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Jazz Quotes

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"So our ears got used to listening to jazz in the place that it was that the bass player could not play. No one really realized it and really addressed it until the bass players who could play their instrument came along and started doing something with it."
Miroslav Vitous
"So our ears got used to listening to jazz in the place that it was that the bass player could not play. No one really realized it and really addressed it until the bass players who could play their instrument came along and started doing something with it."
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"If it has more than three chords, it's jazz."
Lou Reed
"If it has more than three chords, it's jazz."
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"Well, I guess my unease with that is... I'm always a little uneasy with that phrase - smooth jazz, as opposed to what?"
David Sanborn
"Well, I guess my unease with that is... I'm always a little uneasy with that phrase - smooth jazz, as opposed to what?"
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"The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness."
Herbie Hancock
"The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness."
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"The way that we imitate each others' riffs is something that other bands don't do as much. If we're jamming with a jazz band, or I am jamming with a jazz band, I have to catch myself, the tendency is always to do that."
Mike Gordon
"The way that we imitate each others' riffs is something that other bands don't do as much. If we're jamming with a jazz band, or I am jamming with a jazz band, I have to catch myself, the tendency is always to do that."
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"The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point."
Matthew Shipp
"The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point."
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"I'm really getting to appreciate traditional jazz now - the New Orleans stuff - a lot more than I did before."
John Goodman
"I'm really getting to appreciate traditional jazz now - the New Orleans stuff - a lot more than I did before."
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"One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it."
Mahalia Jackson
"One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it."
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"I understood jazz, I understood how it worked. That's what I apply to everything."
Van Morrison
"I understood jazz, I understood how it worked. That's what I apply to everything."
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"I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch."
Count Basie
"I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch."
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"Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple."
Keith Jarrett
"Jazz is there and gone. It happens. You have to be present for it. That simple."
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"I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician."
Dave Van Ronk
"I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician."
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"Bill Evans is a real serious jazz pianist who, in my book, crossed over boundaries in terms of color. He used the piano as his canvas."
Roberta Flack
"Bill Evans is a real serious jazz pianist who, in my book, crossed over boundaries in terms of color. He used the piano as his canvas."
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"We always feel pretty creative as far as writing songs. We write them together; we just get in a room, or on occasion in Flea's garage. We just sort of improvise, like jazz musicians."
Chad Smith
"We always feel pretty creative as far as writing songs. We write them together; we just get in a room, or on occasion in Flea's garage. We just sort of improvise, like jazz musicians."
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"Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion thing, and I was the keyboard player. I was interested in how the instruments worked and the theory behind playing with them."
Brian McKnight
"Most of the stuff I learned to play, I learned in high school. I had a band in high school, a jazz-fusion thing, and I was the keyboard player. I was interested in how the instruments worked and the theory behind playing with them."
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"Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at jazz. And I've done that on many occasions."
J. J. Johnson
"Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at jazz. And I've done that on many occasions."
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"I think I was supposed to play jazz."
Herbie Hancock
"I think I was supposed to play jazz."
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"Coltrane was moving out of jazz into something else. And certainly Miles Davis was doing the same thing."
Jan Garbarek
"Coltrane was moving out of jazz into something else. And certainly Miles Davis was doing the same thing."
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"I'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet."
Bobby McFerrin
"I'd actually been making my living as an organist with bands since I was probably 15 or 16 years old, and then as a senior in high school I put together a jazz quintet called The Bobby Mack Jazz Quintet."
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"If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."
Louis Armstrong
"If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."
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"The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation."
Jan Garbarek
"The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation."
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"Coltrane would do what you'd get a Roland Pro Tools module to do but with a group of jazz musicians."
Colin Greenwood
"Coltrane would do what you'd get a Roland Pro Tools module to do but with a group of jazz musicians."
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"I was considered as a jazz man rather than as a blues player. There were no blues players-you played one sort of jazz of another sort of jazz."
Alexis Korner
"I was considered as a jazz man rather than as a blues player. There were no blues players-you played one sort of jazz of another sort of jazz."
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"I have been steadily exchanging a rock audience who were nervous about what they had just bought for a jazz audience who not only were happy with their purchase, but are increasingly coming again."
Bill Bruford
"I have been steadily exchanging a rock audience who were nervous about what they had just bought for a jazz audience who not only were happy with their purchase, but are increasingly coming again."
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"After I exhausted the blues thing, I got into jazz."
Robert Quine
"After I exhausted the blues thing, I got into jazz."
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"I think you have to have a jazz pedigree to be on jazz radio."
Rita Coolidge
"I think you have to have a jazz pedigree to be on jazz radio."
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"The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on."
Van Morrison
"The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on."
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"I've been saying for almost 20 years that I need to do a jazz project and it ought to be either big band or I should do some jazz songs with a trio or quartet."
Al Jarreau
"I've been saying for almost 20 years that I need to do a jazz project and it ought to be either big band or I should do some jazz songs with a trio or quartet."
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"And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school."
Travis Barker
"And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school."
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"It is rare that even a jazz musician finds an individual voice."
David Baker
"It is rare that even a jazz musician finds an individual voice."
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"It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz."
Herbie Hancock
"It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz."
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"I'm a freak, everything has to be totally flat when I play. Ed Will, my jazz teacher, set up everything completely flat, and then you'd tilt your snare drum away from you, so I do that too. So my snare tilts away from me."
Travis Barker
"I'm a freak, everything has to be totally flat when I play. Ed Will, my jazz teacher, set up everything completely flat, and then you'd tilt your snare drum away from you, so I do that too. So my snare tilts away from me."
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"I'm not a jazz singer."
Boz Scaggs
"I'm not a jazz singer."
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"It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way."
Gerry Mulligan
"It's true I've always been attracted to the jazz band in an orchestral way, rather than a band way."
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"I've always loved jazz."
Rita Coolidge
"I've always loved jazz."
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"My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden."
Mose Allison
"My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden."
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"The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician."
Louis Armstrong
"The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician."
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"I continued studying by myself in the field of jazz with my own technique of improvisation, walking bass lines, rhythms, all kinds of stuff, which I created for myself."
Miroslav Vitous
"I continued studying by myself in the field of jazz with my own technique of improvisation, walking bass lines, rhythms, all kinds of stuff, which I created for myself."
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"I think that one of the problems that jazz has is that it's so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself."
Branford Marsalis
"I think that one of the problems that jazz has is that it's so incestuous that it's starting to kill itself."
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"I'm not a big jazz fan."
Warren Zevon
"I'm not a big jazz fan."
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"Clifford Brown was in the jazz circles considered to be probably the greatest trumpet player who ever lived."
Herb Alpert
"Clifford Brown was in the jazz circles considered to be probably the greatest trumpet player who ever lived."
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"The blues and jazz will live forever... So will the Delta and the Big Easy."
Jack Nicholson
"The blues and jazz will live forever... So will the Delta and the Big Easy."
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"I have a bachelor's and a master's in jazz."
Jon Secada
"I have a bachelor's and a master's in jazz."
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"There's a certain phraseology involved in jazz, and I've moved away from that."
Jan Garbarek
"There's a certain phraseology involved in jazz, and I've moved away from that."
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"A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges."
Benny Green
"A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges."
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"I don't know if I have enough guts to do a whole standard jazz record."
Gary Cherone
"I don't know if I have enough guts to do a whole standard jazz record."
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"Not with the Rochester Philharmonic, but I formed my own orchestra, made up of musicians from the Eastman School, where I'm on the faculty now, direct the Jazz Ensemble and teach improvisation classes."
Chuck Mangione
"Not with the Rochester Philharmonic, but I formed my own orchestra, made up of musicians from the Eastman School, where I'm on the faculty now, direct the Jazz Ensemble and teach improvisation classes."
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"I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences."
Wyclef Jean
"I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences."
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"You need better technique than I have to play jazz, but what you have to do is the same thing, isn't it?"
Charlie Watts
"You need better technique than I have to play jazz, but what you have to do is the same thing, isn't it?"
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"Rock and roll mainly but I can play passable jazz also."
Suzi Quatro
"Rock and roll mainly but I can play passable jazz also."
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