(solo piano - somber low chord; gentle, high cascading notes with provocative trills) (bright crystalline piano notes colorfully fill the sky and trickle ...) (... downwards like delicate singing butterflies ...) (... settling into a metropolis canyon humming with humanity) (piano meditates and dances atop a rainbow of colors) (piano leaps to high register reaching for the stars) (lone bass note calls out proudly from piano) (flourish of high frequency elemental particles released from piano colliding with beauty) (dissipating ...) (... lost to an infinity) - Jazz is freedom.

Jazz is, as Abbey Lincoln would put it, a spirit.

It's a music that is passed down soul to soul, without words, but communicated by this extraordinary language in music.

And jazz makes you jump.

You have to jump off the edge.

(upbeat Latin jazz music compelling and rhythmic piano solo) (fiery timbales, congas and cowbell with fat tumbao on the bass) (black-capped chickadees singing, groovin' montuno fades out) - Jazz is the polyrhythmic application of soul to life.

(rhythmic drumming on deep-toned African drum) - Jazz, as we know it, is gone.

(upbeat jazz/funk music with trumpet) - Oh, it's the most wonderful music in the world.

It's music that makes you feel things you don't even necessarily wanna feel.

(laughs) (plays jazz chord) - I just ran home from work every day just to play that chord.

(plays shifting jazz chords rhythmically) I mean, it's a jazz chord.

God, I'm playing jazz!

(♪ experimental jagged vocal tones fluttering ♪) To bring new sounds into the world that have never been heard.

What a joy.

(upbeat funk scatting with unison guitar lines ) ♪ daw diddily daw diddily daw diddily daw be dooten ♪ ♪ Due due doo ♪ Doo ba dudoom ♪ Due doo due ♪ Due dow doodum (funky guitar and bass riff) ♪ I wanna love you forever (woman-sultry jazz) ♪ I've sailed every wide blue ocean ♪ ♪ I've climbed every snowy peak ♪ ♪ I've crossed every earthly border ♪ ♪ ...the only hope that I'd find you ♪ ♪ The soft summer breeze is blowin' ♪ ♪ The full moon shines above (patrons chattering) (Ellington big band swings medium tempo from speakers) Yeah, know it.

- Charles.

- Yes?

- [Interviewer] What is jazz music?

- Well, I can't explain it, because it's not explainable.

It's a feeling.

(applause from speakers, tinkling glasses in bar sink) You either have it or you don't have it.

See you, Warren.

You either have it or you don't have it.

That's how simple it is, you know?

It's a style which is typically American, okay?

And now it's all over the world, so we just love it.

(Lee Morgan trumpet/piano ballad begins from speakers) - [Interviewer] It used to be that if a person wanted to learn and understand jazz, they kind of had to grow up- - In the field.

- [Interviewer] In the field.

- Well, in those days, years and years ago, it was necessary to survive, because the competition was ferocious, ya know?

But there are those that did survive and we call it the greatest contribution America has ever made, which is jazz.

Now, we all know that now.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(soft trumpet note held) (ethereal hammered harmonics on fretless bass with bongo fills) (locomotive bell ringing, heavy rumbling from track) ♪ (woman scatting) Bop bah, bah, bop!

♪ ♪ You came a long way from St. Louis ♪ ♪ Um ummm um um - Back then, we had the hook, what was called the hook, and if you weren't singing in tune, honey, you came off the stage.

They didn't let you stand on the stage and sing out of tune.

They didn't let you play out of tune; they didn't let you get up there- If you didn't know what you were doing, they'd kick you off those drums in the middle of a tune and put another drummer up there.

And that's how it was.

♪ I could show the world ♪ How to smile ♪ I could be glad ♪ All of the while ♪ I could turn the gray skies to blue ♪ ♪ If I had you (piano & bass light fills, brushes swish drums) ♪ I could leave the old days behind ♪ ♪ I'd leave all my pals ♪ Yes, I'd never mind ♪ There is nothing I couldn't do ♪ ♪ If I had you (bright descending piano riffs) One night I was in there, and we were playing along, and all of a sudden, you hear this (growling gibberish), two guys fighting, and then we heard this bam, bam!

And someone shot a gun off twice in the club.

And then you heard this (high pitched scream), and that was me.

(laughs) And the music stopped.

Everyone stopped.

And then you hear this gentleman saying, "What are you looking at?

Play the bass mother[altered], play the bass!

(buzzer) And I said, and you hear me going, "Play the bass mother[altered], play the bass!"

(bicycle ringer) And in the meantime, I'm behind the bass player, the bass player's behind his bass, the bass is behind the drums.

We're all hiding, 'cause we're afraid of being shot.

(Teresa laughs) But that was a typical night back in the mid-'70s, the mid-'80s, in Manhattan.

It was dangerous.

It was scary.

(black-capped chickadees singing; truck engine passing) - Jazz hits everyone differently.

There are so many different kinds of jazz.

As you say, improvisation is such a natural...

I remember I played on a college soccer team where we were so good together that you just knew the moment the ball was coming towards you, you knew where the people around you were gonna go before they even started going.

It was a type of improvisation.

(gentle French accordion music, people playing sports) When we opened the Wynkoop you know, the first five or six years, it was doing great there for a while.

We had a jazz club in the basement, the Jazz Works, and we did that for five years.

We got to have dinner with McCoy Tyner four nights in a row.

He came in for a long weekend.

The late great Joe Bonner, I had met a couple different places, and when he wasn't drinking and carrying on, and doing drugs, and living his wild life that he did, he was one of the greatest piano players, I think, that ever lived.

And so we would hire him to come play lunch.

(fast piano/drum jazz duet: Softly As In A Morning Sunrise) He was such a character, such a big heart, but no sense of boundaries, right?

Just no sense of boundaries.

(piano and drums continue now trading fours) And I think that experience really kind of gave us a jolt.

Just the culture made all our staff and everyone happy.

I love the way that jazz brought different people together.

I think old, young, black, white, you know, creative and not, it was just a wonderful kind of a way of mixing people together in ways that normally wouldn't happen without that wonderful music.

(soft, gentle, slow and plaintive piano music) (lonely notes drift through a concrete canyon (diner patrons chattering, dishes clinking,) (front door opens, electronic bell rings, dog barks - [Interviewer] Billy, what is jazz?

(he chuckles) (Wallace's bebop piano solo with Max Roach) (diner patrons conversing) (solo jazz piano shuffle bass line) (car traffic on street) (night club patrons chattering politely) (Summertime melody added in middle register) (patron, "Ah!"

recognizes melody, sound of approval) (Billy's playing continues through entire montage) (keys on ring clink) (key insert and bolt unlock sound) (key insert and door handle unlock sound) With Max Roach and Sonny Rollins, I had to know all of the songs that they did, 'cause they didn't have the music to them.

A lot of jazz musicians don't have the music, they just have the songs, they know the songs, and you have to know the song.

That's what I started out with: standard songs.

Body and Soul.

Play around the changes, but the changes don't change.

(chuckles) You know, know the structure, the chords, and be able to play in any key.

It's a bit complicated, but not so complicated that it's not understandable.

(spirited soloing on the melody of Summertime) In this business, even if you learn to read and everything, you're not always gonna get a chance to read something, because people are gonna say, "Let's play this."

And they expect you to know it.

(laughs) (Summertime, driving shuffle...) I played a lot of different songs.

(minor mood chord) And that's - - what kept me goin'.

(swingin' outro cadence) (high brass-like chords hammered rhythmically in coda) (powerful major/minor chord with cadenza fills to low end) (crowd applauds) (more appreciative crowd applause and gentle cheers) (clapping and high pitched female woo hoo) (total silence) (female singer, bass and piano hauntingly - ) ♪ Shadows ♪ Haunt me ♪ Madness ♪ Wants me ♪ Kindness ♪ Will not ♪ Pay me ♪ Handsome (soft solo piano music: Angel Eyes) - I didn't expect to find any kind of identity playing jazz, but, oh man, Denver has been really, really good to me.

I've been so moved by some players that I've played my ass off, I was so inspired.

(Ellyn continues playing Angel Eyes) (muttering to herself) A couple clinkers there.

(Angel Eyes continues brightly and with a tinge of sadness) This calls me, "the area's premier female jazz pianist, at ease and in superb form in virtually any musical setting, as the Colorado International Women's Forum just acknowledged by accepting Rucker into its organization."

Humm.

(fast tempo jazz rhythm ride cymbal with hi hats) - I was born in that area in 1931.

I was actually, I was born in in Del Norte, Colorado, which is by the border of New Mexico.

I remember the bread lines.

(jazz bass and drums walkin') You know, that period of time, the bread lines, man, when, in the '30s.

(sax joins in) People really didn't have any money.

My father used to work for the railroad, and he used to make $25 a month.

How the hell did he live on that?

Of course, everything was like, bread was a penny.

We used to have, used to buy beans.

We used to live on beans, and we'd buy lard.

A lot of beans.

We were Mexicans.

We hardly ever ate any... And no steak.

Never ate steak.

We ate a lot of potatoes.

Potatoes, beans, chili, I grew up on that [audio altered].

(Freddy soloing on tenor sax: upbeat bop with bass and drums) Back in the '50s, I used to play at a club, it's a block away from the Pec.

It's right on the corner... only it's on 20th and Larimer.

There's a parking lot there now.

And it was a little Latin club.

I used to play there.

I had to work.

No way in the world could I live and support my kids, so I got this job, you know, working as a office manager.

We moved to L.A. in 1960, January of 1960.

We did a lot of recording at the Lighthouse, also.

I met this one guy, his name is Tommy Peltier.

He was the leader of this band.

And we used to practice, ya know, endlessly.

The guy at Pacific Jazz, Jack Tracy, set us up for recording with Rahsaan Roland Kirk when Rahsaan Roland Kirk was in town.

We ended up playing with Rahsaan at the Lighthouse.

(driving bebop, drum fill, sax continues to solo) When I moved back to Denver, you know, playing at the Pec, man, I met all these people that, a lot of them, I knew before.

How I got the job was I used to play at a little club over there on West Colfax.

It was me and Paul Warburton an' a couple other guys.

And Jerry had came in that day, one day, and he came up to me, asked me, he says, "Would you like to come to play at my club?"

I says, "Where at?"

"At Chapultepec."

And I said... And I'm saying to myself, "That's a dump!"

(laughs) And I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll do it, yeah."

So that's how I started.

He didn't start music until the '80s.

(uptempo swing at the Pec with organ and drums) January of 1980.

Gene Bass was the first that played at the Pec.

He came before I did, as a matter of fact.

(rhythmic drumming on low pitched African drum) - The jazz that we're talking about involves a lot of emotion, and that emotion, a lot of emotion, comes from the rhythm that's involved in jazz.

If you hadn't been around it, and hadn't been listening to it, ain't no way in the world you can do it.

(drum solo over bass ostinato) It's not a matter of race or color, ya know.

It's a matter of, of your relationship with your background and your culture.

Then somebody the other day was saying, "Yes, I saw Mahalia Jackson.

(euphonium blues) I saw Mahalia singing."

And so and so, and so and so.

Well, when I come along, it wasn't Mahalia, it was Mahali.

And Mahali sang with Reverend Cobbs' church.

And talk about swingin'?!

They had 11 o'clock services, and Reverend Cobb was called Preacher, a little slick black dude, with a straight conk, smoked the big cigars, sit up at the Southern Lounge and watched all the jazz music and stuff.

Went to the racetrack.

And Cobbs' thing was, "Don't do as I do, do as I say do."

And the church was hip, And my mother took me, and Cobb would start off the bat: the organ piano, maybe a trumpet player, and that's about it, and the rest of it's just the tambourine and stuff.

And they'd start off, and I never will forget, because the organ player would start off: ♪ Loom doom doom doom ♪ Deeng dome bome bome ♪ Peest dome rowng dome dee You know, I was young, ya know and they'd be saying, ♪ Jesus is the light ♪ The light of the world ♪ dome dome dome ♪ Jesus And they'd start off with that, and they'd be smokin'!

And then he'd come on with his little pork cap, and he'd do his little soliloquy, you know, Ya know,"Welcome to the church of so and so."

He talked real quiet.

"I want you to know, each and every one of you know, that God loves you."

Oh, he had his thing down.

Con man!

But meanwhile, in the background, the church was still, ♪ Woodah too ting ding ding dah ♪ ♪ Light of the world ♪ Chaw dah dang dong Ya' know?

And ah, Mahali was in the choir.

And he would say, Cobb would always say, "I want to say God bless you to alllll my people, all my boys and girls out on the street, to all the cab drivers, and all those people that," he didn't use "disenfranchised."

In other words, he made a fact to all his boys and girls.

He was a master.

But my point being is that Mahali Jackson was a singer in the choir, and once she started singing?!

It was over, ya know.

And, those are the kind of things that make the jazz in jazz musicians.

(train whistle in the distance) - Man, you're on film, Creighton.

- Yeah, man.

- No, it's in between us.

(Dave laughs) - I say there, Dave.

How do you do?

- I'm doing quite well.

It's cold out here, though.

- I just wanted to come over and say hello.

- It's cold out here.

I'm getting ready to take my ass inside.

(laughs) Come on, let's go insides!

(chuckles) It's pretty dark here, and we're pretty dark brothers, so you gotta, like, tape that, make sure we get some light.

Creighton blew out the candles, so we don't have (Creighton laughs) any ambient light.

- You want some candles?

(soulful electric guitar/bass duo: intro to Summerwind) ♪ Oh, the summer wind ♪ Came blowing in ♪ From across the sea ♪ To linger there ♪ So warm and fair ♪ And walk with me - It seems like just all the class has left the scene.

People don't want jazz.

And even if they do, they want blue jean-tank top-jazz, you know?

- You got a generation of people that dictate what should be out here, ya know, an' live music is not one of the things that they really think about, you know?

- And they took him back in the alley and they tied him up.

- That's right.

(group laughs) That's right.

- And then they turned on the buzzsaw.

And then, and then.... ahgh ahgh!

♪ I lost you to the summer wind ♪ (swingin' guitar solo, rhythmic, warm and round tone) (steady walkin' mid-tempo bass in 4/4) (soulful smooth swingin' country blues licks, jazzy feel) - You know, and I really think it starts at the top.

So you're talking about people that are, you know, used to be into music, and play music, and experience that, and then they're running the record companies.

Now you got corporate lawyers who go by spreadsheets and numbers, wanna stamp everybody into a certain thing, you know?

(funky melodic bass solo on 6-string electric) (sparse whole note chord comping from electric guitar) (melodic bass phrase signaling top of form) - Denver has a great big...

The demographic is like very, very yuppy, and they're kids, and they have a different way of partyin'.

You give them TVs, plants, and a brass rail, and they're happy.

To them, jazz, now and then is a little fad, but they'll go for anything.

- Yeah.

- But they don't go out.

You see a lot of them out, but it's not always the same ones, and they just, they don't go where there's music, they go where there's TVs.

♪ But still those days ♪ Those lonely days ♪ Go on and on (powerful and passionate vocals) ♪ And guess who sighs his lullabies ♪ ♪ Through nights that never end ♪ ♪ My fickle friend ♪ Whoa, that summer wind (bass walkin' smooth) ♪ Guess who sighs his lullabies ♪ ♪ Through nights that never end ♪ ♪ My fickle friend ♪ Whoa, that summer wind ♪ Whoa, that summer wind ♪ Whoa, that summer wind (Count Basie style rhythmic ending on maj/min chord) (audience member: a single clap) Thank you.

(lone audience member claps more) (silence) ♪ (female alto) Ohhhh (with ethereal piano and agogo bell) ♪ ♪ Ahh ahhhhh ahh ahhhhh ♪ Ah ah ahhhh ahh ahhhhh ahh ahhhhhhhoh ♪ ♪ Uh, uhh, ohhh, oh, oahhh, ahh, ahhhhh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, ohhh, woah, ohhhh, wah!

yahhhhhhh ♪ ♪ Ah, ahhh, ahhhh, ahhh, ahhhhh ♪ ♪ Hoh, ohhhhhhhh ♪ Forget me, not now ♪ Or then ♪ Shadow lines ♪ Within your kind ♪ Forget me, not now ♪ Or then ♪ Shadow lines ♪ Within your kind ♪ Forget me, not now (fireworks crackling & rumbling) (people chattering) (from inside a building:upbeat jazz music in 7/4 time) ♪ Do, a deer, a female deer ♪ Re, a drop of golden sun (music now louder inside) ♪ Mi, a name I call myself ♪ Fa, a long way to run ♪ So, a needle pulling thread ♪ La, a note to follow soooooo ♪ Ti, a drink with jam and bread ♪ ♪ Will bring us back to doooooooo ♪ (band is jammin' with groove) ♪ No no noo nooo nooooo (live music fades out.

Coltrane's My Favorite Things on speakers) ♪ I fell in love with you (uptempo swing) ♪ The first time I looked into ♪ them there eyes (band is swingin' fast and driving hard) ♪ You've got a certain little cute way of flirting ♪ ♪ With them there eyes ♪ You make me feel so happy ♪ You make me feel so blue ♪ No stalling, I'm falling ♪ In a great big way ♪ Run ♪ Burn (acoustic grand piano plays strong, yearning) ♪ Run ♪ Burn ♪ Run ♪ Oh oh, oh oh (piano holds last note) ♪ (dramatic pause) ♪ Secret shadow (angelic voice and piano in unison) ♪ Tell all you know ♪ Tell all you know (mid tempo jazz, bright and exuberant trumpet solo) ♪ Ahhhhhhhh (upbeat jazz funk in 7/4) ♪ No no no no noooooo (trumpet sax piano and bass groovin' as one) ♪ A don't you say, a don't just say♪ ♪ A don't you say, a don't just say ♪ (percolating jazz funk groove in 7/4) ♪ A don't you say, a don't just say ♪ (band plays ostinato with intensity!)

(drums play wild exciting fills, crackling snare!)

♪ A don't you say, a don't just say ♪ ♪ I know (bass drum cymbal crash ending!)

(audience hoots, whistles and applauds) (swirling vibraphone glissandos) (sparrows chirping) - I grew up in a time where, you know, I didn't hear things like world music, or I hadn't heard the word genre of music.

I remember ya know when Motown came on the scene here in Denver, Colorado, when KDKO came on the scene, and they were playing, you know, predominantly black music, so now I'm listening to artists like Barbara Streisand, and then I hear someone like Gladys Knight do a take on a Barbara Streisand tune, or Barbara Streisand now doing a take on a Stevie Wonder tune, or Ella Fitzgerald singing Beatles music, or Wayne Shorter in the jazz realm, you know, bringing forth all these great Brazilian musicians, Dizzy Gillespie, Cuban musicians, (experimental percussion music) so, you know, the times that I grew up was, the music became very experimental, and we had a small but very warm and supportive jazz community here.

In high school, I performed all the time.

I used to work at a club called the Warehouse, (slower percussive machine-like rhythms) and it was, the way that I got the gig was I would go on Sundays, 'cause Gene Harris had decided to make his home (Afro/Cuban groove with piano and bass unison) here in Denver for a minute, so I could go and do the jam sessions, and then the club owner liked me and said, "Would you like a gig here?"

And I said, "Yeah."

I said, "I'm in high school."

So he talked to my parents, and my sister, who's 10 years older than me, and my aunt, and my mother, and my father, (euphonium horn joins Afro/Cuban groove) they would be my chaperones.

(upbeat Afro/Cuban jazzmusic) And then upstairs were the big acts.

It was so incredible.

I actually saw Ike and Tina Turner live there, I saw Mongo Santamaria there, I saw Les McCann and Ella Fitzgerald.

And when I saw Ella, that was just, like, everything.

And Nancy Wilson came.

Country music acts, all kind of things, so between shows, they would come down and hang out in the Tool Shed.

So it was really, ya know, a very, very open, loving, and supportive atmosphere here growin' up.

(soft soulful jazz ballad) (sparse harmonic electric guitar arpeggios gentle mallet cymbal swells) (audience: soft clinking of silverware on plates) - When I started out playing, there were more people around who had been around from the beginning.

You know, when I started coming up, like, Earl Hines, my parents went to go see Earl "Father" Hines play, ya know, who played with Louis Armstrong, who played with king Oliver, who knew Buddy Bolden, you know?

It's like that whole thing.

And so now there's less of that kind of connection back to the whole of the music.

(upbeat original jazz funk quartet music, grand and full of life) (mixed-meter back beats strong on snare drum) (trumpet holds a long note of beauty with circular breathing) You know, this kind of Western thing, open kind of space thing that people talk about, (red winged blackbirds sing) I think it really does have something to do with it, too.

I think it shows up in a lot of the music that's come out of here.

(gentle solo jazz piano) (patrons chattering) And a sense of being, in a very short time, being out of town, being in the mountains, in like 20 minutes, you're, like, out there.

And it's... And, yeah, that, I think, is one of the really great things about here that I hear in the kind of generation of musicians who've come up after us.

(effortless coasting, jazz funk in a minor mood - recalling wonders from the past ) But isn't it crazy that people are still doing $50 and $75 gigs?

And part of it is, is the fact that business people are business people, and they know how to make money, and they know that we love to play music.

And in the end, they know that giving us a chance, to present our music, and play music, we'll do it for something that somebody... like, I mean, you would never go to a doctor and say, "You know, hey, could you do this for 50 bucks?"

It's like, "Well, no.

Actually not."

But you could approach a musician that way, and we'll be like, "Yeah.

Actually, I will do it for that, 'cause I love the music so much."

(crowd applauding) (driving and funky modern blues music) - Music is always something which is completely sociologically tied down to economic status, and all these different metrics, and every age has a different thing that they have to deal with, the young musicians coming up.

(strong space funk, free floating jazz fusion moment) (piano and trumpet drift melodically in high register) You know, when I was coming up, I played in a lot of bands, not jazz bands, but like R&B, and blues, and rockabilly bands, and I got stomped on by a lot of guys a lot older than me, and then I was a street musician, and I got stomped on by a lot of guys a lot older than me, and it really, it hurt, but it's the way you get better in that kind of way.

And I think that the young, younger people coming up, they don't have the benefit of that anymore.

♪ Whahhh!

Whoa!

(scatting in unison with guitar) ♪ Bo do to di-tang ga ♪ Dilly-yang butta di dat (raunchy rhythmic blues hounding) (forceful 12/8 blues drumming) Basically the economically elite can afford to go to the jazz schools, and then they can afford to get no work, somehow, once they get out of the jazz schools.

A lot of it also has to do with the fact that most of the people who are coming out of those schools, their, their worldview is that they're playing music for each other, basically, and a kind of jazz educated, very extremely educated, to the point where, you know, they can technically play circles around me with compound odd meters and all of these crazy things that they're doing.

But, is the music reaching a community, (loud chattering in lounge) a larger community outside the educational community?

And it really isn't, because there's no larger community aspect of that music.

It's made specifically to appeal to musicians, other...

There's nothing wrong with that, that's not a sin.

But I'm just saying, that's also how you, if you don't have some external community component of your music, whether it be, you know, the dance band... Duke Ellington's band, it was a dance band.

I'm sorry, you know, but that was a big part of it.

Or, you know, Louis Armstrong's music, all these things had a big social component outside of the people just playing the music, and if that doesn't happen, then the music just becomes a exclusive domain of education.

And then education is pretty much an exclusive domain of wealth, especially these days, where there's not as many scholarships for people.

It's essentially the only people who can afford to play jazz are wealthy people.

And that's where it's going.

(exciting and punchy trumpet funk music with dance backbeat) (piano is hammering 16th notes mid to upper register) (guitarist is slammin' bass notes) (trumpet drums away on one note with funky and passionate rhythmic variations!)

(music peaks, releases, then becomes playfully syncopated) (funky cruise control - gliding vamp on the one) - The emotional part connects me with joy; excitement, okay?

(whispered fingers hammer muted strings) Grandeur.

What's behind this?

Why these notes don't work?

How can I make them work a little better, okay?

If I really wanna be an explorer ... And it sometimes, it's like pushing a triangle through a circle hole, you know what I'm saying?

You know, you had these little toys as a kid, with the little hammer, and you'd hammer the shapes into the proper shapes of the hole.

Sometimes you would have a wrong shape that wouldn't go, so it'd never go in the hole.

It's kind of like what I'm doing here sometimes, you know?

Ya know, an' if it doesn't work well enough, I'll either give up or get a chainsaw and make the hole bigger and make it fit.

Huh?

(laughs) Let me talk to the band.

You got any money on you?

You got any cash?

- I left it in the car.

- All right.

I'll tell 'em.

Let me talk to these guys.

(mumbles "hey, ungh ungh.")

One chord, okay?

You guys got one chord.

Okay, I'm gonna have to turn you guys on.

I think you're back from, uh, Starbucks.

(mid-tempo bugaloo beat with a one chord looped-vamp from machine) Oh, yeah.

They're ready to play.

They're ready to be played with.

What key are they on, huh?

Ben, what key is that in?

Okay.

♪ Welllllll We're in F. (sophisticated and driving guitar licks with jazzy feel) (switches pick-up for a fuller and smooth tone) (climbing, compelling crystal clear notes) (soaring high with jumps up the scale) (works way down the scale and becomes edgy, notes are pulling - tension) (weaving with intrigue back towards a resolution) (dramatic high-pitched tension chord, resolution comes with final note on fret board) Okay, guys.

Cool it.

Go take a break.

(music loop stops) All right, man.

So I was in F7 there, okay?

I was havin' fun.

It was kind of bluesy, bugaloo, kind of real '60s vibe, and then I just took it a little bit, and I kind of started going into some other chord changes.

I didn't let one chord get in my way, okay?

And that's kind of the beauty about the art, about heavy improvisation, especially when you put the word jazz in it, 'k?

There's a big responsibility in there to know past, present, future.

(cold mountain wind gusting) - [Interviewer] What's your secret to longevity in the music business?

(Freddy laughs) - I don't know.

I just, I just love it.

(uptempo bop trio swings hard) I still follow...

I go out and listen to people, I listen to different groups.

I've always listened to 'em.

I've played with a lot of different bands in different genres, and uh, that's kept me alive.

And another thing that's really important is I don't smoke cigarettes.

My lungs and my heart are really good.

Yeah, that's really helped me a lot.

I still smoke a little weed.

I can't smoke too much of it.

It hurts my throat.

I do a little bit of cocaine every now and then, but I don't go crazy with it.

So that's, that's kinda my story.

- [Interviewer] Moderation.

- Moderation, man.

(laughs) Moderation, that's a good word.

(laughs) (upbeat montuno, sax swaggers and sways on top) (motorcycle rumbles past and cars cruise along) - [Interviewer] What direction is jazz gonna go in?

How is jazz gonna change?

- It's not gonna change.

It's almost gone as far as it's going, but it'll probably go back to the fundamentals of where it was just pure jazz, (melodic bop piano from speakers) where people danced to it, and could sing and hum melodies to these things.

And that's how simple that is, okay?

- Well, I think the future's always in songs and bands.

It's always been that way.

I think history books... Like, I teach a jazz history class, in history books, it's like the simplistic route, that it's one person, that it's Charlie Parker, or that it's Miles Davis.

It's not, it's always bands.

It's always been bands, and it's always been songs, and as long as people are writin' songs, and gettin' together, and exchanging ideas, then that's gonna be the way it keeps moving forward, you know?

- Cool.

- It's a song that I wrote called "Testify," because I wrote that song many years ago, in the late '90s, and it still holds true today.

And, you know, it says, "Sometimes you won't understand why life is the way it is.

Things don't always go the way you planned them.

But I believe that God and time are synonymous, and through time, God reveals all things.

You have to be still, pay attention."

And that it's all about testifying about my life, because, ya know, it's like a cycle.

You learn something, and then you find yourself in another place, and then you learn something, you find yourself in another place.

And for me, that song, still, the lyrics of it still hold true.

- [Interviewer] Do you feel like singing the melody a little bit?

(Dianne laughs) How do the lyrics go?

- It goes ♪ Sometimes you won't understand ♪ ♪ Why life is the way it is ♪ Things don't always go ♪ The way you plan them ♪ But I believe God and time ♪ Are synonymous ♪ And through time ♪ God reveals all things ♪ So you gotta be still ♪ Stand in love ♪ And pay attention ♪ You see, I just wanna testify ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ I just gotta testify - I don't know how to preface this, but just a matter of being yourself and treating other people as you would like to be treated, don't have any racism, and enjoy each day like it's the last day, because it might be.

Ehh?

That's about it.

(gentle and introspective piano notes cascading wistfully from high above) (piano note clusters drift through space - interwoven ripples in time) (frequencies warmly collide creating harmonics fluttering like butterflies deep in canyon) (notes that breath, sigh, and spin sliding like tears from her eyes) ♪♪ (peaceful, serene... searching) (high swirling notes from the piano whisper a lullaby and fade slowly with a haunting) (upbeat musical theater "jazz hands" vamp) (sexy upright bass gliss) (chords create tension with addition of organ, clarinet, accordion, trumpet) (stinger hit!

James Bond excitement chord space vibrato lingers driftingly) (supremely funky electric bass and drum groove) (female voice) ♪ Mmmmmmm (distant male voice) ♪ You an' me are, you an' me are ♪ (female voice) Um hmm.

♪ Oooooooh (spoken) ♪ You got this (whispered) ♪ You got this ♪ You and me are, you and me are ♪ ♪ You and me are, you and me are ♪ ♪ You and me are, you and me are ♪ ♪ You and me are, you and me are ♪ ♪ You and me are ♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm ♪ Compulsive ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh (funk groove rockin' solid) ♪ You and me is, you and me is ♪ You and me is, you and me is ♪ You and me is, you and me is ♪ You and me is, you and me is ♪ You and me iszzzz ♪ Impulsive ♪ Ohwa, ohhh, ohhhhohwoah mmmm ♪ Mm, mmmmmm ♪ Talk about, talk about, talk about it ♪ ♪ Talk about, talk about, talk about it ♪ ♪ Talk about, talk about, talk about it ♪ ♪ Talk about it all night long, all night lawonnng ♪ (music fades out) (Latin cha cha groove) ♪ Dah dawt da dot dot daht da dahhhhh♪ ♪ Da dah dawt dah dah dah da dahhhh ♪ (marimba, conga, cowbell and shaker) ♪ You gotta Facebook me ♪ Text, Twitter, and blog ♪ You gotta Facebook me ♪ Text, Twitter, and blog ♪ You gotta Facebook me ♪ Text, Twitter, and blog ♪ Now I know all about you (fast 6/8 Abakua conga groove with cowbell) ♪ Turn it off (female harmonies...) ♪ ♪ Run and play ♪ Come and play ♪ Another day ♪ Turn it off ♪ Run away ♪ Come and play ♪ Another day ♪ Turn it off (haunting electronics flutter by) ♪ Run away ♪ Come and play ♪ Another day (reversed engineered digital bebop swirls) ♪ Turn it off ♪ Run away ♪ Come and play (soul-stirring ♪ crescendo of fractal cloud matter tearing ♪ Another day (climbing & punchy rhythmic ensemble ending) (big band stinger!)

(crowd cheers, whoops and hollers!)

(triangle ting; deep electronic flutter )