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Creativity Quote by Mose Allison

"I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me"

About this Quote

There is a quiet flex buried in Allison's plain talk: he names the eras the way a working musician would, not a historian. "I went through the whole number" sounds casual, but it stakes a claim to lived continuity. He isn't collecting styles like souvenirs; he's describing survival across shifts in taste, economics, and musical language. Swing to boogie-woogie to bebop isn't just a timeline, it's a series of rewired instincts: dance-floor propulsion, piano-driven grit, then bebop's bristling intelligence and speed. Allison positions himself as someone who absorbed each turn without turning into a tribute act.

The Thelonious Monk nod does extra work. Monk is the patron saint of the misfit modernist: percussive touch, awkward angles, harmony that sounds like it's arguing with itself. Calling Monk a favorite signals allegiance to individuality over polish, to the idea that "wrong" can be the most accurate feeling. It's also a subtle way of mapping Allison's own brand: blues-soaked piano with a sardonic edge, sophisticated but not precious, hip without being fussy.

"So a lot of these people had their effect on me" reads like modesty, yet it functions as ethos. In a culture that rewards artists for pretending they're self-made, Allison emphasizes influence as lineage and apprenticeship. The subtext is craft: you get interesting by listening hard, by letting the greats mess with your instincts, then finding the voice that remains when the era changes again.

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TopicMusic
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Allison, Mose. (2026, January 15). I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-went-through-the-whole-number-you-know-the-151862/

Chicago Style
Allison, Mose. "I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-went-through-the-whole-number-you-know-the-151862/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-went-through-the-whole-number-you-know-the-151862/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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Mose Allison on swing, bebop and boogie
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About the Author

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Mose Allison (November 11, 1927 - November 15, 2016) was a Musician from USA.

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