Jazz Quotes

There are wonderful things in real jazz, the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.

Henri Matisse

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

Henri Matisse

Jazz is a music made by and for people who have chosen to feel good in spite of conditions.

Johnny Griffin

Jazz is the music of the body

Anais Nin

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

Duke Ellington

Jazz is the folk music of the machine age

Paul Whiteman

Jazz washes away the dust of every day life.

Art Blakey

Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread--without it, it's flat.

Carmen McRae

Boxing is like jazz, the better it is, the less people appreciate it.

George Foreman

I don't have a definition of jazz... You're just supposed to know it when you hear it.

Thelonious Monk

[Jazz singing] is like pornography. You can't say what it is, but you know it when you see it.

Kurt Elling

Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but is a gift that America has given the world.

Ahmad Alaadeen

...don't think of yourself as a jazz musician. Think of yourself as a human being who plays music.

Charlie Haden

Jazz is like a great void, it waits patiently until a brave musician takes control of space and time.

Chris Griffin

Jazz today, as always in the past, is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct.

Duke Ellington