Creativity Quote by Evan Parker

Evan Parker’s jab lands because it’s aimed at a comforting myth musicians are trained to respect: that marks on a page equal order, coherence, legitimacy. By calling that belief “very suspect,” he’s not rejecting notation so much as rejecting the power move hiding inside it. Notation often gets treated as a kind of quality control system: if it can be written down, it must be structured; if it can’t, it’s assumed to be messy, indulgent, or merely “expressive.” Parker, whose improvisational practice is famously rigorous, flips that hierarchy. He’s saying the guarantee is the suspicious part.

The phrasing matters. “To speak about” frames it as a discourse problem, not just a musical one: a critique of who gets to define structure in the first place. “Only way” is the real target, exposing an absolutist gatekeeping logic common in conservatories, grant panels, and polite critical language. “Of course” carries a dry, almost weary irony, as if he’s heard the argument so many times it’s become background noise. Then “already” suggests the corruption is baked in before the debate even starts; the premise is compromised.

Contextually, Parker’s world of free improvisation isn’t anti-structure; it’s structure without paperwork. His point is that organization can be embodied, social, and moment-to-moment: listening protocols, constraints, memory, and shared vocabulary. Notation can document, propose, even inspire. But treating it as a structural guarantor is really about policing what counts as serious music.