Andrés Segovia

All this is saying is, OK I see now, the ‘hood does not quite want Shirley Bassey yet, so let me still give them this. Crack Music was made after Diamonds. After black people were like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ It was like me reaching too high for the cookie jar.

I want a kick to my band, but I don’t want the rhythm to hog the spotlight.

I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

The audience should feel they are hearing the future, arriving just on time.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet.

I’ve had those people very interested in my writing. Since I think of myself as a composer, I feel really good. I’ve had lots of guys call me up. I’ve gotten two or three commissions to write things. I’ve written lots of movie scores.

I never have any trouble playing anything I can think of. The trouble is thinking of what to play.

The human being receives the pleasure from music, not from the argument over what it is.

Jazz standards are our contribution to music history.

Good Jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms and yells. Fine Jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great Jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of Jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.

And ultimately the people who produce my records, they know that they’re here to serve the purpose of me expressing who I am at this period of time and augmenting that or pulling it forward and I love that process.

I’m famous… ain’t that a bitch?

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

That’s the thing about jazz: it’s free flowing, it comes from your soul.