Chick Corea Quotes

"A quality; an unexplainable, spiritual quality that creative people have, that is just inspiring, and there's no way to really describe it, except that you feel invigorated, and you want to create yourself. The arts, I feel in general, are the last bastion of that on planet Earth anyway. It's like a pinhole left on planet Earth -- of the arts, which is the idea of creativity, which is the idea of the use of the imagination in order to make up things that you present to other people, for only the purpose of wanting them to experience it. And experience the pleasure of it." - Chick Corea

source: digitalinterviews.com

Artie Shaw Quotes

"I'm not conditioned to be an entertainer. An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself. The problem with that is artists are misunderstood by all. I'm not interested in the clarinet but in music. we speak our emotions into music. An artist should write for himself and not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away. My situation is the same. Let them concentrate on my music and not on me. I like the music. I love it and live it, in fact. But for me, the business part of music just plain stinks." - Artie Shaw

source: Artie Shaw's commencement speech entitled 'Three Chords For Beauty And One To Pay The Rent', given to the graduates at California Lutheran University, 1987.

Bill Evans Quotes

"I love impressionists. I love Debussy. He's one of my favorite composers. I'm not crazy about painting, but if I was, I would prefer the Impressionists. Sometimes, I feel like I'm living two hundred years behind, back in the eighteenth century, not in the twentieth. So I don't know if I'm an impressionist or not. I have the desire to change, but I feel I can't as long as I'm not able to replace what I'm doing by something better. I haven't found anything better yet, so I'm satisfied with what I have." - Bill Evans

source: Interview with Jazz Magazine (France), 1965

Dave Liebman Quotes

"Art is constant tension and release. That is where artists live, between the two, or at times, submerged in either. The challenge is never ending perfection is impossible, it could always be different, better, or worse. It's not important, just process and striving to be like the man who walks the trapeze maintaining balance." - Dave Liebman

Bud Freeman Quotes

"I believe a great jazz musician is no different from a great artist in any of the arts. If he hadn't been a player he would have written a poem or acted in a play or painted a picture. How many times have we heard musicians say: 'I couldn't make a living so I got out of the business'? A real artist couldn't have said that. He has to play as he has to breathe." - Bud Freeman

John McLaughlin Quotes

"There are two kinds of success. One is musical or artistic and the other is commercial." - John McLaughlin

Herbie Hancock Quotes

"Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music." - Herbie Hancock

Bill Evans Quotes

"My creed for art in general is that it should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise, a part of yourself you never knew existed." - Bill Evans

Duke Ellington Quotes

"Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it." - Duke Ellington

Chick Corea Quotes

"It's very difficult for me to dislike an artist. No matter what he's creating, the fact that he's experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we're in a brotherhood of some kind... we're in it together." - Chick Corea

Chick Corea Quotes

"Art is a subject that is inundated with opinions. In fact, that's all it is about is opinions." - Chick Corea

Charlie Parker Quotes

"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art." - Charlie Parker