Jazz Quotes

Once you discover that you can, then you must.

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

I'd have no trouble being the barbecue kingpin of America. I'd just add it to all the other things I am: jazz musician, carpenter, architect, engineer and revolutionary.

Composing is improvisation slowed down.

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.

What 'jazz' means to me is the worst kind of working conditions, the worst in cultural prejudice. The term 'jazz' has come to mean the abuse and exploitation of black musicians.

I believe in dressing for the occasion. There's a time for sweater, sneakers and Levis and a time for the full-dress jazz.

I'm sure someone out there has a workable solution. But what do I know? I make comic books and write about jazz. I do know the difference between right and wrong, though.

It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.

I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.

What are you going to do when you love music? You can't stop.

Music is what we need when language fails us, but we cannot remain silent.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

It's the group sound that's important, even when you're playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.

I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the complexity of me

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.

One thing I like about jazz, kid, is that I don't know what's going to happen next. Do you?

I'm a musician and, just as the critics are hard on me, I'm hard on the critics.

Jazz, I mean, music will always move, because it can't become stagnant. Because if it becomes stagnant, it's like a river, it'll kill us all. It has to keep moving, music will always flow.

Jazz, like leadership, combines the unpredictability of the future with the gifts of individuals.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.

Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can't be taught.

There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.

It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.

Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it.

It takes an intelligent ear to listen to Jazz.

Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili.

Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

The jazz I love is sweet and pure with raw elements, which is exactly what the good hip-hop is doing now.

If you dig it, do it. If you dig it a lot, do it twice.

I think you have to have a jazz pedigree to be on jazz radio.

To work is to feel alive.

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

To hell with the rules. I'm going for the unknown.

Day in, day out. That same old voodoo follows me about.

Damn it, when I'm bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic-take it or leave it.

Most guys at Berklee are going to wind up truck drivers.

Jazz will be the classical music of the future.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

Jazz tickles your muscles, symphonies stretch your soul.

Jazz is a beautiful word. I love it.

Instrumental music is increasingly marginalized.

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

There are Two Secrets to Success: 1. Don't tell ANYONE Everything you know 2.If you have to ask what Jazz is, you'll never know.

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

If music is sound & came from silence, then silence is potentially greater than sound.