Jazz Quotes - Page 8

• 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 Music

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

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It’s the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat. It’s the first thing you hear when you’re born — or before you’re born — and it’s the last thing you hear.

  Dave Brubeck

  Music, Believe, Heart

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

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt … she personally called the owner of the Mocambo, and told him she wanted me booked immediately, and if he would do it, she would take a front table every night. She told him – and it was true, due to Marilyn’s superstar status – that the press would go wild. The owner said yes, and Marilyn was there, front table, every night. The press went overboard. After that, I never had to play a small jazz club again. She was an unusual woman – a little ahead of her times. And she didn’t know it.

  Ella Fitzgerald

  Real, Night, Play

  194 Copy quote

• Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Missing You, Playing Jazz

  1954 In Look, 10 Aug.

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• Jazz isn't like pop, where you sell millions of records with a hit. Your spirit and soul aren't important in pop music. But jazz is like classical music. If people like you, they'll remember you and you'll last forever.

  Freddie Hubbard

  Music, Remember You, Remembers You

  21 Copy quote

• The human being receives the pleasure from music, not from the argument over what it is.

  Ornette Coleman

  Music, Argument, Pleasure

  4 Copy quote

• How great musicians demonstrate a mutual respect and trust on the bandstand can alter your outlook on the world and enrich every aspect of your life, understanding what it means to be a global citizen in the most modern sense.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Music, Mean, Understanding

  Wynton Marsalis, Geoffrey Ward (2008). “Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life”, p.15, Random House

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

  Cab Calloway

  Music, Clubs, Cotton

  11 Copy quote

• You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Play, Sincere

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  142 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm into scales right now.

  John Coltrane

  Music, Scales, Right Now

  19 Copy quote

• The life of the arts is far from an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose-and is a test of the quality of a nations' civilization.

  John F. Kennedy

  Music, Art, Civilization

  8 Copy quote

• External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.

  Yusef Lateef

  Music, Instruments, Extensions

  51 Copy quote

• Put it this way: Jazz is a good barometer of freedom... In its beginnings, the United States of America spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Country, Expression

  167 Copy quote

• Gray skies are just clouds passing over.

  Duke Ellington

  Music, Failure, Adversity

  Duke Ellington (1973). “Music is my mistress”, Doubleday Books

  89 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sam Phillips always encouraged me to do it my way, to use whatever other influences I wanted, but never to copy...if there hadn't been a Sam Phillips, I might still be working in a cotton field.

  Johnny Cash

  Music, Use, Cotton

  7 Copy quote

• I'd rather call it "instrumental creative music," especially the music that I've been doing. If a person would hear that music, they would undoubtedly call it "jazz." There is this whole generation of musicians that are playing and thinking critically for themselves and making music that's relevant to today. I hope that's the objective of a lot of musicians.

  Eldar Djangirov

  Thinking, Creative, Musician

  4 Copy quote

• Growing up, I'd already decided I wanted to be a beatnik. A Bohemian poet, I thought. Or a musician. Maybe an artist. I'd dress in black turtlenecks and smoke Gitanes. I'd listen to cool jazz in clubs, getting up to read devastating truths from my notebook, leaning against the microphone, cigarette dangling from my hand.

  Charles de Lint

  Notebook, Growing Up, Artist

  11 Copy quote

• A little bit if listening with a passable ear will get an awful lot of messages anywhere.

  John Hendricks

  Music, Listening, Ears

  6 Copy quote

• It's hard to explain what happens when jazz and punk fuse with a violin twist but it works. Probably because Anson Choi takes off his shirt while he's playing the saxophone. Whoever's not chatting up a Cadet or a girl from Darling House or playing chess with the guys is watching the band. I turn into a groupie.

  Melina Marchetta

  Girl, House, Guy

  4 Copy quote

• He took comfort in the neon signs, the wild strands of jazz creeping out of clubs whenever happy swells of people pushed through the doors in their finery.

  Libba Bray

  Doors, People, Comfort

  4 Copy quote

• As long as you've got your horn in your mouth, you're developing.

  Zoot Sims

  Music, Long, Mouths

  47 Copy quote

• If I can't play music, what am I gonna do? Music keeps people sane. When you enjoy yourself, most of the time the people who are listening to you enjoy it.

  Zoot Sims

  Music, Play, People

  19 Copy quote

• If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

  Duke Ellington

  Inspirational, Music, Feel Good

  18 Copy quote

• An artist can only be evaluated after he's dead. At the 11th hour he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

  Van Cliburn

  Music, Artist, Might

  11 Copy quote

• This whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, “Is there a meaning to music?” My answer to that would be, “Yes.” And “Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?” My answer to that would be, “No.”

  Aaron Copland

  Music, States, Composer

  "What to Listen For in Music".

  26 Copy quote

  Show source