Best 709 quotes in «jazz quotes» category

Benny Goodman was one of the big influences as a clarinet player. That's why I wanted the clarinet.

[Billy Strayhorn] understood the violin as well as he understood Jazz, and he wrote for the violin as a violin.

Blues and jazz pulled me away from what was left of my family.

Blow your life through your horn.

Bop is at the end of the road. Now everybody wants dance music.

Bop is no love-child of jazz.

Brubeck, for instance, is not careless. He's a studied guy. And even if his picture ends up on the back cover of Life, he's still a studious guy.

Brownstein's is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.

Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.

But no one, when you stop to think, has ever equated abstract expressionism as a movement with jazz music. It's based on improvisation. The rhythms, the personal involvement, all of this is part of the jazz experience.

By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of Jazz.

Change is always happening. That's one of the wonderful things about Jazz music.

Charlie Parker lifted jazz music off the dance floor and into the stratosphere!

Clifford Brown was in the jazz circles considered to be probably the greatest trumpet player who ever lived.

Coltrane, you cant play everything at once!

Coltrane was moving out of jazz into something else. And certainly Miles Davis was doing the same thing.

Clouds float in the same pattern only once.

Coltrane would do what you'd get a Roland Pro Tools module to do but with a group of jazz musicians.

Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say.

Diana Krall knocks me out. I like jazz and I like her simple approach.

Composing is improvisation slowed down.

Day in, day out. That same old voodoo follows me about.

Companies have to take risks to get new knowledge, in a manner similar to how jazz musicians take risks when they go after a new approach to a tune or a performance.

Damn it, when I'm bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic-take it or leave it.

[David] Bowie went on to make best-selling music - funk, dance music, electronic music, while also being influenced by cabaret and jazz.

Diplomacy is like jazz: endless variations on a theme.

Dizzy, Duke and Charlie Parker were the greatest jazz legends of all time.

Don't believe that jazz about there's nothing you can do, "turn on and drop out, man" - because you've got to turn on and drop in, or they're going to drop all over you.

Don't be a perfectionist... leave that to the classical musicians.

Don t play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast.

Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

Europeans really provided many venues over there and hailed the jazz artists, and a lot of musicians went over there and stayed over there for a long time. A lot of them moved over there, lived over there, and died over there.

Everybody in all countries tries to play jazz.

Everything I've ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

Every day when I sit down to play, I learn something new.

Everything-everything-was communicated through the sound of the music. There were no other signals of any kind ever-no count-offs, head nods, spoken instructions...nothing.

External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.

For me, jazz will always be the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.

Flexibility is an essential part of Jazz. It's what gives Jazz music the ability to combine with all other types of music and not lose its identity.

For me personally - because I do it myself - the scoring of a picture is fun. I edit the picture and when I've finished I go into my room and I have many many records - jazz, classical and popular music. And I have this all at my disposal. I don't have to get a composer.

For me, the main thing is spontaneity & taking chances.

For me jazz is kind of an extension of hip-hop. Kind of the sad thing is that a lot of jazz people just listen to jazz, and a lot of hip-hop people just listen to hip-hop, and there's not a lot of crossover, unfortunately.

Fusion has been my nemesis.

Fortune ought to be a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.

Free form jazz means absolutely nothing to me. Because there are no boundaries.

For years, Jazz At The Philharmonic albums were the only ones of their kind.

Frankie Randall is a consummate performer. He is an exquisite jazz pianist and wonderful singer. I had the great pleasure to work with him on the Dean Martin Show and I'm very proud to call him a friend!

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

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

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