Quotes on Jazz

I knew even if I'm a cowboy, I'm going to be involved in jazz in some way.

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking "Is there a meaning to music?" My answer would be, "Yes", And "Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?" My answer to that would be "No."

Bop began with Jazz but one afternoon somewhere on a sidewalk maybe 1939, 1940, Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker or Thelonious Monk was walking past a men's clothing store on 42nd Street or South Main in L.A. and from a loudspeaker they suddenly heard a wild impossible mistake in jazz that could only have been heard inside their own imaginary head, and that is a new art. Bop.

One doesn't have to scat to be a jazz singer.

If you consider film an art form, as some people do, then the Western would be a truly American art form, much as jazz is.

There's an ecstatic side to writing. It's like jazz. It just has a life.

Many people don't understand how disciplined you have to be to play jazz... And that is really the idea of democracy - freedom within the Constitution or discipline. You don't just get out there and do anything you want.

They all come from the street - tap, jazz and flamenco. And the streets are always changing. If it comes from the streets, change is the only thing that's consistent.

I think the people who are saying jazz has to sound a particular way, or, 'What you're doing isn't jazz,' are just scared because they can't do it. A lot of them just aren't talented enough to do anything new, honestly.

For me, let's keep jazz as folk music. Let's not make jazz classical music. Let's keep it as street music, as people's everyday-life music. Let's see jazz musicians continue to use the materials, the tools, the spirit of the actual time that they're living in, as what they build their lives as musicians around.

I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colors for those who see none.

Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple.

I will say, too, that lovemaking, if sincere, is one of the best ideas Satan put in the apple she gave to the serpent to give to Eve. The best idea in that apple, though, is making jazz.

The jazz I love is sweet and pure with raw elements, which is exactly what the good hip-hop is doing now.

My first Grammy wasn't even in a jazz category, but of course I was really excited. 'Rockit' was the beginning of kind of a new era for the whole hip-hop movement.

The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

It's not the style that motivates me, as much as an attitude of openness that I have when I go into a project.

I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.