Miles Davis Quotes About Jazz
-
Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?
→ -
I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each other, were true because Bach had also composed that way.
→ -
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
→ -
Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that he should stop using it.
→ -
Trane was the perfect saxophonist for Monk's music because of the space that Monk always used. Trane could fill up all that space with all them chords and sounds he was playing then.
→ -
I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.
→ -
If you got up on the bandstand at Minton's and couldn't play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked.
→ -
[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
→ -
I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He's still a nice young man, only confused.
→ -
I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.
→ -
Jazz musicians are so comfortable. The reason they can't do what we do is because they're so comfortable doin' what they do.
→ -
Don't play what's there, play what's not there.
→ -
There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.
→ -
Coltrane, you cant play everything at once!
→ -
Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
→ -
Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something about punching Monk out in front of his face - and I never did - then somebody should have just come and got me and taken me to the madhouse, because Monk could have just picked my little ass up and thrown me through a wall.
→ -
For me, music and life are all about style.
→ -
He sounded to me like he's supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no one asked him a question.
→ -
The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.
→ -
At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.
→ -
Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.
→ -
I never thought that the music called "jazz" was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic.
→ -
It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?
→ -
If you're trying to be hip, be hip.
→ -
My father's rich, my momma's good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer.
→ -
I still got my Ferrari.
→ -
Always look ahead, but never look back.
→ -
...people will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype. They want to be hip, want always to be in on the new thing so they don't look unhip. White people are especially like that, particularly when a black person is doing something they don't understand...That's what I thought was happening when Ornette hit town.
→ -
I don't care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.
→ -
As long as I've been playing, they never say I done anything. They always say that some white guy did it.
→
Related Authors
-
Charlie Parker Saxophonist -
Art Blakey Jazz Drummer -
Wayne Shorter Saxophonist -
Thelonious Monk Pianist -
Ella Fitzgerald Vocalist -
Duke Ellington Composer -
Sonny Rollins Saxophonist -
Dizzy Gillespie Bandleader -
Charles Mingus Bassist -
John Coltrane Saxophonist -
Chick Corea Jazz Pianist -
Louis Armstrong Trumpeter -
Cannonball Adderley Saxophonist -
Marcus Miller Composer -
Dave Brubeck Jazz Pianist -
Herbie Hancock Jazz Pianist -
Jimi Hendrix Musician -
Cicely Tyson Actress -
Billie Holiday Singer -
Chet Baker Trumpeter