We don’t play to be seen. I’m addicted to music, not audiences.
MILES DAVISThe only reason to write a new song is because you’re tired of the old ones.
More Miles Davis Quotes
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I think the greatest sound in the world is the human voice.
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Always listen for what you can leave out.
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Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it.
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It takes you years to learn how to play like yourself.
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Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.
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Don’t be afraid of mistakes – There are none.
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It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.
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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.
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I like Stan [Getz], because he has so much patience, the way he plays those melodies – other people can’t get nothing out of a song, but he can, which takes a lot of imagination.
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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 -
A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.
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You have to practice for a long time before you can learn to sound like yourself.
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My future starts when I wake up every morning.
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First you imitate, then you innovate.
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Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.
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For me, music and life are all about style.
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With “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.
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Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery.
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[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
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Coltrane, you cant play everything at once!
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In music, silence is more important than sound.
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Americans don’t like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don’t like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don’t like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make ’em a lot of money.
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The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
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Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?
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You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.
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I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.
MILES DAVIS