Dave Brubeck

I played a lot of sports and it's the plays in basketball that weren't worked out that are the ones that are…

— Dave Brubeck

When you start out with goals - mine were to play polytonally and polyrhythmically - you never exhaust that. I started doing…

— Dave Brubeck

One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart.…

— Dave Brubeck

Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist…

— Dave Brubeck

Most of the international acceptance of jazz education can be traced to the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, and the wonderful…

— Dave Brubeck

Damn it, when I'm bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic-take it or leave it.

— Dave Brubeck

The use of rock, folk, or pop music serves a purpose. It gets people into the church. But an inexperienced guitar player…

— Dave Brubeck

We don't know the power that's within our own bodies

— Dave Brubeck

I had the first integrated Army band in World War II.

— Dave Brubeck

I knew I wanted to write on religious themes when I was a GI in World War II. I saw and experienced…

— Dave Brubeck

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't…

— Dave Brubeck

Jazz is about freedom within discipline. Usually a dictatorship like in Russia and Germany will prevent jazz from being played because it…

— Dave Brubeck

I have more energy at the end than I do at the beginning. You can be so beat up that you can…

— Dave Brubeck

The first choral music I remember hearing was Handel's 'Messiah' when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast it over the radio.

— Dave Brubeck

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better…

— Dave Brubeck

I used to take my mother to Yosemite. When I turned 14, I got my driver's license, and that's where she'd want…

— Dave Brubeck

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

— Dave Brubeck

Jazz is about the only form of art existing today in which there is freedom of the individual without the loss of…

— Dave Brubeck

I knew even if I'm a cowboy, I'm going to be involved in jazz in some way.

— Dave Brubeck

I’m beginning to understand myself. But it would have been great to be able to understand myself when I was 20 rather…

— Dave Brubeck

Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and many other great jazz musicians objected to their music being called jazz. While the outside world may…

— Dave Brubeck

Jazz stands for freedom.

— Dave Brubeck

When you hear Bach or Mozart, you hear perfection. Remember that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were great improvisers. I can hear that…

— Dave Brubeck

Kinship doesn't come from skin color. It's in your soul and your mind.

— Dave Brubeck

I don't think you can separate a person's "style" and his persona. If you're writing or improvising honestly, you will inevitably reflect…

— Dave Brubeck