Saxophonist

🇬🇧David Bowie

Music

1947–2016

"I'm an instant star. Just add water and stir."

🇬🇧PJ Harvey

Music

b. 1969

"…I'm always looking for extremes in things. That's what I try to do in my music, push something as far as you can take it. Until it becomes almost unacceptable."

🇺🇸Charlie Parker

Music

1920–1955

"The Official Site of Charlie "Yardbird" Parker"

🇺🇸Sufjan Stevens

Music

b. 1975

"Art is... a reflection of a greater divine creation. There really is no separation."

🇬🇧John Dankworth

Music

1927–2010

"It is not governed by the senseless world of current style that pervades and pollutes popular music, nor is it part of an established hierarchy, so that it is cloistered and protected."

🇮🇹Andrea Bocelli

Music

b. 1958

"I have always found poetry and beauty in the church attributing central stage to a female presence who works on our behalf. I am a devotee of the Virgin to whom I always dedicate part of my prayers."

🇺🇸Artie Shaw

Music

1910–2004

"It became such a hit that it superseded anything that any band had ever had. It was the first time that a so-called swing band played something melodic and still gave it a beat."

🇺🇸Ross Mintzer

Music

b. 1987

"Playing music is something I would like to do my whole life."

🇺🇸Ornette Coleman

Music

1930–2015

"When asked to play a 12-bar blues, Ornette Coleman fingered his plastic saxophone and played nothing...he's felt more nothing than you or I know."

🇺🇸Eric Dolphy

Music

1928–1964

"When you hear music, after it's over, it's gone in the air. You can never capture it again."

🇺🇸John Hagee

Literature

b. 1940

"What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it's called a curse."

🇬🇧Van Morrison

Music

b. 1945

"Music is spiritual. The music business is not."

🇺🇸Percy Grainger

Music

1882–1961

"I do not eat meat, I do not smoke, and I do not drink, and therefore, I do not feel the cold."

🇺🇸James McBride (writer)

Literature

b. 1957

"Now he wanted more. That’s the problem with Smelly Ones. They got one thing Animals don’t got. They got ambition."