A young tenor player was complaining to me that Coleman Hawkins made him nervous. Man, I told him Hawkins was supposed to make him nervous! Hawkins has been making other sax players nervous for forty years!
Cannonball AdderleyRead
There's no future without the past and anybody who doesn't really understand where jazz has come from has no right to try to direct where it's going.
Interpretation
Understanding the origins of jazz is essential for shaping its future.
Cannonball Adderley's quote highlights the importance of acknowledging the history and roots of jazz music in order to influence its future direction. It suggests that a deep comprehension of past influences is crucial for anyone wishing to make meaningful contributions to the genre.
In practice
In a music class discussing jazz improvisation, this quote serves as a reminder of the roots of jazz.
A young tenor player was complaining to me that Coleman Hawkins made him nervous. Man, I told him Hawkins was supposed to make him nervous! Hawkins has been making other sax players nervous for forty years!
I'm not everybody's cup of tea. But sometimes criticism can be hurtful. Be respectful I'm a good piano player, I can sing well, I write good songs. If you don't like it, fair enough. But give me a break.
Ninety-eight percent of the singing I did was private singing - it was in the shower, at the dishwasher, driving my car, singing with the radio, whatever. I can't do any of that now. I wish I could. I don't miss performing, particularly, but I miss singing.
My mentor was Clara Ward of the famous Ward gospel singers of Philadelphia. And my dad was my coach. He coached me. And just my natural love for music is what drove me.
The major rock instruments and classical instruments were designed for performance, for sharing the music with an audience, and then later people put microphones on them and recorded them. But for electronic music, the opposite was true - they're designed in laboratories, and later, we tried to put them on stage.
Don t play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast.
Blues is like the roux in a gumbo. People ask me if jazz always has the blues in it. I say, if it sounds good it does.
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