John Coltrane
My music is the spiritual expression of what I am - my faith, my knowledge, my being.Collection: Knowledge
When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups.Collection: Music
God breathes through us so completely... so gently we hardly feel it... yet, it is our everything.Collection: God
All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.Collection: Nature
I want to be a force for real good. In other words. I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world, but I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.Collection: Good
I start from one point and go as far as possible. But, unfortunately, I never lose my way. I 'localize,' which is to say that I think always in a given space. I rarely think of the whole of a solo, and only very briefly. I always return to the small part of the solo that I was in the process of playing.Collection: Space
I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of the people.Collection: Music
I think that music, being an expression of the human heart, or of the human being itself, does express just what is happening - the whole of human experience at the particular time that it is being expressed.Collection: Experience
You can play a shoestring if you're sincere.
I'd like to point out to people the divine in a musical language that transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.
I believe that men are here to grow themselves into best good that they can be - at least, this is what I want to do.
I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.
Thankfully now, through the merciful hand of God, I do perceive and have been fully reinformed of his omnipotence. It is truly a love supreme.
I first met Miles Davis about 1947 and played a few jobs with him and Sonny Rollins at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. During this period, he was coming into his own, and I could see him extending the boundaries of jazz even further.
In the year of 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening, which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life.
My goal is to live the truly religious life and express it through my music. If you can live it, there's no problem about the music, because it's part of the whole thing.
Overall, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give to the listener the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe... That's what I would like to do. I think that's one of the greatest things you can do in life, and we all try to do that in some way. The musician's is through his music.
I've been devoting quite a bit of my time to harmonic studies on my own, in libraries and places like that. I've found you've got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.
In any situation that we find in our lives, when there is something that we feel should be better, we must exert effort to try and make it better. So it's the same socially, musically, politically in any department of our lives.
I've always felt that even though a man was not a Christian, he still has to know the truth some way or another. Or if he was a Christian, he could know the truth. The truth itself doesn't have any name on it to me. And each man has to find this for himself, I think.
I find it's only when something is trying to come through I really practice. And then, I don't know how many hours. It's all day.
Sheets of sound. Well, that was when I got tired of certain modulations. Like when you want to get back to C, and you've got to go to D and then G and then C. I was fooling around with the piano, and I figured out some other way to do it.
I've been listening to jazzmen, especially saxophonists, since the time of the early Count Basie records, which featured Lester Young. Pres was my first real influence, but the first horn I got was an alto, not a tenor.
Sometimes you have to take a thing when it comes and be glad. I first began to feel this way in '57, when I started to get myself together musically, although at the time I was working academically and technically.
I think I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy Gillespie and Bird. It was through their work that I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.
Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock 'n' roll band.
From a technical viewpoint, I have certain things I'd like to present in my solos. To do this, I have to get the right material. It has to swing, and it has to be varied.
My mother had aspirations to become a concert singer. Her Methodist Minister father didn't approve of young girls leaving home until they married, so she had to pass it up.
One positive thought produces millions of positive vibrations.Collection: Carpe Diem
My music is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being...When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hangups...I want to speak to their souls.Collection: Music
Invest yourself in everything you do. There's fun in being serious.Collection: Music
Damn the rules, it's the feeling that counts.Collection: Feelings
Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to every other person.Collection: Listening
I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of people.Collection: Thinking
God breathes through us so completely...So gently we hardly feel it...yet it is our everything.Collection: Breathe
My music is the spiritual expression of what I am: my faith, my knowledge, my being.Collection: Music
There is never any end... There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state.Collection: Feelings
During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD.Collection: Spiritual
Starting in the middle of a musical sentence and moving in both directions at once.Collection: Music
All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.Collection: Music
Over all, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe. . . Thats what I would like to do. I think thats one of the greatest things you can do in life and we all try to do it in some way. The musicians is through his music.Collection: Thinking
I believe that men are here to grow themselves into the best good that they can be - at least, this is what I want to do.Collection: Believe
I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I'd like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he'd be broke, I'd bring out a different song and immediately he'd receive all the money he needed.Collection: Song
All of the technique doesn't matter... only if the feeling is right.Collection: Music
Jazz is a word they use to sell our music, but to me that word does not exist.Collection: Jazz
I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing . . . the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood.Collection: Music
The main thing a musician would like to do is to give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things he knows of and senses in the universe.Collection: Giving
Working with Monk is like falling down a dark elevator shaft.Collection: Fall