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Jazz Quotes by Miles Davis

43 Jazz quotes by Miles Davis

All Jazz quotes Miles Davis’s page

Miles Davis describes jazz as a conversation where each player can stand independently, like Ornette Coleman’s ideas of three‑or‑four ways. He warns against chasing hype, says being hip is simple, and notes that dense chord progressions are moving away from the old style. He also mentions gratitude to Duke Ellington and the power of body language to judge a musician.

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Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!

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I still got my Ferrari.

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Coltrane, you cant play everything at once!

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If you're trying to be hip, be hip.

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Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?

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Music is an addiction.

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Always look ahead, but never look back.

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I don't care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.

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To keep creating you have to be about change.

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You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.

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Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.

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The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

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I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

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Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

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It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

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So What or Kind of Blue were done in that era, the right hour, the right day. It's over; it's on the…

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My father's rich, my momma's good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer.

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In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That's a little bit too much.

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“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.”

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

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I don't like to hear someone put down dixieland. Those people who say there's no music but bop are just stupid; it…

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It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can…

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At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks too Duke Ellington.

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...people will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype. They want to be hip, want always to be…

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Trane was the perfect saxophonist for Monk's music because of the space that Monk always used. Trane could fill up all that…

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I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently…

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If you got up on the bandstand at Minton's and couldn't play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the…

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Monk was a gentle person, gentle and beautiful, but he was strong as an ox. And if I had ever said something…

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The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in…

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I never thought that the music called "jazz" was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a…

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“The very first thing I remember in my early childhood is a flame, a blue flame jumping off a gas stove somebody…

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There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.

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I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He's still a nice young man, only confused.

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Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

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[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.

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You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

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Jazz musicians are so comfortable. The reason they can't do what we do is because they're so comfortable doin' what they do.

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Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that…

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As long as I've been playing, they never say I done anything. They always say that some white guy did it.

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We're not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got 'em, so they can keep…

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More by Miles Davis

I usually write from the rhythm section...If a drummer got a funky beat on some things - like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or…

Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.

You have to practice for a long time before you can learn to sound like yourself

There are no wrong notes.

Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery

I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each…

...people will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype. They want to be hip, want always to be in on…

If you're trying to be hip, be hip.

My father's rich, my momma's good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer.

I'm out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I'm still playing.

When I'm playing, I'm never through. It's unfinished. I like to find a place to leave for someone else to finish it. That's where…

[Prince] could very well be the Duke Ellington of Rock 'n' Roll.

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

You can't compete with Sweets' sound and time feel. It's impossible.