Quotes on Jazz

The trouble with most musicians today is that they are copycats. Of course you have to start out playing like someone else. You have a model, or a teacher, and you learn all that he can show you. But then you start playing for yourself. Show them that you're an individual. And I can count those who are doing that today on the fingers of one hand.

I have a respect for Elvis and my friendship. It ain't my business what he did in private. The only thing I want to know is, 'Was he my friend?', 'Did I enjoy him as a performer?', 'Did he give the world of entertainment something?' - and the answer is YES on all accounts. The other jazz just don't matter.

For me, music and life are all about style.

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

I know I'm no glamour girl, and it's not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I've got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing.

All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.

Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they're trying to say with jazz. You don't need any prologues, you just play. If you have something to say of any worth then people will listen to you.

The history of jazz lets us know that this period in our history is not the only period we've come through together. If we truly understood the history of our national arts, we'd know that we have mutual aspirations, a shared history, in good times and bad.

Don't settle for style. Succeed in substance.

If there was no black man there would be no Rock'n'Roll. The beat, the rhythms of Africa are what created Rock'n'Roll and Jazz.

Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the movies set the images, mannerisms, standards, and aims of the urban masses. In one way or another, everyone is equal before these cultural machines; like technology itself, the mass media are nearly universal in their incidence and appeal. They are a kind of common denominator, a kind of scheme for pre-scheduled, mass emotions.

Hell, nobody knows where jazz is going to go. There may be a kid right now in Chitlin Switch, Georgia, who is going to come along and upset everybody.

Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.

Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.

Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.

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

Music is a gift and a burden I've had since I can remember who I was.

Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life.

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

Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners.

You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.