Nigel Kennedy Quotes

I use a lot of tunings because I listen to a lot of jazz.

I progressed through so many different styles of music through my teen years, both as a player and a vocalist, particularly the jazz and pop of the early 20th Century.

It was the early days of Rock 'n' Roll in this country. We were all struggling to learn music, it might be Country, Jazz, Classical, Blues or even Rock 'n' Roll.

The day of the great jazz improviser who doesn't know how to read music is over.

You have to know composition to be a good improviser.

I didn't plan on rock-n-roll. I wanted to learn jazz; I got to know some people doing rock-n-roll with jazz, and I thought I could make some money playing music.

I started off with classical music, and I got into jazz when I was about 14 years old. And I've been playing jazz ever since.

I really had to think and learn about musical intervals.

Yeah, I can read music and I know the names of chords.

I studied classical music for a year. Then, I studied jazz for a year at the New School, and then I got kicked out. You had to go to your class, so I don't know if that counts as studying. I didn't study jazz. I was supposed to.

Mostly I play with records. I play with my friend Bill Evans.

I had a drummer in my band who started teaching me tricks to come up with interesting rhythms. Because I don't come from a musical background, I've never studied music, and I don't know music theory at all, so a lot of stuff I discover on my own are things students would learn in the first grade of music.

I've always been a jazz fan, but I don't write much about jazz, because I don't have the chops. But it's really, really hard to write about improvised instrumental music when you don't have a good knowledge of harmony and can't identify rhythm signatures very easily either.

There are no wrong notes in jazz: only notes in the wrong places.

Monk taught me more about music composition than anyone else on 52nd Street.

K.G. Sathar, a neighbour, was my guru. He taught me the violin and Hindustani music.

I've learnt music, since this is a part and parcel of growing up in a traditional Tamil Brahmin family. In fact, I've even given three exams in music when I was young.

I love jazz and blues, where there's a structure, but a lot of the cool stuff is veering off the page and playing.

I knew if I wanted to improvise over chord changes, I'd have to figure out all the scales that went with all those chords.

Truth of the matter is, jazz is American music. And that doesn't mean bebop. Jazz is really about improvising. All the music that's been created in America has been pretty much improvised... Whether it's hillbilly or rock n' roll for blues, it's basically jazz music... It's basically about another way of hearing what comes out of America.

My personal favourites include J. J. Cale, R. D. Burman, Mehdi Hassan, and Ghulam Ali.

Even when I was studying musical theater in college, after I would have theory at 8 in the morning and be on crew for productions until 11 at night, from 12 A.M. to 3 A.M. I was hanging out with jazz musicians.

My younger brother Avishai was my first influence. He picked up the trumpet, and I listened to him. The way he played - with the half valves and the smears - made me want to play like him.

Before you can apply chromatic ideas to scales and arpeggios, you have to get the chromatic scale itself under your fingers. You should learn it up and down the neck, and become comfortable with the fingerings.

I've got a lot of friends with whom I discuss jazz.