Jazz Quotes · Page 42

I find as much inspiration from the forerunners of jazz as I do the modern-day innovators of jazz.

— John Scofield

In jazz, as in poetry, there is always that play between what’s regular and what’s wild. That has always appealed to me.

— Robert Pinsky

Intermittently in my concert format, I sing a little jazz, a little scatting.

— Aretha Franklin

Here in England we live at a slower pace, have more time to enjoy things - like good jazz.

— Chris Barber

One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you're into jazz.

— Lou Reed

The first jazz musician was a trumpeter, Buddy Bolden, and the last will be a trumpeter, the archangel Gabriel.

— Wynton Marsalis

When you work with a good composer, you don't tell him what to write. If he knows your playing, he will do…

— Stan Getz

I'm like a painter who has had his different periods: jazz, soul, pop, psychedelia, varietes.

— Demis Roussos

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it;…

— Warren G. Bennis

The age of 18 seemed the right time to try something different in my life. Moving to the U.K. was a risk,…

— Manfred Mann

In America, for a brief time, people who followed John Coltrane were studied and considered important, but it didn't last long. The…

— Archie Shepp

I'd love to see a Nirvana biopic. I loved them when I was younger. I really like jazz music, so I'd like…

— Antonia Thomas

I tell my students, 'It's an important tradition and you have to go back and hear this music and learn its language…

— Jackie McLean

We created the spirituals. We created so much great music, jazz chief amongst our innovations, teaching us how to prize ourselves and…

— Wynton Marsalis

One thing about excellence, it&Mac226;s an exclusive club. And it&Mac226;s only for those who really want to pay dues to the s--.…

— Wynton Marsalis

The one radio voice that I listened to above others belonged to Ella Fitzgerald. There was a quality to her voice that…

— Doris Day

Marching onward, marching onward Marching to that lovely tune Marching onward, marching onward Happy as a bird in June Sliding onward, sliding…

— Scott Joplin

“I noticed that religion gave some people a way to escape dealing with the world: “Things will be better when you die,”…

— Wynton Marsalis

“The structure of a jazz performance is, like that of the New York skyline, a tension of cross-purposes. In jazz at its…

— Anonymous

Back in the day in my teens I was listening to Joe Pass and Wes Montgomery a lot; before that I was…

— Larry Carlton

I will never again play anything that does not have social significance. We American jazz musicians of African descent have proved beyond…

— Max Roach

It came from my mother. She was a singer, and literally every day of the week she sang at a different club…

— Robert Glasper

The improvisational nature of jazz musicianship is such that a truly competent performer must be prepared to function as an on-the-spot composer…

— Albert Murray

Some of the guys I played with .. didn't go around learning more about their instruments from an intellectual point of view.…

— Benny Goodman

I wouldn't really call myself a Jazz singer I think it's offending to real Jazz singers to call me a Jazz singer.

— Katie Melua

I have two main bass guitars, and my main bass is a four-string 1964 Fender Jazz, and I've named it Justine.

— Malcolm-Jamal Warner

I still love the whole history of Jazz. The old things sound better than ever.

— Steve Lacy

My parents have always been open to me trying new things, whether it's yoga or ballet or tap or jazz or piano…

— Sofia Vassilieva

If you're in jazz and more than ten people like you, you're labeled commercial.

— Herbie Mann

If you really understand the meaning of be-bop, you understand the meaning of freedom.

— Thelonious Monk

I guess certain kinds of jazz music could be Crunk. But the average jazz song, no, it's not Crunk.

— Lil Jon

If you're going to make a mistake, make it loud so everybody else sounds wrong.

— Giuseppe Venuti

I know of musicians who have played together for decades who hate each other. The Modern Jazz Quartet for one.

— Gary Burton

You do [jazz] because you love it and hope many some others may as well. You do this because you need it.

— Jon Gordon

My mum loves jazz, and together we listen to loads of Chet Baker back home.

— Sigrid

I love Rihanna's new album, Skrillex, and Norah Jones. They're are all very different, but I love any rock, pop, and jazz.

— Ashley Benson

I started as a jazz musician, not a singer, then I became a rock 'n' roll artist with Aphrodite's Child.

— Demis Roussos

I'm all in favor of getting grants for musicians. Or any other good brand of Scotch.

— Pepper Adams

I didn't know the right names for anything at first, but I knew what knocked me out. Changes... man I dug.

— Roy Eldridge

I think that virtuosity is the first sign of morality in a musician. It means you're serious enough to practice.

— Wynton Marsalis