Herbie again

Herbie was playing in Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday and I was sorely tempted to go and see him. He plays a mean show. What I did get that I didn't get in London, though, was excitement from the city that someone like him was visiting. Well, I mean he got a TV interview, anyway, which is more than he'd get in London. In it, he was asked as always about playing with Miles. (I'm the only one who would ask him about playing with Jaco, obviously. Or with the multitude of other people he's played with).

Miles Davis is a huge figure in jazz. To some, he's the only figure in jazz. People who own nothing but pop-rock-guitar stuff often turn out to have a copy of Kind Of Blue hidden away somewhere. Every major shift in what jazz is since 1950 has come either straight from Miles, indirectly from Miles or straight from someone who learned everything they knew from Miles. Herbie never gets tired of talking about him, as far as I can tell. He said "Most musicians would give their right arm just to be able to play some of Miles' mistakes; he was that good".

I'm still learning to play some of Herbie's bassist's mistakes. But I've got both my arms, and I've still got the $125 it would have cost to see Herbie again.