Corey Mwamba

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Entries for 3rd Oct 2013

For some years, I used to moan about awards; why they existed, who won them, &c. Then I got nominated for one...

...and of course I didn't win it. I didn't really understand why I'd been nominated either. Then it hit me...

I had been complaining about something I didn't understand.

So I stopped.

[of course, I might complain privately, but publicly—notsomuch]

Similarly, I had several prejudiced thoughts on jazz education until maybe four years ago. When I was asked about it this year, I said:

Everybody has to learn somewhere. But it's what you do with it that matters.

A few weeks ago I had someone state that we shouldn't talk/think about music; that Coltrane didn't think about music, just played.

Without going into how untrue the bit about Coltrane is, I'm wondering how these people learned how to play at all.

Everyone had to learn somewhere, and somehow. Where doesn't really matter: through gigs, reading, study. Doesn't matter.

I think the idea of great musicians not learning or reading is romantic, but thoroughly delusional.