Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.
Steve LacyRead
A jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, poet, singer, dancer, diplomat, educator, student, comedian, artist, seducer, public masturbator, and general all-round good fellow.
Interpretation
Jazz musicians embody a diverse range of skills and talents, integrating various art forms into their craft.
Steve Lacy's quote highlights the multifaceted nature of jazz musicians, suggesting that their artistry transcends mere music. It portrays them as individuals who blend different disciplines—rhetoric, mathematics, performance, and humor—to create a unique and dynamic artistic expression that appeals to a wide audience.
In practice
During a concert, one could quote this to emphasize the depth of musicianship involved in jazz.
No writer has a right to make that much money. Indeed, without diabolical assistance, no writer can.
There is no such thing as realistic dialogue. If you [simply recorded] the real conversation of any people and played it back from the stage, it would be impossible to listen to. It would be redundant . . . . The good dialogue writer is the one who can give you the impression of real speech.
The earth doesn’t care where death occurs. ...It’s the artist, by coming in and writing about it or painting it or taking a photograph of it, that makes the earth powerful and creates death’s memory. Because the land will not remember by itself, but the artist will.
Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.
If what you want to paint is the emotive mood in all its strength... then you must not sit and stare at everything and depict it exactly as one sees it.
As nearly as possible in the spirit of Matthew Salinger, age one, urging a luncheon companion to accept a cool lima bean, I urge my editor, mentor and (heaven help him) closest friend, William Shawn, genius domus of The New Yorker, lover of the long shot, protector of the unprolific, defender of the hopelessly flamboyant, most unreasonably modest of born great artist-editors to accept this pretty skimpy-looking book.
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