American - Musician | October 18, 1961 -
Swing is extreme coordination. It's a maintaining balance, equilibrium. It's about executing very difficult rhythms with a panache and a feeling in the context of very strict time. So, everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid.
Wynton Marsalis
TimeBalanceYouFeelingSwingWay
Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand it. The music can connect us to our earlier selves and to our better selves-to-come. It can remind us of where we fit on the time line of human achievement, an ultimate value of art.
MusicTimeArtAchievementPast
Ethics are more important than laws.
EthicsImportantMoreLawsThan
Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance.
StyleSucceedSettleSubstance
I'm not a person who writes really abstract things with oblique references. I look at abstraction like I look at condiments. Give me some Tabasco sauce, some ketchup, some mayonnaise. I love all of that. Put it on a trumpet. I've just got to have the ketchup and Tabasco sauce. That's my attitude about musical philosophy.
LoveAttitudeMePhilosophyLook
Everything comes out in blues music: joy, pain, struggle. Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance. It's about a man and a woman. So the pain and the struggle in the blues is that universal pain that comes from having your heart broken. Most blues songs are not about social statements.
MusicHeartStruggleWomanPainJoy
The history of jazz lets us know that this period in our history is not the only period we've come through together. If we truly understood the history of our national arts, we'd know that we have mutual aspirations, a shared history, in good times and bad.
GoodHistoryTogetherGood TimesBad
There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division, rob you of your freedom, and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation.
FreedomThinkWishYouYoungSpirit
I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.
OpportunityGratefulJobBelieveYou
We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.
ResponsibilityDemocracyParticipation
Through improvisation, jazz teaches you about yourself. And through swing, it teaches you that other people are individuals too. It teaches you how to coordinate with them.
YourselfPeopleYouJazzSwingHow
When you create change with your point of view, you have to be ready for what comes with that.
ChangeViewYouPoint Of ViewCreate
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Wynton Marsalis quotes