Keely Smith

If I can’t feel it, I don’t want to sing it.

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

In order to be honest with myself, I have to reveal more of who I am. This is a part of the improv process.

I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.

I’ve always liked the Freddie King/B. B. King rich tone, and at the same time, I like the manic Buddy Guy/Otis Rush Strat tone. So I’m always caught in the middle of the Gibson and Fender sounds. If I’m playing my black [Fender] Strat, and I’m in the middle of a blues, I kind of wish I was playing a [Gibson] Les Paul. Then again, if I was playing a Les Paul, the sound would be great, but I’d be saying, “Man, I wish I had the Stratocaster neck!”

Composing is a mindset, a part of who I am.

Man, you tell a story.

Finally Beiderbecke took out a silver cornet. He put it to his lips and blew a phrase. The sound came out like a girl saying ‘yes.’

How are you going to know what’s new to play if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?

Jazz stands for freedom.

Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night, but differently each time.

Les is an old friend of mine. He gave me this special white Les Paul – he wound the pickups himself – for my birthday, first time I met him. I play everything from heavy metal to blues to jazz on it. He just hit it right on the head when he designed the Les Paul. I like it better than most girlfriends I’ve had. The godfather of rock ‘n’ roll, I call him. Without him, none of us would have a job.

A series of vibrations. What does it matter, the source of the catalyst?

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

This be an empty world without the blues.