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You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.

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
Picks
Notes
Four
Play
Right
Pick

More quotes by Miles Davis

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That's the way women do. The frown. They want to give you the attitude to approach them back, by giving you a negative vibe.
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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.
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Food makes my mind sluggish.
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When we edit the music, I always remember, It's my band. Save me a place to play.
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Always listen for what you can leave out.
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I said to [Lionel] Richie, Man, my wife says you must really respect women because you write such beautiful love songs.
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I keep telling Ron Lorman and them in the control room, It's my band! The reason I have a band is because I can't stand for somebody to tell me what to do.
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I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.
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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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Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around.
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He sounded to me like he's supposed to be the savior of jazz. Sometimes people speak as though someone asked them a question. Well, no one asked him a question.
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There are no wrong notes.
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When kids don't learn about their own heritage in school, they just don't care about school... But you won't see it in the history books unless we get the power to write our own history and tell our story ourselves.
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Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.
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If you have a tone like mine that is recognizable. No matter what I play, when you hear my tone you can tell it's me.
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Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
Miles Davis
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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.
Miles Davis
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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.
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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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.
Miles Davis