Jazz Quotes - Page 27

• I have a fondness for jazz, particularly for jazz singers, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald all the way through the Sinatra era.

  Bob Iger

  Holiday, Singers, Way

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• What isn’t on my iPod playlist? I have very eclectic tastes. Jazz. Classic Rock. Hip Hop. Ska. Soul. Electronica.World Music. Funk. Blues. Chamber Music. Reggaeton. Gospel. And a whole lot of Prince. (I am a Minnesota gal through and through.)

  Michele Norris

  Ipods, Rocks, Hip Hop

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• Reading to kids is to ordinary reading what jazz is to a string quartet.

  Sean Wilentz

  Reading, Kids, Library

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• If I'm going to be a jazz player, I need to understand Miles Davis.

  Ice T

  Player, Needs, Miles

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• If jazz has to be termed as a wave, then music is a sea, but if the reflectors in the water is the chord.

  Pat Metheny

  Sea, Water, Wave

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• ...people will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype. They want to be hip, want always to be in on the new thing so they don't look unhip. White people are especially like that, particularly when a black person is doing something they don't understand...That's what I thought was happening when Ornette hit town.

  Miles Davis

  Music, Hype, White

  Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe (1990). “Miles”, p.251, Simon and Schuster

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• I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each other, were true because Bach had also composed that way.

  Miles Davis

  Music, Three, Way

  Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe (1990). “Miles”, p.322, Simon and Schuster

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• Trane was the perfect saxophonist for Monk's music because of the space that Monk always used. Trane could fill up all that space with all them chords and sounds he was playing then.

  Miles Davis

  Music, Space, Perfect

  Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe (1990). “Miles”, p.216, Simon and Schuster

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• I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.

  Paul Desmond

  Music, Week, Jazz Music

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• Our basic audience begins with creaking elderly types of twenty-three and above.

  Paul Desmond

  Music, Elderly, Twenties

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• I'd listened to [Ornette Coleman] all kinds of ways. I listened to him high and I listened to him cold sober. I even played with him. I think he's jiving baby.

  Roy Eldridge

  Music, Baby, Thinking

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• I resolved to play my trumpet like a sax.

  Roy Eldridge

  Music, Play, Trumpets

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• I can play, and I know it; I'm not looking for any pats on the back. I don't have to be endorsed by anybody. I make enough to live and eat, and I'm happy with my music-and that's all I need.

  Curtis Fuller

  Music, Play, Needs

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• For some reason that only a sociologist might be able to accurately explain, the Brazilian Press was extremely unkind to me, reporting only selective derogatory untruthful rumors (some of which are still around), harsh criticism, and unwarranted sarcasm. I was very hurt by this. It was such great disappointment... When I came back from Brazil at that time, I made a promise to myself that I would never, ever again sing in Brazil. So far [as of 2002], I have kept this promise, having declined each and every invitation or proposals to perform in Brazil. Once was enough!

  Astrud Gilberto

  Music, Hurt, Disappointment

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• Miles got a mystique about him-plus he's at the top of his profession. And he's got way, way, way more money.

  Dizzy Gillespie

  Music, Way, Miles

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• Jazz to me is a living music. It's a music that since its beginning has expressed the feelings, the dreams, hopes, of the people.

  Dexter Gordon

  Music, Dream, People

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• What I'm doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word - I love it.

  Dexter Gordon

  Music, Beautiful, Jazz Music

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

  Chico Hamilton

  Music, Beautiful, Produce

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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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• 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, You Like It

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• There was a lot that was tricky about playing with [Thelonious Monk]. It's a musical language where there's really no lyrics. It's something you feel and you're hearing. It's like an ongoing conversation. You really had to listen to this guy. Cause he could play the strangest tempos, and they could be very in-between tempos on some of those compositions. You really had to listen to his arrangements and the way he would play them. On his solos, you'd really have to listen good in there. You'd have to concentrate on what you were doing as well.

  Roy Haynes

  Music, Play, Guy

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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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• I was talented but crazy, semi-autistic and eccentric.

  Andrew Hill

  Music, Crazy, Eccentric

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• I'm trying to make music a sensual expression, not an academic experiment.

  Andrew Hill

  Music, Expression, Sensual

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• I finally realized that my relaxation is practicing the piano and writing. I've tried to do other things, but I've learned through the decades, that this is what I enjoy, practicing music and writing.

  Andrew Hill

  Music, Writing, Piano

  "A Fireside Chat With Andrew Hill". Interview with Fred Jung, jazzweekly.com.

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