Best 709 quotes in «jazz quotes» category

I actually find a lot of parallels in jazz and cartooning.

I always called him the Dizzy Dean of music, he was so belligerent and braggadocio... But one thing I always noticed about Jelly, he would back everything he said by what he could do.

I always say it's not my Arkestra, it belongs to some other force which wants certain things, to reach people.

I always think of music as interior decoration. So, if you have all kinds of music, you are fully decorated!

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

I am a complete jazz nerd.

I am a musician, but I'm another type of musician.

I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

I am not a jazz singer. I wouldn't place myself on that footing. I wouldn't even enter that arena.

I am viewed as the Negro who has gone outside of the categories assigned to me.

I did everything I could to not bring in any of the - any of the technical things I got from classical into jazz. And I did everything to really base it on my speaking voice and to just not try to make it sound pretty.

I can show you that I have played with just about every jazz musician, every African musician, every blues musician. It's not like I'm cashing in on a false concept. This is what I do.

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

I can imagine an utter hatred for the jazz avant-garde.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

I can turn on some jazz guitarist, and he won't do a thing for me, if he's not playing electrically. But Jeff Beck's great to listen to.

I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.

I cringed when I heard myself described as a Jazz singer. I've always thought of myself as a Jazz vocalist.

I'd have no trouble being the barbecue kingpin of America. I'd just add it to all the other things I am: jazz musician, carpenter, architect, engineer and revolutionary.

I did get to sing at Carnegie Hall when they were made Landmarks! I sang ALL THAT JAZZ with the NY Pops ...what a total thrill.

I didn't know there were 2 ten o'clocks in a day.

I didn't really like jazz that much and was unhappy in that genre. It was what I was doing just to get by and pay rent.

I'd like to feel that whatever I play is a result of whatever I've heard.

I'd like to do something involving jazz. But books are how I earn my living, and I'd like to stay with the horse I rode in on.

I do find modern jazz quite tricky.

I do ballet and pointe work. I also do tap, commercial jazz and technical jazz, freestyle street dancing.

I do modern jazz and contemporary combined. I like to feel strong, flexible, and so there is stretching involved.

I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds.

I do not claim any of the creation of the blues, although I have written many of them even before Mr. Handy had any blues published. I heard them when I was knee-high to a duck.

I don't dig staying in one groove.

I don't think that jazz, as any kind of an art form, has any permanence attached to it, apart from the practitioners of it.

I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it.

I don't know who's 18 years old today that, 20 years hence, is going to be a jazz fan.

I don't need time. What I need is a deadline!

I don't know if I have enough guts to do a whole standard jazz record.

I don't regard myself as a great classical or jazz pianist. I like country music, but I'm not a great player. I just like music. Drums 'n' bass is pretty exciting and I'd love to explore it.

I don't understand the music but I certainly understand the girl singer!

If everyone liked what I did, I probably wouldn't be playing anything of depth.

I enjoy playing clubs. I still enjoy the closeness of the nightclub venue. However, after a certain period of time and after playing around some of the clubs in New YorkI felt that jazz should be presented in a more prestigious atmosphere.

I expect the audience to come up to my level.

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original.

If I am playing any music at all it is jazz music.

If I'm going to be a jazz player, I need to understand Miles Davis.

If I'm not a jazz player all the time, I've at least been cued in to what I do by jazz.

If I'm not saying it in four choruses or less, then I'm not saying it.

I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.

I find my inspiration in myself.

If I was not a film-maker I'd probably be a musician. I like Kanye West, Jay-Z, R&B, classical, jazz and all kinds of music, but I'd say soulful World Music is my favorite.

If it hadn't been for Jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll.

If it wasn't for hustlers, gangsters & gamblers there'd be no Jazz. Wasn't middle~class who said Let's go hear Bird tonight.