Built Quote by John Kao

Jazz Improvisation means that practice is not as straightforward as it would be when you simply have a score to play.

— Ahmad Jamal

In Jazz, improvisation isn't a matter of just making any ol' thing up. Jazz, like any language, has its own grammer and vocabulary. There's…

— Wynton Marsalis

Improvisation sometimes seemed more like jazz than acting, like verbal jazz, with the actors playing a theme back and forth, and then introducing another…

— Alan Arkin

As any jazz musician knows, it takes flexibility and adaptability for improvisation to create beauty.

— Doc Childre

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

— Sonny Rollins

The improvisational nature of jazz musicianship is such that a truly competent performer must be prepared to function as an on-the-spot composer who is…

— Albert Murray

Jazz music is all about performance, right? At least, to me, it's about the freedom of performance, the different inflections you do in the…

— Laufey

You're just sort of searching for this 'thing' and sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. All music is imperfect, but in jazz…

— John Abercrombie

Maybe a part of me recognized how right the improvising spirit of jazz is. Not the sounds, but the freedom to work with musicians…

— Jane Siberry

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

— Jan Garbarek

Improvisation is a compositional method.

— Evan Parker

Improvisation is not a presentational form, except in small doses, or as a game. It's a tool.

— Bernard Sahlins