D C DowDell

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

Play the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you play.

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

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

It is better to be felt than to be heard.

The more you listen, the more your hear.

For a long time I wasn’t listening to music, to the rock and roll stuff on the radio, because it would cause me to get sweaty–it would bring back memories I didn’t want to know about, or I would get that feeling that I’m not alive ’cause I’m not making it. And if it was good, I hated it ’cause I wasn’t doing it. And if it was bad, I was furious ’cause I could’ve done it better…

If you want to play somebody’s music, you’d better go into his house.

You could still improvise but do it with lyrics.

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can’t define it beyond that.

Good music is good music and everything else can go to hell.

If you dig it, do it. If you dig it a lot, do it again.

I think that it is important to try to sound like someone, especially early in your development.

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 more vulnerable and the more confused the song is, the equal and opposite effect is how I feel after having written it.

When you want ’em you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em.

The value of music is to be able to play one note at the right time in the right way.

Writing is allowing the musical idea to speak for itself.

It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts.

It’s not technique — it’s what you have to say.