[Dixielandjazz] What Is Jazz? Good 'ol Yogi!

[Bob Romans]

Thank Charlie Hull for this one!
Warm regards,
Bob Romans,
Cell..209-747-1148
Home...209-339-4676
www.cellblockseven2002.net

HUH?
What did he say!

> 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 wouldn't 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.
>