[Dixielandjazz] Improv. quotes......

[Gary Kiser]

I too have a quote about cerebral use and improvisation I'd like to 
share.  When I was just beginning to learn to play this stuff (I say it 
like that because I am still learning), I was a regular with Rosy 
McHargue at Sterlings in Santa Monica.  What a gracious man to let me, a 
17 year old greenhorn, regularly sit in even though I didn't know my ax 
well enough the music.  Anyway, he signaled for me to take a chorus.  I 
started doing what I knew was safe which must have sounded like a bunch 
of scales and arpeggios while I struggled to follow the chord 
progression.  I can still hear his voice and see his face as he sternly 
looked at me and yelled; "STOP THINKING!"

All the best, Gary


Vaxtrpts at aol.com wrote:

> <> In a message dated 3/13/2006 12:09:59 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
> barbonestreet at earthlink.net writes:
>
> In a similar fashion, Miles Davis said something like:
>
> "In the middle of a solo chorus when an idea suddenly springs into your
> conscious mind and you are tempted to play it . . . DON'T, because you'll
> f*** it up."
>
> OK - one of my favorite quotes from Miles Davis came from a recording
> session where John Coltrane ( a master of "too long" solos) was taking 
> too much
> time playing chorus after chorus, so that there wasn't time for other 
> people to
> solo on the cuts.
> Miles said "Coltrane, you are playing too f***en long." Coltrane said
> something about having so much to say, that he just couldn't stop. 
> Miles said
> "It's easy, just take the f***en horn off your chops!" Miles won.
> Mike Vax