I'm one of the culprits who keeps turning stuff around, shaking up original tunes and trying to stand the canon on its ear. But sometimes, you just need to sing the song.
Interpretation
Creativity involves both experimentation and tradition; sometimes it's necessary to embrace the original.
In this quote, Kurt Elling reflects on the dual nature of artistic expression, where one often feels compelled to innovate and rework existing pieces to create something new. However, he acknowledges that there are moments when it is equally important to honor and simply perform the original creation, highlighting the balance between creativity and respect for tradition in art.
In practice
A musician might use this quote when discussing their approach to covers and remixes at a concert.
It helps me to learn things in different languages, even if it's just phonetically, and to make myself vulnerable to other audiences by trying to reflect back to them the genius of their own cultures, and to do that, oftentimes, in new jazz settings, new arrangements. It's a way to show respect.
That's the thing: There are so many art songs in jazz. It's a much more rich experience for the singer than people think.
I try to stick with things that I can sing with honesty.
One doesn't have to scat to be a jazz singer.
A writer should care about one thing - the language. To write well - that is his duty. That is his only duty.
Music knows no barrier of age or culture. It isn’t about being politically correct or even making a statement. Music is what appeals to the ears and touches your soul.
I think you get most of the most interesting work done in fields where people don't think they're doing art but are merely practicing a craft and working as good craftsmen. Being literate as a writer is good craft, is knowing your job, is knowing how to use your tools properly and not to damage the tools as you use them.
Outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers who wish to God they were writing masters' theses.
The celebrity-chef thing, even at its worst, its most annoying, its silliest, its goofiest, its most egregious and cynical, has been a good thing.
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.
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