There’s something about the improvisational nature of jazz that seems to speak to entrepreneurs. Perhaps it’s the willingness to take risks, the focus on collaboration, or the emphasis on creativity. Whatever it is, there are plenty of inspiring quotes for entrepreneurs out there relating to jazz.

The best jazz quotes

1. My music isn’t anything but me. It has jazz in it, and rock’n’roll, and it has an urgency to it. — Neil Young

2. There aren’t any labels–all jazz means is improvization and you can never play a tune the same way twice. So jazz spills over into everything. — Van Morrison

3. Skiffle was blues featuring a washboard and acoustic instruments. It encompassed blues, with elements of folk, jazz, and, at times, American country–and–western music. — Van Morrison

4. In the last few years I’ve been listening to jazz more than anything else. I listen to a lot of world music and experimental here and there. — Serj Tankian

5. When stealing from other players, an older musician wisely advised me, choose a different instrument from your own, and people won’t notice the theft. — Ted Gioia, How to Listen to Jazz

6. What ‘jazz’ means to me is the worst kind of working conditions, the worst in cultural prejudice. The term ‘jazz’ has come to mean the abuse and exploitation of black musicians. — Maxim Gorky

7. The first job I ever had was singing in a jazz club when I was like 15 with my friend, and we earned like 70 bucks. We were like, ‘Oh my God!’ — Zooey Deschanel

8. Mimi Fox is one of the most exciting contemporary jazz guitarists I’ve heard. — Paul Gilbert

9. Jazz speaks for life. This is triumphant music. — Martin Luther King

10. Jazz comes from a tradition where it swings. Swing was the main ingredient of jazz. And once it loses the swing…well, that’s it. — Van Morrison

11. Youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tales of the Jazz Age

12. I got into trad jazz, then modern jazz, then avant–garde jazz, between the ages of 16 to 18. — Roy Harper

13. Anyone who understands Jazz knows that you can’t understand it. It’s too complicated. That’s what’s so simple about it. — Yogi Berra

14. I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist. — Nat King Cole

15. Change is always happening. That’s one of the wonderful things about jazz music. — Maynard Ferguson

16. To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that’s not what I play. I play black classical music. — Nina Simone

17. I was really fortunate growing up to have a broad musical education. My parents listened to all kinds of music, rock, soul, Motown, jazz, Frank Sinatra, everything. — Mayer Hawthorne

18. I just can’t stand jazz/rock. I think it’s the worst thing that’s come down the river yet. — Van Morrison

19. Up to the age of 14 I had not heard a note of anything before 1750, never heard a note of Bach, never heard anything after Wagner, and never heard any real jazz. — Steve Reich

20. There’s so much around, you don’t know what to listen to. All I’ve got at home is Bo Diddley, some Stones and Beatles stuff, and old jazz records. — Syd Barrett

21. To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that’s not what I play. I play black classical music. — Nina Simone

22. The way jazz works is that we take a theme, and then we write using the same structure, same chord changes, and then we can do different tunes. — Tommy Chong

23. I was part of Jazzercise class. It was an aerobics routine accompanied by loud music, sounding quite awful to me. Jazzercise was popular in the ’80s and ’90s. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

24. There’s so much around, you don’t know what to listen to. All I’ve got at home is Bo Diddley, some Stones and Beatles stuff, and old jazz records. — Syd Barrett

25. Style jazzes up your canvas. — A.D. Posey

26. We played, jazz, blues, dixie, and it all came from the church. When I went to church, I would see the sisters and brothers doing the same beat. — Scatman Crothers

27. Jazz is an Uncle Tom word. They should stop using that word for selling. I told George Wein the other day that he should stop using it. — Miles Davis

28. I wasn’t a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs. — Nina Simone

29. I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic. — Miles Davis

30. I was never that big a rock–and–roll, rock guy. I really preferred jazz, you know, that kind of thing. — Robert Barry

31. I wasn’t very aware of pop music because I attended an arts school. For me, it was all about jazz. — Norah Jones

32. I thought, If I’m gonna run a jazz club, if I’ve got Miles Davis’ posters in my bar, I should at least know what his horn sounds like. — Oprah Winfrey

33. Jazz is the big brother of Revolution. Revolution follows it around. — Miles Davis

34. The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on. — Van Morrison

35. Few rappers realize the genre sprang from West African griots through Delta slave songs to jazz poetry and the comedic trash talk of ‘the dozens.’ — Quincy Jones

36. The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas. — Miles Davis

37. Hell, nobody knows where jazz is going to go. There may be a kid right now in Chitlin Switch, Georgia, who is going to come along and upset everybody. — Quincy Jones

38. I don’t know any jazz stuff. I don’t know how to jam in that way. So jamming, for me, is writing a tune. — Ryan Adams

39. It might seem a contradiction but… the ability to improvise requires lots of practice. Ask any jazz musician. — Ted Agon, The Human Key Condensed

40. The law don’t like jazz clubs. No one wants anything to do with that kind of trouble. — Sara Sheridan, London Calling

41. I could do without ‘cool’ publications calling me ‘mom jazz.’ But I laughed all the way to the bank, baby. — Norah Jones

42. I like seeing someone that can sing jazz and then flip over and sing a pop song and then sing a rock song. — Sara Bareilles

43. I think my knowledge of music theory is rooted in jazz theory, and a lot of the writers of standards–Rodgers and Hart, and Gershwin. — Zooey Deschanel

44. I thought, If I’m gonna run a jazz club, if I’ve got Miles Davis’ posters in my bar, I should at least know what his horn sounds like. — Oprah Winfrey

45. The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas. — Miles Davis

46. We played, jazz, blues, dixie, and it all came from the church. When I went to church, I would see the sisters and brothers doing the same beat. — Scatman Crothers

47. I thought, If I’m gonna run a jazz club, if I’ve got Miles Davis’ posters in my bar, I should at least know what his horn sounds like. — Oprah Winfrey

48. Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time. — Ornette Coleman

49. If Music is a Place––then Jazz is the City, Folk is the Wilderness, Rock is the Road, Classical is a Temple. — Vera Nazarian

50. Youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tales of the Jazz Age

Conclusion

Jazz is a timeless, beautiful art form and has inspired many people throughout the years. These quotes remind us what an impact jazz has had and continues to have on our culture. We hope these quotes have inspired you to listen to some of your favorite jazz songs and to appreciate the genre even more. Remember, as Duke Ellington once said, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.”