Ornette Coleman

It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

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.

I don’t really live like a musician myself. I think music is just something that I do, but I’d like to be doing lots of other things. I like to cure all kinds of illness.

Even when you write it, someone’s got to play it. So if you can play it and bypass all the rest of the things, you’re still doing as great as someone that has spent forty years trying to find out how to do that. I’m really pro-human beings, pro-expression of everything.

Musicians tell me, if what I’m doing is right, they should never have gone to school.

I didn’t need to worry about keys, chords, melody if I had that emotion that brought tears and laughter to people’s hearts.

‘Swing’ is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a ‘swing band’ in music.

I’ve had a lot of things to be proud of in my life, but none more than the Jazz festival.

The majority of people mistakenly feel they don’t need a live musical experience.

He’s not a performer, he’s not a composer, he’s not even a musician, but Norman Granz is Mr. Jazz.

There’s a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste.

I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It’s time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It’s time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.

I thought Eric Clapton was good. He still is. Not only is he good – he’s rock’s #1 guitarist, and he plays blues better than most of us.

Why Jazz? This is just the way I see music.

I have a lot of albums yet to do.

A great symphony is a man-made Mississippi down which we irresistibly flow from the instant of our leave-taking to a long forseen destination.

Each time I have the opportunity to play, it’s another chance to tell the truth.

The whole thing of being in music is not to control it but to be swept away by it.

I have no one style.

I like people who have worked long and hard, developing through introspection and dedication.

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.