Miles Davis

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

If you’re trying to be hip, be hip!

Music is an addiction.

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

You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.

[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.

Play the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you play.

I wanna hear myself everywhere

External instruments are only extensions of the biological instrument.

Jazz stands for freedom.

A wise man practices slowly; but a wiser man practices even slower.

I think that what is important is that the music be honest and direct and that it is relevant to today.

It’s not what you do, but the way you’re doing it and in the end that’s all that we have.

It’s part of what the blues does, to write about these things. JB Lenoir was the main one in this regard – he wrote about Korea, too, in fact. Songs that reflect these current situations – in his case, racial issues for the most part: in my case, what has happened to me, and I was in Korea.

You can separate the men from the boys and ballads.

I think I’ve tried to stay true to my music since the beginning. It’s kind of hard because of the access and technology but I just do what I do.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

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

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

My improvisations are a beguiling mixture of the vertical and the horizontal.