🎷 Jazz Quotes

“Do not fear mistakes. There are none.”

“It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.”

“I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning.”

“Don't play what's there; play what's not there.”

“It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.”

“A problem is a chance for you to do your best.”

“There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.”

“What we play is life.”

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.”

“There is two kinds of music, the good and bad. I play the good kind.”

“Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that and just play.”

“You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice.”

“Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.”

“You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.”

“I want to be a force for real good. I know that there are bad forces, but I want to be a force for good.”

“The piano ain't got no wrong notes.”

“The genius is the one most like himself.”

“It has taken me all my life to learn what not to play.”

“Men have died for this music. You can't get more serious than that.”

“If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.”

“I never had to cheat, never had to lie. I just had to be myself.”

“Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.”

“It isn't where you came from; it's where you're going that counts.”

“I realized that I had to have the right mental mode to do creative work. And that mode was being present and open.”

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.”

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach.”

“Music washes away the dust of everyday life.”

“Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form. It's the only art form that was created by Americans.”