Miles Davis

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

It’s always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don’t know where it comes from, it’s just there and I don’t question it.

The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.

If you got up on the bandstand at Minton’s and couldn’t play, you might get your ass kicked.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

You can’t sing about love unless you know about it.

I first fell in love with the piano, I knew it was me. I was dying to play.

My improvisations are a beguiling mixture of the vertical and the horizontal.

When rock came in, people didn’t know what to do. Even Sinatra, he didn’t know what to do. The music was changing. And it’s changing now.

Your accompanist has a lot to do with how you sing, so experiment and choose your partner wisely.

I’m always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music.

People who like Jazz feel the depth and soul and intelligence that the music expresses.

Know the business; you need to know the business side of things.

The hidden things, the subconscious that lies in the body and lets you know: You feel this, you play this.

[On urging Nyro to tell Barbara Streisand that ‘Wedding Bell Blues’ had been personally written for her] It’s not a big lie.

Django Reinhardt was fantastic. he must have been playing all the time to be that good.

I don’t know what they’re thinking about. Just because someone says, ‘I like what you do’ or something: They might like it today and tomorrow they might not. I’ve had that experience with record companies.

I would’ve loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn’t good enough.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

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.