Musician Quotes - Page 18

• I come from a town of great musicians: Washington, D.C. It's no joke, that history.

  Henry Rollins

  Towns, Great Music, Jokes

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• If you are a musician who has released albums, it would perhaps be morbidly interesting to know how much you would be owed if everyone who now has your music had actually bought your record.

  Henry Rollins

  Interesting, Albums, Would Be

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• Nobody gives a crap if we're great musicians.

  Frank Zappa

  Giving, Great Music, Crap

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• I am first, and foremost, an actor. That's what I am. To me, a song is a mini-drama. My musical ability informs the actor as well because it gives me a sense of timing that non-musicians don't have. So, one hand washes the other.

  Theodore Bikel

  Song, Drama, Musical Ability

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• I never wanted to churn it out. Comedians tend to work all the time. They never put it down like musicians who might make an album then take three or four years off to recharge their batteries. Comedians tend to work straight through and they get stale because of that. Even when I didn't have a lot of money I never ever did it unless I had something new to say.

  Chris Rock

  Years, Comedian, Albums

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

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• From the small clubs of the Harlem Renaissance where he began playing saxophone to world tours for the biggest of the big bands, Benny Carter redefined American jazz. From the start, his fellow musicians said the way he played the sax was amazing. They say that about me, too. (Laughter.) But I don't think they mean it in quite the same way.

  William J. Clinton

  Laughter, Mean, Thinking

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• The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he.

  Duke Ellington

  Problem, Made, Music Is

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• Amazon has included me in an opportunity to provide top-shelf television-style programming live on the world's computer screens. To hold forth with the industry's very best actors, directors, musicians, authors - I'm thrilled to be on the cutting edge of this.

  Bill Maher

  Cutting, Opportunity, Style

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• Benny [Carter] opened the eyes of a lot of producers and studios, so that they could understand that you could go to blacks for other things outside of blues and barbecue. He's a total musician. He was the pioneer, he was the foundation. He made it possible for that doubt to be taken away.

  Quincy Jones

  Taken, Eye, Doubt

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• A lot of the musicians asked me if when I hit my high-Cs on the records I had a clarinet take the notes. Some [thought] I had invented some kind of gadget so I could play high register. They weren't satisfied until they handed me a trumpet that they had with them and had me swing it. Then they cheered.

  Louis Armstrong

  Play, Swings, Records

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• Nobody else even approaches the trumpet like [Sweets Edison] does: Never too much and always plenty. He's the greatest trumpet player to play along with singers. He exactly knows how to play with you, how to answer you about what you just sang ... On top of that, he has some great sense of humor, both as a musician and as a man. Every time I see him, I'm laughing so much. Sweets is impeccable and incomparable.

  Ella Fitzgerald

  Sweet, Player, Men

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• I met Gary (Burton) at the Wichita Jazz Festival when I was 18 -- he was one of my favorite musicians and I got to play a few tunes with him there. Shortly after that, I joined his band, which was the equivalent of joining the Beatles for me! He was, and still is, one of the greatest musicians I have ever been lucky enough to be around.

  Pat Metheny

  Play, Tunes, Lucky

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• When I was recording from '70 to '82, I always played piano and laid the tracks down. But I used to talk to the other musicians while the track was playing.

  Roy Ayers

  Piano, Track, Used

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• The amazing thing about Sweets [Edison] was that he exactly spoke the way that he played! He was really unique, the one and only. He was one of the greatest Blues players that I ever heard and played with. Nobody can play like Sweets man, nobody! Most of us, musicians, frequently quote Sweets' phrases in our solos. Like Lester Young, Sweets had a big influence on us musicians, especially when we play some Blues.

  Ray Brown

  Sweet, Unique, Player

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• [Louis Armstrong] was the only musician who ever lived, who can't be replaced by someone.

  Bing Crosby

  Armstrong, Replaced

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• Our nights didn't begin until after noon. Because in the old days, you'd start Birdland at 8:30 or 9 pm and play until 4 in the morning. Then you'd go out to the corner and talk to a couple of musicians - I used to talk to Oscar Pettiford a whole lot - you'd stand there till 7, 8 or 9, or else go down to the jam session at Minton's.

  Charles Mingus

  Morning, Couple, Night

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• For a while I wanted to be a professional baseball pitcher, and then I wanted to be a musician and then sometimes I think I'd like to start a store for gift-wrapping Christmas presents... But I feel I could do most things I set my mind to, except mechanical things, I'm not very good at that.

  John Malkovich

  Baseball, Thinking, Mind

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

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• I think that today, in Europe at least, people don't tend to think so much about the instrument that is producing the music; they are more interested to see if the musician actually has something to say.

  Michala Petri

  Thinking, Europe, People

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• That was a very natural process because as I was creating the animatic I added music clips as reference of the kind of music I wanted in the film. These were from musicians like Naná Vasconcelos and Barbatuques, the body percussion group.

  Alex Abreu

  Creating, Groups, Body

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• I basically love classical music. I love a lot of musicians playing together and the whole culture of that whether it's Indian or it's Western. But in India, I think it's limited to filler music unfortunately. That's one thing I want to push in India where we have the infrastructure of an orchestra where you play Indian melodies with an orchestra and something different for a universal audience. It requires a lot of work from me.

  A. R. Rahman

  Thinking, Play, Together

  "Composer A.R. Rahman Interview 127 HOURS". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. October 28, 2010.

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• One thing about Kurt [Cobain] is before he was a musician, and before he was a rock star, he was an artist, and an artist with a capital A. What that means is that he had to create. It wasn't something that he chose to do - it chose him.

  Brett Morgen

  Stars, Mean, Artist

  Source: www.npr.org

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• I always say that you should just listen to it and see what you think it sounds like it is. I don't think it should be labeled. Most musicians feel like that. No one wants to put their music in a category. But, I don't think it's all over the place. I don't go from metal to jazz, or anything crazy.

  Tinsel Korey

  Crazy, Thinking, Sound

  Source: collider.com

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• I've always done a few things at once. I've always been a musician and an actor, at the same time.

  Janina Gavankar

  Done, Actors

  Source: collider.com

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• When I decided to be a musician I was hoping that it would be one of my contributions in having a positive impact on the world. That's always what I wanted to do.

  Goapele

  Impact, Would Be, World

  Source: youknowigotsoul.com

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• My whole purpose of being a musician is to not follow the rules, so if I set rules for myself, I've already failed.

  Lotic

  Purpose, Whole, Ifs

  Source: thequietus.com

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