Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery
Miles DavisRead
Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.
Interpretation
Miles Davis credits Monk with significantly influencing his understanding of music composition.
In this quote, Miles Davis reflects on the profound impact that Thelonious Monk had on his musical development, specifically emphasizing Monk's unique approach to composition that stood out among the many talented musicians on 52nd Street. Davis acknowledges that Monk's teachings and style shaped his own artistic expression and understanding of jazz, highlighting the importance of mentorship and learning from peers in the creative process.
In practice
During a music workshop, this quote could be used to inspire young composers about the importance of learning from predecessors.
Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery
Joao Gilberto on guitar could read a newspaper and sound good.
I was minding my own business when something says to me, "you ought to blow trumpet." I have just been trying ever since.
When the band plays fast, you play slow; when the band plays slow, you play fast.
Don't play what's there, play what's not there.
My ego only needs a good rhythm section
To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth.
It's a very frustrated feeling you get when the only people with good photos of you work are the police department.
The reason we go to poetry is not for wisdom, but for the dismantling of wisdom
There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.
The poems ... are moments when I had the intensity to see, and the energy to build, some careful analog that completed the seeing. ... All I have been left is the exhausting habit of trying to tack up the slack in my life with words.
Most poets are young simply because they have not been caught up. Show me an old poet, and I'll show you, more often than not, either a madman or a master... it's when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order simply to make a poem that you fail. That is why I do not rework poems.
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