Jazz Quotes · Page 32

Anyone who understands Jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's what's so simple about it.

— Yogi Berra

I came from an era when we didn't use electronic instruments. The bass wasn't even amplified. The sound was the sound you…

— Stan Getz

Sometimes when we're flying or in the hotel, I might run over songs, or in the bathroom.

— Ella Fitzgerald

I grew up in a jazz household. They made me listen to jazz before I could hear my Motown.

— Jeffrey Osborne

“Do not even suggest jazz. I saw Newsies and was traumatized for, like, five years.”

— Richelle Mead

I'm not going to play funk licks on a jazz album. That makes no sense.

— Branford Marsalis

Great music - say jazz - has that inventive, improvisational quality that tells us something about life.

— Kevin Young

I don't like heroin, unless you're a jazz musician and then you have to be on it because jazz is the sound…

— John Waters

I always called him the Dizzy Dean of music, he was so belligerent and braggadocio... But one thing I always noticed about…

— Omer Simeon

Let me see you do the 'rag time dance'... Turn left and do the 'Cake walk prance'... Turn the other way and…

— Scott Joplin

I came to Berklee to study guitar, I really wanted to be a jazz guitarist, and I really came because I really…

— Juan Luis Guerra

You basically have to play everything (in New Orleans), because you're getting calls to play gigs of all different styles, from classical…

— Harry Connick, Jr

We grew up with musicians coming over jamming. We had tons of instruments. So holidays were always like, 50 people would come…

— Elisabeth Moss

At this stage of my life, I've dedicated myself to playing what I want to play, how I want to play it…

— Chico Hamilton

Jazz is more raw than punk in a lot of ways. It's so expressive. A lot of people say to me, especially…

— King Krule

Until I was about 16 years old, my dream was to be a musician. I played in rock bands and jazz bands.…

— Simon Helberg

“I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character…

— Frederick Douglass

It was so interesting, when [John Coltrane] created A Love Supreme. He had meditated that week. I almost didn't see him downstairs.…

— Alice Coltrane

I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. ... I found that by using…

— Charlie Parker

I love so many different types of music - hard rock, bebop, jazz fusion, R&B. And I've loved meeting and painting so…

— Peter Max

Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in…

— Haruki Murakami

I was interested in Armstrong to begin with because he is the most important figure in Jazz in the 20th Century. There's…

— Terry Teachout

When her muzzle grew more white than brown, the chipmunk forgot that she and the squirrel had had nothing to talk about.…

— David Sedaris

If anybody was Mr. Jazz it was Louis Armstrong. He was the epitome of jazz and always will be. He is what…

— Duke Ellington

...to me if it's anything, jazz is a verb-it's more like a process than it is a thing.

— Pat Metheny

Jazz flute's funny. And I'm a big Latin music fan, Tito Puente, Tina Cruz, all that stuff.

— Genndy Tartakovsky

“These babies ain’t just guitars; these babies are living, breathing instruments.”

— Brenda Sutton Rose

Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by…

— Ralph Ellison

I like seeing someone that can sing jazz and then flip over and sing a pop song and then sing a rock…

— Sara Bareilles

Music is what we need when language fails us, but we cannot remain silent.

— Cornel West

Jazz is neither specific repertoire, nor academic exercise... but a way of life.

— Lester Bowie

Whenever society gets too stifling and the rules too complex, there's some sort of musical explosion.

— Slash

We are serious about our music here in Philadelphia, and jazz has meant a lot to this city.

— Michael Nutter

I'm a person of change and I must be honest to my artistry and my creativity. That's part of the word 'jazz'...…

— Maynard Ferguson

He's not a performer, he's not a composer, he's not even a musician, but Norman Granz is Mr. Jazz.

— Oscar Peterson

My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.

— John Coltrane

When you listen to someone improvise, the notes that are played are only half the story.

— Hubert Laws

Flights are a good way to catch up on podcasts, but I'll listen to some jazz to fall asleep.

— Wyatt Cenac

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

— Miles Davis

I have been influenced by music. I grew up listening to blues, jazz and all.

— Redfoo