Rakim Quotes

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.

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 cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

When you think about John Coltrane, in my opinion - and I think I share this opinion with a lot of people - his approach to music changed other people's approach to music.

I hear many extra-musical things somehow in Coltrane.

I think John Coltrane is one of the great American heroes, like Abraham Lincoln and Emily Dickinson.

If he's a true symphony artist, he knows better than that because he knows that the only truly creative musician is the jazz musician.

Bill Evans is a real serious jazz pianist who, in my book, crossed over boundaries in terms of color. He used the piano as his canvas.

Grover Washington was my main influence, and when I went to college, I started listening to more of the jazz masters like Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, and John Coltrane.

When I came out of the conservatory, the first thing I did was to go see Thelonious Monk.

I always tell people that, just to be a bad jazz musician, you have to be better than most musicians. The worst jazz musicians are normally better than most musicians, because you have to know so much.

I love guys like Charlie Parker.

I went to jazz school. Not to say I'm a great jazz musician, but I studied under some great teachers. It was an important part of my life.

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

There have been many great musicians that, Clifford Brown is one great example, I mean he died very early, 25.

One of the things that I loved about listening to Miles Davis is that Miles always had an instinct for which musicians were great for what situations. He could always pick a band, and that was the thing that separated him from everybody else.

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

When I found the music of Monk I finally found music that fit that horn. Every one of his tunes fit it perfectly.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

I think that people should learn about that. In most music, there's one way that you do something, and that's the only way. In jazz, it's a lot different.

In my view a jazz musician is a great musician.

I heard Mr. Wild Bill Davis. I heard him play in 1930 and he told me that it would take me fifteen years just to learn the pedals, the pedals of the organ and I got mad.

At a certain point, I became a kind of musician that has tunnel vision about jazz. I only listened to jazz and classical music.

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.

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.