John Coltrane Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• ...That is one of the main causes of this arrogance: the idea of power. Then you lose your true power which is to be part of all, and the only way you can be part of all is to understand it. And when you don't understand, you have to go humbly to it. You don't go to school and say, 'I know what you're going to teach me'.

  John Coltrane

  Music, School, True Power

  79 Copy quote

• When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people.

  John Coltrane

  Music, People, Desire

  39 Copy quote

• The main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.

  John Coltrane

  Giving, Musician, Wonderful

  1966 Quoted in sleeve-note to the re-issue of Coltrane's Sound (originally published 1961).

  39 Copy quote

• I want to be the force which is truly for good.

  John Coltrane

  Want, Force

  Source: blankonblank.org

  21 Copy quote

• ... and it's always been a thing with me to feel that all men know the truth, see? ... The truth itself doesn't have a name on it. To me. Each man has to find this for himself, I think. I believe that men are here to grow themselves into the best good that they can be... I'm not interested in trying to say what it will be, I don't know. But I believe that good will only bring good.

  John Coltrane

  Believe, Men, Thinking

  53 Copy quote

• If you're bourgeois, money is it. It's all the questions and all the answers. Ain't no E-flat or color blue, only $12.98 or $1,000. If it isn't money, it isn't nothing.

  John Coltrane

  Blue, Color, Answers

  55 Copy quote

• Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order. I felt I learned from him in every way--through the senses, theoretically, technically. I would talk to Monk about musical problems, and he would sit at the piano and show me the answers just by playing them. I could watch him play and find out the things I wanted to know. Also, I could see a lot of things that I didn't know about at all.

  John Coltrane

  Order, Play, Piano

  "Coltrane on Coltrane" in Downbeat, September 29, 1960.

  34 Copy quote

• There are so many things to be considered in making music. The whole question of life itself... I know that I want to produce beautiful music, music that does things to people that they need.

  John Coltrane

  Beautiful, People, Doe

  27 Copy quote

• Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.

  John Coltrane

  Fall, Dark, Jazz

  "Coltrane on Coltrane". Downbeat, September 29, 1960.

  17 Copy quote

• Change is inevitable in music - things change.

  John Coltrane

  Inevitable Change, Things Change, Inevitable

  20 Copy quote

• Keep a thing happenin' all throughout.

  John Coltrane

  Things Happen

  John Coltrane's address to pianist Mccoy Tyner before studio version of "Dearly Beloved", 1964.

  17 Copy quote

• The reason I play so many sounds, maybe it sounds angry, is because I'm trying so many things at one time, you see? I haven't sorted them out. I have a whole bag of things that I'm trying to work through and get the one essential.

  John Coltrane

  Play, Trying, Sound

  17 Copy quote

• I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth.

  John Coltrane

  Thinking, Musician, Majority

  14 Copy quote

• I'm into scales right now.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Jazz, Scales

  18 Copy quote

• Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Thinking, Glasses

  14 Copy quote

• Whatever I'd say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was one of the greatest people I've ever known, as a man, a friend, and a musician.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Men, Knowing

  50 Copy quote

• We should pray and seek for knowledge which would enable us to portray and project the things we love in music, in a way that might wholly or in some part, be appreciated as having been conceived and composed or performed and presented with dedication and in positive taste

  John Coltrane

  Dedication, Might, Way

  31 Copy quote

• Considering the great heritage in music that we have - the work of the giants of the past, the present, and the promise of those who are to come - I feel that we have every reason to face the future optimistically.

  John Coltrane

  Past, Promise, Giants

  16 Copy quote

• I think I know what it is but don't ask me to play it

  John Coltrane

  Inspirational, Thinking, Play

  10 Copy quote

• Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock 'n' roll band.

  John Coltrane

  Rocks, Play, Band

  14 Copy quote

• Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music as if for the first time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a part of it, I'll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels, and that's too bad.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Wish, Firsts

  17 Copy quote

• The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Eye, Play

  14 Copy quote

• Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Wish, Firsts

  11 Copy quote

• I've always felt that even though a man was not a Christian, he still has to know the truth some way or another. Or if he was a Christian, he could know the truth. The truth itself doesn't have any name on it to me. And each man has to find this for himself, I think.

  John Coltrane

  Christian, Men, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

  John Coltrane

  Thinking, Bird, Musical

  25 Copy quote

Page 2 of 2

First

← Prev

1

2

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin