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I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

John Coltrane

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John Coltrane
Age: 40 †
Born: 1926
Born: September 23
Died: 1967
Died: July 17
Bandleader
Composer
Conductor
Jazz Musician
Musician
Saxophonist
Hamlet
North Carolina
Trane
John William Coltrane
St. John Will-I-Am Coltrane
Thinking
Bird
Structures
Aspect
Awakened
Learn
Theoretical
Music
Exploration
Firsts
Aspects
First
Began
Work
Musical
Gillespie
Think
Structure
Dizzy

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I'd like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.
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Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.
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Considering the great heritage in music that we have - the work of the giants of the past, the present, and the promise of those who are to come - I feel that we have every reason to face the future optimistically.
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If you're bourgeois, money is it. It's all the questions and all the answers. Ain't no E-flat or color blue, only $12.98 or $1,000. If it isn't money, it isn't nothing.
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My goal is to live the truly religious life, and express it in my music. If you live it, when you play there's no problem because the music is part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being.
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Change is inevitable in music - things change.
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There is never any end... There are always new sounds to imagine new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state.
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Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.
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All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.
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I want to be a force for real good. In other words, I know there are bad forces. You know, I know that there are forces out here that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.
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All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.
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I'm into scales right now.
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Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.
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...That is one of the main causes of this arrogance: the idea of power. Then you lose your true power which is to be part of all, and the only way you can be part of all is to understand it. And when you don't understand, you have to go humbly to it. You don't go to school and say, 'I know what you're going to teach me'.
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Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock 'n' roll band.
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God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.
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Damn the rules, it's the feeling that counts.
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Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.
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My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups...I want to speak to their souls.
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I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing . . . the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood.
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