Valery Ponomarev

Jazz trumpeter

We have time here, you know? We have a certain span of time, this much time to do this or that. You go to school, it takes this much time, we learn to do that, it takes time. We deal with time—we’re always in the atmosphere of time. But in heaven, there is no time. You’re just there. Playing with Art Blakey, that’s your musical heaven. You don’t count time when you’re in a situation like that.

I know this is not only true for me. You look at the pictures. Look at that picture of Charlie Parker over there. He’s in heaven, I’m telling you. I can tell from the picture! And of course, when Art Blakey was playing, he was the time, first of all, Art Blakey himself. But he created an atmosphere. Everything else is secondary. Time, distances, well-being, whatever there is, it’s all secondary.