Jazz  Quotes

• Stan Getz - "You don't rehearse Jazz to death to get the camera angles."
• Stan Getz -"We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records."
• Stan Getz - "I cannot play a lie. I have to believe in what I play or it won't come out."
• Stan Getz - "People involve themselves with the superficiality of Jazz without digging for its soul."
• Stan Getz - "Musically, I love to talk just off the top of my head & that's what Jazz is all about."
• Stan Getz - "A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other's ideas."
• Stan Getz - "I compulsively reach for perfection in music, often at the expense of everything else in my life."
• Stan Getz - "Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz."
• Stan Getz - "You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you."
• Stan Getz - "There are four qualities essential to a great Jazzman: taste, courage, individuality & irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music."
• Andrew Gilbert - "Jazz has the ability to absorb & transform influences from diverse musical styles."
• Dizzy Gillespie - "It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play."
• Dizzy Gillespie - "Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that."
• Dizzy Gillespie - "One of the reasons we're here is to be a part of this process of exchange."
• Dizzy Gillespie - "I try to teach by example & not force ideas on a young musician. We're here to be part of a process of exchange."
• Dizzy Gillespie - "They're not particular whether you're playing a flat 5th or a ruptured 129th as long as they can dance."
• Dexter Gordon - "If you can't play the Blues you might as well hang it up."
• Dexter Gordon - "Jazz is a beautiful word. I love it."
• Dexter Gordon - "When you know the lyrics to a tune, you have some kind of insight as to it's composition."
• Dexter Gordon - "Jazz is a living music; since its beginning has expressed the feelings, dreams & hopes of the people."
• Benny Green - "A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges."
• Benny Green - "Jazz music is a special skill that has brought pleasure to millions throughout the world."
• Benny Green - "Art [Blakey] would take young people with a potential & help them develop a voice as a player & as a writer."
• Freddie Greene - "Always pack your uniform on top."
• Katie Greenwood - "Music isn't just learning notes & playing them. You learn notes to play the music of your soul."
• Johnny Griffin - "Jazz is music made by & for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions."
• Charlie Haden - "We're here to bring beauty to the world & make a difference on this planet. That's what art forms are about."
• Charlie Haden - "As long as musicians have passion for spontaneity & creating something that's never been before, Jazz will flourish."
• Charlie Haden - "Creative Arts raise a person to another level of consciousness as if you could imagine life before words."
• Charlie Haden - "I have music inside me & I'm very lucky to be able to play music & that's the way that I try to do it."
• Chico Hamilton - "I don't dig staying in one groove."
• Chico Hamilton - "Musicians have to suffer to a certain degree in order to obtain their outlet."
• Oscar Hammerstein II - "If you become a teacher, by your pupils you'll be taught."
• Oscar Hammerstein II - "You gotta have a dream. If you don't have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true?"
• Oscar Hammerstein II - "Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay, Love isn't love 'til you give it away!"
• Lionel Hampton - "Playing is my way of thinking, talking, communicating."
• Lionel Hampton - "Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I'll give it to them."
• Lionel Hampton - "Music was our wife and we loved her. We stayed with her, clothed her and put diamond rings on her hands."
• Lionel Hampton - "It's always Jazz. You can put a new dress on her, a new hat, but no matter what kind of clothes she's the same old broad."
• Herbie Hancock - "I try to practice with my life."
• Herbie Hancock - "Jazz is about being in the moment."
• Herbie Hancock - "The true artform is being a human being."
• Herbie Hancock - "The spirit of Jazz is the spirit of openness."
• Herbie Hancock - "It is people's hearts that move the age."
• Herbie Hancock - "I think I was supposed to play Jazz."
• Herbie Hancock - "I'm always looking to create new avenues or new visions of music."
• Herbie Hancock - "Life is not about finding our limitations, it's about finding our infinity."
• Herbie Hancock - "The value of music is not dazzling yourself and others with technique."
• Herbie Hancock - "Creativity shouldn't be following radio; it should be the other way around."
• Herbie Hancock - "You can practice to learn technique, but I'm more interested in conceiving something in the moment."
• Herbie Hancock - "Jazz translates the moment into a sense of inspiration for not only the musicians but for the listeners."
• Herbie Hancock - "Creativity & artistic endeavors have a mission far beyond just making music for the sake of music."
• Herbie Hancock - "Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music & also has lent itself to other genres of music."
• Herbie Hancock - "A great teacher stimulates his student's creativity enough so that they go out & find the answers themselves."
• Roy Hargrove - "Let the music speak for itself."
• Tom Harrel - "Sounds of daily life are musical. I try to absorb the intricacies of sounds as if I were listening to music."
• Tom Harrell - "Whenever there's a change with Jazz & its aesthetics, it's almost always reflected with a change in the culture."
• Tom Harrell - "Jazz is such a powerful cultural statement that it's almost as if it's intertwined with society."
• Coleman Hawkins - "Music should always be an adventure."
• Coleman Hawkins - "If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying."
• Coleman Hawkins - "You can separate the men from the boys and ballads."