Jazz Improvisation Quotes

• In Jazz, improvisation isn't a matter of just making any ol' thing up. Jazz, like any language, has its own grammer and vocabulary. There's no right or wrong, just some choices that are better than others.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Music, Vocabulary, Choices

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• Through improvisation, jazz teaches you about yourself. And through swing, it teaches you that other people are individuals too. It teaches you how to coordinate with them.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Swings, People, Individual

  "Wynton Marsalis: Jazz Messenger". Interview with Eugene Holley, Jr., www.ebony.com. September 4, 2012.

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

  George Gershwin

  Music, Jazz Hands, Cool Jazz

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

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• Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

  Cecil Taylor

  Music, Ability, Oneself

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• I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

  Sonny Rollins

  Music, Essence, Spots

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• The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

  Ken Burns

  Music, Country, Art

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• The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

  Jan Garbarek

  Elements, Jazz, Improvisation

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• 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

  How You Feel, Music Is, Jazz Music

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• Jazz Improvisation means that practice is not as straightforward as it would be when you simply have a score to play.

  Ahmad Jamal

  Music, Mean, Practice

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• Jazz is all about improvisation and it's about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you'll never do it this way twice. I've studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

  Brian McKnight

  Play, Guy, Balls

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• As far as I'm concerned, the essentials of jazz are: melodic improvisation, melodic invention, swing, and instrumental personality.

  Mose Allison

  Swings, Personality, Essentials

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• I find Indian music very funky. I mean it's very soulful, with their own kind of blues. But it's the only other school on the planet that develops improvisation to the high degree that you find in jazz music. So we have a lot of common ground.

  John McLaughlin

  Music, School, Mean

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• There are editing procedures for talks just as there are editing procedures in jazz improvisation.

  David Antin

  Editing, Procedures, Jazz

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• Not with the Rochester Philharmonic, but I formed my own orchestra, made up of musicians from the Eastman School, where I'm on the faculty now, direct the Jazz Ensemble and teach improvisation classes.

  Chuck Mangione

  School, Class, Musician

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• Louis Armstrong is the master of the jazz solo. He became the beacon, the light in the tower, that helped the rest of us navigate the tricky waters of jazz improvisation.

  Ellis Marsalis, Jr.

  Light, Water, Towers

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• Normal adults can doodle, amble, and drift with no need to assess risk, since there is normally no risk at all. Jazz improvisation seems less subject to standards of risk than surgery, and less than much formal athletic performance, as in a tennis match.

  Ernest Sosa

  Tennis, Risk, Athletic

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Jazz is a music that really allows a person to express his deepest self, his most personal self - Africa being the primary source of jazz. Naturally, improvisation and swing are a part of jazz, improvisation being the key.

  Harold Land

  Keys, Swings, Self

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