You know, I forgot to ask about Wadada's teaching style.

Mm-hmm.

Well, I mentioned I would go to his house for these Sunday afternoon lessons, and usually we'd just sit down and chat for a little bit, and then we'd get the trumpets out and we'd play together and improvise, and whatever he was working on at the time or whatever he had on his music stand that he was writing usually is what we would look at.

He also had some books of etudes and things that were written in his compositional style.

He's got his own system of notation for his music.

And so I began learning how his system worked.

He was working on an album when I was coming down.

You're in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center, and you meet someone that becomes a frequent collaborator.

So, Ed, I mean, just in, like, kind of as a general improvisation, uh, I don't know, pedagogy, like, do you have, like, one foot in kind of that, okay, you gotta learn the kind of the be-bop swing style of, you know, who came before us, versus original, I would say more creative, but, you know, creative music, original music? How do you kind of toe that line?

It's important to know the tradition, and, and the way we organize it in our program is the students who are jazz majors, they take private lessons, and in their lessons they work on standards and, you know, jazz harmony, and they'll start with the blues and a rhythm changes and a, you know, Stella By Starlight or something like that.

And they put together combos, and they perform for the class, uh, for a recital class.

And that, that happens, uh, parallel with what's going on in the actual combos program where- which is more focused on original music.

So they're, they're getting both sides.

And it's been pretty effective to do it that way 'cause, uh, I don't wanna minimize, uh, either one of those things.

You know? You, you, you can learn how to be more creative and to tap into your own voice.

Mm-hmm.