Quotessence
Home / Authors / Miles Davis
Miles Davis

Miles Davis Quotes

Musician

Filter quotes by topic

AllJazzPlayIfsMusicKnowsI CanMenSoundMeanPeopleJazz MusicMusicianThinkingWantWayWhiteTryingGuyTempoMusic Is

Famous Miles Davis Quotes

“Audiences - they like colour, you know. I can go out there wearing a red suit, man, and they'll say I'm out of sight ... I think they should be educated; you should always drop something on an audience ... When you get in front of an audience, you should try to give 'em something. After all, they're there looking at you like this. You can't go out and give 'em nothing.”

ThinkingKnowsMenGivingShouldTryingI CanAudienceFrontsRedSightEducatedSuitsColourEms
Author:Miles Davis
Create image

“The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.”

ThinkingGivingI CanPlayGuyMovementPossibilityReturnGive MeInfiniteJazzTunesStringsFewerThickConventionalEmphasisChordsVariationInfinite Possibilities
Author:Miles Davis
Create image

“Birth of the Cool' became a collector's item, I think, out of a reaction to Bird and Dizzy's music. Bird and Diz played this hip, real fast thing, and if you weren't a fast listener, you couldn't catch the humor or the feeling in their music. Their musical sound wasn't sweet, and it didn't have harmonic lines that you could easily hum out on the street with your girlfriend trying to get over with a kiss.”

IfsThinkingTryingRealFeelingsSoundLinesStreetsSweetBirthKissingBirdMusicalReactionsHipsGirlfriendListenersGet OverItemsCollectorsDizzyYour Girlfriend
Book:Miles, the autobiography
Create image

“A lot of people ask me where music is going today. I think it's going in short phrases. If you listen, anybody with an ear can hear that. Music is always changing. It changes because of the times and the technology that's available, the material that things are made of, like plastic cars instead of steel. So when you hear an accident today it sounds different, not all the metal colliding like it was in the forties and fifties. Musicians pick up sounds and incorporate that into their playing, so the music that they make will be different.”

PeopleIfsThinkingMadeDifferentTodayAsksSoundTechnologyCarMaterialsMusicianMusic IsPicksEarsAvailableAccidentsAsk MePhrasesFortyMetalsPlasticSteel
Book:Miles
Create image

“See, if you put a musician in a place where he has to do something different from what he does all the time, then he can do that - but he's got to think differently in order to do it. He's got to play above what he knows - far above it. I've always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that's where great art and music happens.”

IfsThinkingKnowsDoeArtDifferentPlayHappensOrderCan DoBandMusicianNow And ThenGreat ArtAnything Can HappenArt And Music
Author:Miles Davis
Create image