Quote

Bebop didn't have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn't even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging — but they weren't sweet.

Miles Davis

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Didn
Challenging
Great
Weren
Even
Fantastic
Thing
Jazz
Ellington
Bird
Bebop
Sweet
Recognizable
Challenges
Duke
Humanity
Dukes

More quotes by Miles Davis

Image
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.
Miles Davis
Image
John Lee Hooker is the funkiest man alive
Miles Davis
Image
We're not going to play the blues anymore. Let the white folks play the blues. They got 'em, so they can keep 'em.
Miles Davis
Image
There are no wrong notes.
Miles Davis
Image
People will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype.
Miles Davis
Image
When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they're still here and passing it on to others.
Miles Davis
Image
Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery
Miles Davis
Image
Americans don't like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don't like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don't like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make 'em a lot of money.
Miles Davis
Image
The only way a drum machine will get out of beat is for you not to pay your electric bill.
Miles Davis
Image
You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
Miles Davis
Image
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.
Miles Davis
Image
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.
Miles Davis
Image
I've come close to matching the feeling of that night in 1944 in music, when I first heard Diz and Bird, but I've never got there. . . . I'm always looking for it, listening and feeling for it, though, trying to always feel it in and through the music I play everyday.
Miles Davis
Image
The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
Miles Davis
Image
I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.
Miles Davis
Image
You can tell whether a person plays well or not by the way he carries the instrument, whether it means something to him or not.
Miles Davis
Image
Music is the framework around the silence.
Miles Davis
Image
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.
Miles Davis
Image
It took me twenty years study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?
Miles Davis
Image
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.
Miles Davis