'Daily Show' comic Josh Johnson

economy to the world, but every story starts with a question.

“And NPR, we stand for your right to be curious, to make sense of the biggest story of”

the day and what it means for you. Follow Consider This, wherever you get your podcasts. This is Fresh Air, I'm Terry Gross. You may know my guest comic Josh Johnson from his comedy specials, from his popular YouTube channel in which he posts complete sets of his frequent performances at the comedy seller

and other clubs and gets millions of views. And from his work on the Daily Show, he's now one of the rotating anchors of the show after

having been a writer and field correspondent.

For several years he toured with Trevor Noah.

“Johnson also has been a writer for the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

He's really funny whether it's political humor, cultural issues like his bit, Drake versus Kendrick explained for white people, or personal stories like why he's an easy target from muggers, how he's been known to faint, and why he's sometimes feels like an alien and thinks he's on the spectrum. His new comedy special is called Symphony.

He's added music to this special. Let's start with a clip from the Daily Show from the most recent time he anchored in April. It's about Trump's ballroom. In addition to Johnson, this includes newsclips of Senator Lindsey Graham and Katie Zachariah, who's a former Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. What could possibly make this thing cost so much, like be specific.

Underneath there will be a lot of military stuff, military stuff, what military stuff, name 10 military stuff. Let's see, Graham sounds like me in fifth grade trying to convince my Bob to get me an Xbox. They make educational games too.

Here's what I don't get. The president travels with tons of security everywhere he goes.

So what problem are we trying to solve exactly? The ballroom itself will avoid the dilemma of having to leave the White House grounds. He literally could have left his bedroom, walked out the back of the White House and been at the ballroom. The president needs to walk out of his bedroom into the ballroom.

This feels like it's Lindsey's dream. I can see Lindsey, like I must rise from my silk sheets and directly into the Ketillion. Oh, it's a mass Ketillion where I can be mature with self. This is not what a president is supposed to be focused on unless that president is seven years

old. They're writing the list. I'm going to have a slide that goes right from my bed to the pool. And I want to suit made out of candies whenever I get hungry. I can just eat my shirt. But still, as good as the White House's, Trump is going to have to leave sometimes. It really does put President Trump at risk to go around Washington, D.C. like this.

The president should not have to leave the White House to go to the Kennedy Center to go to the Hilton and venture out. People should come to him. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. The president should have to leave his house. You don't want the leader of the free world to visit anything. Hold on. Is the president depressed?

“Yes, Johnson, welcome to fresh air. I think you're really funny. How much of the material do you get to write yourself when you're anchoring?”

Um, it varies pretty much day to day. There are sometimes you come in with the full sort of arc of the idea that you have for the show. But every day that I'm working there, I work with the writers and the, and the, and the EPs to shape everything that you end up seeing and hearing. So I, I don't really, if I'm being honest, especially from my time as a, as a writer, writing there is so communal that I don't really think of it as like what how much of the pie is like mine. Because I think that it's all of hours in a way. Like maybe that sounds like too diplomatic of an answer, but it genuinely is, is true.

It's like when I was just writing before I was behind the desk or anything like that, um, you might pitch a joke that someone else has an idea for that sparks another idea. So by the time people see it that night, it's like a mishmash of three people's jokes all to become the funniest thing possible.

I don't know if you were still writing when John Stewart came back to the show.

Yes, I was for a bit, and then I got promoted. Um, so I would say the biggest difference is when I was at Fallon, I was on the monolog team. And, you know, you're, you're distilling pieces of the news and everything, but you're trying to get them across in this very specific way.

“You know, these, these very short sort of short punchy jokes, and I think that when it comes to daily show and writing there, I was really able to, um,”

stretch out the storytelling and stretch out the idea and how you get the idea across and making the assessment of what happened a bit more universal, or coming up within an analogy that instantly makes this, this thing that's happening on the other side of the world easy to understand. And so I think that there was a bit more writing involved that actually got on the show when it comes to daily show versus like, even if you get, like, like, if you get five jokes on on the monolog, that's a huge deal.

That's like that you're killing it. That means that out of this short amount of time, that's the top of the show, they liked a lot of your stuff. And I think that when it comes to daily show and writing there, it's like, how well are you working community with the writers around you, how receptive are you both to ideas and also to applying what it is you want to say about a thing quickly? You do a lot of comedy that self-deprecating about how you're not muscular, you're not an alpha male. I just started having protein powder, I thought this part was hilarious that you, you bought the largest size of protein powder,

of course, you wanted to get more muscular, but it was so heavy, you needed to work out just to carry it home. So I want to play one of your stories from your first album,

and it's about why you're a target for getting mugged. So let's listen. Okay. You're looking up at me and you're like, this guy's been mugged, you be right. I have, I have the mug, I'm very muggable. I don't know what it is about, but they just come right at me, okay? I don't know if other dudes are the room to do this, but when you see a dude coming towards you looks threatening,

do you think in your head, I have to take 'em, because the way I can find my head is astounding.

“The Wifi real life, not at all. I am a flair, so you need to stand back because you will get slapped by accident.”

I don't know what I'm doing. So this dude was coming towards me, he looked threatening in my head, I was like, shhh, looks like we're grabbed a Jason born this. [laughter] I'm going to jump up in the air, do three flips, I don't do three, but we need to do a needs to be done, you know, bring my knee down, space, crack a skull, punch me in the face until he's in the past day, if that's my plan.

His plan was, "How am I punchin' my face and take his wallet?" We met up, he had much of a plan that I did, his plan. His plan was on fire execution, everything. So many guys will know about me, if you punch me hard enough in the face, I pee. [laughter]

“So we met up, he punched me in the face, I hit the ground star, pee and right on cue, I'll disappoint, okay?”

But now he's trying to fit his huge muscular hand into my pocket to take my wallet, but his hand gets stuck around my wallet. It's very full with coupons, I have no money. [laughter] But now his hand is stuck, but he can see the peace thing getting bigger on my pants. So now he's like, oh, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck

So, how close is that to what actually happened? I think the order of events is correct.

The way that it really happened, which I don't always like talking about, because it's

a lot like telling someone how a magic trick is done, because there's like a little less juice in it when you hear it the next time, but the way that things really went is that

It always seems to me, it really takes a gift to tell a story like that, and have people laugh

and enjoy themselves, and see themselves and what you're saying as opposed to like, "Oh, that's so sad." He's so weak, and he's such an easy target. It wasn't hard at first to figure out how to make people laugh as opposed to see you as a, you know, a pathetic figure because you're not strong.

“Yeah, I mean, I think most people have an insecurity about themselves, whatever it is, some people”

aren't particularly strong or some people aren't confident in their looks or something. But like one of the most connected attributes of the human condition to me is just like being flawed. I think that we gravitate towards people who have triumph at moments. It's one of the reasons we're so engaged with sports. But I also think that if we're talking like person-a-person, we really connect with people on their faults

and their weaknesses. And I think if any, if any fine line exists, it's that I was blessed with being able from an early start and a comedy being likable on stage. And so obviously when people like you, they don't like when bad things happen to you. But I think the way that you overcome that is one, you're telling the story. So no matter what you tell people, you clearly lived.

Like that, like I think that's the main thing. I'm telling you the story now removed by years. One, I'm over it. And then two, I must have made it out. Or else this would be a hologram.

“So is comedy ever a useful weapon to diffuse a situation?”

Oh sure. I mean, that's happened countless times. I can't even think of like a good example.

I mean, that was basically most of high school.

Yeah. Yeah. Where was your high school? I like what was your high school like? My high school was a Catholic school in Alexandria Louisiana.

And yeah, I had what I'd say were a decent amount of friends. But I think I had what is you could almost call a, maybe normal amount of like being picked on. Like I look back at it with less. I don't necessarily look at look back at it with a bunch of like traumatic feelings. But I definitely look back at like oh yeah, that wasn't good.

That was pretty bad. I want to play another bit that you do. And this is also from your first comedy album I like you, which is on comedy central records. And I'm planning things from this album because I feel like this album is your, this is who I am album. Because you talk a lot about yourself, you present this like projection for the public of yourself image.

And in this you talk about feeling like an alien. I don't, I don't know what my problem is. I really don't. I'll, I'll share a secret with you guys because we're family. I even feel black someday.

I feel like an alien. That's snatched a black buy and didn't do any research at all. Didn't do a thing. Didn't read a book, didn't watch a movie. Don't know what boys in the hood is, but loves trains.

That is really funny. Later in the bit, you talk about how you think you're on the spectrum, the autism spectrum. What makes you think that? I mean, I, you know, I've thought that ever since I was a kid because of how.

I guess because of how odd everyone always said that I was or or my general, like I said before like fixations and tendencies.

“I think that I've had a lot of time where.”

And some of this is actually probably just indicative of being alone for for so much time. You know, not only am I an only child, but there were plenty of times where I didn't have like someone to play with. And so I was just like alone in my room and, you know, you get once you're allowed to get into your own head. And any, any degree for a number of years, you probably come out of that thing with a very singular set of ideas might not be the right word. But like as soon as you sort of surface again socially, you probably seem a bit odd.

Are you more comfortable on stage talking to people but not having to have a conversation with them? I think that's a good example. It's like I think that in doing a show and expressing my ideas and performing for people, I can be incredibly comfortable.

It's like it's not necessarily that I, that I shrink. I've really good conversations with people that I really cherish and sometimes they're unexpected, sometimes they are strangers.

“But I think that it's where I feel the most like.”

Just joint it sometimes if that makes sense. And I also want to get to another part of the bit that we just heard, which is that sometimes you feel like an alien who snatched a black body but didn't do the research. What makes you feel that way? You know, I think as far as being out of place and a feeling.

There's a, there's a lot of that that I felt growing up.

And some of it was because of my interest and how maybe singular they felt at the time and then it takes a while. You know, I didn't grow up with this version of the internet. So I'm from an era where it took longer to find your people. And so already being a, being a black nerd makes you feel like an alien if you're a 90's baby. Like, already that is, that is.

Communally now, not not weird at all, but for the time I grew up in such a singular experience. I was also this black kid in a lot of white spaces, a decent amount of time. And so I was already around people who, not necessarily, I won't say couldn't relate to me because it's not as if they weren't trying to. But just, you know, from our basic experience is living in the south and being a black kid around a lot of white kids in different parts of my day.

“I think that that's another way to feel sort of like odd man out a bit.”

Because now I don't fulfill the expectations of some of the people around me when I'm in my neighborhood. And then I definitely don't fulfill the expectations of people who only have a frame of reference for a black person that is like through media or something. And so yeah, it felt like I was for a number of years just like such an odd one out. And I think that I would back on that time is like a bit of a blessing because when you're already the odd one out, then it's like, what are you going to do? You're not going to get odd or if that makes sense.

So then you can literally just engage in the things that you care about, you can be open about your interests and everything because you're already quote unquote, we're just by being yourself. And so I think that that helped. What were you nerding out on? It seems so commonplace now, but truly it's like anime puzzles.

I would get fixated on certain sections of a story like I would read a piece of a story over and over again never mind like finishing the story.

Like there'd be a section there'd be a chapter of a book that I thought was just like amazing and I would just read that over and over again. And I also had I had like a real obsession with Legos longer than is probably average.

“So I definitely was like building and rebuilding and rebuilding over and over again with what were you saying?”

I mean, I just build different structures or I would I try to figure out how to build I try to draw a thing and then figure out how to build. And then figure out how to build it with the with the Legos and that is not a bad thing that's not necessarily a weird thing. But it is a thing that you start to get picked on about around 15 like that like that that is when if you've brought the Legos to school. You are trying to finish the drag and head in front of people. You're you're going to get some notes from your peers.

And in the end of the bit that we most recently heard you mentioned trains that you haven't seen boys in the hood but you're into trains. Like where do trains come in? I think I mean it could have been trains that could have been sharks it could have been any number of things but I picked trains at the time because in my mind it it flowed the best with the rest of what I was saying. So sometimes also when whether it's you're writing or performing it's like you try to pick the the funniest word that also completes the idea.

Because I have a different joke that is of a similar sort of line of thinking and I say sharks in that one. So I think trains literally was because it was going to be the the funniest word at the end of the sentence.

He's one of the rotating anchors on the daily show and he has a new special streaming on HBO Max called Symphony. We'll be right back. I'm Terry Gross and this is fresh air. On June 11th, the globe's biggest sporting event comes to North America, the FIFA World Cup.

The Super Bowl and you might say averages something over a hundred million live viewers, but the world cup final think like five times that much.

The favorites, the underdogs and the Americanization of the world's game listen now to the Sunday story from the up first podcast on the MPR app.

“So you grew up in Alexandria, Louisiana would you describe your neighborhood?”

Yeah, so we moved a few times within Alexandria and I look back on some of the places that we lived as, you know, obviously not the best neighborhood, especially from the stories. If you if you watch my stuff or have been following me and everything, but there was a time where when my parents were still together. And we were, I believe, on like Albert Street and that was the nicest house I lived in with with my parents and everything.

And when they got divorced, you know, my mom and I lived with my grandmother and then when we moved out of my grandma's house, the places were, you know, like modest and everything.

But the actual neighborhoods had their, had their troubles. And you know, you know, there'd be like shootings or police calls, there'd be a decent amount of violence in the area.

“And you know, I was very blessed to allow it past me by in a way.”

Like, um, I didn't have to experience a deep closeness with all those things, even though I was in close proximity. And so there, yeah, there's definitely a lot of pain in the things that that happened in the neighborhoods that I lived in. Because I see so many of them as, I won't say inevitable, but like they are definitely like products of situations that people found themselves in that are much bigger than like one individual squabble with another person.

You know, I think that from an early age, I had a bit of an understanding of what it means to be stripped of resources.

And what people will do when they don't feel like they have real options. It's very easy to say to a person who might be living on the street, oh, go get a job. And it's like, okay, sure, sure logically, that is the next step, but the person saying that, are you going to give them a job? Are you going to employ them and help them get out of the situation?

“And even with a job, you know, I think it's lost on a lot of people how many working people are unhoused, you know?”

How many working people live in their car maybe or are just like scraping and get by? So that was a decent amount of some of the things that I saw growing up, especially in that specific couple of areas. So you went to Catholic school, was that from grade school through high school? No, I went to Catholic school from junior high through high school. So that's like an alternative school.

Kind of, yeah, I'm not the best at describing the like, Montessori method. It's just we didn't have specific grades in the way that you would at your regular public school. What we had were sort of like evaluations on where we were every year at each given discipline. And so it led to what I at least think for me ended up being a deeper understanding of my strengths and weaknesses in school. Because especially once I got to junior high in high school when I had just had regular grades.

Sometimes I would get a low grade on something that I really felt like I understood. But what I was actually failing at was like a piece of the lesson. Like for example, with algebra, it's like I was better at word problems than I was at actual equations. And so I think that something like an amosory method would have maybe point that out a bit more specifically.

In my experience having interviewed a lot of comics, a lot of comics, and I'll include you in this are like there's so smart and so perceptive.

And like you know the right word to use to get a specific coloration of an emotion or an experience. And it's like for me like you're a comedic short story, teller, you know, like you know how to build a story. You're a very good writer, but comics don't necessarily do well in school and they don't necessarily care about school.

“Did you care? Did you care about your grades? Did you care about wanting to learn?”

Because your parents were both teachers. Your mother was a special ed teacher at least for a while. Your father was a teacher. I'm not sure what he taught. Yes, so my care was in the fact that I had a general understanding from a really young age that everyone was like putting everything into me. If that makes sense. Oh yeah, yeah.

And so I want to do well because of that. You know, I think that when it came time for me to get grades back, I cared about getting a good grade for the reasons that we've just been talking about. I think that as far as real interest go, I'd usually only have two or three classes a year that I look back on as being like heavily invested in. What were they? So English was one of them.

Makes sense. You know, I really, really loved the stories.

“I remember one of my teachers was going through Chaucer with us.”

I just remember being so blown away that this entire world got created. Like that was the idea of to me that was like the original Marvel comics almost because it's all this world building in all of these different tales. And you know, my grandma would read to me a lot. So I was familiar with like ASOP and Fables and everything like that. But there was something about the Canterbury Tales that the I was just taken with and Shakespeare as well.

So English was always one of them and then it would flip between other things would be English and psychology.

Like I took a psychology class in high school English and philosophy. I got to take a philosophy class. And so it was always English plus something. Your mother was a special ed teacher and then after neurosurgery became a librarian. What happened?

That required the neurosurgery. So yes, she got really sick and the neurosurgery basically was to save her life, you know. She was in a situation where even with the surgery, they said that she wouldn't walk again, that she'd have trouble speaking that like her cognitive ability would be declined and everything. And in truly like the work of the doctors and and genuine miracles, she was completely fine.

Like she was she was walking soon after, you know, she was talking like there wasn't. Many issue prior and then she wasn't having the headaches that she was having before. You know, I was really young when it happened and I was, you know, so genuinely horrified at the idea of losing her. And I don't even really, if I'm being honest, think about it as as often.

“I think about how grateful I am that it all turned out so well.”

And I'm very grateful for her every time, you know, she comes to show or I get to, you know, get to see her. I'm always grateful. But yeah, once she became a librarian, it was just something that would be less of a strain on her. Anyone who's taught special ed knows the the workload involved and just the toll it takes on, even a teaching career to a degree, you know, there's like a saying that teaching one year of special ed is almost like teaching five years, you know.

And she needed something that was a different pace and so she got this job at the library. And it really benefited both of us because she would pick me up from school and then I would just hang out at the library until it was time to go home. Well, that's nice to surrounded by books you could read easily easily.

So it was fantastic and it was some of my first outside of school.

It was some of my first like engagement with the internet because we couldn't afford a computer. So I had to do all my school work on the computer at the library.

And so I was surrounded by books, I was around computers, I was like in heaven. Your grandmother had Alzheimer's and you talk about this in one of your performances that she said to you.

I know I'm losing my memory. I will never forget who you are because you're always worried you'd go there and she'd not know who you are.

You can't control your brain like that and you can't control it, especially if you have any form of Alzheimer's or other related, you know, other form of dementia. Did she always remember you? I mean, she really did until the end there. You know, I think that one thing that she did do was use every moment of being completely lucid to communicate her feelings. As accurately as possible.

“And I think that that's why it always felt like that even though, like you said, sometimes maybe that genuinely wasn't the case,”

but I really felt like I was missing this time with her by being in college or even after college moving to Chicago and seeing her less. It's like, it's a known thing that when you are around less, you're harder to remember when someone has dementia.

And so I always worried about that day that I'd come back and she wouldn't really know who I was.

But there was such a genuine excitement. She would rush to hug me. She'd rush to talk to me and catch up. And it was really like she wasn't experiencing or living with dementia whenever I was with her. And I know that that probably just means I got incredibly lucky over those last few years of being with her on some of her best days. But I also think that there's an unspoken thing around what love can do. And I think that love does define sometimes what is medically sound.

I find that sometimes you hear these stories of people who whether it's being really sick and holding on just long enough for someone to make it back. You know, I know playing things don't work out this way, but I don't know what else to to chalk it up to. Other than that. Well, let me reintroduce you again. We have to take a break here. If you're just joining us, my guest is Comic Josh Johnson.

He has a new comedy special that's streaming on HBO Max. It's called Symphony. We'll be right back. This is fresh air. Every episode of it's been a minute, NPR's What's Happening in Culture Podcast starts by asking three questions. Who? How? Why now? If the culture's asking it, we're talking about it. At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious and indulge your cultural curiosity.

Follow it's been a minute wherever you get your podcasts and we'll break down the zeitgeist topics that are filling your feed. When you were growing up, did you listen to a lot of comedy or watch a lot of comedy? Yes, as much as I could. Everything, everything.

“What made you think you should try it yourself?”

I think just a love for it. I just really enjoyed it and I figured why not. I had an obsession with writing and I had an obsession with comedy. So why not try to put those two things together and just see. And then even when I was starting out and it wasn't going according to plan, like I wasn't exactly killing every time. I was going up.

I still enjoyed the lesson that came out of not doing well that I wanted to get up again.

What was your first time at the mic like, do you remember any of the stories or jokes that you told?

So my first open mic in Chicago was like the night that I got there, like the night that I landed. And that's so disoriented. Yeah, but I don't know. It's like, why waste time? You know, it's like, you have the chance right now. I tried to do the same thing when I moved to New York.

I got to New York and immediately just went out and started going to mics and went to a show.

“And yeah, I think you just have to dive in.”

And I don't remember my first sets really that well, but I definitely remember the feeling of being able to do like three that night. Like Chicago had and has so many open mics and so much comedy that I was able to do three open mics the first night.

And I remember the first one went really well and then the second one went even better.

And then the third one was horrible. Like I thought I was on a real streak and then the third one was just terrible.

“Was the audience as well? Like they didn't get you?”

No, it was me. It was definitely me. And I think I will say this. I sort of walked into the third one with the confidence that I literally just landed in Chicago. And the first two went so well that like obviously the third one has to go even better.

And then when I was getting nothing off of a couple of the same jokes I had done, I was like so flustered by it that it was it was me. What did your parents and your grandmother think after having invested so much of their, you know, time and money and emotional thinking into schooling you. And it's sending you to the Montessori school. I don't know if they helped you pay for college, but you know, you went to college. And now you're pursuing this really risky profession. How many people really make it as a comic?

Were they ringing their hands and thinking, oh, all of that for nothing. He's throwing his life away. No, they were, they were weirdly supportive. But I will also say that I did spend my time getting real jobs.

Doing, never, never asking them to send me money or anything like that.

Never, if anything, I tried to send money back when I, when I could, you know.

“And I think that I kept it under wraps enough that first, maybe what, six, seven months or something like that, that they didn't even know.”

And so I don't even really think that they knew how much I was pursuing comedy until I got past it. My first few clubs and start getting paid. And by then it was like, oh, okay, if this is going to be your little hobby, at least you're making a little money off of it. And as it progressed and as there was more success, I think it became harder to be like, oh, okay, well, this was a bad idea. Yeah, I mean, and so, you know, even my dad, like, that's one of my biggest, I don't even know how to describe it as anything but a regret, because it wasn't fully in my control, but I suppose some of it was.

My dad never got to see me go up.

And he was assumed from the time I told him I was doing comedy, he was so excited and he wanted me to succeed so much.

“And I think that for the most part, my family was mainly interesting, giving me my best shot at being successful and able to take care of myself.”

In college, you were studying theater with a focus on lighting design, which is very specialized. Did you already think you wanted to do comedy and this was the closest you were going to get in college? That's a really good question. I think that it was the closest thing outside of actually performing, which I think would have been terrible for me at the time, that I could do that kept me close to live performance. You know, I didn't really have the ear for sound design and sound engineering, and I found that lighting really gave me that outlet where I could both be a part of the show and watch the show and help the show.

But I didn't have to be on stage performing because I think that as far as the type of acting that we were learning in college, I don't think it's something that I would have been adept at. And so I got to watch my friends who are very talented, get better and better at that they're chosen craft. And then for me, I got to watch how the whole production comes together and gain appreciation for it while doing something that sort of on the side. And so yes to your question initially, but then when I moved to Chicago, you know, I told everyone it was to pursue lying design, but it was really to pursue comedy.

So being a theater major and working in theaters, doing lighting design, that must have helped you feel comfortable in comedy clubs. You were used to being in theaters, and this was even, you know, comedy sellers going to be even smaller than a theater and more in formal as well. I mean, it was so much less about the number and more about getting my ideas across, which I felt like I've been writing for so long, and then it just became about taking the leaps of saying what it is you want to say.

Thank you. I appreciate your time. Thanks so much for having me on.

Josh Johnson's new comedy special symphony is streaming on HBO Max. After we take a short break, jazz critic Martin Johnson will review a new album by trumpeter and composer, Adam O'Farrell, who's the son of musician, Arturo O'Farrell. This is fresh air.

“Every story from shortwave and pure science podcasts starts with a question. Like why do we have nightmares? How does AI affect my energy bill? At NPR, we are here for your right to be curious about the world around you.”

Follow shortwave wherever you get your podcasts, because the more you ask, the more interesting the world gets.

Trumpeter and composer, Adam O'Farrell, has a special set of bloodlines. His father is composer, pianist, and impresario, Arturo O'Farrell, and his mother is concert pianist and educator, Alison Dean. And that's not all. His grandfather is Afro-Cuban Jazz Pioneer Chico O'Farrell. Adam went into the family business, and despite the long shadows of his family, jazz critic Martin Johnson says he quickly established himself as one of the most important musicians of the 21st century.

“He's been a sideman in some of the key groups of recent fintages and on his new recording elephant at the age of 31, which is young and jazz years, he's begun mentoring the next wave of virtuosos. Martin says the future isn't good hands.”

The idea of a young Trumpeter making his mark on the scene is one of the cherished narratives in jazz, but Adam O'Farrell's different from his predecessors.

He's not a flashy player who's done audiences with his flamboyance. Instead, he's a more introspective player who sells and sinewate themselves to listeners rather than blow them away. This, too, has a lineage, from book or little to Ron Miles. Adam O'Farrell's the next virtuoso on this path and his new recording elephant allows more space than any of his others to showcase his style, which occasionally plays electronic distortion as he does here on Bebo-Nazar.

“As this is the case with many young musicians, O'Farrell's eager to integrate what he hears in other genres into his music.”

The beat on Ellen or Stance here might be as germane to a nightclub as it would be to a dance studio, but the Trumpeter and his band of young uppercumers navigate like old prose. After a decade of typically being one of the youngest members of any band, in elephant O'Farrell's mentoring some players younger than he. Most notably, pianist Iván Rodgers, a brilliant stylist who's still new to the scene. She's capable of matching the range of styles in O'Farrell's arsenal and tangling with them in the thorny parts as they do on a section of sea trip-titch, which is dedicated to the great novelist Iris Murdoch.

It shows that O'Farrell is as adept at matching wits with his peers and elders as he is nurturing his protouches. Elephant could be the start of a pivotal group in jazz. [Music] Martin Johnson writes for the Wall Street Journal and Down Beat. He reviewed Adam O'Farrell's new album Elephant. [Music]

Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nespur. They are a challenger directed today's show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley, I'm Terry Gross.

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