I was always a pretty bad celebrity.

NEWPORT, Rhode Island (AP) -- Drummer Jack DeJohnette had some fun with his jazz musician friends by asking them to guess who's playing piano with him on a fast-paced version of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps."

"I had people saying Cedar Walton, Kenny Barron. ... They would keep trying to guess and I'd say 'No,' " DeJohnette laughed backstage at the recent Newport Jazz Festival. "They were quite surprised when I told them -- Bruce Hornsby."
But anyone who has closely followed the 52-year-old Hornsby's career wouldn't be too surprised to find he has finally released his first full-length jazz instrumental album. "Camp Meeting," a trio recording with DeJohnette and bassist Christian McBride, offers new versions of jazz standards by Miles Davis, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk as well as several Hornsby originals.
Hornsby graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in jazz before deciding songwriting was more to his liking. His 1980s pop hits "The Way It Is" and "The Valley Road" had jazz-influenced piano solos. He later collaborated on recordings with such jazz stars as guitarist Pat Metheny ("Harbor Lights") and saxophonist Wayne Shorter ("The End of the Innocence," written with Don Henley).
Hornsby sat down for an interview with the AP after performing on the main stage at the Newport festival.
Q: Earlier this year you released a bluegrass album with Ricky Skaggs and now you've got your first jazz CD. What's the connection?
BRUCE HORNSBY: I've always had a lot of interest in jazz and bluegrass. Most people would say, "Wow, they don't have anything in common!" But to me ... they're both about virtuosity on the instrument. If you've heard Ricky Skaggs' band, they're incredible players. I'm interested in writing songs and singing them well, but I'm also interested in the instrument.
Q: What encouraged you to record "Camp Meeting"?
HORNSBY: Pat Metheny really prodded me to do it. He was playing a concert with the University of Virginia jazz orchestra about five years ago. I went up there because we're good friends and he asked me to sit in. We did (Miles Davis') "Solar," and he said, "You have your own way of doing this, you should make this record." Then I ran into Jack in 2005 at the Keith Jarrett trio date at Carnegie Hall. He said what he always says to me: "Hey, when are we doing to do something?" And Christian has always said that through the years.
Q: What did you do to get ready to record the CD?
HORNSBY: What's become my standard analogy is imagine you took six years of French ... and you could speak it pretty well. But then you didn't speak it for years, so you lose it. And then you get hired to be the French translator at the U.N. ... You're going to have to hit the woodshed pretty hard and that's what I've been trying to do.
Q: What was it like playing alongside two jazz heavyweights?
HORNSBY: It was very stressful because these guys are giants of the music and together they've played with most every great jazz musician that you've heard of. That's a daunting situation. You have to prove yourself every step along the way and if you can't stand that heat get the hell out of the boiler room. I think they started being more impressed with what I was doing playing-wise and liked the conception of the different tunes.
Q: How did you choose jazz standards like Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" or Bud Powell's "Celia" for the CD?
HORNSBY: I only recorded something that I thought I could find an interesting take on that was my own. ... that gave it a reason for being played again. I remember Jack and Christian saying, "Do we really have to play 'Straight, No Chaser'?" I understand why they said that -- it's sort of a club date jazz tune, so overdone, it's sort of like the "Proud Mary" of the jazz canon. But I said, "Look, I have an odd way of playing it. If you like it we'll play it, if you don't we won't." I played it for them. ... it was sort of a pointillistic version, and they went, "Oh, very fresh."
Q: Could you talk about some of the compositions you wrote for the session?
HORNSBY: The first tune I did today (at Newport) was "Charlie, Woody and You." Dave Brubeck loved it. He came up to me and said, "What was that Charles Ives thing -- that's right up my alley. It's the most out blues I've ever heard." There's this Ives piece that I've played called "Study No. 22" and there's this real thorny, knotty, chromatic dissonant bit that I love. I used the harmonic language of the Ives bit as my musical material to solo with. Part of the melody of "Stacked Mary Possum" is from an old fiddle tune "Black Berry Blossom."
Q: How do you feel about the reaction to "Camp Meeting"?
HORNSBY: Overall ... the reaction has been shock and surprise on lots of levels. I would think that anybody who hears this would know that ... that I've certainly spent some time with this music on a deep level. I've had a couple of writers liken this to when Rod Stewart made his standards records. That's a very clueless statement because this is the opposite of that. That's a commercial ploy a lot of people have used in the past several years. ... It's sort of modern-day Muzak that goes down real easy for the old yuppie audience. I start off with an (Ornette Coleman) tune that's so angular. "Death and the Flower" is a pretty obscure Keith Jarrett tune. ... Why would they liken that to someone's pop standards record?
Q: Do you miss pop stardom at all?
HORNSBY: I was always a pretty bad celebrity. My thing is personally pretty boring. I've been married to the same woman for almost 24 years and I have twin boys. I'm just an old family guy. The best part about those pop stardom years was the respect that I got and all the subsequent calls I got from all these great musicians because they were fans of what I did. It opened me up and broadened my horizons and to this day it continues.