First of all, I swore it was two people playing. When I finally admitted to myself that was one man, I gave up the piano for a month. I figured it was hopeless to practice.
Oscar PetersonRead
Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they're trying to say with jazz. You don't need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Jazz is about expression rather than complex explanations.
In this quote, Oscar Peterson emphasizes the idea that true expression in jazz music comes from the heart, rather than being overanalyzed or explained. He suggests that the value of a musician's message lies in the authenticity of their performance, and when it resonates, listeners will naturally be drawn to it.
Themes
JazzMusicExpressionPerformanceAuthenticity
In practice
Example use cases
During a music appreciation class when discussing the essence of jazz.
More from Oscar Peterson
All quotes →Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing.
Oscar PetersonRead
I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos.
Oscar PetersonRead
It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.
Oscar PetersonRead
Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing to hear.
Oscar PetersonRead
Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel.
Oscar PetersonRead
Similar quotes
Anecdotes don't make good stories. Generally I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.
Alice MunroRead
I don't care about being a pioneer. People act like it would be cool to be a pioneer. I'm okay to be looked at as that, but it's just that we don't get transmitted our cultural heritage as women artists.
Celine SciammaRead
With my writing, I try to do stuff I have not done before. Each time I sit down, I want to have a new experience, and by extension, I want my readers to have a different experience.
Jacqueline WoodsonRead
Life and people are complex. A writer as an artist doesn't have the personality of a politician. We don't see the world that simply.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
The artist is a collector of things imaginary or real. He accumulates things with the same enthusiasm that a little boy stuffs his pockets. The scrap heap and the museum are embraced with equal curiosity. He takes snapshots, makes notes and records impressions on tablecloths or newspapers, on backs of envelopes or matchbooks. Why one thing and not another is part of the mystery, but he is omnivorous.
Paul RandRead
Writing a novel is an incredibly free experience. One puts one's self in a narrative mode. You can go off in any direction - the past, the future, or go laterally, or include one's own beliefs. It's total freedom.
David MametRead