Perpetual Students

[Mark Stryker]

I spoke with Roscoe Mitchell today -- I was interviewing him for a piece I'm working on about Gerald Cleaver -- and he said something about himself that bears repeating: "I still consider myself a student."

I've heard essentially the same thing from Barry Harris, Hank Jones, Sonny Rollins, James Moody, Elliott Carter, Yo-Yo Ma and Charlie Watts and surely others I'm forgetting. The idiom doesn't matter; the attitude does: How can I get better? What can I learn today to make me better tomorrow? An inspiring lesson.

Edited April 25, 2013 by Mark Stryker

[cih]

What I learned today is very often what I already learned yesterday but forgot