This quote is from Keith Jarret, one of my favorite musicians. He's talking
about Miles Davis, but I think the whole thing holds especially true for
shakuhachi as well. This resonated (not pun intended) very strongly with me
when I first read it, and if it does for somebody else out there as well,
then it will have been worth procrastinating work to type out.
"Someone could say, 'Oh, anyone can play like Miles.' He has a trumpet
sound that is almost like a student has when a student is learning trumpet.
You get that same sound, almost, for a while, and then you get more brassy,
and then you play more and more and you lose this 'innocent' sound that
Miles has. So the whole world can say, 'Anybody can get that sound,' but
nobody can get it [laughs].
And the reason Miles gets that sound and no one else gets it is because
Miles wants the sound more than they do; he wants that sound. He wants it
with this ferociousness, so he gets it.
I don't know what other word to use...ferocious is just...I can't think of a
better word, either - it's not enough to say Miles wants the sound because
everybody can say they want things, but Miles wants it with all his energy.
The ferociousness can't be egotistical, that's why I used that word. An
animal doesn't have an ego like we do and animals can be ferocious. They
need to eat; they are ferocious. They don't let anything get in their way.
But they are not doing it for an ego, thery're doing it to survive or for
something to survive - maybe their kids, their litte baby lions.
I'm trying to get out of this thing where _want_ means something like
_desire_. I don't mean desire. Ferociousness is too fast for desire.
Desire is "I think I want, oh, I'd love to do this, or I'd love to do this,
or...," but it's not what I'm talking about. The kind of want that would
make me play the note I hear isn't ego. That's no ego, that's a sort of
harmonizing with reality in a powerful way.
Miles can play soft and it's powerful; other trumpet players play soft and
it's weak. There is ferociousness even in the soft note.
But it's not anger or ego, it's the whole note: "I want this note. Not for
me but for the air." The thing that makes it ferocious is what happens
before he plays the note. He has to be ready for the note, for his own
note, not somebody else's note. Not the note on the paper, not the note
somewhere in the air above him but _his_ note, he has to be ready for this.
That's very difficult.
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