Two things are necessary to be a good jazz musician: good thinking and good hearing.

The proper mental state for jazz is a balance between structured thinking and free thinking.

Without a balance between these, there is no good thinking and no good jazz.

The best jazz musicians have a good ear; they adapt, they change their thinking, and they search for the next note through the feedback of hearing.

The ear in jazz is a component of our consciousness, allowing us to hear our own thoughts expressed aloud in music.

There is also the hand, which thinks for itself and at the same time acts as an extension of our thinking and our hearing.

Suddenly the hand is an ear, the sound made is a thought, and our thinking is music.

This is consciousness. When thinking leaves its internal confines and exists outside of itself, we become conscious beings.

The ear, however, is not a conscious being. And in the same way, our minds on their own are not conscious.

It is between the hand, the strings, the air, the ear, and the mind that consciousness exists.

Within this space, another pair of hands and ears join in, and we become aware of other minds.

Consciousness is ever-expanding, so long as we allow our minds to explore outside of themselves.

This is the right way of thinking, and this is the right way of hearing.

Jazz, and with it all art, is an exercise in the expansion of human consciousness.