“Jazz is a highly disciplined music that is very impatient with people who don't play, well, any sort of lazy imitation that can go with it.”
Robert O'Meally
“To put on your suit and play jazz music, ... knowing that many people in your audience have never experienced any jazz whatsoever, you have to believe beyond the fear of rejection. But that fear is part of creating.”
Wynton Marsalis
“I never thought that the music called "jazz" was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all other dead things that were once considered artistic.”
Miles Davis
“What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.”
Ray Charles
“I, of course, wanted to play real jazz. When we played pop tunes, and naturally we had to, I wanted those pops to kick! Not loud and fast, understand, but smoothly and with a definite punch.”
Count Basie
“That of a musician, but a musician playing in small jazz clubs or alone. I do not give concerts. I come on stage and play with my friends in the band, all of whom are better musicians than me, ... The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.”
Woody Allen
“To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.”
Nina Simone
