Brookmeyer And The Times

Bob Brookmeyer is as forthright, and often unorthodox, in his conversation as he is in his music. Here’s some of what Brookmeyer told The New York Times‘s Ben Ratliff about how jazz soloists often relate to the music he writes:

If you give a soloist an open solo for 30 seconds, he plays like he’s coming from the piece that you wrote. Then he says, ‘What the hell was that piece that I was playing from?’ And the next 30 seconds is, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll play what I learned last night.’ And bang! Minute 2 is whoever he likes, which is probably Coltrane.

Ratliff’s article, “Bob Brookmeyer: Raging and Composing Against the Jazz Machine,” is in today’s Times. The Rifftides staff recommends it. If it doesn’t give you enough of Brookmeyer’s undiluted opinions about music and life, go to his website, scroll down and click on “Currents.”