[Dixielandjazz] Yogi Berra on Jazz

[Charlie Hull]

If this has been posted before, I missed it.

Charlie Hull
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Subject: Yogi Berra on jazz

Interviewer: What do you expect is in store for the future of jazz trumpet?

Yogi: I'm thinkin' there'll be a group of guys who've never met talkin' 
about it all the time...

Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?

Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The 
other half is the part people play while others are playing something 
they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the 
wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if 
you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer: I don't understand.

Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. 
It's too complicated. That's whats so simple about it.

Interviewer: Do you understand it?

Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldnt 
know anything about it.

Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?

Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for 
the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the 
ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. 
Some would kill for it.

Interviewer: What is syncopation?

Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either 
before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they 
happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of 
music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different 
from those other kinds.

Interviewer: Now I really don't understand.

Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.