Lee Konitz

I’d like to feel that whatever I play is a result of whatever I’ve heard.

As long as there are people trying to play music in a sincere way, there will be Jazz.

Most jazz players work out their solos, at least to the extent that they have a very specific vocabulary.

Sound is the first thing that we tune into.

My version of Georgia became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching.

The whole concept for the Yeezus album is that we’re not going to be using CDs in the future and since this is the last time we’re going to see it, this is an open casket for the CD.

There’s always room for improvisation or changes of expression.

I’ve always tried to defend the idea that the blues doesn’t have to be sung by a person who comes from Mississippi, as I did.

Applause felt like approval and it became a drug that soothed the pain, but only temporarily.

To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.

When rock came in, people didn’t know what to do. Even Sinatra, he didn’t know what to do. The music was changing. And it’s changing now.

Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy, but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice.

Wes Montgomery played impossible things on the guitar because it was never pointed out to him that they were impossible.

Creativity shouldn’t be following radio; it should be the other way around.

Everything I’ve ever done was out of fear of being mediocre.

No, working is what will keep you alive.

Don’t say Aretha is making a comeback, because I’ve never been away!

Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one’s own.

For me, I started on a Les Paul and went through years of playing other guitars and just came back full circle to what was more natural to me.