Quote

Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.

Miles Davis

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Miles Davis
Age: 65 †
Born: 1926
Born: May 26
Died: 1991
Died: September 28
Actor
Autobiographer
Bandleader
Composer
Conductor
Film Score Composer
Jazz Musician
Musician
Recording Artist
Songwriter
Television Actor
Alton
Illinois
Miles Dewey Davis III
Miles Dewey Davis
III Davis
Percent
Attitude
Play
Motherfucker
Note
Plays
Notes
Anybody

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Lionel [Richie] said, Yeah, I learned chords and stuff playin' against your albums.
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To keep creating you have to be about change.
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Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
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I can hear what I want [people] to play. If you don't hear what you want someone to play, then you can't tell 'em.
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You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.
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I know what I've done for music, but don't call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.
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If you had to call it unison, it ain't unison. It ain't the same as somebody else. If you can hear that it's unison, and you have to name it something other than unison, it ain't unison, you know what I mean? It's two guys playin', but one guy is playin' slightly out of tune, one is playin' slightly off meter.
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I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it - like, they say rock. Because the white singers can't sound like James Brown, they call him soul. They've been doing that for years. That's the prejudice crap.
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When I heard Coleman Hawkins, I learned to play ballads
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In other words, an instrument should be an extension of you it's supposed to sound like you - the way you walk, the way you dress, you know.
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I would never try and play like Harry James, because I don't like his tone - for me. It's just white. You know what I mean? He has what we black trumpet players call a white sound. But it's for white music ... I can tell a white trumpet player, just listening to a record. There'll be something he'll do that'll let me know that he's white.
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A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.
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Everybody ought to listen to Benny [Carter]. He's a whole musical education.
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We're not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got 'em, so they can keep 'em.
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You can't play anything on a horn that Louis Armstrong hasn't played
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What's swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don't have to ask anybody if that's good music or not. You can always feel it.
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The only way a drum machine will get out of beat is for you not to pay your electric bill.
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I've gotten hernias from drummers when they drop tempo.
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Tom Jones is funny to me, man. I mean, he really tries to ape Ray Charles and Sammy Davis, you know. He's nice-looking he looks good doing it. I mean, if I was him, I'd do the same thing. If I was only thinking about making money.
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I gave the album [You're Under Arrest] to Quincy Jones and he loved D Train. We couldn't call it D Train it's called MDI/Something's On Your Mind/MD2. That's on the album.
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