Ladislav Déczi

„We played downstairs in Reduta, that was on Narodni trida. That was our home turf, almost. There was a café upstairs, I don’t remember its name. There we would sit, after the gig, we would sit and drink. All of a sudden Landovsky came upstairs and said: “Russians are here Russians!” And we thought he was joking, cause he was always funny. Then we went outside and there were tanks on the street. I remember that exactly“ – „What did it feel like?“ – „I had no idea what it was. We were just observing in the beginning.“ – „And the following days?“ – „WE started to have an idea of what was happening. And in the end, came the tanks. We arrived at the radio and the tanks were everywhere. They had barrels in the back, for spare oil. And some boys, I don’t know who, there were five or eight of us, and we came close to the tank and somebody gave me a chisel and another had a chisel and come on - let’s make a whole. So we made a hole in one of the barrels, a little one, and we plugged it with newspaper and set it on fire. Now we waited for it to explode, but it... it just caught on fire. And as the oil spilt more and more, the barrel shattered, it didn’t explode, it just splattered. And the whole tank began to burn. The Russians jumped out. Now there was ammunition, and those were gradually exploding, always after 5 minutes, 2 minutes. And it was everywhere, like freckles on the building, damaged paint. I remember that exactly like this.“

„So I don’t know, anytime some mum comes along with a kid, ten or eleven-year-old, that he plays the trumpet, I always say two things. What Clifford Brown said when they asked him why he plays so well. He said: ‘I don’t play like a genius. I just follow two things: rhythm and harmony.’ He simplified it and basically that’s what it is. Not that there is much of something else. I always say to the kids: ‘Look, always practice with a metronome to not mess up your rhythm. When you practice by yourself you cheat and then It becomes fixed, then you play out of your ass, it jumps around.’ That’s what I always tell them.”, “But it’s difficult to play along with a metronome.” – “That’s what the big beat players say, they have problems with that.” – “No, no, children have problems with that.” – “They say, no, no, no, we play without a metronome, it’s more lively, you’re running outside of the track, you’d be disqualified. Vaico used to say this good thing, these top players Hedderly, Clifford Brown, Coltrane, they play so exactly in the pocket, do you know why? They can’t play any other way. And there’s something to that.”