{"id":1098,"date":"2010-08-26T06:37:07","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T10:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wilktone.com\/?p=1098"},"modified":"2023-03-27T09:34:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T13:34:26","slug":"an-interview-with-trombonistcomposer-paul-mckee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/?p=1098","title":{"rendered":"An Interview With Trombonist\/Composer Paul McKee"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trombonist and composer Paul McKee may be best known for his playing with the Woody Herman Thundering Herd since 1984, but he has recorded and composed for a number of musicians, including Frank Mantooth, Brad Goode, and Jim Widner.  His critically<\/a> acclaimed<\/a> 2000 debut release as a leader, Gallery<\/a>, features Paul as a writer as well as a trombonist.  Guest artists on Gallery include Bobby Shew on trumpet and the late, great Carl Fontana on trombone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul has taught at DePaul University, Northern Illinois University, Youngstown State University, and University of Missouri – Kansas City.  He teaches now at Florida State University<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 1993 I sat down with Paul and interviewed him as part of a class research project.  The interview was so much fun that when I recently came across it I asked Paul if I could make it available and share it.  With his permission, here is an interview with Paul McKee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could you briefly describe your educational background?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I completed high school in Indianola, Iowa, which is a small town of about ten thousand, and I went then to the University of Northern Iowa for my bachelor degree, which I received in Music Education.  Upon completing my Bachelor in Music Education, I sort of came to the conclusion that I wasn\u2019t really interested in teaching high school, when I taught in Marshall Town, Iowa.  That experience was not particularly satisfying.  I distributed grapefruit to band parents and did a whole lot of other non-music kind of jobs that are involved in being a public school band director.  And so I decided, well, it\u2019s off to grad school.  I selected the University of Texas in Austin, where I received an assistantship.  I knew some people down there and I wanted to go to a city where I could also have the possibility of playing gigs and working while I was going to school.  I got a Master\u2019s degree in Composition at the University of Texas, which I thoroughly enjoyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have you done since then?  Did you tour with Woody Herman right after grad school?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, over Christmas vacation in the end of \u201983 I got called through a friend of a friend who was on the band.  They were looking for a trombone player and I got a call when I was home between semesters.  They wanted me to send a tape.  They selected players by soliciting six dozen tapes, however many they have that they want to get for a specific spot.  So I sent them a tape and shortly after that they called me and said that they wanted me to do the gig.  It was fortunate at least that I was in between semesters, so I had completed the course work pretty much for my classes.  So I took off from school and ended up going out for almost four years with Woody\u2019s band.  We had a couple of breaks in the first couple years that I was on the band that I came back and completed my graduate work, \u2018cause I knew that I\u2019d better finish then or I\u2019d procrastinate forever.  So I knocked that out and then I was able to spend some time on the road with Woody\u2019s band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any interesting stories about touring with Woody\u2019s band?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s was funny, my idea of going on the road.  When I was in high school and junior high I used to go hear big bands.  I heard the Kenton band and Maynard\u2019s band, Buddy Rich and Basie, Don Ellis, all these different big bands.  I sad, \u201cWow!  That\u2019s great, this romantic jazz hermit, jazz nomad life on the road.  That\u2019s what I want to do!\u201d  As it was getting into the early to mid \u201880s I was looking at the attrition of the big bands, due to mostly economics of supporting that many musicians, and realized there won\u2019t be many big bands left.  I was really in doubt when I got called to go on the road with Woody\u2019s band.<\/p>\n\n\n

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As it turns out, it\u2019s not exactly this glamorous road life that you envision it to be.  You spend a lot of time on the bus and you get to know other members of the band far better than you would ever want to.  I\u2019m trying to think of something that comes to mind here that you can actually put in print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember a couple of things just about Woody.  Woody at this point in his life, he was early seventies in age, was suffering.  His hands were very arthritic and he had a whole mouthful of false teeth, so the difficulty in playing his instrument was compromised by all those things.  He was not really at the level that I\u2019m sure he wanted to be, playing-wise.  But I think the power and success he experienced were because he was a great leader.  He would pick musicians having the sound of the band in his head.  Not only him finding musicians, but the other guys in the band who found musicians, when we needed to fill a spot, that would fit in.  Consequently, the list of musicians who have gone through the band is like a who\u2019s who list of a lot of great, great jazz people who have went on to have their own solo careers in jazz.  I think that was Woody\u2019s real instrument.  He very much knew what he wanted to do, he was very intolerant of compromise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I experienced this a couple of times.  People would come up at a gig and want to hear something made famous by another band.  For example, we were always getting requests for \u201cIn the Mood.\u201d  Woody had a variety of responses to this sort of thing.  What would happen is that we\u2019d be occasionally playing a variety of gigs.  Some would be concerts where we\u2019d be up on a stage, and then we\u2019d fill out our schedule with dances where we\u2019d be on the floor at the same level as the audience.  The audience had access to Woody.  They would come right up to him, sometimes when he was playing or singing or talking, and start talking to him.   Clueless audience.  They would come up and say, \u201cPlay some Glenn Miller.\u201d  One of Woody\u2019s responses was (mimics voice), \u201cWhen they find the plane I\u2019ll play his music!\u201d  That was always quite entertaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember this one guy came up and wanted to hear something that Woody didn\u2019t want to play.  This guy was as bald as cue ball, this shining Telly Sevalis kind of head.  He was hassling Woody.  Woody of course has his microphone with him and his mic is always very strong, turned up really loud so he has god-like power when wants to say something.  So Woody just took his mic and bopped this guy on the head.  The sound of this mic hitting this bald, bone head, not hard, but the mic was turned up so loud it just went, \u201cBoom!\u201d when Woody socked him.  Woody burned a lot of bridges along the way (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were a lot of places I\u2019m sure we played once and never went back to because of Woody.  The thing was, all Woody cared about was the music.  He wanted the music to be good and he wanted the musicians to be happy.  If he stepped on some civilian\u2019s toes along the way he really didn\u2019t care.  He lived a long life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another quick story.  We were playing in an Elks Lodge in, I think, Illinois, Iowa.  A small, tiny, little town.  The Elks have a big moose head mounted on the wall, and I think at like eleven o\u2019clock on a specific night they have the Hour of the Moose, or whatever.  Anyway, they turn out the lights and pay homage to the fallen mooses, or meese, whatever.  The room goes dark and they shine a spotlight on this moose.  On this particular gig we got to a little before eleven and they had us quit so they could prepare for this ceremony.  We were kind of waiting around and the room goes dark and they say something and the spotlight goes on the moose.  Of course at this point this moose bust that was on the wall had a pair of sunglasses and a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth.  Needless to say, the Elks Club members weren\u2019t real pleased with that sort of behavior.  I\u2019m sure we never played there again, but there\u2019s other clubs, there\u2019s other towns and we left the next morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just dealing with the boredom of being on the road.  The thing I liked about the band the best was the playing.  When we\u2019d get a chance to play our music, that was all we looked forward to every day.  Everything else in between got to be very tedious.  Sitting on the bus, checking into the hotel, trying to find a decent place to eat.  We found many ways of entertaining ourselves, not always thinking about the ramifications of our actions.  I think it\u2019s pretty typical for some situation like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve mentioned before that when you first went to college you were not a very technically proficient trombone player.  What was your motivation to put in all those hours of practice and develop your chops?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was in high school, specifically when I was in junior high, I was probably every band director\u2019s worst nightmare.  I was a constant disturbance in band, I never practiced, I faked my little practice card times and everything.  When I was getting ready to head to high school, the junior high director had sent a list of the potential candidates for band and I was on the black list, like forget this guy.  He ain\u2019t gonna make it.  I was about ready to bail on the whole music thing, I was into sports.  And then I got into high school and discovered the jazz band.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had grown up with my father playing jazz records all the time.  Most of it was way over my head, but I grew up with that sound in my ears a lot.  When I heard the jazz band I got really interested and I wanted to play.  Of course, I was in no level to be able to play and so one of the high school trombone players sort of took me under his wing and we had intensive practice sessions of getting this music together.  I got just good enough to be able to be in the band.  After that I loved it so much I started practicing.  My priorities completely shifted from whatever else I was doing into music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For two years, I think in \u201974 and \u201975, I went to the Stan Kenton summer music camp.  This was in Springfield, Missouri, during college.  Getting up-close and personal attention from the members of the Kenton band.  These guys were turning me on to different stuff.  That was the first time I heard Carl Fontana on tape and I started learning about theory, \u2018cause I had been playing just by ear up to that point.  I just really got interested in learning the technical aspects of jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t have much, I didn\u2019t study privately in high school and my band director was an oboe player, not really versed in the brass teaching.  So when I got into college I had a lot of bad habits, a lot of tension, not much technical facility, but big ears and much desire to learn.  I was lucky to be able to hook up with a great, great private teacher who got my playing side of my music together, as far as dealing with my instrument and getting a good sound, playing relaxed, technical facility, that sort of thing.  And then the other students at school I hung out with to get that jazz thing.  I started listening to lots of music and playing in some better bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It just snowballed and I was really hungry to learn.  I had come out with some raw talent out of high school and realized that wasn\u2019t going to get me very far, so I said I\u2019ve got to get down and get some things together.  It was a long process.  It\u2019s an ongoing process your whole life, improving on your instrument and such, but it was fun along the way so it wasn\u2019t really all that frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are your major trombone influences?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Well, let\u2019s see.  I went through a pretty logical progression of music when I was in high school.  I started listening to the horn bands that were on the  radio.  Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Jazz Crusaders, or just the Crusaders as they were eventually called, Tower of Power, bands that had horn players.  I played in some pop bands in high school that would try to transcribe things and play them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I started getting into more specific jazz players.  I guess the first major influence was J.J. Johnson, which is probably the major influence for most people because he\u2019s very accessible and melodic and pretty much exemplifies the jazz style on trombone.  So I listened to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I started listening to some other players and I would have to say that of my favorite trombone players, probably the two that come to mind immediately are Carl Fontana and Frank Rosolino.  There\u2019s a lot of other great players that I enjoy listening to, Slide Hampton, Curtis Fuller Bill Watrous, Hal Crook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trombone is such a difficult instrument.  There haven\u2019t been a whole lot of players dealing with it on a level that, to me, is real successful in controlling the instrument and being able to do so up along side saxophone and trumpet players.  I enjoy players that attempt to control the instrument, meaning playing real specific pitches and playing changes, as opposed to playing a lot of trombone effects.  Which are fine and can be used to an advantage in moderation, but to me I\u2019d rather hear somebody manipulating chord changes.  The bebop thing, that\u2019s where I came out of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s not the great number of good trombone players compared to proportions of good saxophone and trumpet players because it\u2019s such a hard instrument.  You see that it is exemplified in the high school and college bands.  There are just not many trombone players.  Not many people want to stick with it.  They realize it\u2019s not an overly popular instrument, to say the least, and people want to play other instruments that are more visible, in the media and that sort of thing.  It\u2019s definitely got dinosaur tendencies and I hope it doesn\u2019t disappear.  The big band is what really keeps the trombone alive, so hopefully that will keep things going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who do you think out of the trombonists emerging today will come to be historically important?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geez, I hope I\u2019m one of them!  (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the new guys that I\u2019ve heard that I think are really doing a great job on the instrument, there\u2019s a guy out in New York named Conrad Herwig.  There\u2019s a guy who lives in Dallas now, and he\u2019s not really very well known, but his name is Chris Sider.  He is an absolute monster on the instrument.  These are guys that haven\u2019t recorded that much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s some young guys that are getting a lot of attention that are good players.  Steve Turre, of course.  Robin Eubanks.  I guess we have to include Ray Anderson in there, \u2018cause he\u2019s doing some very unique things with the instrument and he\u2019s approaching it in a completely different way.  He\u2019s experiencing a lot of popularity with his style.  There\u2019s some guys that are keeping it going, definitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s do a \u201cblindfold test.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul was played just the trombone solos from several recorded examples.  He was not given any information about the recordings prior to listening.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.\u00a0 Jim Pugh, trombonist, from Goats in my Pocket, composed by Ed Palermo.\u00a0 From the album, \u201cThe Pugh\/Taylor Project\u201d by Jim Pugh and Dave Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin Eubanks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not Robin Eubanks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not?  Uhh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hmm, that\u2019s interesting.\u00a0 Well, let\u2019s see.\u00a0 I\u2019d have to venture a couple of guesses.\u00a0 I really don\u2019t know.\u00a0 It could be Bruce Fowler?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No?  OK.  I don\u2019t think it\u2019s Ray.  I had another peson in mind, who was I think of?  Glenn Ferks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No.  Before I tell you, do you want to comment on the solo itself?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was something fairly recent, groove-wise you could tell it was pretty modern.  There was a balance of some interesting technical things, he was going. . .  (sings).  Which is nice controlled stuff, and then some glissy, smear, growling kind of stuff.  I\u2019m stumped.  You got me on that one.  Who is this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Pugh.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, really?  That to me didn\u2019t sound characteristically like Jim Pugh, \u2018cause you hear him from his Woody days and he\u2019s playing kind of the fuzzy, in the mic thing.  That\u2019s much harsher playing than I\u2019ve heard him do.  Interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.  Slide Hampton, trombonist.  Half Nelson, composed by Miles Davis.  From the album, \u201cArt Farmer, Slide Hampton In Concert.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sounds like Slide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can tell you why I though it was Slide.  For one thing, the way he tongues, the way his legato tonguing works. . . (sings).  And also his sound.  You can tell it\u2019s a live tape and not really the recording of his sound, but he\u2019s got that fat, big horn sound.  And he makes some elephant noises like that.  Is that from the live with Art Farmer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.  Phil Wilson, trombonist.  Blue Gardenia. <\/em>From the album \u201cThat\u2019s All\u201d from the Phil Wilson Five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, it\u2019s one of two people.  Definitely Phil Wilson, Mr. Lip Slur.  I was going to say, just hearing the multiphonics in the beginning, either Mangseldorff or Watrous, and then I heard him start to play.  Also the way he sort of has a lazy, very relaxed kind of loose style.  But the mouthpiece buzz thing is definitely his trademark.  He does \u201cSleepy Time Down South.\u201d  It\u2019s really nice, he does some real nice, high, singing stuff.  I like Phil Wilson.  I haven\u2019t heard much from him lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.  Robin Eubanks, trombonist.  Evidently, from \u201cKarma\u201d by Robin Eubanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This I would say is probably Robin Eubanks.  Once again, the big sound.  He and Steve Turre play very similarly in a lot of ways.  It\u2019s all sort of coming out of Slide Hampton, the big King 4B sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.  Conrad Herwig, trombonist.  Quasi-Modal.  From \u201cWith Every Breath\u201d by Conrad Herwig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrad?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep.  That didn\u2019t take long.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrad is just a wild man, that\u2019s all there is to that!  He\u2019s just crazy. . . (sings).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.  J.J. Johnson, trombonist.  A Night in Tunisia, from \u201cJ.J. and Kai,\u201d by J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J.J.  What record is this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

J.J. and Kai<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impulse record?  I\u2019m so disappointed I missed one.  Jim Pugh, that was a good one.  That didn\u2019t sound at all like Jim, like we\u2019re used to hearing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I already asked you about trombone influences, what about composer and arranger influences?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Composers and arrangers, two separate things.  One of my favorite composers is probably Wayne Shorter.  Some of his tunes that were written in the late 50s sound like they just were written.  Very fresh, very interesting chord movements, great melodic ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things I did that got me together with technique on my instrument was playing Bird heads, the Bird Aebersold record.  I came home from school and I was working my old summer job.  I\u2019d come home every night and I\u2019d practice Donna Lee and Yardbird and Confirmation, Ornithology.  Definitely a positive ass-kicking, \u2018cause it made me work and get my technique together.  I like Bird heads, especially because I think E flat tunes transpose well to the trombone range, for the most part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monk.  Monk is something of an acquired taste.  When I first heard Monk, when I was much, much younger, I thought this guy\u2019s got no control or technique.  A lot of people think that.  Once you start listening to him, you realize what he\u2019s doing, that he\u2019s doing esactly what he wants to do.  I appreciate that.  I think Charles Minugs wrote some pretty interesting tunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrangers.  Trying to be a writer myself, I\u2019m always checking out arrangers.  I\u2019m really obsessed with that.  Probably Gil Evans would be number one for me.  The stuff he did with Miles, as well as his own projects, is absolutely fantastic.  Everything I try to write gives me real respect for what he does, the absolute mastery of orchestration.  When you look at some of the things he\u2019s doing harmonically, all that dissonance.  Well, there\u2019s two sides to that coin.  Sometimes harmonically it\u2019s very, very simple, but the orchestration gives it a much more lush sound than you would think would be possible for a triad.  The other thing is sometimes he would take some dissonances that we would get flunked out of an arranging class for doing, but the way he orchestrates them makes them just kind of float by without being hard on the ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thad Jones, fantastic, really original arranger.  Bill Holman.  Bob Brookmeyer.  Mintzer.  I like a lot of stuff Mintzer has done.  A lot of these guys, the arrangers, have done a lot of composing as well.  There\u2019s so much.  I listen to a lot of classical music, too.  I learn from listening to classical stuff as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is improvising and arranging similar to you?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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I\u2019ve explained this before as being two sides of the same coin.  If I had to pick either playing or my writing and arranging thing, I don\u2019t know if I could do one without the other.  They\u2019re both dealing with composition and arranging.  Composition because when you improvise you\u2019re spontaneously creating, hopefully, melodic ideas over a given chord progression.  Playing is a lot like arranging too, because you\u2019re also trying to select textures.  You decide maybe when you\u2019re going to lay out, when you\u2019re going to play a long note over a specific thing that\u2019s happening in the rhythm section, or maybe you\u2019re going to have the piano player cut out for a while or something.  So you\u2019re sort of being a little bit of an arranger, but it\u2019s all happening in a very spontaneous way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an arranger and composer, the paper end of it, you\u2019re planning ahead to create an event that is hopefully going to inspire spontaneity.  When I write a chart, I\u2019m trying to think ahead of what\u2019s going to make this happen time after time and not just become a boring kind of arrangement.  It all deals with the same philosophies, but it\u2019s just dealing with it in advance, as a writer, or at the moment, as a player.  They\u2019re both equally satisfying.  And equally frustrating at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re stuck on a desert island with a CD player and you can only have ten CDs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten CDs?  So I have to pick my ten favorite jazz recordings?  What I want to know is, do you have a whole truck load of batteries for the CD player?  Is there electricity?  Solar powered CD player?  I would be like the professor on Gilligan\u2019s Island and turn it into a radio, signal for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway.  I sort of have. . . Oh, boy!  Ten is actually hard.  I\u2019ve asked this question to people and I try to get it down to five or so.  I could just name off the top of my head, but I\u2019ll probably go back and change my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably one of the records I advocate as being one of the greatest jazz records, to me, of all time is Miles\u2019 Kind of Blue.  I think that\u2019s pretty common for people.  I\u2019ve worn out several copies of that on LP before I finally got it on CD.  Milestones, which is another album from that same period, is excellent.  I would definitely want at least one or two of the Gil Evans things with Miles, maybe Sketches of Spain, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess.  One of those, two of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably some Duke Ellington.  This may not come out to ten, but I\u2019m just thinking of some.  Some Duke Ellington stuff.  I like the period from 1940 to 1960 as my personal interest.  I\u2019d probably put some classical stuff in there too.  I\u2019ve been listening to some Beethoven String Quartets.  Somebody said that Bach was the greatest bebop player ever.  When you think about the way that Bach pieces progress and the way he \u2018runs the changes,\u2019 as they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stravinsky.\u00a0 Debussy.\u00a0 I try to have a mixed bag.\u00a0 I think of my favorite records as the ones that I\u2019ve heard a hundred times, but every time I hear them I hear something new.\u00a0 Or you still get that feeling of awe at the way things are working.\u00a0 Like on Kind of Blue.\u00a0 It seems like I know every inch of that record, but I always hear something new in the way things fit together.\u00a0 Just like listening to classical music, especially someone like Stravinsky.\u00a0 You respect, once again, the orchestration skill.\u00a0 I would try to pick a mixed bag of stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trombonist and composer Paul McKee may be best known for his playing with the Woody Herman Thundering Herd since 1984, but he has recorded and composed for a number of musicians, including Frank Mantooth, Brad Goode, and Jim Widner.  His critically acclaimed 2000 debut release as a leader, Gallery, features Paul as a writer as … Continue reading An Interview With Trombonist\/Composer Paul McKee<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15350306,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1364,1378,1389],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-composition","category-jazz","category-trombone"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peFHCc-hI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15350306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1098"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7791,"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1098\/revisions\/7791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilktone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}