Meet Peter Roberts

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Peter Roberts a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Peter, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I’ve always had a clue that my purpose was in music. It became an early interest in my life as my father was also in music (keys, voice, French Horn, Flute etc…). Growing up in Memphis, TN, he would sit me on his knee and sing to me and I i would sing what he sang right back! It would be little sing song jingles like “yes, yes Peterrrrr” to which i would reply “No, no daddyyyy” That was when I was about 3 years old. By 5, he attempted to start teaching me piano but of course as a young child i was much to fast for him to catch me as I ran away to avoid practicing.

I started taking piano seriously when I was about 13 years old, when I found a brown wooded Yamaha piano at my church well after we moved to Cleveland, OH and the sound of it particularly intrigued me. In the grand scheme of things, I’m sure it was just a well tuned piano but to me then it was on of the most. beautiful sound I’d ever heard. week after week I’d go behind the curtain before and after church, fiddling around seeing if I could remember what my dad played during service and anything else I could think of. Week after week I began piecing things together to write little songs and melodies until I’d eventually hear comments such “You sound just like your Father” or “Boy, I thought that was Gerald playing”, on the one hand it annoyed me lol but on the other hand I knew i was going in the right direction.

Fast-forward a year or two I began attending a summer arts camp known as YEPAW or Youth Excellence Performing Arts Workshop that was held in Akron, Ohio. It was there where students from all over the country would come and hone their craft be it music, dance, mime, drumline, visual art, or a bevy of other genres of art, and it was there where I believe my destiny was solidified. Every Saturday during the camp was our free day we’d get to choose between all sorts of activities but unfortunately (or fortunately) it rained. Inside went around 300 restless teenagers with hopes of playing outside at the carnival or playing basketball or line dancing, not of which was now possible because of the weather. the only thing left to do for that large of a group of arts kids was… a Talent show! Now, I can’t say I quite remember what everyone performed but it began exactly how you would think a talent show full of youth would go. After about what felt like an eternity the last performer went on stage… it was not me haha, it was was this young boy who wanted to sing the national anthem. While he wasn’t particularly good or bad that performance, rather what transpired after was became the catalyst for my entire career. During his rendition we had all noticed that the rain had stopped and the energy level of the entire room well beyond excitement, and as soon as he finished everyone bolted outside to enjoy the rest of the day, all but myself, my now close friend Alex, and the house band. The band continued to play this tag at the end of the anthem and began what we call “A Shed”. This term is a shortened version of the term “woodshed” which basically was a form of either practice or sharing ideas musically. It comes from the jazz era where musicians would literally lock themselves inside of an actual woodshed away from everyone else to get better at playing their instrument. I can’t honestly say I remember exactly what was played but I remember exactly how I felt in that moment. It was almost as if I could see the music, Keys, Bass, Drum, and Organ all playing with and off of each other. It was the purest form of conversation I had ever witnessed. After that day, I knew I didn’t want to do anything else with my life, music was it for me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Currently I am a full-time Multi-instrumentalist, and producer based in Atlanta, Ga. I specialize in the black musics such as R&b, Gospel, and, Jazz playing piano, bass guitar, and organ. Before, I relocated to Georgia, I was living in Washington, DC after getting my Bachelor’s of Music in Jazz studies with a Voice focus from Howard University. There I learned skills such as improvisation, vocal arranging, writing, jazz composition, and so many other skills that i still use in my career to this day. Under the tutelage of jazz professor and vocalist Connaitre Miller, I was a member of Howard’s premiere vocal jazz ensemble Afro Blue, and have had the opportunity to work with the likes of the Late Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding, and Chance the Rapper to name a few. The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sort of became a second home to me as I have sang there, interned there, worked, there and, played there! In 2020 just two weeks before my 30th birthday, I decided to do the one thing in music I felt like hadn’t done (at the time). and that was release my own music. on Dec 13th, I released 30: The EP my first trio jazz ep written, recorded, edited, and mixed and mastered by me with the help of 3 musician friends who played on it. Kelton Norris on drums, Herman Burney on bass, and Alex Parchment ft. on flugelhorn for the tune “For Roy” which was a tribute to the late jazz trumpet legend Roy Hargrove. One of the Many highlights of my time in DC was joining the powerhouse band Dupont Brass who jnust finished their second tour just a few months ago which, I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend.

Now that I’m in the greater Atlanta area, I’ve been fortunate to play for all kinds of artists, both local and otherwise like Mike Phillips, and Tiffany Goode. I’ve also been able to dive more into the production side of things with recordings on Dante Pope’s record “Whisper” (Bass), as well as being a part of my own upcoming production team “O.D.O”. I’ve even been allowed the opportunity to appear as an extra in two music video one being “Needy” by Enchanting. While it’ll only be two years in November ’23 I must say I am very excited to continue my career here and see where the city takes me!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I’ll say my knowledge of music theory, my ability to be personable and my ability to learn. All three of these tools art extremely necessary for the up and coming artist as well as the veteran. Music theory is what allows me to acquire gigs, especially last minute and corporate gigs that may have song lists with upwards of 20-30 songs and be able to perform each with relative ease in a short amount of time. Being personable, is the key to long-term work. No matter how good you are in music, your talent can only take you so far, just how people want to work with well- rounded musicians, they also want to work with people who are nice to be around as well! Of the three, probably the most powerful, is most likely my ability to learn. As a kinetic learner, acquiring knowledge by physical experience is my specialty and music being the tactile art that it is, learning new instruments has always come pretty easy to me al though practice is definitely a necessity.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
My biggest are of growth musically has probably been my confidence. The fact that I’m mostly self-taught, on both keys and bass means that i have to work a lot hard than a lot of other musicians who have had teachers and mentors the majority of their lives. This turned out to be a crutch for me as i would see other players perform and get very nervous because by comparison I was technically way behind. It wasn’t until I studied with jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut at Howard where I began to get comfortable with my individual sound and that was the key! I have to realize that although there are only 12 notes and a limited amount of chords and melodies per song, each player will have their own individualistic way of playing everything. Somethings we picked up from studying and some things we’ve developed from exploration. But ultimately I had to rest in one my favorite mantras “I’ll never be able to play like them. But, they’ll never be able to play like me”. This isn’t a statement of arrogance but of originality, I don’t want to spend my life chasing the sound of other players although there is plenty I can glean from them. I want to sound like Peter, and with each new city comes a plethora of new amazing players and Peter will sound like Peter in each new city.

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