Nigel Kennedy Quotes

I played a lot of Bach's partitas and sonatas; I like the way that Bach was abstracting already from these dance forms.

Has it struck you that the music which is regarded as the most sublime in western civilization, which is the music of Bach, is called baroque?

Composers most identified with the chamber music form are Corelli, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and, of course, Bach. Of course, Bach. If there is any one composer who gives us reason and emotion, it is Bach.

I've learned a lot from the masters of orchestration, like Ravel and Stravinsky.

I used to love Bach.

I have to tell you that J.S. Bach was easily the greatest musical innovator in the history of the world. He was so advanced for his time. There's a spiritual depth to his music. You can listen to it and it's like meditation.

I used to listen to a lot of Bach on the radio, and when the basses started to sing, it made everything complete - it made it all make sense.

Listen to the triple fugue in 'Magnificat' - the first subject is seven voices, the second one has 52 different voices, the third uses five; then I combine all together. Such textures you cannot call primitive.

The first music I got really into was Bach.

Chopin was a master of melody, harmony and voice leading - the art of smoothly moving from chord to chord.

Study Bach. There you will find everything.

Oh, you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you!

I love listening to classical music.

I like a composer called Henry Purcell, and I love to listen to Neil Young.

I love classical music; I love the way it's worked... all those chord sequences so I often use that sort of effect in my solos.

The blues are like the fugue in 18th century. It's probably the music that belongs most to our time.

When I was 12, I began listening to John Coltrane and I developed a love for jazz, which I still have more and more each year.

I listen to Bach a great deal. In general I like to listen to hymns and liturgical music.

I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.

I loved Art Tatum! And, through him, and other different jazz musicians, I actually found my technique.

My foundation is jazz. I do all the things jazz musicians do.

Even though the music I make gathers influences from all over the place, I feel that the core of what I do comes from the jazz tradition. In terms of improvisation, interaction, feel and overall concept, Jazz is my main source of information and inspiration.

When I started music, I started out in Puerto Rico with classical music. But what really made me want to be a musician was jazz, and because I didn't grow up with jazz, I had to learn it from a very basic level. I had to go into the history and learn everything about the development of the music, all the players and all that stuff.

I grew up in a family that was very musical, learned the blues and everything like that. And I became a little bit frustrated with the simplicity of rock n' roll and blues. I started listening to a lot of classical music - mainly Bach, Vivaldi.

I did a production called 'Classical Savion,' where I did some Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Bach, Vivaldi, and all these great pieces.