Quotes on Jazz Music

Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.

The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.

Jazz music is the power of now. There is no script. It's conversation. The emotion is given to you by musicians as they make split-second decisions to fulfill what they feel the moment requires.

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

Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.

Jazz washes away the dust of every day life.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate upon it in order to get the most of it. _x000D_ You must absorb most of it. The harmonies within the music can relax, soothe, relax, and uplift the _x000D_ mind when you concentrate upon and absorb it. Jazz music stimulates the minds and uplifts the souls _x000D_ of those who play it was well as of those who listen to immerse themselves in it. As the mind is _x000D_ stimulated and the soul uplifted, this is eventually reflected in the body.

...to me if it's anything, jazz is a verb-it's more like a process than it is a thing.

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

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 going to use. They let me do my thing. That's one reason I stayed there for twenty-eight years.

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing . . . the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood.

[Lee Morgan] was the only young cat that scared me when he played. He had so much fire and natural feeling. I had more technique, but he had that feeling. People seemed to like him more than they like me at the beginning.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

But you listen to Coltrane and that's something human, something that's about elevation. It's like making love to a woman. It's about something of value, it's not just loud. It doesn't have that violent connotation to it. I wanted to be a jazz musician so bad, but I really couldn't. There was no way I could figure out to learn how to play.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!