D C DowDell

Jazz improvisation is the art of drawing without an eraser.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.

If your dreams don’t scare you they’re not big enough!

My neighbors always listen to very hip Jazz… whether they like it or not.

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.

Ideologies separate us. Art brings us together.

The Blues? It’s the mother of American music. That’s what is is – the source.

Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet, put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying ‘yes.’

An orchestra can become as familiar and reliable an instrument as a well-known, well-worn piano.

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

Jazz is like wine. When it is new it’s only for the experts, but when it gets older everybody wants it.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

I’m an experimenter. It’s rich because every album I’ve done, except for a couple of techno-y records, are different. Really you’ve got to hand it to the Fender Strat, because there are songs in that guitar. It’s a tool of great inspiration and torture at the same time because it’s forever sitting there challenging you to find something else in it, but it is there if you really search.

If I could read it, I could play it.

What I’m doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word – I love it.

I think that it is important to try to sound like someone, especially early in your development.

You can have tone and technique but without originality you ain’t really nowhere. Gotta be original.

Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave it alone.

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

Do it again on the next verse and people think you meant it.

I never have any trouble playing anything I can think of. The trouble is thinking of what to play.