D C DowDell

Play what you feel, feel what you play.

Jazz improvisation is an elusive genius.

While many forms of music may use the dynamic of improvisation, Jazz exemplifies the unique characteristic of collective improvisation.

10% of musicians make 90% of the money, while the remaining 90% of musicians make the 10% that’s left.

Jazz improvisation is the art of drawing without an eraser.

If your dreams don’t scare you they’re not big enough!

Blow your life through your horn.

For most dates I was paid the sum of $1 per hr and they always tipped me at the end of the night.

I would like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age.

Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains.

One very important thing I learned from Monk was his complete dedication to music.

The great jazz instrumentalists taught me how to sing and interpret a song. they showed me how a horn can have as much personality as an actor.

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

I became a singer to sing my songs. They’re so hip who else is going to sing them?

You don’t have to be Picasso or Rembrandt to create something. The fun of it, the joy of creating, is way high above anything else to do with the art form.

Jazz music today is from the head and not the heart.

I am an improviser, I improvise music. Whatever you want to call it, it’s all improvised music. I may capture it and go back and write it down for others, but it was originally improvised.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

Music was our wife, and we loved her. And we stayed with her, and we clothed her, and we put diamond rings on her hands.

Improvising musicians are musical travelers, voyagers. There is a freedom to wander the musical landscape.

What I’m doing, I prefer to call that jazz, because it is a beautiful word – I love it.