Wednesday 17 December 2008

Wynton Marsalis on Learning to Hear

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Ethan Iverson interviews Wynton Marsalis: "People need education. It should be our right for our whole country. You???d be taught how to listen to stuff. That???s not a revolutionary concept. People know it takes education to learn things -- whether shooting a basketball, writing with your writing hand, putting a suit on, shining your shoes ??? there???s education all the time."
After reading the whole of Ethan's interview, I have to confess a new respect for Wynton Marselis, even if I maybe can't completely dig his exacting adherence to the rules; first off, he's not alone in that approach, nor is it anything peculiar to Jazz as there are scads of musicians out there in all genres who consider preserving the tradition to be paramount, and I do respect and appreciate that, it just doesn't fit my boundary-probing habits.

As Bucky Fuller put it, "Every time I draw a circle, I want to step out of it."

Nonetheless, Wynton shows himself here to be open, intelligent, compassionate, human and a cat who probably deserves every penny he gets.