Just because I'm playing jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me, the way I feel, through jazz, or whatever.
Charles MingusRead
My music is evidence of my soul's will to live.
Interpretation
The quote expresses that music is a reflection of one's inner self and a testament to the desire to exist.
Charles Mingus suggests that his music serves as an embodiment of his spirit and determination to live. Music, in this context, becomes more than just sound; it becomes a vital expression of one's emotions, battles, and the innate will for life. Each note and composition resonates with the depths of his experience, illustrating how art can serve as a powerful testament to human existence.
In practice
In a speech about the impact of art, one might use this quote to emphasize how music reflects our deep emotional experiences.
Just because I'm playing jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me, the way I feel, through jazz, or whatever.
I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.
Jazz music is a language of the emotions.
Let my children have music! Let them hear live music.
I never heard my music played the way I heard it in my head.
It (jazz) isn't like it used to be. The guys aren't together. They're all separated. Individuals now. Bird was a symbol. It was a clique, a clique of people. Who all believed in one thing: gettin' high. And playin'.
It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in.
Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible.
So often when Black men have to play roles on TV, we're either the noble savage or we're completely a savage, and there's no nuance.
The adoption of the required attitude of mind towards ideas that seem to emerge "of their own free will" and the abandonment of the critical function that is normally in operation against them seem to be hard of achievement for some people. The "involuntary thoughts" are liable to release a most violent resistance, which seeks to prevent their emergence. If we may trust that great poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, however, poetic creation must demand an exactly similar attitude.
Poetry must be human. If it is not human, it is not poetry.
When I work, I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not familiar. But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear.
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