"Midi is my hobby"
About this Quote
"Midi is my hobby" lands like a quiet flex disguised as a shrug. Coming from J. J. Johnson, the bebop trombone architect who helped make an awkward-looking horn sound as agile as a sax, the line reads less like small talk and more like a statement of artistic posture: the serious musician stays curious, even about tools that many peers treated as gimmicks.
Context matters. Johnson’s core legacy is stubbornly analog: breath, brass, swing, and the high-wire clarity of mid-century jazz modernism. MIDI, by contrast, is the language of late-20th-century music tech, a protocol that turns performance into data - note numbers, velocities, timing, channels. For a jazz elder to call it a "hobby" suggests a deliberate demotion. Not "my new direction", not "the future", not "my art". Hobby. A sandbox. That word keeps the machine from getting to wear the crown.
The subtext is protective but not fearful. Johnson isn’t rejecting technology; he’s refusing to let it dictate the terms of musicianship. MIDI becomes a place to tinker, to sketch, to learn - without compromising the primacy of touch, phrasing, and human time. It’s also a subtle critique of tech evangelism: yes, the tools are powerful, but power isn’t the same as taste.
There’s something culturally modern in that restraint. In an era that increasingly demanded artists brand themselves as innovators, Johnson stakes out a more durable identity: master first, experimenter second, always by choice.
Context matters. Johnson’s core legacy is stubbornly analog: breath, brass, swing, and the high-wire clarity of mid-century jazz modernism. MIDI, by contrast, is the language of late-20th-century music tech, a protocol that turns performance into data - note numbers, velocities, timing, channels. For a jazz elder to call it a "hobby" suggests a deliberate demotion. Not "my new direction", not "the future", not "my art". Hobby. A sandbox. That word keeps the machine from getting to wear the crown.
The subtext is protective but not fearful. Johnson isn’t rejecting technology; he’s refusing to let it dictate the terms of musicianship. MIDI becomes a place to tinker, to sketch, to learn - without compromising the primacy of touch, phrasing, and human time. It’s also a subtle critique of tech evangelism: yes, the tools are powerful, but power isn’t the same as taste.
There’s something culturally modern in that restraint. In an era that increasingly demanded artists brand themselves as innovators, Johnson stakes out a more durable identity: master first, experimenter second, always by choice.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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