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Everybody ought to listen to Benny [Carter]. He's a whole musical education.

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
Listen
Ought
Education
Everybody
Whole
Benny
Carter

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The only reason to write a new song is because you're tired of the old ones.
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Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
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Trane was the perfect saxophonist for Monk's music because of the space that Monk always used. Trane could fill up all that space with all them chords and sounds he was playing then.
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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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Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent.
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Jazz musicians are so comfortable. The reason they can't do what we do is because they're so comfortable doin' what they do.
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In respect for drummers, see, I love drummers.
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You ever hear Buddy Miles play the drums? You know, he doesn't vary the tempo at all.
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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.
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Keith, how does it feel to be a genius?
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Sometimes [playing free] doesn't happen, because maybe a guy's wife'll come in, you know, and his ego will catch him. If everybody's completely just straight-without any old ladies over here, a fourth of whisky over there if it's balanced right, it'll come off. It has to be. But when you get egos involved with playing free, you can't do it.
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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 know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
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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Don't worry about playing a lot of notes. Just find one pretty one.
Miles Davis
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Somebody, my daughter or my wife, gave me a music box for Christmas. It plays My Funny Valentine on celeste, you know? So I had Bobby [Irving] just play Jean Pierre with the changes on celeste.
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Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.
Miles Davis
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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.
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If you understood everything I say, you'd be me!
Miles Davis