[Dixielandjazz] Yogi Berra on Jazz; Monk

[Charles Suhor]

Sounds like a made-up story, but funny anyway. True story, though paraphrased from memory. Thelonious Monk was at a recording session when he called for engineer to stop, saying, "I played a wrong note that sounded bad." Many of them, especially intentional seconds, sounded good. So they weren't really bad or wrong, in context.

Charlie


On Mar 19, 2015, at 5:48 PM, Marek Boym wrote:

> Lovely, Dave!
> Forwarding it to my jazz friends!
> Cheers
> 
> On 20 March 2015 at 00:09, domitype . <domitype at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I don't know if this is an actual quote or made up, but I like it!
>> 
>> Dave Richoux
>> 
>> 
>> ==================
>> 
>> 
>> Yogi Berra's Explanation of Jazz
>> 
>> 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 what's 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 player 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.
>> 
>> 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.
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