Jazz Quotes - Page 23

• The aim of jazz is the mechanical reproduction of a regressive moment, a castration symbolism. 'Give up your masculinity, let yourself be castrated,' the eunuchlike sound of the jazz band both mocks and proclaims, 'and you will be rewarded, accepted into a fraternity which shares the mystery of impotence with you, a mystery revealed at the moment of the initiation rite.

  Theodor Adorno

  Giving Up, Symbolism, Sound

  Theodor Adorno, Richard Leppert, Susan H. Gillespie (2002). “Essays on Music”, p.352, Univ of California Press

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• The bad jazz that a cat blows wails long after he’s cut out.

  Lord Buckley

  Cat, Cutting, Blow

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• Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.

  Bill Laswell

  Sides, Tradition, Possibility

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• I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

  Ernest Gaines

  Reading, Writing, People

  Ernest J. Gaines (2007). “Mozart and Leadbelly”, p.27, Vintage

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• The philosophy of jazz represents tolerance, teamwork and inclusion. That's what America is about. The music reflects that.

  T. S. Monk

  Teamwork, Philosophy, America

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• The virtuoso element in jazz playing, all those very fast runs in the upper extremes, simply doesn't appeal to me. That's why I don't want to make my concerto "virtuosic" in the sense of a technical show-off. I want a beautiful sound and a melodic and lyrical line. I am more interested in the way someone can play musically.

  Gavin Bryars

  Music, Beautiful, Running

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• I don't get pat down, you know what's on the waist,
  I don't mean Jazz when I say I "count base."
  Fly Louis sneakers, Purple Tape coming out the speakers,
  Bumped into my high school teachers,
  They said I wouldn't be nothing, sitting on the bleachers.
  Now I'm sitting in the Phantom, trynna figure out the features.
  I'm a big fish now, I watch for the leeches.

  Sheek Louch

  Teacher, Rap, School

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• This is jazz, this is funk, this is soul, this is gospel
  This is sanctified sick, this is player Pentecostal.
  This is church front pew, Amen, pulpit,
  What my people need and the opposite of bullshit.

  Killer Mike

  Rap, Player, Opposites

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• The history of all big jazz bands shows was, first they played for dancing, and then they played for singing.

  Norman Granz

  Sight, Dancing, Singing

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• I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life.

  Amy Tan

  Life Lesson, Writing, Fiction

  "Author of The Joy Luck Club". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 28, 1996.

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• I joined Count Basie's band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn't see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, and I never got to send home a quarter.

  Billie Holiday

  Home, Blue, Years

  Billie Holiday, William Dufty (2011). “Lady Sings the Blues: The 50th-Anniversay Edition with a Revised Discography”, p.70, Broadway Books

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• Over all, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe. . . Thats what I would like to do. I think thats one of the greatest things you can do in life and we all try to do it in some way. The musicians is through his music.

  John Coltrane

  Thinking, Giving, Trying

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

  John Coltrane

  Fall, Dark, Monk

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

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• 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.

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• My contributions were many: First clown director, with witty sayings and flashily dressed, now called master of ceremonies.

  Jelly Roll Morton

  Witty, Directors, Firsts

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• I have been robbed of three million dollars all told. Everyone today is playing my stuff and I don't even get credit. Kansas City style, Chicago style, New Orleans style hell, they're all Jelly Roll style.

  Jelly Roll Morton

  New Orleans, Cities, Kansas City

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• I haven't got a great jazz band and I don't want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat's among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking real jazz . . . It's all in what you define as 'real jazz.' It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. A dozen colored bands have a better beat than mine. Our band stresses harmony.

  Glenn Miller

  Real, Stress, Band

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• A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality.

  Glenn Miller

  Music, Personality, Sound

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• The jazz band's chief stimulus, of course, was the rise of the negro 'blues' and their exploitation by the negro song-writer, W. C. Handy.

  Bix Beiderbecke

  Song, Band, Chiefs

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• Jazz is musical humor. The noun jazz describes a modern American technique for the playing of any music, accompanied by noise called harmony, and interpolated instrumental effects. It also describes music exhibiting influence of that technique which has as its traditional object to secure the effects of surprise, or in the broadest sense, humor.

  Bix Beiderbecke

  Musical, Technique, Nouns

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• My D'Angelico is a jazz archtop guitar. That guitar was made for Glenn Miller's guitar player in 1939. It's a '39 D'Angelico New Yorker.

  Brian Setzer

  Player, Guitar, Made

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• The jazz chord substitutions in a country song... that was another thing that bent people's ears. I guess that my favorites are the unique ones. It's not how fast you play. It's that unique blending of different stuff I'm most proud of.

  Brian Setzer

  Country, Song, Unique

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• I feel myself trying to be charming, and then I realize I’m obviously trying to be charming, and then I try to be even more charming to make up for the fake charm, and then I’ve basically turned into Liza Minnelli: I’m dancing in tights and sequins, begging you to love me. There’s a bowler and jazz hands and lots of teeth.

  Gillian Flynn

  Begging You, Hands, Dancing

  Gillian Flynn (2012). “Gone Girl: A Novel”, p.11, Crown

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• Basketball, unlike football with its prescribed routes, is an improvisational game, similar to jazz. If someone drops a note, someone else must step into the vacuum and drive the beat that sustains the team.

  Phil Jackson

  Basketball, Football, Team

  Phil Jackson (2005). “The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul”, Penguin Group USA

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• Jazz is like a big secret club. The mainstream media doesn't pay any attention to it, it's like 1 percent of the music market - no one cares. Why? Because the majority of jazz is old.

  Robert Glasper

  Media, Secret, Majority

  "Glasper revels in success of hybrid jazz album". Interview with Nekesa Mumbi Moody, www.sandiegouniontribune.com. July 06, 2012.

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