Charles Mingus Quotes - Page 2

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'.

Let my children have music! Let them hear live music.

If someone has been escaping reality, I don't expect him to dig my music.

That sound in tune to you?.. Sounds sharp to me. Sounds like I'm playing sharp all the time. My singing teacher told us you should do that. Maybe I got it from her. She said singers when they grow old have a tendency to go flat. So if you sing sharp as a young person, as you get older and go flat, you'll be in tune. In other words, it's never thought good to be flat. It means you can't get to the tone.

Our nights didn't begin until after noon. Because in the old days, you'd start Birdland at 8:30 or 9 pm and play until 4 in the morning. Then you'd go out to the corner and talk to a couple of musicians - I used to talk to Oscar Pettiford a whole lot - you'd stand there till 7, 8 or 9, or else go down to the jam session at Minton's.

In high school I was on the basketball team, but the coach did something I didn't dig and the next day he looked up and saw me practising with the football team.

Whatever coast he's on, a man should be himself. I don't write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus.

Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don't care what you play anyway.

I'm too busy playing. When I'm playing I don't pay attention to who's listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don't listen to one instrument; you listen to music.

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.

What do you think happens to a composer who is sincere and loves to write and has to wait thirty years to have someone play a piece of his music?

Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?

Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I've grown up and I like to do things other than just swing. But blues can do more than just swing.

Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker's next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?