Well, jazz is to me, a complete lifestyle. It's bigger than a word. It's a much bigger force than just something that you can say. It's something that you have to feel. It's something that you have to live.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Jazz to me is a living music. It's a music that since its beginning has expressed the feelings, the dreams, hopes, of the people.
I think everybody has to kind of decide what the word 'jazz' means to them, and that's fine.
When somebody uses a word as a genre distinction, all it really does is trigger certain experiences, or music, that somebody's been exposed to. But that's an individual thing; there's no sort of universal understanding of what jazz is.
The point of jazz is, you do something and then you go on.
If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.
Jazz comes from our way of life, and because it's our national art form, it helps us to understand who we are.
Jazz is rhythm and meaning.
Jazz is like wine. When it is new, it is only for the experts, but when it gets older, everybody wants it.
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.
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.