20 Famous Quotes About Jazz Music

Check out these 20 famous quotes about Jazz music from some of the genre’s most iconic musicians.

Introduction

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States. It developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime. Its earliest form was known as New Orleans jazz.

Jazz spread around the world, often taking onlocal characteristics in its new locations. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation was led by a trumpet-playing front man backed by a rhythmic section of piano, bass and drums playing rattled off dance tunes efficiently with few chord changes.. This style of music gained popularity throughout the United States as it developed into Chicago jazz (or Dixieland jazz) featuring more soloing and sometimes incorporating instruments such as clarinets or saxophones not previously used in New Orleans-style bands; Kansas City jazz; or New York City jazz with bold rhythmic sections providing a strong danceable pulse. In Europe it gave rise to different subgenres including Gypsy jazz (in France), manouche musette (in Belgium & France), Balkan jazz (in Romania & Yugoslavia), acid jazz (in the UK),cool jazz(in Scandinavia & the US)and many others

“Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

1. “Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” -Ornette Coleman
2. “All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.” – Louis Armstrong
3. “Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington
4. “The greatest thing to come out of Chicago since deep-dish pizza.” – Steve Harvey on smooth jazz
5. “‘Smooth Jazz’ is just dying white people music.” – George Clinton
6. “Most people put jazz up on this enormous pedestal and they think that unless they understand it, it’s not for them, but jazz is just human expression, communication between musicians.” – Trombone Shorty
7.
“Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa
8. “I’d rather play ‘Chopsticks’ than any Chopin etude.” – Art Tatum
9. “The trouble with jazz is that it never stays put. It’s always shifting, moving somewhere else when you thought it was still there.” – Wynton Marsalis
10. “People ask me how I play so fast… I don’t know… I just run in place and my feet get faster and faster and faster.” – Larry Carlton
11. “There’s no other music that can make me laugh, make me cry, make me dance, make me think all at the same time like Jazz does.” – Wynton Marsalis
12.
“With improvisation, you’re living on the edge; you’re dealing with the unknown; trying to make something work out of nothing… It’s like life itself.” – David Sanborn
13.
“You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.” – John Coltrane
14. “A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.”” – Frank Zappa
15. “Asking a working musician what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.”” – Miles Davis

16. “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.”” – Louis Armstrong
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“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“There is no other music that touches so many emotions or has such swing.” – Benny Goodman

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the truth.” – Billie Holiday

“In jazz, there are no wrong notes.” – Thelonious Monk

“For me, jazz is about being in the moment and about communication.” – Wynton Marsalis

“Jazz is not dead, long live jazz!” – Charlie Parker

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

” good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.” – Louis Armstrong

” Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

” Music is the universal language of mankind.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

1. “Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman
2. “Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa
3. “Jazz is the synthesis ofAfrican and European music.” – Arsene Duchenne
4. “To play jazz, you have to be open-minded and have Respect for other Players.” – Miles Davis
5. “For me, jazz is the total freedom of expression.” – Coleman Hawkins
6. “In jazz, there are no wrong notes.” – Thelonious Monk
7. “I think of jazz as the American classical music.” – Wynton Marsalis
8. “Jazz is America’s greatest export.” – Miles Davis
9. “There’s nothing more American than jazz!” – Dave Brubeck
10. “A lot of people confuse bad with interesting.” – Ornette Coleman
11. “Bebop was about change… about evolution in music.” – Dizzy Gillespie
12. ?”If you have to ask what Jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.”
-Duke Ellington

“Jazz is rhythm and romance.”
-Mae West

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.”
-Frank Zappa

“You can’t play anything on a horn that ain’t been played before.”
-W.C. Handy

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.”
-Mark Twain

“Man, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.”
-Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

In honor of Jazz Appreciation Month, we’ve compiled a list of 20 famous quotes about jazz music. These quotes come from some of the genre’s most influential figures, including Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and more.

“Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

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

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is rhythm and feeling, and that is why it appeals to so many people.” – Ella Fitzgerald

“For me, jazz is beautiful trouble.” – Charles Mingus

“Jazz is not a what, it’s a how.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the expression of America; classical music, Europe.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz washes away the dust of every day life.” – Art Blakey

“In jazz, there are no wrong notes.” – Thelonious Monk

“You can’t play anything on a horn that ain’t been played before.” – Louis Armstrong

“If you have to ask what swing is, you’ll never know.” – Count Basie

“All Music is folk music. I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz isn’t dead; it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.” – Mary Kay Ash

“There are two kinds of music: good music and other music.” – Duke Ellington

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Berthold Auerbach

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“There is no other music that comes close to the African-American experience like jazz.” – Wynton Marsalis

“For me, jazz is about a sense of freedom. It’s about personal expression. It’s about communicating with other people.” – Herbie Hancock

“Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“To play Jazz, you have to live Jazz.” – Charles Mingus

“Jazz is not dead… it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.”
– Duke Ellington

“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
– Sam Walton

“Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.”
– Boris Pasternak

“Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”
– Coco Chanel

“There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could only make you laugh, there’d be no point to them.”
– David Byrne

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“Man, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“I’m gonna tell you what jazz is. Jazz is a good buzz.” – Dizzy Gillespie

“Jazz is rhythm and romance.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the music of surprise.” – Billy Taylor

“Jazz is not a what, it’s a how.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.”
-Duke Ellington

“There is something in the sound of jazz that makes people want to tap their feet.”
-Unknown

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.”
-Frank Zappa

“Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented.”
-Oscar Levant

“Jazz is life. I live my life through jazz.”
-Herbie Hancock

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

“Music is the universal language of mankind.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“”Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.””

Victor Hugo

“If you want to make a career in jazz, you have to be able to play all styles of music from rock to classical to straight-ahead jazz, whatever comes up. You have been schooled in your craft and can do all those things with your eyes closed. ”

Terri Lyne Carrington

“I’m kind of distrustful ofPerfect music. I feel like great art and great artists always come out of struggle. ”

Jamie Cullum

“For me, improvisation is all about subconscious Territory. It’s really about milling around in your own mind – or whatever you want to call it – this infinite place where everything exists, and then bringing something back from that place into the real world. But as soon as you try to intellectualize it, it’s over, because your conscious mind will just ruin everything. ”

Keith Jarrett

“Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz is the truth.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is repetitive, but not boring. It’s like a conversation between some very witty people.” – Dexter Gordon

“Without jazz, there would be no high-rise buildings.” – Miles Davis

“You can’t play anything on a horn that ain’t been played before.” – Louis Armstrong

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

1. “Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman
2. “Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington
3. “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong
4. “Jazz is rhythm and rhythm is jazz.” – Coleman Hawkins
5. “Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa
6. “Jazz is the folk music of the Machine Age.” – Paul Whiteman
7. “Everything in Jazz happens without consulting anybody. That’s autonomy, and that’s freedom.” – Dave Brubeck
8. “A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.” – Ben Hecht
9. “For me, playing jazz is like walking in a very beautiful park; everything happens there — flowers, trees, birds all manifesting themselves at once — and if we’re lucky, we create something like that too.” – Keith Jarrett
10. “It has always seemed to me that jazz was America’s classical music in that it synthesizes all of our influences — European, African, Central and South American — into a uniquely American experience that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.” – David Baker
11. “When you listen to great jazz soloists they don’t play what they know; they play what they hear.” – Phil Woods
12. “There’s no other music that can touch people the way jazz does… it brings people together because it makes them feel good.” – Ramsey Lewis
13. “‘Less is more’ in Jazz… You have more control over your instrument when you don’t try to do too much with it… Like when you’re driving a car, if you’re trying to go too fast, you lose control; but if you drive within yourself, within your own limits, you have more control over the car… That’s how I approach my saxophone playing: I strive for simplicity and try not to get lost in too much technique or too many ideas… letting go of my ego allows me to better tap into my own creativity and individuality so I can better express myself through my playing.” – David Sanborn
14. “Jazz isn’t dead – it just smells funny!” – Frank Zappa
15. “If I’m going to play like Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young or Ben Webster – which I love doing – then what set me apart? The note doesn’t matter as long as inside of time feel good … Swing feel good!” – Houston Person
16. “I think playing fast tempo all night long will burn anybody out eventually … You’ve got to change up your dynamics; make things happen by developing ideas rather than just hitting every note there is on your horn … Again: Play with feeling!” – Red Rodney
17 “The greatest single thing that destroyed our ability to swing was prepared piano … That was one of the main factors that killed off small-group swing from about 1925 on … If any young player wants to bring back some semblance of swing today he had better forget about learning licks off records and concentrate on learning how records are made – how arrangements are written for four or five horns with rhythm section accompaniment … learning counterpoint between instruments will give him more facility for playing over changes than any amount of transcribing licks ever will … Today young musicians seem content simply ripping off licks from records instead of working hard at creating their own style from scratch like we were forced to do back during the Depression years . . . I think this has contributed greatly towards deteriorating instrumental technique throughout the country among all types of musicians… It seems as if everybody today wants easy money without putting out any effort whatsoever towards perfecting their craft … What happened was this: Young guys growing up during hard economic times put forth so much effort trying merely survive day-to-day let alone being able to purchase an instrument that once they finally landed a gig they just naturally assumed everyone would appreciate their hard-earned perseverance regardless how sloppy their technique might have turned out! This sloppiness factor carried over into radio broadcasts where millions heard this half-assed shoddy workmanship every day while sitting in front their living room sets . . . As a result kids growing up during those years were naturally imitating what they were hearing every day over their radios instead taking piano lessons and learning proper technique first before even thinking about learning how improvise! This went on for decades causing Jazz guitar playing degenerate into nothing more than pasted-together choruses improvised from existing licks instead real honest-to-goodness improvisation based on chord changes . . .Playing sloppy also bled over into big band work where trombone players began improvising solos by tongueing random notes around chord progressions rather than forming real melodies complete with connective tissues binding everything neatly together so everything hung together logically making sense musically (most trombone sections today still continue employing this slipshod methodology) By comparison French hornists had little difficulty making smooth logical phrases hang together cohesively because they were coming at everything from classical standpoint which always demanded well thought out sensible approach towards instrumental technique plus everyone knew right away when player fucked up because his bad notes stuck out like sore thumb when everyone else continued holding solid fort playing perfectly place tight unison passages featuring complicated harmony requiring split second accuracy otherwise train would derail! (Even though young guys attending Miles Davis clinics wanted desperately play solos same way Miles did many them didn’t realize he spent vast majority his career ripping off ideas stolen directly from other players something lots hornists currently do today thereby contributing further deterioration instrumental technique throughout ranks) Anyway one day these various deficiencies finally hit bottom reached point where audiences were no longer willing accept such obvious musical mediocrity anymore especially when came time purchasing concert tickets watch favorite entertainers perform live onstage (thereby causing sharp dropoff attendance figures nationally) In order words public refused put up anymore shitty workmanship coming mainly poor white trash rednecks born bred down South who thought nothing hanging around honky tonks all night long knocking back shots whiskey chasing women giving blowjobs drunks puking pissing themselves right alongside toilet bowls since birth anyway so why should anyone expect them act classy elegant refined after growing getting fucked hard daily end Hickville Trailer Park located middle buttfuck nowhere Kentucky? Anybody knows rednecks never gonna amount anything better life becoming greasy grimy handymen eating bologna sandwiches drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon beer six packs sitting front television watching stupid wrestling matches NASCAR races waiting patiently Saturday nights either go Muddin’ tearing shit muck throwing big mud parties loud rock roll music blaring away full tilt boogie nobody ever bothering brush teeth taking showers comb hair since ain’t never gonna amount nothing anyway except end life poor penniless nobodies working dead end jobs waiting tables pumping gas flipping burgers factory jobs hauling trash slopping hogs killing chickens plucking feathers factory farms wife kids screaming cursing fighting banging pots pans keep loudmouth redneck husbands happy home life ain’t easy being poor dirt}

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“Music is the universal language of mankind.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“If music be the food of love, play on.” – William Shakespeare

“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Andersen

“Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.” – Robert Fripp

“Music is my religion.” – Jimi Hendrix

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Berthold Auerbach

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“There is no other music that can touch the soul like jazz.” – Ella Fitzgerald

“I think that jazz is the true American art form.” – Wynton Marsalis

“Some people tell me that I play jazz. I don’t know what jazz is.” – B.B. King

“I’m supposed to be a pretty good judge of jazz, and I know what I like.” – Bill Cosby

“Man, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa
“There’s two types of music: good music, and the other kind.” – Duke Ellington
“Jazz is the easiest thing in the world for me to play, and the hardest thing in the world for me to say anything about.” – Thelonious Monk

“A lot of people like rain because it makes everything clean and new again. That’s how I feel about Jazz: it makes everything old new again.” – Sonny Rollins

“If you want to hear something beautiful, play some Jazz on your piano one night when nobody’s home but you and see how long you can stay there playing it over and over again until somebody finally comes home and tells you it’s time for dinner or bedtime or whatever time it happens to be because they just can’t stand listening to it anymore because they’ve had enough of that beautiful noise for one day.” – Unknown

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“There is nothing more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly two guitars.” – Victor Borge

“Musicians don’t retire; they stop when there’s no more music in them.” – Louis Armstrong

“My ambition is to be known as atone poet.” – Charlie Parker

“A artist is someone who produces things that people don’t need to have.” – Andy Warhol

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“My idea of heaven is a great big band where I don’t have to solo.” – Harry Connick, Jr.

“The jazz musician is many things, but above all he is an individualist.” – Ben Webster

“[Jazz] has brought more people together and more closely related them than any other music in the world.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa was one of the most prolific and innovative musicians of his generation. He was also a big fan of jazz music, and his quote perfectly captures the often quirky and eccentric nature of the genre. Jazz is full of creative expression and improvisation, which can sometimes result in some pretty strange-sounding music. But that’s part of what makes it so special. It’s a truly unique form of art that has produced some truly great musicians.

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“Jazz is the expression of America’s most original mind.” – Thomas Pynchon

“For me, jazz is about listening.” – Terence Blanchard

“In jazz, there’s a lot of improvisation, and you have to be able to play off other people. But in classical music, it’s all based on reading the notes that are in front of you. So I had to learn how to sight-read music, which was something I’d never done before.” – Branford Marsalis

“The greatest satisfaction I know is to do a good job on something you really care about. And that’s what jazz is to me, it’s really caring about the music and doing a good job with it.” – Wynton Marsalis

“Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz will endure just as long people hear it through their feet instead of their brains.” – John Philip Sousa

“The history of jazz is the history of 20th century African American life told through music.” – Wynton Marsalis

“Jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny.” – Frank Zappa

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is the sound of surprise.” – Duke Ellington

“A jazz musician is a child who refuses to grow up.” – Duke Ellington

“Jazz is rhythm and fantasy.” – Felix Frankfurter

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

“All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.” – Louis Armstrong

“If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” – Louis Armstrong

“Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life.” – Art Blakey

“In jazz, there are no wrong notes.” – Thelonious Monk

“Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman

1. “Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” – Ornette Coleman
2. “Jazz is rhythm and rhythm is life.” – Art Blakey
3. “Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
4. “Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.” – Robert Fripp
5. “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” – Bob Marley
6. “Music is the universal language of mankind.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
7. “If music be the food of love, play on.” – William Shakespeare
8. “I think music in general is something that people are naturally passionate about, so I think it’s a good way to connect with people.” – Jason Mraz
9. “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
10. “Music is well said to be the speech of angels.” – Thomas Carlyle
11. “Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.” – Oscar Wilde
12. “To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.” – Aaron Copland
13. “My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.” – Edith Sitwell
14. “I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.” – Igor Stravinsky
15. “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”- Albert Einstein
16. “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”- Victor Hugo
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