Miles Davis

You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.

To keep creating you have to be about change.

Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.

[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.

Stop before you’re done.

Do not fear mistakes, there are none.

First I was working on classical music that didn’t move me at all. I hated it. So I decided to discover the kinds of classical music that did move me—like Chopin, Satie, Beethoven, and certain Mozart songs. Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy and it made me feel something. That’s when I realized music was inside me.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

What I came back to is that jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualized on.

Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about Jazz and Blues.

Breathe…. breathe a lot!

Through Dizzy and Bird I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

I think I love it more as I get older because I keep getting better on drums, vibes and piano.

I am a writer – that is what I am before being a performer or musician. I love waking up in the morning and then going to sleep that night with something that did not exist.

I compose my pieces with a formula that I created myself.

Art [Blakey] would take young people with a potential and help them develop a voice as a player and as a writer.

While many forms of music may use the dynamic of improvisation, Jazz exemplifies the unique characteristic of collective improvisation.

Jazzmen are our surrogates for the unpredictable, our paladins of constant change.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

While many attempts have been made to define Jazz, what’s the point really. Jazz is to be experienced – period.

You don’t chose your inspirations, they chose you.