1. Jazz is about finding and sharing who
you are. Betty Carter, Jazz Singer 1929-1998
2. I grew to see my affliction as my gift. When I sang, I
soared. I saw my suffering as my salvation: I understood
God had put me in this strange little package for a reason.
All I needed was the courage to be me. That courage took
a lifetime to develop. Jimmy Scott, Jazz Singer
4. ‘When you’re working the spirit understands that you
are serious and preparing to receive that information.
Stay in the state of preparedness. You got to stay in
the state of preparedness all the time.’ Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter
5. When we can
play with the
unconscious
concentration
of a child, this
is art:
prayer:
love.
Madeleine
L’Engle,1996
6. ‘Every human being is given the gift to create
&that creativity manifests itself in trillions of
ways.
Creativity is unruly. Like a dream - you can't
control what comes to you. You only control
what portion you choose to tell.’
8. We improvise
every time we say
a sentence, but we
are told that being
creative is some
mysterious thing
possessed by a
few; when in fact
we are improvising
all the time,
creating all the
time.(StephenNachmanovitch)
9. There are varieties of activities, but it is the same
God who activates all of them in everyone. 1 Corinthians
10. "King spoke much the way a jazz musician plays, improvising from
sketched chords that derive from hours of practice and performance. He
could bend ideas and slide memorized passages through his trumpet of
a voice with remarkable sensitivity to his audience” Michael Eric Dyson
11. If you believe in the beat,
you don't need to worry
about it. It's there.
Always been there and
always will. You don't
have to follow it. Fact is,
the beat sets you free.
It's your security, your
heartbeat, an expression
of God, a gift. Time is a
gift. Time is our life. I
believe in God.
Jimmy Scott, Jazz Singer
12. If we're in the
moment, if we're
truly rooted in what
we're doing when
we're doing it, we
can work through
all the bad stuff. In
that sense, we can
all be singers
singing away our
sadness.
Jimmy Scott, Jazz Singer
14. My goal is to live the truly religious life and
express it in my music. John Coltrane
15. My music is the
spiritual expression
of what I am - my
faith, my knowledge,
my being... I'd like to
point out to people
the divine music in a
musical language
that transcends
words. I want to
speak to their souls.
John Coltrane
30. How do you pray when you don't have the words?
31. “What we have to
express is already
within us, is us, so
the work of
creativity is not a
matter of making
the material come,
but of unblocking
the obstacles to its
natural flow”
(Stephen Nachmanovitch
/ Improv Violinist)
