What’s swinging in words? If a guy makes you pat your foot and if you feel it down your back, you don’t have to ask anybody if that’s good music or not. You can always feel it.
For me, music and life are all about style.
My father’s rich, my momma’s good looking. Right? And I can play the Blues. I’ve never suffered and don’t intend to suffer.
Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.
My ego only needs a good rhythm section.
I can tell whether a person can play just by the way he stands.
First you imitate, then you innovate.
I ain’t no entertainer, and ain’t trying to be one. I am one thing, a musician.
If you have to ask, you’ll never know.
A legend is an old man with a cane known for what he used to do. I’m still doing it.
You know why I quit playing ballads? Cause I love playing ballads.
Always look ahead, but never look back.
At least one day out of the year all musicans should just put their instruments down, and give thanks to Duke Ellington.
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.
I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.
I don’t like to hear someone put down dixieland. Those people who say there’s no music but bop are just stupid; it shows how much they don’t know.
You can’t eat a winner’s plaque.
The only reason to write a new song is because you’re tired of the old ones.
A painting is music you can see and music is a painting you can hear.
Look, man, all I am is a trumpet player.