Quote #15

If jazz should threaten to become a hampering stereotype, a 'tradition' in its turn, George would go forward to the next fresh impulse that arose in him. You may call him the King of jazz and associate his name with the lifting of jazz into musical artistry. Very well, and his best thanks. But not on that account is he to be thrust into a pigeonhole. George Gershwin did not begin as a jazzer; he will not end as one.

More from George Gershwin

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  2. Gershwin's melodic gift was phenomenal. His songs contain the essence of New York in the 1920s and have deservedly become classics of their…
  3. The Rhapsody is not a composition at all. It's a string of separate paragraphs stuck together - with a thin paste of flour and water: I don…
  4. George died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe that if I don't want to.
  5. It was on the train,with its rattle-ty bang,that is often so stimulating to a composer that I suddenly heard the complete construction of t…
  6. Porgy is:an interesting example of what can be done by talent in spite of a bad setup. With a libretto that should never have been accepted…
  7. I like to think of music as an emotional science.
  8. An entire composition written in jazz could not live.

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