Charles Mingus Quotes About Jazz

Quotes about: Jazz

• Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

  Charles Mingus

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Music

  Charles Mingus' statement in Mainliner Magazine (July 1977); later quoted in Olivia Bertagnolli "Creativity and the writing process" (p. 182), 1982.

• I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Play, Trying

  Charles Mingus' statement to Nat Hentoff as quoted in Anthony Fawcett "California Rock, California Sound: The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California" (p. 56), 1979, and in "Jazz: Beyond Time and Nations" in Nat Hentoff "The Nat Hentoff Reader" (p. 99), October 17, 2001.

• Everything I do is Mingus.

  Charles Mingus

  Jazz

• They're singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Singing, Phrases

• I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.

  Charles Mingus

  Men, White, Black

• Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

  Charles Mingus

  Creativity, Simple, Plain Language

  Charles Mingus' statement in Mainliner Magazine (July 1977); later quoted in Olivia Bertagnolli "Creativity and the writing process" (p. 182), 1982.

• Thelonius Monk went over to Bird and Bud Powell and said, 'I told you guys to act crazy, but I didn't tell you to fall in love with the act. You're really crazy now.'

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Falling In Love, Crazy

• I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn't only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around.

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Art, Player

  "What Is A Jazz Composer?". Charles Mingus' liner notes for "Let My Children Hear Music", album composed by Charles Mingus, January/February 1972.

• Jazz music is a language of the emotions.

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Jazz, Emotion

• Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?

  Charles Mingus

  Als, Taste, Jazz

• I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Jazz, Spontaneous

  "What Is A Jazz Composer?". Charles Mingus' liner notes for "Let My Children Hear Music", album composed by Charles Mingus, January/February 1972.

• 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.

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Writing, Play

  "An Open Letter To Miles Davis". Charles Mingus, Downbeat Magazine, November 30, 1955.

• It (jazz) isn't like it used to be. The guys aren't together. They're all separated. Individuals now. Bird was a symbol. It was a clique, a clique of people. Who all believed in one thing: gettin' high. And playin'.

  Charles Mingus

  People, Guy, Bird

• Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker's next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?

  Charles Mingus

  Order, Play, Waiting

• Jazz is the language of the emotions.

  Charles Mingus

  Jazz, Emotion, Language

• If someone has been escaping reality, I don't expect him to dig my music.

  Charles Mingus

  Music, Reality, Escaping

  "An Open Letter To Miles Davis". Charles Mingus, Downbeat Magazine, November 30, 1955.

• In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am.

  Charles Mingus

  Play, Trying, Jazz And Life

  Charles Mingus' statement to Nat Hentoff as quoted in Anthony Fawcett "California Rock, California Sound: The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California" (p. 56), 1979, and in "Jazz: Beyond Time and Nations" in Nat Hentoff "The Nat Hentoff Reader" (p. 99), October 17, 2001.

• Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don't care what you play anyway.

  Charles Mingus

  Play, Musician, Care

• 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.

  Charles Mingus

  Symphony, Listening, Attention

• 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.

  Charles Mingus

  Teacher, Mean, Singing

  "Mingus/Mingus: Two Memoirs". Book by Janet Coleman and Al Youn, 1989.

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