dayName = new Array ("Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday") monName = new Array ("January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December") now = new Date Jan = new Array Jan[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune. — Count Basie " Jan[2] = "Jazz Quoteof the Day
Technique is the ability to translate your ideas into sound through your instrument. This is a comprehensive technique . . . a feeling for the keyboard that will allow you to transfer any emotional utterance into it. What has to happen is that you develop a comprehensive technique and then say, Forget that. I’m just going to be expressive through the piano. — Bill Evans" Jan[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up! — Jaco Pastorius" Jan[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Well, if you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night. — Count Basie" Jan[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it’s still a melody. — Stan Getz" Jan[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't have a definition of jazz...You're just supposed to know it when you hear it. — Thelonious Monk" Jan[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Blues is like the roux in a gumbo. People ask me if jazz always has the blues in it. I say, if it sounds good it does. — Wynton Marsalis" Jan[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When they study our civilization two thousand years from now, there will be three things that Americans will be known for: the Constitution, baseball and jazz music. They're the three most beautiful things Americans have ever created. — Gerald Early" Jan[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves. — Herbie Hancock" Jan[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling. — Bill Evans" Jan[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today. — George Gerswhin" Jan[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
'Jazz' went from the classics to ragtime to Dixieland to swing to bebop to cool jazz,But it's always jazz. You can put a new dress on her, a new hat, but no matter what kind of clothes you put on her, she's the same old broad. — Lionel Hampton " Jan[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Each man has his own music bubbling up inside him. — Louis Armstrong" Jan[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.— John Coltrane" Jan[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music. — Billie Holliday " Jan[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
People sometimes think I'm difficult because I always say what's on my mind, and they can't always see what I see. — Miles Davis" Jan[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
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. — Oscar Peterson " Jan[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Rather than simply say, I play jazz, I say I play music. — Kenny Garrett" Jan[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When there's something we think could be better, we must make an effort to try and make it better. — John Coltrane" Jan[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We have to make ourselves as perfect as we can. — Sonny Rollins explaining why he stopped performing for 2 years as he practiced daily on the Williamsburg bridge playing into the wind" Jan[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don’t believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos. — Oscar Peterson" Jan[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I tell my students, It's an important tradition and you have to go back and hear this music and learn its language all the way through. How are you going to know what's new to play, if you haven't listened to everything that's old? — Jackie Mclean" Jan[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
So until we see you again, bright moments and keep searchin’ for your mystery note on the universal piano of life. — Roland Kirk" Jan[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I’m not a star. I’ll never be a Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley or a Ray Charles. I’m just an imitator, man. I’m doing a very bad imitation on the bass of Jerry Jemmott, Bernard Odum, Jimmy Fielder, Jimmy Blanton, Igor Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, James Brown, Charlie Parker the cats, man. I’m just backing up the cats. — Jaco Pastorius" Jan[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I always think of music as interior decoration. So, if you have all kinds of music, you are fully decorated! — Wayne Shorter" Jan[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
. . .this is my dilemma. I’m a guy who makes things up as I go along so nothing is ever finished-there are so many layers. So when you solo, yeah, you might get into one thing, but then, hey, everything has implications! You can hear the next level. And that’s how I feel about improvising-there’s always another level. — Sonny Rollins" Jan[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Life is not about finding our limitations, it’s about finding our infinity. — Herbie Hancock" Jan[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The very fine line between loneliness and solitude, reflection; being alone, always appealed to me when I was a kid. — Brad Mehldau" Jan[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
This is so nice, it must be illegal. — Fats Waller" Jan[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
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.” But what’s the difference? A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music. Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa. — Art Blakey" Jan[31] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I wish we could just stay on the bandstand, it’s so peaceful up here. — Roland Kirk" Feb = new Array Feb[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate upon it in order to get the most of it. You must absorb most of it. The harmonies within the music can relax, soothe, relax, and uplift the mind when you concentrate upon and absorb it. Jazz music stimulates the minds and uplifts the souls of those who play it was well as of those who listen to immerse themselves in it. As the mind is stimulated and the soul uplifted, this is eventually reflected in the body. — Horace Silver" Feb[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The best thing you can do is to be a woman and stand before the world and speak your heart. — Abbey Lincoln" Feb[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
James Carter, Joe Lovano, Joshua Redman, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez, Jacky Terrasson, Greg Osby, Kenny Garrett, David Sanchez, Dave Douglas, Gerri Allen, Roy Hargrove, Marcus Roberts, Brad Mehldau-is lucky to sell 15,000 records domestically in a CD's 18-month shelf life. Usually they fail to do even that. Ditto for legends Sonny Rollins, Tommy Flanagan, Joe Henderson, and Oscar Peterson. And as well publicized and rightly rewarded as Wynton and Branford Marsalis have been, their recent sales figures are no better than anyone else's — Richard B. Woodward / SUPPORT JAZZ!" Feb[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The louder they play (the band) the softer I sing. — Joe Williams" Feb[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is so difficult. A lot of people think once they've learned these licks they can get up and play them for the rest of their life. But that's not being truthful to the music 'cause it's not developing. Cats you hear that don't make no mistakes? They ain't trying to do nothing. everything they hear is on the mark, but they've played it so many times... I've built a whole career out of making mistakes! — Lester Bowie" Feb[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It's not about new is different. Jazz is like a language. You don't speak in the same way that your parents spoke. It's the same langauge, but you speak it in your way — Dr. Billy Taylor " Feb[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
...don't think of your self as a jazz musician. Think of your self as a human being who plays music — Haden" Feb[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't expect people who listen to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer to come hear me. I accept that reality. — Cecil Taylor" Feb[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Are big bands coming back? Sure, every football season. — Woody Herman" Feb[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't mind being the butt of a joke-if it's a funny joke. — Kenny G." Feb[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I spent a lot of time playing in miserable places that were not a lot of fun. Somebody once said it is character building and I was like 'My character is just fine.' — Diana Krall" Feb[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I practice things I have a hard time with. Be honest with yourself and focus on your weaknesses. — Randy Brecker" Feb[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It is possible to improve your trumpet sound almost immediately by working on the mouthpiece. — Allen Vizzutti" Feb[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Life is a lot like jazz. . . it’s best when you improvise. . . — George Gershwin" Feb[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases — Charles Mingus" Feb[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think if it wasn't for the blues, there wouldn't be no jazz. — T-Bone Walker" Feb[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Blues and jazz definitely go hand in hand. Maybe the only difference is that one swings and the other doesn't. — George Glover" Feb[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork. — Pearl Bailey" Feb[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I'm here playing tonight,but God's in the house — Thomas 'Fats' Waller speaking of Art Tatum (perhaps the greatest Jazz pianist ever)" Feb[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
...and incidentally, I am not self-taught. Everybody who has given me a moment of beauty, significance or excitement has been a teacher. — George Russell" Feb[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
In fifteen seconds the difference between composition and improvisation is that in composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in fifteen seconds, while in improvisation you have fifteen seconds. — Steve Lacy" Feb[22] = "Music Story of the Day
As a young cellist I had played to an audience that had included Pablo Casals and reacted with poor, nervous playing. Casals sought me out after the concert and praised me highly, somewhat easing the pain and thinking him a very kind man. Years later I again ran into Casals and thanked him for being kind to a very nervous kid. Angry, he rushed to the cello. 'Listen!' He played a phrase from the Beethoven sonata. 'Didn't you play this fingering? It was novel to me. It was good. And here, didn't you attack that passage with an upbow, like this?' He went through Schumann and Bach, emphasizing all he liked that I had done.'And for the rest,' he said passionately, 'leave it to the ignorant and stupid, who judge by counting only the faults. I can be grateful, and so must you be, for even one note, one wonderful phrase.' I left with the feeling of having been with a great artist and friend. — name unknown" Feb[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Now that (Wes) Montgomery has attained some measure of commercial success, I wonder if he'll ever record another good album. Maybe he'll record serious music again under a pseudonym. — critic Harvey Pek" Feb[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I have seen what happened to people like Tatum and Coltrane. Though Coltrane died before his thing was resolved, Tatum died at a time when he should have enjoyed all the benefits of being the greatest piano player in existence--but he didn't, you dig? It doesn't matter how much artistry one has; it's how it's presented that counts. Those who criticize me for playing jazz too simply and such are missing the point; there is a jazz concept to what I'm doing, but I'm playing popular music and it should be regarded as such. — Wes Montgomery" Feb[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
People who love jazz musicians love us when we play what we want to play, and we're starving. But as soon as you commercialize your sound, as Wes did, the jazz fans and critics are down on you! Wes told me about this a week before he died. He was very unhappy and disturbed by this attitude. — George Benson" Feb[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I didn't rest until I met Tatum and we became pretty good friends. In fact, if I was playing somewhere and he was in the neighborhood, he'd drop by. Art was the kind of guy that if you asked him to show you something, he would, but nine times out of ten you couldn't do it anyhow! — Gerald Wiggins (speaking of Art Tatum)" Feb[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is not just, 'Well, man, this is what I feel like playing.' It's a very structured thing that comes down from a tradition and requires a lot of thoughts and study. — Wynton Marsalis" Feb[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
One guy would try to play a tune from a new Bird record, and somebody else would say, 'No, that's not right,' and we'd hash it out together. The we'd all go home and work on it and come back and see who had advanced the most. — Tommy Flanagan" Feb[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Probably the most frustrating thing was trying to figure out the hipper voicings from records, It was no problem for me to get the basic character of the chord, to figure out what chords were minor or major, but you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out the notes in between the bass notes and the treble notes. — Kenny Barron" Mar = new Array Mar[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Good jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms, and yells. Fine jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments. — Charles Mingus" Mar[2] = "Music Quote of the Day
Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it. — John Lennon" Mar[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance-Beethoven's Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance-whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed. — André Previn" Mar[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The further jazz moves away from the stark blue continuum and the collective realities of Afro-American and American life, the more it moves into academic concert-hall lifelessness, which can be replicated by any middle class showing off its music lessons. — Imamu Amiri Baraka" Mar[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The structure of a jazz performance is, like that of the New York skyline, a tension of cross-purposes. In jazz at its characteristic best, each player seems to be-and has the sense of being-on his own. Each goes his own way, inventing rhythmic and melodic patterns which, superficially, seem to have as little relevance to one another as the United Nations building does to the Empire State. And yet the outcome is a dazzlingly precise creative unity. — John A. Kouwenhoven " Mar[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Though the Jazz Age continued it became less and less an affair of youth. The sequel was like a children's party taken over by the elders. — F. Scott Fitzgerald " Mar[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It is veneer, rouge, aetheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands. — George Santayana" Mar[8] = "Chopin Quote of the Day
I really don't know whether any place contains more pianists than Paris, or whether you can find more asses and virtuosos anywhere. — Frederick Chopin" Mar[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Critics don't buy records. They get 'em free. — Nat King Cole" Mar[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I belong to the Angel race .. (Angels) find food in lookin'at a picture or...in hearin' a beautiful song... or just ssein' a person smile. They find food in that. But Earth people,they just find food in food. — Sun Ra" Mar[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Wayne Shorter once said someone told him Trane sounded like srambled eggs. His reply was, 'it's the way he scrambles them that makes it all so sweet.' " Mar[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument. — Martin Luther King" Mar[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music has many uses and I think the most perfected use that music has is one of a healing quality. — Ornette Coleman " Mar[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music just may be the most powerful thing on the planet... You cannot exist without it. It can have a healing effect, conveyed in a spirit of love: it can communicate. — Kenny Barron" Mar[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When I got in a hot groove, the piano was walking. — James P. Johnson" Mar[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It was a revelation to me to be able to play with a volume equal to a front-line horn by using the Fender Rhodes. — Mike Nock" Mar[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Two hands and two feet just AREN'T enough to play that way. — Melody Maker speaking about Billy Cobham" Mar[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The only thing Don Ellis plays in 4/4 is 'Take Five'. — Charlie Haden" Mar[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I'm a guitar player. That's what I'll always be. I like to write music, but I want to be a better and better guitar player just as I want to be a better person. I want to be more articulate, able to utilize space better, to play silence more profoundly. There are many things left for me to do, much work to be done. And that can all be accomplished on acoustic guitar. — John McLaughlin" Mar[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Make no mistake, this music is for everyone. Jazz is not an exclusive, elite club. Go ahead, listen to your Snoop Doggy Dog, Pearl Jam, Garth Brooks, but add a little Ellington, Basie and Coltrane to your life as well. — Christian McBride" Mar[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It's very difficult for me to dislike an artist......No matter what he's creating, the fact that he's experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we're in a brotherhood of some kind...we're in it together. — Chick Corea" Mar[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
My view is that you cannot close your mind and say I don't want to listen to this or that. Because if you can't appreciate the bad for being bad, you can't appreciate the good. If you turn a deaf ear to everything but one style, pretty soon it's not going to work out. — Billy Eckstine" Mar[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There's more bad music in jazz than any other form. Maybe that's because the audience doesn't really know what's happening — Pat Metheney" Mar[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We never play anything the same way once. — Shelly Manne" Mar[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I belong to the Angel race .. (Angels) find food in lookin'at a picture or...in hearin' a beautiful song... or just ssein' a person smile. They find food in that. But Earth people,they just find food in food — Sun Ra" Mar[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I remember countless nights at Birdland, going to see the classic Coltrane quartet. I remember being totally captured, awed, and inspired by that music. Rocking back and forth in my chair, taken to the outer limits of my own existence and filled with an unexplainable beauty, I allowed Coltrane to reach me. I often wonder if he ever realized what he did for me or any of the other hundreds of thousands of fans that he had on the planet. By reaching inside himself, he reached inside all of us... — Michael Cuscuna " Mar[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Lester Young was playing with a drummer one night that he really didn't like. The drummer kept on trying be friendly all night. He finally trapped Lester at the bar after the gig was over, saying, 'I sure had a good time tonight, Pres. I've been thinking, when was the last time we worked together?'
Lester's answer: 'Tonight!'" Mar[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Erroll Garner was occasionally teased because he couldn't read music. 'Hell, man,' he once snapped back, 'nobody can hear you read.'" Mar[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Someone once asked Eubie Blake (when he was 97 years old), 'How old do you have to be before your sex drive goes?'
Eubie said: 'You'll have to ask someone older than me.'" Mar[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind. — Duke Ellington" Mar[31] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I am not a blues singer. I am not a jazz singer. I am not a country singer. But I am a singer who can sing the blues, who can sing jazz, who can sing country. — Ray Charles" Apr = new Array Apr[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Learn baby, learn! ...then you can earn baby, earn! — Adam Clayton Powell" Apr[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I need more than a so-called jazz musician. I'm looking for a complete musician — Gary Bartz" Apr[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
don't think of your self as a jazz musician. Think of your self as a human being who plays music — Charlie Haden" Apr[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
In this business! 'If you have to be a monkey, be a gorilla' — Shane Scaglione " Apr[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I was in New York before you got here. I'll be here when you are gone — Dizzy Gillespie to Oscar Pettiford" Apr[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The outer space beings are my brothers. They sent me here. They already know my music. — Sun Ra" Apr[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is the folk music of the machine age. — Paul Whiteman" Apr[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't want no drummer. I set the tempo. — Bessie Smith" Apr[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music should always be an adventure. — Coleman Hawkins" Apr[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If you believe, you will. If you don’t, you won’t. — Eddie Harris" Apr[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
To me, the piano in itself is an orchestra. — Cecil Taylor" Apr[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Make no mistake, this music is for everyone. Jazz is not an exclusive, elite club. Go ahead, listen to your Snoop Doggy Dog, Pearl Jam, Garth Brooks, but add a little Ellington, Basie and Coltrane to your life as well. — Christian McBride" Apr[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Wrong is right. — Thelonius Monk" Apr[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Dance music as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper a windshield wiper that’s fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out-of-tune playing ‘Melancholy Baby’ and you’ve got dance music. — Artie Shaw" Apr[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You are the music while the music lasts. — T. S. Eliot" Apr[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast. — Paul Desmond" Apr[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music. — Stan Getz" Apr[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
He has a smooth undulating arm that floats and caresses sweetly above a gently pulsating bass. — Dudley Moore on the sensuality of Errol Garner's music" Apr[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Musicians tell me, if what I’m doing is right, they should never have gone to school. — Ornette Coleman" Apr[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music is a gift and a burden I've had since I can remember who I was. — Nina Simone" Apr[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
[Thelonious] Monk is a subject in itself. I mean, most piano players in most big bands sit down and they play with the band, you know. But Monk would just sit there like this. And all of a sudden there'd be a pause from all the trumpets and everything and Monk would go 'plink!' like that. And everybody would go 'Yeah!' — Ray Brown" Apr[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it. — George Foreman" Apr[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The true musician is to bring light into people's hearts. — Bobby McFerrin" Apr[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We all have to open our minds, stretch forth, take chances and venture out musically to try and arrive at something new and different. — Horace Silver" Apr[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz has always been a man telling the truth about himself. — Quincy Jones" Apr[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If it wasn't for pimps, prostitutes, hustlers, gangsters, and gamblers there wouldn't be no jazz! They supported the club owners who bought the music. It wasn't the middle-class people who said 'Let's go hear Charlie Parker tonight.' — Betty Carter" Apr[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Today you will play jazz, tomorrow you will betray your country — Soviet propaganda poster in the 1930s" Apr[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would have never written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker never would have played anything but swing music. There comes a point at which you have to stand up and say, this is what I have to do. — Branford Marsalis" Apr[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
In the winter of 1939, I wrote Coleman Hawkins a letter after hearing his record 'Body and Soul'. I had heard of him before that, but I was knocked out by his record; that's what everbody was talking about. He lived eight blocks from me, and I felt I had nothing to lose. The letter was the usual 'I heard about you and I liked your record' kind of thing. And I also told him the truth, that I had been classically trained and only played jazz for a few years, but I would appreciate it if I was given the opportunity to work with him. And I included my phone number and address. That was a lot of nerve, let's face it. Two days later, the phone rang and there was this deep voice, 'This is Coleman Hawkins.' I almost dropped the phone. 'Are you free this afternoon? I'd like to hear your playing; bring your bass by.' When I got to his place, I found out that he was also a pianist. He played the piano while I played the bass; he never touched his saxophone. We went through a couple of tunes, all in different keys that you wouldn't expect them to be in. I played and he seemed to be satisfied. he said, 'Do you have a tuxedo?' I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'Fine. We open Monday night, nine o'clock at Kelly's Stable.' — George Duvivier " Apr[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born. — Charlie Parker" May = new Array May[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
After me there are no more jazz singers . . . It's a crime that no little singer is back there sockin' it to me in my field. To keep it going, to keep it alive, because I'm not going to live forever. — Betty Carter" May[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything. — Chick Corea" May[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I asked Miles after the gig, 'Miles, what am I supposed to be doing up there?' He said, 'When they play fast, you play slow. When they play slow, you play fast.' — Miles Davis (told by Buster Williams)" May[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
And the doctor said, 'I can see your hurt just by looking at you. Pain we can help, but for hurt there's nothing we can do.' Some people pick up the pieces. Some just leave them apart. And now you know why Booker died of a broken heart. — Harry Connick Jr." May[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different. — Tony Bennett" May[6] = "Zappa Quote of the Day
A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians. — Frank Zappa" May[7] = "Hendrix Quote of the Day
My own thing is in my head. I hear sounds and if I don't get them together, nobody else will. — Jimi Hendrix" May[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterwards. — Joe Pass" May[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I was with Decca from 1953 to 1960, and I learned more about the business during that time than any other. You see, the great thing about being the head of A&R in those days is that you were the guy who really made all of the decisions with respect to songs, with respect to the sound and the arrangements, with respect to what records came out and when they came out. You controlled everything. Today everything is done by committee. I mean, nine guys have to get together before they can even put out a record. — Bob Thiele" May[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If I can get out of the way, if I can be pure enough, if I can be selfless enough, and if I can be generous and loving and caring enough to abandon what I have and my own preconceived, silly notions of what I think I am - and become truly who in fact I am, which is really just another child of God - then the music can really use me. And therein lies my fulfillment. That's when the music starts to happen. — John McLaughlin" May[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
One day we were so hungry we could barely breathe. I started out the door. It was cold as all-hell and I walked from 145th to 133rd, going in every joint trying to find work. I stopped in to Log Cabin Club run by Jerry Preston, told him I was a dancer. He said to dance. I tried it. He said I stunk. I told him I could sing. He said sing. Over in the corner was an old guy playing the piano. He struck Trav'lin and I sang. The customers stopped drinking. They turned around and watched. The pianist swung into Body and Soul. Jeez you should have seen those people - all of them started crying. Preston came over, shook his head and said, 'Kid, you win'. — Billie Holliday" May[12] = "Beck Quote of the Day
Things turn out better by accident sometimes. But you can't organize accidents. — Jeff Beck" May[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The music has generated all the techniques I use. When I sit down to learn to play something . . . it is not because I want to master a technique. It is because I want to hear what an idea sounds like. — Pat Martino" May[14] = "Mitchell Quote of the Day
You have two options. You can stay the same and protect the formula that gave you your initial success. They're going to crucify you for staying the same. If you change, they're going to crucify you for changing, but staying the same is boring. So, of the two options I'd rather be crucified for changing. — Joni Mitchell" May[15] = "Blues Quote of the Day
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it. — Blues Brothers" May[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
'I don't think you're gonna like the drummer.'
'Oh really, how come?'
'He's busy man ... real busy.'
'How busy?'
'Busier than a cat tryin' to cover s--- up on a marble floor!' — Sweets Edison" May[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Herbie Hancock was backstage at a concert when he was with Miles Davis. The promoter had put out a large spread of food. Herbie went up to Miles and said 'Miles! Check out all this food they have.' Miles said, 'I didn't come here to eat.' " May[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Student: 'How long before I will be a player?' I tell them, 'How can I say how long it will take. Why, I'm still learning myself.' — Lonnie Hillyer" May[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Rhythm is all around us. You know? If Tony Williams was walking down the street and stumbled, he might want to play that rhythm. — Miles Davis" May[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I had a great feeling when I saw them. I realized I would also be playing my whole life, and I had twenty or thirty years ahead of me to continue to improve. — Buster Williams" May[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Sarah Vaughan is somewhere right now having a ball. She's in good company....Somebody said when she died, 'Well, Basie needed a vocalist.' — Joe Williams" May[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You keep playing, keep studying, keep listening, keep learning, and you keep developing. Jazz is not a nine to one (A.M.) job, once or twice a week. It's a way of life. Some people develop in their twenties. Some people mature in their thirties. It took me to reach my fifties before I matured. It finally happened when a situation took place where I became more secure and much happier with myself. I wasn't satisfied then, but I was satisfied that I was finally heading in the direction that I really should have been heading in all along. — Red Rodney" May[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When I got there, I was so surprised to see him (Ray Brown) practicing. At the time, I thought, 'A cat as great as he is, still practicing just like every one else? Still trying to get better?' — Rufus Reid " May[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
In America, we haven't formulated so much of a musical tradition as in Europe, and we're still free to do different things. For example, I think Gunther Schuller is working on a opera with a jazz band in it. Before Charlie Parker died, he was talking about doing a double concerto with Yehudi Menuhin. It's not like India here, where traditionally you couldn't play an afternoon raga in the evening, or Africa, where a certain drum can only be played on a certain occasion. We have the freedom to try out a lot of things, and we're not set in our ways. — Max Roach" May[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Just think of it this way, if, every day, you come up with a new idea - whether it's just one new phrase or one new way of embellishing an old phrase - at the end of the year you'll have three hundred and sixty-five new things to deal with. After two years, you'll have over seven hundred things to deal with, and so on. — John Coltrane" May[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There are drought periods, and then, all of a sudden, there's the oasis. Because you never know when the revelations will come to you, you have to practice every day, even when you're not inspired, so that you're at your instrument to receive the revelations when they do come. — Barry Harris" May[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
What kills me is that everybody thinks I like jazz. — Samuel L. Jackson" May[28] = "Jazz Definitions of the Day
INSIDE: Literally, remaining within the changes (established chord sequence) of a tune. By extension, playing that is without frills or ostentation, motivated by the harmonies and melodies of the song itself.
OUT, OUTSIDE: Against the grain, avant-garde; music that is the contrary of what is expected in relation to the changes or the apparent structure employed. To 'go out' means to abandon traditional jazz concepts. (Some have gone out because they had something new to say, but most have just gone out.) — The Book of Jargon: An Essential Guide to the Inside Languages of Today - by Don Ethan Miller " May[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
That (rehearsing the group) usually takes place at the end of each nightly performance , and in a night club we play until about 2 in the morning. Then we’ll probably rehearse from 2 until about 7 a.m. — Oscar Peterson" May[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
In 1957, I experienced the grace of God, which led me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. His way is through love; it is truly a love supreme. — John Coltrane" May[31] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We called him freight train, box car, anything that sounded like Coltrane. He was very good-natured. It never bothered him. John had a quiet strength about him — Benny Golson" Jun = new Array Jun[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I would like to put out an album with absolutely no notes. Just the titles of the songs and the personnel. By this point I don't know what can be said in words about what I'm doing. Let the music speak for itself. — John Coltrane" Jun[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I like to go on an adventure when I play. I like to have the freedom to do that not just for the sake of doing something out there or different. I like to experiment and take people along the way and bring them back. It's like a voyage. I want them to understand what I'm doing as opposed to trying to baffle them. I want them to see that's what music is about. It's about enjoyment and going on a trip. — McCoy Tyner" Jun[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We were aware of the fact that we had a new concept of the music by no other means than the enmity amongst the musicians. The old musicians who didn't want to go through a change. When you have a lot of static, you know you must be on the right track, 'cause if it's easy it's not worth it. — Dizzy Gillespie" Jun[4] = "Music Quote of the Day
All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.— Frank Zappa " Jun[5] = "Music Quote of the Day
A good composer does not imitate; he steals.— Igor Stravinsky" Jun[6] = "Music Quote of the Day
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.— Hunter S. Thompson" Jun[7] = "Music Quote of the Day
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes --ah, that is where the art resides.— Artur Schnabel" Jun[8] = "Music Quote of the Day
Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.— Bill Cosby" Jun[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The moment you start to talk about playing music, you destroy the music. It cannot be talked about. It can only be played, enjoyed and listened to. — John McLaughlin" Jun[10] = "Music Quote of the Day
Music is spiritual. The music business is not.—Van Morrison" Jun[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think of myself as a mystery. To myself. — Sun Ra " Jun[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Don't play what's there, play what's not there.— Miles Davis" Jun[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Do not fear mistakes. There are none.— Miles Davis" Jun[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Keith [Jarrett] played so nice I had to give him two pianos. I’d say Keith, how does it feel to be a genius? — Miles Davis" Jun[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If you got up on the bandstand at Minton’s and couldn’t play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked. — Miles Davis" Jun[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.— Benny Green" Jun[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We’re not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got ‘em, so they can keep ‘em. — Miles Davis" Jun[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
A young tenor player was complaining to me that Coleman Hawkins made him nervous. Man, I told him Hawkins was supposed to make him nervous! Hawkins has been making other sax players nervous for forty years! — Cannonball Adderley" Jun[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something about punching Monk out in front of his face - and I never did - then somebody should have just come and got me and taken me to the madhouse, because Monk could have just picked my little ass up and thrown me through a wall.— Miles Davis" Jun[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Miles’d got killed if he hit me. — Thelonious Monk" Jun[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
[Bebop is] Chinese music. — Louis Armstrong" Jun[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it. — Louis Armstrong" Jun[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Man, if you have to ask what it is, you’ll never know.—Louis Armstrong" Jun[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I’ve never heard anything Wynton (Marsalis) played sound like it meant anything at all. Wynton has no voice and no presence. His music sounds like a talented high-school trumpet player to me. He’s jazzy the same way someone who drives a BMW is sporty.— Keith Jarrett" Jun[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I cannot say what I think is right about music. I only know the rightness of it — Keith Jarrett" Jun[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
For his artistry, there can be no replacement. — Dizzy Gillespie after hearing of the death of Clifford Brown [Trumpeter Clifford Brown, October 30, 1930 - June 26, 1956]" Jun[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
A great teacher is one who realizes that he himself is also a student and whose goal is not dictate the answers, but to stimulate his students creativity enough so that they go out and find the answers themselves.— Herbie Hancock" Jun[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
A jazz musician is not a jazz musician when he or she is eating dinner or when he or she is with his parents or spouse or neighbors. He’s above all a human being . . . the true artform is being a human being.— Herbie Hancock" Jun[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Sometimes when we’re flying or in the hotel, I might run over songs, or in the bathroom.— Ella Fitzgerald" Jun[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I stole everything that I heard, but mostly I stole from the horns. — Ella Fitzgerald" Jul = new Array Jul[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Playing with Miles, I learned how to keep a structure in mind and play changes so loosely that you can play for sometime without people knowing whether the structure is played or not, but the hit on certain points to indicate that you have been playing the structure all the time. When you hear those points being played, you just say, 'Wow! It's like the Invisible Man. You see him here and then you don't. Then all of a sudden you see him over there and then you see him over here.' And it indicates that it's been happening all the time. — Buster Williams " Jul[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
What is music to you? What would you be without music? Music is everything. Nature is music (cicadas in the tropical night). The sea is music, the wind is music. The rain drumming on the roof and the storm raging in the sky are music. Music is the oldest entity. The scope of music is immense and infinite. It is the ‘esperanto’ of the world. — Duke Ellington" Jul[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one. — Duke Ellington" Jul[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
They’re not particular about whether you’re playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.— Dizzy Gillespie" Jul[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.— Dizzy Gillespie" Jul[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I’d like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition. — Dizzy Gillespie" Jul[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Joe Zawinul was born in Earth time on 07 July 1932 and was born in Eternity time on 11 September, 2007 — Erich Zawinal" Jul[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Master your instrument, Master the music, and then forget all that *!xy!@ and just play.— Charlie Parker" Jul[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful. — Charlie Parker" Jul[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Tastes are created by the business interests. How else can you explain the popularity of Al Hirt? — Charles Mingus" Jul[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple. — Charles Mingus" Jul[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time. — Charles Mingus" Jul[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer. — Charles Mingus" Jul[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words. — Billy Holiday" Jul[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I never sing a song the same way twice.— Billy Holiday" Jul[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I never hurt nobody but myself, and that ain’t nobody business but my own.— Billy Holiday" Jul[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There is no such thing as a wrong note.— Art Tatum" Jul[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it! — Art Tatum" Jul[19] = "Michelangelo Quote of the Day
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. — Michelangelo" Jul[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I’ll play it first and tell you what it is afterwards. — Miles Davis" Jul[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I really liked Wynton [Marsalis] when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused. — Miles Davis" Jul[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Nothing is out of the question for me. I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.Then I’m grateful.— Miles Davis" Jul[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light. — John Coltrane" Jul[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple. — Keith Jarrett" Jul[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
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. — Oscar Peterson" Jul[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they’re trying to say with jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.— Oscar Peterson" Jul[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don’t believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos. — Oscar Peterson" Jul[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Those who want to know what sound goes into my music should come to NY and open their ears. — Thelonious Monk" Jul[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don’t conside myself a musician who has achieved perfection and can’t develop any further. But I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself. Take a musician like John Coltrane. He is a perfect musician, who can give expression to all the possibilities of his instrument. But he seems to have difficulty expressing original ideas on it. That is why he keeps looking for ideas in exotic places. At least I don’t have that problem, because, like I say, I find my inspiration in myself. — Thelonious Monk" Jul[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Well, I enjoy doing it. That’s all I wanted to do anyway. I guess, you know, if I didn’t make it with the piano, I guess I would have been the biggest bum.— Thelonious Monk" Jul[31] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
What we play is life. — Louis Armstrong" Aug = new Array Aug[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
What I was trying to do and what I feel they were trying to do was to combine - take these influences that were happening to all of us at the time and amalgate them, personalize them in such a way that when people were hearing us, they were hearing the avant-garde on one hand, and they were hearing the history of jazz that lead up to it on the other hand - because Miles was that history. He was that link. We were sort of walking on a tightrope with the kind of experimenting we were doing in music, not total experimentation, but we used to call it 'controlled freedom'. Herbie Hancock — Herbie Hancock" Aug[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Man, all music is folk music. You ain’t never heard no horse sing a song, have you? — Louis Armstrong" Aug[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is what I play for a living. — Louis Armstrong" Aug[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There’s only two ways to sum up music; either it’s good or it’s bad. If it’s good you don’t mess about it, you just enjoy it.— Louis Armstrong" Aug[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Miles got a mysticque about him plus he’s at the top of his profession. And he’s got way, way, way more money. — Dizzy Gillespie" Aug[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.— Charlie Parker" Aug[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I’m too busy playing. When I’m playing I don’t pay attention to who’s listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don’t listen to one instrument; you listen to music. — Charles Mingus" Aug[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn’t only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic concepts. And those people are: Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Parker, who is the greatest genius of all to me because he changed the whole era around. — Charles Mingus" Aug[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession. If you can, then it ain’t music, it’s close order drill, or exercise or yodeling or something, not music. — Billy Holiday" Aug[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do. — Billy Holiday" Aug[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I never thought that the music called jazz was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic. — Miles Davis" Aug[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Those songs to me don’t exist, you know? So What or Kind of Blue, I’m not going to play that s---, those things are there. They were done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It’s over; it’s on the record. — Miles Davis" Aug[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public want you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years. — Thelonious Monk" Aug[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right. — Duke Ellington " Aug[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with. — Duke Ellington" Aug[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues. — Duke Ellington" Aug[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
[On bebop years] All I did was sing ‘How High the Moon.’ It seemed like the only song I ever sang. — Ella Fitzgerald" Aug[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The only thing better than singing is more singing. — Ella Fitzgerald" Aug[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We’re not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour. — Oscar Peterson" Aug[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel. — Oscar Peterson" Aug[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Men have died for this music. You can’t get more serious than that. — Dizzy Gillespie" Aug[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
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" Aug[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
A goal is a dream with a finish line. — Duke Ellington" Aug[24] = "Bette Davis Quote of the Day
To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy. — Bette Davis " Aug[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen. — Duke Ellington " Aug[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't think anybody ever made it with a girl because they had a Tom Waits album on their shelves. I've got all three, and it never helped me. — Tom Waits" Aug[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself, to be illogical and incoherent by getting rid of structure and simply piling a lot of notes one on top of the other. There’s no beat anymore. You can’t keep time with your foot. I believe that what is happening to jazz with people like Ornette Coleman, for instance, is bad. There’s a new idea that consists in destroying everything and find what’s shocking and unexpected; whereas jazz must first of all tell a story that anyone can understand. — Thelonious Monk" Aug[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much. — Miles Davis" Aug[29] = "Today's Chinese Proverb
If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave. If a man does more than is required of him, he is a free man." Aug[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
That sound in tune to you? Sounds sharp to me. Sounds like I’m playing sharp all the time. My singing teacher told us you should do that. Maybe I got it from her. She said singers when they grow old have a tendency to go flat. So if you sing sharp as a young person, as you get older and go flat, you’ll be in tune. In other words, it’s never thought good to be flat. It means you can’t get to the tone. — Charles Mingus" Aug[31] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
While Benny Goodman always had big arrangements, with Basie, we had something no expensive arrangement could touch. The cats would come in, somebody would hum a tune. Then somebody else would play it over on the piano once or twice. Then someone would set up a riff, a ba-deep, a ba-dop. The Daddy Basie would two-finger a little. And then things would start to happen. Half the cats couldn't have read music if they'd had it. They didn't want to be bothered anyway. Maybe sometimes one cat would bring in a written arrangement and the others would run over it. By the time Jack Wadlin, Skeet Henderson, Buck Clayton, Freddie Green, and Basie were through running over it, taking off, changing it, the arrangement wouldn't be recognizable anyway. Everything that happenned, happened by ear. For the two years I was with the band we had a book of a hundred songs, and every one of us carried every last damn note of them in our heads. Billie Holiday — Billie Holiday" Sep = new Array Sep[1] = "Music Quote of the Day
True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today. — George Gershwin" Sep[2] = "Music Quote of the Day
There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another. — Frank Zappa" Sep[3] = "Music Quote of the Day
All my concerts had no sounds in them; they were completely silent. People had to make up their own music in their minds! — Yoko Ono" Sep[4] = "Music Quote of the Day
I would advise you to keep your overhead down; avoid a major drug habit; play everyday, and take it in front of other people. They need to hear it, and you need them to hear it. — James Taylor" Sep[5] = "Music Proverb of the Day
If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing. — Zimbabwe Proverb" Sep[6] = "Music Quote of the Day
I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music. — Billy Joel" Sep[7] = "Music Quote of the Day
I've outdone anyone you can name Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500. — James Brown" Sep[8] = "Music Quote of the Day
There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between. — Sir Thomas Beecham" Sep[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Clifford was a profound influence on my personal life. He showed me that it was possible to live a good, clean life and still be a good jazz musician. — Sonny Rollins" Sep[10] = "Music Quote of the Day
Bach gave us God's Word. Mozart gave us God's laughter. Beethoven gave us God's fire. God gave us Music that we might pray without words. — quote from outside an old opera house" Sep[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Joe Zawinul was born in Earth time on 07 July 1932 and was born in Eternity time on 11 September, 2007 — Erich Zawinal" Sep[12] = "Music Quote of the Day
...the elephant smoked too much.(explaining why the keys of his piano were so yellow) — Victor Borge" Sep[13] = "Music Quote of the Day
Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end. — Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)" Sep[14] = "Music Quote of the Day
It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself. — J.S. Bach" Sep[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time. — Ornette Coleman" Sep[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been. — Billie Holiday" Sep[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them. — Ira Gershwin" Sep[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Sometimes you have to play for a long time to be able to play like yourself. — Miles Davis " Sep[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it. — Bill Evens" Sep[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience. — Bill Evens" Sep[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more and more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give to those who listen the essence, the best of what we are. But to do that at each stage, we have to keep on cleaning the mirror. — John Coltrane" Sep[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think the majority of musicians are interested in truth. — John Coltrane" Sep[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The Coltrane quartet I was in was like four pistons in an engine. John, Elvin, Jimmy and I were all working together to make the car go. — McCoy Tyner" Sep[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
To me John Coltrane was like an angel on earth. He struck me that deeply. — Elvin Jones" Sep[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
After working with Elvin most drummers sound nervous. — David Williams" Sep[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Thad told me this many years ago and it got to me when he said it. He probably doesn't even remember saying it to me. He just said, 'Whenever you play, imagine that it's the very last chance or opportunity you'll ever have.' So just that thought is enough incentive to at least not be wishy-washy or do something insignificant. At least it will bring out whatever honesty is in you to be applied to your instrument at that time. That's the only philosophy I know -- just to do the very best you can at all times. — Elvin Jones" Sep[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There's no doubt about the fact that black musicians have been exploited economically, just as the whole social structure in the United States has been geared to play down the economic development of the black man. I mean this is understood. But still, as I say, it had no effect at all on the creativity of jazz. The music was created in spite of that, by the black and white together. So anybody who tries to pretend otherwise has a very weak argument. Jazz is not the prerogative of the negro race. It's the prerogative of the human race. — Elvin Jones" Sep[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker. — Miles Davis summarizing the history of jazz " Sep[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes. — John Coltrane" Sep[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
He had just what we needed. He had the line and he had the rhythm. The way he got from one note to the other and the way he played the rhythm fit what we were trying to do perfectly. We heard him and knew the music had to go his way. He was the other half of my heartbeat. — Dizzy Gillespie" Oct = new Array Oct[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Charlie Parker showed Dizzy a way of playing that almost eliminated that swing feel that Dizzy had in the early '40s, but that also incorporated those harmonic ideas that they both created. So I think the way of getting from one note to the next was very much Charlie Parker's influence on Dizzy. But if Charlie Parker was the stylist, Dizzy was sort of the architect that taught the musicians how to build the music Dizzy said that Charlie Parker used to come over to his house, and Dizzy's wife Lorraine wouldn't let him in, so Charlie Parker would be in the hallway playing and Dizzy would write it down, and then show it to the other musicians. So Dizzy took the things that Charlie Parker got off the top of his head - Dizzy said he never saw him sit at the piano - and he would show other musicians. — Jon Faddis" Oct[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you. — Charlie Parker" Oct[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You gotta have heart in you want to make it in this business. — Dexter Gordon" Oct[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You can't take off it what you don't put into it. — Wes Montgomery" Oct[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music washes away the dust of every day life — Art Blakely" Oct[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel... and that's what I've been doing all my life. — Count Basie " Oct[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Contrary to several conflicting stories, I got the name 'Count' right in Kansas City in 1936 while at the Reno Club. I was known as Bill Basie at that time. One night, while we were broadcasting, the announcer called me to the microphone for those usual few words of introduction. He commented that Bill Basie was a rather ordinary name, and further that there were a couple of well-known bandleaders named Earl Hines and Duke Ellington. Then he said, 'Bill, I think I'll call you Count Basie from now on. Is that all right with you?' I thought he was kidding, shrugged my shoulders and replied, 'OK.' — Count Basie" Oct[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I came up in Kansas City when the joints were running full blast from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Usual pay was a $1.25 a night, although somebody special, like Count Basie, could command $1.50. — Charlie Parker" Oct[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Some places in Kansas City never closed. You could be sleeping one morning at 6 a.m., and a traveling band would come into town for a few hours, and they would wake you up to make a couple of hours' session with them until 8 in the morning. You never knew what time in the morning someone would knock on the door and say they were jamming down the street. — Jo Jones" Oct[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The trouble with most musicians today is that they are copycats. Of course you have to start out playing like someone else. You have a model, or a teacher, and you learn all that he can show you. But then you start playing for yourself. Show them that you're an individual. And I can count those who are doing that today on the fingers of one hand. — Lester Young" Oct[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I did hear Lester Young in 1932 in Minneapolis. He was playing alto. He had not yet gone to a tenor. And I have told many people that, had they heard Lester Young play alto at that time, they would have heard a lot of what Bird was doing. — Benny Carter" Oct[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
First of all, I never strive for identity. That's something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually. — Bill Evens" Oct[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
My creed for art in general is that it should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise...a part of yourself you never knew existed. — Bill Evens" Oct[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Try to learn everything you can, and then forget it. — Pat Martino" Oct[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The Lord didn't stop giving out talent with Duke Ellington...Wynton think's he's the end. But why do we only have to play Duke? You've got to bring something to the table. — Betty Carter" Oct[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When it comes to the public, I put it out there and ask, how many different ways can you feel about something? Do you have freedom of emotion, do you have freedom of feel, or is it Pavlov's salivation formula? You're only moved by what you're programmed to be moved by. For those people who say, 'I only like this or that played this way,' my only question is, how much can you feel? How much can you really feel? — Wayne Shorter" Oct[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Maybe the most important commitment you can make is to the music fan that lives inside of you, to find out just what it is about music that knocks you out. In that discovery, you’ll find most of what you need to know to take you wherever you need to go. — Pat Metheny" Oct[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
There's suddenly a lot of pressure to do music from 'in the tradition'. But the truest homage to Charlie Parker, for example, isn't to play his tunes or play just like him, but to...play something new that wouldn't be possible without Charlie Parker's example. The most vital contribution you can make to furthering the jazz tradition is to create your own music, create a new music. — Anthony Davis" Oct[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I have often read critical pieces where the critic said that what the composer was trying to do didn't come off. I have wondered what the critic meant if he didn't know what the composer was trying to do. — Ornette Coleman" Oct[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
As my career has progressed, I’ve had the pleasure of playing with the baddest jazz cats on the planet. But that doesn’t change my desire to entertain folks. That’s really who I am. — George Benson" Oct[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When I sit down to play something it is not because I want to master a technique. It is because I want to hear what an idea sounds like. — Pat Martino" Oct[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The first time I tried to sing along with my guitar, everybody in the studio booed. They all said it wouldn’t work. — George Benson" Oct[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I'm not heart-broken if I don't have a hit. But I guess a hit would help. It makes the money go up a bit. — Sarah Vaughan" Oct[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't feel like a big star. — Sarah Vaughan" Oct[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If I had known then what I know now, I'd have been a much much better player. But if you don't know what it is you don't know, then you don't know how to ask for it. — James Moody" Oct[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When we got back to New York, a lot of it had been recorded so you couldn't hear the bass anyway, so on some of the pieces [Charles Mingus] just dubbed himself in. I think it's one of the earliest times that a person overdubbed themselves. — Max Roach" Oct[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I was a withdrawn, hypersensitive kid. I would practice the saxophone in the bathroom, and the tenements were so close together that someone from across the alleyways would yell, 'Shut that kid up,' and my mother would say, 'Play louder Stanley, play louder.' — Stan Getz" Oct[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When people ask me why my horn's like that, I say 'Why don't you ask a French horn player why the bell curves backwards, and he's got his hand up in it and he's playing with his left fingers?' My horn's not nearly as weird looking as a French horn. — Dizzy Gillespie" Oct[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread-without it, it's flat. — Carmen McCrae" Oct[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
On 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat': That was for Lester Young. I was playing the Half Note Club the night we heard he died and we went to the bandstand and played a Blues for Lester. I knew the guys would never do that again. I went home and wrote a blues the way I thought they were playing, with different types of chord changes - not just the regular blues - and it became part of the book. — Charles Mingus" Oct[31] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You know what's the loudest noise in the world, man? The loudest noise in the world is silence. — Thelonious Monk" Nov = new Array Nov[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. — John Coltrane" Nov[2] = "Piano Fact of the Day
The name 'piano' is an abbreviation of Cristofori's original name for the instrument: 'piano et forte', or soft and loud." Nov[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We never rehearsed, we just got to the stand and said 'Salt Peanuts' or this or that. 'Cos we knew among ourselves what we had been playing on 52nd Street ... [Charles Mingus] was from the West Coast and had a different repertoire ... and Mingus' feelings was hurt, quite frankly, because we didn't give him a chance. We just went right into it, assuming that Mingus knew what we were going to do anyway. During the intermission he complained. — Max Roach" Nov[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I wouldn't change a thing; not one minute of my life over, if I had it to do again. I'd live the same life because I wouldn't know any other. And I wouldn't wish to, because I've met the most interesting people I could ever have hoped to meet and I've achieved a great deal of artistic satisfaction. — Harry 'Sweets' Edison" Nov[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself! — Eubie Blake (He lived to 100.)" Nov[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Clouds float in the same pattern only once. — Wayne Shorter" Nov[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Monk is a subject in itself. I mean, most piano players in most big bands sit down and they play with the band, you know. But Monk would just sit there like this. And all of a sudden there'd be a pause from all the trumpets and everything and Monk would go 'plink!' like that. And everybody would go 'Yeah!' — Ray Brown" Nov[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I idolized Stan Getz. He went through a lot of changes and continued to grow and to play with integrity. He made the sax sing in a way that nobody did. — Bill Clinton" Nov[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think pop music in this country is one of the few things in the twentieth century that has made great strides in reverse. — Bing Crosby" Nov[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It's like a language. You learn the alphabet, which are the scales. You learn sentences, which are the chords. And then you talk extemporaneously with the horn. It's a wonderful thing to speak extemporaneously, which is something I've never gotten the hang of. But musically I love to talk just off the top of my head. And that's what jazz music is all about. — Stan Getz" Nov[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
People have said I turn my back [on the live audience] - but it's not like that. On-stage there's always a spot that will register more for the horn player. When I was playing with J.J. Johnson, he used to say 'I'll give you $10 if you let me sit in your spot tonight,' because if it's a good spot for brass, that's where it happens. — Miles Davis" Nov[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When I first organized the King Cole Trio back in 1937, we were strictly what you would call an instrumental group. To break the monotony, I would sing a few songs here and there between the playing. I sang things I had known over the years. I wasn't trying to give it any special treatment, just singing. I noticed thereafter people started requesting more singing, and it was just one of those things. — Nat Cole" Nov[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's like going on to college, to a school of higher learning. — B.B. King" Nov[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Oh, the kinda singing I do, you can't hurt your voice. — Bing Crosby" Nov[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty. — Max Roach" Nov[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I like Stan (Getz), because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies - other people can't get nothing out of a song, but he can, which takes a lot of imagination. — Miles Davis" Nov[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We loved one another, man. I mean all those stories about the rift ... there was no question of a rift between Charlie Parker and me. — Dizzy Gillespie" Nov[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If you understood everything I say, you'd be me! — Miles Davis" Nov[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If you see me up there on the stand smiling, I'm lost! — Earl 'Fatha' Hines" Nov[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think I copied my style from Louis Armstrong. Because I used to like the big volume and the big sound that Bessie Smith got when she sang ... So I liked the feeling that Louis got and I wanted the big volume that Bessie Smith got. But I found that it didn't work with me, because I didn't have a big voice. So anyway between the two of them I sorta got Billie Holiday. — Billie Holiday" Nov[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Whenever you play dance music, it serves a function. It becomes a utility; you have to worry about the tempos and what you're going to play for people. But when you're playing for listening, you're free. — Stan Kenton" Nov[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When I got this saxophone, it became a religion. There wasn't TV, there wasn't much money, and there was just a real dedication.... I never thought of it as an art. It was just work that I loved. Not just work, but work that I loved. I loved it so much, I would play it if nobody listened to it. Any jazz musician, if there's nobody around to listen, would play just for the sheer joy of improvising music. — Stan Getz" Nov[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you're doing - even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years. — Thelonious Monk" Nov[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos. — Oscar Peterson" Nov[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The music is not part of this planet in a sense that the spirit of it is about happiness. Most musicians play earth things about what they know, but I found out that they are mostly unhappy and frustrated, and that creeps over into their music. — Sun Ra" Nov[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The electric guitar meant that you could have a band with a drummer and a couple of guitars. And that put a lot of horn players out of work. — Keith Richards" Nov[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
All the inspiration I ever needed was a phone call from a producer. — Cole Porter" Nov[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If I don't play for a while, it's just like getting hungry. — Zoot Sims" Nov[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play — Dizzy Gillespie" Nov[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
My life is music. And in some vague, mysterious and subconscious way, I have always been driven by a taut inner spring which has propelled me to almost compulsively reach for perfection in music, often - in fact, mostly - at the expense of everything else in my life. — Stan Getz" Dec = new Array Dec[1] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. — Frank Sinatra" Dec[2] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The only trouble with going to Heaven is that I'm scared there's no nightclubs there. — Tom Waits" Dec[3] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
If you try all different styles that are in vogue, I think you con yourself. Me, I just stick by my guns; I don't want to play out of another man's bag. — Ben Webster" Dec[4] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
You can't rehearse a blues, darlin'. — Joe Williams" Dec[5] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
We were all influenced by Lester (Young). Listen to the records that he made with Basie. Nobody's got what he's got. He's still the daddy. — Zoot Sims" Dec[6] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Only play what you hear. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything. — Chick Corea" Dec[7] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience. — Bill Evens" Dec[8] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Change is inevitable in music...things change. — John Coltrane" Dec[9] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Music is a way of life, it's everything. I play drums and that's what I believe I was born to do. — Elvin Jones" Dec[10] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
During the years I was with Andy Kirk we starved almost. I remember not eating for practically a month several times. But we were very, very happy because the music was so interesting, and you forgot to eat, anyway. — Mary Lou Williams" Dec[11] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I don’t think I’m a great piano player, but I would like to have people like me, to play pretty tunes and reach the audience. — Vince Guaraldi" Dec[12] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Get around, be on the scene, play it clean, be seen, be keen, and be over eighteen. — 1923 - Willie 'the Lion' Smith's advice to younger pianists" Dec[13] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I was born the day after Leadbelly died. I'd like to think we passed in the hall. — Tom Waits" Dec[14] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I just take a tune and play it the only way I can. That's it. I don't really dwell on it very much. Some people probably do. I can only say I play it the way I feel it. — Zoot Sims" Dec[15] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Of course, it's not the technique that makes the music; it's the sensitivity of the musician and his ability to be able to fuse his life with the rhythm of the times. This is the essence of music. — Herbie Hancock" Dec[16] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Your group don’t swing, but you do. — Miles Davis speaking about Dave Brubeck" Dec[17] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I go for the music that gives me goosebumps, music that touches my heart and my soul. — Quincy Jones" Dec[18] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I like to play fast. I get excited, and I have to sort of control myself, restrain myself. But when the rhythm section gets cooking, I want to explode. — Johnny Griffin" Dec[19] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When you begin to teach jazz, the most dangerous thing is that you tend to teach style...I had eleven piano students, and I would say eight of them didn't't even want to know about chords or anything - they didn't't even want to do anything that anybody had ever done, because they didn't't want to be imitators. Well, of course, this is pretty naive...but nevertheless it does bring to light the fact that if you're going to try to teach jazz...you must abstract the principles of music which have nothing to do with style, and this is exceedingly difficult. So there, the teaching of jazz is a very touchy point. It ends up where the jazz player, ultimately, if he's going to be a serious jazz player, teaches himself. — Bill Evens" Dec[20] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
The more I play in different situations, the more possibilities I discover for what I can do. Rather than think in terms of my music developing, I choose to bask in the glow of one thing for a few minutes, then let it go. — Chick Corea" Dec[21] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
He`s the guy who deserves the most credit for creating bebop. I know. I was there. — Teddy Wilson on Thelonious Monk" Dec[22] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of the people. — John Coltrane" Dec[23] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
To me, it has never been about a lot of money. It has always been, what are you going to do, what are you playing, what is the music, how does it sound, how does it make me feel, that kind of thing. That is my primary concern. — Elvin Jones" Dec[24] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I want to write standards, not just hits. — Vince Guaraldi" Dec[25] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Jazz is one of the least learnable art forms. — Keith Jarrett" Dec[26] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of jazz. — Jelly Roll Morton" Dec[27] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I am trying to play the natural feelings of a people.... Some of the people of the music which has been written will always be beautiful and immortal. Beethoven, Wagner and Bach are geniuses; no one can rob their work of the merit that's due it, but these men have not portrayed the people who are about us today, and the interpretation of these people is our future music. — Duke Ellington" Dec[28] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
When you see a jazz musician playing, you're looking at a pioneer, you're looking at an experimenter, you're looking at a scientist, you're looking at all those things because it's the creative process incarnate! — Albert Murray" Dec[29] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
Especially, I want my work - and the trios if possible - to sing. — Bill Evens" Dec[30] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
I think that every kid should be able to play an instrument, even if it only lasts one or two years. A little piano, a little something. It brings a sensitivity to the soul that will be missing later on if it’s not offered. — Johnny Griffin" Dec[31] = "Jazz Quote of the Day
It takes you three, two nights to sit down at the blank page of score paper, and then try to hear and imagine that orchestra sound in you head and finally having that orchestra there, and when you do the downbeat to hear that sound! There’s no experience in the world like that. — Quincy Jones"