Dave Brubeck Quotes



Best 15 Quotes by Dave Brubeck

“Art may not have the power to change the course of history, but it can provide a perspective on historical events that needs to be heard, even if it's seldom heeded. After all the temporary influences that once directed the course of history have vanished, great art survives and continues to speak to each generation.”

“Every individual should be expressing themselves, whether a politician or a minister or a policeman.”

“I don't think you can separate a person's style and his persona. If you're writing or improvising honestly, you will inevitably reflect who you are.”

“I think the church should strive to give parishioners good music. Music is as necessary for worship as a building with a beautiful altar, artwork, and stained-glass windows. Together they create an environment conducive to worship and contemplation. We are not in church for entertainment, but to worship.”

“I wasn't allowed to play in some universities in the United States and out of twenty-five concerts, twenty-three were canceled unless I would substitute my black bass player for my old white bass player, which I wouldn't do.”

“It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.”

“Jazz is about freedom within discipline. Usually a dictatorship like in Russia and Germany will prevent jazz from being played because it just seemed to represent freedom, democracy and the United States.”

“Jazz is about the only form of art existing today in which there is freedom of the individual without the loss of group contact.”

“Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.”

“Kinship doesn't come from skin color. It's in your soul and your mind.”

“Many people don't understand how disciplined you have to be to play jazz. And that is really the idea of democracy - freedom within the Constitution or discipline. You don't just get out there and do anything you want.”

“The secret of a great melody is a secret.”

“We don't know the power that's within our own bodies.”

“When things are going well, I hate to quit.”

Brubeck's last Facebook post in 2012 Quotes

“There's a way of playing safe, there's a way of using tricks and there's the way I like to play which is dangerously where you're going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven't created before.”

Brubeck's last Facebook post in 2012

You Might Like

“I got a scholarship to Seattle University and I was writing arrangements for singers and everybody. But the music course was too dry and I really wanted to get away from home.”


More quotes by Quincy Jones