Quotes from Ted Gioia

Jazz ist für diejenigen, die dabei sein wollen, wenn ein Wunder passiert.

In this regard, I like to quote a favorite aphorism from Oxford art historian Edgar Wind: "Mediocrity which claims to be intense has a peculiarly repulsive effect.

The oppression of a minority- whether political, religious, or ethnic- has long borne an uncanny relation to the production of art of lasting value.

T]he piano was to Harlem what brass bands had been to New Orleans. The instrument represented conflicting possibilities -- a pathway for assimilating traditional highbrow culture, a calling card of lowbrow nightlife, a symbol of middle-class prosperity, or, quite simply, a means of making a living.

Dizzy Gillespie recorded it with Charlie Parker in an influential 1945 track (incorporating a much imitated intro—perhaps initially intended as a parody of Rachmaninoff 's Prelude in C-Sharp Minor