D C DowDell

Jazz music has always made powerful statements about freedom, creativity and personal identity.

It is better to be felt than to be heard.

Jazz has evolved with an inner necessity characteristic of any true art form.

Jazz improvisation is an elusive genius.

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

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

I can play all I know in eight bars.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

All of the technique doesn’t matter… only if the feeling is right.

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

Black and white players hadn’t appeared together in public before Teddy Wilson and I began working with B.G.

Why Jazz? This is just the way I see music.

I can’t understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out and look at it?

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

I’m always looking for ways to develop as a Jazz artist, to find different ways of using my voice.

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

You can have tone and technique but without originality you ain’t really nowhere. Gotta be original.

People complain about the music industry, but this is a great time to be a musician.

The majority of people mistakenly feel they don’t need a live musical experience.

When you just get mixed up and there’s too much going on, then it’s time to pick up your guitar.