" A lot of younger musicians were hanging around (the jazz drummer) Elvin Jones, and they were talking about, 'Man, you know the intensity you guys were playing with when you played with Coltrane, what was that like? How do you play with that kind of intensity?
"And Elvin looks at them and says, 'You gotta be willing to die with a mutha fucka.' "
"And they started laughing, like kids do, waiting for the punchline. Then they realized somewhere in the middle of that he was serious."
"How many people do you know that are willing to die -- period? Die with anybody? And when you listen to those records that's exactly what they sound like. They would die for each other."
So the question is, where does your intensity reside? What, if anything, are you willing to wager your life against? Is it God, family, friends, love, freedom ... money, power, possessions? Or is it life itself? Throughout history mankind has lived and died trying to answer these very questions.
Today, however, popular thought is that most people wouldn't give up their lives. The criticism is that they don't stand for anything.
I'm just wondering which vantage point has a better outlook on life?
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004)
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