Dizzy Gillespie

I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It’s time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It’s time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.

They’re not particular about whether you’re playing a flatted fifth or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance to it.

I don’t care much about music. What I like is sounds.

How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don’t you ask him? And besides, maybe we’d all like to be like Miles, and just haven’t got the guts.

I try to teach by example and not force ideas on a young musician. We’re here to be part of a process of exchange.

They’re not particular whether you’re playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance.

I’m gonna live till I die.

I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever.

The fans dictate to you when you’re done!

I’ve always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

Using drugs didn’t help me play, all it did was hang me up for 15 years.

The idea is more important than the style you’re playing in.

When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

Paint pictures with sound. First, find your white-the deepest, roundest sound you can play on the guitar. Then, find your black-which is the most extreme tonal difference from white you can play. Now, just pick the note where you’ve got white, pick it where you’ve got black, and then find all those colors in between. Get those colors down, and you’ll be able to express almost any emotion on the guitar.?

Miles Davis was a part of my life from 1947 on. I was born in 1941 and I first heard him in 1947 on a 78 rpm. And then I followed his career, starting with his first solo album in 1951. He was an icon and inspiration and a mentor to me.

I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.

You’ve heard me call myself a bluesman and a blues singer. I call myself a blues singer, but you ain’t never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. Well, that’s because there’s been so many can do it better’n I can, play the blues better’n me. I think a lot of them have told me things, taught me things.

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

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

I felt like I was making a record under the radar, and that is my favorite way to do anything.

[on Glastonbury] I started off the show and I completely messed up the music. And me, as you can imagine by this phone call, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. So it really put me into a slightly depressed state.