Don Ellis

I worked until I could play and do changes at any tempo in any key and said ‘What else is there?’ Now I’m finding out.

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel not the way others think you should feel.

I am not interested in compromising my music to make it palatable to an assumed sub-standard mass.

Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic: take it or leave it.

Actually, I think the more Ben [Taylor] sings, the less like James he sounds.

If the bass plays the root, a pianist superimposes a Maj7 built on the 5th and the sax plays the 13th, will hot women notice?

It’s just exciting to be part of something that is brand-new.

I learned my songs from the birds of the Brazilian forest.

If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong.

Jazz music has always been a place where anything is possible.

I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.

I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.

A Jazz man should be saying what he feels: humor, sadness, joy… all the things that humans have.

Music activates the brain at a high level.

I love it when people hear my music but can’t figure out what instrument I’m playing.

They’re singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

In a way, I started out to be a baritone player.

We’re more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don’t know which will go first; rock and roll or Christianity.