

Dave Brubeck's Quotes

Dave Brubeck profile photo

Born: 1920-12-06
Profession: Musician
Nation: American
Biography of Dave Brubeck

See the gallery for quotes by Dave Brubeck. You can to use those 7 images of quotes as a desktop wallpapers.
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I started growing up in a hurry and taking a lot of the philosophy I'd heard from church as a kid a lot more seriously - especially the Ten Commandments - and wondering how 'Thou shalt not kill' could be so absolutely ignored. It took me until I was in my 40s to write what I was thinking as a young soldier.

Tags: Philosophy, Thinking, Young

I used to take my mother to Yosemite. When I turned 14, I got my driver's license, and that's where she'd want to go, so I'd go take her there for two weeks.

Tags: Her, Mother, She

I was always very aware of drummers. My oldest brother Henry was a drummer, and he drummed on everything in the house from the kitchen sink to stovepipes. He was the first drummer in the Gil Evans Orchestra, so you've got to know how great he was.

Tags: Brother, Great, House

If there's a deadline, I work late. If not, I like to have normal hours, and get up early and work. When things are going well, I hate to quit. And then I'll work 'till exhausted.

Tags: Hate, Late, Work

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me. And also it's to me the greatest instrument. I shouldn't say that, but I believe that this is the only instrument I can really feel happy about playing.

Tags: Greatest, Happy, Whole


Tags: Democracy, Freedom, Within

Jazz isn't dead yet. It's the underpinning of everything in this country. Whether it's a Broadway show, or fusion, or right on through classical music, if it's coming out of the U.S., it's not going to survive unless it's got some jazz influence.

Tags: Country, Dead, Music

Many people don't understand how disciplined you have to be to play jazz... And that is really the idea of democracy - freedom within the Constitution or discipline. You don't just get out there and do anything you want.

Tags: Democracy, Freedom, Understand

My dad was the manager at the 45,000-acre ranch, but he owned his own 1,200-acre ranch, and I owned four cattle that he gave to me when I graduated from grammar school, from the eighth grade. And those cows multiplied, and he kept track of them for years for me. And that was my herd.

Tags: Dad, Four, School

My mother Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck was a pianist who studied with Dame Myra Hess and Tobias Matthey. As a child in California I used to listen to her play Chopin.

Tags: Child, Her, Mother


Tags: Beauty, Difference, Music

When you start out with goals - mine were to play polytonally and polyrhythmically - you never exhaust that. I started doing that in the 1940s. It's still a challenge to discover what can be done with just those two elements.

Tags: Challenge, Done, Start


Tags: Chance, Making, Mistakes


Tags: Able, Great, Understand

When I was 20, Shostakovich was my favorite composer. I still find his Fifth Symphony wonderful, with its outstanding themes and rhythms. That's the piece that made me want to be a classical composer.

Tags: Favorite, Piece, Wonderful


Tags: Time, Whole, Yourself


Tags: Freedom, Leave, Musicians

Concord, California was a great place to grow up.

Tags: Great, Grow, Place

I had the first integrated Army band in World War II.

Tags: Army, Band, War

I knew even if I'm a cowboy, I'm going to be involved in jazz in some way.

Tags: Involved, Jazz, Knew

I wanted to be like my father, who was a cattle man and a rodeo roper. And that was - he was my hero, and I wanted to be more like him.

Tags: Father, Hero, Him


Tags: Body, Experience, Inspired


Tags: Either, Influenced, Print
Much more quotes by Dave Brubeck below the page.

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

Tags: Orchestra, Piano, Whole

My own Brubeck Institute in California is turning out fantastic young jazz players, and I know great things will happen.

Tags: Great, Happen, Young


Tags: Music, Radio, Remember

The worst thing about the life of a jazz musician on the road is getting to the gig. Once you're there and playing, it's marvelous.

Tags: Getting, Life, Once

We don't know the power that's within our own bodies.

Tags: Bodies, Power, Within

What I want to happen is to be really creative, and to play something new in the improvisations, every time.

Tags: Creative, Happen, Time

When I was first aware that I couldn't read music I didn't know I couldn't read because I could play the music that was in front of me.

Tags: Front, Music, Read

When you hear Bach or Mozart, you hear perfection. Remember that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were great improvisers. I can hear that in their music.

Tags: Great, Music, Remember


Tags: Enjoy, War, Work

Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist who wasn't influenced by European music!

Tags: Listen, Loved, Music


Tags: Future, Great, Hard

I have more energy at the end than I do at the beginning. You can be so beat up that you can scarcely walk on stage but when you get to the piano the excitement kicks in, you forget about being tired.

Tags: End, Forget, Tired

I knew I wanted to write on religious themes when I was a GI in World War II. I saw and experienced so much violence that I thought I could express my outrage best with music.

Tags: Best, Music, War

I played a lot of sports and it's the plays in basketball that weren't worked out that are the ones that are just fantastic that you remember. We don't know the power that's within our own bodies.

Tags: Basketball, Power, Sports


Tags: Evil, Order, Woman

It's easy to idealize someone that you don't know.

Tags: Easy, Idealize, Someone

It's funny how most activists are pacifists.

Tags: Activists, Funny

Live every day as if it is your last, and you'll be correct sooner than you otherwise would be.

Tags: Correct, Last, Otherwise

My to-do list is so long that it doesn't have an end; it has an event horizon.

Tags: End, Event, List


Tags: Question, Relevance, Truth

'Programming' is a four-letter word.

Tags: Word

Something is always simple until you try it.

Tags: Simple, Try, Until

Temporary solutions often become permanent problems.

Tags: Become, Often, Problems

The difference between being able to understand something and inventing it in the first place... is called genius.

Tags: Between, Place, Understand


Tags: Against, Universe, Working

The people who actually do things always suffer the slings and arrows of those who don't.

Tags: Actually, Arrows, Suffer

The world is real. Consciousness is the illusion.

Tags: Illusion, Real

Things always look better when you haven't seen them.

Tags: Seen

Think Tank, noun: The shower.

Tags: Noun, Shower, Tank


Tags: Demand, Time, Whose

When anarchy is declared, the first thing we do, let's kill all the anarchists.

Tags: Anarchy

When trying to locate something, search your mind first.

Tags: Mind, Search, Trying

When you are finished with it, put it back in the first place that you looked for it.

Tags: Finished, Place, Put

When you talk to yourself, at least you know that someone is listening.

Tags: Someone, Talk, Yourself

Whoever invented double clicking should be shot in the head! Twice!

Tags: Head, Shot, Twice


Tags: Life, Stupid, Today


Tags: Nobody, Religion, Social


Tags: Disagree, Heard, Saying


Tags: Business, Computers, Problem


Tags: Wait, Waiting, Worth


Tags: Money, Why, Work


Tags: Computers, Fast, Makes


Tags: Against, Chance, Funny

Silence is a statement that is open to gross misinterpretation.

Tags: Open, Silence, Statement

Never underestimate the power of a simple tool.

Tags: Power, Simple, Tool

The only thing that is obscene is censorship.

Tags: Censorship, Obscene


Tags: Money, Space, Waste

Liberalism is financed by the dividends from Conservatism.

Tags: Dividends, Liberalism

Supermarket automatic doors open for me; therefore, I am.

Tags: Automatic, Doors, Open

Organizations like the ACLU fought and won the good fight back in the 1960's, but it's clear that nowadays they've run out of useful things to do since they now spend most of their time defending the scum of the Earth from getting what they rightly deserve.

Tags: Fight, Good, Time

If the shoe fits, it is probably worn out.

Tags: Fits, Shoe, Worn

Nothing surpasses the beauty and elegance of a bad idea.

Tags: Bad, Beauty, Idea

Now is the time for all good men to run like hell.

Tags: Good, Men, Time

The Thought Police: To censor and protect.

Tags: Police, Protect, Thought


Tags: Dark, Good, Idea

1 + 1 = 2. Everything else is derived.

Tags: Derived, Else

Anything on paper is obsolete!

Tags: Obsolete, Paper

Don't judge a book by its thickness either.

Tags: Book, Either, Judge


Tags: Past, School, Trust


Tags: Decade, Progress, Stand


Tags: Fighting, Hope, War


Tags: Ability, According


Tags: Center, Therefore, Universe


Tags: Gave