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Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on June 9, 2020 at 7:32pm

"When I was young, growing up in Harlem, I heard Fats Waller perform. His playing struck me, and I realized that jazz would be my path in this life." —S.R. (2020)

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on October 10, 2019 at 1:18am

"Music should humbly seek to please; within these limits great beauty may perhaps be found. Extreme complication is contrary to art. Beauty must appeal to the senses, must provide us with immediate enjoyment, must impress us or insinuate itself into us without any effort on our part."

He also said, "There’s no need either for music to make people think! … It would be enough if music could make people listen, despite themselves and despite their petty mundane troubles ... It would be enough if they could no longer recognize their own grey, dull faces; if they felt that for a moment they had been dreaming of an imaginary country."  ---Claude Debussy

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on April 12, 2019 at 3:16am

Michael Royal, pianist:

Notes from one of my piano lessons:

After a dazzling performance, an admirer asked Horowitz, “Where does that incredible technique come from?”
The Master smiled and said, “I don’t know, Chopin just demands it of me”.

Rather than just another quip to be added to a list of platitudes,

STUDY THE REAL MEANING of his reply:

It is our vision of what It is that makes it possible.

Cultivate an enchanted outlook about your musical work and
Get excited about the possibility of making music this way!

Cut the chatter, out loud AND in your head.
Quit talking – stop trying to explain beauty – leave the explaining to others.

Paralysis from Analysis will evaporate.
The rest then will come on its own accord as you practice.

Aesthetic consideration activates and animates technique.

Just Play

Enthusiasm reduced to facts and methods is the fastest way to lose this magic.

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on January 19, 2019 at 6:50am

To flourish as a musician - as a human being - there is no substitute for deep listening. For learning how to be still, learning how to quiet the chatter and with an open heart underpinned by disciplined work on your craft to deeply listen before responding. 

With practice we can learn to deeply listen and appropriately respond in the midst of the flow of improvised music, of business negotiations, of dialogue with family and friends and others.

-Brian (Open Studio - Play Jazz)

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on January 14, 2019 at 3:47am

"Music does not exist except in the moment it is being performed.  For even if a person can read notes ever so well and has an ever so vivid imagination, he still cannot deny that only in a figurative sense does music exist when it is being read.  It only actually exists when it is being performed.  That might seem an imperfection in this art in comparison with the other arts whose works continually exist because they have their continuance in the sensuous.  But this is not so.  it is indeed a demonstration that it is a higher, more spiritual art."  .---The Essential Kierkegaard, p. 48 ---

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on September 27, 2018 at 4:00am

Jack DeJohnette Interview: 

CB: Do you ever get to a place where you feel like your ideas aren’t as fresh? How do you work through that?

JD: My process is endless. I have a saying—and this is not just for music, this is for everybody. The whole universe is creative; that’s what we are apart of. It’s endless! The many dimensions, like galaxies and stars—it’s awesome! You can think ‘I’m part of that tree, I’m part of that flower.’ We are all part of the same creative consciousness essence. What happens when we become creative after writing a book, painting, or trying to come up with an idea for something that’s got you stuck—I just open myself up and tap into the source and the library of creative consciousness, and there are endless ideas. Just open yourself up to that channel; its like a radio, you just switch the channel. You and universal consciousness kind of work together. We’re always talking,‘Me! Me! Me! I did that!’ Well, not necessarily so. We have angels, guides and energies around us that are always there. When we open up and need help, they’re there to help us. I never worry about running out of ideas. Once I’ve tapped into that space I know I’m going to play something I’ll never play again. We all have that capacity.

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on September 4, 2018 at 4:46am

"Like, when you go on the bandstand and start to play, you know what I mean, you go in a trance. I mean, you’re out of it. I mean, you’re only involved in what the other musicians are doing. Well, that’s the relief of playing music, because when you can play music, and if you really get involved in it, and you love it and you enjoy it, and you enjoy and respect the people you’re playing with, there’s nothing like that in the world. There’s nothing like that...like a guy that goes in a trance. He’s right there, you can look in his eyes, but his brain is only in the music and only what the other musicians are doing and what he is doing. That requires a great deal of concentration. You have to be sympathetic. You have to be understanding. You have to be friendly, mean, nasty, cold-blooded and everything at the same time, you know — without being hateful, though." - Arthur Taylor (WKCR interview with Ted Panken)

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on August 21, 2018 at 4:43am

"I was playing with Horace (Silver), John B. Wiliams, Bennie Maupin and Bill Hardman at The Copenhagen Jazz Festival. We're rocking all the way down the road to the point where in the 10 months I worked for Mr. Silver I experienced my first out of body experience. Where I actually left my body on the bandstand, sat down in the audience and watched myself and the band play. It scared me half to death. We had come to a point I never knew before. We were playing so in sync that it was all as if we were in slow motion. But I heard every note and everything worked perfectly for me. I understood immediately that something like this doesn't come everyday. Maybe it might happen only once in my life. Although I have now experienced it more than once in my life, more than twice in my life. But it has been on specific occasions. There is no reward, there is no Oscar for this except to be able to sit there and go, "wow, that's amazing. I never knew the band could sound like this." Again, it's the band! It's not Horace, it's not The Mahavishnu Orchestra, not The Billy Cobham Band. Just the band......"

Excerpt of a radio interview hosted by Jake D Feinberg with Billy Cobham (4/18/15)

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on March 19, 2018 at 4:40pm

How late do you have to be before you are absent? ---George Clinton

Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on March 19, 2018 at 4:39pm

Brother can you paradigm? ---George Clinton

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