Miles Davis

I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later.

Stop before you’re done.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

Don’t worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

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

The word “jazz” means to me no category, but when you get stuck into wanting to do something the way it was with the “jazz emblem” or logo chained around your neck, you play in a frozen moment in time and you keep fermenting the ‘fifties saying jazz should be this way or that. Well, if jazz to me means no category, then I’ve got the green light And if it sounds like.. sounds like.. sounds like, and keeps crossing over, it’s what I wanted to do in the first place. I like the way Stravinsky and those guys did things. They expressed something, if not themselves. In fact, some people talk about expression, but expression really doesn’t mean anything to me because there’s a lot of work which goes into building a drama and then it’s up to other people to offer “expression.” Expression is such a nebulous thing.

I met up with George Shearing about a year before my mother passed away. When I was 11 years old, Mama took me to the Edgewater Inn in Seattle and I was able to sit down and play piano for George and a lot of (the set list) was songs I had heard from the album, ‘Concerto For My Love.’ Then, after Mama died, my dad and I went to actually hear him perform at the Edgewater Inn when I was 12. Oh my gosh! It just really got me into playing piano.

I remember Elvis as a young man hanging around the Sun Studios. Even then, I knew this kid had a tremendous talent. He was a dynamic young boy. His phraseology, his way of looking at a song, was as unique as Sinatra’s. I was a tremendous fan, and had Elvis lived, there would have been no end to his inventiveness.

I’ve had those people very interested in my writing. Since I think of myself as a composer, I feel really good. I’ve had lots of guys call me up. I’ve gotten two or three commissions to write things. I’ve written lots of movie scores.

Being a Jazz musician is not a rose garden!

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

I think you have to leave a lot to the imagination!

By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He’s still a nice young man, only confused.

Play for the spiritual aspect, the emotion.

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

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

Musicians need to continue higher learning try to expand the pallet.

I keep these songs in my head until I get behind the microphone. I never spend more than 30 or 40 minutes singing the vocal or it will sound mechanical. There are always mistakes, but it’s about feeling more than being perfect.

Get around, be on the scene, play it clean, be seen, be keen and be over eighteen.