Do you know Eldar? (Eww, I just clicked the link and the sound that came out was almost like “smooth jazz.”) Still, here’s the story. Five years ago or so, on a Sunday afternoon, Danny and I were driving around KC, listening to a couple of local ladies who have a Jazz program on the local NPR station. They played a version of Ellington’s Caravan. I said, “This is nutty!” Then the ladies introduced Eldar Djangerov, who happened to be living in a suburb of KC at the time. We memorized the name and went home to “google.” Turned out he was 14 years old when he recorded it. Honestly, I was flabbergasted.

But what do I know? It may be exactly what Bill Evans mentions above. (Taking the whole, without understanding building from the base.) From the link I just put here, I hope he isn’t being fucked up by marketing managers or corporate recording to the point he can’t recover.

And now I think this comment is longer than the first one.

Personal philosophies of Artists, when “riffing” on that which has come before, whether music, cut paper, words, or whatever medium, simply leave me in jaw-dropping awe.

Music, though. Jazz, is so “in the moment.” It may be the riskiest of all artistic endeavors. To me (and I’m no scholar nor practicioner, just appreciator of what pleases me) it seems, sucking or brilliance is only a note’s throw away. (My uneducated subjectivity notwithstanding.)

My teacher gave me a similar lecture, making me solo over a tune with just two notes. Two! But it forced me to really think about how I used them. He also had me play classical pieces “so slowly mistakes are impossible”; even if that was one note per second. It’s a lesson that’s stayed with me: there’s always an easily-comprehended level from which we build.