Buddy Rich

You only get better by playing.

As far as music school goes, I walked through Berkelee one time.

I never believed in a set routine. It should depend on how you feel, because you play what you feel.

Jazz fans love Miles and I love him for a myriad of reasons, but the overviews are always too simplistic.

The Blues contain so much joy and sadness at the same time.

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.

As far as music school goes, I walked through Berkelee one time.

Every symphony, for example, is a sonata for orchestra; every string quartet is a sonata for four strings; every concerto a sonata for a solo instrument and orchestra.

Dizzy used to tell me I’m playing too hard. He’d say to not give everything. Miles told me that too.

Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy, but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice.

Your accompanist has a lot to do with how you sing, so experiment and choose your partner wisely.

For me, there wasn’t a line between working and getting paid or simply playing for fun.

When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille.

Jazz is such a powerful cultural statement that it’s almost as if it’s intertwined with society.

It’s part of what the blues does, to write about these things. JB Lenoir was the main one in this regard – he wrote about Korea, too, in fact. Songs that reflect these current situations – in his case, racial issues for the most part: in my case, what has happened to me, and I was in Korea.

Your horn is your passport to the world.

If it sounds good and feels good, then it IS good!

There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind.