Quotations: Musicians on musicians

[fearandpanic]

A thread for favourite comments by musicians about other musicians. Occasionally reading one musician's antipathy or lavish praise for another can be surprising or illuminating--or at least amusing. The Invisible Jukebox feature in the Wire (and other blindfold listening tests) can be a good source of these, and sometimes, possibly with the help of a few insider anecdotes, they can paint unquestioned reputations in a different light. While not exactly broad enough for its own thread, Dohol's quotation from Watazumi Doso helped raise interesting comments about Steve Lacy, so comments about the comments are fine too.

Possibly the topic is too indistinct to go anywhere, but you never know.

[Gerardo A]

"We'd all sound like that if we could." John Coltrane on Stan Getz

[surfer]

The Invisible Jukebox feature in the Wire.

"It's the worst solo I've ever heard in my life."

- Lee Konitz on Anthony Braxton's solo on "April"

[Dohol]

" He plays all right for a millionaire. "

Cecil Taylor on Miles Davis.

" Now that's funny; until I heard that I didn't think he had a sense of humor. "

Miles Davis on Cecil Taylor.

[dave quam]

"This album made me so morose and depressed when I got the advance copy that I stayed drunk for three days. I didn't go to work. I had a horrible physical fight with my wife over a stupid bottle of 10 mg. Valiums. (She threw an ashtray, a brick, and a five foot candelabra at me, but I got her down and sat on her chest and beat her head on the wooden floor.) I called up the editor of this magazine (on my bill) and did virtually nothing but cough up phlegm in an alcoholic stupor for three hours, wishing somewhere in the back of my deadened brain that he could give me a clue as to why I should like this record".
-Peter Laughner on Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby

[free math]

"if charlie parker was a gunslingin' bird, there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats" --charles mingus

[box229]

"Improv is still rubbish" - Derek Bailey.

...well, it's not about other musicians, but his response to the Wire invisible jokebox.

[fearandpanic]

"He works and reworks a handful of compositions so that they better and better express his intentions, which perhaps ever so slightly are changing." - John Cage on Carl Ruggles.

"In spite of all of Coltrane’s fame, and all of the saxophonists who imitated him, his sensibility was not perpetuated by well-known performers. Coltrane’s personal dedication, which made his esthetic values possible, has proved to be irreplaceable so far as publicly available music is concerned." - Henry Flynt.

[Gerardo A]

Reggie Workman on Art Blakey, as quoted by Stanley Crouch:

"You remind me of a story Reggie Workman told at the Jazz Museum in Harlem about playing with Art Blakey. This was after he left John Coltrane. Blakey had more of a show than Coltrane, and it was largely the same every night, with Blakey playing the same breaks and so on. So Reggie got to point where he thought he knew was it was, that he could sleepwalk through the gig. But one night, Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie came in, and Art Blakey saw them. Blakey then commenced playing on a level Reggie had no idea Blakey was capable of. Actually, when Reggie was telling this story, he started crying, since the memory of this thrilling experience--of Blakey's relationship to the music and to those two other men--was so moving.

(McCoy Tyner also told me of a night playing with Blakey where Blakey did something behind the drums that shook the whole stage. And McCoy had already played with Coltrane and Elvin, but only Blakey--somehow--shook the whole stage.)"

[Gerardo A]

Sam Rivers on Billie Holiday:

"In the fall of 1956, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I decided to go to Miami. Billie Holliday was there...After work everyone would go to the Sir John Motel to jam until 8 or 9 in the morning. I played next to Billie...Then I had a nervous attack; I broke out into a cold sweat, and was about to faint. When Billie saw what was happening she told me to go outside. She'd "look after my horn", she said, just like she had for Lester Young whenever he had to go outside. When I came back, she sang 'Detour Ahead', and I heard the pain in her voice; suddenly the text seemed to be about me, and I began to cry."

[walt]

"If he had one tit i'd marry the motherfucker"-Miles Davis speaking about Al Green.

[restructures]

Nothing beats that Miles quote on Al Green, but...

"When somebody asked Cage if he thought there was too much suffering in the world, he said, 'No, just the right amount' -- and I think the Spice Girls are a part of that!"
-- Keith Rowe

[jkudler]

" He plays all right for a millionaire. "

Cecil Taylor on Miles Davis.

" Now that's funny; until I heard that I didn't think he had a sense of humor. "

Miles Davis on Cecil Taylor.

amazing.

[Dan Warburton]

"If you'd asked him for a paradiddle he'd think you wanted two eggs and bacon."

Sunny Murray on Milford Graves

[Dan Warburton]

"We are Al Jolson."

Roberto "Reynols" Conlazo

[free math]

"Orbison transcended all the genres. With Roy, you didn't know if you were listening to mariachi or opera. He kept you on your toes. He sang his compositions in three or four octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff. He sang like a professional criminal. His voice could jar a corpse, always leave you muttering to yourself something like, 'Man, I don't believe it'. His songs had songs within songs. Orbison was deadly serious — no pollywog and no fledgling juvenile. There wasn't anything else on the radio like him".
—Bob Dylan from Chronicles Vol. 1

[free math]

"Roland Kirk and Sun Ra are what I've been most into in the last five years. Both aren't academic jazz people, they're totally earthy and natural, like ancient, somehow, but very modern at the same time. The sound is muddy. If I had to pick one person as my hero, I'd have to say Kirk: He plays brass, for one, which has always been a soft spot for me, and he plays in a very intuitive way as opposed to with brains. He plays songs that are like pop songs, they're so simple, but at the same time, are mind-expanding experiences. It's not too much of anything but has got all the extremes. He plays free jazz that a five-year-old kid would understand, that anyone could get into, which is something I always like."
—Björk

[J.F.]

"Roland Kirk and Sun Ra are what I've been most into in the last five years. [...]"
—Björk

When did she say that?



And Murray on Graves is really funny.

[free math]

uh probably 15 years ago. she did some arrangements for oliver lake and the world sax quartet guys around that time.

[przesyt]

"Towards the end of her life she planned the revolution in Germany and within The Roman Church"

Olivier Messiaen on Hildegard of Bingen