A New Twist

I was fortunate to talk with Eric Gravat today. He really is an intriguingly man. He worked with McCoy Tyner and Weather Report back in the day, and became a prison guard after his wife died, so he could support his children. I guess he stopped playing with McCoy after there was no ticket for him at the airport. Eric later found out that the ticket was under the name Grazat. He has reentered the jazz scene at 60 some years old and is playing with McCoy again along with his own group, Source Code.

The man is a wealth of jazz information. He talked about standing outside a club listening to the Coltrane quartet live. He also said that someone recommended him to Miles Davis, but that he never got to play with Miles. And apparently after a Weather Report gig Miles was standing by the soda machines Eric was visiting and Miles said (Eric can do Miles' voice perfectly) "you sounded great Eric. The rest of the band was shit". I was shaking hearing him talk about Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner so casually, as if they were his buds, which they are.

What I liked best was a little twist on a popular story in jazz. Miles says to Coltrane "why do you play so long" and Coltrane responds "once I get going I just don't know how to stop" and (the new twist) Miles retorts "pull the fucking horn out of your mouth".

Long Live Jazz!