Jazz Quotes · Page 30

'Pinata' is a great rap record for jazz fans.

— Freddie Gibbs

I am a big music guy. Hip-hop, R&B, old school, jazz.

— Chauncey Billups

I'm a spade, you're an ofay. Let's play.

— Louis Armstrong

Jazz musicians, in a way, are nerds. We are so in our world.

— Jan Vogler

Jazz isn't what you do; it's how you do it.

— Fats Waller

I use the audience as my color palette, my instrument.

— Bobby McFerrin

I like rock music. I like jazz better, though.

— Clarke Peters

Don't be a perfectionist... leave that to the classical musicians.

— Dave Brubeck

When there's an imbalance in terms of what people get to hear, then that's negative. Then blues, jazz, it will die.

— Gregory Porter

I was in band all the way through high school, and I played in jazz competitions all across Iowa.

— Joey Jordison

Giving jazz the Congressional seal of approval is a little like making Huck Finn an honorary Boy Scout.

— Melvin Maddocks

I thought, If I'm gonna run a jazz club, if I've got Miles Davis' posters in my bar, I should at least…

— Oprah Winfrey

The first time I heard a professional jazz quartet practicing in a house down the street it was almost like an out-of-body…

— Philip Bailey

New Orleans is gumbo. You get so man types of things... jazz, folk, Zydeco.

— Luke James

I don't know who's 18 years old today that, 20 years hence, is going to be a jazz fan.

— Norman Granz

Whenever there's a change with Jazz & its aesthetics, it's almost always reflected with a change in the culture.

— Tom Harrell

If you asked people, "Do you like jazz?" they would be like, "not at all." But I think that if you're really…

— Kamasi Washington

In high school, during lunchtime I would go in the room where the wrestling mats were and try different flips and different…

— Caity Lotz

You don't show respect to Frank Sinatra and his great example by trying to sound exactly like him. You show it by…

— Kurt Elling

Whatever I'd say would be an understatement. I can only say my life was made much better by knowing him. He was…

— John Coltrane

I have seen great jazz musicians die obscure and drinking themselves to death and not really being able to get any work…

— Sonny Rollins

The truth is hip hop has always complemented jazz and vice versa, but there's always been this communication barrier that exists based…

— Thundercat

Some musicians play blues, others classical jazz or bluegrass. I like to play political roles because I can merge my political interests…

— Jeffrey Wright

If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it. And…

— Louis Armstrong

I believe in knowing all you can about the music and the people who made the music. I think it's much more…

— Sonny Sharrock

Something special can happen late at night in a jazz club. As the crowd thins, the musicians intuitively sense that those few…

— Patricia Barber

I visited New York in '63, intending to move there, but I noticed that what I valued about jazz was being discarded.…

— Joe Sample

There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. (They hang there,…

— Donald Miller

My grandfather was Bob Shad, one of those legendary jazz and blues producers - he worked with Charlie Parker and Dinah Washington,…

— Judd Apatow

Reading was like an addiction; I read while I ate, on the train, in bed until late at night, in school, where…

— Haruki Murakami

The trouble with most musicians today is that they are copycats. Of course you have to start out playing like someone else.…

— Lester Young

I was in college, but I got kicked out. It was a very free school, but I created a "bad impression." Like…

— Steve Winwood

Wynton Marsalis' skills have grown as fast as his ambition, and he is the most ambitious younger composer in Jazz.

— Jon Pareles

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.

— Stan Getz

If you're gonna sing meaningful songs, you have to be committed to living a life that backs that up.

— Joan Baez

Nothing else will ever capture the democratic process in sound as perfectly as Jazz.

— Wynton Marsalis

One very fundamental thing has not changed and I realized that it will never change... is that I really need to go…

— Pat Metheny

Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of…

— Oscar Peterson

I don't differentiate between country, rock, blues, jazz, it doesn't mean anything to me.

— Everlast

I missed jazz, kind of. And by the time I came to it in life, it was too intimidating to enjoy thoroughly.

— Warren Zevon