D C DowDell

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

Ideologies separate us. Art brings us together.

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

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.

It is better to be felt than to be heard.

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

Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are.

When I write songs that touch on social relevance, all you have to do is pick up a newspaper.

Jazz – it takes passion to make it happen!

The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is.

Blues is to Jazz what yeast is to bread; without it, it’s flat.

You know the actor John Garfield? In one movie he walked up to this train station, the ticket booth, and the guy says, ‘Yes, where are you going?’ And he says, ‘I want a ticket to nowhere.’ I thought: that’s it. The freedom to do that. I want a ticket to nowhere.

My music had roots which I’d dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.

Anybody can write music of a sort. But touching the public heart is quite another thing.

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

Man, as long as people want to hear Jazz, I’ll give it to them.

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

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

Jazz music has got to have that thing. You have to be born with it. You can’t even buy it. If you could buy it, they’d have it at the next Newport festival.

I play whatever the hell comes out… that’s it.

I don’t have to lay on the couch and see a therapist because my therapy is in art.