Human Nature

'"The theory of human nature." Is there such a thing as human nature? Of course there is. But there is only human nature in the concrete, no human nature in the abstract. In class society there is only human nature of a class character; there is no human nature above classes. We uphold the human nature of the proletariat and of the masses of the people, while the landlord and bourgeois classes uphold the human nature of their own classes, only they do not say so but make it out to be the only human nature in existence. The human nature boosted by certain petty-bourgeois intellectuals is also divorced from or opposed to the masses; what they call human nature is in essence nothing but bourgeois individualism, and so, in their eyes, proletarian human nature is contrary to human nature.'

Mao Zedong, Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art

Oppose Economism!

'Beat down the counterattack of the reactionary line of the capitalist class.'

Jazz Advance

'I try to imitate on the piano the leaps in space a dancer makes.' (Cecil Taylor)

'Sometimes when it goes really well, you wonder, "who's that at the piano?"' (Cecil Taylor)

'Rhythm is the life of space of time danced through.' (Cecil Taylor)

'To feel is perhaps the most terrifying thing in this society.' (Cecil Taylor)

'The most formidable pianism these ears have heard: This is the great divine of American piano playing.' (Glenn Gould)

'His talk is fast and his thoughts clearly faster; many of his segues are, to the listener, just a matter of trust. He recalled the composer Iannis Xenakis saying that it would take him six months to figure out a 30-minute Cecil Taylor piece.' (Kurt Gottschalk)

'That man is capable of playing ten different notes with ten different fingers, ten different dynamics, ten different attacks and ten different tempi. There is no musician I've ever met, including Igor Stravinsky and Pierre Boulez, who comes anywhere near having the abilities that Cecil Taylor has.' (Buell Neidlinger)

'Who's that motherfucker? He can't play shit!' (Miles Davis)