D C DowDell

Play what you feel, feel what you play.

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

Practice as if you are the worst, play as if you are the best!

The true musician plays what he/she hears. That cannot be a mistake.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.

Jazz improvisation is the art of collective negotiated expression.

I thought I had swell ideas and wonderful musicians but no one else did.

Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

Jazz goes into my coffee in the morning, in my wine at night.

Django was the definitive genius on the guitar, and the depth of his gift was so spectacular.

When you begin to teach Jazz, the most dangerous thing is to teach style.

Jazz music is collective creativity.

It’s not that you want to sing, it’s that you have to sing.

Jazz is the assassination, the murdering, the slaying of syncopation. I would even go so far as to confess that we are musical anarchists.

The people who really got me off were dealing with the musical potential of their instrument.

Music’s a good thing, it calm the beast in the man.

We recorded to document ourselves, not to sell a lot of records.

Check out the albums, … Check out the live performances. That’s the reality of it all. Music is such an energizing thing.

I’ve worked with jazz artists, country artists, classical artists, pop artists. I never wanted there to be categories, because when I was a kid there weren’t.

Practice 15 or 20 years and then it comes out spontaneously.

Blues purists never cared for me. I don’t worry about it. I think if it this way: When I made ‘Three O’ Clock Blues,’ they were not there. The people out there made the tune. And blues purists just wrote about it. The people is who I’m trying to satisfy.