Jazz Quotes · Page 51

If Music is a Place -- then Jazz is the City, Folk is the Wilderness, Rock is the Road, Classical is a…

— Vera Nazarian

Holy flowers floating in the air, were all these tired faces in the dawn of Jazz America.

— Jack Kerouac

My songs were influenced not so much by poetry on the page but by poetry being recited by the poets who recited…

— Bob Dylan

Trouble follows me wherever I go. Thing I'm in is just a sack o'woe.

— Jon Hendricks

I can't understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out…

— Artie Shaw

I've been listening to a lot of looped jazz stuff: Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius.

— Calum Hood

I have tons of jazz records: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis. I could go on and on.

— Ted King

Jazz is all about that. It's bending things and breaking away from what's on the page and improvising.

— Laufey

I'd love to give my girls a traditional Thanksgiving with turkey and all that jazz, but we've raised them to love Tuscan…

— Debi Mazar

People behind the Iron curtain have such an incredible image of America and jazz. I expected to find a Gerry Mulligan or…

— Gabor Szabo

Jazz is not about getting and playing whatever notes you want. It is about reworking themes in a manner that sounds good,…

— John Kao

I have discovered three things which know no geographical borders - classical music, American jazz, and applause as the sign of the…

— Jascha Heifetz

Montreal was a very active jazz center until club owners started putting in strippers instead of music. Before long, there was nothing…

— Oscar Peterson

I'm a dancer, so I do four hours of dance a week of ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary. I also play the…

— Ryan Newman

Writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz. Much of the time life…

— Francoise Sagan

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand,…

— Charlie Parker

Don't make the mistakes I made of not taking care of myself. Please, keeps your chops cool and don't overblow. If you…

— Freddie Hubbard

I don't really think in terms of the future of literature. I think literature will be around "forever" - but in a…

— Nick Antosca

I grew up playing the saxophone. I joined the jazz band in high school, but somewhere along the way I realized the…

— Chris Carmack

I always wanted praise, and I always wanted attention; I won't lie to you. I was a jazz critic, and that wasn't…

— Harvey Pekar

I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music…

— Quincy Jones

They put on fresh gloves and got back to business. Jazz wiped up the blood splatters in the freezer and tossed the…

— Barry Lyga

“I rouse Emily to our guests, as she finishes off our fifteenth snowman by setting the head atop its torso. She stands…

— Nathan Reese Maher

To date, [Wynton] Marsalis has received a total of nine Grammy Awards; a Pulitzer Prize (the first ever awarded to a jazz…

— Randy Sandke

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

— Charles Mingus

Comedians talk to other comedians the way jazz musicians can talk to each other.

— David Steinberg

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.

— Steve Lacy

Keeping your artistic self as creative as possible is a balancing act.

— Karrin Allyson

I started off with the flute and French horn, and then I was playing trumpet in the jazz band.

— KiKi Layne

I like to know for whom I'm writing - it makes the composition easier to do.

— Lalo Schifrin

“Art and disease proliferate via contagion, and similar conditions favor both.”

— Ted Gioia

I love jazz music and sad music. I'm a sentimental guy. I'm a romantic guy.

— Fred Durst

I always felt of myself as a composer, performer, improviser. I've never called myself a jazz man. I make art.

— Wadada Leo Smith

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

— Horace Silver

My dream is to do whatever I want without any interference from the record company.

— Sarah Vaughan

I'm a rock drummer. I couldn't sit down and pretend to be a jazz drummer.

— Vinnie Paul

The musicians in Chicago gave me my vocation, but New York calls to a jazz musician, for sure. You want to test…

— Kurt Elling

Those who want to know what sound goes into my music should come to NY and open their ears.

— Thelonious Monk

I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs.

— Nina Simone

Somebody asked me once, 'Do you think that swing will ever come back?' And I said, 'Do you think the 1938 Ford…

— Artie Shaw