This is absolutely true

Haruki Murakami en su bar, Peter Cat, en Sendegaya, Tokyo, 1978

Jazz Messenger es quizás uno de los ensayos más profundos sobre la iniciación a la literatura que jamás haya leído. En este escrito de Haruki Murakami, con la breveda profunda de las piezas de su amadísimo Art Blakley, narra su paso del bar de jazz Peter Cat, que él mismo dirigía, a la concreción de literaturas de la talla de Here the Wind Sing (1979) y Kafka on the Shore (2002).

"Whether in music or in fiction, the most basic thing is rhythm. Your style needs to have good, natural, steady rhythm, or people won’t keep reading your work. I learned the importance of rhythm from music — and mainly from jazz. Next comes melody — which, in literature, means the appropriate arrangement of the words to match the rhythm. If the way the words fit the rhythm is smooth and beautiful, you can’t ask for anything more. Next is harmony — the internal mental sounds that support the words. Then comes the part I like best: free improvisation. Through some special channel, the story comes welling out freely from inside. All I have to do is get into the flow. Finally comes what may be the most important thing: that high you experience upon completing a work — upon ending your “performance” and feeling you have succeeded in reaching a place that is new and meaningful. And if all goes well, you get to share that sense of elevation with your readers (your audience). That is a marvelous culmination that can be achieved in no other way."

Versión completa en inglés (The New York Times): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/books/review/Murakami-t.html