Charles Mingus Quotes, Thoughts and images

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

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

My music is evidence of my souls will to live.

I never heard my music played the way I heard it in my head.

Jazz music is a language of the emotions.

Making the complicated simple is true creativity.

If you think this is weird, just look at yourselves.

Bach is how buildings got taller. It's how we got to the moon.

Everything I do is Mingus.

In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am.

If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.

I've got a feeling that if it's so easy for you - the struggle and the initiative are not as strong as they are for a person who has to struggle and therefore has more to say.

They're singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

Thelonius Monk went over to Bird and Bud Powell and said, 'I told you guys to act crazy, but I didn't tell you to fall in love with the act. You're really crazy now.'

If someone has been escaping reality, I don't expect him to dig my music.

Jazz is the language of the emotions.

I always thought that no matter what kind of work people did, they should involve themselves totally with all the discrimination they ran into.

Whatever coast he's on, a man should be himself. I don't write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus.

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.

Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don't care what you play anyway.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

Let my children have music! Let them hear live music.

Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker's next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?

I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I've grown up and I like to do things other than just swing. But blues can do more than just swing.

In high school I was on the basketball team, but the coach did something I didn't dig and the next day he looked up and saw me practising with the football team.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.