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Melvin Gibbs
16 hrs ? Buffer ? Edited ?
In the Fall of 1979, I did a private concert for Ornette at his loft in Soho. I did it as a member of a group called Apex, a trio which consisted of guitarist Alphonia Tims (a friend of mine who was literally in the 1st band I was ever in), a Turkish drummer whose name escaped me years ago, and myself. Alphonia (who was the leader of the group and, I was soon to find out, Ornette's protege) framed the day as a rehearsal at Ornette's loft.
But in point of fact it was a command performance for an audience of 1: Ornette Coleman.
We played for an hour or so, while Ornette sat, watched and listened. Once Ornette had sensed we'd finished he decided to speak. His first words were a question, and an unexpected one. "Melvin (he asked in that soft Ornette voice) ...where did you learn to play like that?" At a loss to answer that question (which at the end of the day is an existential question, not a musical one), I just told him the truth--- or at the least the truth as I understood it that day in 1979. "I don't know... this is just how I play".
He didn't respond verbally. He just let the statement "this is just how I play" hang there as an affirmation that I was doing the right thing. It became my official musical aphorism, a sort of musical mantra that's taken me all over the world.
thank you for everything you've done
and will continue to do for the World
Peace & Power Ornette
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