Creativity Quote by Mose Allison

There is a quiet flex hidden in that modest phrasing. When Mose Allison says he does “very few standards,” he’s not just describing a repertoire choice; he’s drawing a line around his identity. In jazz, standards can function like shared currency: they prove you know the language, they get you booked, they keep audiences comfortable. Allison’s refusal of that comfort reads like artistic self-defense. He’s telling you he won’t be trapped doing polite demonstrations of tradition when his whole appeal is that sly, sideways intelligence.

The key is his workaround: he’ll play “other people’s tunes,” but “usually obscure.” That’s not snobbery so much as strategy. Obscurity lets him engage the tradition without being swallowed by it. You can hear his taste for the left turn: songs with odd angles, lyrics with a smirk, harmonies that leave room for his dry phrasing and conversational piano. Picking deep cuts is how he stays in control of the narrative; the audience can’t pre-load expectations the way they do with “All the Things You Are.”

Then he name-checks Duke Ellington, almost as a permission slip. Ellington is the rare canon figure who signals sophistication without forcing predictability; his tunes can be famous and still feel like architecture, not karaoke. Allison’s subtext lands clearly: I’m not anti-tradition, I’m anti-automatic. I’ll borrow, but only in ways that keep my own voice unmistakably in the room.