inspiration
1999 Interview
"There's a certain truth to improvisation, it is the truth of the moment. Right now you say something and if people are listening to you and the other musicians who are playing with you, a group of people can commonly agree upon one way of looking at the world. And to me the creation of improvisation is what allows that. And that's a little different from playing a vocabulary, because a vocabulary suggests something that we already agree on: we already love bebop, we know bebop is great, and so when somebody plays bebop it's affirming what we know. We can all relax into that and love it and say 'yeah that's great bebop'.
It's a little bit different from trying not to rely on the vocabulary so much and just try to say 'it's going to be a certain kind of a groove and let's try to make something happen spontaneously'. It's sort of a different way to approach the music and the guitar, but that's what I do."
"I deliberately turned away from all the melody that I loved and all the harmony that I loved and the rhythm that I loved. I had to give up what I loved to come up with something else. That's the hard part. It's because I love that, I love the great music that's made. But I had to just say 'okay, it's been made and it's being made, what am I going to do, am I going to try to sound like someone else, I'm a grown man'. Why would a grown man/woman try to sound like another grown man/woman. It's like we grow up and have our own things to say."
"There's a certain truth to improvisation, it is the truth of the moment. Right now you say something and if people are listening to you and the other musicians who are playing with you, a group of people can commonly agree upon one way of looking at the world. And to me the creation of improvisation is what allows that. And that's a little different from playing a vocabulary, because a vocabulary suggests something that we already agree on: we already love bebop, we know bebop is great, and so when somebody plays bebop it's affirming what we know. We can all relax into that and love it and say 'yeah that's great bebop'.
It's a little bit different from trying not to rely on the vocabulary so much and just try to say 'it's going to be a certain kind of a groove and let's try to make something happen spontaneously'. It's sort of a different way to approach the music and the guitar, but that's what I do."
"I deliberately turned away from all the melody that I loved and all the harmony that I loved and the rhythm that I loved. I had to give up what I loved to come up with something else. That's the hard part. It's because I love that, I love the great music that's made. But I had to just say 'okay, it's been made and it's being made, what am I going to do, am I going to try to sound like someone else, I'm a grown man'. Why would a grown man/woman try to sound like another grown man/woman. It's like we grow up and have our own things to say."
2012 Interview
"In the end, improvising is what we all do. It’s how we get through life, even within the rigid structures where we may have to work. Kids learn that they are musical by the fact of being able to make stuff up. When their talent is recognized, they are taught to do what they're told and follow a rather specific set of rules. I like to keep the focus on improvisation as the act of making stuff up. When you do it with other people, then all kinds of social aspects come into play, and mostly the qualities that make a good improviser are not dissimilar to the ones that I appreciate in my friends: being a good listener, sensitivity to your social surroundings, being there when you’re needed but knowing how to step back too, knowing when to be supportive, when to be assertive, when your opinion is valuable, when to just go along with something, when to insist! Patience. Tolerance. Openness."
"In the end, improvising is what we all do. It’s how we get through life, even within the rigid structures where we may have to work. Kids learn that they are musical by the fact of being able to make stuff up. When their talent is recognized, they are taught to do what they're told and follow a rather specific set of rules. I like to keep the focus on improvisation as the act of making stuff up. When you do it with other people, then all kinds of social aspects come into play, and mostly the qualities that make a good improviser are not dissimilar to the ones that I appreciate in my friends: being a good listener, sensitivity to your social surroundings, being there when you’re needed but knowing how to step back too, knowing when to be supportive, when to be assertive, when your opinion is valuable, when to just go along with something, when to insist! Patience. Tolerance. Openness."
2001 Interview
[on a dream he had in which he was shown the true essence of music]
"I could never, obviously, do anything remotely close to that, but I'm always reaching out for something that's outside my grasp. If I didn't have that, there wouldn't seem to be any point. I'm interested in that place between when you're half-asleep and half-awake."
[on a dream he had in which he was shown the true essence of music]
"I could never, obviously, do anything remotely close to that, but I'm always reaching out for something that's outside my grasp. If I didn't have that, there wouldn't seem to be any point. I'm interested in that place between when you're half-asleep and half-awake."
1989 Interview
"A critic once remarked to me that it takes a great amount of taste to play free. He was wrong. Artists cannot be hampered by the restriction of taste."
"What playing free does take is imagination and confidence. In free playing, there is nothing else to stand on; it's like walking in space. If you're confident, you will not fall. The road forms beneath your feet as your imagination takes you places arrived at by no other means."
1991 Interview
"I want the sweetness and the brutality, and I want to go to the very end of each of those feelings."
"A critic once remarked to me that it takes a great amount of taste to play free. He was wrong. Artists cannot be hampered by the restriction of taste."
"What playing free does take is imagination and confidence. In free playing, there is nothing else to stand on; it's like walking in space. If you're confident, you will not fall. The road forms beneath your feet as your imagination takes you places arrived at by no other means."
1991 Interview
"I want the sweetness and the brutality, and I want to go to the very end of each of those feelings."
2010 Interview [on improvisation]
"I try not to think too much, and to the extent that I am thinking, I’m trying to edit out excess. I come at it with the idea that this is how I’d like to play, and then let the ideas dictate where they want to go, which is very similar to composing in real time. And, of course, I love playing with people that feed me as many ideas as possible. Also, a great way to get out of my own head if I'm feeling out of ideas is to listen to the other people. For example, I might just listen to the sound of the ride cymbal or the drums generally, because they are not pitch specific, and that will get me out of thinking about harmonic things."
"I try not to think too much, and to the extent that I am thinking, I’m trying to edit out excess. I come at it with the idea that this is how I’d like to play, and then let the ideas dictate where they want to go, which is very similar to composing in real time. And, of course, I love playing with people that feed me as many ideas as possible. Also, a great way to get out of my own head if I'm feeling out of ideas is to listen to the other people. For example, I might just listen to the sound of the ride cymbal or the drums generally, because they are not pitch specific, and that will get me out of thinking about harmonic things."