Jazz Quotes · Page 54

I did ballet, jazz and flamenco from when I was five years old. And my professional career started with dancing in musicals.

— Jennifer Lopez

Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

— Charlie Parker

So I went into jazz and performed in jazz clubs all over the country.

— Cy Coleman

[Jazz singing] is like pornography. You can't say what it is, but you know it when you see it.

— Kurt Elling

If it wasn't for hustlers, gangsters & gamblers there'd be no Jazz. Wasn't middle~class who said Let's go hear Bird tonight.

— Betty Carter

“Play jazz with people with whom you are compatible but who will also challenge you”

— Ray Dalio

Gospel music rhythms are not African in origin, although I know that's what the jazz experts say.

— Mahalia Jackson

Over time, I've loved jazz, Miles Davis and Chet Baker, then Janis and Jimi and Creedence, then classic rock.

— Juliette Lewis

Shoes are a big part of your look. I think that if your outfit isn't really something special, then fun footwear is…

— Christian Siriano

Lizzy Parks. Check this out, this is brilliantShe is a fantastic jazz singer definitely one to watch from now on, she’s got…

— Jamie Cullum

There are any number of players with extensive jazz backgrounds who haven't been able to fit into other styles," "It all boils…

— Larry Carlton

I was introduced to classical music by my grandparents - my parents were mostly into folk and jazz. Even as a young…

— Chris Thile

Not to deny that it is a thinking people's music, but when I listen to music if I ever catch myself thinking,…

— Brian Blade

What happens when an art form becomes ambiguous, I think, is that the standards are lowered. You can say anything is jazz.…

— Stefon Harris

The challenge to the improvisor is to get permanence into his spontaneity. The challenge to the composer is to get spontaneity into…

— Barry Finnerty

My dad would play me all of these records: Miles Davis records, John Coltrane records, Bill Evans records, a lot of jazz…

— Eldar Djangirov

Playing octaves was just a coincidence. And it's still such a challenge, like chord versions, block chords like cats play on piano.…

— Wes Montgomery

By the latter part of high school, by the middle of junior year in high school, Jay Rodriguez played me some Irakere…

— Jon Gordon

Instead of the metaphor of scales in balance, I prefer the idea of a jazz quartet: you're trying to make music that…

— Stewart D. Friedman

“The thing in jazz that will get Bix Beiderbecke out of his bed at two o’clock in the morning, pick that cornet…

— Wynton Marsalis

Reactionary conservatives are smiling through the racial apocalypse. To them, race baiting is a joke, as 'humorist' Rush Limbaugh will tell you…

— John Ridley

My dad's also a musician, so jazz was always around the house. When I was 11, I developed an interest in it,…

— Kamasi Washington

I got into playing the jazz. I played jazz for a good while. I did the popular stuff first. You got the…

— Papa John Creach

One interesting thing about jazz, or art in general, but jazz especially is such an individual art form in the sense that…

— Damien Chazelle

I have a very varied taste in music. Everything from rap to classical to Latino to Rat Pack to jazz.

— Jasper Fforde

A lot of jazz artists think people should like what they're doing just because it's jazz. I don't buy that.

— Pat Metheny

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

— George Eliot

All the music you've ever heard in your life is somewhere in your head. I don't reject that, I use it.

— Don Pullen

The greatest thing about music is putting it out there for people to figure out.

— Diana Krall

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

— Chet Baker

I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I…

— Count Basie

The jazz trombone is a magical experience particularly to hear and listen too.

— John Jensen

One of the things jazz has always excelled at is translating the reality of the times through its musical prism.

— Pat Metheny

I feel a lot more secure about the directions I take, than I might have, had I not practiced Buddhism.

— Herbie Hancock

There are a million examples of not feeling the jazz, but using the jazz.

— Zooey Deschanel

If you listen to nature, all the sounds are done in a confident way. I'm trying to do that.

— Roscoe Mitchell

I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing…

— Herbie Hancock

Without people like Dylan and the Beatles and people like Paul Simon, I think rock n' roll would have died out like…

— Robert Hilburn

Even though I left for a year, I grew here as a Jazz man. If I'm fortunate enough to go into the…

— Karl Malone

When I was doing jazz concerts in America, I would use the biggest names I could find.

— Norman Granz