Jazz Music Quotes - Page 7

• Composing is improvisation slowed down.

  Wayne Shorter

  Music, Jazz, Composing

  37 Copy quote

• Man, that cat [Ornette Coleman] is nuts.

  Thelonious Monk

  Music, Cat, Men

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• As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

  Lee Konitz

  Music, Play, Long

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• A prophet is not without honor except in his own country among his own people.

  Sun Ra

  Music, Country, People

  55 Copy quote

• What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.

  Sun Ra

  Music, Jazz

  "Sun Ra: Un noir dans le cosmos". Book by Aurelien Tchiemessom, April 1, 2005.

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• I am a musician, but I'm another type of musician.

  Sun Ra

  Music, Jazz, Type

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• People behind the Iron curtain have such an incredible image of America and jazz. I expected to find a Gerry Mulligan or Miles Davis on every corner...I almost expected a Shorty Rogers to deliver the milk, a Bud Shank to be the mailman.

  Gabor Szabo

  Music, Iron, America

  4 Copy quote

• When I was studying at Berklee, I got the feeling I couldn't play the [guitar] at all, because I could not use my own things as they didn't fit any set pattern. When I joined [Chico Hamilton], he helped me immensely to develop my own style. He never forced me in any set way. At all times, he encouraged me to be myself on the instrument.

  Gabor Szabo

  Music, Guitar, Play

  4 Copy quote

• Many jazz musicians affect a misunderstood-genius air when they play, which alienates the audience and breaks down the communications of the music. A musician's responsibility is to get as much of his art across as possible. Musicians used to be kept when only the rich could afford art, but now practically everyone can afford radios, stereo equipment, concert tickets, etc. A musician must learn to communicate to survive.

  Gabor Szabo

  Music, Art, Communication

  8 Copy quote

• Astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night.

  Miles Kington

  Work, Night, Musician

  22 Copy quote

• My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

  Sarah Vaughan

  Music, Dream, Records

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy, but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice.

  Sarah Vaughan

  Music, Voice, Soul

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Sarah Vaughan was the Charlie Parker of the vocalists during the 1950s.

  Roy Haynes

  Music, Jazz, Vocalist

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• At first I didn't understand what [Thelonious Monk] was doing, but I went back again, and what I can say about Monk is that I heard ancient Africa in his music. When he played, it was like a ballet. He captured the sound of the universe. Monk could take a triad, a simple chord, and make it sound dissonant. I'm sure that element he had in his piano was part of the two years he spent traveling with his mother in gospel music in the tent shows.

  Randy Weston

  Music, Mother, Simple

  4 Copy quote

• There's no appreciation for the giants [of jazz]; there's never been a major film on Duke Ellington , never a major film on Louis Armstrong. What they accomplished, we could never accomplish today...What's happening now is lightweight compared to what happened before. If Louis Armstrong was alive today, he'd be a superstar. If Art Tatum was alive today, my god, all the piano players would get on their knees. So that's what's missing today; we've been cut off from our heritage.

  Randy Weston

  Music, Appreciation, Art

  7 Copy quote

• I am an improviser, ... I improvise music. Whatever you want to call it all, it is all improvised music. I may capture it and go back and write it down for others, but it was originally improvised.

  Joe Zawinul

  Music, Writing, May

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• That.s what Jazz music is all about.We started the Messengers because somebody had to mind the store for jazz.No America--no Jazz. It is the only culture that America has brought forth.

  Art Blakey

  America, Mind, Culture

  21 Copy quote

• Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.

  Sonny Rollins

  Music, Artist, Jazz

  7 Copy quote

• Ninety-five percent of my audience was white.

  Zoot Sims

  Music, White, Jazz

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• As Eric Dolphy said 'Once you play the music, it's in the air. It's gone'. And that's true. But when you record it, it comes back to haunt you sometimes.

  John Abercrombie

  Music, Air, Play

  4 Copy quote

• I'm not a jazz artist. Don't get me wrong now, it's all music to me. I just played music and if it's likeable, someone liked the sound, then fine, but I'm not interested in being a jazz musician. I don't consider myself a jazz musician. I don't have anything to do with that word.

  Pharoah Sanders

  Music, Artist, Sound

  57 Copy quote

• [John Coltrane] liked my qualities as a person and that's the reason why he let me play with him. It wasn't what I was doing musically or my instrument or anything like that. He let me play whatever I wanted to play.

  Pharoah Sanders

  Music, Play, Quality

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• He didn't say nothing. He would just do things. He never said nothing or explained nothing. He just would do it and that was it. You were on your own. You had to be very independent being around John [Coltrane].

  Pharoah Sanders

  Music, Independent, Jazz

  "A Fireside Chat With Pharoah Sanders". All About Jazz Interview, www.allaboutjazz.com. March 21, 2003.

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• I find that in California I can't find guys that have enough energy. They play a little bit and that's about it. They play less. If I start a tune and then the pianist has to solo, I am looking to everybody to get to a certain climate and then I come back in while the energy is up high. Somehow that doesn't happen.

  Pharoah Sanders

  Music, Play, California

  4 Copy quote

• I love more percussions more than anything. I always wanted to be a drummer.

  Pharoah Sanders

  Music, Jazz, Drummer

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