I just don’t know anything about jazz, really. I’ve never really listened to it, but I’d definitely like to discover more about it. – Michelle Ryan
You know I want to sing for people, I want to jazz people up I want to make new music that they’ve never heard. – Casey Abrams
Jazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty. – Max Roach
The history of all big jazz bands shows was, first they played for dancing, and then they played for singing. – Norman Granz
I love the sounds of Latin jazz, R&B, hip-hop, alternative, all that stuff. I’m a radio kid. – Mario Vazquez
I never wanted to sound clean and pretty. In jazz, I felt I could sing these deep, husky lows if I want and then these really tiny laser highs if I want as well. – Cecile McLorin Salvant
I do like classical music, and soft rock, and jazz, which I never listened to when I was 15. Now I like it. The older you get, the more tolerant you get, right? – Dmitry Medvedev
I used to be a jazz snob, believe it or not. I sort of turned my nose up at anything more commercial. – Norah Jones
In jazz, you listen to what the bass player is doing and what the drummer is doing, what the pianist and the guitarist is doing, and then you play something that compliments that, so you are thinking simultaneously and thinking ahead. – David Amram
So many people report to be contemporary dancers, and they’re not. They are sort of jazz dancers that feel like they’re throwing a bit of classical in there. I mean, a true contemporary dancer has got ballet as their base and classical ballet, and that is their base. And then they choose to extemporize on that and go into a contemporary world. – Nigel Lythgoe
I like to say, jazz music is kind of like my musical equivalent of comfort food. You know, it’s always where I go back to when I just want to feel sort of grounded. – Molly Ringwald
There are a few things that I will hopefully be credited for as a pioneer. One is my four-mallet playing. Another one is the starting what was first called jazz rock in 1967 when I started my first band, later became jazz fusion by the 1970s. – Gary Burton
For me writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz. – Francoise Sagan
I continued studying by myself in the field of jazz with my own technique of improvisation, walking bass lines, rhythms, all kinds of stuff, which I created for myself. – Miroslav Vitous
Well, I guess my unease with that is… I’m always a little uneasy with that phrase – smooth jazz, as opposed to what? – David Sanborn
Giving jazz the Congressional seal of approval is a little like making Huck Finn an honorary Boy Scout. – Melvin Maddocks
Most of the people that I learned and experienced jazz with have been with foreign white people, mostly from France. Excluding my family. – Cecile McLorin Salvant
Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz. – Cassandra Wilson
I listened to Billie Holiday a lot in order to learn to sing. She remains one of the extraordinary jazz singers. But my intent is to become my own voice, to be able to interpret these songs in my own way. – Madeleine Peyroux
When I was doing jazz concerts in America, I would use the biggest names I could find. – Norman Granz
