You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.
MILES DAVISIt took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?
More Miles Davis Quotes
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If somebody told me I only had an hour to live, I’d spend it choking a white man. I’d do it nice and slow.
MILES DAVIS -
He 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.
MILES DAVIS -
In other words, an instrument should be an extension of you; it’s supposed to sound like you – the way you walk, the way you dress, you know.
MILES DAVIS -
It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.
MILES DAVIS -
Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
MILES DAVIS -
You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.
MILES DAVIS -
Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.
MILES DAVIS -
If you’re not nervous then you’re not paying attention.
MILES DAVIS -
If you love them in the morning with their eyes full of crust; if you love them at night with their hair full of rollers, chances are, you’re in love.
MILES DAVIS -
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
MILES DAVIS -
There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.
MILES DAVIS -
You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
MILES DAVIS -
I’ve always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that’s where great art and music happens.
MILES DAVIS -
[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
MILES DAVIS -
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 DAVIS