Communicating Quote by Ted Agon

“In a conversation with the master jazz musician and Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Wynton Marsalis, he told me, “You need to have some restrictions in…

— Sheena Iyengar

I'm a jazz performer - I have to improvise with what I'm given.

— Apollo Robbins

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

— Ahmad Jamal

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

Symphony musicians are not trained in improvising, certainly not in a jazz style.

— Gunther Schuller

“I have a lot of problems with fifteen-minute jazz-funk jams as well. I don’t care about instrumental prowess. I don’t care about quick-thinking improvisational…

— Matt Thorne

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

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

— Doc Childre

When we got to the part where we had to improvise an argument in a poetic language, I got cold feet. "I can't do…

— Patti Smith

“Think of the jazz improv artist responding to the musical banter among her fellow players onstage. Aside from whatever training they've done in advance,…

— Donna Quesada

If you are in an improv jazz ensemble or a small chamber group, you learn to think fast on your feet and how to…

— J. Richard Hackman

Growing up playing jazz and improvising has had a big impact on me, and it translates into my music.

— Stephen Bruner