When it comes to “technique” I don’t just want fast hands, I want fast ears!
In improvised music you have to compute and consider what you’ve heard and make a decision instantaneously. Your technique, or more to the point, your facility—which is really your ability to translate what you hear—has to be up to that challenge.
The basic concept of improvised music is action and reaction. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s the beauty of it. You shouldn’t be afraid to take chances. Why not? And when you’re playing with people with a similar mindset, it’s a joy. If something doesn’t work, you just look at each other and laugh, “Oh, well, there’s one that didn’t work.” I don’t want to play what I know. I want to play what I’m hearing in the moment.
– Adam Nussbaum, Modern Drummer interview by William F. Miller, January 1994
