"Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent."
"Sometimes [playing free] doesn't happen, because maybe a guy's wife'll come in, you know, and his ego will catch him. If everybody's completely just straight-without any old ladies over here, a fourth of whisky over there; if it's balanced right, it'll come off. It has to be. But when you get egos involved with playing free, you can't do it."
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Source: Miles on Miles: Interviews and Encounters with Miles Davis. Book by Paul Maher, Michael K. Dorr, p. 18, 2009.
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