a universal language. You know, people say it's math.
Yeah, I know the music is also math, but yeah, right. So it kind of get connected. That's right. Well, it's ratios. It's
[00:33:21] Jonathan Taylor: ratios. But when Pythagoras started dividing the, uh, uh, strings in order to, uh, uh, differentiate pitches and that, uh, there are mathematical ratios involved in that. Yes, that's true.
[00:33:36] Marco Ciappelli: That's very, very crazy.
And the story that you share, it's, it tells a lot. And I mean, I'm only imagine the way you must have feel when, when you read that letter.
[00:33:49] Jonathan Taylor: I mean, Yeah. And, and, uh, my manager looked at me and we were sitting in his office and he said, that was worth the whole tour. And I said, exactly.
[00:33:59] Marco Ciappelli: And it gives another perspective to, to what you do.
And to end this, um, You know, I always like to say that if this conversation inspires somebody to go out and pursue their creativity, uh, write their story, become a better storyteller or grab an instrument and start playing, great. You know, you can be a master and you can be somebody that just play for fun.
Yeah.
[00:34:29] Marco Ciappelli: But if it inspires you to, to create something, I think we did a pretty good job. in, uh, in sharing this. And if you, with your concert that time, you, you know, you inspire people, someone in particular, and probably many other to do other things, but saving someone life.
[00:34:50] Jonathan Taylor: It is a mystery as to why one person, it is a great mystery.
I saw a concert by Segovia around 16, and the kind of, uh, the die was cast, as the saying goes, the fire was ignited, and It is a great mystery of why one person wants to become that thing. He wants to create that beauty himself. The technical mastery is one thing. The beauty of the music is another.
They're melded, of course. And why is it that one person says, that's what I want to be, and another person is enjoying the music? Both are great.
But
[00:35:30] Jonathan Taylor: I mean, what is that? And people ask me, I go, I don't know.
[00:35:34] Marco Ciappelli: Something magic about it. Yeah, I don't
[00:35:37] Jonathan Taylor: know. I wish I knew the answer.
[00:35:39] Marco Ciappelli: Mm hmm.
[00:35:40] Jonathan Taylor: That's for sure.
[00:35:41] Marco Ciappelli: Well, I think it was magic in a way.
The things that we've talked about, 35 minutes went away. Yeah, and you know, I had a really good time. I hope you enjoyed it. I loved it.
[00:35:52] Jonathan Taylor: You're a great interviewer. Thank you, Marco.
[00:35:54] Marco Ciappelli: Thank you. I appreciate it. And I hope that the audience enjoyed it as well because they need to stay tuned to subscribe. We have a pencil down that you can come back and we can talk a little bit more about music and that will be fantastic.
[00:36:10] Jonathan Taylor: Hey, I got a lot of stories about Wizard of Oz. We've got to remember that one and the Jimi Hendrix ones. Ask me next time. Okay. Wizard of Oz. When I transcribe that. When I transcribed the, yeah,
[00:36:22] Marco Ciappelli: I went to visited Oz and
[00:36:24] Jonathan Taylor: the Jimi Hendrix stuff while back. I've got a few stories about Jimmy.
[00:36:27] Marco Ciappelli: Yep. A while back, a few years ago, I went to see the costume, it was an exhibition for the Oscar, uh, in Hollywood that I used to live in West Hollywood actually.
And uh, and I saw the original shoes. Right. I think they're in the Smithsonian now. They used to be gray. I don't know if you know that. I think they're in the Smithsonian now. I that could may as well be there was a it just blew my mind just to see a piece of history like that So definitely let's talk about that.
All right, everybody there'll be a lot of uh, all the links to get in touch with you your app and Your linkedin other social media that you want to share will be in the notes. So everybody stay tuned Jonathan, thank you so much. It was an honor. Thank you.
[00:37:18] Jonathan Taylor: All right. Take
[00:37:18] Marco Ciappelli: care everybody.
[00:37:19] Jonathan Taylor: Have a good one. Bye bye