Miles Davis Quotes

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

source: Interview with Leonard Feather, Down Beat (May 25, 1961)

Miles Davis Quotes

"Philly Joe [Jones] was a bitch. If he'd been a lawyer and white, he would have been president of the United States, because in order to get there you gotta talk fast and carry a lot of bullshit with you; Philly had it all and a lot to spare." - Miles Davis

Miles Davis Quotes

"I remember one time - it might have been a couple times - at the Fillmore East in 1970, I was opening for this sorry-ass cat named Steve Miller. Steve Miller didn't have his shit going for him, so I'm pissed because I got to open for this non-playing motherfucker just because he had one or two sorry-ass records out. So I would come late and he would have to go on first and then we got there we smoked the motherfucking place, everybody dug it." — Miles Davis

Miles Davis Quotes

"You can't compete with Sweets' sound and time feel. It's impossible." - Miles Davis (on Sweets Edison)

Miles Davis Quotes

Eric Dolphy. See, when he got on the bass clarinet, he sounded different. You can take a guy off a trumpet, put him on a bass trumpet, and he plays different. Take a guitar player that you think is bad, and put him on electric bass — that does the trick." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"If you're trying to be hip, be hip." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"Dave [Holland] plays the way he wants to play. And it's usually what's needed. You know, Dave is such a deep thinker. You can't tell him too much, else it might spoil his spirit, you know." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"You see, women usually make the men satisfied and contented. Bitches like to feel good, have their back rubbed at the same time, look good in the latest clothes, have their man where they want him. You know, they like the comfort. Then, when you come on the stage they want that same thing. They don't want to have to think, or follow you. If they don't like you right away by the way you look, or something, they won't go for you. W Guys should stay away from women—that comfort thing. There's too much crap going on in the world that you're supposed to be comfortable. You've got to be on your toes. You can't just stand—because they're fighting somewhere, man, and it's pretty messy." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"Audiences — they like colour, you know. I can go out there wearing a red suit, man, and they'll say I'm out of sight ... I think they should be educated; you should always drop something on an audience ... When you get in front of an audience, you should try to give 'em something. After all, they're there looking at you like this. You can't go out and give 'em nothing." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"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." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"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." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"I'm not messing around with nobody's woman. If I want a woman I go get her - you know what I mean?" - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"I'm out there doing the best that I can, My lip is cut and I'm still playing." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"I mean, it makes me sick when I see a white man sitting there smiling at me being entertaining, man. When I know what he's gonna do after he gets through. You know, when you see that thing on their face — like: "Entertain me." You know what I mean? Even the black guy that's trying to be white — even he can have that crap on his face." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"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

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that he should stop using it." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"I used to enjoy all the white bands when I was a kid listening to the radio. But the record companies, they take music and label it — like, they say "rock". Because the white singers can't sound like James Brown, they call him "soul". They've been doing that for years. That's the prejudice crap." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"Tom Jones is funny to me, man. I mean, he really tries to ape Ray Charles and Sammy Davis, you know. He's nice–looking; he looks good doing it. I mean, if I was him, I'd do the same thing. If I was only thinking about making money." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969

Miles Davis Quotes

"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." - Miles Davis

source: Interview with Les Tomkins, 1969