Best 709 quotes in «jazz quotes» category

Fusion has been my nemesis.

Genius is a word too often tossed around in musical circles.

[Goodman] became famous (or notorious) for staring at a player he didn't like. It was called 'the ray' by his men.

Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say.

Growing up, I was very much interested in jazz music.

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

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].

He's no Bill Clinton!

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

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.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

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

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 am a complete jazz nerd.

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

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

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

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 compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.

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

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

I don't dig staying in one groove.

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

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

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 understand the music but I certainly understand the girl singer!

I expect the audience to come up to my level.