John McLaughlin

All the music that was ever heard came from the inner silence in every musician.

It’s not what you do, but the way you’re doing it and in the end that’s all that we have.

Indian music is very soulful and the only other school that develops improv to the high degree you find in Jazz.

Only in spontaneity can we be who we truly are.

You can have the greatest player in terms of mastering an instrument and be yawning your head off.

People all over the world have problems. And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.

If you already have a piece of music ingrained in your body, why would you not play it?

I want people to walk away with the same joy, hope and love that I put into my music.

Through Dizzy and Bird I began to learn about musical structures and the more theoretical aspects of music.

I’ve always had a deep love of live performance, it’s when I feel most alive.

I used to play pianos in bars. You know in hotels, you’d see guys playing piano with a snifter? That was me, with a painted-on mustache. I was about 15.

Don’t settle for style. Succeed in substance.

I loved the feeling that I got singing.

Music is the great arbiter of the world, the key to central harmony and a necessary requirement of human emotion.

If you listen to Donny Hathaway, he had a lot of jazz elements in the way he sang, … For me, the two styles borrow from each other so much that sometimes it’s hard for me to make a distinction. When you hear Lalah sing the combination, that’s when she really shines – when she’s allowed to dip into her jazz when she wants to and then get soulful and do the R ‘n’ B thing.

When it comes to music, don’t lie to yourself; just tell yourself the truth.

It’s Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, you know. They got a musical mind together and uh, you can’t explain it.

I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.

Music has to be accessible.

I’ve been a jazz artist playing pop and R&B my entire career.