Carla Bley

I like chords that are very lush with all the lush parts taken out.

Listening is more important than anything because that’s what music is. Somebody is playing something and you’re receiving it.

Always keep reaching.

Your ear is the final judge to what sounds right and what sounds wrong.

Jazz music has become academic. Sometimes that doesn’t feel right to me.

It’s not technique — it’s what you have to say.

In this era it’s harder for musicians to get together, … Back in the ’80s, we were all at the clubs, you ran into people all the time. Now, everybody’s kind of in their own room with their computers. I use making an album as an opportunity to connect with musicians.

What have I got? No looks, no money, no education… just talent.

I sing like I feel.

I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.

There’s two things you can’t live without. Water and music.

You can read all the textbooks and listen to all the records, but you have to play with musicians that are better than you.

All a musician can do is to get closer to the source.

I wasn’t interested in practicing Bach; I was too busy digging Horace Silver!

A Les Paul, which is kind of a sissy guitar compared to a Strat anyway. The Les Paul is heavier, but because of that bulk you can do bends on it more easily. Also, the Les Paul’s lack of a vibrato arm means you’re not wrestling against the spring-loaded bridge all the time. The Strat is the ultimate because it’s like having a miniature pedal steel within it. Once you get familiar with it where the bends are and where they meld down into a fourth or whatever, you can do all kinds of pedal-steel-like things, which I think are cool..

I let my body play what’s in my heart. I play life instead of notes. I play what I lived.

We all do ‘do, re, mi’ but you got to find the other notes yourself.