D C DowDell

Music is a calling that you must bring your best to, whether listening, practicing or performing.

Jazz improvisation is the art of collective negotiated expression.

It is better to be felt than to be heard.

The jazziest American contribution to the vocabulary of English is Jazz itself.

10% of musicians make 90% of the money, while the remaining 90% of musicians make the 10% that’s left.

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

My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it was all for my audience.

If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes, take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball. So we want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing.

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

The true artform is being a human being.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.

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

When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.

Good Jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms and yells. Fine Jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great Jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of Jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.

Once in a while, the thumb that fits over the neck of the guitar kinda bothers me a little bit, but not that much yet. I figure in time I won’t do much because of my age.

If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it’s like the human voice

The melody is generally what the piece is all about.

I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn’t much like it at first.

I am a devout musician.

The blues fitted in with the early 60s, the social way of life at the time.

Musically, I love to talk just off the top of my head and that’s what Jazz is all about.