“Think Out Loud” continues our monthly conversations with Meg Samples, general manager of member-supported KMHD Jazz Radio. Each month, we’ll hear about artists to add to your playlist, along with concerts and community events to attend.
In October, that includes a concert by the pioneering, alternative hip-hop group Digable Planets. The trio is currently on tour for the 30th anniversary of their landmark album, “Blowout Comb,” which they’ll play in its entirety at Revolution Hall in Portland on Oct. 21.
Kiefer, a Grammy Award-winning producer and pianist from Los Angeles, will also visit Portland for a performance on Oct. 17 at the Star Theater and Starlight Lounge. Kiefer has become a KMHD staff favorite for his ability to blend jazz improvisation with hip-hop beats.
Jazz fans won’t want to miss a performance by Buster Williams at The Jazz Station in Eugene on Oct. 25. The legendary octogenarian bassist has performed with jazz giants such as Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock.
KMHD General Manager Meg Samples joins us to share her musical highlights for the month.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We continue our monthly conversations with Meg Samples now. She’s the general manager of member-supported KMHD Jazz Radio. We are checking in with Meg every month or so to hear about new artists you can add to your playlist, along with concerts and community events. Meg, good to see you.
Meg Samples: Good to see you, Dave. Nice day.
Miller: I want to start with a show that’s happening this Saturday at the Star Theater in Portland, a pianist named Kiefer. Who is he?
Samples: Kiefer, I think, is a person that, when you hear his music, it immediately lowers your blood pressure. Let me just give you that as an intake on what you can expect when you hear it. Lots of nice soul and sort of deep groove playing out of a keyboardist, usually using electric keys a lot of the time. I have heard him on a grand piano sounding great, but more of this lo-fi soul/jazz sound that I think as a community we all need. Like I said, lowering the blood pressure. Kiefer has been doing a lot of projects where he works with other musicians, producers, instrumentalists, gets together and it sounds like you’re sitting in a living room where friends are just playing music and hanging out, and I love that.
Miller: All right, let’s listen to one of his tracks. This is called “Memory Bomb.”
[Music plays]
Miller: That was “Memory Bomb” by Kiefer, featuring Walter Smith III, Flanafi and Shibo. Meg, the bassist Shibo is also going to be performing this week. What can you tell us about him, one of his collaborators?
Samples: Shibo, I think when I read about the way that he works and the way that he creates music, he is a bass player, but he also works on this idea of making a sample, which we would normally take from another song that exists and throw it into music, he actually creates a live sample to use, which on this tune you can kind of hear that old recording crackling sound, that’s part of it.
It’s very J Dilla of him, where you’re making your own samples and then putting them into new music, especially with live instruments. So I think you’re going to be able to see some of that process on the stage, which is cool. And also just kind of reach into this, what we call “Jazz Without Boundaries” at KMHD, where you’re like, “Oh, is this hip-hop? Is this soul? Is this jazz? What is it? We don’t know, but it feels good.”
Miller: It just so happens that another band coming to Portland soon, was one of the pioneers in combining hip-hop and jazz. Digable Planets is playing Portland’s Revolution Hall on Wednesday the 21st, so not this Wednesday, but the Wednesday after. For people who were not around in the early 1990s, who are Digable
Planets?
Samples: Digable Planets, talking about kind of a shooting star with the burning out flame. They only did two albums, which is wild because those two albums have stood the test of time, particularly this one, “Blowout Comb.” So, 1994, a little over 30 years, even though they’re saying the 30 year anniversary. The tune, “Jettin’,” I think for me and for KMHD, we love this tune because it samples Bob James on a really cool sort of piano moment called from his tune “Blue Lick.”
They really took… they loved jazz and they wanted to incorporate it into hip-hop as the pioneers of it, in my opinion. They have Roy Ayers on that album, they’ve got Head Hunters and Herbie Hancock all laced throughout these tunes in their record, and it feels so seamless, you almost feel like, “What is it? Can I say it’s hip-hop or do I say it’s jazz?” It doesn’t matter. It was ahead of its time, and now we get to celebrate it.
Miller: All right, let’s have a listen to “Jettin’” from the Digable Planets’ second album.
[Music plays]
Miller: This is actually “Rebirth,” so we’re gonna hear “Rebirth of Slick” first, which is their most famous song. So let’s have a listen to this first. If you only know one Digable Planet song, it’s probably this one. So let’s hear more of it.
[Music continues]
Miller: All right, so that was “Rebirth of Slick” from Digable Planets’ first album. Just remind us, I mean, what did it mean for this song to exist in the world back then?
Samples: I think for a listener to get this vibe of, OK, this is a trio who has a perspective on what’s going on in culture of the day and the life. You know, this is real early 90s, yes, hip-hop is having its moment, but these are also musicians who love artists like Miles Davis and Roy Ayers and all these folks, but want to incorporate it into the life they’re living. So that stuff that was hitting in 1959 isn’t hitting in ‘89. And the days are different. So as an artist, to be able to do that and to connect with an audience who also gets it, it blew everybody out of the water. So that was their first record. I mean, incredible, right?
Miller: And then their second one is what they’re gonna be doing the entire show for when they come to perform in Portland soon. Let’s have a listen now to “Jettin’” from their second album.
[Music plays]
Miller: That was 30-plus years ago. Do you still hear that, you said, just now, that the KMHD motto is “Jazz Without Boundaries.” Do you hear from people, maybe older people who say, “I want boundaries. This isn’t jazz.”
Samples: You bet. That’s good, because I feel like, with an artistry like jazz, is this term that’s just so broad and what tent do you want to be in? And we’re trying to take this like, OK, all tents are great, let’s get them all in one place and let’s learn from them. And yeah, we do get that, you know, especially folks that maybe weren’t experiencing music in 1989 in the way that someone in their twenties was, or it doesn’t resonate in the same way.
However, I think as a DJ, or as a host, kind of drawing those connections, like playing Bob James before this tune and saying, this is Bob James. He was the master of some of those fusion sounds that we love in jazz in the ‘70s and ‘60s. But this group – Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca and Doodlebug – decided to take it in and make it their own and speak to a new generation, which keeps the art form alive.
Usually when I get into these conversations, I’m like, jazz has always existed because it keeps reimagining itself. And we’re in danger when it stops doing that, basically.
Miller: Well, for people who want to hear the direct lineages of some of the classic players from the 1950s and 1960s, you also are reminding us that the bass player Buster Williams is gonna be at the jazz station in Eugene on Sunday, October 25. Who is Buster Williams?
Samples: Woo, man, how much time do we have? Because Buster Williams has played with everyone in what you think of as big household jazz names. Herbie Hancock comes to mind right up front. But you’ve also got the folks like Art Blakey, Chet Baker, he was playing with a lot of jazz vocalists like Nancy Wilson and even Sinatra, I believe, at a time where he was a bass player for hire. Basically, anyone that wanted a bass player, Buster was your guy, you know, you call him up, he comes in either to the studio or goes on tour with you and just executes it, just can play in that genre so seamlessly. So when he comes through town, it’s the time to stop and put it on the calendar, right? He’s a legacy.
Miller: The track you brought featuring Buster Williams is a Herbie Hancock song. It’s called “You’ll Know When You Get There.” This is from the live album “V.S.O.P.” and we’re going to hear a Buster Williams solo at the beginning. Turn the bass up. This is Buster Williams.
[Music plays]
Miller: Meg, what else are you excited about right now?
Samples: All right, today the Portland Jazz Festival just announced their lineup. This is exciting. It’s happening March 3 through 7 or something, a little longer than that, 2027, so something to look forward to. But they just put on their lineup that Jazzmeia Horn, Stanley Clarke, a really incredible virtuosic pianist by the name of Hiromi is on there. And then plus a lot of other, you know, non-typical jazz artists, like Emmylou Harris is on there as well this year.
Miller: No boundaries.
Samples: I mean, did they start taking a page from KMHD? Hello, I love it.
Miller: Meg, it’s always a pleasure talking with you. Thank you very much.
Samples: Thanks, Dave.
Miller: We will go out with “You’ll Know When You Get There,” by Herbie Hancock, again with the bass player Buster Williams, who is gonna be at the jazz station in Eugene on Sunday, October 25.
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