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When I heard Coleman Hawkins, I learned to play ballads

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
Play
Hawkins
Coleman
Ballads
Learned
Heard

More quotes by Miles Davis

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The only way a drum machine will get out of beat is for you not to pay your electric bill.
Miles Davis
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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.
Miles Davis
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[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
Miles Davis
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Always listen for what you can leave out.
Miles Davis
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Food makes my mind sluggish.
Miles Davis
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The only reason to write a new song is because you're tired of the old ones.
Miles Davis
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I put all those synthesizer sounds behind Decoy and Code M.D. A lot of things we write together. A lot of things are his, but they don't have that thing I want on the bottom. I often tell him, I say, Bobby [Irving], if there's a melody, there's another one somewhere that goes with it.
Miles Davis
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Always look ahead, but never look back.
Miles Davis
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Maybe you play a melody twice. You play it once like you like it, and some parts that you don't like you can just switch. An eight-bar motive - you can just take it and put it in the front or back or something like that. It can save you 50 or 60 or 70,000 dollars, a drum machine. That's why everybody uses it.
Miles Davis
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If you got up on the bandstand at Minton's and couldn't play, you were not only going to be embarrassed by the people ignoring you or booing you, you might get your ass kicked.
Miles Davis
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You ever hear Buddy Miles play the drums? You know, he doesn't vary the tempo at all.
Miles Davis
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My father's rich, my momma's good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I've never suffered and don't intend to suffer.
Miles Davis
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Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it.
Miles Davis
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I usually write from the rhythm section...If a drummer got a funky beat on some things - like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or a backbeat that's even - I can write something.
Miles Davis
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If you have to ask, you'll never know.
Miles Davis
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If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that determines if it's good or bad.
Miles Davis
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Lionel [Richie] said, Yeah, I learned chords and stuff playin' against your albums.
Miles Davis
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Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.
Miles Davis
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When the band plays fast, you play slow when the band plays slow, you play fast.
Miles Davis
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You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.
Miles Davis