Background music Quote by Horace Silver

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate upon it in order to get the most of it. You must absorb most of it.…

— Horace Silver

Jazz is not background music.

— Horace Silver

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz.

— Sonny Rollins

Jazz has a lot to do with being very present. You know the structure, then you flow through it.

— Lizz Wright

Jazz needs the help. It's the more sophisticated music. All the other music is on the TV, but jazz isn't.

— Billy Higgins

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

— Nina Simone

Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I…

— Etta James

Jazz isn't what you do; it's how you do it.

— Fats Waller

In fact, jazz has such a great feeling and great emotional content that it really doesn't require you to have technical understanding of it.…

— Dave Holland

Jazz is a sideways glance at music. It's like being an architect, knowing the basis of design but understanding that the facade can be…

— Melody Gardot

Jazz is like a telescope, and a lot of other music is like a microscope.

— Kamasi Washington

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

— Thelonious Monk