[HondasMenFox]

Yogi Berra on Jazz

Interviewer: Yogi, can you explain jazz?

Yogi:
I can't, but I will.... 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The
other half is
the part people play while others are playing something they never
played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer: I don't understand.

Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.

Interviewer: Do you understand it?

Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't know anything about it.

Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?

Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead.

Interviewer: What is syncopation?

Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds.

Interviewer: Now I really don't understand.

Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.

[gMUVgw71]

I love it. Very good. Did you write that, James?
jk

[HondasMenFox]

hi john, yogi berra is a guy who played baseball with the new york yankees and said a lot of funny and in some ways thought provoking things..he is still alive. you can read up on him and get more enjoyment from his sayings on the internet probably... a friend sent me that via e mail and i thought some on the board here might enjoy it.. i'm glad you did!

[gMUVgw71]

I know yogi berra...I just thought that was you or someone else impersonating him. Because, it sounded TOO MUCH like him. I always thought his humour was unintentional, but this sounded like someone yogi-phying a jazz lecture.

Some Yogi quotes that I remember:
On some local restaurant: "No one goes there any more. It's too crowded."
To his trainer when asked what size cap he wears: "How do I know, I'm not in shape yet"
And to paraphrase: "If people don't want to go the jazz clubs, you can't stop them".

[JonDopl]

Here are a few more Yogi-isms, all of which have have jazz applications, IMO.

Al

"It's deja-vu all over again."

"You mean now?" (When asked for the time.)

"The future ain't what it used to be."

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

"We made too many wrong mistakes."

"Thanks, you don't look so hot yourself". (After being told he looked cool.)

"I knew exactly where it was, I just couldn't find it."

"It gets late early out there." (Referring to the sun conditions in left field at the stadium.)

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

"90% of the game is half mental."

"I want to thank you for making this day necessary". (On Yogi Berra Appreciation Day in 1947.)

[LongaDonga]

Yogi's comments are the best things I've read since I could see.

Much thank youse all!

[tattcasetle]

If memory servers, "When you get to the fork in the road... take it" was also one of his.

Sounds like a deep philosophical statement, but the directions to his house had a fork and the two roads eventually met up again so it didn't matter which one you took.

[AALee]

There's no way that little dialogue on jazz belongs to the real Yogi Berra. I think John's right. Not that it matters, because it's still funny, but I'm a stickler for details. Is there any proof it's from him?

[LongaDonga]

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