Larry Kart, author of Jazz In Search of Itself, has written in about the Wayne Shorter essay in Down Beat I linked to earlier:
Actually,
"Creativity and Change" was (or began as) an interview I did with Wayne when I was the newish assistant editor at Down Beat under Dan Morgenstern. We printed it under his name because what Wayne had to say was, as I recall, very close to a non-stop monologue. The circumstances of this are perhaps interesting/amusing. I'd gone with Dan to the Plugged Nickel the night before the interview took place, in Sept. or Oct. '68 I think, and approached Wayne between sets with the interview request at Dan's urging -- as I recall, Wayne had turned down the magazine before, and Dan probably thought that an approach by the new young kid might be disarming. But, no, Wayne politely said that he didn't want to do an interview because he really had nothing to say. At this point, Miles -- knowing what my role probably was because I was there with Dan -- said hoarsely from other side of the room, "Don't tell him anything, Wayne." Wayne took this in, looked at me (no doubt I seemed a bit stunned by what Miles had said, because I certainly was -- brand-new on the job and nervous) and said (perhaps out of simple kindness but also I think because Miles had said "Don't..." to Wayne the contrarian), "Come by the motel tomorrow afternoon, and we'll do it." When I got
there, I'm sure I must have asked some questions, but essentially Wayne just picked up the mike of the tape recorder and spoke into it at length. With his agreement, we printed what he said, slightly edited
if at all, not as an interview but as a piece by him, in the 12/20/68 issue, and he was paid accordingly.
Thanks, Larry! Great story.
