ROVA's Larry Ochs on the Power of Music

 

The best compliment I ever had after a concert was a guy who came up to me--he said he was a conceptual artist, a sculptor--and he said, "I've been having a real problem with one of my pieces and I listened to this piece of yours and I had a tremendous breakthrough." That is what this music is all about. It's about waking people up or helping them to solve problems for themselves in the context of their own lives. It's not about being a messiah or being the greatest music of all time. I think that's shit! Affect people in a way that helps them be more creative with their own lives.  --Larry Ochs, quoted in Michael Goldberg, "ROVA Saxophone Quartet Wants You to Wake Up," Downbeat, 1981-01, p. 25