Big Ideas and All That Jazz
Nice interview with jazz sax artist Ornette Coleman in today’s NYTimes. Access to the article will require free registration, but it’s worth taking those extra couple steps in order to read the entire article.
Great quotes from this legendary player on music and ideas…
The music he likes is simply defined: anything that can’t be summed up in a common term. Any music that is not created as part of a style. “The state of surviving in music is more like ‘what music are you playing,’ ” he said. “But music isn’t a style, it’s an idea. The idea of music, without it being a style — I don’t hear that much anymore.”
Then he went up a level. “I would like to have the same concept of ideas as how people believe in God,” he said. “To me, an idea doesn’t have any master.”
Ahhh… he strings together words as well as he plays notes on his alto-saxophone.
“An idea doesn’t have any master.”
Brilliant and inspiring.
