Moving an Art Form Forward
Kids tell me, ‘I want to move the art form forward.’ I tell them to get a stack of CDs, put them in a car, and take them from here to wherever they consider to be forward, because the art form is not going anywhere. You can make your contributions to it and they will be whatever they are. You will perhaps come up with some things that no one has come up with before, and those things will add beauty and substance to the art form. But you are not going to move it anywhere.
From the Book Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life, New York: Random House, 2008, page 160, ISBN 1400060788
Copyright © 2008 by Wynton Marsalis Enterprises
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