Mention the film, Casablanca, and those are the words that spring forth
in mind. Four words, and a world.
David Amran, musician and composer for film and for full orchestra, has
these words to say:
“You move right along that path
and stay on that path,
whatever happens.
You’re aware of your surroundings.”
Later, Amran wrote:
“MIles Davis says there are no wrong notes in jazz.
By that he did not mean play anything.— he had he most beautiful
selection of notes imaginable. But he meant anything you have can move
to something else if you have a right path. When I was playing with Charley
Mingus, I was a 24-year-old hayseed in New York City playing with these
giants, I was in the middle of playing my French horn and the cash register
went to …. bo-la-la-binka-ding…. And I got confused.
MIngus said, “Come on, man, don’t pay any mind to that cash register.”
He said, ” Next time that happens, play off the cash register.”
I said, “What?”
He said, “Use that as part of the music. If you’re playing, the piano player
is going blokity-block,
the drum is going buckite-bucka-ding. Put that into the music and answer it.
Make that part of the whole experience.”
Thelonious Monk had a song called”Straight, No Chaser”, the same idea.
You move right along that path and stay on that path, whatever happens.
You’re aware of your surroundings. Every person is, at that moment, a
part of the situation, and you incorporate and tune yourself into that.
And when you do that, not just in jazz but in anything, including family
life, you can’t go wrong. Because anything that seems to steer you off the
path is only a different alternate version of MapQuest that might even be
better than the MapQuest we’re supposed to follow in life.”
……………………from the book, ‘Wisdom, Ideas’ by ANDREW ZUCKERMAN.
Right on. ( I have typed this in hunt-and-poke method, since one eye is not
yet in turne with the other eye. That will be remedied shortly by cataract
surgery and these ‘dailies’ will start getting more regular.)
always with love,
Mom/Mimi/Toni/Antoinette