Notes and tones: Letting the jazz greats speak for themselves
As we finish off the current year and approach 2023, rather than attempt to pick "the best releases of 2022,” an approach that has never spoken to me, I thought incorporating a somewhat arbitrary selection of what musicians themselves think about jazz would be more insightful — and more enjoyable.
Some 25-plus years ago, I decided to call this intermittent but regular space “Notes & Tones.” I did so, because at the time, I had just finished reading the much under-appreciated — but great — bebop/post-bebop drummer Art Taylor’s book of the same name, subtitled “Musician-To-Musician Interviews.” Originally issued by DaCapo Press in 1977, an expanded reprinted edition, with additional interviews, appeared in 1982.
Here’s how a Kirkus Reviews review, published April 23, 1982, began: “Seeking to present ‘the real voices of musicians as they saw themselves and not as critics or journalists saw them,’ drummer Art Taylor taped these interviews with 27 noted black jazz people (mostly in Europe) between 1968 and 1972. [While now outdated politically], Taylor did indeed succeed in getting more of an ‘insider's view’ than usual; the artists' loose, off-the-cuff, unguarded comments — on music, the music business, racism, on side issues from sports to fashion — make for more rewarding browsing than most interview collections.”
Agreeing with that basic assessment led me to “borrow” the name. Here then — in no particular order — is a smattering of engaging and entertaining “Notes & Tones” on and about jazz, collected from various spots across the internet.
"I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball. They're the three most beautifully designed things this culture has ever produced." — Gerald Early
"Living in the moment, working together and, especially, respecting others. Music, and jazz in particular, is an international language that represents freedom because of its origin — growing out of slavery. Jazz is in the moment, and it’s non-judgmental." — Herbie Hancock
"Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking." — Nina Simone
"Jazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty." — Max Roach
"If America has a future, Jazz has a future. The two are inseparable." – George Russell
"Jazz does not belong to one race or culture. It's a gift that America gave the world." — Ahmad Alaadeen
"Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time." — Ornette Coleman
"Jazz has endured because it doesn't have a beginning or an ending. It's a moment." — Robert Altman
"Jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones but on the backs of the ordinary ones." — Cab Calloway
"If you don't like Louis Armstrong, then you don't know how to love." — Mahalia Jackson
"Make no mistake, this music is for everyone. Jazz is not an exclusive, elite club." — Christian McBride
"I'm reserved, so I've always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that." — Renee Fleming
"No dictatorship can tolerate jazz. It is the first sign of a return to freedom." — Dave Brubeck
"Jazz is a music made by and for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions." — Johnny Griffin
"I may be prejudiced, but I believe that jazz music has the strongest healing potential, and it's not just because I play it and love it so much." — Horace Silver
"I fear that I won't get better and that I won't have time to practice. To be called a 'jazz musician,' it's a big responsibility." — Esperanza Spalding
"I prefer music where melody, harmony and rhythm come together and no one element overshadows the other. Jazz at its best is a democracy of creativity." — Jimmy Heath
"Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life." — Sonny Rollins
"Jazz to me is a living music. It's a music that, since its beginnings, has expressed the feelings, the dreams, hopes, of the people." — Dexter Gordon
"Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning." — B. B. King
"Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it." — Yogi Berra
Season’s greetings, and Happy New Year. May the jazz be with all of us.
Jon W. Poses is executive director of the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series. Reach him at jazznbsbl@socket.net.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Notes and tones: Letting the jazz greats speak for themselves
