D C DowDell

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.

If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time!

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

Hipness is what it is. But sometimes hipness is what it ain’t.

Jazz improvisation is the art of collective negotiated expression.

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

I always make it a point to pick songs on which players really shine.

Jazz improvisation is the art of drawing without an eraser.

Other than conversation, no other art form can give the satisfaction of spontaneous interaction like Jazz.

But I have always suspected that one could substitute the Minuet of Haydn’s 98th symphony for the Minuet in Haydn’s 99th symphony without sensing a serious lack of coherence in either work.

There’s so many ways you can hit one note.

It’s Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, you know. They got a musical mind together and uh, you can’t explain it.

I want to keep redefining my work and trying new things. I want my music to be able to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.

I don’t compose. I assemble materials.

In the 1990s, with Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, those really big female artists were very glamorous, it was all about the glamour at that time. And so there was a big switch, the desire to be more who you were, not so beholden to this whole standard of beauty. It was a liberation. You see Mary J Blige – she did the same, wearing the combat boots.

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

I’m an interpreter of stories. When I perform it’s like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.

Music has to be accessible.

Music is your experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It’s our great contribution to the arts.