Charlie Parker Quotes

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.

Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.

Don't be afraid, just play the music.

I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.

Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.

If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

It's just music. It's trying to play clean and looking for the pretty notes. The beat in a bop band is with the music, against it, behind it. It pushes it. It helps it. Help is the big thing. It has no continuity of beat, no steady chug-chug. Jazz has, and that's why bop is more flexible.

Man, there's no boundary line to art!

I can play all I know in eight bars.

When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.

It's just music. It's playing clean and looking for the pretty notes.

I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.

Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'

I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.

I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.

Bop is no love-child of jazz.

I look at melody as rhythm.

You've got to learn your instrument.