Don Ellis

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel not the way others think you should feel.

I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.

I expect the audience to come up to my level.

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

Life is not about finding our limitations, it’s about finding our infinity.

I can’t listen to music too often. It affects your nerves, makes you want to say stupid nice things and stroke the heads of people who could create such beauty while living in this vile hell.

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy’s playing blues like we play, he’s in high school. When he starts playing jazz it’s like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

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

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

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

Jazz means many things to many people, but it’s all about choices.

I wanted to put jazz on the record, all the loves of music that I had on the record, so I could show people I was ahead of my 19 years. It may have been over the heads of some people.

I’d rather be B.B. King. That’s the way I started. Let the heavy metal guys play heavy metal, let the others play the other… I try to do what I do better, not get away from it.

Never lose the groove to find a note.

I don’t dig staying in one groove.

So until we see you again, bright moments and keep searchin’ for your mystery note on the universal piano of life.

We quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.