They didn't dictate to me as to what kind of music that they wanted me to play or what tunes, what musicians that I was going to use. They let me do my thing. That's one reason I stayed there for twenty-eight years.
Horace SilverRead
Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate upon it in order to get the most of it. _x000D_ You must absorb most of it. The harmonies within the music can relax, soothe, relax, and uplift the _x000D_ mind when you concentrate upon and absorb it. Jazz music stimulates the minds and uplifts the souls _x000D_ of those who play it was well as of those who listen to immerse themselves in it. As the mind is _x000D_ stimulated and the soul uplifted, this is eventually reflected in the body.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Jazz requires deep appreciation and concentration to be fully enjoyed and understood.
This quote emphasizes that jazz music is not merely a background filler but a rich and engaging art form that demands attention and focus. Through deep listening and immersion, one can experience the stimulating harmonies of jazz, which not only elevate the mind and soul but also positively influence the physical experience of the listener.
Themes
JazzMusicConcentrationUpliftingArt
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech at a jazz festival to highlight the importance of appreciating music.
More from Horace Silver
All quotes →I've found in composing that being simple and profound—having in-depthness in your music—is the most difficult thing to do. Anybody can write a whole lot of notes, which may or may not say something . . . But why make it complicated for the musicians to play? Why make it difficult for the listeners to hear?
Horace SilverRead
Similar quotes
Music is powered by ideas. If you don't have clarity of ideas, you're just communicating sheer sound.
Yo-Yo MaRead
The ambition of superior sensibility and superior eloquence disposes the lovers of arts to receive rapture at one time, and communicate it at another; and each labors first to impose upon himself and then to propagate the imposture.
Samuel JohnsonRead
Oprah Winfrey represents the most ingenious and creative expression of black spiritual genius in the public mainstream that we've had in quite a long time, if ever.
Michael Eric DysonRead
Black and white might be sufficient. But why deprive yourself of color.
Christian DiorRead
It's not that he lacked poetry. But his poetry was of the body, not the mind. He spoke it in the way he moved, the way he held a hammer, rowed a boat, built a fire. I, on the other hand, was like a brain in a box, a beating heart in a coal scuttle.
Meg RosoffRead
Jazz in itself is not struggling. That is, the music itself is not struggling... It's the attitude that's in trouble. My plays insist that we should not forget or toss away our history.
August WilsonRead