As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.
I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.
Blues is a tonic for whatever ails you. I could play the blues and then not be blue anymore.
What we do as artists is a combination of experience and imagination. How that creeps into your work is not so linear.
You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.
The blues was like that problem child that you may have had in the family. You was a little bit ashamed to let anybody see him, but you loved him. You just didn’t know how other people would take it.
The spirit of Jazz is the spirit of openness.
I gave it my absolute everything I had in that howl at the start of the song. And then B. B. King opened up his mouth and I felt like a girl. We had learned and absorbed, but the more we tried to be like B.B., the less convincing we were.
The first time I went to Paris, it just felt like I was home. I didnt question it.
Life is 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it.
A drummer has to be kind-hearted.
Your own music comes out of your head and emotions, but it’s not etched in your system.
When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don’t even notice.
[on Glastonbury] I started off the show and I completely messed up the music. And me, as you can imagine by this phone call, I’m a bit of a perfectionist. So it really put me into a slightly depressed state.
I get interested in the various ways that music is being done in the culture, and some of it I like thoroughly enough to want to learn about it. The way I have been successful at doing that is to become part of it.
Darlin… be-bop is the music of the future.
By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.
Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.
Jazz music is a language of the emotions.
You give up your own personality when you imitate somebody.
When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.
