Allan's influences: Difference between revisions

As time goes on, things move forward in some directions, but backward in others. It's like the quality of an automobile; they can make a car go faster, but it's not made like it used to be. People say that .all the time. There are some really deep, really incredible high-quality things you can get [from] the past. For example, a saxophone player [who's starting up right now] might not have heard anything {further] back than Michael Brecker, who's absolutely incredible. But when you go back and hear some of the older guys, then you realize - well, I did - that all these guys who came up afterwards and tried to sound like them never really did sound like them at all. There was something missing. When I go back and listen to a Charlie Parker recording, he sounds unbelievable; it's so fresh. You have to wade through the poor sound quality of the recordings, but boy, it was happening! Cannonball Adderley and Coltrane, man, those guys were unbelievable. Some of those Miles Davis albums both of them were on - wow, that was something. As things move forward, something else moves back. It's inevitable, because that's the nature of things. It's really great for people to go back and have a look, because otherwise they're really going to miss something. Things get lost that should never have gotten lost.

You wanted to take up a horn rather than guitar when you were younger. You really didn't think of yourself as a guitar player. Do you still feel that way and why?