What he practiced in private and what he played in public seemed like they weren’t even the same art form, but they were intimately connected. It was all his practice of the fundamentals that made the improvisational music he played onstage seem like magic. Practice was rigid and structured, predictable and boring. His playing was free flowing and spontaneous and brilliant. It was like he didn’t even have to think about the notes, which he didn’t. Because he couldn’t. If his improvisational style was going to mesh with the styles of the other players on the stage, there couldn’t be any delay.
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