A music critic tells the story of hearing the great jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis, playing in a club. At one point, Miles played a beautiful ballad, and he played it so lovingly and with such heartbroken passion that he brought the house down.
Afterwards, this writer tells of approaching Miles backstage and asking why he didn’t play ballads more often since he played them so well. Miles responded: “I don’t play ballads because I love playing ballads too much.”
In other words, ballads didn’t challenge him. They didn’t force him to grow. He insisted as a matter of artistic integrity that he should pointedly not do what was right in his own mind, not pursue the most comfortable path, but instead find the most difficult.”
by Paul F. Rack