Inside: Jazz Quotes you’ll love to sing along to. 

Tracing its roots back to the early 20th century, jazz is a music style with a rich history. It’s a constantly evolving style of music with its beginnings in the African American communities in New Orleans. Many sub-genres have branched off of jazz, such as swing and big band, and jazz itself is comprised of romantic standards and powerful instrumentals.

Jazz is a staple of soundtracks, weddings and lounges everywhere. It can fit any mood, from joy to sorrow, and help us to express any emotion.

We have gathered 71 Jazz Quotes that Hit the Right Note to inspire you and hopefully encourage you to put on some jazz music today.

jazz quotes

Jazz Quotes that Hit the Right Note

1. “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” -Louis Armstrong

2. “Jazz is like a great void, it waits patiently until a brave musician takes control of space and time.” -Chris Griffin

3. “Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.” -Ornette Coleman

4. “I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.” -Miles Davis

5. “Jazz is about being in the moment.” -Herbie Hancock

jazz music lyrical

6. “That’s the thing about jazz: it’s free-flowing, it comes from your soul.” -Billy Crystal

7. “Jazz is smooth and cool. Jazz is rage. Jazz flows like water. Jazz never seems to begin or end. Jazz isn’t methodical, but jazz isn’t messy either. Jazz is a conversation, a give and take. Jazz is the connection and communication between musicians. Jazz is abandon.” -Nat Wolff

8. “How to heal…Read Books. Listen to Jazz. Ride Motorbikes. Get Tattooed” -Malebo Sephodi

9. “Some people try to get very philosophical and cerebral about what they’re trying to say with jazz. You don’t need any prologues, you just play.” -Oscar Peterson

10. “Jazz stands for freedom.” -Dave Brubeck

11. “Jazz is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.” -Duke Ellington

Jazzy Captions for Instagram

12. Jazz it up a little.

13. Jazz isn’t just music. It’s a feeling.

14. “Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life.” -Art Blakey

Jazz captions for instagram

15. Jazz is powerful. Jazz can unlock the full potential of the human spirit.

16. “Jazz is freedom. You think about that.” -Thelonius Monk

17. It’s a great night for some jazz and a drink.

18. “Harlem had been hit by a hurricane: It was raining cats and jazz.” -Joe Okonkwo

19. Life, like jazz, is full of surprises.

20. If you can’t be a jazz musician, be a jazz fan.

21. “Jazz makes our souls feel timeless.” -Melody Gardot

22. You’ll never be in the wrong place listening to jazz.

Jazz Song Lyrics

23. “And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight/I want a Sunday Kind of Love” –Etta James

24. “Summertime / And the livin’ is easy / Fish are jumpin’ /And the cotton is high” -Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong

25. “I got rhythm, I got music, I got my man / Who could ask for anything more? / I’ve got daisies in green pastures / I’ve got my man / Who could ask for anything more?” -Sarah Vaughan

26. “It’s autumn in New York / That brings the promise of new love / Autumn in New York / Is often mingled with pain” -Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

27. “I’ve telegraphed and phoned, I sent an airmail special too / Your answer was goodbye and there was even postage due / I fell in love just once, and then it had to be with you / Everything happens, to me” -Chet Baker

28. “For this time it isn’t fascination / Or a dream that will fade and fall apart / It’s love, this time it’s love / My foolish heart” -Bill Evans Trio

29. “Fill my heart with song / And let me sing forever more / You are all I long for / All I worship and I adore / In other words / Please, be true” -Frank Sinatro and Count Basie

30. “I see trees of green, red roses too / I see them bloom for me and you / And I think to myself, what a wonderful world!” -Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong quote

31. “It’s a new dawn / It’s a new day / It’s a new life / For me / And I’m feeling good / I’m feeling good” -Nina Simone

32. “At last, my love has come along / My lonely days are over / And life is like a song” -Etta James

33. “Come away with me and we’ll kiss / On a mountaintop / Come away with me / And I’ll never stop loving you” -Norah Jones

Quotes from Famous Jazz Musicians

34. “It’s not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.” -Miles Davis

35. “Jazz washes away the dust of everyday life” -Art Blakey

36. “Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.” -Duke Ellington

37. “Jazz music is the power of now. There is no script. It’s conversation. The emotion is given to you by musicians as they make split-second decisions to fulfill what they feel the moment requires.” -Wynton Marsalis

38. “How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it?” -Nina Simone

39. “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.” -Ella Fitzgerald

40. “I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.” -Billie Holiday

41. “A genius is the one most like himself.” -Thelonious Monk

Thelonious Monk Quote

42. “Jazz music has always been a place where anything is possible.” -Bill Evans

43. “It doesn’t have to be happy music to be inspiring.” -Bela Fleck

44. “Don’t tune up too much baby. You’ll lose your soul.” -Von Freeman

45. “Life is a lot like Jazz… it’s best when you improvise.” -George Gershwin

Jazz and Music Quotes

46. “Perhaps the mission of an artist is to interpret beauty to people—the beauty within themselves.” -Langston Hughes

47. “As a musician you have to keep one foot back in the past and have one foot forward into the future.” -Dizzy Gillespie

48. “Where words leave off, music begins.” -Heinrich Heine

jazzy music quotes

49. “Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.” -Edward Bulwer Lytton

50. “Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t.” -Johnny Depp

51. “Music is the universal language of mankind.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

52. “He took his pain and turned it into something beautiful. Into something that people connect to. And that’s what good music does. It speaks to you. It changes you.” -Hannah Harrington

53. “Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common.” -Sarah Dessen

54. “Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.” -Maria von Trapp

55. “Music is an outburst of the soul.” -Frederick Delius

Quotes About Jazz Dance

56. “If movements were a spark, every dancer would desire to light up in flames.” -Shah Asad Rizvi

57. Keep calm and jazz dance on!

58. Dance is music made visible.

59. If you dance with your heart, your body will followDance quotes

 

60. Good technique never goes out of style.

61. Live, love, dance.

62. Dance enables you to find yourself and lose yourself all at the same time.

63. To watch us dance is to see our hearts speak.

Best Jazz Quotes

64. “Musicians are willing to give their entire lives to a moment, melody, lyric or chord that will stir the soul.” -Dave Ackert

65. “Jazz offers so much freedom in the way the music can be interpreted. It’s natural to me. It’s where I feel most free.” -Cyrille Aimee

66. “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” -Maya Angelou

67. You are what you listen to.

68. Good music doesn’t have an expiration date. 

quotes about music

69. A jazz musician is a person who has incredible passion.

70. Jazz is an open-ended music designed for open minds.

71. The size of your audience doesn’t matter. Keep up the good work.