Jazz Quotes

1344 Jazz quotes by 630 unique authors

You have to know composition to be a good improviser. — Roscoe Mitchell
A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination. — Thelonious Monk
Man, that cat [Ornette Coleman] is nuts. — Thelonious Monk
What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on. — Gerry Mulligan
I think the whole question of meaning in music is difficult enough even if you hear me playing live right now in the same room!… — Evan Parker
The thing is this: When I play, what I try to do is to reach my subconscious level. I don't want to overtly think about… — Sonny Rollins
I'm not supposed to be playing, the music is supposed to be playing me. I'm just supposed to be standing there with the horn, moving… — Sonny Rollins
Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing. — Sonny Rollins
I'm not a jazz artist. Don't get me wrong now, it's all music to me. I just played music and if it's likeable, someone liked… — Pharoah Sanders
[John Coltrane] liked my qualities as a person and that's the reason why he let me play with him. It wasn't what I was doing… — Pharoah Sanders
He didn't say nothing. He would just do things. He never said nothing or explained nothing. He just would do it and that was it.… — Pharoah Sanders
I find that in California I can't find guys that have enough energy. They play a little bit and that's about it. They play less.… — Pharoah Sanders
I love more percussions more than anything. I always wanted to be a drummer. — Pharoah Sanders
I believe in knowing all you can about the music and the people who made the music. I think it's much more important to know… — Sonny Sharrock
Sometimes I see players that think, and you can tell they're thinking of the next phrase to play or the next thing to do, the… — Sonny Sharrock
In America, for a brief time, people who followed John Coltrane were studied and considered important, but it didn't last long. The result is that… — Archie Shepp
What makes bebop legitimate is the fact that when it was done, it was illegitimate. — Matthew Shipp
Thelonious Sphere Monk: there's not a more perfect name to fit his compositions than that name. — Matthew Shipp
The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a… — Matthew Shipp
Composing is improvisation slowed down. — Wayne Shorter
To hell with the rules. I'm going for the unknown. — Wayne Shorter
I always think of music as interior decoration. So, if you have all kinds of music, you are fully decorated! — Wayne Shorter
You know the actor John Garfield? In one movie he walked up to this train station, the ticket booth, and the guy says, 'Yes, where… — Wayne Shorter
Basically my influences have been American influences. It's been blues, gospel, swing era music, bebop music, Broadway show music, classical music. It's like making a… — Horace Silver
They didn't dictate to me as to what kind of music that they wanted me to play or what tunes, what musicians that I was… — Horace Silver

Who Wrote These Jazz Quotes

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