Intl Jazz Day 2014: Wayne Shorter: Philosophy of Life Through Jazz

good morning ladies and gentlemen thank you for being here with us for this discussion on philosophy of life through Genesis please welcome mr. Wayne Shorter mr. shorter as you know is the legend he is somebody who Herbie Hancock calls a true genius he is an artist composer a visionary who the New York Times has called the greatest living improviser he has won multiple Grammys has played and composed for so many people Art Blakey Miles Davis the weather report his Wayne Shorter quintet was named the greatest living band by the Guardian it's an honor to have you with us today today we have the unique and rare opportunity to discuss with mr. shorter and the things that inspire his body of work philosophy art literature science science fiction quantum physics astrophysics what is it that moves him makes him create gets his creative spirits going right there's a lot there's a lot ready so to start with perhaps we can start with literature you are an avid reader you love so many different kinds of of work what is it that inspires you the most in literature the one of the first books I read when I was 12 years old was a book called the water babies by Charles Kingsley and I read this on the lunch break in grammar school and when you finished reading it one day of certain a number of pages you put the book back and wait until tomorrow the next day so I've experienced warranting to see what happens next in this book and it's the first time I read a book all the way through where I came from the kids the people in the neighborhood they never talked about reading they were all playing baseball football showing off to the girls after school wrestling in boxing and all that and there was a lot of called street corner philosophers the older guys was down on a street corner and have a talking contest in front of the girls you know like putting each other down and but I was captivated by this story and then another book in another book and then the comic books movies fairy tales science fiction so the first book I read was a like a fairy tale then I started to think about the reality that society the commercial society tries to sell us they say be real there's no such thing as living happily ever after there's no such thing but as I chose books that would have men women and children and animals in the story I started to put the question maybe the fairy tale is the reality in this reality they selling us is the fairy tale and the impossible the impossible is very fascinating I read these books because I'm always looking at what is the impossible the things you you're not supposed to do they call it the escapism or escaping but then when you you come to your senses you have to be practical and find the pursue a profession that's practical solid money-making reliable but I was always thinking about flying like human beings flying and galaxies going to other places I would dream a dream I'm flying through a lot of colors and there's no in the dream there's no frame no end - actually there's no frame here we have the frame of our eyes yeah that's a frame but in the dream this was gone it was like see you see it all around and all you know Victor Hugo there's a book he wrote called the man who lasts the man who laughs it's not a fairy tale but it's a it's a it's a story that's very different from lay miserable I'll just say one thing there's a boy in the store who goes to the circus he finds the boy finds a little baby in the snow people under the circus find these boy and little baby the little baby is a girl the baby raises a raise in the circus to be a trapeze artist the boy they trying to figure out what kind of tricks what circus you know profession they broke his jaw so that he always laughs and as he's young and he grows up he still has this I haven't read finished reading it yet but Victor Hugo the the man who laughs but he's always he's Victor Hugo's still talking about the the social life political but it's woven and in a way that someone 15 16 or maybe 13 14 would read this and could not wait to turn the page so books I read a lot of books written by women now science fiction books fantasy books written by women or husband and wife partner I used to read a lot of books written by men when I was growing up but then it's I was how does a man know about the what a woman is thinking feeling and then playing music the challenge in playing music is for me is to I say play what I wish for to play what you wish for if you you wish to play more and more excellent on your instrument you want to play more music perfect your musical but if you want to play you want to play eternity what is eternity if you want to play music that does not sound like music Miles Davis used to ask me you say a way you ever feel like playing music that sound that don't sound like music then he asked me can you play anything you wanna play so that meant to me no practicing no rehearsing no like how the question how do you rehearse the unexpected how do you rehearse the unknown and all these books I've been reading that stories sometimes you can predict what's going to happen but I never now and then I find a book that no this this this is the book this is not a best-seller but nobody's reading it because it's too good you know it's too much information I can see now for me I see the world is in a place on a cliff we're all on a cliff a precipice a cliff where no one really knows what's going to happen tomorrow people tell us you know what's going to happen the newspapers they try to maybe influence how we think so they can predict what we're going to do tomorrow to make money on their predictions but now with the internet and all the social media stuff and countries and cultures converging and ideas converging interacting in in ways that are unexpected we are I think we are as human beings being forced to learn how to negotiate the unknown creatively and a lot of a lot of us say I am NOT creative I don't think I don't dance I don't I'm an accountant I but I I think the whole world we have a singularity approaching us in life Humanity is now beginning to to see what it's like to negotiate without rehearsal with no script and that means people who follow the masses of people who who have been historically trained to be followers have to to begin to be leaders as individuals leaders the following kind of makes you a subject to wanting to be someone else you follow someone else's life follow someone else's commands rules follow this fashion follow someone else's win follow someone else's a fame fortune and even in an ugly way follow someone else's misery like shootings and high schools in the United States Columbine following that that's a long way from being a leader I guess some of the people who shoot they think they're leaders but in this challenge we have of negotiating the unknown the unexpected is a challenge for us too to call on and draw upon our inner life condition for instance I think like in school with some children one child does terrible homework and the teacher says one teacher says why don't you use the the brains that God gave you the other teacher another teacher would say to the same person same little boy or girl why don't you try to use your potential we were at the Stanford University about two weeks ago and the top scientists there astrophysicists and all that and they were showing us we put the three three-dimensional glasses on a sample of what we called this accelerator the one it's a sister to the accelerator in Switzerland CERN Switzerland like OCR in the car it was a celebration because there was concern they they rotated this particles and then they call it the god particle the one split second after they called the Big Bang the flash of light 13.7 billion billion years ago and they told us they're building a telescope in in Chile coming out in 2017 the telescope that's gonna go deeper deeper deeper into space and I was looking we were looking at what we call dark matter and the universe stars and galaxies moving moving and moving and moving and moving and they were saying it's just like a cake when the cake starts to expand the the the may fruit in the cake they really don't move because the universe is and they are from the stars but these scientists are actually telling us that they invited us just to be with them because they see that we are playing music in the same way they are exploring space because when we walked in the door there was a blackboard with a lot of formulas mathematics on this blackboard and they said don't pay attention to the blackboard these are jokes and they said they want to speak about astrophysics and with words and speak in terms of shapes and forms in motion using more than T word motion and they came to see our concert all of them and some of them working on going on expeditions on the Amazon in Peru in Brazil my wife went with on this exposition along with Herbie Hancock's white and Esperanza went to but it's about the Amazon and the river and the mercury in the water and then distilling for gold and all that stuff but that's connected with this whole fascination of life I also like the the idea about no beginning and no end in life to me there's no such thing as a beginning and no such thing as an end and the only thing the closest word I can come to that expresses not beginning but something more than beginning is potential or to emerge out of going into to emerge so now I use the phrase instead of saying when someone someone is born I say someone emerges when I emerged in 1933 out of cause causality into effect and the effect becomes a cause to come out of emerge out of and these scientists at Stanford did say something about which Stephen Hawking's dr. Hawking there is no such thing as nothing or when something something is taken something is given the black holes black holes if if we are you're able to visit a black hole and go into it they say he's gonna be like destroyed and and shifted somewhere and then stretched or something like that but they the question to me like which came first the chicken or the egg I like dr. Hawking's answer when he said neither it was it's it's simultaneous something is taken something is given simultaneously and I like the idea that not an idea I think it's a reality that when you do something it's a cause and so then the effect comes from a cause but a lot of people think that I'm just something and it okay I'll I'll pay for it later do something bad I'll pay for it later but just to think that the effect is is simultaneous within the cause but the effect is delayed but we can lessen recall with a lesson karmic retribution we can when i say become leaders and sort of followers it's like being the producer director and actor of the film of your own life instead of someone else's life or the madison avenue marketing machines life the salesman's life the sales woman's life they also I think that many of us take the the road that the road in life there's a road that's kind of easy access to fame and money and wealth or whatever but that's the road and there's a trail less taken less trodden less walked upon it takes courage to take that road it takes courage to be alone on this yellow brick road or whatever it's it it takes courage to go into the unknown alone but I think the more I found find out about the Eternity of life that there that the Eternity is guaranteed within itself it's a guarantee whether you want it or not whether they believe it or not it's the guarantee the more I see that life is the ultimate adventure the what is life life is the ultimate adventure meaning it to me ultimate meaning more than the end beyond the end and it's a funny thing it's good for us to wonder what we are who we are what is a human being you know and some people think we are human when we emerge born but I I think that this eternal ultimate eternal adventure of life allows us to become more and more and more human and that's the ultimate adventure which is full of surprises suicide is doesn't even count that's just another I guess this word which is a no-no word another beginning I think the word beginning counts when we read sometimes we we seem to fail at something in life and you're gonna give up I failed at this marriage I failed but to me the failure the failure we say in Buddhism or name yo it's in the beginning or ninyo and roadblocks and restrictions and resistance and I give up you know I I failed I'm gonna give up because the powers that be and the the corporate but corporate corporate bodies the corporate companies and everything or laws and authority they're some tumors the restrictions are too powerful I can't I can't go through that wall but resistance when we pull out our potential for potential of beyond knowledge which it becomes which is wisdom we find a way just like it takes resistance for an airplane to take off it needs resistance we find a way to make the resistance in the barriers fertilizer we make it petrol we make it feel we return poison into medicine we find a way to do that with creatively and everyone finds different ways creatively creatively creatively the one way the one way the one way is to throw a grenade blast through the wall with a gun knock somebody out of the way make war that's the same old way the same old way that's the to me the terrible illusion death tragedy to me is temporary death to doc is temporary I think we should pursue the constant if the constant the temporary and the constant eternity is the constant some people think death is you know this isn't lusion about death being always icy and something in life that that something is given something has taken something it's give and take it's like paint no pain pain no pain you have to learn a lot from the pain cuz we don't want the pain so we can learn without paying a lot from the pain so we can it's like the thing that makes the car move the explosion in distance look paint no paint paint okay in the car smooth smooth so on a large-scale macro life and there is a velocity of motion that's carrying us through the internal ballroom you have to learn the dance in that ballroom I'm getting my fairy tales now dance in the ballroom so I'm continuing to read that's it how lucky good economy and I have something else I've been reading maybe I'll tell you about that later it's not UFOs no this is written by someone who has done it who's been there who's been taken for a ride in the movies contact you want to go for a ride I have something from someone and also there was a lot of people in America don't know this but in the Grand Canyon there was one of the greatest light shows presented by the unidentified flying objects the UFOs they put on a great big light show but it was not really talked about the papers living in the Grand Canyon around 19 I don't know in 1980 something or whatever so I try to write music that does that that that that music that speaks about what faith is like do not like faith a lot of people wait the meaning of faith is this paper I like this one I like this something's like more than the meaning of the word faith and the faith is to fear nothing that's a that's an Everest decline oh yeah yeah okay see to have courage and be fearless easy to talk about hard to do all right I like hard to do I'm gonna stay on the heart to do trail Adventure is aboard the golden mean and on my last record without a net there's a title called unidentified flying objects they they are the notes each note is I unidentified once you're identified it's over it's a statue once the music is identified it becomes a statue you stay there yourself not the music the music reflection of one's self you can't tell one from the other if you just love music or art blakey you know our thinking that you used to say you can't hide behind your instrument you know people fleeting but only music is my god Meryl Streep great actress she was talking about what acting is and someone jumped in before she could start and the person said well when you're on stage when you're in front of a camera as an actress you're always putting on a different face a different mask right she said no I'm taking off she doesn't want to hide you know so when we go on stage to play I say we meaning that the group that I play with we go okay get ready for train wrecks put away all the Grammys and awards or that don't mean nothing get out there naked you know there's no such thing as a mystique there's no such thing as a coincidence what are you gonna do with the unexpected call ghostbusters what are you gonna do yeah what are you gonna do on a date and a guy and a girl they go on a date and the guy the boy the man is thinking what he's going to say he's thinking about what he's going to say while she is talking instead of the challenge of being in the moment in the moment when you're in the moment a lot of times when you're in the moment a few times when you're in the moment that was a great date now we're married but being in the moment to me every moment is a micro a micro DNA of eternity so something else moving on my hand is actually moving like this but it's like is doing like this how about this you know almost every single thought that every single substance matters everything this and all that nothing nothing actually touches nothing else something nothing actually nothing actually nothing actually rubs against anything else so molecules and everything like that there's space between how about there and that that that goes on in in eternally to an infinite quantum quantum I dare you stuff jazz means I dare you to create if it doesn't sounds like jazz doesn't mean it's not creating there's a lot of country-western music a lot of music from Brazil a lot of our music rhythm and blues and everything like that their little jazz it's like these flowers the country-western flower pot flower rock-and-roll flower the flower that the his the jazz flower the little jazz bumblebee comes from the jazz flower he goes around and touches all the other flowers and says don't forget don't forget to create don't forget to create don't forget to create don't forget to evolve don't forget to move it go ahead advance forward go forward don't linger in the illusion don't be a victim to handcuffed to an illusion of what you think life is don't be limited about your your your limited view of what life should be you know like when you have a big audience rock and roll audience and stadium could be rock and roll pop whatever and the people on stage the performers say put your hands put your hands on your head put your hands over your head and somebody else will hear you down they said yeah put your hands over your head because this is a stick-up so we have to know what we're buying eternally because you can buy something I think it's really great and you can do that since eternity exists you can do that eternally too I mean you can be wrong eternally and think you're right until you break it breakthrough but there's you know there's a lot of room for wrongdoings a lot of time I have a tape with Stephen Hawking talking Stephen Hawking talking and it's one of the questions he said are there borders in the universe then he said something like which universe are there borders between universes wormholes more or less though he's just questioning but he was talking about all the other people before him I know some people probably read you know I'm paraphrasing but probably what you read anything it's not factual what he's saying he's not he's not speaking factual Haru takeuchi friend of mine lives in Tokyo is married to actress Matsuzaka Keiko Matsuzaka yes hello her husband guitar we recorded something together in New York I mean LA at Nate Nathan East Gate guitarist at his place and he called harus friend used to accompany dr. Stephen Hawking to took you to do lectures and he called to see if Stephen Hawking would open a record that we made together we made this record it's on Toshiba if you know what do you know about it it's called galactic something and Stephen Hawking opens the record he says there are at least 200 billion stars in our galaxy there is no such thing as nothing he opens the record if it's on Toshiba so you can check it out as Haru taco Tabuchi I think this last name right also there's a movie I've been looking forward to his wife made called ping-pong miss Matsuzaka isn't Matsuzaka I'm trying to find the DVD to that they live somewhere in Tokyo and everything right now they have two children and very Haru used to go on scientific expeditions with Whitley Strieber who wrote communion the book communion about the abductions also he and Whitley Strieber went to the house in New York City where Tesla Nikola Tesla used to live and in the basement they found the electric coil where Tesla is set in the middle of a an electric storm and we said you know and he wanted me to go fly with him into the aurora borealis area they got married to his wife and I mean they have children all that but it's a it's nice when you have people in your life who can speak about space and and science and everything and you feel like you're speaking about your neighborhood because people some people in the United States when science people talk about space exploration they say it has nothing to do with us because it's three trillion miles away from us has nothing to do with my community and as a scientist who was speaking and when a lady in the audience kind of said to him that has nothing to do with NASA x-ray nothing to do with my neighborhood he stopped walked down to the audience and stood by her and he looked at her and he said your shoes have some material that's a it's in Rover which is still on Mars rover the little robot and your eyeglasses trying to have some material from Hubble or the advanced telescope more advanced than Hubble or something even more advanced and since we get we can get some things see this there's so much stuff that's classified you can get it Declassified the education that we have that we can have in one week makes the universe our neighborhood and she said I see so I don't sit up here and sound like I'm talking about big why not we have to do that we have to you have to you have to tell yourself say I can I can do it honey I know the next moment beginning that's the only time I use the word beginning the beginning of making a movie directing producing and starring acting with friends movie of my life and there's you think you had enough of me I think what's incredible about your work is that your your view the concepts that inspire you they're really integrated into the performances to the way you play Danilo Perez he says this very often so does Esperanza you're one of the rare composers that when you have a vision you literally write it into the piece that you will write a piece for the violinist or the bassist and you want them to work really hard because that's the whole point of the the piece so you'll write it very very complicated part for that instrument because you want them to not be lazy and to work very hard so just to listen to all of these concepts that you're interested in simultaneity negotiating reality creatively no rehearsal all of that and your current work is something that you you're expressing do your work yes and you know in order to to actually take action but for me to take action you know and with all the things I've been talking about I have to study I have to study life not like in school but but study study study is a behavior it's a this to study creatively is another kind of creative study let's open that door no it's done uh towards the wall no it's a it's a yes let's go in there we can actually take one or two questions if there's a if there's a question from the audience that's a great listening to you mr. Shores great honor to hear hear you and see you after all these years my name is Steve McClure I'm a music writer based in Tokyo and I wonder since the title of this lecture is philosophy of life through jazz what lessons are less things about the philosophy of life life through jazz you learned during your time with Miles Davis who I know had a lot of influence on a lot of people and was a great teacher and mentor one of the best things I experienced working with Miles is we never rehearsed we never really talked about music on a telephone we just talked about stuff talked about life a little bit talked about aches and pains talked about operations and hip replacements and nearly play something like that and Sonny Rollins do it we talk with Sonny Rollins then when we finished talking I realized that was the rehearsal or like mouth would say you know it was you know the way Humphrey Bogart the way Humphrey Bogart walks I wish I could play there or the way check out check this out check out Humphrey Bogart walking when he just walked Humphrey Bogart walking then check check out Frank Sinatra when he's walking he he gets Bogart and it's like this a little bit sometimes like in New Jersey thanks wise guy thing you know like Ben Nicholson wrote that song a song Along Came Betty writing about a woman how she walked in the club and that's that I think the challenge is to to actually get to know who you are and then interact with who you are with everyone else and you all become more than you are not less if you become more than you are yet you're adding on to what you are already orbiting they're never giving throwing away anything nothing is actually thrown away you think somebody just discard something like I'm some a phrase a musical phrase meaning like a person discard but nothing is destroyed because I think what is this card discarded is in in the in the Eternity of life the whatever is discarded is in a place of a waiting area like waiting to be served the right function a function that that that supports the sentence that life wants to create life wants to create then you can take that word creating life once the anymore it's more than more than a limited view of what we think life is but an we are that more we can't we trick ourselves sonny robbins said one time someone asks honey how did you play the bridge you played the middle part of love is a many-splendored thing that song and sonny played they tore it up some guy on the side said Sonny how did you play all that how did you do it and he said kinda tricky a kind of tricky there's a whole lot of drama and stuff in there instead of getting an answer kinda tricky kind of tricky tricky never think make it untrue key I swear the guy you make it on tricky it's tricky well anyway Thank You Wayne it's it's we can listen to you forever it's amazing we unfortunately have to stop now I think we can just just take in everything that you've shared with us and thank you thank you so much for for sharing your your vision and your philosophy okay thank you for being who you are and who you're going to be and I'll see you in the movies [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: International Jazz Day

Views: 63,915

Rating: 4.9466019 out of 5

Keywords: Jazz (Word), International Jazz Day, Philosophy, Wayne Shorter, Osaka, Discussion, Education, Educational Program

Id: Py7B9sZF6Do

Length: 53min 4sec (3184 seconds)

Published: Wed May 14 2014