Wynton Marsalis Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“I always like to play very contemporary concepts of swing right next to New Orleans music because it highlights continuum.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“What is deeper than respect and love? That’s what we felt: veneration.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“And that's the soulful thing about playing: you offer something to somebody. You don't know if they'll like it, but you offer it.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
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“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.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“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 -
“As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process in sound. Jazz means working things out musically with other people. You have to listen to other musicians and play with them even if you don't agree with what they're playing. It teaches you the very opposite of racism and anti-Semitism. It teaches you that the world is big enough to accommodate us all.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“How great musicians demonstrate a mutual respect and trust on the bandstand can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your life, understanding what it means to be a global citizen in the most modern sense.”
-- Wynton MarsalisSource : Wynton Marsalis, Geoffrey Ward (2008). “Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life”, p.15, Random House
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“It's harder to build than destroy. To build is to engage and change. In jazz, we call progressing harmonies changes. Changes are like obstacles on a speed course. They demand your attention and require you to be present. They are coming...they are here..... and then they are gone. It's how life comes. Each moment is a procession from the future into the past and the sweet spot is always the present. Live in that sweet spot. Be present.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“The main three components are the blues, improvisation - which is some kind of element that people are trying to make it up - and swing, which means even though they're making up music, they're trying to make it up together. It feels great, like you're having a great conversation with somebody.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“Jazz music is the power of now. There is no script. It's conversation. The emotion is given to you by musicians as they make split-second decisions to fulfill what they feel the moment requires.”
-- Wynton MarsalisSource : Wynton Marsalis, Geoffrey Ward (2008). “Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life”, p.8, Random House
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“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.”
-- Wynton MarsalisSource : Wynton Marsalis, Geoffrey Ward (2008). “Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life”, p.13, Random House
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“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.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
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“Jazz is not just 'Well, man, this is what I feel like playing.' It's a very structured thing that comes down from a tradition and requires a lot of thought and study.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“A beat is a moment in the life a groove.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“Everything comes out in blues music: joy , pain , struggle . Blues is affirmation with absolute elegance.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“I believe in professionalism, but playing is not like a job. You have to be grateful to have the opportunity to play.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
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“I believed in studying just because I knew education was a privilege. It was the discipline of study, to get into the habit of doing something that you don't want to do.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“The nerves are a problem on trumpet, because when you mess up everyone can hear it. Just remember most people are too polite to say anything about it. That should calm your nerves.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“Don't wish for someone else to do later what you can do now.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“I almost never watch TV, except for '60 Minutes' and pro football. I love Drew Brees, the Manning brothers and the Steelers' linebackers.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
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“Humility is the doorway 2 truth & clarity of objectives... it's the doorway 2 learning.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance.”
-- Wynton MarsalisSource : "Bibi, Moses, and Churchill" by Rabbi Michael M. Cohen, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 19, 2015.
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“New Orleans - the real New Orleans - is the soul of the country.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
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“We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.”
-- Wynton Marsalis -
“If you want to be different, do something different.”
-- Wynton Marsalis
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