Miles Davis

I don’t like to hear someone put down Dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know.

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

To keep creating you have to be about change.

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

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

I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands …If they act too hip, you know they can’t play shit.

Jazz has evolved with an inner necessity characteristic of any true art form.

Jazz music is our original American culture.

Your humanity is your instrument.

Jazz is an art form that depends on its antecedents. There must be respect for the people that have gone before.

The only award I’ve ever worked for or wanted really were the ones that were given to me by the fans. So, whether it’s a platinum record or hit songs, those are the ones that last the most.

Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn’t have.

That’s a great thing about jazz. We leave it a little space so that we have the opportunity to go where the moment takes us

Jazz means many things to many people, but it’s all about choices.

It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.

Typically I go in the studio and whatever I’m contemplating that day will wind up being a song. I don’t come in with lyrics… I just go in and let it happen.

Eliminating the piano means that I’ve always worked closer with the bass than most players.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

What I’m doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word – I love it.

It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.

You must own it to play it.