Libba Bray

On my album Here, that’s the first time that I’ve really understood how I could put all the things that were happening in the world and in my life and in our lives as just human beings into one body that was just so powerful and really had a perspective. That was an opening for me and I think that naturally, there is just so much to talk about. I don’t see me getting quiet anytime soon.

Never lose the groove to find a note.

My dark sound could be heard across a room clearer than somebody with a reedy sound. It had more projection. My sound always seemed to fill a room.

Jazz is the sound of surprise.

You have to practice improvisation, let no one kid you about it!

Quiet is the absence of sound. Silence is the presence of silence.

Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before.

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

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

The saxophone is actually a translation of the human voice, in my conception. All you can do is play melody. No matter how complicated it gets, it’s still a melody.

I know what I’ve done for music, but don’t call me a legend. Just call me Miles Davis.

Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.

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

Change is always happening. That’s one of the wonderful things about Jazz music.

It’s easy in music to tell what’s good. It’s hard to tell what’s bad.