Pat Martino

I’ve always depended upon my own melodic instinct, instead of scale like formulas.

When you know the lyrics to a tune, you have some kind of insight as to it’s composition. If you don’t understand what it’s about, you’re depriving yourself of being really able to communicate this poem.

Get around, be on the scene, play it clean, be seen, be keen and be over eighteen.

The audience, they’re not professionals. They just love music. It isn’t necessary to play over their heads to be admired.

I’m not thinking about what needs to be on the radio. I’m not thinking about anything other than – I’m just going to let this music come out of me and not have any sort of preconceived notion of what I should do. I’m just going to do it.

Jazz improvisation is the art of collective negotiated expression.

Music is what feelings sound like.

I don’t have a favorite song that I’ve written. But I do have a favorite song: ‘Always on My Mind,’ the Willie Nelson version. If I could sing it like he do, I would sing it every night. I like the story it tells.

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

Jazz is a sideways glance at music. It’s like being an architect, knowing the basis of design but understanding that the façade can be whatever you dream. I’m a free person. I don’t want to be tied down.

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

How can I turn emotion into knowledge? That’s what I try to do with my horn.

You can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, you’re working without any real feeling.

The Blues is never old.

Damn it, when I’m bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic: take it or leave it.

Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.