{"id":2601,"date":"2021-03-04T10:21:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T16:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=2601"},"modified":"2021-06-21T20:30:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T01:30:54","slug":"looking-within-joe-dyson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/looking-within-joe-dyson\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Within: A Conversation with Joe Dyson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joe Dyson has established himself as one of the go to drummers for some of today’s masters of the music, performing with a wide range of artists including Dr. Lonnie Smith, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Jon Batiste, Nicholas Payton, and Leo Nocentelli. Most recently, he has been performing in a trio with Pat Metheny and James Francies. However, he has not released an album under his own name until now.

His debut release as a leader, Look Within<\/em> (self-release, 2021), is a deeply personal album. As with Dyson’s sideman performances, his home of New Orleans plays a major role in his sound. However, the opportunity to go out on his own also allows him to dig deeper into this well. This emphasizes not just the Crescent City in a broad sense but also his family, mentors, and the subcultures there which make it such a special place. One particular influence comes from his upbringing in the church. Additional ideas are added from things Dyson has experienced while travelling the globe. These colors combine into a recording that borrows equally from the traditions of jazz, gospel, and R&B. We sat down with Joe to discuss the new album and his music more generally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PostGenre: Look Within<\/em> is your first album as a leader. But you\u2019ve been a sideman to many other artists and have been playing music since you were a kid. Why did you wait until now to go out on your own?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Dyson: Well, it really came down to making sure that I had enough confidence in the music I was writing and its power to help people. I\u2019ve recorded with other projects, one of them being a band I co-lead, The Bridge Trio, writing tunes here and there. But this project is my first effort at really doing everything from top to bottom for the recording process. I would not have been as comfortable making this push earlier in my career. I was still learning from the many great artists and bandleaders I\u2019ve worked with. I feel like being around them has allowed me to pick up on some of the small things they do in terms of making the musicians comfortable, reading into the audience, and fine tuning the music to make it a better vessel for speaking to something higher than just the notes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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