was all of the nods to the fact that it was about mastering your instrument and how competition played into all of that. That scene in the alley. The one in the club. When Muddy and Howling Wolf meet. In all those cases it's about being strong with your instrument, confident to go up against the next man, confident you can fit in whatever the situation calls for.

There's the quote from Miles I think "you can tell a musician by how they hold their instrument." Still rings true, cats just stopped holding instruments (follow that to its logical conclusion).

Worth saying is that the hip-hop cipher kind of replaced the dive spot for players. And at its height played a similar role in developing ones talent. Unfortunately that too has gone to the wayside.
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"When the music stops he falls back into this abyss."