Gene Lees talks about music as a language

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Gene Lees discusses the energy in New York for artists

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Gene Lees discusses his new book

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Q: “What we have in music is an immediate international language, isn’t it? I mean, you’ve been all over the world and jazz is jazz…”

A: Gene Lees: “More than ever before. That's one of the principles I have in my book. Jazz has no ...”

Interviewer: “Which book? This one, 'Waiting for Dizzy'?”

Gene Lees: “‘Waiting for Dizzy', yeah, and there is going to be more so in the next book, I think. I've become aware that jazz is ... well, when I was a kid growing up, I thought I was really the Canadian condescension and prejudice against Canadian talent. I wasn't too convinced that Canadians could play jazz at all. And certainly not white Canadians and there weren't any black Canadians as far as I knew. Little did I know that one of my schoolmates in St. Catherine's was going to emerge as one of the major jazz musicians of our time namely, Kenny Wheeler. But we had this eternal condescension toward Canadians and I had now realized that jazz is no longer an American language. It's a world language as is the symphony orchestra, as is the string quartet. Improvisatory pulsating music is now the common property of the whole planet. I mean, there are just superb Japanese players like Kei Akagi. There is Igor Butman from Russia, a tenor player.”

Interviewer: “I don't know him.”

Gene Lees: “You will hear of him, believe me. He's still pretty young. Billy Taylor turned me on to him.”