This doesn’t mean it needs to be loud and boisterous—in fact, sometimes it can be a mere musical moan or whisper—but it possesses an ineffable rightness about it. In contrast, when I hear musicians playing practice-room patterns on the bandstand, or constructing facile phrases with their fingers that don’t seem to involve their hearts and ears, I start to lose interest. The music conveys no strong sense of intentionality, perhaps even sounds rote.
