Quote

I can't write anything for myself. I can write when I hear like [John] Coltrane play something I used to write chords and stuff for him to play in one bar. I can write for other people, but I don't never write for myself.

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
Never
Hear
Like
Write
People
Stuff
Used
Anything
Coltrane
Play
Chords
Writing
Bars
Something
John

More quotes by 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.
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Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
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In improvisation, there are no mistakes.
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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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I began to realize that some of the things Ornette Coleman had said about things being played three or fours ways, independently of each other, were true because Bach had also composed that way.
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Everybody ought to listen to Benny [Carter]. He's a whole musical education.
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Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.
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There are no wrong notes.
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Always look ahead, but never look back.
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You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
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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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Some of [drummers] drop time because they want to hear what you're doin'.
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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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The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas.
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If you have to ask, you'll never know.
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My ego only needs a good rhythm section
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Food makes my mind sluggish.
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That's the way you judge a car, man, [good or bad], when you start it up. It's just the same thing. I mean, I drive a Ferrari - not to be cute, but because I dig it. I'd rather drive a ten-year-old Ferrari than one of them new things-they don't go.
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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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I can tell. I'm gifted with that, you know. When I hear that the tempo is slightly off, it's hard for me.
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