Jazz Quotes · Page 41

I've played with jazz and toyed with it when I used to live near the St. Nicholas Pub in Harlem.

— Amanda Seales

It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way.

— Gerry Mulligan

My first relationship to any kind of musical situation is as a listener.

— Pat Metheny

Kinship doesn't come from skin color. It's in your soul and your mind.

— Dave Brubeck

Art is self expression. If you are expressing someone else's personality, that is not art.

— Bennie Wallace

I cringed when I heard myself described as a Jazz singer. I've always thought of myself as a Jazz vocalist.

— Cassandra Wilson

I started with ballet, and once I started to really like it, I got into more - I did jazz and tap,…

— Maddie Ziegler

I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.

— Paul Desmond

Is there one blues guy who was the most sophisticated and influential, like Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong in jazz? Was it…

— Steve Miller

As an artist, you have to express yourself. I make no excuses for my versatility. I grew up singing classical arias, but…

— Idina Menzel

Working in bars back then, in the '50s, to get a job you had to play all kinds of music. There'd be…

— J. J. Cale

I love music. My secret dream has always been to be a jazz musician. I tried the saxophone for a year or…

— Gaspard Ulliel

I'm sure critics have their purpose, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away…

— Duke Ellington

I was in rehab for nine months, and I needed some solace and distraction. I was in town one day and I…

— Gregory Porter

All forms are complex once you get to a really high level, and jazz and hip-hop are so connected. In hip-hop, you…

— Kamasi Washington

The common root, of course, comes out of Africa. That's the pulse.The African pulse. It's all the way back from . .…

— Duke Ellington

I'm very fortunate in that my parents are artists. My mom is a brilliant poet... She still is a great visual artist.…

— Ari Aster

The summer before my third year of law school, I worked at a law firm in Washington, D.C. I turned 25 that…

— Deval Patrick

I was deeply impressed and moved by his masterful playing. He was highly polished, profound, subtle, and intense. He was extremely fluent…

— Pete La Roca

It seems all worlds of music - rock, blues, R&B, soul, hip-hop and others - are able to point to impromptu get-togethers…

— Ashley Kahn

Ever since I was a kid, I've been into clothes, but not really labels- that's kind of only been in the last…

— Lorde

Miles Davis, my one and only real hero of my life. I met him [because] every time I had a movie interview,…

— Peter Weller

I like to envision the creation of a short story collection as being like putting together a jazz album. Yes, there's logic…

— Daniel Olivas

In some ways, jazz is the most precise of art forms and the loosest in the sense that it's all about improvisation,…

— Damien Chazelle

I was introduced to jazz, and that's become a basic concern and passion of mine ever since.

— Nat Hentoff

Traveling with a big band is like being an inmate in a traveling zoo.

— Hoagy Carmichael

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

— Lee Konitz

Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.

— Keith Jarrett

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

— George Foreman

John Stowell plays jazz, but he doesn’t use any of the clichés; he has an incredible originality. John is a master creator.

— Larry Coryell

I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it.

— Thelonious Monk

Sometimes I'll be in circles, and I'll say I'm a jazz singer, and they have no idea what that means.

— Gregory Porter

The reason why the music [jazz] is important is because it's an art form-an ancient art form-that takes in the mythology of…

— Wynton Marsalis

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

— Sonny Rollins

For years, Jazz At The Philharmonic albums were the only ones of their kind.

— Norman Granz

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

— Herbie Hancock

My dad was really into avant garde jazz: Archie Shepp, John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders.

— Kamasi Washington

When I'm working behind a camera, I feel like I'm trying to achieve something like a jazz musician does.

— Jack Welpott

I'm talking about noise rock. I don't think that noise rock element belongs in jazz. It's not for me anyway; it just…

— Van Morrison

If America has a future, Jazz has a future. The two are inseparable.

— George Russell