Jazz Quotes · Page 47

I didn't really grow up on hip-hop. Ella Fitzgerald and the old school jazz divas are more my comfort zone.

— Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

— Pat Metheny

As jazz fans, it was amusing for us to play jazz harmonies on these big, ugly electric guitars.

— Donald Fagen

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

Jazz isn't as profitable for labels like Hip hop or Rap. Jazz needs subsidies to continue, just like European classical works of…

— Jimmy Heath

Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion…

— Brian McKnight

Western classical music had long known syncopation. But no one had felt compelled to snap his fingers to music before American jazz…

— Heather Mac Donald

I think there are only three things that America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization:…

— Gerald Early

It's not enough to just be a good singer. You have to know where your roots come from. If you sing jazz,…

— Jinkx Monsoon

My early influences were the Shadows, who were an English instrumental band. They basically got me into playing and later on I…

— Tony Iommi

There's a need for pop. There's a need for radio. There's also a need to understand the brilliance and the depth of…

— Pharoahe Monch

I'm from the beatnik generation, where everybody wanted to be a poet or writer or something. And at that time, I was…

— Harvey Pekar

There was a lot that was tricky about playing with [Thelonious Monk]. It's a musical language where there's really no lyrics. It's…

— Roy Haynes

There used to be a club in new york called Bradley's - I've never been there, it closed in the 80's -…

— Jose James

I think jazz was just seeking respect and validity because a lot of people didn't believe it was a viable art form,…

— Andrew Bird

I'm a basketball guy. No sitcom guy. I don't care about all that jazz. I care about basketball. It's not me. And…

— Dick Vitale

From the small clubs of the Harlem Renaissance where he began playing saxophone to world tours for the biggest of the big…

— William J. Clinton

Gansey appeared beside Blue in the doorway. He shook his empty bottle at her. "Fair trade," he told her in a way…

— Maggie Stiefvater

If they think they are doing something new, they ought to do what I do every day - spend at least two…

— Coleman Hawkins

I grew up in a home filled with music and had an early appreciation of jazz since my dad was a jazz…

— Molly Ringwald

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

— Hubert Laws

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

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

— Wyatt Cenac

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

— Redfoo

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

...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

Some people think I'm a rock 'n' roll musician and some think I'm a jazz musician but, for me, there is no…

— Georgie Fame

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