You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.
Interpretation
Jazz music is a collective creation, shaped by both renowned artists and everyday musicians.
Cab Calloway's quote highlights the often-overlooked contributions of ordinary individuals to the evolution of jazz music. While famous musicians like Duke Ellington and Jimmie Lunceford are celebrated for their talent, it is essential to recognize that the genre was built by countless unnamed musicians whose dedication and hard work laid the groundwork for the innovations of the greats.
In practice
When discussing the history of jazz in a music class, this quote can illustrate the importance of community in art.
AN ARTISTIC DISCOVERY OCCURS EACH TIME AS A NEW AND UNIQUE IMAGE OF THE WORLD, A HIEROGLYPHIC OF ABSOLUTE TRUTH. IT APPEARS AS A REVELATION, AS A MOMENTARY, PASSIONATE WISH TO GRASP INTUITIVELY AND AT A STROKE ALL THE LAWS OF THIS WORLD-ITS BEAUTY AND UGLINESS, ITS COMPASSION AND CRUELTY, ITS INFINITY AND ITS LIMITATIONS.
Whoever has the luck to be born a character can laugh even at death. Because a character will never die! A man will die, a writer, the instrument of creation: but what he has created will never die!
One mustn't always believe that feeling is everything. In the arts, it is nothing without form.
For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew.
While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing, I really felt the burden I am bearing. I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate.
As I listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings about art and my feelings about the Creator of the Universe are inseparable. To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.