Dizzy Gillespie

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

Men have died for this music. You can’t get more serious than that.

One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

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

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 always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

Nothing is so well-prepared as a great spontaneous performance.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

I started to like blues, I guess, when I was about 6 or 7 years old. There was something about it, because nobody else played that kind of music.

You can’t explain Jazz to anyone without losing the experience because it’s feeling, not words.

Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said to make the audience understand what I’m trying to do more. When I’m singing, I don’t want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling.

A Jazz musician is supposed to find his voice, find his niche and do his thing.

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

I listen to all kinds of songs. There’s something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it’s pop or jazz or hip-hop.

Three months. I was playing the organ for three months. It was a challenge for me in the beginning.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

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

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

I’ve never thought the blues was a matter of copying other people. The blues singer should sing songs about his own life. And once the ball got rolling, I felt confident enough to do that as well as cover other people’s songs, and the tributes. You’ve got to think about representing your own life in the music, and for me that meant bringing in an element of jazz; I was brought up on jazz, it was my father’s work, it was in the house.

People sometimes say it takes a long time to become a Jazz fan, but for me it took about five seconds.