Best 709 quotes in «jazz quotes» category

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The worst crime is faking it.

This is a tradition of resistance to the term that's as old as the term itself, especially because that term has been used to commodify and reduce black creativity, and also to appropriate and sell it. That's what John Coltrane said in an interview with a Japanese journalist: "Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist." And he's treated as one of the central figures in the history of jazz. So if he rejected it, then why is it weird when I do it? I'm in the tradition!

This is our bandstand. If you don't want to play, get up off the instrument and leave.

They're singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

To me, nostalgia is nothing more than a mindless plundering of the past for the commonplace.

This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, “Is there a meaning to music?” My answer to that would be, “Yes.” And “Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?” My answer to that would be, “No.”

To me, jazz is the closest thing to insanity that there is in music.

To hell with the rules. I'm going for the unknown.

Tommy Dorsey would walk up to you if you had a tuxedo on and make sure you didn't have on white socks.

Trouble follows me wherever I go. Thing I'm in is just a sack o'woe.

Trumpet players are just belligerant, and cocky, and you know, just hard-headed.

To me, the piano in itself is an orchestra.

Trumpets! Can you bring your... uh... extracurricular tubing necessities next rehearsal?

They always want to sell me as a hard bopper.

Unlike anything heard before. This is jazz for the 21st century.

We always talk about how everyone is unifocal. You can't possibly be interested in jazz and Beethoven. Of course you can. You can't both be reading a newspaper and be online. Of course you can. We shouldn't be obsessed with a gun to your head, 'You either read a newspaper or die!'

Up to the age of 14 I had not heard a note of anything before 1750, never heard a note of Bach, never heard anything after Wagner, and never heard any real jazz.

Well, actually, I don't consider myself a jazz legend or anything.

We all listened to a lot of recorded music, especially American jazz, modern jazz, and that's where our studies were and our inspiration came from.

Well, Grover Washington was my main influence and when I went to college, I started listening to more of the jazz masters like Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, and John Coltrane.

Well, jazz is to me, a complete lifestyle. It's bigger than a word. It's a much bigger force than just something that you can say. It's something that you have to feel. It's something that you have to live.

Well, I'm too old to pimp, and too young to die, so I'm just gonna keep playin'

Well, I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it. And the riffs are about timing.

We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

We must be as pure as our music.

We're working as if it were going out of style-which of course it is.

We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.

What about a blues in W, in the key of W.

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn't play like Wynton.

What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.

What I like is not a particular genre, it's storytelling. There's a lot of great storytelling in jazz, and in folk and in country music.

What kills me is that everybody thinks I like Jazz.

What separates great jazz musicians from average ones is Taste. Those who have taste consistently choose notes, tempos, timbres and voicings that seduce and satisfy attentive listeners.

What was the competition? Well, I remember this Puerto Rican who came out in a short skirt and a gun.

What are you going to do when you love music? You can't stop.

What I'm doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word - I love it.

Whenever society gets too stifling and the rules too complex, there's some sort of musical explosion.

Whenever there's a change with Jazz & its aesthetics, it's almost always reflected with a change in the culture.

When I discovered Mose Allison I felt I had discovered the missing link between jazz and blues

When I got pretty good I went on the road with a group. We starved.

When I joined the band I didn't know any of the tunes, and when I left the band I didn't know any of the tunes!

When I hear the words jazz pianist, that just means I have the skills to do most things. Because to be a jazz pianist, even to be a bad jazz pianist, you have to be pretty good.