Compendium of Jazz Quotes – Charles Mingus
Matthew Mullenweg created the content management system WordPress (which is what I use to blog). He is also a jazzer, and he has created a great compendium of jazz quotes–quite likely the only comprehensive online resource available for this topic. Check out the complete index on Matt’s site here. Here are some selected quotes from this great resource:
- “Just because I’m playing jazz I don’t forget about me. I play or write me the way I feel through jazz, or whatever. Music is, or was, a language of the emotions.”
- “They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases.”
- “I’m too busy playing. When I’m playing I don’t pay attention to who’s listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don’t listen to one instrument; you listen to music.”
- “That sound in tune to you? Sounds sharp to me. Sounds like I’m playing sharp all the time. My singing teacher told us you should do that. Maybe I got it from her. She said singers when they grow old have a tendency to go flat. So if you sing sharp as a young person, as you get older and go flat, you’ll be in tune. In other words, it’s never thought good to be flat. It means you can’t get to the tone.”
- “Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.”
Photo Credit – http://www.flickr.com/photos/11447043@N00/