Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Practicing and playing centers my mind mentally. When I went to India [in the late 1960s], I studied yoga. One day I told my teacher that I had trouble sitting still in one position. My teacher said, “You know Sonny, you don’t have to meditate that way. When you play your horn, that’s a form of meditation.” I was glad to hear that. I mean, it made sense. But sometimes you have to go a long way around to find a simple truth. Playing fills this need for me, as a human being. Just being able to play satisfies so many things for me that are essential for life. Physical, mental, everything.

This is what I do today when I’m soloing in a concert setting. I go into this neutral mental state. To create, my mind has to be blank. I may think of a few things at the beginning to get started. But when I really get into a solo, my mind is completely blank. You can’t think and play at the same time. It comes too fast.

Ideas moving from my mind to my mouth and hands. I’ve tried in the past to think about ideas while practicing with my current band. I might have been at home when an idea came to me and thought, “Gee that would fit real well when I’m improvising on this or that particular song.” But when I take that idea on the stand and try to do it, I can’t. It’s too slow. By the time I think about doing it, the actual moment has passed, and it would sound contrived if I tried.

As an artist, ideas have to be absorbed on such a subconscious level that you’re not really thinking about them. Anything less is a problem. Any kind of a conscious level of thinking to direct what I’m playing in one way or another, or to do this or do that, completely destroys the purity of the whole endeavor, you know?’ (interviewed in Jazzwax)