After I left Texas and went to California, I had a hard time getting anyone to play anything that I was writing, so I had to end up playing them myself. And that’s how I ended up just being a saxophone player. –Ornette Coleman
I am an improviser…I improvise music. Whatever you want to call it all, it is all improvised music. I may capture it and go back and write it down for others, but it was originally improvised. –Joe Zawinul
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
Ornette’s comment reminds me of his line about how he figured out that what he was doing made sense when he figured out that it was possible to play wrong notes.
(Sorry, I don’t remember the statement verbatim.)
(Here’s the Coleman quote: “It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.”
–DR)