Ed Thigpen

All I play is truth and emotion.

Playing gives me as much good feeling now as it did when I was a bitty kid.

Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.

I don’t really look at my career in terms of highlights and low lights. I think I’m at this place right now and to be at this place right now I’ve had to go through many obstacles and lots of highs and lows and for me it’s about the entire journey.

Talent is only the starting point.

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

Hell is full of musical amateurs.

I want to keep redefining my work and trying new things. I want my music to be able to fit into any category. I want it to float wherever my heart goes. My music is heart music; giving it any other description is dangerous.

We quest for the perfect performance and every note has to be right. Man, every note is not right in life.

It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It’s not. It’s feeling.

Don’t give up trying to do what you really want. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

Jazz has always been a man telling the truth about himself.

The most important thing I look for in a musician is whether he knows how to listen.

If you want to play somebody’s music, you’d better go into his house.

For most dates I was paid the sum of $1 per hr and they always tipped me at the end of the night.