Bebop didn’t have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn’t even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging – but they weren’t sweet.
MILES DAVISI can’t write anything for myself. I can write when I hear like [John] Coltrane play something; I used to write chords and stuff for him to play in one bar. I can write for other people, but I don’t never write for myself.
More Miles Davis Quotes
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I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning… Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
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For me, music and life are all about style.
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In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That’s a little bit too much.
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Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
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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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A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it.
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At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.
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Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.
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[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
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If you have to ask, you’ll never know.
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That was my gift having the ability to put certain guys together that would create a chemistry and then letting them go; letting them play what they knew, and above it.
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It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.
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The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
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The way you change and help music is by tryin’ to invent new ways to play.
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You can’t compete with Sweets’ sound and time feel. It’s impossible.
MILES DAVIS