Some quotes to ponder

[christianm77]

"Harmony is a fairy tale told about counterpoint" old saying
"I don't play chords, I play movement" Coleman Hawkins via Barry Harris
"the chord symbol has become god" Ritchie Hart

[citizenk74]

Somewhere in the labyrinthine recesses of my lil' pea brain is stored this epiphany: a chord is just a snapshot, a cross section, of all the notes that are sounding at a given moment in time. The bass contributes one or more, a little higher the pianist or guitarist* then presents a few more, sometimes doubling the bass an octave higher, and the soloist tops it off with the icing on the musical cake, a melody which enhances and expands on the structure below. A given bar may contain 16 or more chords, but there isn't room to notate or even think about that, so we generally keep it to 4 chords or fewer per bar. But it's all one thing.
"Every thing in the Universe is composed of one element, which is the Note. The Big Note."

- Frank Zappa** with the Abnuceals Emmukha Electric Symphony Orchestra "Lumpy Gravy" (Part One of "We're Only in it for the Money")

* If there is one, if so, he may be skulking behind the upright bass to avoid the deadly death-ray gaze of the pianist, if one is present. Self preservation is imperative, if sometimes difficult.

**Actually an un-named member of the ensemble, but expressing the nub of FZ's gist. I think.

[grahambop]

“Is this f*cking mic on?”

(Ronnie Scott.)

[christianm77]

I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn

[starjasmine]

I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn

Yeah, I always say that into the mic just before I take a solo ;-)


"Drums stop, VERY BAD!!!!"
-- punch line to an old bass player joke

[steve burchfield]

Its all about the four Tees Taste Tone Tuning Timing and breathing and space

[Litterick]

I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn

[Pycroft]

There are three types of musicians , those who can count and those who can't count .

[LoidLiu]

I've suffered for my art, now it's your turn

So much sense in it
Truth, humor, honest warning, I think that's what I'm gonna say next time when someone asks me to sing.

[Michael Neverisky]

"When I was young I wanted to play jazz in the worst way... and I did."

Dave Van Ronk

[vintagelove]

Glenn Gould has some quite profound things to say about the improviser in his critique of Mozart.

19:20

[ragman1]

"I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini."

Paul Desmond.

[ragman1]

[Litterick]

"I would like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age."
PaulDesmond

[neatomic]

bukowski writing about writers...but can apply to any artist, musician, painter, filmmaker,etc etc

“There is a problem with writers. If what a writer wrote was published and sold many, many copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold a medium number of copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold very few copies, the writer thought he was great. If what the writer wrote never was published and he didn’t have enough the money to publish it himself, then he thought he was truly great. The truth, however, was there was very little greatness. It was almost nonexistent, invisible. But you could be sure that the worst writers had the most confidence, the least self-doubt."


cheers

[citizenk74]

Glenn Gould has some quite profound things to say about the improviser in his critique of Mozart.

19:20

This is priceless! Make the time, you will not regret it.

[rpjazzguitar]

I think my favorite quote, which I heard from keyboard great Frank Martin, is ...

"You don't want to be the only one in the band who is right".

[christianm77]

I think my favorite quote, which I heard from keyboard great Frank Martin, is ...

"You don't want to be the only one in the band who is right".

Amazing!

[christianm77]

Glenn Gould has some quite profound things to say about the improviser in his critique of Mozart.

19:20

Was pretty funny. TBH I think Gould’s criticisms of Mozart could be attributed to the way Mozart learned to compose music which was very much about harmonic formulae decorated with passage work etc.

Also he does rather insist on playing it the same way as he does The Goldberg Variations which doesn’t work for me. You can do that with Bach.

But then that probably ties in Gould’s points lol.

[ragman1]

"You don't want to be the only one in the band who is right".

Not because of modesty and humility but because who wants to be in a band like that?

[Gabor]

Was pretty funny. TBH I think Gould’s criticisms of Mozart could be attributed to the way Mozart learned to compose music which was very much about harmonic formulae decorated with passage work etc.

Also he does rather insist on playing it the same way as he does The Goldberg Variations which doesn’t work for me. You can do that with Bach.

But then that probably ties in Gould’s points lol.

Gould said many extreme things, for example "Bartók is the most overrated composer of the XX century". After this statement Gould competence way lowered for me.

He misinterprets Mozart in his performance, it is a parody. We should listen Brendel immidiately to heal the wound what he made. :-) Then Rondo in a minor,

Regarding his Bach recordings... I listened them zillion times, including the early and late Goldberg Variations, and after decades I concluded it was waste of time. Gould exposes perfectly everything what is in the music... except human feelings. Compared to Richter, who stamps his depression to Bach, or Schiff who interprets his bright miracle into it, he is a machine.

Probably overreacting but this video made me sad, I am going to listen Mozart, hopin Gould did not ruin me it totally :-)

[christianm77]

Well I think you do need to put humanity for want of a better word into Mozart....

Bach OTOH is as close to the music of the spheres as we have got; but of course it is still deeply human and for it’s full qualities to be evident I think it needs to be played with ....errr... feeling?

[Gabor]

bukowski writing about writers...but can apply to any artist, musician, painter, filmmaker,etc etc

“There is a problem with writers. If what a writer wrote was published and sold many, many copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold a medium number of copies, the writer thought he was great. If what a writer wrote was published and sold very few copies, the writer thought he was great. If what the writer wrote never was published and he didn’t have enough the money to publish it himself, then he thought he was truly great. The truth, however, was there was very little greatness. It was almost nonexistent, invisible. But you could be sure that the worst writers had the most confidence, the least self-doubt."


cheers

Maybe it is true not only for artists, but also ordinary people. 90% of people thinks she/he is above the average... that is we are... Houston we have a problem

btw for example Brahms was quite opposite. He did not think he was great. He admired Blue Danube melody, and did not recognize that he created dozens of at least as great melody and placed into great compositions.

[Gabor]

[BWV]

The Western musical canon came about not merely by accumulation, but by opposition and subversion, both to the ruling powers on whom composers depended for their livelihoods and to other musics.
- Brian Ferneyhough

although you can certainly have too much of this