And that's the soulful thing about playing: you offer something to somebody. You don't know if they'll like it, but you offer it.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the selfless act of sharing one's creativity with others, regardless of the outcome.
Wynton Marsalis highlights the beauty of artistic expression through performance. The act of playing music or creating art involves offering a piece of oneself to an audience, without any certainty of their reception. This notion encapsulates the deep connection between the artist and the listener, revealing that the value lies in the courage to share and the intention behind the creation, rather than the expectation of praise or validation.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of creativity in education, this quote could inspire students to share their work.
Swing is extreme coordination. It's a maintaining balance, equilibrium. It's about executing very difficult rhythms with a panache and a feeling in the context of very strict time. So, everything about the swing is about some guideline and some grid and the elegant way that you negotiate your way through that grid.
Many of our greatest musicians abandoned all of their aesthetic objectives to try to become pertinent. And, at the end of the day, they never became pop stars. I counter stated that very strongly, and I continue to do that.
Jazz music is the power of now. There is no script. It's conversation. The emotion is given to you by musicians as they make split-second decisions to fulfill what they feel the moment requires.
The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.
In Jazz, improvisation isn't a matter of just making any ol' thing up. Jazz, like any language, has its own grammer and vocabulary. There's no right or wrong, just some choices that are better than others.
My daddy thought - no, he expected - that my brothers and I and our generation would make the world a better place. He was correct in his belief because he had lived in an America of continual social progress, depression followed by prosperity, segregation by integration, and so on.
In art, one does not aim for simplicity; one achieves it unintentionally as one gets closer to the real meaning of things.
A poet can write about a man slaying a dragon, but not about a man pushing a button that releases a bomb.
Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself...It's a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.
Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity.
Editing is not merely a method of the junction of separate scenes or pieces, but is a method that controls the 'psychological guidance' of the spectator.
I usually work in a direction until I know how to do it, then I stop. At the time that I am bored or understand - I use those words interchangeably - another appetite has formed. A lot of people try to think up ideas. I'm not one. I'd rather accept the irresistible possibilities of what I can't ignore.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.