Even though it’s only existed publicly for a short amount of time, jazz pianist Steve Okonski’s debut album feels generational. Magnolia is subtle in its approach but once that first note hits, that subtly turns into a full emotional rollercoaster. Through seven magnificent examples of pure jazz, Okonski took the practice of jazz piano and added his own experiences and thoughts to achieve the warm nostalgia that exodus from the LP. Along with bandmates Aaron Frazer (drums) and Mike Montgomery (bass), the trio pieced together an album that sounds intentional despite the creative process behind it being anything but that.
It was a few years ago when Terry Cole of Colemine Records approached Okonski who has been the keyboardist for Durand Jones & The Indications, about forming a jazz group and recording an album for the label. Okonski jumped on the opportunity and came in with a slew of demos to help guide the direction of the album. The thing about music, especially jazz, is that it is constantly collaborating with what is happening around it. Hearing a car horn over your headphones as you walk down the street adds a nuanced texture to your playlists, creating a cohesive experience with yourself and your surroundings. That magical moment when the stars align with your favorite tune is embedded into the songs on Magnolia as those demos Okonski brought with him ended up being saved after the group recorded “Sunday”. This particular song was birthed out of improvisation, a classic jazz style that focuses on capturing moments instead of creating them. Once the band played back their improved session and heard what was created, Magnolia took a sharp creative turn.
Every song on the album follows the same formula as “Sunday”. It is a collection of bottled moments that live in the moment without ignoring the future or past. The chemistry demonstrated on Magnolia is a masterclass in improved jazz, each chord seemingly coming out of nowhere but revealing itself at just the right time.
Glide spoke with Steve Okonski to discuss his infectious solo debut, his relationship with Colemine Records, and how it all came to be. Read our full conversation below:
Congratulations on the recent Billboard placements, how are you feeling after receiving the news?
Definitely didn’t expect that. Once you put out an album it’s out of your hands, I try not to expect anything. The Billboard placements and the reviews have been really cool to see, seeing the love in general that the album is getting felt really nice.
Magnolia is your debut solo album, what was it like transitioning into the role of frontman?
I was excited to put out an album under my name that I had control over. I was looking forward to a project where I made the artistic decisions so that was really fulfilling and really satisfying. As far as the creative process goes, the music was so collaborative. Not only between myself, Aaron [Frazer], and Mike [Montgomery] but between Terry [Cole] with a lot of the production assistance. The creation was very collaborative but it felt good to have it under my name and be a product that I molded.
The chemistry between you and your bandmates on the LP was stellar, did that come about naturally?
Aaron Frazer and I have been playing together since 2015 before I even joined the Indications. We were playing around Brooklyn in bar bands, we are good friends at this point. We’ve played so many hours of music together I think we connect at that level really well. When Mike Montgomery joined the Indications for a year, I had actually met him before. We hadn’t played a lot but we clicked super quickly and have a lot of shared interests and influences, connecting through that felt really natural. The three of us with our different musical backgrounds and tastes really helped the overall vibe of the album.
Can you tell me about your time in the Indications? Did your time playing for them influence Magnolia at all?
I started playing with The Indications in early 2017, they were still touring the first album that I wasn’t a part of recording but still early in their touring career. I was playing with Aaron [Frazer] at the bar and when they were getting ready to go on tour the original keyboardist couldn’t make the gigs so they asked if I was interested and I jumped on that, obviously. I had done some touring before but this is the busiest touring I’ve ever done, we’ve been burning the candle at both ends because the momentum has been so great. Everyone coming into The Indicators has their different influences coming into the music so I feel like I learned a lot from each of them just by listening to different music with them but also writing with them. Just trying to hear where they’re coming from and working together on writing you learn a lot about yourself and each other.
Now that Magnolia is out in the world, how often do you revisit it?
I love the album and I enjoy listening back to it. It’s nice, meditative music in general but something about it being so in-the-moment and improvisational I didn’t spend hours and hours writing this, I’m not tired of it yet. I enjoy still listening to it and I’m glad to see that other people do as well. With that being said, I’m always trying to look forward to the next thing. I’m trying to get another session going for an LP 2. Just trying to always look forward while still appreciating the stuff in the past.
When I listen back they still affect me in the same way as they did when we were first in the studio. They take you somewhere, for me it’s those two-in-the-morning walks in New York City and it still does that. I like taking the little journeys that those songs are inspired by.
Does the improved style allow for a certain freedom? How do you think the album would’ve sounded if “Sunday” didn’t become the blueprint for the other songs?
The way it went down was the first session was in November 2020 and I came in with 10-12 songs that were pretty well-formed and composed, a lot more beat-driven. We were doing overdubs, playing electric bass, and those were cool tracks, they just weren’t quite the same. On that last day we ran out of ideas so we decided to run the tape and see what happens, it was very freeing, and listening back we realized there was something special there. We went and did another session in 2021 and I didn’t come with any composed music, we just sat and played. Being able to do that with those guys, we were all of the same minds and just played. It’s very freeing, you can’t play anything incorrectly but at the same time, you’re still working to make it cohesive and entertaining. We recorded hours upon hours for this album and cut it down to thirty minutes so not everything is great. There are little special moments captured with Magnolia.
How did you end up naming the album Magnolia?
I was mulling over names for the album, thinking a lot about my time in New York and I moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 2019. Head space-wise, the album feels like walking those Brooklyn streets at 2 a.m. coming back from work or a hang. On Lafayette Avenue, in Bed Stuy, there’s a magnolia grandiflora, an enormous tree. I think it’s been there since the late 1800s and it’s the only living, registered historic landmark in New York City. I just thought that was so cool and I would walk by that every day, there’s no reason it should be living that far north. I just thought that was beautiful and I love the sentiment in that. After moving to North Carolina, there are a ton of Magnolia trees down here. It felt like something that has been a constant for me over the past years, these magnolia trees growing where they shouldn’t be growing is beautiful to me. On top of that just budding beautiful flowers and plants, I feel it evokes the spiritual, meditative calmness that I hope the album does.
How did those initial ideas you came to the studio with sound compared to what Magnolia ended up being?
“Runner Up”, the first track on the album, that’s a melody I worked out at home and decided to rip on that with the guys for a little. That was the only track that I had an idea of beforehand, a song like “Song for My Sister’s Son” we were all sitting there and I said, “guys let’s do something in a 6/8 feel, let’s do it in B Flat and keep it open”. We just kind of went from there and that is a much different process than the first sessions. At first, I was like “here are the parts. This is the chorus and this is the verse” which is fun and a different way of writing. Those songs are cool too, I don’t know what will happen with them but I think Magnolia, whether I knew it or not at the time, was more of what I was feeling and wanted to express. Having the space to do that naturally was really special.
What was Terry Cole’s role in the album specifically?
Terry was the one who reached out to me about a solo record. While I was on tour with The Indications and we would go through Cincinnati we would stop by Colemine and see the Plaid Room Records shop so we were pals. He was asking if I’d be interested in putting something together that was more jazz-oriented and coming to record something. That was way back in 2018 or 2019, we were in the studio above Plaid Room and he has a little studio up there. He engineered the whole session and said let’s do it to tape. He knew how to engineer the sound we were both talking about which was not copying but something that sounds like those early Indications albums, all these soul records. Keeping it sonically in the same vein as other Colemine releases but with more of a jazz-lean to it. As a producer and engineer, he would guide us especially when we got into the improved stuff, just throwing ideas and being a lighting rod of different feels. Since the beginning, he was an integral part of the album.
Was a solo record ever on your mind in the early days of your career?
When I was in college in New York doing weekly jam session gigs, having a solo record was never a thing. I wanted an outlet for my own music for quite a while and Terry provided the perfect outlet to do so. It’s not like it wasn’t on my radar but it wasn’t something I was thirsting after, it was never my main goal.
What were the conversations that led to the improved direction of Magnolia?
After we finished “Sunday”, it was pretty late and everyone was beat putting in a lot of hours at the studio. There’s a certain amount of finishing and listening back to stuff but on “Sunday” we just kind of left it all out there and that felt very good. It wasn’t an exhausting kind of way but we decided there’s not a lot of heat left so let’s make something really sweet and nice to wrap up the session. After listening back to the whole session over the next month or two, we decided what would become “Sunday” was the coolest thing on there as well as another track we didn’t release but it had the same vibe. We thought let’s try this again and come with no preconceived notions and see what we get out of it. It just came out of listening back to what we had done and trying to capture some of that same feeling.
What were some of your earliest memories with jazz and the piano? When did you start playing and what sort of albums did you grow up listening to?
I never played anything except classical music up until college. I started joining the jazz combo when I was 20 but before that, it was all classical. Bitches Brew by Miles Davis was one of the albums I remember my dad giving me, which was out there but also Live at The Blackhawk which is a more straightforward Davis record. Some Bill Evans Records and some Red Garland Trio records which I really love. I was always listening to jazz and soul but never really playing them until I got to college. It’s always been something I enjoyed and I wanted to make something that was more like those records compared to the soul records.
Bill Evans is a huge inspiration, his stuff with Miles and his solo stuff. I can list every major jazz pianist as an inspiration to me, everyone I mentioned before, and all those classic musicians. Then there are a ton of jazz organists from Jimmy Smith to Don Patterson to Shirley Scott, they’re playing different instruments but the way that they play and the energy that they bring is inspiring to help me continue to play and write more.
What are your 5 deserted island albums?
In no particular order it would have to be:
Cal trader quarter – Jazz at the Blackhawk
A Date With Jimmy Smith: Volume 2
Oscar Peterson trio with Milt Jackson – Very Tall
Richard Groove Holmes – Soul Message
The Bad Plus – Suspicious Activity
Were you going to college for music at the time?
I studied classical piano performance for two years at Eastern Michigan University. They didn’t have a jazz program but they had some teachers that were really generous with their time and knowledge. They started teaching me a lot about jazz voicings, learning standards, and playing with other people, which was a whole new thing because I had never played with anybody. Classical piano is a very solo thing so it was fun to start to collaborate and play with other folks. When I moved to New York I took a semester of jazz performance at City College but that was just to meet some more people, I still know a lot of those folks today.
What was the most difficult part of transitioning from classical to jazz piano?
It was probably the improvisational aspect which is also the most exciting to me. Playing classically, there are obviously a number of things you can interpret and play to give it some of your personality but when you’re just given some chord changes, there’s a lot you have to figure out and a lot of ways to make it your own. From your voicings to your time then solos are a whole other thing, and that shit is hard. It’s still hard, I don’t think it gets any easier but it gets more fun which is nice. Having full agency over the notes that you’re playing at that time was definitely the hardest part.
Now that the praise is rolling in from Magnolia, how are you feeling about everything?
I’m still very stoked about all the love the album is getting, from reviews to just seeing posts on Instagram about it. I can see where everyone is listening to the album, it’s very cool and I’m still riding pretty high from that. It makes me even more excited to get back in the studio and try to do some and hopefully do some touring for the album too. Short answer; it feels really good.
