Jazz88 connected with Windom, Minnesota’s own Maria Schneider on her birthday to celebrate her Grammy-laden career and her continued connection to Minnesota but Schneider wanted to talk about was the new anthem she’s written for her hometown team, the Vikings. Supported by her orchestra’s trombone section and the beefiest baritones Julliard has to offer, Schneider’s tune is bound to secure the Vikes the top slot in the NFC North! You don’t think she’s serious? She’s dead serious. Here’s the tune.
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You still don’t think she’s serious? Here she is performing the song in Central Park.
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Check out the conversation and the tune here and SKOL VIKINGS.
Full interview:
This interview aired on The Afternoon Cruise 11/27/24
Here is a transcript of the interview:
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
It’s the Afternoon Cruise. I’m talking with Grammy Award winning composer, conductor and Minnesota native, Maria Schneider. Maria, we’re talking on your birthday. Happy birthday to you.
Maria Schneider
Thank you.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
Now you’ve been based in New York City for quite some time, but it’s clear from a lot of your writing and from talking to you a little bit, that Minnesota roots play a big role in your work. You grew up in Windom. How did growing up in Windom shape you, both as a musician and as a writer and also just as a human being?
Maria Schneider
Boy, that’s hard to say. I just think, in life, you know, the first places you encounter, the people, the the visual, the experience, it just is embedded in you. And I don’t know I for some reason when I sit down to write so often, memories from home come to me. I remember when I grew up in Windom. I always felt Windom was really the center of the world, and I never wanted to leave, and I ended up leaving. But I still love Windom, and I still love going back to Windom, and so I just feel close to it. And I think the open landscape to just that prairie you kind of you don’t appreciate that fully until you leave and realize how exotic and amazing it is. You know, years ago, my band came to Windom. They’ve done it twice, actually, and I remember one of my players was just so baffled because we were eating at a place called the Bergen bar. Bergen is near Windom, but there’s just a few people there, and it’s just for cornfield fields meeting, and, you know, a place to eat, and maybe a house and something else, not much. And, and he said, I just don’t get it. Oh, my God. So are Tell me, are you more than Maria that I know from New York, or are you this? Because I just, I don’t get it. He was just, you know? And I said, Well, Clarence, I said, Actually, I think I’m more this. And he’s like, really, oh my god. And another guy said, Oh my God, it’s just so bleak. They just didn’t quite understand, I guess, you know, but they all loved it. They loved playing Windom and they loved being there. But they had no I don’t know they they couldn’t square that together with who they know of me in New York.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
I’m chatting with the Grammy Award winning composer, conductor and Minnesota native Maria Schneider. On her birthday, we’re wishing her a happy birthday and taking this opportunity to find out a little bit about her career. Now, coming from Windom, I’m sure it was even kind of a big city vibe to go to the University of Minnesota, for anybody who comes from a small place, last I looked Windom was about 4,000 people. Do you have any advice for somebody who gets to the big city, whether that be Minnesota, Minneapolis, or whether that be New York City, for being confident and knowing that you have something to contribute to music or to whatever somebody’s pursuing?
Maria Schneider
Yeah, it’s very easy to, yeah, go to a city or a big school like that, and just think, well, oh my gosh, they had so many more opportunities. But the truth is, you know, everybody has, first of all, I had great opportunities in Windom. I had the most fantastic teachers and music teachers and everything. And it really was more about just getting my confidence together in in time, you know, and, and so, yeah, I think just realizing everybody has unique experiences, and some people get more of something from one place and but then the other person gets more of something from where they are. And the one thing I’ll say about New York City, because obviously it’s a lot bigger than Minneapolis, but New York City, to me, in some ways, you’re this is going to be shocking. Feels more like Windom than a city like Minneapolis, and I’ll tell you why. It’s like in a place like Manhattan, your little area, your little your few blocks around, you have everything that you need, almost you can walk just about everybody where. And you get to know everybody in the stores, because you you don’t go to big box stores. You go to the little hardware store on the corner. The ones that still exist. You know, those are fading more and more, but I like to go to those kind of mom and pop kind of places. And so in some ways. It feels like a small town that way. And I’m sure too, if you live in some neighborhood in Minneapolis, you know your your neighborhood kind of becomes your town or something. And so I feel like I’ve found that in New York,
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
I’m chatting with Maria Schneider, and it’s an honor to be chatting with her on her birthday, and Maria this whole interview, and maybe your entire lettered career as a Grammy Award winner, it’s all been pretext for your real purpose in life, which is writing the new Vikings anthem, which you have sent along to us. We’re.going to hear it. If I have an idea while I’m watching football, I probably just, you know, crack another beer and have another nacho. But you called up the trombone section from your orchestra, you called up some baritones from Juilliard, and you put together this Vikings anthem. It’s about 50 seconds long. We’re going to listen to the whole thing. Is there anything you want to say about it before we press play? And then we’ll talk about it a little bit afterwards?
Maria Schneider
Well, well, at first, I should make clear that this was entirely my idea, and nobody has accepted this as the Vikings anthem. It’s just, it’s my wish, like, if I could have my dream in life, it would be everybody in the in the stands screaming, we’re Vikings, you know, quoting this song and having the words up on the Jumbotron. You know, I even made an Instagram video of myself dressed as a Viking in Central Park, basically, you know, gesticulating the song.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
So well, let’s press play on this. This is a new Vikings anthem volunteered by Maria Schneider for use for the NFL team, the Vikings. Okay, so Maria, let’s actually get a little bit into the guts of this thing. You get some kind of musical idea, and you are one of, I don’t know less than 1000 people on Earth who goes, I have an orchestra. What makes you go trombones and baritones. This is what is needed to communicate this sound.
Maria Schneider
Well, I was picturing something very almost like Wagnerian. And, you know, these, these very virile Vikings. And, you know, the trombones just have that intense, sort of almost like, you know, war month, you know, kind of very aggressive. It’s not aggressive. I don’t know what it is. It’s Wagnerian and getting those voices, like, I’m picturing all these Vikings we’re voting. It was so much fun. I wrote this thing so fast, you know, I was just inspired. And I just, I wrote it. I said, I’m going to record this. I went into the studio, I got the musicians and and, and I had so much fun doing it. Oh, my God.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
Well, listen, we’re going to do everything we can from here in the Twin Cities to drum up some interest and it. I don’t have the right strings to pull, but we’re on an FM dial with a large listenership. We want to try to do what we can to get Maria Schneider’s Vikings anthem going over there at us, Bank Stadium.
Maria Schneider
Ever heard? Have you ever heard the Vikings song that they have? I have does it? Does it need a little more Viking nothing? It doesn’t have testosterone. It has nothing. It is mamsi pamsy. It is lame. I’m sorry, I have to be honest about it. You know, they need something. You know that maybe this is the reason, you know, the Vikings have never just quite, you know, they we got to get to the end. And I think, I think they need a song like this to do it, to drum up the intensity.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
You know, I’m envisioning a whiteboard with the new GM, and it just says, Maria Schneider question mark, like maybe this is what we need to go over the edge and clinch the Super Bowl, Maria, before we bid you, I do and wish you a happy birthday one more time you are you have access to this orchestra, and access is a little bit unfair. You’ve built access to this orchestra by being one of the great leaders and somebody who knows how to not only write for an orchestra, but keep an orchestra going and keep a lot of commitment to your music. What I wanted to ask about is, for so many people, they can write for four to five voices, and they dream of writing for an orchestra. What happens for Maria Schneider when it’s the reverse, when you get an idea that just calls for three or four voices, and you don’t want everybody just sitting there looking at all the rest symbols, like, how do you when is an orchestra and a hindrance is basically what I’m curious about. When do you go? I got a small idea. Where can this one go?
Maria Schneider
The way that I approach writing for my group, it’s 18 musicians. But I think part of what makes it attractive when people come to a concert are is that there are those moments where there’s just two people playing, you know, so that transparency in that space is also what makes it feel so exciting when everybody comes in with just, you know, in a full ensemble blast. So I think, you know, I really like to treat my band like it’s all those different things. It is that small group. It is a solo instrument. It is just a couple of people. It is transparent and delicate and beautiful. But it also can have, you know, the wall up of you know, like a Viking song I should do. I see, I haven’t done a version of the Viking song from my for my band, but I should, well, I’m sure when they clinch the playoffs, they’re going to call you up and have the whole Maria Schneider orchestra. You see, that’s what they of course, this is what should happen, you know, this is I’m at the Super Bowl. For instance!
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
Absolutely, we’ll get the tickets now and then we’ll work it out with the Vikings and make sure it’s all on the up and up. Maria Schneider, Minnesotans love Minnesotans, and I really hope to be part of the movement of throwing a little more highlighter on the fact that one of the great jazz arrangers, orchestrators, composers of our time comes from here, because I think we could use a little more highlighter here in the state of Minnesota, like yo, one of the really big names internationally is from here. So it starts with this little birthday interview, but I just want to make sure that more Minnesotans know what kind of talent comes out of the state and is making waves at the international level. So thank you for taking some time to chat today, and thank you for all you do.
Maria Schneider
You are so sweet. Thank you for having me on your show.
Sean McPherson (Jazz88)
Happy birthday. I hope you have a great holiday. And thanks again for your time. Thank you.
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