This is Wayne Shorter on jazz: “If you’re playing something that’s supposed to sound like it’s supposed to be . . . and you’re perfecting this mandatory expression with mandates all around it, it’s nothing more than a statue,” says Shorter. “Like polishing a statue.” It’s further pinpoints a similar point Wayne made earlier about [...]

When Javon Jackson played in St. Louis earlier this year, STLToday.com posted an interview with him. It’s not online anymore but I did archive the quote I liked best. With the release of his new recording, Once Upon A Melody, earlier this month, I thought I’d post this. “Some people don’t think what I’m doing [...]

“There used to be a thing where people would say, “this is not jazz! Blah, blah, blah. It’s supposed to sound like this.” Whenever there’s a prescription for what something is supposed to be, to look like or sound like, then to me, that’s a statue.” I love listening to Wayne speak. He always makes [...]

While trying to find information about the re-release of Groove Collective’s Live…and Hard To Find, I came across this quote from their neglected web site. I love it. When recently asked to describe the band, a member responded… “Part social experiment, part musical experience; We’ve tried democracy, communism, capitalism, dorian, chromatic, mescalydian, starvation diets, sleep [...]