I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.
JOHN COLTRANEI’d like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.
More John Coltrane Quotes
-
-
I think I know what it is but don’t ask me to play it.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Sometimes I think I was making music through the wrong end of a magnifying glass.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Considering the great heritage in music that we have – the work of the giants of the past, the present, and the promise of those who are to come – I feel that we have every reason to face the future optimistically.
JOHN COLTRANE -
The real risk is not changing. I have to feel that I’m after something. If I make money, fine. But I’d rather be striving. It’s the striving, man, it’s that I want.
JOHN COLTRANE -
The main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
JOHN COLTRANE -
All of the technique doesn’t matter only if the feeling is right.
JOHN COLTRANE -
I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of people.
JOHN COLTRANE -
My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there’s no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock ‘n’ roll band.
JOHN COLTRANE -
There is never any end, There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we’ve discovered in its pure state.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music as if for the first time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a part of it, I’ll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels, and that’s too bad.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
JOHN COLTRANE -
Damn the rules, it’s the feeling that counts.
JOHN COLTRANE