All Music Happens Inside the Head: A Conversation with JD Walter
I met master jazz vocalist and teacher JD Walter at Centrum’s Jazz Workshop in 2024. JD is one of those rare musicians who makes you think harder about your own art just by talking to him (or seeing him perform). He doesn’t take the easy route.
JD is also a drummer and knew and loves some of my favorite drummers so I asked him for an interview and he finally obliged! I encourage you to watch the whole video, but here are some of the lessons that stuck with me after our talk:
Integrated Music
JD often talks about how your real instrument isn't the horn or the voice or the drum kit. It's your mind. If you're just running licks and patterns with your hands, you're regurgitating. But if you can hear it and sing it first, you're telling the truth. You can't fake that kind of intention. BTW JD says the mind. I get that, but I think it's really our heart: The mind can learn the notes. The heart is what makes them matter.
You Can Practice Imagination
Creativity is the practice of imagination. I love this. You can develop and deepen your creativity with practice. JD describes how he rehearses his imagination, taking a jazz standard and asking, how would a country singer phrase this? A reggae singer? It's a workout for the part of you that makes art, and most of us never train it.
You can do a similar kind of work with the emotional world. JD talked about getting so specific with the emotional story in his head, the weather, the smell in the air, a loose thread on someone's sweater, that his conscious mind gets out of the way and lets the music come. "Subconscious, you take care of the notes. I'll handle the emotion." If you've ever overthought your way out of a good take, you know exactly why this matters. Then you can let the subconscious handle the notes. The songwriter in me loves this.
Intention Will Prevail (even when you play the wrong notes)
My favorite moment in this interview is JD’s story about the gig that fell apart. During a recent show in New York, the lights went out, and the band couldn't sight-read the brand-new charts. They were making more mistakes than any gig he'd ever played. You’d think this would mean a disaster… BUT… the audience went nuts. People stopped him on the subway home to say it was the most amazing thing they'd ever seen. The mistakes didn't matter. The intention and the humanity did. They trusted each other and prevailed.
That one lands close to home for me. I wrote a whole book on self-doubt, and one of my rules is you never apologize to the audience for what you think you blew. They don't know what you intended. They just felt something real. Don't take that away from them. Don’t be so full of yourself. It’s a shared experience!
Healthy Fear
We finished on fear, which felt right. JD has a gig coming up that genuinely scares him, playing with a young phenom who's too busy to rehearse. But he's learned the difference between the paralyzing kind of fear and the healthy kind that sharpens you. "Comfortable with being uncomfortable," as he put it. That's the whole game, isn't it?
Huge thanks to JD for the time and the wisdom. If you want to find him, his teaching platform and courses are at geniusjamtracks.com, and he teaches privately over Zoom and in person.
Study with a master.
JD Walter has headlined the Blue Note and Dizzy's at Lincoln Center, released eight albums, and taught at conservatories around the world. Now his approach is available to you at geniusjamtracks.com. The platform pairs his lessons with a live, improvising band you can practice with, adjustable by key and tempo, taking you from the basics all the way to advanced reharmonization. Built for singers, valuable for any musician. Find it at geniusjamtracks.com.
