D C DowDell

Practice as if you are the worst, play as if you are the best!

Jazz affirms the noblest aspirations of character, individual discipline, perseverance and innovation.

The true musician plays what he/she hears. That cannot be a mistake.

One shouldn’t be in the habit of quoting oneself.

Spontaneously composed music is a counterpoint that has its own rules based on a natural order and intuitive logic.

Jazz goes into my coffee in the morning, in my wine at night.

Musicians have a really big part to play in spreading messages because they’re able to reach a large portion of people on an emotional level. Artists reach people at their heart; it’s the only time we meet in one place and put our differences aside. When you’re in a forum listening to music, all you feel in that moment is love and the understanding.

When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I’d play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.

After you’ve done all the work and prepared as much as you can, what the hell, you might as well go out and have a good time.

Practice as if you are the worst, play as if you are the best!

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness.

Playing ‘bop’ is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.

I’m not like a legend that – so I’m sort of in the middle in this sort of gray area where, you know, I’m creating music, and I’m not saying there isn’t an audience, because there is; because all of those people go out and spend $80 to $150 on a concert ticket.

Jazz is a living music; since its beginning has expressed the feelings, dreams and hopes of the people.

I can’t understand these guys who just have to have your autograph. I asked one of them ‘What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?’

The majority of people mistakenly feel they don’t need a live musical experience.

There are wonderful things in Jazz, the improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.

All I play is truth and emotion.

I’m just trying to create context for me to improve my musicianship.

Music is the only language in which you cannot say anything sarcastic.

In my family on my mother’s side we’re all church musicians first so I don’t remember a time when we weren’t doing something musical. My brothers and I sang in a little quartet, my aunts and uncles sang and my grandfather was a minister of music in our church, so walking and talking was like doing music for us.