The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.
Louis ArmstrongRead
Music is either good or bad, and it's got to be learned. You got to have balance.
Interpretation
Music can be evaluated as good or bad, and one must learn it while finding balance in appreciation.
In this quote, Louis Armstrong emphasizes the subjective nature of music, suggesting that it can be categorized into good and bad based on personal taste. He also mentions the importance of learning music, implying that one must understand it to fully appreciate its nuances, and that achieving a balance is essential in how we engage with and evaluate music.
In practice
During a music class, reflecting on the importance of understanding music can help students appreciate it better.
The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.
Making money ain't nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you're just as graveyard dead as he is.
Very few of the men whose names have become great in the early pioneering of jazz and of swing were trained in music at all. They were born musicians: they felt their music and played by ear and memory. That was the way it was with the great Dixieland Five.
My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn.
I've Got the World on a String.
It's America's classical music ... this becomes our tradition ... the bottom line of any country in the world is what did we contribute to the world? ... we contributed Louis Armstrong
My elaboration of the story always conforms to the reality at its source. It is always close to the world, the life, the reality it describes. No matter where I go, Iβm still holding up a mirror.
I do feel that if you can write one good sentence and then another good sentence and then another, you end up with a good story.
I feel so entirely in my element with a full orchestra; even if my mortal enemies were marshalled before me, I could lead them, master them, surround them, or repulse them.
Musical composition, about which I know little, is a complicated art, and some contemporary music may be the equivalent of a complex abstract painting.
When we free ourselves we are not freed into a void. When we free ourselves we are freed into a dimension in which Art is an obligation.
As a songwriter, if you can touch people and make them feel a little less alone in the world, then you've done your job.
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