Patti Smith Quotes

Music begins where words leave off. Music expresses the inexpressible. If there is a Kingdom of Heaven, it lies in music.

That's the thing about jazz: it's free flowing, it comes from your soul.

When I'd hear something that sounded like I could follow it - most of those big band jazz tunes are blues anyway - I would hum it and play with the fiddle while I was humming.

I used to be just a total jazz freak. People used to say, 'Where's the melody? Is there a melody in there anywhere?' Now I let the music follow the song.

I try to make my flow sound like a John Coltrane solo.

Needless to say, anybody who can stumble through a C-major scale knows that Art Tatum always gave his audiences 10 times their money's worth.

I like what Oliver Lakes does on the saxophone. The saxophone comes pretty close to the sound of the human voice and when Oliver plays with other sax players, it's like a dialogue.

I wanted my voice to be a tenor sax, really.

As far as playing jazz, no other art form, other than conversation, can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction.

As a matter of fact, we put it down because we wanted to be jazz pickers.

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

In some ways, jazz is the most precise of art forms and the loosest in the sense that it's all about improvisation, but the musicianship required is kind of insane. To actually play with real jazz musicians is a different level of musicianship that almost has no equal in any other form of music in the world.

You need better technique than I have to play jazz, but what you have to do is the same thing, isn't it?

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

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

I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it. I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes that were being used. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing.

Fats - very funny man, but every note that he played was like a pearl.

In essence, I feel I'm more jazz guitar player because I write vehicles geared for improvisation.

Jazz has a tradition that has enriched the culture in America. The intellectualism of it does nothing but make you think on a higher level and make you a better person if you engage in the music and let it do what it does when it is played at its highest level.

Truth of the matter is, jazz is American music. And that doesn't mean bebop. Jazz is really about improvising. All the music that's been created in America has been pretty much improvised... Whether it's hillbilly or rock n' roll for blues, it's basically jazz music... It's basically about another way of hearing what comes out of America.

What I love about jazz is the improvisation, the fact that you never know what's going to happen next.

For me, jazz offers so much freedom in the way the music can be interpreted. It's natural to me. It's where I feel most free.

People think jazz music is all standards and the Great American Songbook. But it's really about the sensibility, the feel you bring to the music.

I consider myself a jazz singer. I think I stick to the roots of improvisation, singing in front of the beat, behind the beat, playing with notes and harmonies.