McShann’s band first came to New York, I’d been in New York previously but I went back West and rejoined the band and came back to New York. – well, the first time, our official meeting I might say, was on the bandstand of the Savoy Ballroom in New York City in 1939. Where did you first meet Dizzy Gillespie?Ĭ.P. – Charlie, this brings us kind of up to where you and Diz started joining forces, the next record we have coming up. – Why don’t we listen to it then, and talk about it? We, Charlie, picked out “Night and Day”, that’s one of his records. Einstein had schooling, but he has a definite genius, you know, within himself, schooling is one of the most wonderful things there’s ever been, you know.Ĭ.P. Like schooling brings out the polish of any talent that happens anywhere in the world. It’s just like any talent that’s born within somebody, it’s like a good pair of shoes when you put a shine on it, you know. – oh definitely, study is absolutely necessary, in all forms. – and make those sessions and live the life, but they don’t put in those 11 hours a day with any of the books.Ĭ.P. – you know, I’m very glad that he’s bringing up this point because I think that a lot of young musicians tend to think that… – well that’s very reassuring to hear, because somehow I got the idea that you were just born with that technique, and you never had to worry too much about it, about keeping it working. Naturally, it wasn’t done with mirrors, this time it was done with books. Well that was all done with books, you know. – I heard a record of yours a couple of months ago that somehow I’ve missed up to date, and I heard a little 2 bar quote from the Klose book that was like an echo from home…Ĭ.P. I did that for over a period of 3 to 4 years.

I used to put in at least 11 to 15 hours a day.Ĭ.P. She said I was driving them crazy with the horn. In fact the neighbors threatened to ask my mother to move once when we were living out West. I put quite a bit of study into the horn, that’s true.

– well,you make it so hard for me to answer you, you know, I can’t see where there’s anything fantastic about it all. I’ve always wondered about that, too – whether there was – whether that came behind practicing or whether that was just from playing, whether it evolved gradually.Ĭ.P. – another thing that’s been a major factor in your playing is this fantastic technique, that nobody’s quite equaled. – yeah, and you always do have a story to tell It’s one of the most impressive things about everything I’ve ever heard of yours.Ĭ.P. It can be very descriptive in all kinds of ways, you know, all walks of life. You wouldn’t say idiom but it’s so hard to describe music other than the basic way to describe it – music is basically melody, harmony and rhythm – but I mean people can do much more with music than that. There’s definitely stories and stories and stories that can be told in the musical idiom, you know. Most likely in another 25, or maybe 50 years some youngster will come along and take the style and really do something with it, you know, but I mean ever since I’ve ever heard music I’ve thought it should be very clean, very precise – as clean as possible anyway – you know, and more or less to the people, you know, something they could understand, something that was beautiful, you know. – that’s what I said when I first started talking, that’s my first conception, man, that’s the way I thought it should go, and I still do. – like the way you were speaking, John.Ĭ.P.

– yeah, that I don’t think there’s any answer to… I’d like to know why there was this violent change, after all – up until this time the way to play the alto sax was the way that Johnny Hodges and Benny Carter played alto, and this seems to be an entirely different conception, not only of how to play that particular horn, but of music in general.Ĭ.P. – I’d like to stick in a question, if I may. I had no idea that it was that much different. Did you realize at the time the effect you were going to have on Jazz-that you were going to change the entire scene in the next ten years?Ĭ.P. P.D.- that music because there’s many good people playing in that record but the style of the alto is so different from anything else that’s on the record or that went before. C.P.= Charlie Parker / P.D.= Paul Desmond / J.M.= John McLellan (Fitch)

Take five alto sax solo pdf