White folks always think that you have to have a label on everything – you know what I mean?
MILES DAVISI think the greatest sound in the world is the human voice.
More Miles Davis Quotes
-
-
The only reason to write a new song is because you’re tired of the old ones.
MILES DAVIS -
Some musicians play with their heart, you know what I mean? I don’t know what to tell a person that can’t – if you can’t tell a person what you’re talkin’ about when they’re rushin’ or droppin’ the tempo, you get somebody else.
MILES DAVIS -
You can’t compete with Sweets’ sound and time feel. It’s impossible.
MILES DAVIS -
There are no wrong notes.
MILES DAVIS -
I 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.
MILES DAVIS -
I think every Negro over fifty should get a medal for putting up with all that crap.
MILES DAVIS -
Do not be afraid of errors. There are no errors.
MILES DAVIS -
I’m out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I’m still playing.
MILES DAVIS -
I never thought that the music called “jazz” was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic.
MILES DAVIS -
I 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.
MILES DAVIS -
If you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that you play that determines if it’s good or bad.
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 -
I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.
MILES DAVIS -
Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it.
MILES DAVIS -
If you’re not nervous then you’re not paying attention.
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 -
You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.
MILES DAVIS -
Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?
MILES DAVIS -
I think the greatest sound in the world is the human voice.
MILES DAVIS -
In improvisation, there are no mistakes.
MILES DAVIS -
All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.
MILES DAVIS -
If you have to ask, you’ll never know.
MILES DAVIS -
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 -
I don’t care if a dude is purple with green breath as long as he can swing.
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 -
A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it.
MILES DAVIS