Musician Quotes - Page 15

• A lot of good musicians made me look good.

  Cosimo Matassa

  Looks, Made

  Interview with Todd Collins, toddcollinsmusic.com. May 4, 2007.

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• Essentially, the popular musician in America must learn that his basic job is to entertain people, to make them forget their sorrows for a moment or two; in the same sense that any popular art form must aim at the same distraction value. Any such job as that is basically a young man's business. It takes a young man's energy to go traveling around the country, night after night in a different place, prancing and cavorting around in front of mobs of people all out to try to forget their problems for an evening. And for a young man it can be a good enough way of life, if he happens to like it.

  Artie Shaw

  Country, Art, Jobs

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• The bandleader is a musician trying to sell a mass commodity; and in order to do so successfully he must accommodate himself to mass standards. Unless he can do this comfortably, sooner or later he is sunk.

  Artie Shaw

  Order, Trying, Commodity

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• I don't know if One Direction will stand the test of time. I have a niece who goes crazy for them. But the only way to judge art is to wait and see if it becomes evergreen. This takes a bit of time. Adele is a very good musician and I'd like to sing with her. But, again, time will tell if her music will become evergreen.

  Andrea Bocelli

  Art, Crazy, Niece

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• I don't think successful musicians were really put on this planet in order to have a great time, pat themselves on the back and say, 'Oh, what a clever boy I am!' I think that, like most artists, we were put on the planet to suffer just a little. And we do.

  Ian Anderson

  Clever, Successful, Artist

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• Armstrong was the key creator of the mature working language of jazz. Three decades after his death and more than three-quarters of a century since his influence first began to spread, not a single musician who has mastered that language fails to make daily use, knowingly or unknowingly, of something that was invented by Louis Armstrong.

  Dan Morgenstern

  Keys, Three, Use

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• I write each song individually and each one calls for individual musicians, You sit around and wonder who can we get to play a Neil Young solo, and then you realize there`s a good chance you can get Neil himself.

  Warren Zevon

  Song, Writing, Play

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• The artist must be a philosopher. Socrates the skilled sculptor, Jean-Jacques [Rousseau] the good musician, and the immortal Poussin, tracing on the canvas the sublime lessons of philosophy, are so many proofs that an artistic genius should have no other guide except the torch of reason.

  Jacques-Louis David

  Philosophy, Artist, Should Have

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• The first thing I think about is music, and the last thing I think about is music. I'm like some Monk. I don't see a lot of daylight. I hang out with musicians, I hang out with directors and I just try to spend as much of my life as possible playing music.

  Hans Zimmer

  Thinking, Trying, Playing Music

  "Interstellar Composer Hans Zimmer On Music and His Own Process For Scoring Films". Quora Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 25, 2014.

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• Jonny Lang has the power to move the music into the next millennium by reaching the ears of a new generation. The great musicians have the power to break all of the 'isms'-race, age, sex, et cetera. Jonny Lang is one of those musicians.

  Luther Allison

  Sex, Moving, Race

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• The marvels of God are not brought forth from one's self. Rather, it is more like a chord, a sound that is played. The tone does not come out of the chord itself, but rather, through the touch of the musician. I am, of course, the lyre and harp of God's kindness.

  Hildegard of Bingen

  Kindness, Self, Sound

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• God is the Supreme Musician. It is He who is playing with us, on us and in us. We cannot separate God from His music. The universal Consciousness is constantly being played by the Supreme Himself, and is constantly growing into the Supreme Music.

  Sri Chinmoy

  Growing, Consciousness, Being Played

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• Of course, you have to have a good reputation, especially as an artist, as a musician, so that other musicians would like to play with you.

  Airto Moreira

  Artist, Play, Reputation

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• Who should have children? Those who are responsible and completely dedicated to the responsibility which is actually a very small percentage of humans. Being a parent should be a career. Whereas some people are engineers, musicians, or lawyers, others with the desire and the skills can be fathers and mothers. Schools can be eliminated if the professional parent is also the educator of the child.

  Paul Watson

  Mother, Children, Father

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• If being a gangster were a prerequisite to being a musician, there'd be a lot less cello music, for example.

  Greg Giraldo

  Example, Gangsters, Prerequisites

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• I'm a musician, and I'm fascinated with the effects of sound, and tone, and pitch and melody and all that sort of stuff. It's the first thing I have to solidify whenever...I get into a character. The first thing I need to get sorted out before I can then move forward, before I can feel any confidence whatsoever, is the voice.

  Guy Pearce

  Moving, Character, Voice

  Interview with Carlo Cavagna, www.aboutfilm.com.

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• I didn't want my records to sound like anybody else, and when I've got my guys in the studio, I have a language with those guys because we work together every day. A lot of times, you bring in outside guys, studio players, whatever, and they're great musicians. It's just that they don't necessarily play the way I want it to be played.

  Jason Aldean

  Player, Guy, Working Together

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• Jazz musicians are the coolest people on the planet. Can I have some cool?

  Jon Stewart

  People, Jazz, Planets

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• Every orchestra is different. Sometimes, you're blown away by a particular musician. If I'm playing the Brahms concerto, it's crucial to have a great oboe player, because we work in tandem.

  Joshua Bell

  Player, Oboes, Different

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• No, it's the musicians and I must say they are an accomplished bunch, but odd, as musicians tend to be. Is it the vibration from their instruments, do you suppose, working on the brain? All that fraught buzzing?

  Robertson Davies

  Brain, Vibrations, Odd

  Robertson Davies (1996). “The Cunning Man”, Penguin Group USA

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• I am still very proud of that concert. In America, the (musicians') connection with the conductor is as with management - it becomes political. You cannot conduct properly in this environment. I hate this enemy situation between management and orchestra members.

  Neeme Jarvi

  Hate, America, Political

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• I'll probably pay more attention to the musicians in the pit than the stars because they're the closest you're going to get to normal people in the audience.

  Chris Rock

  Stars, People, Attention

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• Give me the artist who breathes it like a native, and goes about his work in it as quietly as a common man goes about his ordinary business. Mozart did so; and that is why I like him. Even if I did not, I should pretend to; for a taste in his music is a mark of caste among musicians, and should be worn, like a tall hat, by the amateur who wishes to pass for a true Brahmin.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Artist, Men, Giving

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• [Too many musicians are] too involved with doing and not listening.

  Ray Still

  Listening, Involved

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• Whatever my passions demand of me, I become for the time being - musician, poet, director, author, lecturer or anything else.

  Richard Wagner

  Passion, Directors, Demand

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