If you’re going to drop behind, you have to keep it there.
MILES DAVISIf you’re going to drop behind, you have to keep it there.
MILES DAVISDrummers – sometimes they play and they listen. And that little listen takes a speck away from the right tempo.
MILES DAVISIf you understood everything I say, you’d be me!
MILES DAVISBebop 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 DAVISThe only reason to write a new song is because you’re tired of the old ones.
MILES DAVISLook, man, all I am is a trumpet player.
MILES DAVISWe don’t play to be seen. I’m addicted to music, not audiences.
MILES DAVISKnowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery.
MILES DAVISWith “We Are The World,” I can’t even eat when I watch that on television. If I’m eatin’ some food, I have to put it down. I feel very strongly about that.
MILES DAVIS[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
MILES DAVISAnybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.
MILES DAVISYou can’t eat a winner’s plaque.
MILES DAVISYou have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.
MILES DAVISIt takes a long time to sound like yourself.
MILES DAVISJazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
MILES DAVISFirst you imitate, then you innovate.
MILES DAVIS