Charles Mingus

Let my children have music.

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.

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. Music is, or was, a language of the emotions.

Jazz music is a language of the emotions.

I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is ’cause I’m changing all the time.

Just because I’m playing Jazz I don’t forget about me. I play or write me the way I feel through Jazz.

You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Kinship doesn’t come from skin color. It’s in your soul and your mind.

Life is too full of distractions nowadays. When I was a kid we had a little Emerson radio and that was it. We were more dedicated. We didn’t have a choice.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

Have you ever wondered why young people take to music like fish to water? Maybe it’s because music is fun, plain and simple.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

The prospect of having to sit through one of Rachmaninov’s extended symphonies or piano concertos tends, quite frankly, to depress me. All those notes, and to what end?

Sometimes I sound like gravel and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

I want to keep redefining my work and trying new things. I want my music to be able to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.

Your daddy’s rich and your ma is good lookin’ So hush little baby don’t you cry.

The truth is I never gave it much thought. I just played what I had to play.

I like to know for whom I’m writing – it makes the composition easier to do.

Living is easy with eyes closed.