Jazz Quotes · Page 52

“Jazz is the only lever used by all the riffraff of Tram 83 to switch social class as one would subway cars.”

— Fiston Mwanza Mujila

jazz is the expression of America's romantic self, its sensual potency, its lyrical force.

— Anais Nin

To me, jazz is the closest thing to insanity that there is in music.

— Anonymous

Records used to be documents, but now record companies want product.

— Stan Getz

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

— Gerry Mulligan

All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion…

— John Coltrane

Regardless of what you play, the biggest thing is keeping the feel going.

— Wes Montgomery

What I wanted to do was music, until I was about 16. But it was jazz and rock, never classical music.

— Simon Helberg

Music is a plane of wisdom, because music is a universal language, it is a language of honor, it is a noble…

— Sun Ra

I live on an island and listen to jazz all day long. The sun is always shining, but you can still see…

— Anonymous

I'd been a wedding singer through college, but after a few years of doing my best renditions of jazz standards to clinking…

— Idina Menzel

I always tell people that, just to be a bad jazz musician, you have to be better than most musicians. The worst…

— Robert Glasper

I would say I'm an outlier. Nobody in my family does anything creative, though my dad loved jazz and my mum likes…

— Arlo Parks

At this point we've answered about every question you could possibly imagine about Deep Space Nine, so we do this thing called…

— Rene Auberjonois

Back in the day, being a young, inspired bass player, I started to gravitate toward jazz fusion. I almost would have called…

— Robert Trujillo

I still go out, but not a lot. If I go to see music, it's usually to the Blue Note, jazz clubs,…

— Jonathan Demme

“He’d been toting it, and checking it, and packing and unpacking, all the way since fate was on the river - that’s…

— John Clellon Holmes

“There are more guys than girls in jazz. Next-to-no lady trumpeters (oh, there are a few) but it doesn't matter because, for…

— Stasia Ward Kehoe

When I was home, traditionally since I was young, I'd write in cafés. That was the romantic notion in 1963. Café atmospheres…

— Patti Smith

Somerset desperately needs more high-end music making on its doorstep, so the chance to share great music spanning genres as diverse as…

— Charles Hazlewood

I don't get pat down, you know what's on the waist, I don't mean Jazz when I say I "count base." Fly…

— Sheek Louch

Liz [Gillies] doesn't really listen to anything new, besides Adele, Ariana Grande, and stuff like that. She loves '70s music and old…

— Denis Leary

We always talk about how everyone is unifocal. You can't possibly be interested in jazz and Beethoven. Of course you can. You…

— Harold Evans

I have every iPod that's been made ˘ that's how sick I am. I carry anything and everything I possibly would want…

— Thomas Hampson

What makes bebop legitimate is the fact that when it was done, it was illegitimate.

— Matthew Shipp

I am not a jazz singer. I wouldn't place myself on that footing. I wouldn't even enter that arena.

— Boz Scaggs

I became a jazz fan quite early and never went off the path thereafter.

— Ahmet Ertegun

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

— Miles Davis

My novels and poems are meant to be read aloud. That's why jazz musicians have been able to adapt my stuff.

— Ishmael Reed

Yeah, it's more like playing what you think is appropriate for the moment, not forcing any particular style.

— Charlie Hunter

“If you have to ask what jazz is you will never know." Louis Armstrong”

— Louis Armstrong

I listen to everything from jazz to reggae to heavy metal and I kind of combine everything to make something different

— Travis Barker

As for the way we play, we are as much like the Beatles as any American Jazz group is like any other.

— Dave Clark

Jazz of the sort we play is a happy, extroverted music. You don't have to think about it too much.

— Chris Barber

That's the thing: There are so many art songs in jazz. It's a much more rich experience for the singer than people…

— Kurt Elling

There's only two ways to sum up music; either it's good or it's bad. If it's good you don't mess about it,…

— Louis Armstrong

I'd like to play for you one of my compositions, my only composition.

— Dizzy Gillespie

I think Wes Montgomery is the greatest jazz guitarist that ever lived.

— Kevin Eubanks

Four Tet is somebody I respect a lot. There are other artists I admire like jazz pianist and composer Marc Moulin.

— Bonobo

When I worked with my uncle, I loved the fact that jazz music demanded that you use your own unique approach.

— Dianne Reeves