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Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.

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
Musical
Streets
Taught
Anyone
Else
Monk
Music
Composition
Jazz
Street

More quotes by Miles Davis

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If you don't know what to play, play nothing.
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I really liked Wynton when I first met him. He's still a nice young man, only confused.
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When the band plays fast, you play slow when the band plays slow, you play fast.
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[Jazz musicians] feel comfortable with their clichés, you know.
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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.
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Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?
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In improvisation, there are no mistakes.
Miles Davis
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If you understood everything I say, you'd be me!
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Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.
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A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.
Miles Davis
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I don't wanna talk about Teo [Macero]. He's a helluva musician, a brilliant musician, but he's just not for me, that's all. I can elaborate on it, but I don't want to do that.
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I can tell. I'm gifted with that, you know. When I hear that the tempo is slightly off, it's hard for me.
Miles Davis
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People will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype.
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The reason [drummers] call things unison, and they sound unison, is because you actually play two different tempos . . . like you're a little sharp, or a little flat it's so slight that they call it unison, but it's not unison.
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As long as I've been playing, they never say I done anything. They always say that some white guy did it.
Miles Davis
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Always look ahead, but never look back.
Miles Davis
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You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.
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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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
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Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.
Miles Davis