Cecil Taylor Quotes

• In short, [Coltrane's] tone is beautiful because it is functional. In other words, it is always involved in saying something. You can't separate the means that a man uses to say something from what he ultimately says. Technique is not separated from its content in a great artist.

  Cecil Taylor

  Beautiful, Mean, Artist

  "John Coltrane". Book by Bill Cole, 1976.

  43 Copy quote

• To me, the piano in itself is an orchestra.

  Cecil Taylor

  Music, Piano, Orchestra

  48 Copy quote

• Doesn't that fool know I recorded that song because I like it?

  Cecil Taylor

  Music, Song, Fool

  44 Copy quote

• Rhythm is the life of space of time danced through.

  Cecil Taylor

  Space, Rhythm

  18 Copy quote

• Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

  Cecil Taylor

  Music, Jazz Improvisation, Ability

  20 Copy quote

• To feel is perhaps the most terrifying thing in this society.

  Cecil Taylor

  This Society, Feels

  9 Copy quote

• I try to imitate on the piano the leaps in space a dancer makes.

  Cecil Taylor

  Piano, Space, Dancer

  "Innovation, improvisation". Interview with Miya Masaoka, www.miyamasaoka.com. October 25, 2000.

  4 Copy quote

• You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you're really interested in it.

  Cecil Taylor

  Music, Jazz, Surrender

  6 Copy quote

• If you take the creation of music and the creation of your own life values as your overall goal, then living becomes a musical process.

  Cecil Taylor

  Goal, Musical, Creation

  9 Copy quote

• I discovered very early that it wasn't quite enough for me to imitate people.

  Cecil Taylor

  Music, People, Jazz

  6 Copy quote

• Sometimes when it goes really well, you wonder, "who's that at the piano?"

  Cecil Taylor

  Piano, Sometimes, Wonder

  Interview by Jason Gross, www.furious.com. January 2001.

  7 Copy quote

• I understand about the relative strengths of people, and I don't think people have to be anything. They can be nothin' if they want to be.

  Cecil Taylor

  Thinking, People, Want

  5 Copy quote

• The quality of life, values that go down to doin' that, that's the issue.

  Cecil Taylor

  Issues, Quality, Quality Of Life

  7 Copy quote

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