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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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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
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More quotes by Miles Davis

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Jazz is like blues with a shot of heroin!
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There are no wrong notes.
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You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.
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People will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype.
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Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.
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If you have to ask, you'll never know.
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Sometimes, if you ask people to go downstairs and get me this or that, they'll say, It's rainin or It might rain, or There's some bumpy roads on the road, or bla-bla-bla. They give you all those excuses, so when they do something which is easy, you're supposed to say, Damn, you did that?
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A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.
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When I heard Coleman Hawkins, I learned to play ballads
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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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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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The only way a drum machine will get out of beat is for you not to pay your electric bill.
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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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To keep creating you have to be about change.
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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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When we edit the music, I always remember, It's my band. Save me a place to play.
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 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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In high school I was best in music class on the trumpet, but the prizes went to the boys with blue eyes. I made up my mind to outdo anybody white on my horn.
Miles Davis
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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.
Miles Davis