Interviewer: "What do you expect is in store for the future of jazz
guitar?"
Yogi: "I'm thinkin' there'll be a group of guys who've never met
talkin' about it all the time.."
Interviewer: 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, it's 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 player 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. Some would kill for it."
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."
