Jazz Quotes

1344 Jazz quotes by 630 unique authors

When you're dead, you're done. — Louis Armstrong
I think we've all had enough of Coltrane saxophonists. There's a case of someone ruining a generation of saxophonists, as Louis Armstrong may have ruined… — Paul Bley
If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul. — Count Basie
I'll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I'd never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A… — Count Basie
People said I'd never make 35, then I'd never make 40, 45; now I'm almost 50, so Im beginning to think maybe they might be… — Chet Baker
The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met. — Chet Baker
His musical inspiration operates in a world uncluttered by conventional bar lines, conventional chord changes, and conventional ways of blowing or fingering a saxophone. Such… — Gunther Schuller
You know, John Coltrane has been sort of a god to me. Seems like, in a way, he didn't get the inspiration out of other… — Wes Montgomery
He sounded to me like he's supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no… — Miles Davis
When I joined the band I didn't know any of the tunes, and when I left the band I didn't know any of the tunes! — Keith Jarrett
Learn to play the piano, man, and then you can figure out crazy solos of your own. — Dizzy Gillespie
It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to… — Miles Davis
My greatest teacher was not a vocal coach, not the work of other singers, but the way Tommy Dorsey breathed and phrased on the trombone. — Frank Sinatra
I wish you wouldn't make the strings such an important part of your arrangements because frankly they're only a tax dodge! — Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey would walk up to you if you had a tuxedo on and make sure you didn't have on white socks. — Unknown Author
Tommy Dorsey was the last of the band leaders... He was ahead of his time; if he got drunk, he got difficult, but then who… — Unknown Author
Bebop has set music back twenty years. — Tommy Dorsey
I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King's son. — Duke Ellington
Listen to her voice, don't look at her. — Ella Fitzgerald
Ella knows her way around her voice as very few people today. But there are times when she seems to be unaware there are things… — Ella Fitzgerald
She has been more famous, over a longer time span, than any other female singer. — Ella Fitzgerald
Whatever she does to my songs, she always makes them sound better. — Ella Fitzgerald
She is amazingly creative, bringing so much more to a song than just a singer. She is a first-class musician and the most gracious person… — Ella Fitzgerald
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your magnificent indifference. — Dizzy Gillespie
Everyone wants to put people on, I think. And get away with it! That's the thing: put people on and get away with it! That's… — Dizzy Gillespie

Who Wrote These Jazz Quotes

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