Dave Douglas Quotations

I don't really think of these as projects. I think of them as bands. I have tried to not just convene a group of musicians and make one record or make one gig and just drop it. Each of them develop over time. I have been really fortunate to keep a band like the Sextet together over three very different albums. Each time, the goal got more deep for me in terms of how I wanted to write for those people. So it is really about trying to develop ideas and trying to have a consistent focus on a way to come up with new ideas in music that I want to do.

I'm a jazz musician by education and vocation, but I don't think jazz should [ dictate] what I want to do.

'Jazz Artist of the Century' would have to be a distinctive soloist and ensemble player, a composer, an arranger, a bandleader, and a driver; would have to span all the genres and periods of jazz; would have to have run her own label; [would] possess a deep spirituality, with grace and a sense of humor; and would have to have succeeded against all odds. Who else? Mary Lou Williams.

OneBeat is one of the greatest initiatives in advancing the meeting of cultures worldwide.

If I worried about that, I wouldn't have made a single record in my whole career. I think more and more, audiences appreciate something that is distinctive and different. Everyone always throws out this figure, 'Jazz is now down to three percent of the total record sales.' So does that mean it is not important? I think if we agree that human culture itself is important, then I think those three percent take on a greater significance.

Black has always been a staple for me, but that's not really a good favorite color. I've been really into browns lately.

I went to libraries. I went to the Library of Congress. I went to obscure video shops. Some of the most obscure films I found were in the dark, hidden, X-rated corners of the store.

We have a good group that has played a lot of innings for us. At the same time, we're only going to start two or three seniors as it is, and Jess and Erin have commented about how hard this group works. We're excited.

We have a marketable, manageable resource, and it's going to waste.

Brown I was the policy statement, and Brown II was the remedy.

Brown does not mandate integrated schools. Instead, Brown mandates no segregated schools. Segregation may be chosen by residential patterns.

Did Brown simply mean you had to stop segregating children, or did it mean a more activist program was needed?

Corrections officers deal with the same killers, rapists and thugs the street cops do. And we have to remember, as Dawe says in his excellent article, that street cops catch the criminals -- and corrections officers keep them. I think it's time we give these officers the recognition and credit due.

Roscoe Arbuckle liked to have a good time. Calling him a libertine might be a bit extravagant, I think. But what do I know? I'm a musician. I know that's a cop-out, but I don't really mean it, anyway. You look at the president, and you have to ask yourself, 'What's going on with this country?' Still, I'm the wrong person to ask. But I'm wise enough to know that I'm the wrong person to ask.

Our defense was solid and Smith pitched a good game.

Defensively, absolutely. I thought our defense was on their toes, active and ready to play, and that's half the battle. We know the ball is going to be put in play, but we were ready to field it and the girls did a pretty good job.

They played well. They played like it meant something to them. We didn't. Our concern lies down the road when state tournament time begins. Winning conference would be nice, but it's not our main concern.

They're narrative films, but there's also something very experimental in the way that the narrative works. You sometimes watch one of these films and in the end you're like, what just happened? That was really funny, but I have no idea what just happened in the plot. I like that.

It's a solid way for interested, concerned citizens to learn the truth about what cops in their communities deal with on a regular basis.

I hope that people know that he was innocent. It's horrible what he was accused of. It's just so sad.

The UNC Law School has a long tradition of a commitment to both academic excellence and public service, which I find very appealing. Although I'm very happy teaching at William & Mary, I'm also pleased to be a candidate in the UNC search.

The couple of days of practice we've had this week, we've tried working on getting some of those ideas going. Quicken up the game a little bit, put the ball in play, make the defensive plays, and I think we did a good job of that.