Charles Mingus Quotes

33 quotes in 468 categories

• Anybody can make the simple complecated. Creativity is making the complecated simple.
• Making the simple complicated is commonplace; ...
• If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats
• 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…
• 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,…
• 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…
• Bach is how buildings got taller. It's how we got to the moon.
• Jazz is the language of the emotions.
• If someone has been escaping reality, I don't expect him to dig my music.
• I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn't only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those…
• Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?
• Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don't care what you play anyway.
• Everything I do is Mingus.
• 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…
• 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…
• 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,…
• I never heard my music played the way I heard it in my head.
• Making the complicated simple is true creativity.
• 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…
• My son's a painter. All through school his teachers tell him he's a genius. I tell him to paint me an apple that looks like…

Browse Charles Mingus Quotes by Category