Play what you know and then play above that
MILES DAVISI usually write from the rhythm section…If a drummer got a funky beat on some things – like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or a backbeat that’s even – I can write something.
More Miles Davis Quotes
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It takes a long time to sound like yourself.
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.
MILES DAVIS -
Drummers – sometimes they play and they listen. And that little listen takes a speck away from the right tempo.
MILES DAVIS -
[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
MILES DAVIS -
Don’t be afraid of mistakes – There are none.
MILES DAVIS -
Coltrane, you cant play everything at once!
MILES DAVIS -
Do not be afraid of errors. There are no errors.
MILES DAVIS -
White folks always think that you have to have a label on everything – you know what I mean?
MILES DAVIS -
When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they’re still here and passing it on to others.
MILES DAVIS -
Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.
MILES DAVIS -
I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.
MILES DAVIS -
People will go for anything they don’t understand if it’s got enough hype.
MILES DAVIS -
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.
MILES DAVIS -
If you don’t know what to play, play nothing.
MILES DAVIS -
If you have to ask, you’ll never know.
MILES DAVIS






