00:00I like the way you related what happens in a good jazz band with what happens in a good democracy.
00:12I think that that's what the Constitution is.
00:16We have a collection of virtual souls who got together and they grapple with problems.
00:21The great contribution the framers of our Constitution made was developing the form of our government.
00:31Three separate branches, the presidency, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch, giving each one some powers over the other two.
00:43And they work through those problems by a delicate way of balancing individual rights, the rights of states, what is the central government's role.
00:54And in music, we do that all the time.
00:57The drummer is like the president. It's the loudest instrument.
01:00Is that the president, the drum?
01:02The drums, the drums, the president.
01:06What's the bass then? That's pretty loud too.
01:08Judiciary.
01:10Oh, the judicial branch.
01:12There's a great bass player named Milt Hinton.
01:13Keeps him steady.
01:14That's right. He's called the judge.
01:16Oh, good. All right.
01:17He addresses the harmony and the rhythm.
01:19Oh, yeah.
01:20And he's in the center of the rhythm section, so he's in a central location.
01:23We can understand everything that's going on, has an influence on the ground rhythm and on the harmony.
01:31But the piano and the rhythm section would be like the legislator.
01:35The piano represents all of the notes, all of the keys.
01:38But can play everything.
01:40And you have to listen to each other.
01:48I mean, that's the point.
01:50When one of you is playing a solo, the others play along, but they listen.
01:55One of the greatest lessons on the bandstand is just that you're forced to listen to everybody else.
02:03So it teaches you to be open in your hearing.
02:06Well, now if we can just get members of legislative branches to pay a little more attention to the theory of jazz music, we'll all be better off.
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