Do you have any special advice for the kids learning jazz right now, how to survive in this and, like, both on the stage and, and, and, and off the stage? And some good advice.

Well, I think, uh, you know, jazz music is a s- it's a social music.

You know, it's a, it's a thing that requires you to do your work by yourself, and work on yourself, and develop.

You know, I guess the whole goal is to have musical identity, to have a style for, you know, if that's not too, uh, superficial a word.

But yeah, that's the things.

You wanna, you know, decide what your aesthetic is and, uh, you know, who you wanna be as a musician.

But then a big part of playing jazz is how you interact with others and being able to, you know, have the right balance of ego to get up there and do your thing.

How important is it to have the tradition, to go back and listen to the people that, Charlie Christian or, or, or Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, or all those Who laid the foundation for this?

Right.

It was just like, you want...

You're listening to this stuff, you're wondering what the hell's going on.

Just figure it out.

Just take it slow and figure out everything it's not, and what's left is what it is.

[laughs] You know, kinda like he was just like, "Check it out.

If you're listening to it, check it out.

Mm-hmm