To Quote or Not to Quote?

In Jazz music of every era and style, there exists a tradition that delights some musicians and fans while vexing others. I’m referring to “the quote.” In a musical context, a quote is the insertion into one’s jazz solo of a snippet of an often (but not always) thematically unrelated melody to the title currently being performed. A prime example of this is Fats Waller’s cheeky inclusion of Edvard Grieg’s “In The Hall Of The Mountain King” during the slow section of his own “Viper’s Drag.” To aficionados of the practice, musicians who include a surprise quote of another melody into an improvised solo illustrate their breadth of knowledge and depth of creativity. To cavilers, those who resort to foisting another melody onto the current tune being performed point, at best, to their inability to come up with their own musical thoughts and, at worst, their desire to doltishly interrupt the flow of the performance with an aural aberration or sonic non sequitur. Loosely, the “quote” has been around for centuries. One could postulate that any composer working within the “theme and variations” motif is quoting themselves, from Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor to Poulenc’s Thema Varie. In fact, a favorite children’s nursery rhyme arose from Mozart’s variations on his theme Ah, vous dirais-je Maman, which most people know as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”