Make the road by walking
As musicians/artists/humans, it is our ultimate goal to "find our own voice". Finding one's voice is a seemingly endless journey. It is a lifelong pursuit and a beautiful struggle of self discovery. We spend years listening, analyzing, emulating, studying, and we hope that the end result is that a unique identity develops. I often think of Clark Terry's famous "Three Steps" to learning the art of improvisation, "Imitate, Assimilate, and Innovate". This is a complete yet simple distillation of the process we spend our entire careers grappling with. In 2017, we have a universe of music to choose from; limitless paths of discovery - so which direction to choose?
I have swung back and forth wildly (mostly in my own mind), struggling with my identity as a musician - going through phases like an adolescent going through puberty. I have great admiration (jealousy?) for musicians who are secure in who they are. Am I playing enough bebop? Too much bebop? Too angular? Too weird? Not weird enough? Do most musicians struggle with this? I feel like I am beginning to get a grip on these questions, however. It is ok to like Barry Harris AND Cecil Taylor, Clifford Brown AND Don Cherry (who hung out btw), Charlie Parker AND Ornette Coleman, and the result of that might help me to "be me" or you to "be you".
I once had a very important lesson in which a teacher told me not to leave out any influences from my music. "What do you like?". The point being, if you enjoy certain types 
of music (rock, pop, hip hop, polka, etc) you shouldn't try and stifle those influences. "Let it all come through", I was told. I took that bit of advice very seriously and it was incredibly reassuring, comforting and validating - especially considering the source was someone I respected so much. This was something I had already been thinking about and trying to exemplify in my music. It takes courage to "be you" and oftentimes we get in our own way.
To borrow a phrase from friend and author Todd Lazarski, we "Make the road by walking." This phrase passes through my mind regularly.
It’s very important to have non-musical influences I think. You try to put your life experiences in your art no matter what. This is true of anything. Your social life, your romantic life, what you love in general, you know, the stuff you hate, all that stuff should somehow be in the music, or what you do as an artist for sure.
-Ethan Iverson
from The Bad Plus: On Jazz, Humility, and Finding Your Voice by Todd Anderson
"Not leaving anything out" goes beyond musical influences. Life experiences, personal
relationships, childhood memories, visual artistic expressions - the smells, tastes, sights, and sounds of daily life... the musicians who I am connected to most have this in their music. It can be explicit or implicit - but it can be felt. Can I hear your story in your music? Am I telling my story in my music? I have a need to surround myself, in both study and in performance, with music and musicians that have this personal quality.
Ultimately, it is about the journey not the destination. Never be satisfied, always be searching, and keep pushing. Like LeVar Burton said, "...You don't have to take my word for it."
"I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is 'cause I'm changing all the time.
-Charles Mingus
"My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being."
-John Coltrane
"The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves."
-Count Basie
"Music is your experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn."
-Charlie Parker
"When it comes to music, don't lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth."
-Art Blakey
"Forget about upholding the tradition and just play who you really are."
-Terence Blanchard
"When people believe in boundaries, they become part of them."
-Don Cherry
"A chimpanzee could learn what I do physically, but it goes way beyond that. When you play, you play life."
-Jaco Pastorius
"I find my inspiration in myself."
-Thelonious Monk
"Your humanity is your instrument."
-Wayne Shorter
Lessons from Don Cherry
Miles and Wynton both agree... Don Cherry is important.
"Don Cherry, I like..." - Miles Davis
by Leonard Feather, Down Beat Volume 58 No. 12
first published by Down Beat, June 1964
"I loved Don Cherry." - Wynton Marsalis
interviewed by Will Layman for Pop Matters, April 2016
As a young student of the trumpet, my sound reference was probably the same as most: Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, etc. Long before I understood anything about theory, harmony, and history - the sound and feel of these masters were ingrained in my head. In college, as I discovered more and more music and got deeper and deeper into studying, eventually I came across Ornette Coleman, and thusly, Don Cherry. I did not understand Don Cherry.
To my uninitiated ears, he sounded sloppy, lazy, amateurish even. All I could hear were the missed notes, the blurred phrasing, the out-of-tune pocket trumpet, limited range... I didn't get it. Cherry was the butt of the joke even, kind of a jab, amongst musicians on the scene – inferring he was someone who "couldn't play". Man, was I way off.
The first time I truly appreciated Don Cherry was upon listening to the 1960 Ornette Coleman record "Change of the Century" on Atlantic Records. A particular favorite tune of mine was "Ramblin'" - oddly enough (and an embarrassing discovery) I thought Ramblin' was a David Sanborn tune. Sanborn recorded a funk version of it on 1992's "Upfront", in Eb rather than the original Ornette key of D (presumably much easier on the alto in the transposed key of C than B!). I first realized upon really listening to Change of the Century, indeed, Cherry "could play". Upon deeper listening, tunes like "Ramblin'", "Bird Food", "Una Muy Bonita", and "Free" had all the swing, blues, soul and sophistication of bebop while at the same time allowing the space, harmonic freedom and creativity that fit Ornette's musical concept.
Another important discovery for me was the 1962 Sonny Rollins album "Our Man in Jazz" at the recommendation of a friend (Barry Velleman, I'm looking at you). On "Our Man in Jazz" it is evident that Rollins is intrigued by Ornette's innovations of the early 60's so much that he hires Cherry and Billy Higgins. It is a live "standards" record, but certainly Rollins is exploring a new improvisatory vocabulary clearly outside the bebop dialect of his recordings to date. Rollins takes long, wildly intervallic, and rhythmically free solos. Contrastingly, Cherry's solos are all extremely melodic, and succinct - each a masterclass in economy and melody. It is almost funny how surprisingly "inside" his solos are. It is clear on this record that Cherry's early influences of Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown are as much a part of his identity as Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor.
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