Really the Blues

"I learned over the years – by meeting legitimate jazz musicians who knew Mezzrow and the people he wrote about in the book – that it was filled with apocryphal stories. But it had a great impact on me because I was learning to be a jazz clarinet player, like Mezzrow, and learning to play the idiom of music that he and Bernard Wolfe wrote about. “Life, at its best, is a pretty horrible proposition. But people’s behavior makes it much, much worse than it has to be.” The story, while probably just a lot of junk, was compelling for me because it was about many musicians whose work I knew and admired and the ins and outs of jazz joints that I knew about and the legendary songs that were played in the legendary nightclubs. So I had a great time reading it when my own jazz passion was forming. But I know it’s not a very good or even a very honest book. It’s a pleasure to play music. I’m lucky I can play an instrument. It’s one of the great, great bonuses of my life. It’s very, very relaxing. I love to play and I love to listen. Primarily, I like New Orleans jazz, but I love all kinds of music – classical music, modern jazz, the American songbook: George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Jerome Kern. But New Orleans jazz has always had a particularly warm spot in my heart and it has given me great moments of pleasure over the years. It’s therapeutic because when I’m playing I’m not really thinking of anything. It’s probably no different, in a certain way, than a guy who plays poker or golf on the weekends. It’s not my profession, so there is no obligation to be good. It’s the same fun as a guy who comes home from the office, gets out on the tennis court, and hits some balls. He’s never going to be Roger Federer, but he has a good time."