Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis IIIwas an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music. With his ever-changing directions in music, Davis was at the forefront of a number of major stylistic developments in jazz over his five-decade career...
ProfessionTrumpet Player
Date of Birth26 May 1926
CityAlton, IL
thinking funny-things music-is
Music is a funny thing when you really come to think about it.
thinking fifty should
I think every Negro over fifty should get a medal for putting up with all that crap.
men thinking sight
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.
thinking play giving
The music has gotten thick. Guys give me tunes and they're full of chords. I can't play them...I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords, and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variation. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.
mean thinking white
White folks always think that you have to have a label on everything - you know what I mean?
technology thinking people
A lot of people ask me where music is going today. I think it's going in short phrases. If you listen, anybody with an ear can hear that. Music is always changing. It changes because of the times and the technology that's available, the material that things are made of, like plastic cars instead of steel. So when you hear an accident today it sounds different, not all the metal colliding like it was in the forties and fifties. Musicians pick up sounds and incorporate that into their playing, so the music that they make will be different.
thinking play pay
I don't pay no attention to what critics say about me, the good or the bad. The toughest critic I got is myself...and I'm too vain to play anything I think is bad.
art thinking order
See, if you put a musician in a place where he has to do something different from what he does all the time, then he can do that - but he's got to think differently in order to do it. He's got to play above what he knows - far above it. I've always told the musicians in my band to play what they know and then play above that. Because then anything can happen, and that's where great art and music happens.
building fun goes people realize teams work
The teams had to use 20 or more steps, but all of them used many more than that. It is fun and exciting, but most people don't realize how much work goes into building a Rube Goldberg machine.
blow business minding ought says trying
I was minding my own business when something says to me, ""you ought to blow trumpet."" I have just been trying ever since.
blow dominate game hard people runners work
You can dominate a game if you dominate on the line, ... We're just going to have to go out there and work hard and blow people off the ball, and let our runners do what they do best.
beginning chance davis icon miles songs unique
Of course, because I was at the beginning of my career. For me, as a musician, to have a chance for an icon like Miles Davis to play on one of my songs was something unique and unbelievable.
american-musician
I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.
american-musician
I'll play it and tell you what it is later.