People who “study” jazz often train within the confines of a canal…with locks, and protocol, and tolls, and predictability. and “necessary” engineered structures…run by uniformed “accredited” Lock Keepers; Canal Operator “pedagogues” raising and lowering boats with their gates and culverts. Or worse yet, within the false security of curricula, a philanthropic “play-along” commerce; float the same commodities through the canal, again.
Yet, they get out into the ocean and they have no idea how to navigate the currents, the winds, the temperatures, the stars, the seasons, the creatures. They do not even understand how their vessel is required and capable of adequate response and maneuverability. They don’t know how to nourish themselves at sea. They have absolutely no reference for relationships with these fundamental elements, these beautiful experiences that incite and demand creative nautical skills and solutions. Lock boating in the ocean is not only foolish but absolutely absurd.
You cannot learn from a Lock Keeper. You have to learn from the Mariners and the Sea itself.