D C DowDell

It’s spontaneity that has always characterized Jazz music’s finest improvisers.

While many attempts have been made to define Jazz, what’s the point really. Jazz is to be experienced – period.

From hard rhythms of Be-bop, the mellow harmonies of Cool, to atonal forays of Free and the Straight Ahead delivery of Modern, it’s all Jazz.

Learn the tunes by playing the masters, learn expression by playing yourself.

Jazz improvisation is the art of collective negotiated expression.

If the bass plays the root, a pianist superimposes a Maj7 built on the 5th and the sax plays the 13th, will hot women notice?

It’s easy to play any musical instrument, just touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.

People will always need love, romance, a tender touch and really personal and deeply felt music.

Jazz speaks for life. This is triumphant music.

Sound is the first thing that we tune into.

To keep a band together you simply need a gimmick. The gimmick I use is to pay them money.

It’s about getting the sound to flow from your body and allowing that sound to get to the piano.

Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.

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

Miles told me not to use vibrato because when you get old, you’re going to shake anyway.

Inspiration grows into full-scale creation through persistence and imagination.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

I came from an era when we didn’t use electronic instruments. The bass wasn’t even amplified. The sound was the sound you got.

There’s a way of playing safe and then there’s where you create something you haven’t created before.

Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel.

Have you ever wondered why young people take to music like fish to water? Maybe it’s because music is fun, plain and simple.