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.
Interpretation
Jazz incorporates a variety of artistic songs that enhance the singer's experience significantly.
In this quote, Kurt Elling emphasizes the depth and richness of jazz music, particularly highlighting the complex and artistic songs that are often overlooked. He points out that for singers, performing these art songs offers a profoundly enriching experience that goes beyond mere performance, showcasing the unique emotional and creative intricacies found within jazz.
In practice
In a discussion about the depth of musical genres, one might quote Elling to highlight the richness of jazz.
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.
I try to stick with things that I can sing with honesty.
One doesn't have to scat to be a jazz singer.
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.
The army from Asia introduced a foreign luxury to Rome; it was then the meals began to require more dishes and more expenditure . . . the cook, who had up to that time been employed as a slave of low price, become dear: what had been nothing but a metier was elevated to an art.
There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda. Propaganda can be written by anybody, including dictators.
I am a professional sportswriter, among other things, and I take the games seriously. It is only one of my many powerful addictions, and I don't mind admitting any of them.
I was not interested in irony; I wanted to emphasize the primacy of the idea in making art
Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling.
Even if I don't release it myself, somebody else might hear it and want to record it. When you write a song, it gives it that potential.
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