[Dixielandjazz] Yogi Berra Explains Jazz

Robert Ringwald rsr at ringwald.com
Wed Dec 5 02:13:33 EST 2018


Yogi Berra explains 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 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.

Bob Ringwald
Fulton Street Jazz Band (Dixieland/Swing)
916/ 806-9551
www.ringwald.com
Amateur (ham) Radio Station K6YBV

"If the world was p    erfect, it wouldn't be."
Lawrence Peter (Yogi) Berra, B5-12-1925, D9-22-2015 


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