Episode #159: Lao Tizer

Colorado-bred, LA-based keyboardist Lao Tizer embodies what it means to be a 21st-century musician inhabiting the jazz sphere ¾ that being one who embraces musical diversity and has no fear of crossing boundaries. But Tizer also happens to come by this naturally. As the self-described “child of East Coast Jewish hippies,” he was exposed to and was influenced by his parents' extensive musical tastes
from a young age: “My dad had a huge music collection. He loved classical music and had all this world music ¾ Ravi Shankar, R. Carlos Nakai, music of the Sufis ¾ plus my parents were boomers, so that brought in all the Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, Elvis, Janis Joplin, and Motown. The Temptations were my favorite band as a kid. So, I basically grew up with everything but jazz, which I didn’t really discover until I was about 16.”

It was a couple of seemingly random selections from the Columbia House mail-order club that turned him toward a new and lasting musical direction. ”It was buy one, get twelve free, right? So I ordered Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux. Then one Sunday morning, it all just kind of hit me. To a lot of people trained in the classical tradition, jazz sounds like it breaks all kinds of rules, but I just heard there was a whole other world to explore there.” From there, Tizer hit the ground running, applying his classical piano skills to jazz and releasing his first self-produced solo keyboard albums while still in high school. After graduating from Boulder High, Tizer moved to LA and studied with legendary piano guru Terry Trotter for about two years, forgoing formal music education.

“Instead of going to music school, I just got my butt kicked on the bandstand. I was always working with musicians who were older and more experienced. School’s great but there’s no better way to grow than playing with people who are going to push you to grow. I was so green, man. Learning to play in a band concept ¾ playing in good time with a rhythm section–was one of the most challenging things, coming from being a solo pianist.” But his approach and talents served him well. At 19, he formed and led the first band under his own name, taking indirect inspiration from another iconic jazz entity. “When I got into listening to The Pat Metheny Group in the late ‘90s, they had that “formula” that definitely spoke to me ¾ great, through-composed music with a lot of room for improvisation. That’s the formula that I love”

In the ensuing years and through various incarnations, The Lao Tizer Band has flown by that directional compass while infusing the bespoke influences and experiences that inform Tizer’s musical worldview.

Subsequently, the band attracted many top players to its ranks ¾ GRAMMY-winning saxophonist Eric Marienthal (Chick Corea), Emmy-winning guitarist Chieli Minucci (Special EFX), Senegalese bassist Cheikh N'Doye (Baaba Maal), violinist extraordinaire Karen Briggs (Stanley Clarke), GRAMMY-winning drum phenom Gene Coye (Hiromi) and legendary GRAMMY-winning percussionist Munyungo Jackson (Stevie Wonder) ¾ and became a steady presence at LA hotspots like The Baked Potato as well as entertaining audiences at premier jazz festivals around the world. Milestones among these were The Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival, Cape Town Jazz Festival, Java Jazz Festival, and Atlanta Jazz Festival. The six albums he has released as a leader have seen Tizer steadily grow while constantly defining (and redefining) who he is as a keyboardist, composer, and bandleader. “I think the most important thing as an artist and composer is to have your own identity and your own sound. Everybody comes to where they are in music through whatever path they have followed and I think staying true to what brought you to where you are now helps to create your own true voice. I think I have always had that.”

But not content to rest, Tizer recently decided to take another bold turn with his music. In 2018, The Lao Tizer Band released Songs From The Swinghouse, a project that included fresh, sophisticated takes on a number of vocal-oriented covers from seminal artists such as U2, Led Zeppelin, and Cat Stevens along with a collection of seven original instrumentals penned by Tizer. The album was released to critical acclaim and notched the Top 10 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz album chart.

“We were always only instrumental until that record. The concept was to reinvent covers like ‘Ramble On,’ ‘Pride in the Name of Love,’ and ‘Sad Lisa.’ I had never arranged or recorded any vocal material with my group before, so to take those tunes and make them our own was really fun.”

Now, with his forthcoming album, Amplify, Tizer ups the ante by bringing original vocal-oriented songs into his mix of smart instrumentals ¾ as well as a few potent new additions to the band. “A big part of the concept for Amplify is to cross over. It’s not really a “jazz” record but it definitely has jazz elements, no question. The band still features the core lineup we’ve had for a while now with Eric, Chieli, Karen, Munyungo, Gene, and Cheikh, but now there are a few new faces involved in the group. Namely saxophone and flute wunderkind Danny Janklow (MONKestra) and Rolling Stone 2022 ”Bassist of the Year” nominee Anthony Crawford (Erykah Badu), who shares low-end duties with Cheikh. We augmented our already large band with a horn section and background singers on a few songs as well. The album is nine songs ¾ five vocal, four instrumental ¾ all original, no covers.”

But perhaps Tizer’s most intriguing choice of secret weapon for Amplify is bringing American Idol star Elliott Yamin to handle the vocal material. “Elliott’s first album had that platinum hit single “Wait For You.” He’s very much a throwback to a blue-eyed soul kind of vibe and it was amazing to be able to bring him into the band. This project was a little outside his stylistic wheelhouse because it is a bit more adventurous harmonically. I think he was a little intimidated by the music early on but he’s such a remarkably gifted singer and he’s just singing his butt off. He’s turned out to be unbelievable in this project and the band. He’s super gung-ho about it too, which is great. I couldn’t have asked for a better fit!”

With these continuing steps over boundaries into new stylistic territory, one might wonder if Tizer has any trepidation about alienating the core base of jazz listeners he’s built up over time. Quite the contrary, it seems.

“I love that longstanding boundaries in music are getting broken down. Artists like Snarky Puppy, Robert Glasper, and Kamasi Washington have proven this theory that I’ve long held: If you have music that’s melodic and grooves, you can win over a very broad array of listeners.” Indeed, Tizer testifies to having seen the evidence firsthand.

“There’s been a really cool renaissance and rebirth with all these genre-defying artists and I’ve seen a shift in the crowd at our shows too. There’s a lot of 20 and 30-somethings coming out, and that’s so cool. That’s what the future audience is going to be. If we want to have long careers like our predecessors, we need to have our peers and younger listeners connect to this music and follow it.” With eyes set on the future and a willingness to keep exploring, Tizer’s simplest ethos perhaps sums it up best: “I say forget the boundaries. Just make good music and try to connect with as many listeners as you can.