[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
MILES DAVISI used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it – like, they say “rock”. Because the white singers can’t sound like James Brown, they call him “soul”. They’ve been doing that for years. That’s the prejudice crap.
More Miles Davis Quotes
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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 -
I 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.
MILES DAVIS -
There are no wrong notes.
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 -
It 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?
MILES DAVIS -
Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that he should stop using it.
MILES DAVIS -
Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?
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 -
I think every Negro over fifty should get a medal for putting up with all that crap.
MILES DAVIS -
First you imitate, then you innovate.
MILES DAVIS -
My father’s rich, my momma’s good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I’ve never suffered and don’t intend to suffer.
MILES DAVIS -
You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line… We’re just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.
MILES DAVIS -
Play what you know and then play above that
MILES DAVIS -
Certain drummers drop time, and I like to play on top of the beat.
MILES DAVIS -
Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.
MILES DAVIS