Jazz Quotes:

I would like to be a scholar in whatever I do, a scholar is never finished, he is always seeking and I am always seeking.

- Ahmad Jamal

topic: Music, Jazz, Scholar

Many fail to realize this great recording industry was built by so-called jazz artists. And at the other end of the spectrum, a base in European classical music as well.

- Ahmad Jamal

topic: Music, Artist, Jazz, Classic Music

Lately I've been listening to some classical music again, some jazz.

- Alan Vega

topic: Listening, Jazz, Classical Music

We must be as pure as our music.

- Albert Ayler

topic: Music, Jazz, Jazz Music

If people don't like my music now, they will.

- Albert Ayler

topic: Music, People, Jazz

Bebop was like humming along to Mitch Miller to me.

- Albert Ayler

topic: Music, Bebop, Jazz, Humming

Pain can be washed out with a song. / Pain can become jazz digested and transformed.

- Alexis De Veaux

source: Alexis De Veaux (1980). “Don't Explain: A Song of Billie Holiday”, HarperCollins Publishers

topic: Song, Pain, Jazz

I was considered as a jazz man rather than as a blues player. There were no blues players-you played one sort of jazz of another sort of jazz.

- Alexis Korner

topic: Player, Men, Jazz

Blues and jazz pulled me away from what was left of my family.

- Alexis Korner

topic: Jazz, My Family

I would say that jazz is my own language.

- Amy Winehouse

topic: Jazz, Language

Jazz is the music of the body.

- Anais Nin

topic: Body, Jazz, Brass

New York seems conducted by jazz, animated by it. It is essentially a city of rhythm.

- Anais Nin

topic: New York, Cities, Jazz

Jazz has the ability to absorb & transform influences from diverse musical styles.

- Andrew S. Gilbert

topic: Music, Style, Jazz, Musical Style

I listen to and I play all kinds of music, and I'm interested in jazz and in bluegrass - I like it all - but Cuban music speaks to me in a certain way.

- Andy Garcia

source: "Cuba, Cognac, and Cachao with Andy Garcia". Interview with Allyson Shiffman, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 16, 2013.

topic: Play, Way, Jazz, Music Speaks, Cuban Music

I was totally into jazz in my teens.

- Andy Summers

topic: Teens, Jazz

I love many kinds of music: world music, jazz, classical, pop.

- Anita Diament

topic: World, Jazz, Kind

Is jazz a rhythm, or is it a vibration?

- Anthony Braxton

topic: Vibrations, Jazz, Rhythm

My work has been marginalized as far as the jazz-business complex is concerned, or the contemporary-music complex.

- Anthony Braxton

topic: Jazz, Concerned, Contemporary, Marginalized, Contemporary Music

I am viewed as the Negro who has gone outside of the categories assigned to me.

- Anthony Braxton

topic: Music, Gone, Jazz

Music and culture are intrinsically improvisational, existential.

- Archie Shepp

topic: Culture, Jazz, Existential

Jazz washes away the dust of every day life.

- Art Blakey

topic: Music, Dust, Jazz, Jazz Age, Jazz And Life

You can't seperate modern jazz from rock or from rhythm and blues - you can't seperate it. Because that's where it all started, and that's where it all come from - that's where I learned to keep rhythm - in church

- Art Blakey

topic: Rocks, Church, Jazz, Rhythm And Blues

There's nothing wrong with it. It's only a word. What's in a name? Nothing! Cats say, "Call me Muhammed so-and-so. "

- Art Blakey

topic: Cat, Names, Jazz

Who knows ... we'll be playing Jazz and having a good time!

- Art Blakey

topic: Jazz, Good Times, Having A Good Time, Playing Jazz

If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet.

- Art Blakey

source: "At the Jazz Corner of the World". Live album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, 1959.

topic: Feet, Jazz, Feels, Tapping

I think that band [Glenn Miller] was the beginning of the end. It was a mechanized version of what they called jazz music. I still can't stand to listen to it.

- Artie Shaw

topic: Thinking, Band, Jazz

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana, and will expire on cocaine.

- Artie Shaw

topic: Bottles, Jazz, Whiskey

Jazz is the art of thinking out loud.

- Barbara Januszkiewicz

topic: Art, Thinking, Jazz

Jazz can be a blank canvas full of possibilities.

- Barbara Januszkiewicz

topic: Art, Jazz, Canvas, Blank Canvas

Are you stalking me, Mr. Fulton?" The idea both amused and horrified Jazz.

- Barry Lyga

topic: Ideas, Jazz, Stalking, Stalking Me

I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.

- Baz Luhrmann

topic: Jazz, Grew Up, Grew

If it comes out sounding like Dixieland jazz or classical or punk or rock or even slightly metal, that's because that's where I'm going to find inspiration.

- Ben Harper

topic: Inspiration, Rocks, Jazz, Dixieland

The strange thing about Africa is how past, present and future come together in a kind of rough jazz, if you like.

- Ben Okri

topic: Past, Together, Jazz

He's no Bill Clinton!

- Benny Carter

topic: Bills, Jazz, Clinton

You have to look good.

- Benny Goodman

topic: Looks, Jazz

Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a tradition, but he didn't consider himself part of a tradition.

- Bill Laswell

topic: Sides, Jazz, Tradition

I never sing a song the same way twice.

- Billie Holiday

topic: Song, Way, Jazz

When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words.

- Billie Holiday

topic: Play, Singing, Jazz

That's the thing about jazz: it's free flowing, it comes from your soul.

- Billy Crystal

topic: Soul, Comedy, Jazz

I think when I feel I'm at my best is when I'm on stage, and it's my version of jazz because it's just riffing or something.

- Billy Crystal

topic: Thinking, Comedy, Jazz

It's something that - jazz is one of the few things that you can go and listen to, I don't care where you're from, what you are, what background you come from - there's something there for you.

- Billy Higgins

topic: Care, Jazz, Backgrounds

The French - they like jazz, theyve been on jazz a long time.

- Billy Higgins

topic: Long, Jazz

All music is beautiful.

- Billy Strayhorn

topic: Music, Beautiful, Jazz

Jazz is America's classical music.

- Billy Taylor

source: "Dr. Billy Taylor, 90th birthday anniversary: Interview". Interview with Ted Panken, tedpanken.wordpress.com. October 14, 1999.

topic: Music, America, Jazz

The jazz band's chief stimulus, of course, was the rise of the negro 'blues' and their exploitation by the negro song-writer, W. C. Handy.

- Bix Beiderbecke

topic: Song, Band, Jazz, Jazz Band, Handy

I listen to Neil Young and jazz and classical stations and, if my girlfriend's driving, it tends to be Hall & Oates.

- Black Francis

topic: Girlfriend, Jazz, Driving

In blues, classical and jazz, you get more revered with age.

- Bonnie Raitt

topic: Age, Jazz

I am not a jazz singer. I wouldn't place myself on that footing. I wouldn't even enter that arena.

- Boz Scaggs

topic: Singers, Arena, Jazz

I'm not a jazz singer.

- Boz Scaggs

topic: Singers, Jazz

That's kind of like how jazz is sometimes. You're out there predicting the future, and no one believes you.

- Branford Marsalis

topic: Believe, Jazz, Kind, Predicting The Future

So much of Jazz doesn't have an audience other than music students or musicians.

- Branford Marsalis

topic: Music, Jazz, Students

Jazz is so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself.

- Branford Marsalis

topic: Music, Jazz, Starting

I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.

- Branford Marsalis

topic: Play, Albums, Jazz, Funk

It's something that jazz has gotten away from, and it's unfortunate. Players aren't physical anymore.

- Branford Marsalis

topic: Player, Jazz, Unfortunate

My D'Angelico is a jazz archtop guitar. That guitar was made for Glenn Miller's guitar player in 1939. It's a '39 D'Angelico New Yorker.

- Brian Setzer

topic: Player, Guitar, Jazz

There's no future without the past and anybody who doesn't really understand where jazz has come from has no right to try to direct where it's going.

- Cannonball Adderley

source: Interviewed by the "Chicago SEED", November, 1968.

topic: Past, Trying, Jazz

I keep reverting (to Duke Ellington), he to me is the greatest ever and my favorite jazz philosopher, as such.

- Cannonball Adderley

source: Interview by the "Chicago SEED", November, 1968.

topic: Dukes, Jazz, Philosopher, Reverting

When you are studying jazz, the best thing to do is listen to records or listen to live music. It isn't as though you go to a teacher. You just listen as much as you can and absorb everything.

- Carla Bley

topic: Teacher, Records, Jazz, Pianist, Absorbing

I just got to hear every note. After I left Birdland, I started working at the Jazz Gallery. In the end, I still couldn't play, but I knew how to listen. I was probably the world's best listener.

- Carla Bley

topic: Play, World, Jazz

I can show you that I have played with just about every jazz musician, every African musician, every blues musician. It's not like I'm cashing in on a false concept. This is what I do.

- Carlos Santana

topic: Musician, Jazz, Shows

I have a secret love of jazz.

- Carly Rae Jepsen

topic: Secret Love, Secret, Jazz

We went to see all the shows. American musical theater and jazz were very big.

- Carly Simon

topic: Musical, Jazz, Theater

You know I want to sing for people, I want to jazz people up I want to make new music that they've never heard.

- Casey Abrams

topic: People, Want, Jazz

Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.

- Cassandra Wilson

topic: Jazz, Form, Miles

I cringed when I heard myself described as a Jazz singer. I've always thought of myself as a Jazz vocalist.

- Cassandra Wilson

source: John Gray (2012). “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships”, p.2, HarperCollins UK

topic: Music, Singers, Jazz, Vocalist

Jazz can be so serious, no sense of humor.

- Chad Smith

topic: Serious, Jazz, Sense Of Humor

Jazz music is a language of the emotions.

- Charles Mingus

topic: Music, Jazz, Emotion

Everything I do is Mingus.

- Charles Mingus

topic: Jazz

Jazz is the language of the emotions.

- Charles Mingus

topic: Jazz, Emotion, Language, Jazz Music

Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt?

- Charles Mingus

topic: Als, Taste, Jazz

That's the exact concept behind the music: to take that kind of, I guess whatever you want to call it, jazz sensibility - but not have it be about solos.

- Charlie Hunter

topic: Want, Jazz, Kind

You've got to learn your instrument.

- Charlie Parker

topic: Jazz, Instruments

Bop is no love-child of jazz.

- Charlie Parker

topic: Children, Bops, Jazz

Jazz was formerly a crude term for indulging in an action which in polite society is referred to, if at all, only with such vague Latin terms as intercourse and cohabitation.

- Charlton Laird

topic: Latin, Cohabitation, Jazz

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

- Chet Baker

topic: Play, Jazz, Inspired

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

topic: Music, Band, Jazz

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

- Chico Hamilton

topic: Music, Beautiful, Jazz, Beautiful Music

Here in England we live at a slower pace, have more time to enjoy things - like good jazz.

- Chris Barber

topic: Pace, England, Jazz, Slower Pace

Everything-everything-was communicated through the sound of the music. There were no other signals of any kind ever-no count-offs, head nods, spoken instructions...nothing.

- Chuck Israels

source: "Chuck Israels: Evans, Education And Philosophy". Interview with Sean Dietrich, www.allaboutjazz.com. May 27, 2010.

topic: Music, Sound, Jazz

In 1994, I started touring again and I recorded two albums for Chesky Jazz.

- Chuck Mangione

topic: Two, Albums, Jazz

Well, I'm too old to pimp, and too young to die, so I'm just gonna keep playin'

- Clark Terry

topic: Pimp, Jazz, Young, Jazz Musician

I like rock music. I like jazz better, though.

- Clarke Peters

source: "Is this it?". Interview with Adrian Lobb, www.theguardian.com. May 1, 2009.

topic: Rocks, Jazz, Rock Music

It's always fun to talk about jazz.

- Clint Eastwood

topic: Fun, Jazz

I wouldn't really say I'm a jazz guy, which I'm not.

- Creed Bratton

topic: Guy, Jazz

So I went into jazz and performed in jazz clubs all over the country.

- Cy Coleman

topic: Country, Clubs, Jazz

I learned jazz; that comes from blues. I learned rock; that comes from blues. I learned pop; that comes from blues. Even dance, that comes from blues, with the answer-and-response.

- Cyndi Lauper

topic: Rocks, Answers, Jazz

I like to go hear jazz late-night up in Harlem.

- Daniel Boulud

topic: Night, Jazz, Late Night

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

- Dave Brubeck

topic: Piano, Orchestra, Jazz, Piano Music

Jazz is about freedom within discipline.

- Dave Brubeck

source: "Dave Brubeck celebrates a swinging 85th", www.today.com. December 8, 2005.

topic: Discipline, Jazz, Being Played

The worst thing about the life of a jazz musician on the road is getting to the gig. Once you're there and playing, it's marvelous.

- Dave Brubeck

topic: Musician, Gigs, Jazz

Jazz stands for freedom.

- Dave Brubeck

topic: Jazz

Don't be a perfectionist... leave that to the classical musicians.

- Dave Brubeck

topic: Musician, Jazz, Perfectionist, Classical Musicians

My own Brubeck Institute in California is turning out fantastic young jazz players, and I know great things will happen.

- Dave Brubeck

topic: Player, California, Jazz

I knew even if I'm a cowboy, I'm going to be involved in jazz in some way.

- Dave Brubeck

topic: Cowboy, Way, Jazz

Phil Robson is a disturbingly good jazz guitar player!

- Dave Liebman

topic: Player, Guitar, Jazz

There is nothing new... everything has roots in the past.

- Dave Liebman

topic: Past, Roots, Jazz, Nothing New

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

- Dave Van Ronk

topic: Cutting, Musician, Jazz

Most of what I listen to now is mainstream jazz from 1935 right up to and including early bebop and cool jazz.

- Dave Van Ronk

topic: Heart, Bebop, Jazz, Cool Jazz

There is an apprenticeship system in jazz. You teach the young ones. So even if the musicians weren't personally that likable, they felt an obligation to help the younger musicians.

- Dave Van Ronk

topic: Musician, Helping, Jazz, Young Ones

To me, jazz is the closest thing to insanity that there is in music.

- David

topic: Insanity, Jazz

I love my jazz hands!

- David Dickinson

topic: Hands, Jazz, Jazz Hands

The numerous ecstatic traditions - including free jazz and funk - have all been great inspirations.

- David First

source: Source: pitchfork.com

topic: Inspiration, Jazz, Tradition, Free Jazz

You never get it figured out. You just keep playing.

- David Sanborn

topic: Jazz

Jazz music by its very nature is just a conglomerate of a lot of different kinds of music.

- David Sanborn

source: "Once-stricken saxman: Music 'gave me my life'". Interview with Shanon Cook, www.cnn.com. August 15, 2008.

topic: Different, Jazz, Kind, Different Kinds Of Music

And I used to listen to a lot of jazz.

- Debra Wilson

topic: Jazz, Used

Jazz is a beautiful word. I love it.

- Dexter Gordon

topic: Music, Beautiful, Jazz, Beautiful Words

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

- Dexter Gordon

topic: Music, Beautiful, Jazz, Beautiful Words

In jazz, there is a lot of European influence harmonically.

- Dexter Gordon

topic: Europe, Jazz, Influence

Jazz was home. It created a hunger within me.

- Dianne Reeves

topic: Music, Home, Jazz

How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don't you ask him? And besides, maybe we'd all like to be like Miles, and just haven't got the guts.

- Dizzy Gillespie

topic: Jazz, Miles, Stage

I used to do a lot of apologizing for what the State Department had done.

- Dizzy Gillespie

topic: Done, Jazz, Apologizing

Bop is at the end of the road. Now everybody wants dance music.

- Dizzy Gillespie

topic: Want, Bops, Jazz, End Of The Road

I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.

- Dizzy Gillespie

topic: Play, Jazz, Composition

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your magnificent indifference.

- Dizzy Gillespie

topic: Gentleman, Jazz, Indifference, Ladies And Gentlemen

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

topic: Music, Way, Jazz

Kenny Burrell is the grand master of jazz guitar.

- Dizzy Gillespie

topic: Music, Guitar, Jazz, Kenny

And more than anything, I like the improvisation of jazz. That's the same thing with DJ-ing. There's so much improvisation you can do with cuttin' and scratchin' that's reminiscent of jazz music, because it's all about how you feel. You're capturing a vibe and just going with it.

- DJ Jazzy Jeff

topic: How You Feel, Jazz, Music Is, Jazz Improvisation

I still play jazz, and I've always got that trumpet very handy, but I'm coming to feel the classical venues are where my main focus is, in the realm of symphonic pops.

- Doc Severinsen

topic: Play, Focus, Jazz, Venues, Handy

If one takes all the styles in jazz harmonically from the earliest beginnings to the latest experiments, he still has a rather limited scope when compared to the rest of music in the world.

- Don Ellis

topic: Style, World, Jazz

The chief trouble with jazz is that there is not enough of it; some of it we have to listen to twice.

- Don Herold

topic: Listening, Jazz, Trouble

I love music, and a lot of it. Jazz is probably on the top with guys like Miles Davis. But I even enjoy music from the '60s and '70s.

- Donovan Bailey

source: "I don’t miss running, says Donovan Bailey". Interview with Paul Irish, www.thestar.com. November 28, 2011.

topic: Guy, Jazz, Music Love

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.

- Duke Ellington

topic: Jazz, Barometer

The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That's the pulse.The African pulse. It's all the way back from . . . the old slave chants and up through the blues, the jazz, and up through rock. And it's all got the African pulse.

- Duke Ellington

topic: Jazz, Common, Slave

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what I call an American standard, an American original.

- Duke Ellington

topic: Jazz, Epitome, Armstrong

Brubeck, for instance, is not careless. He's a studied guy. And even if his picture ends up on the back cover of Life, he's still a studious guy.

- Eddie Condon

topic: Guy, Jazz, Ends

Krupa's drums went through us like a triple bourbon.

- Eddie Condon

topic: Jazz, Bourbon

Paul Desmond sounds like a female alcoholic.

- Eddie Condon

topic: Sound, Female, Jazz

Most of the music I've become interested in is hybrid in its originsClassical music, of course, is unbelievably hybrid. Jazz is an obvious amalgam. Bluegrass comes from eighteenth-century Scottish and Irish folk music that made contact with the blues. By exploring music, you're exploring everything.

- Edgar Meyer

topic: Jazz, Scottish, Classical Music, Bluegrass

As far as I'm concerned, blues and jazz are the great American contributions to music.

- Edgar Winter

topic: Jazz, Great American, Contribution

She has been more famous, over a longer time span, than any other female singer.

- Ella Fitzgerald

topic: Female, Singers, Jazz, Female Singers

Listen to her voice, don't look at her.

- Ella Fitzgerald

topic: Voice, Looks, Jazz

I like all kinds of music, though I tend to prefer jazz and classics.

- Erik Larson

topic: Jazz, Kind, All Kinds

Jazz is not a 'form' but a collection of tags and tricks.

- Ernest Newman

source: "The World of Music". The Sunday Times, September 4, 1927.

topic: Tag, Jazz, Form

Jazz music just resonates with the frequency of me.

- Esperanza Spalding

topic: Music, Jazz, Jazz Music

Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all.

- Esperanza Spalding

topic: Melting, Jazz, Influence

My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy,

- Etta James

topic: Mother, Singers, Jazz

We all listened to a lot of recorded music, especially American jazz, modern jazz, and that's where our studies were and our inspiration came from.

- Evan Parker

topic: Inspiration, Jazz, Study, Recorded Music

This is so nice, it must be illegal.

- Fats Waller

source: Fats Waller (2001). “Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller: Performances in Transcription, 1927-1943”, p.3, A-R Editions, Inc.

topic: Music, Nice, Jazz

So easy, when you know how.

- Fats Waller

topic: Jazz, Easy

One never knows, do one?

- Fats Waller

source: StormyWeather (motion picture) (1943).Waller used this phrase as an actor in this film, but it was earlier a catchphrase in his singing performances.

topic: Jazz

Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance.

- Francoise Sagan

topic: Feelings, Nonchalance, Jazz, Jazz Musician, Playing Jazz

For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz.

- Francoise Sagan

topic: Writing, Jazz, Certain

Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe. I'm honest.

- Frank Sinatra

source: Interview with Joe Hyams, reprints.longform.org. February 1963.

topic: Music, Believe, Jazz

I'm gonna live till I die.

- Frank Sinatra

topic: Music, Jazz

Jazz was my first love.

- Frankie Valli

topic: First Love, Firsts, Jazz

I love jazz music and sad music.

- Fred Durst

topic: Jazz, Jazz Music, Sad Music

I love jazz music and sad music. I'm a sentimental guy. I'm a romantic guy.

- Fred Durst

topic: Guy, Sentimental, Jazz

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

topic: Music, Passion, Jazz, Inspirational Music, Music Soul

I like mellow music. I like some jazz. But I'm not a big hard rock guy.

- Gary Carter

topic: Rocks, Guy, Jazz

I don't know if I have enough guts to do a whole standard jazz record.

- Gary Cherone

topic: Records, Jazz, Enough, Jazz Records

I actually find a lot of parallels in jazz and cartooning.

- Gary Larson

topic: Jazz

I have to plead basic ignorance of most new jazz artists here.

- Gary Lucas

topic: Ignorance, Artist, Jazz

Lately, Ive been listening to some jazz albums. I love the new Pat Metheny album. John Coltrane. I still like good metal, though!

- Geezer Butler

topic: Listening, Albums, Jazz, Coltrane

I've had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.

- George Benson

topic: Music, Cat, Jazz

Life is a lot like jazz... it's best when you improvise.

- George Gershwin

topic: Music, Jazz, Meaningful Life

An entire composition written in jazz could not live.

- George Gershwin

topic: Jazz, Composition, Gershwin

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

- George Gershwin

topic: Music, Jazz, Gershwin

Jazz is the result of the energy stored up in America.

- George Gershwin

topic: America, Energy, Jazz

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

- Gerry Mulligan

topic: Music, Jazz, Jazz Music

It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

- Gerry Mulligan

topic: Way, Band, Jazz, Jazz Band, Mulligans

If I am playing any music at all it is jazz music.

- Ginger Baker

topic: Jazz, Jazz Music

I like a lot of electronica. I like older jazz rather than newer.

- Greg Ginn

topic: Jazz

If you mess around with jazz, you better have a good drummer and a good bass player.

- Gunther Schuller

source: Source: www.npr.org

topic: Player, Bass, Jazz

It is jazz music that called me to be a musician and I have always sang the songs that moved me the most.

- Harry Connick, Jr.

topic: Song, Musician, Jazz, Jazz Musician

He would forget everybody's name, so everybody was called 'Pops'.

- Helen Forrest

topic: Names, Jazz, Forget

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

- Henri Matisse

topic: Inspirational, Music, Jazz

If you go back to the roots of jazz, it was all about COLLECTIVE improvisation.

- Henry Threadgill

topic: Roots, Jazz, Improvisation

Clifford Brown was in the jazz circles considered to be probably the greatest trumpet player who ever lived.

- Herb Alpert

topic: Player, Circles, Jazz

Instrumental music can spread the international language.

- Herb Alpert

source: Twitter post from Oct 18, 2017

topic: Music, Jazz, Language, International Language, Instrumental Music

I like to listen to classical music... I like mainline jazz.

- Herb Alpert

topic: Jazz, Classical Music

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Music, Spirit, Jazz, Jazz Music

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Way, Jazz, Magnet

Jazz is about being in the moment.

- Herbie Hancock

source: Herbie Hancock, Lisa Dickey (2014). “Herbie Hancock: Possibilities”, p.10, Penguin

topic: Music, Jazz, Moments, Jazz Music

It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Music, Spirit, Jazz

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Music, Jazz, Genres Of Music, Jazz Musician, Borrowed

The music becomes something that is its own entity.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Jazz, Entity

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Music, People, Jazz

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Music, Inspiration, Jazz

I'm aware that a lot of what is happening in jazz has not had a very dynamic change in a long time.

- Herbie Hancock

topic: Change, Long, Jazz

If you're in jazz and more than ten people like you, you're labeled commercial.

- Herbie Mann

topic: People, Jazz, Like You

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

- Horace Silver

topic: Music, Order, Jazz, Jazz Music, Background Music

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

- Ice T

topic: Player, Needs, Jazz

Jazz is restless. It won't stay put & it never will.

- J. J. Johnson

topic: Jazz, Restless

The blues and jazz will live forever... So will the Delta and the Big Easy.

- Jack Nicholson

topic: Music, Forever, Jazz, Delta, Delta Blues

I took the frets out of my bass after I was getting into jazz a lot and I wanted to have that upright sound.

- Jaco Pastorius

source: "Modern Electric Bass, Jaco Pastorius". Book by Jaco Pastorius, 1985.

topic: Sound, Bass, Jazz

I'd like to do something involving jazz. But books are how I earn my living, and I'd like to stay with the horse I rode in on.

- James McBride

topic: Horse, Book, Jazz

Coltrane was moving out of jazz into something else. And certainly Miles Davis was doing the same thing.

- Jan Garbarek

topic: Moving, Jazz, Miles, Coltrane, Moving Out

There's a certain phraseology involved in jazz, and I've moved away from that.

- Jan Garbarek

topic: Jazz, Certain, Moved

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

- Jan Garbarek

topic: Elements, Jazz, Improvisation, Jazz Improvisation

Jazz, for me, is a closed circuit, like the term baroque in the world of classical music.

- Jan Garbarek

source: "London jazz festival 2012: Where has Jan Garbarek gone? I miss him" by John Lewis, www.theguardian.com. November 14, 2012.

topic: World, Jazz, Classical Music, Baroque, Baroque Music

Growing up, I was very much interested in jazz music.

- Jan Hammer

topic: Growing Up, Growing, Jazz

I do find modern jazz quite tricky.

- Jane Asher

topic: Jazz, Modern, Tricky

I've listened to Jazz since I was born and always knew I'd be a Jazz singer!

- Jane Monheit

source: USA Today, September 24, 2004.

topic: Singers, Jazz, Born

Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm.

- Jelly Roll Morton

topic: Sweet, Jazz, Music Is

In 1908 Handy didn't know anything about the blues and he doesn't know anything about jazz and stomps to this day. I myself figured out the peculiar form of mathematics and harmonies that was strange to all the world but me.

- Jelly Roll Morton

topic: Peculiar, World, Jazz, Jazz And Blues

I do not claim any of the creation of the blues, although I have written many of them even before Mr. Handy had any blues published. I heard them when I was knee-high to a duck.

- Jelly Roll Morton

topic: Ducks, Knees, Jazz

I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.

- John Coltrane

topic: Music, Moving, Jazz

All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.

- John Coltrane

topic: Music, Law, Jazz

The jazz trombone is a magical experience particularly to hear and listen too.

- John Jensen

topic: Magic, Jazz, Trombone

The reward for playing jazz is playing jazz.

- John Lewis

topic: Music, Rewards, Jazz, Playing Jazz