Playing the Piece
Art Tatum: “There’s no such thing as a wrong note,”
and Don Byas explaining, “What makes a note wrong
is when you don’t know where to go after that one.
and Don Byas explaining, “What makes a note wrong
is when you don’t know where to go after that one.
You hit one. If it’s not right,
you hit another. If that’s not right,
you hit another, so you just keep hitting.
Now who’s going to say you’re wrong?
As long as you keep on going, you’re all right,
but don’t stop, because if you stop you’re in trouble.
Don’t ever stop unless you know you’re at a station.”
……………………………….
Don’t ever stop unless you know you’re at a station.”
……………………………….
Playing the Poem…………………..
in which he trusts
that the line is right
or that the next will make it so
the ancient mariner lies in bed
not quite Nils yet he’s still a sea otter
floating on his back looking at the moon
the remains of an abalone dusting his stomach
content as if he were Nils after a good martini
the restless ocean billows about him but he
rides high as a cork thinking his philosophical
otter thoughts, wondering how many miles to Babylon
then star light, star bright – first star I’ve seen tonight
after the big bang, the hydrogen atoms gathered
themselves together and turned into stars
uncle space thought that a good thing
his sister time thought so too
one of the very first stars set out so that she/he
could be in the right space at the right time
to lead some shepherds over the hill to Bethlehem
above flows a stream of words
some fine, some foolish
hard to tell which is which,
but Peterson, as you know,
has spoken both
……………….
has spoken both
……………….
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