[0:06]I don't know if you heard, uh. I'm not at Shafer anymore. Yeah, I did hear that. Did you quit? Not exactly. Some parents got a kid from Sean Casey's year, I think, to say some things about me. Although why anybody would have anything other than peaches and cream to say about me is a mystery.
[0:39]That's a good laugh, right? I'm sorry. No, listen. No, I'm sorry. I get it. I know I made enemies. I'm conducting a low. They brought back the JBC Fest this year. They got me opening in a couple of weeks with a pro band. That's great.
[1:01]Yeah, it's all right. Truth is, I don't think people understood what it was I was doing at Shafer. I wasn't there to conduct. Any fucking moron can wave his arms and keep people in tempo. I was there to push people beyond what's expected of them. I believe that is an absolute necessity. Otherwise, we're depriving the world of the next Louis Armstrong, the next Charlie Parker. I told you that story about how Charlie Parker became Charlie Parker, right? Jo Jones threw a symbol at his head. Exactly. Parker's a young kid, pretty good on the sax, gets up to play at a cutting session. And he fucks it up. And Jones nearly decapitates him for it, and he's laughed off stage. Cries himself to sleep that night, but the next morning, what does he do? He practices. And he practices, and he practices with one goal in mind: never to be laughed at again. And a year later, he goes back to the Reno, and he steps up on that stage and he plays the best motherfucking solo the world has ever heard.
[2:26]So, imagine if Jones had just said, Well, that's okay, Charlie. That was all right. Good job. And Charlie thinks to himself, "Well, shit, I did do a pretty good job." End of story. No bird. That to me is an absolute tragedy. But that's just what the world wants now. You wonder why jazz is dying?
[2:59]I tell you, man, every Starbucks jazz album just proves my point, really. There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job.
[3:17]But is there a line? You know, maybe you go too far and you discourage the next Charlie Parker from ever becoming Charlie Parker. No, man, no. Because the next Charlie Parker would never be discouraged. Yeah.
[3:40]The truth is, Andrew, I never really had a Charlie Parker. But I tried. I actually fucking tried, and that's more than most people ever do, and I will never apologize for how I tried.
