Quote

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

Sentiment: NEGATIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

— Nina Simone

Jazz is a hard music, and you have to really work hard and also have fun performing; that's the most important thing.

— Joey Alexander

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.

— Dave Brubeck

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

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

— Henri Matisse

Just figure out what you think jazz is, and then if it fits into that category, it's jazz, and if it doesn't, it isn't. It's no big deal.

— Kenny G

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.

— Pat Metheny

What I believe to be jazz is constructed and improvised music which is in the air right now. But I don't think that's most people's definition of jazz, you know? We don't know what we're talking about, because we don't know the definition.

— John Lurie

✗Opposing Perspectives

Jazz is a very democratic musical form. It comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.

— Max Roach

One thing that sticks in my mind is that jazz means freedom and openness. It's a music that, although it developed out of the African American experience, speaks more about the human experience than the experience of a particular people.

— Herbie Hancock