Best 709 quotes in «jazz quotes» category

The bandstand is a sacred place.

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

The challenge to the improvisor is to get permanence into his spontaneity. The challenge to the composer is to get spontaneity into his permanence.

The day of the great Jazz improviser who doesn't know how to read music is over.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

The human being receives the pleasure from music, not from the argument over what it is.

The jazz and blues clubs are like the jazz and blues musicians - they're disappearing.

The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point.

The jazz band's chief stimulus, of course, was the rise of the negro 'blues' and their exploitation by the negro song-writer, W. C. Handy.

The jazz musician's function is to feel.

The jazz trombone is a magical experience particularly to hear and listen too.

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is.

The most common misconception about me is that I'm basically a jazz singer.

The only reason is that I hadn't seen The Modern Jazz Quartet perform live and a live performance is often where the real experience of jazz takes place. I'm not familiar with the Boswell Sisters.

The only reason they're out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

There are notes between notes, you know.

There are three virtuous styles of music; classical, jazz and heavy metal. I do love classical music but I don't listen to it much anymore and I never listen to metal, so I am not very interested in music that is difficult to play.

There are wonderful things in Jazz, the improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.

The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of their instrument.

The public, hearing pop music, is, without knowing it, also soaking up jazz.

There are a million good tunes.

There are editing procedures for talks just as there are editing procedures in jazz improvisation.

There are no natural barriers. It's all music. It's either hip or it ain't.

There is nothing new... everything has roots in the past.

There is an apprenticeship system in jazz. You teach the young ones. So even if the musicians weren't personally that likable, they felt an obligation to help the younger musicians.

There is no such thing as a wrong note.

There's a richness to the old works if you look before the 1950s. The chord progressions and the language was more complicated, especially in the jazz and classical world.

There's only two ways to sum up music; either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it, you just enjoy it.

There's more bad music in jazz than any other form. Maybe that's because the audience doesn't really know what's happening.

There’s no such thing as a wrong note.

There's so much music out there & so many possibilities. I like anyone who plays any instrument.

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

The strange thing about Africa is how past, present and future come together in a kind of rough jazz, if you like.

The trio is the biggest sound you can have with the smallest unit.

The type of band that I have now, the type of music that we're playing you either like it or you dislike it. If you dislike it, you probably don't know why. By the same token, you can't even really say why you like it.

The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique.

The whole reason for Jazz at the Philharmonic was to take it to places where I could break down segregation.

The whole thing of being in music is not to control it but to be swept away by it. If you're swept away by it you can't wait to do it again and the same magical moments always come.

The saxophone is an imperfect instrument, especially the tenor and soprano, as far as intonation goes. The challenge is to sing on an imperfect instrument that is outside of your body.

The theory is that you don't play a song the same way twice because it's jazz. That's where I'm coming from.

The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can't sing.

The whole thing of being in music is not to control it but to be swept away by it.

The worst crime is faking it.

The worst thing about the life of a jazz musician on the road is getting to the gig. Once you're there and playing, it's marvelous.

They always ask me the same questions. Where was I born? When did I start singing? Who have I worked with? I don't understand why they can't just talk to me without all that question bit.

They always want to sell me as a hard bopper.