Ornette Coleman Quotes

• When I have them working together, it’s like a beautiful kaleidoscope.

  Ornette Coleman

  Topics in Uncategorized

• Many people apparently don’t trust their reactions to art or to music unless there is a verbal explanation for it. In music the only thing that matters is whether you feel it or not.

  Ornette Coleman

  Topics in Uncategorized

• The creation of music is just as natural as the air we breathe. I believe music is really a free thing, and any way you can enjoy it, you should.

  Ornette Coleman

  Topics in Uncategorized

• You’ve got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it’s all played by the same notes.

  Ornette Coleman

• You don’t have to worry about being a number one, number two, or number three. Numbers don’t have anything to do with placement. Numbers only have something to do with repetition.

  Ornette Coleman

• To me, human existence exists on a multiple level, not just on a two-dimensional level, not just having to be identified with what you do and what you say.

  Ornette Coleman

• That’s why I haven’t been so anxious. But now, lots of people write and say, ‘I want to find out what you’re doing.’ So I know that this book will enlighten them.

  Ornette Coleman

• That’s what I was trying to say when we were talking about sound. I think that every person, whether they play music or don’t play music, has a sound – their own sound, that thing that you’re talking about.

  Ornette Coleman

• So, for instance, if you came to me, I’d ask,’Do you want to write? Do you want to improvise? Why do you want to play this instrument? What do you want to do?’

  Ornette Coleman

• Originally, I wanted to be a composer. I always tell people, ‘I think of myself as a composer.’

  Ornette Coleman

• No one has to learn to spell to talk, right? You see a little kid holding a conversation with an adult. He probably doesn’t know the words he’s saying, but he knows where to fit them to make what he’s thinking logical to what you’re saying.

  Ornette Coleman

• Most of my relationships have been like that – with record companies. I’ve never had a legitimate business relationship with a company. I’ve always had a personal relationship with someone in the company.

  Ornette Coleman

• Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.

  Ornette Coleman

• It’s just someone has labelled us as having a different label to do what you do. I find that labels are the worst thing in the world for artistic expression.

  Ornette Coleman

• It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.

  Ornette Coleman

• It seems to me that in the western world, culture has something to do with appearance. A person that’s out creating good stuff has got to appreciate someone when they take the time to have an appearance that goes with what they’re doing.

  Ornette Coleman

• It just makes that person feel that what his work is is going to be more valid. But who wants to see a guy standing in front, looking like a bum, doing something that a bums don’t do? This don’t make sense.

  Ornette Coleman

• If you decide you want to be treated good, and you treat someone else good, or you want to learn something, it’s information. It’s getting the right, good information.

  Ornette Coleman

• I’ve never had a relationship with a record executive. I always went to the record company by someone that liked my playing. Then they would get fired, and I’d be left with the record company. And then – because they got fired – the record company wouldn’t do anything for me.

  Ornette Coleman

• I’ve had those people very interested in my writing. Since I think of myself as a composer, I feel really good. I’ve had lots of guys call me up. I’ve gotten two or three commissions to write things. I’ve written lots of movie scores.

  Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman (36)

Birth:	9th March, 1930
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Composer, Saxophonist

Related Authors

• Peter Gabriel
• Lee Konitz
• Clara Schumann
• Mike Judge
• Branford Marsalis
• Ornette Coleman
• Charles Ives
• Rolf Harris
• James Rado
• Hugh Hopper

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 19th March

Births

• 1721 - Tobias George Smollett
• 1944 - Said Musa
• 1860 - William Jennings Bryan
• 1921 - Tommy Cooper
• 1848 - Wyatt Earp

Deaths

• 1711 - Thomas Ken
• 1907 - Thomas Bailey Aldrich
• 1961 - B. Carroll Reece
• 1997 - Willem de Kooning
• 1901 - Zerelda G. Wallace