[Dixielandjazz] Oscar Peterson interview on Individuality

Thu Dec 27 16:34:03 PST 2007

Some people, maybe 1 or 2% of musicians have incredible recall.  Mozart had 
it.  That is the ability to listen to a piece no matter how complex and 
either play it exactly or write it down.  I know only one man who can do it 
but ironically he is a rotten musician.   He has a great transcription 
library for his band.  Many musicians can do this to a lesser extent.

I have had students at Missouri School for the Blind that could do it.  Some 
were Savants who had no other abilities.  It's even rarer still when that 
ability is also coupled with the intelligence and drive to do something with 
it.  I have known two such people.

One that I went to college with and who was soon after killed in an auto 
wreck.  His hands just flew over the manuscript paper writing what he heard 
in his head.

The other was Boots Randolph.

Some years ago Boots was in town demonstrating a sax gadget called the 
Varitone.  There were three sax players on stage.  Representing Jazz was 
Bobbie Craft, an incredible sax player who was no slouch when it came to 
jazz.  At the end of the show there was a up tempo trading of choruses by 
Bobbie and Boots.  This had gone on for several minutes and it almost seemed 
that Boots said OK here is your last solo now match mine.  He played Bobbies 
improv solo note for note and then ended it with a truly spectacular jazz 
solo.  While Boots was not known, at least here, for jazz his musical recall 
blew me away.  Later, over cocktails, I asked him about it.  He just sort of 
looked at me, smiled and sipped his drink.

These are special cases but doing someone else's solos just isn't fun to me. 
When I was in college the bands I played with wanted the sax solos in the 
popular rock tunes exact.  I learned many of them to keep them happy but as 
time would go by I changed them around.

If you want exact, buy a recorder.
Larry
StL
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike C." <mike at railroadstjazzwest.com>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 12:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Oscar Peterson interview on Individuality

>
>
> Chris Tyle wrote:
>> "The funny thing about it: I don't have any inhibition about
>> saying I learned such-and-such-a-person's solo. I can play you Nat's solo 
>> on
>> "Easy Listening Blues," I can play you Lester's "Sometimes I'm Happy," I 
>> can
>> play you numerous solos. I can sit there and sing them for you cause I
>> absorbed them in my growing up process. I'm not ashamed of that."
>
> @#I think that shows incredible musicial maturity and humbleness on his 
> part. A lot of people play someone else's solo on such and such a tune but 
> you don't always hear people admit to that. I really like that. Charlie 
> Parker was said to have known note for note Lester Young's 1936 solo on 
> Lady Be Good. I don 't know if Parker ever admitted to this in an 
> interview or whatever but it truly shows that jazz is a giant mentoring 
> program. We learn from others whether we admit to it or not.
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz 
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> 