Lizz Wright Quotes

After I exhausted the blues thing, I got into jazz.

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

Everybody in all countries tries to play jazz.

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.

I listen to jazz mainly. Mainstream jazz.

I've played with all of the heavyweights in the modern jazz, progressive jazz movement. I've been fortunate enough to play with them, a who's who. All of those guys, I've been fortunate enough to have performed with.

The first thing is, jazz is one of the few things to let you know that there is a God and there is a creation.

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.

Sometimes you need to stand with your nose to the window and have a good look at jazz. And I've done that on many occasions.

So I went into jazz and performed in jazz clubs all over the country.

I was exposed to jazz early on.

When I was coming up, a lot of serious jazz players couldn't stand funk.

I'm an old Coltrane disciple just like I'm a Christian.

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

The first time I listened to jazz was when I was 8.

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be some jazz.

There was a period which I refer to as the 'Golden Age of Jazz,' which sort of encompasses the middle Thirties through the Sixties, we had a lot of great innovators, all creating things which will last the world for a long, long time.

As late as the early '50s, jazz was still, for the most part, a genuinely popular music, a utilitarian, song-based idiom to which ordinary people could dance if they felt like it.

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

I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp... I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn't necessarily the blues.

I grew up listening to John Coltrane and jazz, so they were subtle influences. I sometimes think about doing some kind of weird jazz record, but I don't know... It's on my list of things to do. I don't want to have to then go promote it.

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.

All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues.

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.

Jazz is an art that takes decades to appreciate and understand.