Christian McBride Quotes

"That’s when I left Philly, to move up here to New York City. I learned a lot at Juilliard. It was actually my original intention to have a dual career. I wanted to have a career playing as much music as possible. I wanted to try to play jazz if I could. I wanted to play classical. I wanted to play R&B. I wanted to try to play everything but, obviously, that would be really hard to do. I went to Juilliard, obviously on a classical scholarship. I figured I was in New York City, so I would get to go to jam sessions and play with all of the jazz cats at night, and I could study classical in school during the day. But, you know, one thing led to another, and I wound up getting a lot of gigs on the jazz scene, and I had to temporarily hang up my classical career." - Christian McBride

source: digitalinterviews.com

T Lavitz Quotes

"I started lessons down in the neighborhood from the local piano teacher when I was seven. The first thing I did was learn to read, and then study classical piano for ten years before I did anything else - about learning blues or how to jam. I had a really good structured background first." - T Lavitz

source: digitalinterviews.com

Doc Severinsen Quotes

"Personally, I think young musicians need to learn to play more than one style. Jazz can only enhance the classical side, and classical can only enhance the jazz. I started out playing classical, because you have to have that as a foundation." - Doc Severinsen

John Corigliano Quotes

"Jazz is not the popular culture. Jazz is in the same position in our culture as classical music. A very small minority of people really love it." - John Corigliano

Rahsaan Roland Kirk Quotes

"You don't see the European classical musicians allowing the music of Bach, Brahms, or Beethoven to become extinct. That music has gone on for centuries and centuries. We have the same obligation. Why do we have to become so 'hip' that we can say, 'Bebop is square,' or "New Orleans is square'? This, to me, is a shame." - Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Duke Ellington Quotes

"It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line." - Duke Ellington

Charles Mingus Quotes

"I'm too busy playing. When I'm playing I don't pay attention to who's listening. When I was listening I listened to symphony orchestras, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Stravinsky. You don't listen to one instrument; you listen to music." - Charles Mingus

Eberhard Weber Quotes

"I am a classical music lover - not necessarily the contemporary stuff, but the old stuff." - Eberhard Weber

Django Reinhardt Quotes

"Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn't have." - Django Reinhardt

Oscar Peterson Quotes

"I don't believe that a lot of the things I hear on the air today are going to be played for as long a time as Coleman Hawkins records or Brahms concertos." - Oscar Peterson

Sonny Rollins Quotes

"Even the most jingoistic person would have to admit that even American cultural music comes from Europe. That's what classical music is, real European music." - Sonny Rollins

Nina Simone Quotes

"When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist." - Nina Simone

Nina Simone Quotes

"Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world." - Nina Simone

Nina Simone Quotes

"I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important." - Nina Simone