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
ignorance slavery
Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery
music play audience
We don't play to be seen. I'm addicted to music, not audiences.
play firsts figures
I'll play it first and figure out what it's called later.
art men america
Americans don't like any form of art, man. All they like to do is make money. They don't like me, Sammy Davis, or anybody else. They don't like nothing. They just like Sammy because he can make 'em a lot of money.
music men should
You should never be comfortable, man. Being comfortable fouled up a lot of musicians.
mean men white-man
I don't hold it against Dizzy [Gillespie], you know, but if a guy wants to play a certain way, you work towards that. If he stops - he's full of crap, you know. I mean, I wouldn't do it, for no money, or for no place in the white man's world. Not just to make money, because then you don't have anything. You don't have as much money as whoever you're trying to ape; that's making money by being commercial. Then you don't have anything to give the world; so you're not important. You might as well be dead.
life music beautiful
Do not fear mistakes. There are none.
attention nervous pay-attention
If you're not nervous then you're not paying attention.
art sacrifice men
If you sacrifice your art because of some woman, or some man, or for some color, or for some wealth, you can't be trusted.
silence important experience
In music, silence is more important than sound.
play four notes
You have to know 400 notes that you can play, then pick the right four.
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.
good-morning future creativity
I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.
music guitar self
Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.