Best 709 quotes in «jazz quotes» category

He didn't say nothing. He would just do things. He never said nothing or explained nothing. He just would do it and that was it. You were on your own. You had to be very independent being around John [Coltrane].

Here in England we live at a slower pace, have more time to enjoy things - like good jazz.

He's no Bill Clinton!

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.

He would forget everybody's name, so everybody was called 'Pops'.

Historians in the future, in my opinion, will congratulate us on very little other than our clowning and our jazz.

How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don't you ask him? And besides, maybe we'd all like to be like Miles, and just haven't got the guts.

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

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

I am a complete jazz nerd.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

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

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

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 am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

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

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

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

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 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 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 do find modern jazz quite tricky.

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

I don't dig staying in one groove.

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 know if I have enough guts to do a whole standard jazz record.

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

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 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 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 expect the audience to come up to my level.

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

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

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