Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Just because people play songs with great technique doesn't mean the records are better.
The human being receives the pleasure from music, not from the argument over what it is.
Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one's own.
We have something that is unique. We have our craft. We have our art. We have our desire.
Only the French, I guess, really use tenor and alto to any great extent in the orchestra.
Harmelody allows everybody to be an individual who does not have to imitate anybody else.
Jerry Garcia was one of the original American icons. He played naturally and beautifully.
I am interested in my music lasting only while I'm alive. I'm not writing for the future.
Art is self expression. If you are expressing someone else's personality, that is not art.
Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.
Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
I feel that I have an obligation to jazz and also to myself to play as good as I can play.
It’s making a statement about what life is, really. And I’m going to end the line with it.
Jazz is a fighter. The word 'jazz' means to me, 'I dare you. Let's jump into the unknown!'
They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
Alan Menken, for example, is one of my heroes for all of the music he's written for Disney.
What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.
Eliminating the piano means that I've always worked closer with the bass than most players.
I've always wanted a C trumpet on top, to have that same kind of facility without shouting.
Teaching is learning. When you're teaching full-time you have to do research, stay current.
A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other's ideas.
This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it's very hard to bear
I think everybody has to kind of decide what the word 'jazz' means to them, and that's fine.
I would like to play for audiences who are not using my music to stimulate their sex organs.
I think the problem starts with the general appreciation of the music in the larger society.
It (Strayhorn's Compositions) made us all think a little differently about what we were doing
I feel like collaboration in music has allowed me to grow musically beyond my wildest dreams.
The first reason for starting to do the symphony concerts was to play this new piece of mine.
The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field
This life of being a transient human being has gotten to a point when it's very hard to bear.
What I reach for first when I play is sound. Technique maybe, but there is technique in sound.
I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.
A very talented player and all around excellent musician. I love hearing his records on radio!
The recording industry has changed; they're enjoying such incredible success in the pop field.
Originally, I wanted to be a composer. I always tell people, 'I think of myself as a composer.
Whoever invented smooth jazz, man, I wanna kill 'em: You're turning an art form into a hooker.
I'm fortunate that I'm making a living at it now because I'm not equipped to do anything else.
I am a person who thinks about the music first in trying to achieve something musically valid.
It starts with a single sound. If there's something in that sound, then it's worth continuing.
I heard Sidney Bechet play a Duke Ellington piece and fell in love with the soprano saxophone.
If it's not going to sound like Terrapin Station, what's the point of playing Terrapin Station?
The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra
God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.
Originally, I wanted to be a composer. I always tell people, 'I think of myself as a composer.'
Many jazz artists go to L.A. seeking a more comfortable life and then they really stop playing.
If I were like a lot of other people, then it wouldn't be fun; but since I'm like me, it's okay.
The other saxophones, except as solo instruments, really don't have much point in the orchestra.
If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it's like the human voice.
When you play with Miles, you are on your own, and then it's you who decides what to contribute.
I credit my collaborators for allowing me to grow. Without them I wouldn't have that opportunity.