Jennifer Hartswick never imagined she’d end up where she is today; standing stage right as the trumpet player and vocalist with Trey Anastasio’s Band. She radiates energy across the stage to her nine bandmates on the left and the dancing audience in front, providing each of them with a joyful and festive concert experience. In a music scene filled with serious, rigid players, Jennifer emanates the simple fun part of playing live that the modern music scene hasn’t witnessed in quite some time. She represents the fan in all of us, communicating the happiness of making music with amazing musicians, and then having the great privilege of sharing it with everyone willing to listen. As she graciously explains, she has one of the best damn jobs around. From running up the stairs at an empty Red Rocks Ampitheater and pretending she’s on top of the world, (ala Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic) to leading the crowd out of Radio City Music Hall in a parade, she’s here to prove that dreams do come true. She prides herself on connecting and communicating with the audience and making it all one big party. With that being said, she is also an incredibly talented jazz trumpeter and vocalist that helps elevate the large catalog of Trey tunes to epic proportions.
Growing up in Vermont’s large, but sparsely populated Northeast Kingdom, Jennifer realizes indeed how lucky she is, and has remained humbly grounded in her roots. Still calling Vermont home, she appreciates the outpouring of support from her family, friends and growing legion of fans. On her second Trey tour, one Vermont fan wrote her a friendly note saying “Jen Rocks”, and attached a colorful boa. The fan is now a close friend, and the boa is part of her stage apparel. With an upcoming solo album, a new Trey Anastasio Band double live CD due, and talks of another possible TAB tour, it’s an exciting time for Jennifer. A time to show the rest of the world what she’s really about.
It’s been about two years since your life has changed from musician to well-known musician. How has the dash of fame treated you?
It’s fantastic first of all, I mean obviously it’s amazing; just the people I’ve met through it has just changed my life musically. Obviously getting to do what I do is the most phenomenal job in the world; to be able to go out and play music to people that want to hear it and love it, there’s nothing greater. (laughs)
Let’s talk about your music beginnings, did you grow up listening to rock, or pop or were you just a jazz buff?
I was a classical buff till I was about 11 or 12 and then I started playing in a jazz band in school and that’s when I started playing trumpet, when I was about ten. And sort of through high school that’s when I just completely got into jazz and I really didn’t get into any other music at all until Trey’s band came along.
Really?
Yeah, I just thought this whole thing was just…I don’t know, it’s funny my whole family are classical musicians so the only thing that was ever on was classical music, so there was never any type of rock music, pop music, even like oldies…nothing. So, it wasn’t till I realized like three years ago that all music has validity (laughs). There’s some amazing music and that’s pretty much the phase I’m in right now, just checking out bands that I missed growing up.
What instrument did you start on?
I started piano when I was four or five and then I was a woodwind player until I was about ten, and then played the clarinet and sax, and then when I was about ten my uncle gave me a trumpet and I put everything else down and said this is cool! I picked up the tuba around the same time actually and kept both of those going.
So why the trumpet?
Only because my uncle gave it to me, that’s it, I would have taken anything.
Do you think the trumpet is limited?
I think only if you have a closed-mind is it limited, I think anything can be anything. There’s room for anything to be anywhere, which I think is really cool and that sort of thing is happening. Trey’s idea of the whole thing was to take popular music and sort of arrange it in a bebop way, you know. So, it’s fantastic and I think that sort of broadened my way of looking at music too. Nothing is what it seems really, you can do all sorts of cool stuff if you have the creativity to do it.
I think for women in general you show that it’s cool to display a bit of showmanship on stage. Not just pretend, but actually be proud that your are having fun up there. Are you really having as much fun on stage as you appear to be?
(Laughs) More, I have to subdue myself, maybe I have to take some valium before I go up on stage. There’s nothing cooler, there isn’t, you know? It’s not just that it’s you on stage in front of so many people, it’s like doing what we get to do. We get to communicate musically with nine other members who you really don’t know all that well, and get to learn about them through music. Yes, (laughs) I have far too much fun on stage.
How is it communicating with nine other members, is it hard to get to know everybody in such a big band?
It’s fun, not only do you get to know them because we all live on a bus together, but we all get to know each other personally. Everybody just brings something so completely different to the table and from their past and what they’ve been doing, and the music they’ve been playing and what they’ve been teaching, and it’s so much fun. It’s really amazing, and especially with the addition of Peter Apfelbaum, the last tenor player we just had. He’s just done so much with starting the Hieroglyphics Ensemble on the west coast…when he was seventeen he started it. And just to be seventeen and say, “I’m just gonna do this”, and it was wild and wacky and out there and you know, he’s been to so many places. Everybody has a story like that. Everybody has half a life like that and they are all in their thirties and forties and have so much to teach. Everybody has something to teach everybody.
So it just kept getting better after the summer of 2001 when there were eight people in the band, and all of a sudden Peter joins.
Yeah, and Cyro (Baptista) too, it just keeps getting better. Trey called us and said, “So, I’m thinking about asking Peter”, and everybody just freaked out! I think the coolest thing about last tour, even though it was small it was that you didn’t have to plan your life around leaving for two months. But the really great thing about that, was that we didn’t add anyone. It was the first time that we’ve never added anyone. So, we already knew that we didn’t have to teach anyone new tunes, so everybody knew what was going on.
Is that why you guys wrote some new material for such a small tour?
Yeah, Trey’s just always writing stuff and has different people in mind for what band it’s going to be for, and he’ll be like, if it doesn’t work for us he’ll try it with Phish, and usually if it’s what he’s looking for he’ll do it with them. He’s just constantly writing new tunes so it just seems silly not to learn new tunes.
When you first got involved with this solo project how did it come about? Was Trey like, “Hey I’m forming a band, do you want to try out?”
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No, it was an amazing thing actually. We had worked together several times before, when I was actually still in high school, when Phish was doing Story of the Ghost. Trey asked Dave Grippo who he should get, as he wanted a trumpet player. I had been playing with Grippo a little bit in jazz festivals and he said he should get me. So we never met before and he called me on the phone and said, “Grippo said it would be cool if I gave you a call”. So, I went and recorded Story of the Ghost. He was doing One Man’s Trash around the same time, which was that random little ditty he did by himself in his basement (laughs). I did some stuff on there and a year went by, I stayed in touch with him although nothing really happened. And then they did Farmhouse, and I was going to school at the time at HARTT and it was coming around the time of the end of the semester and I decided I didn’t want to be there anymore. So, I packed up my car around Christmas time. I was in my car actually, like ten minutes out of the parking lot, my phone rings and I heard, “Jen, it’s Trey, what’s going on?” And I was like (laughs) “Hey, buddy, how you doing?” He goes, “So, I’m thinking, we are thinking about putting this band together, I wonder what you’re doing.”
I go, “well I just quit school ten minutes ago”. So I drove straight to his house and we had a rehearsal and two days later we were on tour. It was unbelievable, it just sort of happened.
And at that point, were you familiar with any Phish material? Did you know what you were getting into, going on tour with this guy who has this large, obsessive following?
I had no idea what I was getting into (laughs). I mean, I’ve been to one Phish show and that was like the only rock concert I’ve ever been too, when I was living in New York. I went to Madison Square Garden and was like, “wow, you gotta be kidding me”. So, that’s the story of how the whole thing happened and it’s just snowballed from there.
What were the first initial practices like? Trey obviously has a non-stop work ethic. Was it overwhelming at first?
It’s fantastic though, I think we all have a no-nonsense, don’t waste time, let’s go, do this attitude. So the first couple of rehearsals were Andy Moroz, me and Trey, and we were in his basement. He said, “I got this new tune”, and he played “Push On Til The Day”, and that was the first tune that we ever did. There were no horn parts, there was no anything, and we just sort of sat down there and he had his little keyboard and we had our horns, and he goes, (sings title chorus) be ba da ba be, be ba da ba be. We were like, “alright alright”, and we harmonized it, and that’s how it came to be as we worked for a couple days like that and wrote a bunch of horn parts and then we called Grippo and left the parts on his answering machine. (laughs)
Sounds like it was a pretty loose practice session?
It was really loose, yeah. And then we finally and slowly started to get everybody together.
Do you have any input in the writing of the songs?
Everybody does, yeah, he comes in with a pretty solid idea of how the tune is to be structured and it’s anybody’s game as to how the horn parts sound. My input is a lot with vocal harmony.
Yeah, your vocals stand out. Songs like “Money Love And Change”, and “Flock of Words”, your vocals just elevate those tunes.
Well, it’s the coolest part for me. I mean maybe, it’s not the coolest part, but I absolutely love to sing, and maybe, even more than I like to play trumpet. So it’s always really fun to do something like that. And he writes such beautiful tunes, it’s so easy. I’ve gotten to know Trey so well, that things just sort of happen.
On “Night Speaks to a Woman”, your vocals just dominate that song
(laughs) Thank you, I love that, it’s like my favorite tune. I always have a favorite tune every tour, but that’s sort of become my one favorite.
So, that “Water on the breeze” part, did you write that? The songs got this heavy Zeppelin influence and then there are these amazing background vocals.
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Yeah, it went through several variations. The first time he wrote that was when we were recording the studio album; like two days before we were supposed to be done with the record, I was there just hanging out, and Russ (Lawton) and Tony (Markellis) were there, and Trey’s like – “check this out, I wrote a new tune”. It was originally in seven and all this crazy time signature stuff, and then I was just sort of sitting there and he’s like, “wait, what if it did this?” And then it got to be like 3 o’clock in the morning and we were all goofy and kind of like singing, “Like water on the breeze”. And it was really, really rough, like the track was unbelievable and the rhythm section was crazy, and the vocals sounded like we had been drinking far too much tequila (laughs). But, it’s not me on the recording, he went out and found these amazing women in New York City, so they actually did the recording. So now that we are out on tour, I have to play two woman and a guy’s vocals.
I was at the Worcester Phish show the other night and they played, “Drifting”.
That’s what I heard. Russ was there and he called me.
Guess what, the whole crowd was singing your love love love part.
Really, sweet (laughs). That’s great!
You’ve played some pretty magical venues like Red Rocks and Radio City Music Hall, what’s been your favorite?
Red Rocks is up there for the natural beauty of a venue. That’s got to be number one.
Like every child’s dream of hitting a homerun in the ninth inning of the World Series, playing at Radio City Music Hall is pretty darn close.
That’s true too. Having not been a fan of rock music for the first nineteen years of my life, I didn’t really know about Red Rocks, and (Trey) was telling me all about it. How the dressing rooms are all built into the rocks, and there’s just this huge rock that jets out. I was (laughs) “no way”, and then I got there and was like, “you got to be kidding me”. Talk about a natural vibe of a place. We all just kind of ran up to the top of the stairs, because nobody else was there, and we were like, “Oh, my God, this is so cool” (laughs). And then we found out we were playing Radio City and that’s what we’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and make it like our big to do and that’s why we paraded out.
I never heard about that
Oh man, Cyro has this other band called Beat the Donkey. At times it’s nine members and at times it’s like fifty. We played this massive show and I think it was extra long and the last tune we played was “Alive Again”. All of a sudden all these people came out from the wing, we really didn’t know how many there were and the whole stage was just filled with people. They had these white costumes and there were these Brazilian women with like teenie-weenie bikinis, heals, and big headdresses and just dancing in front of everybody and everybody had instruments. So, we just paraded out through the audience through the back doors, everybody…all ten of us and all fifty of them, we paraded out onto whatever street it is out there and we backed up traffic. It was like in the New York Post – “Rock Concert Blocks Traffic”. We brought people from the venue with us so there was this huge train of people. Anyways, our horn section was kind of leading the parade and we were stopping, turning around, and we were basically playing in the rink in Rockefeller Center, we just sort of stopped and played for the next few minutes. Yeah, Radio City was an amazing thing.
What about the Bonnaroo festival? You guys were really on that night, did it have something to do with it being the end of a long tour and playing in front of an enormous audience?
I just think that the audience was so pumped because they had been there for three days. That was a really cool thing, just because there were so many people and so many great bands and the energy was really high. It’s scary playing in front of that many people, knowing you can’t see the end of them.
Is Trey more of a father figure to you or a friend, or both?
I would say it’s pretty equal, I think everybody treats everybody else like their kid. I think everybody is a father figure, like I’m a mother figure and everybody is a friend so, it’s very family orientated. I can’t say one or the other, he’s a very good friend.
As the band has grown, is it hard for the new members to continually learn new material?
Yeah, well Peter’s really quick and Cyro’s really quick so they are the last two we’ve added, and I can’t say that we aren’t going to add anymore, ’cause (laughs) it’s not my band.
Do you think it may become a fifty-piece band one day?
I wouldn’t put it past him, I wouldn’t put it past him at all. If it could happen, then why not?
So, there’s still a future for the Trey Anastasio Band, despite Phish getting back together?
Yeah, we’re not going anywhere
All the songs are so great, it would be a shame to never hear them live again.
I know, that’s what we think
What about Ray (Paczkowski, keyboard player)? I’ve seen his band the Vorcza Trio, pretty intense stuff. What’s going through his mind, how does he come up with these out of nowhere sick sounds?
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I know man, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. You don’t really know what’s going on when you are playing with him, because he’s just doing so much and nobody understands it. We were going back to mix the album and it was just me and the mixing engineer and I go wait a minute, just isolate Ray’s part. We just started calling the sounds “Rayisms” because there is no other way to describe it. Nobody knows what he does, like nobody can ever make any sense out of it. It’s phenomenal and amazing. He’s also such a great guy and will never change. He’s the realist guy I know: he is who he is and will never change.
So, what about that dance you and Trey had going during the summer 2001 tour, it was like a sword fight tango?
(laughs) I don’t really know what to say about that. Yeah, people were calling it the imaginary sword fight
It was a bit sexual in parts, I thought?
(laughs) Was it sexual? I didn’t notice (laughs). Yeah, it got a little dirty at times. It was just one of those things, we were up at the barn and just started doing it naturally, and Trey looks over and was like “hehe” (in a sly voice) and I was like “hey”, and we just started walking over and started dancing, and that became the dance and everybody was dying laughing.
So that was something that happened out of practicing at the barn and not something born on stage?
Yeah, we did it first at the barn and I just thought it was funny and just disregarded it, and he’s like, “what if we did that on stage”, and I’m like “what, are you kidding”. He knows I will do anything, you know, so I’m like ‘course, “I’ll act like a total ass” (giggles). So we actually hired these fantastic choreographers to do horn choreography with us, which we don’t like to do anymore, but we had this whole James Brown thing going. But they came out for a couple days, and it was so much fun, and we showed them our dance, and they were like (laughs) “no way, you gotta do this”. So we just randomly decided one night we were gonna do it, and I just thought it was hysterical.
That horn choreography is cool, the band should do that again.
I know we should do that, but it got to be such a problem because we were only concentrating on that and not our music. It was like – o.k. turn to the left and turn around (laughs). So, we decided we’d rather play music than dance around the stage.
So, there’s a live album coming out of the Trey Anastasio Band?
Yes, I’m not sure exactly when it comes out: April or May kind of thing, but that changes all the time.
Did you have any choice in choosing the tracks?
It’s more of an overall vibe thing. Like, there’s a “Night Speaks to a Woman” on it, that I don’t know even know, it’s like thirty-something minutes long, and the whole thing is killing, and I remember the first time (Trey) played it for me up at the barn, he’s like…”check out this ‘Night Speaks'”. And he flipped it on and I was like, oh my, the first thing out of my mouth was “that’s the flattest note in the entire world”, and I’m like, “I can’t believe you didn’t fix that. (laughs) come on man”, and he’s like, “well, listen to the rest of it”. But that’s the whole point, the whole rest of it was killin’ and he could have just sliced it or something, but he didn’t, and that’s the whole vibe of the whole entire album, it’s just rocking and ripping. It’s a double CD and the first CD has basically eight tracks on it and are short versions of songs, like between eight and ten minutes. The second disc is just like the craziest, sickest jams. It’s like four tracks and seventy-something minutes long.
Do you sometimes listen to those sick jams and can’t believe that’s really you up there?
It’s funny cause you don’t really remember it happening until something sparks your (memory), and then you’re like – o.k. maybe I do remember that. It’s not that the show was incredibly unique or special versus the other, it’s just that you are so busy and you just don’t remember, and you did six shows in a week. But that’s what’s so fun about it, is you go back and listen to it and go, “oh my god”. (laughs)
So, you have a solo project coming out – tell me about that
I do, I am so pumped about it. Right after we finished the last tour, I went into the studio with Ray Paczkowski and Russ Lawton and this guy Zula on bass and Dave Diamond. We all went into the studio for two days and just banged out the songs that I had written. We sort of went in and I’m like, “this is how it kind of goes” and they’re like “ok”. We didn’t choose an afternoon, or a half, we just went in and banged it out. That should be coming out soon, in hopefully three or four weeks.
What inspired you to do your own album?
It’s R&B;, and soul and funk. It’s something that every single track is different than the last so it’s got some crazy James Brown sounding high powered tracks and some slow funky songs, and there’s a tuba and drums thing that me and Russ did. While I had him there, I said it’s kind of ridiculous that the five of us are here, and we have another hour of recording time, so we just played for an hour and a lot of that is on there, as is a lot of spontaneous stuff too.
How do you plan on releasing that, is there a record label involved?
We’re doing it independently for now, and we’ll see how it goes.
So I think people will be shocked, because people don’t know really who I am. It’s kind of like they see me with Trey and see me backing up Trey, and see me singing his songs and I think people are going to be kind of shocked. Shocked in a sense that is the kind of stuff I like to do ’cause, I really don’t do a whole lot of what I’m doing on this record with him.
Is a tour going to happen?
We’re gonna do a few little things, it’s hard to get everybody together even though it’s only the five of us.
So was Trey insulted you didn’t ask him to be involved?
(laughs) Of course he would have, but he’s just been so incredibly busy with his “other” band (laughs). It was such a short little thing in two days and everybody was happy to do it and they came up and did it, and bada-bing bada-boom…it’s done.
So, what else have you been doing lately, you don’t play in downtown Burlington as much anymore?
Not much, not since the new year. I’ve taken some time off and moved to the middle of nowhere and have been enjoying it, and have been writing some more music, and I teach at University of Vermont. I moved because I couldn’t handle playing in the smoky bars anymore and maybe in a year I’ll do it again, but in the winter it’s so brutal and gross that I don’t want to get emphysema by the time I’m 26 when I’m not even a smoker. If some people can do it, great, than more power to them.
Well, for anybody who plays Red Rocks or Radio City it would be hard to play a small bar…wouldn’t it?
It’s a totally different thing and I have to say I enjoy playing smaller places so much more than playing big places.
Really?
Yeah, no question about it. I’d much rather play at like the Tabernacle in Atlanta. I’d much rather play there than like Bonnaroo, cause you get a vibe of the whole place, you can see everybody, and the fact that you can look up, and wave to somebody, that’s just incredibly important to every single one of us, and that’s why it’s just bizarre, to know that people can hear you and you can’t communicate with them. People like out on the lawn at SPAC or Alpine Valley or wherever…to think that you are being broadcast over a big screen, I don’t like that. I’d rather be in an intimate setting.
So you’ve played Leno, Letterman and Conan O’Brien. I don’t even think Madonna has had the privilege of doing that. Do you like those television appearances with millions of people watching rather than the thousands in amphitheaters.
Yeah, of course. It’s hard to think about, it’s cool and amazing. I remember the first time we were doing our first little tour and our road manager came out and was like “does anyone want to play Conan tomorrow?” At that point it was our first tour and we were so excited about having buses and hotel rooms, and it was like out of nowhere, Trey was like, “so do you guys want to play Conan?” so we were like ummm…of course!
Yeah right, don’t pull my leg or anything.
So, do you hope to learn any new instruments.
Sure, well it’s been cool too, because Peter is also a percussionist so having Peter and Cyro, and hearing what instruments they’ve made over the years and just out of random things like out of cowbells and seapods…it’s very cool.
Do you realize a lot of females look up to you? With your stage persona you are very charismatic and colorful up there. It’s not like you go out there with a t-shirt and jeans. You wear nice dresses along with those vibrant boas. I think it’s a part of the live music scene women can identify with.
Well, I hope so, I hope it’s a cool thing for them. I’m glad if I’m making people happy, then I’ll continue to do it.
