[Piano playing]
Narrative: Music...
it has the ability to evoke powerful emotions
pain, love, empathy.
A talented musician has the ability to weave just as powerful a story
as was ever written on any page.
Chad Lawson is one such musician.
Wow.
Well, Chad, you're still up to it, aren't you?
I am.
What was the first thing that when you played,
you said, I really want to do this?
It was probably my very first recital,
it really was.
The song was simple.
I could probably play it with one finger right now.
It was called "Bear on a Bike,"
but I just remember that sense of accomplishment
even at that young age.
I was five years old
and it was just incredibly rewarding.
Narrative: Chad's childhood recital
would be the first of many
I had a jazz trio [indiscernible]
It was called the Chad Lawson Trio
and it was a fantastic group,
ranked high in the charts
and then I took a short tour with Julio Iglesias
for a little while
and it was during this tour with Julio,
that I really wanted to go back
to the idea of sitting at the piano again.
Just writing music strictly just for solo piano.
And there was one night on stage in Spain with Julio,
it was 35,000 people
and everyone was having a great time,
something just clicked and said
I think this is the time that i need to
start focusing on doing this solo piano album.
[Piano playing]
Came home and booked a recording session
with a gentleman named Will Ackerman
who founded the Windham Hill Label.
So I sent him some demos
and he said absolutely, let's do something.
As soon as I came off of the tour with Julio,
I became sick with this thing called ulcerative colitis.
Wow...
Which really knocked me out.
If you're not familiar with ulcerative colitis,
it's similar to Crohn's,
it just affects a different area of your body.
So long story short,
it really whopped me.
As soon as we got to the recording studio,
it was a mindset of we're here, let's make this happen,
as difficult as it was.
We did the album in a day and a half
and in between takes
I literally was laying on the floor underneath the piano
while my wife and Will Ackerman and the engineer
would go back and review the tracks
and say thumbs up, thumbs down, let's do it again.
I was great, you know?
And you get up, you do it again?
Yeah, there are--
Incredible!
Most of the songs on that album were first takes,
but it was definitely not the easiest process
that I've ever been through.
So after a day and a half,
we wrapped things up, drove back to Brooklyn
and that next day, I actually went into the hospital for 21 days.
Oh my goodness.
Chad: Yeah.
Carl: So you were pushing yourself to the limits.
Chad: Well, that album was a healing process.
It was one of those things where
even if only my mother were to hear the album,
I had to to do it.
It was your own therapy.
Chad: Yeah, exactly.
Carl: Knowing a bit about Chopin and his life
and the pain that he went through
there's a little similarity there.
Chad: He was labeled as not well,
in a sense of his health.
And I think that had a lot to do with his writing,
like what we hear,
I'm am paraphrasing him,
but Oscar Wilde says,
when I hear Chopin,
I feel remorse for sins I have never committed.
You know? And I think his writing
has this angst and just this pain and this hurt
and I think a lot of it resembles
what he was going through at the time.
Narrative: After his painful and debilitating illness,
Chad was inspired to begin his reinterpretation
of Chopin's classic works.
Basically what I did, is I took Chopin
and I took 10 pieces and I scaled it down
to a very simple bare-bones approach.
So whereas some melodies of his would have 12 notes,
I would only allow for six.
You know, so I would take out certain notes.
I wanted to see if Chopin's music
at the very root of it all,
can still be very spellbinding
even in the most simple of form
and I think when you have something so authentic
and so heartfelt, which we hear from his music,
you can't help but just be connected to it
and for students,
it's a 'I want to learn how to play that.
That's beautiful. That's stunning.'
Narrative: Chad's passion for making music drives him at all hours,
which prompted a little modification to his piano.
Late at night,
I have a system inside the piano that mutes the piano
so I can practice really quietly,
because no one wants to hear [plays piano]
at 2:30 in the morning.
So I had a system put in where I take this piece of felt
and what happens is this felt come sin between
the strings and the hammers.
It kills the attack of a note.
So instead of it being...
[hits piano key]
like a normal piano sound
now what happens is...
[same piano key quieter]
So you still have the note,
but you don't have that sharp attack any more.
Yea, it's nice and soft.
[Piano]
Chad: So, I went to Brooklyn College of Music,
because that was a really great school at the time,
still is
and that's where I was introduced to jazz.
So I actually did not get introduced to jazz until very late in the game,
to be honest.
That's where we met for the first time.
You were playing gypsy jazz on stage
I mean, how does that play in the world of jazz?
We have the traditional jazz art-form
which is American-made
and now you're seeing influence come in from different countries
that are now effecting that.
So you're seeing a lot of European kind of begin
to really associate with American jazz
and it's interesting,
because now you're adding more color to this palette
that you're able to paint with.
Usually you start off with bebop
you know, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis,
[Piano playing]
And then you start hearing more European influences,
anything from Spain [plays piano]
Now you're seeing other countries kind of begin to
put their toes in the water of jazz
and it's just like, oh wow.
I think the testament is that
it certainly survived the decades.
Yeah.
And so have you, Chad.
Why, thank you.
So that's a good thing.
Chad, it's been great.
Carl, thank you very much.
Carl: Thank you so much.
Chad: It's been an honor.
Maybe you can play us out.
I'd be happy to.
[Piano]
Narrative: Chad's music is inspiring,
beautiful to listen to
and masterfully played.
The Chopin variations open my heart to Chopin
in a whole new way.
His works so inspired me,
that I invited Chad to share his music
during our live show at the LeGrand Center.
[Piano music]