Jazz Quotes · Page 45

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

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

— Kamasi Washington

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

— Herbie Hancock

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

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

Music had been going on a long time before that. You have to remember that before rock n' roll there were a…

— Lemmy Kilmister

Bebop didn't have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn't have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging --…

— Miles Davis

My roots and Victor's are jazz, basically, but these two young fellows that we have with us come out of rock bands.…

— Chico Hamilton

I had to figure out how to survive in New York, and most of my time was occupied in getting an apartment…

— Wynton Marsalis

Jazz radio is not very friendly to pop singers who decide to make a jazz record. But a lot of people have…

— Rita Coolidge

I prefer music where melody, harmony and rhythm come together and no one element overshadows the other. Jazz at its best is…

— Jimmy Heath

I don't separate one era of jazz from another, because I listen to everybody... Everybody takes from everybody else and adds their…

— Sonny Criss

If you're a young artist, wondering what to call yourself, consider 'multimedia artist.' It's so vague. Then, no one can say, 'Hey,…

— Laurie Anderson

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

— Dianne Reeves

“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

Everything comes from one thing, everything comes from the Spirit. Jazz would not exist had it not been for gospel music, the…

— Ramsey Lewis

I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and am a product of a family that were jazz aficionados and also very interested in…

— Jack Waters

I love jazz. I still do. Dave Brubeck and Stan Getz are so good. I took a notification course in Jazz Orchestration.…

— Gordon Lightfoot

I, myself, came to enjoy the players who didn't only just swing but who invented new rhythmic patterns, along with new melodic…

— Charles Mingus

Big band music, to me, it really has three key elements. First is the lyrics are really sweet, and they're just really…

— John Tesh

I listen to all those kinds of music, from classic soul to hip-hop to Brazilian music to, you know, jazz to indie…

— John Legend

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

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

— Steve Lacy

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

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