Dan Jacobs: Journal

QUOTE: ON BAD ADVICE
by daniel wright jacobs

"The first time you get bad advice it's excusable; the second time, it's suspicious; the third time, it's an enemy action.

VIDEO: GREENVILLE H.S. CONCERT WITH DAN JACOBS:

http://www.ghsjazz.blogspot.com

“AMERICAN JAZZ TRUMPETERS” LIST

DAN JACOBS, jazz trumpet artist, was honored to be included on the list of "AMERICAN JAZZ TRUMPETERS" along with other stellar jazz great such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Chris Botti, Terrance Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Freddie Hubbard and more.

View the entire list at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_jazz_trumpeters

Dan has two CD that are currently available:

1. "BLUE AFTER HOURS”
with Chuck Jacobs,bass; Rod Jacobs,drums; Randy Dorman, guitar.

2. "JAZZ STANDARD TIME"
with Chuck Jacobs,bass; Rod Jacobs,drums; Randy Dorman, guitar.

CD’s can be purchased at:

http://www.danjacobsmusic.com

and

http://www.cdbaby.com

LYRICS: "SOME OF IT'S MAGIC . . . "
by Jimmy Buffet

"Some of it's magic, some of it's tragic, but I had a good life all the way." - - - Jimmy Buffett

(Note: These lyrics from a "He Went To Pairs" by Jimmy Buffet say it all. - dan jacobs)

QUOTE: KNOWING IS NOT ENOUGH
by Johann von Goethe

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. ~Johann von Goethe

THE DOWNFALL OF DEMOCRACIES

Although the origin of the “Downfall of Democracies” is often attributed to Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor who lived in the 1700s, the origin of the material below may be attributed to Alexander Tytler, or even Arnold Toynbee, or Lord Thomas Macaulay.

Whoever can lay claim to the study of democracies that had existed until that time had remarkable conclusions. He had this to say about democracy in general, “A democracy is always temporary in nature: it simple cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

A democracy will continue to exist up until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”

Does this sound familiar? With almost one-third of all Americans feeding at the public trough, its only a matter of time before everyone receives some form of benefit and henceforth, the entire country will crash and burn with most likely a military dictatorship filling the void.

The professor went on to say: “The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;

From courage to liberty;

From liberty to abundance;

From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependency back into bondage.”

"There's no success like failure."

Bob Dylan

FINAL LESSONS OF HISTORY
BY WILL DURANT

My final lesson of history is the same as that of Jesus. Love one another. You may think that's a lot of lollipop but just try it. Love is the most practical thing in the world. To love, to be kind, not to be greedy, not to be ambitious, not to be influenced by people but to think for yourself - these are all very practical things, and they will bring about a practical, happy society.

Will Durant, 1885-1981
American Philosopher, Historian and Author

ON PRACTICE: BY PAPPY MITCHELL
"Practice slowly and carefully, speed will come unbidden."

"Cold hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colours from our sight. Red is gray and yellow white, but we decide which is right, and which is an illusion."
-- "Days of Future Passed' - The Moody Blues

Heron Derivation Dictionary derivation of the word aesthetics is given as; Gr aisthanesthai, "to perceive."

"You can produce a piece of beauty . . . of such a magnitude that you just stop people in their tracks! You can blow away and erase their anger, hate, discomfort or anything else with an aesthetic."

-L.Ron Hubbard

"It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who you aren't." - author unknown

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world." ~ Albert Einstein

Here's the musical anecdote that illustrates a great concept:

ADVERSITY INTO ADVANTAGE
by daniel wright jacobs

So I was playing this concert at a performing arts center with the Truth In Jazz Orchestra."

I'm was playing a feature on, "Nadalin," during the concert. On the very first phrase, my second valve stuck down completely! I frantically pull it up while continuing to play the melody and sound halfway decent at the same time. It just does not loosen up. It continues sticking at least every other note or so and now I'm into the solo section of the tune. Yikes! I'm trying to play a solo and figure out a way not to use this valve at the same time (very limiting as you can imagine).

The crowd (a full house) is now getting the idea that there is something very wrong, as every chance I get, I'm literally pulling the offending valve stem back up each time I play a note that requires it. Then I glance over to my stage right and one of the other trumpeters is standing there attempting to stay out of view of the audience while trying to hand me another horn.

Between notes, I grabbed the other horn, switched the mouthpiece to the new horn and continued with the tune without missing a beat.

I admit of a brief moment of fear wondering if I had jumped from the frying pan to the fire as it's adventurous indeed to pick up another horn in the middle of a challenging performance!

Happily, the horn worked perfectly and I dove into the next solo section with renewed intensity. This brought the house down as prompting me to kick it into high gear for the rest of the solo and the big cadenza at the end, finishing on a high F#.

The audience loved it, giving me a standing ovation! After the concert people were coming up saying it was so thrilling, they got chills up their spine and enjoyed it more than anything they've heard or seen and that they they would never forget it!

Now that's turning adversity into advantage, and one way to get them to remember my performance . . . I'm even thinking of adding it as a regular part of the show!

"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle;
you can live as if everything is a miracle." ~ Albert Einstein

Miles Davis perhaps put it best when he said that "nobody could play anything that Armstrong hadn't already played."

Yogi Berra Explains Jazz

Interviewer: "What do expect is in store for the future of jazz guitar?"
Yogi: "I'm thinkin' there'll be a group of guys who've never met talkin' about it all the time."

Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?
Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer: I don't understand.
Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.

Interviewer: Do you understand it?
Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't know anything about it.

Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?
Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill for it.

Interviewer: What is syncopation?
Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds.

Interviewer: Now I really don't understand.
Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.

by Yogi Berra

Never Explain - your Friends do not need it and your Enemies
will not believe you anyway.
Elbert Hubbard

Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any
other fragile and precious thing.

-- Randolph S. Bourne (1886-1918) American Writer