|
|
Author's popularity: 1
Vote:  
|
If you like or dislike this author in general or one or more of their quotes in particular, please give us your feedback by clicking on the icon to vote for, or the icon to vote against them.
|
|
Popularity: 0
Vote: | As we see in folk music quite often, emotion transforms what might otherwise be considered 'corny' (i.e. trite, banal, sentimental) music into valid, moving art. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | Because when we are right there is not a band in the world that can touch us! |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I expect the audience to come up to my level. I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I got bored with the old way - it came too easy. I worked until I could play and chord changes at any tempo in any key, and then said 'What else is there?' Now I'm finding out. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | If one takes all the styles in jazz harmonically from the earliest beginnings to the latest experiments, he still has a rather limited scope when compared to the rest of music in the world. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | It is much easier to be accepted if you play like everyone else, and you will get more jobs. It depends on where your values lie. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | It is my belief that there is a tendency among the so-called 'modern' or 'hip' jazz musicians to consider styles other that their own, 'corny', and it is my contention that in actuality it is these musicians who are producing that which in future years perceptive critics will deem 'corny'. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | On those long notes behind the trumpet solo, if anyone lets his mind wander for a minute he is dead. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | The truth in the matter lies in the fact that anything repeated too long without variation tends to become boring. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel - not the way others think you should feel. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | Why should a craftsman not make use of all his tools if they will promote a greater communication and expressiveness? This is not to deny that beautiful things can be fashioned out of very modest means, but what possible objection can there be towards an artist trying to be more resourceful? |
|
Biography
|
Bandleader Don Ellis (July 25, 1934 - December 17, 1978) consistently explored the area of unusual time signatures. He was a very skilled trumpet and drum player, composer, and big band leader. He held a Teacher's Certificate for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Background
Ellis was viewed by many established jazz musicians as being a bit too much of a showman, given his band's tendency to dress up in trendy costumes, flirt with rock music, and other eccentric behaviors. However, this appealed to younger listeners Ellis strove to court. This iconoclastic approach carried over into their music, as well, bringing new life into the musical genre that persists to this day.
He also took a very idiosyncratic and often intransigent approach to band leadership, and was infamous for abandoning arrangements during performance and expecting his band members to improvise in a completely unstructured fashion. Ellis explained this with the comment "listen, I don't want to play it safe, I don't believe in playing it safe. I believe an artist could (sic) only do his best when he is under the heaviest pressure."
While his respect and place in jazz history is well established today, many his contemporaries felt resentment or derision towards Don Ellis and his music, due to several factors. First, the music itself was difficult to play, requiring special training in the odd signatures; studio musicians complained about the work that was taken away as a result - life was difficult enough for musicians without these added complications in the music. Second, Ellis paid his musicians out of his own pocket, often ignoring the rules of the Union and conventions of the day. This pay tended to be below what some of his musicians felt they deserved. Third, his ego occasionally would rub people the wrong way, hurting the success of the band.
...(more on Wikipedia)
|
|
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Don Ellis".
|
|
|