Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it. – Steve Lacy
In Malaysia, we have a lot of divas, like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey singers. And they were all so so talented, just very talented. For example, there’s this one jazz singer, her name is Sheila Majid, and I was always singing her songs. – Yuna
You had many jazz musicians who lived in the United States, who had a hard time being accepted over here and had to play in sort of these inferior type dives. – Sonny Rollins
My big influences are Joni Mitchell, and a lot of classical and Indian music, as well as Nina Simone and the personal blues and jazz of Billie Holiday. Other influences for me include Bjork, Nick Drake, and Sufjan Stevens. – Yael Naim
Jazz came out of New Orleans, and that was the forerunner of everything. You mix jazz with European rhythms, and that’s rock n’ roll, really. You can make the argument that it all started on the streets of New Orleans with the jazz funerals. – The Edge
Jazz has been such a force in music, that any musician, including classical composers, have been influenced, and obviously performers, also. – Yo-Yo Ma
I think my knowledge of music theory is rooted in jazz theory, and a lot of the writers of standards – Rodgers and Hart, and Gershwin. – Zooey Deschanel
Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It’s a 12-bar form that’s played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that’s been used by rock n’ roll. It’s related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition. – Wynton Marsalis
I wanted to keep pushing the musical ideas I had about jazz, music from Africa and the Caribbean. – Taj Mahal
I enjoy playing clubs. I still enjoy the closeness of the nightclub venue. However, after a certain period of time and after playing around some of the clubs in New YorkI felt that jazz should be presented in a more prestigious atmosphere. – Sonny Rollins
In the ’60s, people were still very protective of each field that they belonged to. Avant-garde artists didn’t know about rock or pop or jazz. And the jazz people of course didn’t want to know about any other music. They were all just kind of protecting their territory. – Yoko Ono
I grew up listening to Beethoven and old jazz singers like Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Anita O’Day. But those were, like, the only women I listened to – I hated women pop singers. – Sophie B. Hawkins
I began with dance, doing ballet at 3, then tap, jazz, modern. Then I sang in church choirs, learned how to play clarinet and drums, sang with rock bands and only then did I get into musical theatre. – Samantha Barks
I have tons of jazz records: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis. I could go on and on. – Ted King
Actors have to make you believe that it’s happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you. – Tom Sizemore
I’m very influenced by jazz drummers. I always liked drummers like Roger Taylor, Keith Moon, Ian Paice, John Densmore. I just learned from playing to those drummers. – Steven Adler
I have always been a person who is concerned with the dignity of jazz music and the way jazz musicians have been treated and are treated, and the fact that the music has not been given the kind of due that it deserves. – Sonny Rollins
I stayed with them for about a year up there and, at night, worked over in Long Island at a club called The High Hat Club which was like a pseudo jazz / blues place. – William Bell