We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we've forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We've separated music from life.
Ornette ColemanRead
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.
Interpretation
Jazz allows for creativity and improvisation, making each performance unique despite using the same notes.
Ornette Coleman highlights the essence of jazz music, emphasizing its improvisational nature. In jazz, musicians can repeat the same musical notes and themes, yet the way they express and interpret those notes can change with each performance, showcasing the creativity and individuality of the artists involved. This reflects the broader idea that art and expression are dynamic and can evolve with each rendition.
In practice
During a jazz festival, this quote could be used to explain the essence of jazz improvisation.
We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we've forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We've separated music from life.
You don't have to worry about being a number one, number two, or number three. Numbers don't have anything to do with placement. Numbers only have something to do with repetition.
You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.
So, for instance, if you came to me, I'd ask, 'Do you want to write? Do you want to improvise? Why do you want to play this instrument? What do you want to do?'
That's what I was trying to say when we were talking about sound. I think that every person, whether they play music or don't play music, has a sound - their own sound, that thing that you're talking about.
It's just someone has labelled us as having a different label to do what you do. I find that labels are the worst thing in the world for artistic expression.
I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty, so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs - at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral.
We get so many people saying short fiction is not economical, that it doesn't sell; but there are so many of us enjoying writing it and reading it. So it's wonderful to be around people who love short fiction too - it's like hanging around with my tribe.
It starts with the writer-it's a familiar dictum, but somehow it keeps getting forgotten along the way. No film-maker, irrespective of his electronic bag of tricks, can ever afford to forget his commitment to the written word.
You want to say as little as you can and get the most punch out of it, always with the knowledge that people are not in the theater to listen to your music so much as to respond to the movie. You're a part of that experience.
Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later.
For the virtuoso, musical works are in fact nothing but tragic and moving materializations of his emotions; he is called upon to make them speak, weep, sing and sigh, to recreate them in accordance with his own consciousness. In this way he, like the composer, is a creator, for he must have within himself those passions that he wishes to bring so intensely to life.
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