Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
MILES DAVISDon’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
MILES DAVISIn improvisation, there are no mistakes.
MILES DAVISIf you understood everything I say, you’d be me!
MILES DAVISThere are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.
MILES DAVISJazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.
MILES DAVISWhen kids don’t learn about their own heritage in school, they just don’t care about school… But you won’t see it in the history books unless we get the power to write our own history and tell our story ourselves.
MILES DAVISI’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 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.
MILES DAVISWhen you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they’re still here and passing it on to others.
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?
MILES DAVISThat’s the way women do. The frown. They want to give you the attitude to approach them back, by giving you a negative vibe.
MILES DAVISYou know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
MILES DAVISYou 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 DAVISTo keep creating you have to be about change.
MILES DAVISYou can’t play anything on a horn that Louis Armstrong hasn’t played.
MILES DAVISI ain’t no entertainer, and ain’t trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician.
MILES DAVIS