Tom Verlaine Quotes

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.

I hear many extra-musical things somehow in Coltrane.

My playing started to develop through the Miles Davis stuff I was listening to.

I learned my phrasing from Frank. I loved him so much.

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.

The only element of jazz that I keep is improvisation.

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.

My father was a jazz tenor sax player. He played in a lot of big bands. So I had that sound around me all the time. The first record that really caught my ear was Clifford Brown's 'Brownie Eyes.' I grew up listening to John Coltrane and Illinois Jacquet. This is where I come from... I love improvisational music.

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

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.

If I'm going to be a jazz player, I need to understand Miles Davis.

Out of Coltrane's whole history, there are things which I think are great from all the periods.

For some reason at 12 or 13, I just heard Gerry Milligan and fell in love with that, whatever it was called.

Jazz is very important. It's not something I can put my finger on. When I'm writing at my favorite time, I like to have the gentle side of Coltrane or Brubeck on the CD player. It creates sort of a spiritual space in which I write best.

I grew up listening to Puerto Rican music like everybody else. But when I listened to Charlie Parker for the first time, I said, 'How does this guy play so fast?'

Actually, a lot of my influences were horn players. I really liked Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane and Miles Davis - people like that. My dad had a lot of those records. So when I started playing jazz primarily, it wasn't jazz guitar that I was listening to.

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

One thing about playing the real jazz is that you can't count it.

I have tons of jazz records: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis. I could go on and on.

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

Jazz was more of a tool for me to use to enhance my musicality.

And I played in jazz band as well during all three years in school.

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.

In jazz, there is a lot of European influence harmonically.