Don Ellis famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel not the way others think you should feel.
-- Don Ellis

#Music #Artist #Thinking
If one takes all the styles in jazz harmonically from the earliest beginnings to the latest experiments, he still has a rather limited scope when compared to the rest of music in the world.
-- Don Ellis

#Style #World #Jazz
I expect the audience to come up to my level.
-- Don Ellis

#Music #Levels #Come Up
I expect the audience to come up to my level. I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass.
-- Don Ellis

#Levels #Compromise #Come Up
It is my belief that there is a tendency among the so-called 'modern' or 'hip' jazz musicians to consider styles other that their own, 'corny', and it is my contention that in actuality it is these musicians who are producing that which in future years perceptive critics will deem 'corny'.
-- Don Ellis

#Years #Style #Musician

The more I compose, the more I know that I don't know it all. I think it's a good way to start. If you think you know it all, the work becomes a repetition of what you've already done.
I wanted to be different and original but still have it be something my fans could get into. There also are some big, beautiful ballads. I told my producers that I wanted tracks that are going to blow up in the clubs, but I also wanted songs that were very melodic and with a lot of instrumentation.
When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.
Is there a meaning to music? Yes. Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? No.
Water and air He for the Tenor chose, Earth made the Base, the Treble Fame arose, To th' active Moon a quick brisk stroke he gave, To Saturn's string a touch more sore and grave. The motions strait, and round, and swift, and slow, And short and long, were mixt and woven so, Did in such artful Figures smoothly fall, As made this decent measur'd dance of all. And this is Musick.
Artists are often excellent businessmen. They have to be. Otherwise they do not remain artists.
My mum is an artist and very into creative expression and freedom.
Painting cannot be the only activity of a mature artist.
Think it over, think it under.
Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time to think a moment we would see that everything Satan says is founded upon a falsehood.

Don Ellis famous quotes

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