Charlie Parker quotes
-
“Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.”
-- Charlie ParkerSource : "Words of Wisdom". Book edited by William Safire and Leonard Safir, p. 435, 1990.
-
“You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.”
-- Charlie ParkerSource : "Acting Is a Job: Real-life Lessons About the Acting Business". Book by Jason Pugatch, p. 73, 2006.
-
“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.”
-- Charlie ParkerSource : Quoted in Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955)
-
-
“Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.”
-- Charlie Parker -
-
“When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.”
-- Charlie ParkerSource : "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya". Book by Nat Shapiro, p. 354, 1955.
-
“Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. ... You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.”
-- Charlie ParkerSource : "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It". Book edited by by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, p. 379, 1955.
-
-
“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.”
-- Charlie Parker -
“I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.”
-- Charlie Parker -
-
“I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. ... I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.”
-- Charlie ParkerSource : "Hear Me Talkin' to Ya". Book by Nat Shapiro, p. 354, 1955.
-
“Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'”
-- Charlie Parker -
-
“They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.”
-- Charlie Parker
You may also like:
-
Art Blakey
Jazz Drummer -
Benny Goodman
Musician -
Billie Holiday
Singer -
Buddy Rich
Drummer -
Charles Mingus
Bassist -
Chet Baker
Trumpeter -
Coleman Hawkins
Saxophonist -
Count Basie
Jazz Pianist -
Dizzy Gillespie
Bandleader -
Duke Ellington
Composer -
Ella Fitzgerald
Vocalist -
Jo Jones
Drummer -
John Coltrane
Saxophonist -
Lester Young
Saxophonist -
Louis Armstrong
Trumpeter -
Max Roach
Percussionist -
Miles Davis
Musician -
Sonny Rollins
Saxophonist -
Stan Getz
Saxophonist -
Thelonious Monk
Pianist