Wednesday, February 20, 2008

A Human Music


"The way I play, I couldn't do it every night. One reason is that we use a much broader format to the music. In other words, if you're playing Melancholy Baby you have a different attitude towards what you're trying to express. You know exactly what the key, the changes and the melody are all about, in some kind of way. If you do that every night, it's like social survival. You know, it's just a matter of punching the clock so you can get off. But some people don't believe that's music (and I'm one of them). I think that music has to do with trying to give everybody the full pleasure of the opportunity to hear and feel whatever someone does musically. You shouldn't ever fit music to a social class. Just because they don't work in a bank or something, it doesn't mean that they can't appreciate music. You're a human being, projecting human emotions. The music should try to be as sincere as you can express, whatever it is that has meaning to you and to people. And the more human that is, the more meaningful it is."
-- Ornette Coleman (from an interview one day in 1968)

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