If you’re going to drop behind, you have to keep it there.
MILES DAVISHe sounded to me like he’s supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no one asked him a question.
More Miles Davis Quotes
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If you have to ask, you’ll never know.
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A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.
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I always listen to what I can leave out.
MILES DAVIS -
Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
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That’s the way women do. The frown. They want to give you the attitude to approach them back, by giving you a negative vibe.
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Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
MILES DAVIS -
We’re not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got ’em, so they can keep ’em.
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Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
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Always listen for what you can leave out.
MILES DAVIS -
First you imitate, then you innovate.
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I don’t pay no attention to what critics say about me, the good or the bad. The toughest critic I got is myself…and I’m too vain to play anything I think is bad.
MILES DAVIS -
It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.
MILES DAVIS -
What’s swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don’t have to ask anybody if that’s good music or not. You can always feel it.
MILES DAVIS -
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
MILES DAVIS -
Certain drummers drop time, and I like to play on top of the beat.
MILES DAVIS -
Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.
MILES DAVIS -
My future starts when I wake up every morning.
MILES DAVIS -
When kids don’t learn about their own heritage in school, they just don’t care about school… But you won’t see it in the history books unless we get the power to write our own history and tell our story ourselves.
MILES DAVIS -
If you don’t know what to play, play nothing.
MILES DAVIS -
Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.
MILES DAVIS -
Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.
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If you’re not nervous then you’re not paying attention.
MILES DAVIS -
The only reason to write a new song is because you’re tired of the old ones.
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I like Stan [Getz], because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies – other people can’t get nothing out of a song, but he can, which takes a lot of imagination.
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Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery.
MILES DAVIS -
Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?
MILES DAVIS