Jazz Quotes

• Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

  Miles Davis

  Music, Guitar, Self

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  Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

  Steve Martin

  Funny, Music, Dance

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  It isn't where you came from, its where you're going that counts.

  Ella Fitzgerald

  Happiness, Inspiring, Success

  203 Copy quote

• The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

  Miles Davis

  Music, Men, Artist

  44 Copy quote

• The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

  Herbie Hancock

  Music, Spirit, Openness

  62 Copy quote

• There's a way of playing safe, there's a way of using tricks and there's the way I like to play which is dangerously where you're going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven't created before.

  Dave Brubeck

  Music, Mistake, Order

  FaceBook post by Dave Brubeck from Aug 14, 2012

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• Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise.

  George Gershwin

  Music, Jazz Hands, Cool Jazz

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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  What we play is life.

  Louis Armstrong

  Music, Inspirational Life, Live Life

  136 Copy quote

• Risk is at the heart of jazz. Every note we play is a risk.

  Steve Lacy

  Music, Heart, Play

  15 Copy quote

• Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

  Miles Davis

  Worry, Notes

  90 Copy quote

• Jazz is music made by and for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions.

  Johnny Griffin

  Music, People, Feel Good

  47 Copy quote

• Jazz is freedom. You think about that.

  Thelonious Monk

  Music, Memorable, Thinking

  112 Copy quote

• I'm a big fan of gospel music, and you cannot be a fan of rock and roll, you cannot be a fan of country western music, and you can't really be a fan of jazz without listening to a lot of music that's religious.

  Penn Jillette

  Country, Religious, Rocks

  "Magician Penn Jillette Says 'God, No!' To Religion". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. August 16, 2011.

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• The beauty of jazz is that it's malleable. People are addressing it to suit their own personalities.

  Pat Metheny

  Music, People, Personality

  9 Copy quote

• Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

  Henri Matisse

  Inspirational, Music, Rhythm

  Henri Matisse, Jack D. Flam (1995). “Matisse on Art”, p.216, Univ of California Press

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

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Two, Kind

  Mark Tucker, Duke Ellington (1995). “The Duke Ellington Reader”, p.326, Oxford Paperbacks

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• Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

  Ornette Coleman

  Music, Memorable, Night

  48 Copy quote

• Jazz is one of the least learnable art forms.

  Keith Jarrett

  Music, Art, Form

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• Jazz is like wine. When it is new it's only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it.

  Steve Lacy

  Music, Wine, Experts

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• As long as there are musicians who have a passion for spontaneity, for creating something thats never been before, the art form of jazz will flourish.

  Charlie Haden

  Music, Art, Passion

  49 Copy quote

• Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Moving, Middle

  "Coltrane plays standards".

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• Jazz washes away the dust of every day life.

  Art Blakey

  Music, Memorable, Dust

  65 Copy quote

• We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

  Louis Armstrong

  Music, African American, Notes

  44 Copy quote

• Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

  Miles Davis

  Life, Music, Beautiful

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• Leaders must encourage their organizations to dance to forms of music yet to be heard.

  Warren G. Bennis

  Leadership, Music, Dance

  Warren G. Bennis (1997). “Managing People is Like Herding Cats”, Executive Excellence Pub

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