Miguel Zenon Quotes

My father is a jazz musician, so I grew up hearing jazz. My parents loved it, but I didn't like it. It went on for too long. Yes, I had certain teachers that really inspired me, like Danny Barker, and John Longo. And I had no idea that I would have any impact on jazz.

I don't think that jazz, as any kind of an art form, has any permanence attached to it, apart from the practitioners of it.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.

I was really trying to sell to people who hate jazz: to make a case for the art form as youthful and energetic, not the sort of rarified intellectual activity it's painted as.

The people in Japan know more about the history of jazz and the musicians than the people in the United States do.

I didn't grow up during the time that Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis and all those people were playing. So it's not really my responsibility to keep it up, what they were doing.

Jazz is not the kind of music you are going to learn to play in three or four years or that you can just get because you have some talent for music.

I think jazz is a wonderful learning tool.

When I began listening to saxophones, I was first attracted to Coleman Hawkins.

I still love the whole history of jazz. The old things sound better than ever.

We don't live in a jazz world, unfortunately. I think if I had lived in a jazz world, I would have done OK. I'm not sure I would have done great. I'm a lover of jazz music, so I would have been happy, don't get me wrong. I go to jazz concerts like the biggest jazz fan in world. The drag is that I don't play jazz for a living.

The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame will provide a center where the lives and the artistry of the greatest jazz musicians will be celebrated, and where people will come to learn about jazz, something to which my brother devoted his life's work.

The stories from 1975 on are not finished and there is no resolve. I could spend 50 hours on the last 25 years of jazz and still not do it justice.

I got a chance to listen to and watch Thelonious Monk and his quartet play two shows a night, for six weeks. It was a great education. There was my university, man.

I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.

I never studied jazz technically; I just know and love the music.

The month of September is Women in Jazz, so I'm doing jazz there in September. I'm in for the duration.

I think 'Horace Silver' was actually the first live jazz group I ever heard back when I was a kid in St. Louis. So along with most players of my generation, I have a real affection for the music of 'Horace Silver.'

I grew up around jazz. I love jazz.

We are serious about our music here in Philadelphia, and jazz has meant a lot to this city.

I've been around jazz and jazz musicians most of my life.

Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does.

Jazz is very much a part of my life. I work with the Thelonious Monk Institute and do the artwork for their program every year.

I love classical jazz.