"I tend to not want to put labels or categories on the music, only because people come with preconceived ideas about what they're going to hear, or won't come for this reason"
About this Quote
Mangione is doing something more strategic than sounding open-minded: he is defending access. In a music economy where genre functions like a bouncer, “labels or categories” aren’t neutral descriptors; they’re sorting mechanisms that decide who shows up, who gets booked, and who gets dismissed before a single note lands. His phrasing is tellingly practical: “people come with preconceived ideas,” “won’t come.” This isn’t a high-minded manifesto against classification so much as a working musician’s diagnosis of audience behavior.
The subtext is a quiet rebuke of how jazz and jazz-adjacent artists get boxed in. Mangione’s career sat in that friction point between jazz credibility, pop crossover, and the radio-friendly sheen of what later got tagged “smooth jazz.” Those tags can grant reach, but they also trigger reflexive sneers or rigid expectations: purists anticipating complexity may hear polish and feel betrayed; casual listeners fearing “difficult” music may stay home. Either way, the label preloads the listening experience, turning the concert into a test of whether the music matches the marketing.
What makes the quote work is its modesty. Mangione doesn’t claim genres are fake; he argues they’re socially consequential. He wants the first encounter to be sensory, not ideological: walk in curious, not armed with a verdict. In that sense, it’s less about aesthetics than hospitality - an appeal to let the music arrive before the category does.
The subtext is a quiet rebuke of how jazz and jazz-adjacent artists get boxed in. Mangione’s career sat in that friction point between jazz credibility, pop crossover, and the radio-friendly sheen of what later got tagged “smooth jazz.” Those tags can grant reach, but they also trigger reflexive sneers or rigid expectations: purists anticipating complexity may hear polish and feel betrayed; casual listeners fearing “difficult” music may stay home. Either way, the label preloads the listening experience, turning the concert into a test of whether the music matches the marketing.
What makes the quote work is its modesty. Mangione doesn’t claim genres are fake; he argues they’re socially consequential. He wants the first encounter to be sensory, not ideological: walk in curious, not armed with a verdict. In that sense, it’s less about aesthetics than hospitality - an appeal to let the music arrive before the category does.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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