Michael Tilson Thomas

They all take breaths at a different speed.

They all have a different way of interreacting, and it's possible with my baton or with a little bit of body language or in using my eyes a lot.

mostly in using my facial expression, my contact with the orchestra shapes all those things.

Of course, I learned a lot from him by observing him and mostly through the kind of colloquy concerning music that we had over many years.

When I was studying pieces, I had the opportunity to, you know, to calm up and ask questions.

And

In the best kind of rabbinic style, almost always when I asked him a question, he would ask me a question back.

And by this kind of dialogue of questions, he would help me to really find my own way of doing the music.

And that was, of course, terrific.

And I guess my conducting style has become a lot...

freer, it's a lot more economical now maybe than it was 10 years ago, but these things change.

I can only say that now it feels to me in the repertoire that's really mine that as if I'm making the music happen in space, as if I'm touching the notes and actually molding them and shaping them in some kind of plastic way within time itself.

Well, I was with him for a couple of days.

I met him in Boston.

He was doing a show in a small jazz club.

And I told him I was a great admirer of his.

And he said, well, come on the road.

See how we do it.

Because I asked him how he got the band to be so tight.

This was the time when he was doing Sex Machine was his big hit.