You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Our 7 Favorite Musician Quotes

Episode Date: July 8, 2020

On today's episode, Peter and Adam present some words to live by as they list off the most memorable quotes from some jazz greats.Our 7 Favorite Musician Quotes:"A genius is the one most like himself." - Monk"Do not fear mistakes - there are none." - Miles"To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also." - Igor Stravinsky"Your sound is your signature." - Christian McBride"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art." - Bird"Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life." - Art Blakey"That's bull*&%!" - BranfordLinks From This EpisodeFor a comprehensive collection of piano lessons, save money by purchasing the Piano Access Pass - every piano course past, present, and future from Open Studio.Check out the latest course from Open Studio - the Magic Voicing System. Learn from Adam Maness as he teaches you an easy way to always play stronger voicings, no matter the note or chord.Upcoming Open Studio Live Events (All times in EDT):Every Day at 1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)Thursday (7/9) at 10:30 PM - Live Peter Sprague Concert on YouTubeFor the rest of this week's calendar, follow this linkInterested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Adam. Yes. Can you quote me on that? On what? Well, you'll see. Okay. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin.

And you're listening to the You'll Hear podcast. Music advice coming at you approximately every other day. Approximately a couple times a week. We kind of settle into the schedule. Are you feeling good about it? You're getting good feedback on it? I'm getting great feedback on it. I'm feeling really good about it, actually.

You know, it's great because we can take our time with it. We can really get back to what this podcast is all about, which is really digging deep on some things that we care about. And I love today's episode. These are our favorite, seven favorite quotes from jazz musicians. Before we get into it, though, our sponsor today is Open Studio. So go to Open StudioJazz.com. And hey, want to you check out the Piano Access Pass?

We just released this Magic Voicing's course you might have heard about. We talked a little bit about it on the other days episode. The other days. I don't know when. Like a fortnight ago. A fortnight ago. Yeah, but go check it out for yourself. You can check out all of our courses with the Piano Access Pass.

And it's, I mean, it's darn right a steal. It's so affordable. So go check it out. That's right. It's legal theftry, thievery. That's right. We permit it. So what are we talking about today?

Today we're talking about some quotes. I've been thinking a lot about this one particular monk quote. And I brought it up to you and you were like, oh, we should do something on our favorite quotes from jazz musicians. Because quotes are like, they're like things that we can apply. I mean, it's almost like meditations, right? Yeah. It's like you can, you can think about something that someone who has. it more figured out than you the way they think about the world and it can really reveal some

things about how you think about that same thing. I know that sounded very thinky what I just said. But really what I'm saying, I'm a thinker. No, as is I have too many faults, it's think too much. It can really, you know, hearing what our heroes have to say, what people who are masters of where we want to be. Yeah. Hearing how they frame a situation can be extremely helpful to help us frame that same situation. Yeah, I mean, I think that these, hopefully the ones we are proffering today on the episode, but your favorite ones, and maybe something a friend tells you, maybe something that you said can be both, you know, inspirational and aspirational. That's right. It can, you can make it your own. And I love the, we're going to start

with the Monk one, right? Yeah. Yeah. This one is great because I remember hearing it. It's just, it's one of those ones that's like drifted in and out of my life at different times. And every time I hear it, it's like you haven't eaten a dish for a while, but you eat it again. It's like going home again. And it affirms, you know, hopefully what I believe in and kind of a connection. You know, we make these connections with musicians that we didn't necessarily see live, like somebody like Thelonius Monk. But you feel like you know them through their music, through the compositions that they pass along to us. But then an exciting part is to be a part of that lineage.

And a lot of times it goes beyond just the music and being able to play. the music. It's to investigate and invest in the philosophy and the lifestyle and the things that jazz musicians, and we actually go a little bit outside of just jazz on here,

but just creative musicians think and feel and believe it. And to attach yourself to that. It's kind of like, you know, if you got into I don't know, something that didn't exist in this part of the world, but you were so connected with it. So you'd listen to the masters of it, but you also

read about, well, how they looked at the world, you know, and how they, and then at a certain point, you'd want to travel and see them or whatever. But this is like traveling back in time and attaching ourselves with the masters. That's right, to kind of get in their headspace and their frame of mind. And this first one, it's one that I come back to as well, all the time, just like you. I think this is a brilliant quote for any artists. And that is, a genius is the one most like himself. Bam. Polonious Monk. And I think, especially coming from Monk, who was so himself, all the time. And his music was so unique and singular and what a strong point of view and sense of self that he had that this quote really shows you the way he thinks about how to make good art.

And it's very, very inspiring. You know, I catch myself all the time with this quote of like, now, hold on. Is this like, is this where, is this me? Or am I just regurgitating something of someone I like, but it's not really something I care about. I can do it, but should I do it? You know what I mean? Right, right. How can I work not only to be a more technically proficient musician and a better player,

but how can I work to be more me on the piano? Yes. That's the goal, right? How can I get to be more me, whatever, and off the piano? I mean, that's the thing with this quote is like, he didn't say a musician is the one who's most like themselves. He didn't say that a genius is the player who plays most like them himself. He said a genius is the one.

most like himself. Right, right. And I love that, you know, to me, this quote always opened up, uh, the meaning, the definition, you know, the, the total landscape of what a genius is to everybody potentially. Yeah. You know, it was not just about, you know, well, I mean, Monk liked the word genius. He used it some in his, some of his albums, you know, the genius of modern music. I mean, I don't know if he came up with that, but, um, he had a very expansive view. I think on the word and I love it. A genius is the one most like him or herself. Let's update it for modern times.

That's right. All right. What's the second one we got? Oh, I should do this one, I guess, right? Yeah, this is great. This is from an up-and-coming, not, this trumpet player hasn't really been known necessarily, but after you hear this quote, you might familiarize yourself with someone by the name of Miles Davis. What?

Yes, Miles Davis. Do not fear mistakes. There are none. I love this one. It's a very Miles quote. very Miles quote, but this is one that you can really hold on to because it's absolute. It's, there's no apologies just as Miles was often known not to apologize for his music or his beliefs and was really a genius for sure.

I mean, he's the one most like himself. Come on. But don't fear mistakes. There are not. You know, the inside of this is like, it's not don't, don't worry about mistakes. You're going to all make them or don't, don't fixate on. mistakes, try to get beyond them. It's like, don't fear them because there's no such thing as that in this music. So that's a mindset thing. Like if you have a mindset that there's a mistake,

you know, and this is very connected with the first month quote, I think, as well, because how can you be yourself if you're self-censoring what you're doing and saying, well, that's a mistake. Is it a mistake for you? If that's what you're playing, if that's what you're hearing, it's not a mistake, you know. And so it's like a total, and I think, you know, in Miles, the spirit of his music, you know, a lot of the things he said were obviously controversial at different times. Although probably with the totality of what he said, he was just a very small percentage, but everybody fixed out on the thing. But you know, Miles was, it was a master marketer as well. So he knew how to get people talking and thinking and he loved to kind of, you know, mess with people.

So, but when you talk about his music, like this is very much something that he worked at and became a master at was not fearing mistakes and eliminating, the concept of mistakes in his music. And he taught that. He taught a whole generation of players that played with him, that mentality and that framework for making music just by being himself, basically. That's right. So that's a great one to kind of connect in with Miles.

Well, yeah, this does connect with the first monk quote so well, because when you're not fearing mistakes, because you believe there are none, that gives you a freedom to be yourself that helps with, you know what I mean? Like, I'm not, I can just be me and whatever, happens is what happens. And that's what should happen as opposed to like, I got to play the right thing. I got to do this. And if people, you know, if I want to be a bad cat and I want to,

if people want to think that I'm a genius, I got to like, blah, blah, you know, like, be yourself. Don't fear mistakes. Yeah. Because there are none. Yep. And, you know, feel free to, you know, just go ahead and do your thing. Yep. I turn that into like, you know, and then just feel free to, you know, whatever. Like a free love kind of. Just a free love. This next one is great. To listen is an effort. and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also. And that is Igor Stravinsky. Brother out of St. Petersburg, what?

Is this more his own marketing campaign for his music? He's like, listen, y'all. Yeah. Yeah, well, I like this because, oh, actually, I thought this sort of supported all you'll hear it. Now I realize it doesn't support you'll hear it, does it? Even a duck here. Well, you know what? No, that does support.

You'll hear it's for everybody, even the ducks, right? Ducks hear it. Ducks hear it. Oh, I see Adam looking nervously over at his logic monitor. Are we all good? We're all good. Okay, good. To listen is an effort and just to hear is no matter.

I don't even understand this one. No, you know what? This is actually really good. I was thinking about this today. I've been listening to a lot of music lately. I've just been in one of those zones where I have a little break of not having to make very much, so I get to listen to stuff. And there's a difference between deep listening and just having it on as I'm sweeping the floor or, you know, whatever, doing the dishes.

It's like to sit down and to go deep on a record start to finish is an effort. And it's an effort worth doing. But it's no different than any other focused effort or attention training. It's the same thing, right? Sorry, I stopped paying attention to you what we were saying. Got really bored with what I was just saying. I was totally listening. I was concentrating on my comedic effect.

Well, you know, to this point, I actually, I didn't even mention this to you yet, Adam. I just ordered a turntable. Oh yeah. I'm going back in time. Bro. Are you on the turntable bandwagon? I just ordered, yeah,

I have my, I just, so I got some new speakers this week. Yeah. I got some ELAC desktop speakers. They're, they're not very expensive, but they're really highly rated.

They sound awesome. They're not super boomy. They're just really clean. Yeah. I got my turntable going. I just ordered a copy of McCoy Tyner's inception on vinyl that's coming tomorrow, I think. Okay,

I want you to tell me where to pick up vinyl because a lot of my, my formerly glorious LP collection 15 years ago went down with Hurricane Katrina. That's a whole other story. But I don't have a lot. But I have a few things that people have been giving me and things I've picked up.

I'll hook you up. Okay, cool. But I'm wondering if that is, my hope is that this will kind of help reinvigorate my love of deep listening, you know. I don't know, being able to physically hold and concentrate on just one thing. I put Crescent on,

there's two tracks aside on Crescent. It's great. Yeah. a track, then you go get some more coffee, you flip it over, you have a cigarette. If I smoked, you have a cigarette. You can have an e-cigarette, I guess. Yeah. Although that's not good either. All right. Number four, I love this one because this is very specific to us. And we picked it because we're looking at a big poster of this gentleman right here. But this is from Christian McBride, or as we affectionately call him McBreezy. And this quote is short and to the point.

Your sound is your signature. That's so great, man. Oh, I could tell you a lot of things to do. Yeah, so he said this in one of our, remember, we just turned the camera on him. Yeah. And he did this whole amazing promotional video of his course with us. Two minutes. Two minutes. Was there two minutes jazz? Yeah.

It's two minute jazz. And he talked about what the things not to do to get a good sound. But the actual, when he just started off with your sound is your signature. Like that's such an amazing thing to think about. And as pianists, we overlook sound because it's like, oh, yeah, it just sounds how the bosendorfer on playing sounds. You know, but there's so much going on. in our technique and the way we approach our instrument that that we need to think more about sound every musician needs to think more about sound yeah sound is the first thing that people that impresses

upon people on your audience it really is there's nothing before you can play a rhythm or play a melody the sound makes that first impression yes so you have to get a good sound absolutely and I love that level of it and I think there's another level too which is if you think about a signature you know only you have it. It's like a thumbprint, you know. And so we value that. And, you know, as jazz musicians, it's something that we've always excelled at

is that we have, I mean, this totally ties in with the monk. I'm so glad that this all comes out of the monk, quote, being like yourself, having a signature, that's your signature sound. That's your signature thing you do. And this actually came out of a whole lesson

that Krishna did in fundamentals of jazz bass, where he talked about, you know, how you develop your sound. and why it's important. And he's like, your sign is your signature, you see. I don't think he'd even thought

about it as a quote. And I suggested to him right before he did the promo video. He's like, what am I going to do? I was like, why don't you do something on? No, he's like,

what do you want me to do? Hold on. I got to go, let me get my marketing hat on. But I was like, well, you said a really cool thing in the last lesson your sound is your signature.

And he's like, oh, okay, cool. I was like, oh, wow, you got it from that. And he ran with it. Awesome. All right,

we got number five of our seven favorite musician quotes. Number five, music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music, but man, there's no boundary line to art. That is Charlie Parker, affectionately called Bird.

Yes, affectionately called Bird. Absolutely. That's such a great quote, man. And, you know, it's true, too. And this actually goes back to what we were talking about a couple weeks ago. We were talking about, like, what do you care about is are you making your day-to-day experience part of your art right like is is what you're actually doing day-to-day

living into the values that you set for yourself like so as an artist are you living day-to-day in the art you want to make are you living those values that your art makes it's a great question to ask that we should always be pushing yeah it's just this great connotation about you know being authentic like we can't this this is not a clock in clock out kind of job or vocation or profession. You know, it's, and I love how Charlie Parker says, but man, but comma, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Like he's, it's, it's very personal. It's very, like, belief based. And, you know, if you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. I mean, that, that's, that or some variation on that has been passed around for generations. Yeah. If you don't live it, you know, it's usually like the older musicians, the young musicians playing is kind of tentative.

And it's like, come on, man. You got to, but it also is part of the monk quote from the beginning. It's like, you have to put yourself into this. That's right. You have to live it. Everybody's living something. But you have to be open to having that to be part of your art. Put your musical values into your daily experience. If they're not there, you're not living it. Drop down and give me 20 daily experiences right now. You know what I mean? Like what do you want to be? What, what story are you telling yourself about the musician

you are? And is that true in your experience on a daily basis, on a regular basis? If it's not, then something is not in a chord. Then there's some kind of... There's some kind of cognitive dissonance between what you think you are and what you're living. So, you know, I mean, skew it either way you want it. Change, you know, however you frame that. But that's the truth.

And you've got to check in with that. Yeah. And then there's the other kind of duality with this quote is about the boundary lines to music, but like the differentiation of music and art. Like music is something that you can be like, well, there's different genres and this is a commodity and music is just a sound. And, you know, the birds chirping is music. I mean, the birds chirping is beautiful, but that's not art.

You know, that's something artistic that maybe occurs in nature. But I love that, you know, there's no boundary line to art. So that is life. That is humanity. That is who you are, the essence of who you are and the artistry and the human should not be separated. All right. Next one is a great one from Artpliki. You want to read it?

Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life. It's just a feel good quote right there. And we've got that on the wall here, which is nice. Yeah, we do right by our coffee machine when we need to gear up. Yeah, that's right. What, I love this one. And I always, it's so funny, jazz walk. First of all, I don't know if you want to wash away dust.

That gets a little murky. But I know what he's saying. I know what he's saying. Yeah. But yeah, this is, this one for me, every time I hear this or think about this one, it's kind of a reminder of, in a very positive way of what a, if the music is, is like, you know, if there's negativity in the world or there's darkness, like kind of as there is now, you know, in somewhat of an unprecedented way, we always have the

music. It's like almost like one of those kind of quotes. The music's always there to put a smile on your face. It's like if you have access to the music, you have access to everything and it can counteract or counterbalance negative things, the dust of everyday life, the kind of just redundancy and and just normalness. It's something extraordinary there. It's this little gem, this little jewel that's always there. And it's refreshing and it's rejuvenating and it's a living, breathing art that we can use. And it's not dusty.

That was funny. Maybe we had an early episode of the You'll Hear a podcast when it was like the seven dustiest jazz pianists or something. You remember that one. I do remember that one. Okay. You've got to do this last one. Number seven, this is kind of our bonus.

So before we get that, we're just saying, as always, we're sponsored our open Studio and go to Open Studio Jazz.com to check out all of our, you know our stuff, man. If you want to, if you want to learn jazz lessons from jazz legends, well, I'm going to start getting dogmatic because the quote for number seven is from one of our dogmatic friends of the podcast, right? Yeah, he's so dogmatic. Oh, man, this is the best quote ever. This is from Brand for Marcellus.

This is simply, that's bullshit. And this comes from, this is one of my favorite parts of the Ken Burns jazz documentary. It's during the section on the avant-garde and Cecil Taylor specifically. And Cecil Taylor once said that he prepares for his concerts and he expects his audience to prepare with various listening and to get in the proper mindset for a Cecil Taylor concert.

And it just cut to Brantford. And Bramford goes, that's bullshit. Bramford goes, when I go see a baseball game, I don't go field grounders beforehand. it's awesome man it's also very brandford and actually kind of true all the same time yeah that is great so fantastic um well that's good so that's our seven favorite musician quotes uh hit us up and let us know what you think you know what we're going old school a little bit and some folks have been contacted we don't always say it but you can hit up is it y h i at open studio jazz.com if you want to send us

an email you'll hear it dot com just go to you'll hear it dot com yeah i thought they can send an email too Oh, they can't see any. Oh, yeah, yeah. Y-H-I. Yeah, sorry. I'm messed that up. Y-H-I at open-studiojazz.com. But hey, what about a speakpipe? I don't think that's still working. Tell them what it is, but I'm going to check. I don't know. No, go to you'll hear it.com to leave us a speakpipe. You can leave us a rating review in your app right now. We only take seven-star reviews. That's right.

We don't do five stars, even though that's only what's possible. We love seven-stars. So give us a seven-star review. Give us a rating. Let us know your favorite jazz musician quotes. How about it in a rating? Till tomorrow.