"Don't worry about what others say about your music. Pursue whatever you are hearing... but if everybody really hates your music maybe you could try some different approaches"
About this Quote
Marsalis threads the needle between artistic bravery and the grown-up reality that an audience exists. The first line sounds like the classic musician’s mantra: tune out the noise, chase the sound in your head, protect the fragile early stages of a voice before it gets bullied into blandness. The ellipsis matters. It’s a pause where stubbornness can curdle into self-mythology. Marsalis then snaps it back with a grin: if everybody hates it, maybe adjust.
That final clause is doing a lot of cultural work. It refuses the romantic script where rejection automatically equals genius. Marsalis, steeped in jazz’s apprenticeship culture, is speaking from a world where taste isn’t just personal expression; it’s a conversation with a tradition, a bandstand, a room. Jazz punishes delusion quickly. If your phrasing doesn’t land, the silence is information.
The subtext is less “please the crowd” than “learn to read the room without becoming its hostage.” “Everybody” is the key qualifier. One critic, one blog, one gatekeeper? Ignore them. A consistent pattern of people bouncing off your music? That’s feedback about communication, craft, or intent, not necessarily about your worth. He’s also defending effort against the modern reflex to label any critique as oppression of originality.
Contextually, it’s Marsalis the bandleader and educator talking: protect your inner compass, then do the unglamorous work of refining the signal so it reaches other human beings. Art isn’t a diary if you’re asking people to listen.
That final clause is doing a lot of cultural work. It refuses the romantic script where rejection automatically equals genius. Marsalis, steeped in jazz’s apprenticeship culture, is speaking from a world where taste isn’t just personal expression; it’s a conversation with a tradition, a bandstand, a room. Jazz punishes delusion quickly. If your phrasing doesn’t land, the silence is information.
The subtext is less “please the crowd” than “learn to read the room without becoming its hostage.” “Everybody” is the key qualifier. One critic, one blog, one gatekeeper? Ignore them. A consistent pattern of people bouncing off your music? That’s feedback about communication, craft, or intent, not necessarily about your worth. He’s also defending effort against the modern reflex to label any critique as oppression of originality.
Contextually, it’s Marsalis the bandleader and educator talking: protect your inner compass, then do the unglamorous work of refining the signal so it reaches other human beings. Art isn’t a diary if you’re asking people to listen.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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