Gary Meek

Noise:
The world is full of all kinds of noise. Not just the kind you can hear. Fear, Anxiety, Anger, all create psychological, or spiritual if you will, noise. I Remember talking to Dave Weckl in the van one day after he had given a clinic/master class, and he said something that really stuck with me. He said “most beginning drummers make a lot of noise. One of the first things I try to teach them is to not make any sound that is not music”. He said a lot of them don’t make it past the first fill. Saxophone players do the same thing only our noise is less obvious as to what it is. Advanced musicians of any kind playing jazz especially can have the same issue. In my opinion and experience, the mind causes a lot of noise. One little mistake and off to the races! Nervousness, insecurities, judgement, of self or what someone else may or may not be thinking. It’s crazy! The listener may not know what it is but he or she can definitely feel it! When we had Dave’s acoustic band with Tom Kennedy, Makoto Ozone, and Myself, there was only joy, humor, excitement, honesty. We were all happy for each other being there. It was a noise free environment. The only comments I ever got were about how much fun that must be. I want that now. Whenever and whoever I play with. Not easy. But oh so worth it!

Do kids get together and jam like we used to? We used to jam somewhere almost every night. Practice all day jam all night. I didn’t go to college. That was my education, but a lot of friends who were in college were jamming with us. Every party I went to had a live band playing. If we didn’t jam we listened to music on real speakers in groups of people together. Then we’d talk about what we had heard and probably play it again and again. Maybe figure something of it out on the piano and start playing it. I always had my ax around close by. Maybe some of this goes on but I think a lot of social listening is gone. Music is either for dancing or ambience. Most kids I see are listening in headphones. Some in groups. Are they listening to the same thing? It seems so isolating to me. Especially to those who want to take music seriously. We also used to talk about the mechanics and technical aspects of music and debate about what sounds better and who is getting the best sound and why. The way engineers and producers do about the whole picture, we used to do about our individual instruments. How can you do that if your not experiencing the music together. I think that’s why live jazz is and will continue to come back. People want to experience music together, at least in my community, and I think elsewhere too. But if they are not doing it, kids should jam more! Call your friends up and get together and play. More fun than computer games or dumb TV shows. Just my opinion.