“You can’t steal a gift. Bird gave the world his music, and if you can hear it you can have it.”
Dizzy Gillespie defending another musician from accusations that he stole Charlie Parker’s style, quoted by Jonathan Lethem in an essay on the effect very contemporary ideas like copyright and plagiarism have on creative culture. Jazz is an excellent example of an artistic form that depended on free exchange of styles and ideas; it would have been killed by what Lethem rechristens copyright: usemonopoly. (via mills)
Found via mills. 30 Notes. Permalink. Sat, Aug 22nd 2009, 5:05 PM (∞).
