Profoundly inspirational jazz quotes will fire up your brain and encourage you to look at life differently while making you laugh.
Famous Jazz Quotes
It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s a feeling. Bill Evans
When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people. John Coltrane
If it has more than three chords, it’s jazz. Lou Reed
Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play. Charlie Parker
If America has a future, Jazz has a future. The two are inseparable. George Russell
If you don’t live it, it won’t come out your horn. Charlie Parker
Jazz is like a great void, it waits patiently until a brave musician takes control of space and time. Chris Griffin
Life is a lot like jazz. It’s best when you improvise George Gershwin
Jazz is not a what, it is a how. Bill Evans
If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t really trying. Coleman Hawkins
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time. Ornette Coleman
Do not fear mistakes. There are none. Miles Davis
One of the things I like about Jazz, kid, is I don’t know what’s going to happen next Bix Beiderbecke
If you hit a wrong note, then make it right by what you play afterward. Joe Pass
The blues and jazz will live forever. So will the Delta and the Big Easy. Jack Nicholson
Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live. Ray Brown
Jazz stands for freedom. Dave Brubeck
It’s not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz. Herbie Hancock
Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand. Ella Fitzgerald
It’s like an act of murder. You play with intent to commit something. Duke Ellington
Just because I’m playing jazz I don’t forget about me. I play or write me the way I feel through Jazz, or whatever. Music is, or was, a language of the emotions. Charles Mingus
Jazz stands for freedom. Dave Brubeck
Boxing is like jazz. The better it is, the less people appreciate it. George Foreman
Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. Jimi Hendrix
Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around. Miles Davis
Making the simple complicated is commonplace. Charles Mingus
By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with. Duke Ellington
A jazz musician is not a jazz musician when he or she is eating dinner or when he or she is with his parents or spouse or neighbors. He’s above all a human being the true artform is being a human being. Herbie Hancock
It’s the group sound that’s important, even when you’re playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz. Oscar Peterson
A problem is a chance for you to do your best. Duke Ellington
Rock and roll ain’t nothing but jazz with a hard backbeat. Keith Richards
Jazz is about being in the moment. Herbie Hancock
Jazz has endured because it doesn’t have a beginning or an ending. It’s a moment. Robert Altman
Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend. George Gershwin
How are you gonna be a revolutionary if you’re such a traditionalist? You hold onto the past, but jazz is about the future. Keith, La La Land
You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians. Miles Davis
I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later. Miles Davis
Jazz and love are the hardest things to describe from rationale. Mel Torme
Contrary to general belief, an artist is never ahead of his time, but most people are far behind theirs. Edgard Varèse
There are no wrong notes. Thelonious Monk
A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges. Benny Green
They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art. Charlie Parker
Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread without it, it’s flat. Carmen McRae
Jazz music is an intensified feeling of nonchalance. Francoise Sagan
Art is self expression. If you are expressing someone else’s personality, that is not art. Bennie Wallace
As any jazz musician knows, it takes flexibility and adaptability for improvisation to create beauty. Doc Childre
What separates great jazz musicians from average ones is taste. Those who have taste consistently choose notes, tempos, timbres, and voicings that seduce and satisfy attentive listeners. Marc Myers
Some people are born with a brain that has this weird, magical mathematical thing that makes them an amazing jazz musician. Andy Richter
Without jazz, life would be a mistake. Boris Vian
Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around. Miles Davis
Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend. George Gershwin
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music. Nina Simone
If a Jazz musician plays someone else’s song, he has a responsibility to make a distinct & original statement. Todd Boyd
Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it. Louis Armstrong
Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can’t understand it. It’s too complicated. That’s what’s so simple about it. Yogi Berra
We must be as pure as our music. Albert Ayler
That’s the thing about jazz: it’s free flowing, it comes from your soul. Billy Crystal
In my view, a jazz musician is a great musician. Michael Parkinson
Jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones but on the backs of the ordinary ones. Cab Calloway
Some people think I’m a rock ‘n’ roll musician and some think I’m a jazz musician but, for me, there is no difference. Georgie Fame
The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Louis Armstrong
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 big brother of the blues. If a guy’s playing blues like we play, he’s in high school. When he starts playing jazz it’s like going on to college, to a school of higher learning. B. B. King
Music is my religion. Music is the only thing that has never failed me. People let you down, music won’t. Gary Bartz
Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear. Ralph Ellison
The real innovators did their innovating just by being themselves. Count Basie
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas. Miles Davis
I felt the responsibility to present a viable alternative to the popular electric sound. Ron Carter
If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know. Louis Armstrong
I can’t understand these guys who just have to have your autograph. I asked one of them, ‘What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it? Artie Shaw
