On music and freedom. a lecture on free jazz by kenny werner. with bits on the spirituality of playing music.

Free music: “touching the instrument in a variety of ways without the tyranny of the ‘right note’, the tyranny of ‘form.’”

On Jazz greats Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, etc: “These guys were not just great musicians, they were great philosophers… They were not trying to play jazz, they were finding that filament of life, the thing that makes it go. And then, writing odes to that.”

On Jazz and free jazz: “That was the period that I came in: ‘I wanna think outside the box so i’ll play jazz’….Now, to think outside the box means to think outside of jazz… Jazz has become the box… There’s a strong notion of what’s right and wrong”

On music and spirituality: “Music is not the message, it’s not even the messenger. It’s the language that the messenger uses to communicate the word from the ‘creator’, whatever you think that is. The ‘creator’ gives hints to the beauty inside and outside and one of the strongest hints he/she gives is through music. The player trains himself so that wherever the master wants to play, the player is ready to go there. And that’s the purpose of training.”