Backgrounds Quote by Billy Higgins

Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are.

— Wynton Marsalis

Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.

— Nina Simone

Jazz music is America's past and its potential, summed up and sanctified and accessible to anybody who learns to listen to, feel, and understand…

— Wynton Marsalis

I don't have a definition of Jazz. You're just supposed to know it when you hear it.

— Thelonious Monk

[Jazz] is a music of freedom and wonder. It's our indigenous art form, and I'm still blessed to travel around the world and people…

— Charles Lloyd

Jazz is something that you have to feel. It's something that you have to live.

— Ray Brown

Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live.

— Ray Brown

One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the…

— Herbie Hancock

I just don't know anything about jazz, really. I've never really listened to it, but I'd definitely like to discover more about it.

— Michelle Ryan

Jazz to me is a living music. It's a music that since its beginning has expressed the feelings, the dreams, hopes, of the people.

— Dexter Gordon

Jazz comes from anywhere the human being has a soul and has a heart.

— Willie Smith

Jazz is a part of me.

— Kamasi Washington