Artie Shaw Quotes

They said Bird played bebop, but Bird could still swing. I've heard a lot of guys play bebop, but they wasn't swinging.

I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can't define it beyond that.

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

Jazz can be so serious, no sense of humor.

Jazz is a music of great achievements but speed and chops serve a different function in jazz.

I play more rhythmically than I do a lot of notes.

There's not much music I'll listen to if it doesn't have pretty heavy swing. Rhythm is so important. Punk rock would have more power and feeling if it had swing.

If you listen to the way I speak, I have a lot of rhythm, use a lot of accents. When I'm playing my instrument, that concept comes through very clearly.

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

It's as if my left heel is my bass drum and my right heel is the floor tom-tom. I can get snare out of my right toe by not putting it down on the floor hard, and, if I want cymbals, I land flat on both feet, full strength on the floor.

Rock bands don't really swing... a lot of rock is stiff. They don't understand the feel, the movement, you know, the jungle of it all.

When I listened to Elvin Jones, man, for the first time I heard a drummer that had all the technique plus emotion, passion, feel, and just - good God!

My playing is always just a little on top of the beat. I can't lay down the kind of groove that Brad Wilk can. I'd really have to lay back to do that; it just doesn't feel natural to me.

I've listened to musicians who say that using a metronone makes you robotic, that it decreases your 'feel.' That's ridiculous. Either you have feel or you don't. Feel is one of those intangibles that can't be taught. But if you do have feel, using a metronome will allow you to play cleaner - and that'll make your 'feel' have more, well, 'feeling.'

You really have to play with the space in a riff so it can be allowed to breathe.

If I hear dance music, my body starts to move. Whatever the dance music is, I can't help it. With all that, I still felt, well, rock is a little higher art, but it wasn't. Right now, because I have so much experience with dance charts, I started to realize that it's incredible art. This is going to be known one day as high art.

Rhythm is sound in motion. It is related to the pulse, the heartbeat, the way we breathe. It rises and falls. It takes us into ourselves; it takes us out of ourselves.

Perhaps of all the most basic elements of music, rhythm most directly affects our central nervous system.

I have exactly as much rhythm as you think I have.

Well, rhythm is 90 percent of the interpretation.

Dubstep has everything for me. Rhythm, sound design, heartfelt emotion - all in one place.

I have always had a certain rhythmic approach to my work.

Don't tell me to watch the beat. You watch me.

Music deals with time and timing. It's so magical, but when you get into it, every little sound and every little space between the sounds, it's critical, so critical. And if it's not there, it not only feels wrong, but it ruins things.

I like creating these rhythmic patterns. These interlocking rhythmic things are really fun.