No frogman, I am not generalizing, I'm being very specific, I'm talking about JC; there he is with that horn around his neck, when he should be having a good time like everybody else. Miles is acting a complete fool, his picture shows it; that's what people do when they are at a party. What's Trane doing, he went to sleep with that horn around his neck. If that's not overdoing it, I don't know what is.
How many JC's are there? Do you think anyone can be another JC by practicing? Get real, JC was overdoing it. Of course "everybody" needs to practice if they can, but do you take your horn to a party? If the party is a party of the best jazz musicians in the world, maybe; but give it a rest sometime.
I'm convinced that working so hard was a detriment to his playing near the end. If Trane's playing lost McCoy Tyner, and Alvin Jones, where was he going? I believe he couldn't accept the fact that he didn't have to work so hard, that his natural God given talents would take him where he wanted to go.
The biggest reason I'm not trying to prove that summer ever happened is because I can not prove the music because none of it was recorded; but I had been following his music for 6 years before that summer, and this new music was too incredible to believe.
Isaiah Thomas is the best example of someone just letting it flow; if you saw that game where he couldn't miss, you would know what I'm talking about.
I was playing a tennis match, must have been in late August, that means I had played a lot of matches, and done a lot of practicing; and I wasn't even trying really hard, but I could see the ball very clearly, and it appeared to have slowed down. Normally I was conscious of back hand form, or forehand form, but this day I wasn't conscious of anything, I was just playing the game as it presented itself.
Before I even knew it, I had won the set, and everybody was talking about my ground strokes. The only thing I knew was that the ball felt, and sounded good coming off the racket. I never played a match that good again. What I'm saying is "You got to let it flow"; all that hard work a person has been doing for years will takeover. The giants of jazz talk about letting it flow. If a person tries too hard, the muscles are tense and don't cooperate as well.
Enjoy the music.