Barney Kessel on being a thoughtful person

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Barney Kessel discusses the element of surprise in jazz

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Barney Kessel talks about skilled musicians

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Q: “You’re a thoughtful person, aren’t you? You don’t just do it, you think about it…”

A: “It's a combination. It's a combination of going by feeling some of the time and going by the thinking of ... there are mixed opinions in this and this is what separates people in their philosophies. But some people think that you should go by your feelings first and other people think that you should go by cold analytical thought. And then there are others that think that the stimulus has to really come from some spiritual impetus within you first that, in a sense, your sense of God leads the way. Which finally allows you to feel a certain way and then act a certain way, but it's a combination. As I view different things that have happened in my life - I've always pictured myself as a very organized person, a writer down of projects, a dispenser of priorities to things. But when I see the things that I've done and the things that have happened in my life, most of the consequential things that have happened, be they good or bad, have been, quite by accident. They've been without purpose. They were things that happened to me, good and bad, that weren't on my list.”