Jazz Music Quotes - Page 13

• I've played drums since I was 15. My sisters and I all played instruments. I kind of started with piano and then I actually played saxophone with a jazz band in middle school. So, any knowledge I had of jazz music was from playing alto-sax back then.

  Miles Teller

  School, Piano, Band

  Source: www.indielondon.co.uk

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• I was going to say is that I come from a rock background, but also I was super interested in jazz for a long time. I was training to be a jazz musician for quite a while. I never trained to be a classical composer or player, but I did train to play jazz.

  Jherek Bischoff

  Player, Long, Training

  Source: thequietus.com

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• You had many jazz musicians who lived in the United States, who had a hard time being accepted over here and had to play in sort of these inferior type dives.

  Sonny Rollins

  Hard Times, America, Play

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• Comedy is the drug, when they laugh it's like I'm a jazz musician and they hear it, and they get it. It's power to take the crowd wherever I want them to go. I love it when they laugh, especially when they relate through laughter. It's a beautiful thing. It also means I'm going to get paid, which is nice.

  Alonzo Bodden

  Beautiful, Laughter, Nice

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• Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.

  Nina Simone

  Music, Joy, Jazz

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• What I love about Sonny's playing is that he is so inventive within the mainstream Jazz vernacular. Because he knows so many ways to deal with musical material, he is never repetitive and hasn't had to invent a new language. Also, he never asked me to do anything but swing!

  Pete La Roca

  Music, Swings, Way

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• I think all record companies should be run by a musician. Just as you wouldn't trust your health to an electrician.

  Paul Bley

  Music, Running, Thinking

  "Paul Bley obituary" by Richard Williams, www.theguardian.com. January 6, 2016.

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• Personally, I can't see how anyone can produce any beautiful music out of being angry.

  Chico Hamilton

  Music, Beautiful, Jazz

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• 'Swing' is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a 'swing band' in music.

  Artie Shaw

  Swings, Musician, Adjectives

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• I would like to be a scholar in whatever I do, a scholar is never finished, he is always seeking and I am always seeking.

  Ahmad Jamal

  Music, Jazz, Scholar

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• The people in Japan love jazz music, man, and also in Europe, far more than they ever did here. And that always puzzled me until I went over there to really get into it for myself and find out what it is. It's their tradition and culture, man. We've gotten away from that in America, man. We live in a country of complete fantasy.

  Milt Jackson

  Music, Country, Men

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• I know I’m an African-American, and I know I play the saxophone, but I’m not a jazz musician. I’m not a classical musician, either. My music is like my life: It’s in between these areas.

  Anthony Braxton

  Play, African American, Musician

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• I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving my fingers. The music is supposed to be coming through me; that's when it's really happening.

  Sonny Rollins

  Music, Moving, Jazz

  "Sonny Rollins: 'You Can't Think And Play At The Same Time'". "All Things Considered" with Arun Rath, www.npr.org. May 3, 2014.

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• At this stage of my life, I've dedicated myself to playing what I want to play, how I want to play it for the rest of my time. Regardless of whether one might like it or one might not like it, this is where I am.

  Chico Hamilton

  Music, Play, Want

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• A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis, that's when cuisine is truly exciting.

  Charlie Trotter

  Food, Together, Musician

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• I don't worry too much about the fundamentalist principles that are in almost any discussion about Jazz.

  Pat Metheny

  Music, Worry, Principles

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• 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.

  Chico Hamilton

  Music, Band, Jazz

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• The people in Japan know more about the history of jazz and the musicians than the people in the United States do.

  Billy Higgins

  Music, Japan, People

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• If I knew what it was going to look like, I wouldnt be so excited to be a part of it. Jazz is a music of surprise; its a music of spontaneity. I think jazz musicians live--I know I do--for being surprised and not knowing whats going to come next.

  Joshua Redman

  Thinking, Knowing, Musician

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• Well, being a jazz musician is not a rose garden!

  Toots Thielemans

  Garden, Rose, Musician

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• I was deeply impressed and moved by his masterful playing. He was highly polished, profound, subtle, and intense. He was extremely fluent in a great combination of the traditional vernacular with his own. Hearing it unfold and being in a position to participate was a great pleasure. Part of being an accompanist is that the stronger the soloist, the more I can do all that I know to do. So, Joe was as good as it gets.

  Pete La Roca

  Music, Profound, Good As It Gets

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• Free music is in a constant state of surprise and, consequently, presents no surprise at all. So, I'm not really a fan of Free music. Having said that, Jazz is based on individual expression and I'm compelled to respect the Free player's option to express himself as he chooses.

  Pete La Roca

  Music, Player, Expression

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• Fusion has been my nemesis.

  Pete La Roca

  Music, Fusion, Jazz

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• I never really sounded like Bird, but that was my mission. I didn't care if people said that I copied him; I loved Bird's playing so much. But Mingus was the one that really pushed me away from the idea and forced me into thinking about having an individual sound and concept. That's what I got from Mingus.

  Jackie McLean

  Music, Thinking, Ideas

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• I always think of music as interior decoration. So, if you have all kinds of music, you are fully decorated!

  Wayne Shorter

  Music, Thinking, Jazz

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