Tuesday, March 24, 2020

March 24

Yesterday I listened to Marc Maron being interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air. He mentioned something that came as a surprise to me, that he attended the Lighthouse Music and Arts Camp. I also attended the camp, two consecutive summers, so there's a good likelihood we were there at the same time. Even though we're the same age (separated by a few months), I am pretty certain we were not in the same cabin together.

Marc mentioned Hankus Netsky, who taught at the camp for years. Terry knew the name immediately, having interviewed Hankus at least once or twice in the past. Hankus was then young faculty at New England Conservatory, and still teaching there today.

I played in the camp big band my second summer there. I recall that we were playing an arrangement of "Manteca". It was handwritten, unpublished. There was one passage in which my part had a line, by myself, that sound really wrong. As in, clearly incorrect. I was sitting next to Ed Jackson, himself a NEC student at the time. He asked what I was doing wrong, so I played the passage and was clearly doing everything as written.

Hankus listened and said, "Jazz is all about the wrong notes. Leave it in." That was influential on me for sure.

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