ONE BIG NEGOTIATION

Jazz improvisation is fun to do and not fun to watch.  I’ve taken four-minute solos and wondered if anybody was still alive afterward.

The good thing about klezmer is there isn’t much room for long solo flights.

Most of the guys in the band can play in any key at any time.  Not me.  That’s why I’m the leader.  Then again, most musicians don’t know how to negotiate.  I do.  I think my whole adult life has been one big negotiation.

I have sat at the negotiating table with wildlife. Years ago I played avant-garde sax licks in the Rocky Mountains for birds.  “Avant-garde” because I didn’t know what I was doing.  You blast an alto from mountaintop to mountaintop, and you feel like Joshua with a shofar.

Consider your audience.  I jammed on the first few notes of “Hatikvah.”  It’s natural minor.

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Shabbat shalom
Tomorrow:
I AM NOT BOB FELLER . . . Signing autographs at a concert.

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