Ornette Coleman Quotes

"It's the hidden things, the subconscious that lies in the body and lets you know: you feel this, you play this." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"The idea is more important than the style or the contents of the style you're trying to play in." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"We in the Western world suffer from too many categories and classes; we've forgotten that we all still have diapers on. We've separated music from life." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"Musicians tell me, if what I'm doing is right, they should never have gone to school." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"I would like to play for audiences who are not using my music to stimulate their sex organs." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"You don't have to worry about being a number one, number two, or number three. Numbers don't have anything to do with placement. Numbers only have something to do with repetition." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"To me, human existence exists on a multiple level, not just on a two-dimensional level, not just having to be identified with what you do and what you say." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"That's why I haven't been so anxious. But now, lots of people write and say, 'I want to find out what you're doing.' So I know that this book will enlighten them." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"That's what I was trying to say when we were talking about sound. I think that every person, whether they play music or don't play music, has a sound - their own sound, that thing that you're talking about." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"So, for instance, if you came to me, I'd ask, 'Do you want to write? Do you want to improvise? Why do you want to play this instrument? What do you want to do?'" - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"Originally, I wanted to be a composer. I always tell people, 'I think of myself as a composer.'" - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"No one has to learn to spell to talk, right? You see a little kid holding a conversation with an adult. He probably doesn't know the words he's saying, but he knows where to fit them to make what he's thinking logical to what you're saying." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"Most of my relationships have been like that - with record companies. I've never had a legitimate business relationship with a company. I've always had a personal relationship with someone in the company." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"I've never had a relationship with a record executive. I always went to the record company by someone that liked my playing. Then they would get fired, and I'd be left with the record company. And then - because they got fired - the record company wouldn't do anything for me." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"I've had those people very interested in my writing. Since I think of myself as a composer, I feel really good. I've had lots of guys call me up. I've gotten two or three commissions to write things. I've written lots of movie scores." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"I've been playing with Blackwell over 20 years. We used to play when I first went to Los Angeles. Blackwell plays the drums as if he's playing a wind instrument. Actually, he sounds more like a talking drum." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something." - Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman Quotes

"It's just someone has labelled us as having a different label to do what you do. I find that labels are the worst thing in the world for artistic expression." - Ornette Coleman