Jazz Quotes · Page 33

Syncopations are no indication of light or trashy music, and to shy bricks at 'hateful ragtime' no longer passes for musical culture.

— Scott Joplin

“Where’s jazz going? I don’t know. Maybe it’s going to hell. You can’t make anything go anywhere. It just happens.”

— Thelonious Monk

I think my knowledge of music theory is rooted in jazz theory, and a lot of the writers of standards - Rodgers…

— Zooey Deschanel

Jazz is an art form that depends on its antecedents, there must be respect for the people that have gone before.

— Jon Hendricks

Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.

— Nina Simone

Brownstein's is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.

— Tama Janowitz

I don't like freedom jazz - I think it's void of roots and void of foundation.

— George Shearing

We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We…

— Gwendolyn Brooks

I studied jazz at home with my grandparents. They always had jazz dudes at the house, but I didn't study formally. I…

— Madlib

I studied and sang lot of jazz when I was growing up. I think that plays a little bit into some of…

— Chris Young

They always ask me the same questions. Where was I born? When did I start singing? Who have I worked with? I…

— Sarah Vaughan

Keith Moon is not interested in Jazz and won't ever be a Jazz drummer because he's more interested in looking good and…

— Pete Townshend

New Orleans jazz is a complex and embracing art form that began about the same time as the blues and encompassed many…

— Tim Cahill

My roots are in classical music and jazz, and I want the freedom of being able to improvise. This freedom is possible…

— Adnan Sami

Originally, we had a band known as Steely Dan. As we moved away from the band, we got whoever was appropriate for…

— Walter Becker

I was working with the computer at university and playing jazz in the daytime, buying west-coast psychedelic and early Kraftwerk records in…

— Ryuichi Sakamoto

Mum left school at 15, and after a few years of modelling and dating jazz musicians, was married by 21 to my…

— Natascha McElhone

I'm an advocate of music in schools. It's important to me that music is in as many schools as possible across this…

— Chrisette Michele

I prefer to feel uncomfortable by participating in projects were I am not the specialist. I am always the one who knows…

— Gaspar Claus

It's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with…

— Charlie Parker

Jazz is an endless source of ideas, because you can use anything. You can play operatic arias. You can incorporate them into…

— Sonny Rollins

I look back at Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and especially Betty Carter, whom I admire the most, and I say, OK,…

— Dianne Reeves

Beyond that, it gets down to the nuts and bolts of discipline - not a tradition or genre, I don't care about…

— Vijay Iyer

“To be a jazz freedom fighter is to attempt to galvanize and energize world-weary people into forms of organization with accountable leadership…

— Cornel West

In my teenage years I was as addicted to great pop as I was to free jazz, electronic music, and hardcore blues.

— Scott Walker

There's a certain phraseology involved in jazz, and I've moved away from that.

— Jan Garbarek

I'll take any opportunity to kind of put my own spin on a jazz standard.

— Laufey

Iceland is so small; classical musicians play on pop projects and pop musicians play with jazz musicians.

— Laufey

The public, hearing pop music, is, without knowing it, also soaking up jazz.

— Norman Granz

They say that Jazz is back, and I don't think it's gone anywhere. But they say it's back.

— Art Blakey

Life is like a great jazz riff. You sense the end the very moment you were wanting it to go on forever.

— Sheila Ballantyne

For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz.

— Francoise Sagan

If you're making money people don't think you're playing Jazz. When you're not making money they think you're a great Jazz musician.

— Pete Fountain

Just because I'm playing Jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me the way I feel through Jazz.

— Charles Mingus

When I worked with my uncle, I loved the fact that jazz music demanded that you use your own unique approach.

— Dianne Reeves

I think Wes Montgomery is the greatest jazz guitarist that ever lived.

— Kevin Eubanks

Four Tet is somebody I respect a lot. There are other artists I admire like jazz pianist and composer Marc Moulin.

— Bonobo

I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.

— Dizzy Gillespie

Jazz of the sort we play is a happy, extroverted music. You don't have to think about it too much.

— Chris Barber

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,…

— Louis Armstrong