Yogi Berra explains jazz

[AlohaJoe]

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, it's 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."

 

[cjd-player]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Dr. Spivey]

Never heard that one. Thanks Joe. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Paddlefoot]

That's how I understand it :lol:

 

[john_kidder]

That's pretty good.

 

[jmac]

Interviewer: "Can you explain jazz?"

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, it's 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."


This is brilliant. Thanks for posting it.

 

[john_kidder]

Response from my friend Joe Charon (who is a fine songwriter, but admits to being not much of a jazz player):

• 
  Yogi is only partly right because he still insists on answering the interviewer's questions.
  
  Wynton Marsalis said it best when he indicated that the secret to great jazz is the space between the notes. In other words great jazz only happens when everyone is playing nothing. The truly magical moments occur when everyone in a jazz ensemble tries to outguess everyone else at being the one playing nothing.
  
  We should understand at this point that there is a difference between playing nothing and playing nothing of consequence. We would then be talking about the genre described as "new country". In "new country" the same things are played over and over again until they seem like nothing.
  
  Jazz is not like that at all. Great jazz constantly strives to make something out of nothing. The best jazz is when everyone in a group is trying to do nothing at the same time and they all fail. That is called syncopation.

 

[AlohaJoe]

Wynton Marsalis said it best when he indicated that the secret to great jazz is the space between the notes. In other words great jazz only happens when everyone is playing nothing.

So there's hope for me yet! :lol:

 

[JerryR]

Wynton Marsalis said it best when he indicated that the secret to great jazz is the space between the notes. In other words great jazz only happens when everyone is playing nothing.

So there's hope for me yet! :lol:

I think I come into the 'playing nothing of consequence' category but then I'm no Jazz fan :mrgreen:

 

[fronobulax]

In other words great jazz only happens when everyone is playing nothing.

Not to inject a note of non-levity here, but I am reminded of a studio guitarist - I want to say Jeff Baxter, but it is the kind of story that could sound right about anyone - who was called to a studio to add his magic to a work in progress. The guy walked in, listened for a while and left with a fat paycheck having never payed a note. Apparently knowing what not to play was also a prized skill.


How do you get an electric guitar player to stop playing?
Put sheet music in front of him.

 

[JerryR]

In other words great jazz only happens when everyone is playing nothing.

Not to inject a note of non-levity here, but I am reminded of a studio guitarist - I want to say Jeff Baxter, but it is the kind of story that could sound right about anyone - who was called to a studio to add his magic to a work in progress. The guy walked in, listened for a while and left with a fat paycheck having never payed a note. Apparently knowing what not to play was also a prized skill.


How do you get an electric guitar player to stop playing?
Put sheet music in front of him.

Is 'sheet music' what a bad Mexican guitarist plays :?: :mrgreen: