Elvin Jones famous quotes

If there's any such thing as a perfect man, I think John Coltrane was one. And I think that kind of perfection has to come from a greater force than there is here on earth.
-- Elvin Jones

#Men #Thinking #Perfect

The greatest contribution jazz has made in music has been to replace the role of the conductor with a member of the ensemble who, instead of waving his arms to keep time and convey mood, is an active member of the musical statement. That person is the drummer.
-- Elvin Jones

#Musical #Roles #Ensemble

I can see forms and shapes in my mind when I solo, just as a painter can see forms and shapes when he starts painting. And I can see different colors.
-- Elvin Jones

#Music #Color #Mind

It's the honesty you apply to your playing that makes music enjoyable. The style of the music has little to do with it. It's only honesty makes it beautiful.
-- Elvin Jones

#Beautiful #Honesty #Style

Music is a way of life, it's everything. I play drums and that's what I believe I was born to do.
-- Elvin Jones

#Believe #Play #Way

You should get the feeling you should move. That's what is meant when people say the music moves me.
-- Elvin Jones

#Moving #People #Feelings

I feel very, very gratified when people are complimentary to what I have done or appreciated it with sincerity... It makes me feel that maybe I did do something that was proper and that was right.
-- Elvin Jones

#Music #People #Done

To me John Coltrane was like an angel on earth. He struck me that deeply.
-- Elvin Jones

#Angel #Earth #Coltrane

That's what the drummer is supposed to do. Keep the time. If you can do something else besides that, fine. But the time is essential and non-negotiable.
-- Elvin Jones

#Essentials #Drummer #Fine

When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, `Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.' But I was one-and-twenty No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, `The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue.' And I am two-and-twenty And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

Before one can walk as Christ walked, and talk as He talked, he must first begin to think as Christ thought.

The interesting adults are always the school failures, the weird ones, the losers, the malcontents, this isn’t wishful thinking. It’s the rule.

Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn't.

Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.

My goal has been to encourage jointness, to push people to think of affiliations rather than to operate as solo entrepreneurs.

My idea of the perfect bottom would be nice, bubbly, curvy, firm, maybe a little bit bouncy.

I love the voice - it’s the most perfect instrument ever heard. It’s God given.

Look at our culture. Look at the computer-enhanced people we compare ourselves to. Look at the expensive cars and trinkets we're all supposed to have. Look at how many people are wrapped up in that! Imagine how much money and worry we'd save ourselves if we stopped caring what kind of car we drove! and why do we care? perfection. But there is no such thing, is there? And if there is, then everyone is perfect in their own way, right?

Absolute consciousness is manifest here in every circumstance of daily life because it is everywhere full and perfect. Consciousness is said to be the cause of all things because it is everywhere emergent as each manifest entity.