Best 709 quotes in «jazz quotes» category

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

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

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

I do find modern jazz quite tricky.

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

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 care much about music. What I like is sounds.

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

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

I don't dig staying in one groove.

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

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 need time. What I need is a deadline!

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!

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.

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

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.

I find my inspiration in myself.

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

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

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.

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

If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord.

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.

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 music is sound & came from silence, then silence is potentially greater than sound.

If one takes all the styles in jazz harmonically from the earliest beginnings to the latest experiments, he still has a rather limited scope when compared to the rest of music in the world.

If the audience doesn't hear what is going on, is it going on?

If people don't like it [my music] now, they will.

If you believe, you will. If you don't, you won't.

If you become a teacher, by your pupils you'll be taught.

If you asked people, "Do you like jazz?" they would be like, "not at all." But I think that if you're really putting yourself out there and really communicating, music can put you beyond people's preconceptions, beyond their playlist.

If you don't know what it is, don't mess with it.

If you don't like Louis Armstrong, you don't know how to love.

If you're a young artist, wondering what to call yourself, consider 'multimedia artist.' It's so vague. Then, no one can say, 'Hey, how come you're a jazz person, and you're making a pop opera?

If you plan on continuing a tradition, it might be a good idea to find out just what tradition it is that you intend to continue.

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.