Charlie Haden Quotes

I continued studying by myself in the field of jazz with my own technique of improvisation, walking bass lines, rhythms, all kinds of stuff, which I created for myself.

Teddy Wilson, I think, said a little while ago that it's much easier to come in and play whatever comes into your mind, without obeying any of the laws of bass line and harmony and so on.

Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.

You have to know composition to be a good improviser.

A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

When I play, I stare at the left hand of whoever is playing lead. And I get to know what people are playing well enough that when they start going somewhere, once they arrive, I'm already there.

There is no roles. No one is keeping any roles. The drummer is also answering everybody and everything. So it is a constant conversation and communication between musicians on an extremely high level with extremely valuable material, motifs, and melodies.

I use a lot of tunings because I listen to a lot of jazz.

You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That's jazz.

I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

There's a richness to the old works if you look before the 1950s. The chord progressions and the language was more complicated, especially in the jazz and classical world.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don't fit in a very interesting way.

Bernstein grew up in my building in New York. He's a very, very fine player. When he was a kid, he came by to find out what was going on in the world of jazz.

I think jazz is a wonderful learning tool.

I don't want to do free jazz! Because free jazz - which is the musical equivalent of free marketeering - isn't actually free at all. It's just constrained by what your muscles can do.

I've met a lot of jazz musicians in my day, and they're all funny.

As far as other instrumentalists, I used to love mellow sax players like Paul Desmond. I love piano.

In my view a jazz musician is a great musician.

Many people don't understand how disciplined you have to be to play jazz... And that is really the idea of democracy - freedom within the Constitution or discipline. You don't just get out there and do anything you want.

As far as I'm concerned, the essentials of jazz are: melodic improvisation, melodic invention, swing, and instrumental personality.

I think jazz is actually quite unforgiving in its disdain for nostalgia. It demands creativity and change at its highest level.

People who don't do jazz think it's black magic. But really, it's just a matter of getting used to it. It's fun to gamble. The trick is not to fall back on the things you've done before.

If it has more than three chords, it's jazz.

I think that the jazzy approach that I have is based on the way that I hear music and in the way I play a supporting role to the other people in the band.