Notable Quotable: 2025 NEA Jazz Master Marilyn Crispell

"I often talk with my students about thinking compositionally when improvising. By that I don't mean in a controlling, micromanaging kind of way. I mean, being aware of the logic of where something could go. You put your hands down on the piano. That's a beginning. And then how to proceed from there? I hear a lot of people playing things. They'll play a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Lots and lots of different things, and I like to think of it as a developing composition, which could also include playing something completely opposite to how you start. Somehow there is a logic to it, a natural logic to it, not just imposed on it. 

People often talk about either playing intellectually or playing from the heart. I think you can't separate them because you have a brain and you have a heart and your mind is always working, always going through the hard drive and pulling up things that you've heard or played or studied. Not even just musical things—poetry, art, dance, politics, basketball, whatever. I don't think when I'm playing, 'now I should do this, now I should do that.' It's more like getting out of your own way and allowing that flow to happen—your intelligence is just naturally guiding it without you having to impose that. It's kind of like meditation. You have to become the instrument or the vehicle for the music to flow through." — 2025 NEA Jazz Master Marilyn Crispell

While music was present in 2025 NEA Jazz Master Marilyn Crispell’s life from a young age, jazz was not. It wasn’t until her late 20s that Crispell encountered a John Coltrane record that altered the trajectory of her life, taking her down a path that led to playing with some of the biggest names in the genre—NEA Jazz Masters Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, and Roscoe Mitchell to name a few. Over the course of her impressive career, she has composed music, led her own musical groups, taught improvisation workshops across the world, and collaborated with other artists, including filmmakers, dancers, and poets. 

You can learn more about Crispell in our full interview, which will air during the 2025 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert, coming up on April 26.