Jazz Quotes

1344 quotes by 630 authors

As long as there is democracy, there will be people wanting to play jazz because nothing else will ever so perfectly capture the democratic process… — Wynton Marsalis
New Orleans had a great tradition of celebration. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime, echoes of traditional… — Wynton Marsalis
Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about. — Wynton Marsalis
Blues is like the roux in a gumbo. People ask me if jazz always has the blues in it. I say, if it sounds good… — Wynton Marsalis
Jazz is the false liquidation of art - instead of utopia becoming reality it disappears from the picture. — Theodor Adorno
The aim of jazz is the mechanical reproduction of a regressive moment, a castration symbolism. 'Give up your masculinity, let yourself be castrated,' the eunuchlike… — Theodor Adorno
The bad jazz that a cat blows wails long after heâ€™s cut out. — Lord Buckley
Miles Davis fully embraced possibilities and delved into it. He was criticized heavily from the jazz side. He was supposed to be part of a… — Bill Laswell
Well, I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of… — Kathy Acker
I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels. — Ernest Gaines
The philosophy of jazz represents tolerance, teamwork and inclusion. That's what America is about. The music reflects that. — Unknown Author
A jazz musician can improvise based on his knowledge of music. He understands how things go together. For a chef, once you have that basis,… — Charlie Trotter
There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from… — Harry J. Anslinger
The virtuoso element in jazz playing, all those very fast runs in the upper extremes, simply doesn't appeal to me. That's why I don't want… — Gavin Bryars
What is my definition of jazz? "Safe sex of the highest order." — Kurt Vonnegut
The history of all big jazz bands shows was, first they played for dancing, and then they played for singing. — Norman Granz
I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up… — Amy Tan
Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm. — Jelly Roll Morton
I haven't got a great jazz band and I don't want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat's among them, point their fingers at us… — Glenn Miller
The jazz band's chief stimulus, of course, was the rise of the negro 'blues' and their exploitation by the negro song-writer, W. C. Handy. — Bix Beiderbecke

Who Wrote These Jazz Quotes

630 authors contributed a total of 1,344 Jazz Quotes, led by these top contributors: